Big Time

Hi there!

After typing in title of this post, I started singing the actual song in my head. 

The 1986 hit "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel starts with the singer cheerfully greeting "Hi there!" before the song about what a big time hot shot he is. 

The subject of this little post here is big thrift scores. Not big in quantity, big in size. I'm specifically talking about large wall decor! Since I'm not the dedicated blogger I was when I started, I'd like to take the opportunity to share some of the big-ass pieces I've loved.

Long ago, I posted about one of my most excellent finds; this ginormous '70s, silk screen canvas.

I just love big wall hangings! I can't put my figure on why, and no I'm not going to make any more Freud jokes. I guess I like a big statement piece, the more old fashioned the better. For instance, the great unicorn art that greeted readers who clicked this post is bigly. I was very excited to have found it at the Goodwill one night for $6. It was a three-fer: It was oversized, had unicorns, and it was a painting on black velvet! I sold it though. Gotta pay rent.

It was a lot like this one from years ago that I purchased for a whopping $3 at a yard sale. Of course, when selling items like this, their size does pose a challenge. You pretty much have to build your own flat box using cardboard, a box cutter, and a shit ton of shipping tape. I don't care I just want to share my love of fine art from decades past with others. In exchange for a little money for which to buy food.

 There's another biggie that I found while searching through the archives. That one was cool.

The coolest one of all  might have to be the map. A great roll-up wall map like those that once hung in classrooms can be quite rare. So I couldn't believe my luck when I found this:

Wow. I get a wistful sense of longing when I look at this picture. This was taken in last year's kindergarten classroom which was the best school year ever! It took me a week or two, but I finally noticed that the only way to really hang this up so I can photograph it would be to use the little clips, like they have in schools like the one I work in. When I shot some of these, my precious little AB (read posts from last summer) was looking on and in a few pictures. Miss her and that class so much! As I can tell from that 5 on the whiteboard, I found this in May at Savers for a very fair price of $19.99. It has such great colors and in such good condition. I gave it a nice little price and it was quickly purchased.

That brings us to the piece that I still currently have in my apartment. It's a little hard to describe, but I know I've seen something like this before. It's a tree and sun scene made with carpet and attached to a big piece of wood.

Earlier this winter, I was leaving school when I got a text from Greyson, a buddy of Chris and I. He asked if I wanted this thing; his parents were just going to curb it!

It's such a cool '70s piece. It's made out of carpet! It was free! 

I have to remind myself to share my story of selling stuff to the set of a Netflix show. I'm gonna do something else now, bye.