a mirror, a clock and some starbursts and polkadots on the side

Oh how I like finding quirky vintage stuff in the thrifts! It's one of my favourite pastimes and hobbies after all. But to prevent acute hoarding I do set limits and follow a count-to-ten discipline when out hunting. I still allow myself to collect certain things that I don't necessarily need, if they come very cheap and if they really speak to me. Otherwise I want my vintage finds to have a useful purpose in my home, in my wardrobe or in our everyday life.

This group of finds belong to the latter group - they have the age, they have the look, they had a cheap pricetag and they found a good home with us, being used again to their purpose.

This mid century modern mirror is a huge find for me - for a long time I've been wanting a good vintage mirror with teak details and a nice shape, but prices always prevented me to acquire one. Then one day I happened upon this example. It was buried under a whole lot of uninspiring junk on a lower shelf. The teak bits were dried out and faded, but I do like a little restoration project. So even the few small nicks on the edges couldn't spoil my joy. It cost a fiver. It's up on the wall now in our apartment, the teak has been fed with almond oil and polished. It is enjoyed every day, for example when I do my hair in the mornings.

Doing my hair usually involves tying a scarf into it - it tames my fly-away strands and allows me to forget about bad hair day, which I seem to get a lot... I'm pleased to have found a new favourite head scarf for a single coin, in such a happy polkadotty colourway. It is a good non-slippery matt rayon weave, and it was made in Japan sometime in the 60s.

And then, a ceramic wall clock of vintage dreams. Just like the mirror, I have been after a good vintage wall clock for yonks. In fact, we bought one last year, a 70's German plastic one in a fun brown and orange colourway, but after an hour of having it installed on the kitchen wall it stopped working. After tinkering with it a bit and running it on a new battery, it was clear that the motion was broken. I'm still looking for a replacement motion for it - have not found the right one yet.

I don't need to hurry with the search because this gorgeous green Vedette keeps the time in our home now. Vedette seems to be a really cool French vintage brand. Amongst all the covetable examples online, I haven't come across this particular green model - could it mean that they produced each design in small quantities? Or could it be that the lovely but breakable materials didn't survive the test of time? Could be either or even both. Mine is missing its glass dome cover, but I don't actually mind that much - its looks and inner workings survived the test of time and it came to us cheap cheap cheap.

Good vintage tins are also always welcome in our home - we like using ones with spotless interiors for storing dry foodstuffs. Remember this and this? As well as our coffees, now our granulated sugar is also in a vintage tin. I like that it features a doodle starburst pattern, and the word sugar in both Estonian and Russian. My affinity for vintage Soviet stuff is very pleased with this tin!