Green Jacket & Red Bureau

When taking the c-train to and from my suburban homebase and the city one passes a huge warehouse were the charity organisation Erikshjälpen opened up a store a few months back.

For quite some time now we've said that we ought to pay them a visit, but somehow never got around to it. Last weekend we did though. And at the same time we gave away some boxes of miscellaneous stuff, that will hopefully bring in at least a few bobs for a good cause.

And then we had a browse around the place, which was indeed large. Jampacked with furniture, clothes, china, books, fabrics, pretty much everything really.

When it comes to second hand clothes I'm far from a keen shopper. Partly since I'm not very good at finding the right garments, partly because frankly I find it somewhat grody wearing some unknown person's old disused clothes. Never mind they're most often washed, I'm still uneasy about it. But if I was better at finding the good stuff, at the right place, for the right price, I'd probably be willing to overlook that feeling... As I actually did last weekend.

First, let me give you a bit of background to this. Silly as it may be, I still like it when strange, coincidental (?) things happen, being at the right place at the right time, looking the right way and so forth. When in Amsterdam last autumn taking a riverboat trip we passed a large vintage market on the quays, and from the boat I saw this green leather jacket, in a certain model, a perfect nuance.

I usually shy away from buying leather garments - well, obviously certain handbags and shoes not included in that then. Yes, my normally not very lax conscience has a perfect excuse for those buys... But if it's inherited clothes or second hand, well then I might consider at least looking at them, possibly trying them on, and yes, even buying them if they fit and don't smell too musty.

*Of course* I just couldn't find the jacket when we roamed around the quays, but ever since then I've had this notion in my head of me having a green leather jacket. In a certain model and a particular nuance. When I've happened to pass a second hand shop I've most always had a browse through the leather jackets. Until last weekend without any luck whatsoever. And I wasn't even going to look in the upper floor clothes section of the warehouse, I was strictly in to possibly finding some odd furniture pieces. I might add, at simply crazy low prices. This is what it looks like at the end station for the tear and wear mentality of instant gratification and shop til' you drop.

Anyhow. M lured me up to the upper floor and I just happened to walk by a mannequin dressed in quite ugly clothes, but for this. Leather. Jacket. In a particular. Green. Nuance. And strangely enough it happened to be in an ok size. At a silly price. And it really can't have been worn much. If at all. Made in Sweden too. Isn't this almost too weird to be true? Not that I complain. At all. I just happen to be a proud and happy owner of a certain green leather jacket. Which of course will go very well with a certain blue handbag. And possibly some red shoes. Or boots. Perhaps even purple.

We also looked through the furniture section, which had a whole lot of interesting pieces. And then we walked past a very red bureau. Nice model. Really nice nuance. Very well made. Not scuffed. But perhaps it would be a bit too *obvious* in that size and colour? Um. Better think about it and hope it'll still be there later.

Luckily it was. Since I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Instead of the (in)famous Panic Bags - you know the ones you frantically stuff with all the bits and pieces you don't want have lying around when guests are arriving and then cram in the closets... - I now have a very red, and very lovely bureau in my living room to fill with all those thingies.

My green jacket. My red bureau. With a red cat on top. Life can be good.