Showing posts with label vintage eyeglasses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vintage eyeglasses. Show all posts

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Road Trip to Danville, Virginia

We were in Danville, VA, today for a visit to Averett University.  My daughter is interested in equestrian studies and its one of a couple schools on her list.  Danville in some ways reminds me of Asheville, NC, which we visited last spring, except Danville doesn't have the same artsy vibe.  Maybe now is the time to scoop up a historic downtown home.  We passed one 100-year old house for sale and the price was a firm $44,000!  Sheesh, where we live now people spend more on a new car.  I'd love a house for that price.

Anyway, it was a good school visit, and by mid afternoon we decided to drive around the town and of course I needed to do a little antiquing.  We located Lou's Antique Mall in what was probably a former 3-story department store downtown.  It had a lot of what I consider the older antiques my parents loved, but I did see some things of interest to you all, so I shot some photos.

So what am I waiting for, here we go!


I've been looking for a vintage record player, and this Musicale tabletop model supposedly plays.  It has a nice shape, and is priced at $65.

 I decided to pass because I'd like one that also has a radio, I'm not familiar with this brand, and the finish and edges looked too worn.  I'm becoming picky about finding the right one because, as you already know if you've been hanging around here long, I don't need any more projects!


I also spotted this set of two end tables and a coffee table, very cool with glass shelf for each piece, and the drawers were double sided - you could open them from either side of the table!  I've never seen that.

The angular shape is great, and I was really tempted. Priced at $90 for the set, it was tempting. I went back before we left and started seeing damage to the laminate on at least one end table, and I knew I would not be able to live with the damage, and I have not yet found a way to fix a big chip.

 I"ll probably regret it, but I also didn't have a room to use them in.


I'm a sucker for wrought iron stuff too, and this little desk has decent bones, but the top is bowed in the middle.  Priced at $65 as I recall, so not bad, but no need or room for it either.

I very nearly bought this folding wrought iron bookshelf, looked very sturdy and priced at a decent $42.50.

It would have fit in the car, my daughter liked it, but I didn't pull the trigger.  Too lazy to offload all the books? Maybe.  I also couldn't think of a good place to use it at home.  I'll probably regret this one.

This cabinet looked pretty good and was reasonably priced - I think it was $120, but again, no room for it.


Nestled inside the cabinet was this cocktail glass set - it was overpriced.


I couldn't find a price on this - not exactly a vanity, sit's pretty low to be a sideboard.  Hardware is kinda danish modern.  I liked it, but not enough to move all the stuff off to really look it over.

Several formica tables, this one looked pretty good with gold flecked formica, but again, I couldn't find a price and I don't need another one.  Very cool though.

This yellow dinette was priced at $179, the yellow formica had a pattern I haven't seen before, not linen, more of a plaid?  Chairs looked faded.


This five piece bedroom set including head- and foot-boards was $179 - I do love the picked oak and blonde furniture from this era, but the laminate can really fade irregularly when exposed to a lot of sunlight, and this set had that problem.  Still, very cool.

Saw several old advertising shelves like this, I think this one was $118 - I like them but I'm just not into them for our house.  Now if I ever get my garage built, stuff like this will start coming home with me.

I like these little metal book shelves, no price that I could find on this one.  I really hate that.

This radio looked very cool, priced at $25 which would have been OK but it only had AM, no FM.

1970s era toaster looked pretty good and priced reasonably at $10.


I really liked this water cooler, but too expensive.

Here's a cool lazy susan, but again, priced too high at $49.

I need another vintage cooler like I need another project - I don't.  But this one looks good, doesn't it?  Except for the heavy rust on the front latch.  No price tag visible.

A pair of matching atomic lamps looks pretty good, but someone had glued burlap to the  shades and they were ugly!  Priced at $49 each.  No thanks.


Brown lamp looks good, but no shade.  Priced at $19, it was a little tempting, but I have too many lamps already.

No price on this pink lamp, and again, no shade.

This mirrored wall shelf has that tacky souvenir shop pine vibe to it, I couldn't see a price, but it sure is different!

Beside the shelf was this plastic 1970s era clock - not for me, but I appreciate the look.  I was surprised that the back was plastic, I expected metal.

Quite a collection of 1970s or 80s era bowling trophies.  I liked the hinged double picture frame, but the glass was broken in both frames.  No thanks - project.

Vintage barbecue tool set in the box, $10.50.


No price on this aluminum Christmas tree, and I like the one we have better.


Not far from the tree I spotted a stand up Santa and a set of Elves.

 I haven't seen these anywhere and they look to be 1950s era.  No price I could find, there were like five elves, Santa, and one or two other pieces.  I asked about them when I was checking out, and the guy there said there was a price on them.  I said I looked everywhere and saw none, he said $350 and I said no thanks.


Near the end of our wandering my daughter and I found this bunch of old eyeglasses.  They were priced at between $8 and $10 each.  She couldn't settle on any pair that was both in good condition and what she liked, but I did shoot some pix for you all.




She was getting dizzy looking through the prescription lenses.  I will keep trying to get her into some vintage frames, if we can find the right ones for a pair of sunglass lenses.

Overall, the store had a lot, but a lot of the stuff I was interested in was either overpriced or so covered with other stuff that I didn't bother taking a closer look.  I only bought one small thing, a sort of danish style trivet/pot holder and I didn't get a photo.  We'll probably do a little more shopping on the way home, so I'll try to shoot some more and give another update once we get home.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

New Ladies Cat-Eye Glasses

Last weekend and this weekend I'm continuing to clear brush, fallen limbs, and cut down dead trees in the backyard, so not much in the way of projects to talk about.  But I did catch up with a former coworker and very cool friend who just happened to be sporting very nice eyeglass frames that remind me a lot of those wonderful old cat-eye glasses.  Here's a pic she sent me and said I could post.  Aren't these great?!?


Stephanie is modeling the Derek Cardigan 7006 cat-eye glasses, and for an extra geeky touch, division and multiplication symbols are embedded in the front!  She got them from coastalcontacts.com.  This appears to be the only online store selling these, and Steph said she got a coupon from their facebook site and saved quite a bit on them.



Saturday, February 12, 2011

Vintage Eyeglasses for a Unique Look


A couple years ago, after I found out my eye prescription had changed yet again, I was in the market for new eyeglasses.  And honestly, I didn't like any of the glasses available at our health care provider's optometry office.  I checked out a couple more local eyeglass shops, but I couldn't find anything with a vintage look.  So, I turned to the web.  Googling works pretty well if you have the right key words, but it took a while to find an online eyeglass seller that had some mid century styled eyeglass frames.

But I can be pretty stubborn when I'm searching, and eventually I discovered Shuron frames.  These are similar to the vintage style glasses you've probably seen in some retro movies of late.  The father on the Heroes TV series also wore them.  I've been wearing my first set of Shuron Ronsir Revelation frames ever since, and when my prescription changed yet again recently, I went back to the same source and got a slightly different frame, the Shuron Ronsir Zyl.  Both times I used framesdirect.com, and got good service, although now that I need bifocals (dang I sound old), the price with lenses was - let's just say, not cheap.

I've been happy with both frames, and I've gotten some compliments on the frames for their unique appearance.  (It's hard to guess what people say about the frames when I'm not around, but then, I don't care.)  To quote fellow blogger Melzaelf over at Vintage Coconut, "Life is too short to blend in with everyone else."  I couldn't agree more!  Check out her blog post on the stylish frames she found online.  And this morning, over at Amber's blog I HEART EVERYTHING, she introduced her friend and new blogging buddy Stephanie, who is sporting a stylish pair of vintage style frames in her photo.
Check out Stephanie's blog and tell her Uncle Atom sent you

I haven't run across any new version of the womens cat eye glasses, but if I do I'll be sure to let you know.  I have to think someone will offer them eventually.  I for one would love to see them come back in style.  Of course, if they did, then us non-blender-inners would have to find something else to wear!

So is anyone else into wearing vintage eyeglasses?