God Bless America!

With the 4th of July quickly approaching, I thought it would be a good time to share some of my decorations with you.....

I learned from the wonderful blogger, Laurie over at Magpie Ethel, that your holiday decorations don't have to be holiday specific.  You can decorate just as festive by sticking with the color scheme associated with whatever holiday you are decorating for.  Notice in my display that I don't have a lot of 4th specific decorations, but I do have a lot of red, white and blue objects.

I got this vintage dance poster from Magpie Ethel's etsy shop and it goes perfect with my display. I borrowed Miss Maddie's July angel figurine and stuck some Dollar Tree flags into the old RC bottle I blogged about last time.

I found a bunch of these old tins at an estate sale a while back.  And the little horse face you see?  It's a little rocking horse and I bought it for $3.00 simply because of the colors.  I knew I could incorporate it into my holiday decor somehow.

More tins from the esate sale, the pink McCoy Abraham Lincoln planter that I still can't find out anything about, a couple of old blue mason jars, and a set of Federal Glass milk glass picnic print mugs.  The red, white, and blue picnic basket almost caused a serious injury.  I noticed it out of the car window when Sister and I were pulling up to a garage sale and tried to jump from the car before she stopped.  Good thing she had the doors locked.

Hope everybody has a safe & happy 4th of July!

Erica

One Amazing Sale

Don't you just love it when you can go to a sale and find just enough vintage greatness to make you happy?  A sale where if you go to any other sales that day and you find nothing you can still be content.  This has happened to me only a handful of times, but you won't find me complaining.

I'll just let the pictures do the talking for me


Bauer turquoise pottery, pink Pantry Queen Cafe canister, unmarked pink dogwood plate, old Learn To Bake cookbook

Two Made in USA lovebird planters

More cake picks and toppers for my collection

Some old cookie cutters for Maddy's collection

I can always use more pottery.  The pink bowl is completely round even on the bottom.

Two Gurley santa candles, a cute Made in Japan planter (is it a dog or a fox?), and a Kentucky Derby 100 year anniversary RC bottle from 1974 (the year my husband was born). 

Another syrup dispenser for my collection, two vintage noise makers, and a Lustro Ware tissue holder

A big 'ol McCoy planter

A couple vintage tins, a breadbox, and a picnic basket

Some old ornaments

 A couple cute dishtowels

My favorite find, an old pink Packard Bell radio.  It doesn't work but it's still amazing!

And a mint condition Alaska souvenir tablecloth

Whew, that's it!  I know you are probably wondering how in the world I was able to grab all of this stuff.  First of all, I got to the sale about 30 minutes early and was the only one waiting.  The lady came back from hanging her signs and told me to come on in.  So I was in and out of there before anybody else even showed up.  Second, this sale wasn't an estate sale.  It was an actual garage sale in an actual garage so I didn't have that much space to have to dig through. Ready for the best part of the sale?  The seller gave me what I thought was a pretty amazing deal.  She sold me everything for $30.  Believe me, you won't hear any complaints from me!

Hope everyone is having some awesome thrifting/sale-ing luck!

Erica

Swanky Swig Madness

Let me just start by saying that I love Swanky Swigs. Maybe it's the vibrant color and designs on the glasses.  Or maybe it's just the name.  Saying the words "Swanky Swig" can really put a smile on my face.  Finding them at an estate sale for dirt cheap can make me grin from ear to ear.

I went to an estate sale the weekend before last and the lady had a whole bunch of Swigs for $3.50-$7.50 apiece.  She told me she was a longtime collector and was running out of room so she was only allowing herself to keep two of each pattern.  She told me she would make me a deal if I bought several.  So I picked up the four in the top two photos

And these three.  She was super nice and gave them all to me for $12.00 which I think is an extremely good deal.

So as you all know, Sister stayed with me last weekend and we were up bright and early on Saturday to hit some sales (or at least one of us was.  The other needed a little more prodding).  I saw on Craigslist that the Swanky Swig lady was having her sale again and I thought it would be worth checking out to see if she put out anything new.

I picked up these and Sister started her own collection with one of the little squirrel glasses like I had gotten the previous weekend.  She is only going to collect the animal ones, she says. I wish I had her will power. 

So now that I had purchased 12 Swanky Swigs in the matter of days, I needed to figure out a way to store and display them along with the ones that I already had.  Until now, I had been keeping them in a bread box on my counter top.  Lucky for me, I found this shelf at an antique mall the day before

It already had chippy light green paint on it so all it needed was to be hung and filled

Hows that for an awesome display of vintage goodness?

And just when you thought that Swanky Swigs were only for juice, Sister had the brilliant idea to drink champagne out of them.  That's the kind of thinking that a Master's Degree will get you!

Have a great week!

Erica

Quick Post Before Sisters Arrival

Hi Everyone!  So Sister has been in town since Monday and after making her rounds to our moms house and her best friends house, she is finally going to come spend a few days with me.  I have been having some serious sibling withdrawal lately so I am up bright and early waiting for her arrival. Since it would be seriously rude to awaken anyone else in my household right now (and lets be real, do I really want to?), I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share some Summertime finds with all of you....

I picked up this linen Birds of New Zealand tablecloth at an estate sale for Sister.  She is the one that had the original love for anything bird related so I thought it only fair (even though I just recently decided that I am going to collect vintage souvenir tablecloths).

I got this tablecloth at the same sale.  It was 50 cents and marked "as is".  When I took a closer look, it had no holes but was extremely stained and smelled like nicotine (yuck!).  But fear not readers.  This baby is in pristine condition now after a 2 day long soak in Oxy Clean.

I have a serious problem walking away from Melmac/Melamine dinner ware.  I think it's the colors that suck me in. 

I got all of this awesomeness (is that a real word?) at the Picc-A-Dilly Flea Market.  The Haeger planter was a dollar, the Swanky Swig a quarter, and the two Hazel Atlas large cottage cheese bowls were two bucks for the set.  They are perfect ice cream bowls.

I went to a community wide sale in our local "Antique District".  It was AMAZING!  Every year, this town hosts a huge antique fair.  A lot of the vendors live in the small town.  So basically, it's like going to an antique fair but getting garage sale prices.  The two Lustro Ware cabinet shelves were $4 for the set.  I had just recently cleaned out my spice cupboard and realized that these would be perfect for it. The lady gave me the two Fire King Jadeite bread plates for a dollar. When I got home, I realized that I could use one more of these cabinet shelves so onto eBay I went. Imagine my surprise when I found one of these going for $34.99 WITH BIDS ON IT!  Score one for me!

I got all of this delightfully tacky plastic Christmas goodness at the same sale.  I can't wait to incorporate it into my holiday decor. 

So as Sister blogged about earlier, we have some serious sales to attend this weekend.  I have found some local estate sales that I am going to have to drag her to before we attempt our 52 mile adventure.  I'm sure it won't be too difficult.

Talk to you all soon!

Erica

Vintage Gifts Are the Best

Sister Hanna here.  Sister threatened to change the blog to the Pyrex Thrifter Sister, so I figured I better get a quick one on here before she disowns me.  I'm down visiting the thrifter Mom, and then am headed to see Sister Thursday, but they both already couldn't help it and gave me some special prizes.

Sister picked up all the Pyrex prizes for me.  I vaguely remember saying I was only collecting 441s because I'm running out of room.  Don't worry, I'm not complaining, I excitedly accepted the butterprint serve and stores and the the beautiful turquoise bowl.  Please note, I think Sister may be letting me collect her color now!


Now, the illusive thrifter Mom has surprised both Sister and I in the last week.  She called to tell me she was going to an estate sale to find Sister a birthday gift which I'm sure Sister will blog about soon.  When I got to her house she had this beautiful Fenton hobnail vase for me!  This is my first piece of Fenton glass, but I think I may have to start collecting a few pieces.  It all makes sense where Sister and I get our thrifting eye, Mom has just been hiding her skills till now.  All three of us plus Miss Madelyn are headed to some garage sales Friday, so hopefully we wont have too much competition amongst the four of us!


Happy Thrifting!
Sister Hanna

No Longer a Virgin (of Furniture Refinishing)

I am not crafty. Or creative.  Or a DIY'er by any means.  All of those traits went to my sister.  However, I am not helpless or hopeless.  If you show me how to do something, I am pretty capable of figuring it out.  It just may take me a little longer than the average person.

A few weeks ago, I bought this dresser at an estate sale for $5.  I figured it would be the perfect way for me to dip my toes in the furniture re-finishing foray.  And for five bucks, if I messed it up, then oh well. 

Pretty bad huh?  But it had good bones.  Solid wood and an amazingly smooth surface for it's age.  So after a little lesson in sanding from my husband, off to work I went.  After about 30 minutes of sanding and two coats of paint, here she is

Lessons learned:

1) It's normal to want to reach for the cheaper brand of paint, but better in the long run to go with the more expensive one.  I paid $10.99 for a quart of Caribbean Beaches paint by Royal.  But it went on so smoothly that I probably could have gotten away with one coat.

2) A sander is an absolute necessity.  I would still be working on this dresser and suffering from an extreme case of Carpal Tunnel if I would have tackled this project by hand.

3) Cabinet hardware is EXPENSIVE!  But like the paint, you pay more for quality. 

4) Caribbean Beaches paint does not look good in blond hair.

5) Or on the driveway.

6) Trust yourself.  Once you are no longer a DIY'er virgin, the possibilities are endless.  I am ready to tackle my next project of recovering a few vintage dinette chairs.  Stay tuned!

Hope your week is going well!

Erica

Fun Finds?

Do you all notice that it can be quite difficult to find a new and snappy blog title for each time you blog?  Bear with me as I experiment. I'm pretty sure that there will be some cheesy titles yet to come.

Now onto the good stuff

My collection of Melmac/Melamine dishware is getting bigger.  I didn't find any for the longest time and now it seems like I come across it at least once a week.  The hard part is finding it in decent condition without scratches.  But the good news is that it usually pretty cheap.  I got this whole stack of plates for $3.00. 

More random plates for my random plate collection.  I found this set of 4 Shenango restaurant ware bread plates at Goodwill for 50 cents apiece. 

I collect vintage soda crates.  My mother in law found me the Pepsi one at a yard sale for $5 (which in this area is a pretty good deal).  The other two, I found at a flea market.  They were each marked $12 and when I asked the guy what kind of deal he could give me if I bought both, he told me $12!

Here they are mixed in with the rest of my collection on my back patio.  For whatever reason, Brewski the beaver dog doesn't bother these even though they are wood.

I got the planter, tin and ice cream scoop at the same flea market. I love how the ice cream scoop works way better than anything that you can buy at the store today.

For those of you who follow our blog, you know how obsessed I was with finding the complete set of Blakely Arizona cactus glasses.  Well, I completed that set awhile ago and I am sure you are all thinking "What, again with the glasses?".  Actually, my husband bought me these from an antique mall for $12 for the set. It was his idea that I should have replacements.  Gotta love a guy who doesn't complain about the junk I drag home and actually brings some home himself!

I came across this huge lot of vintage Christmas wrapping paper and gift tags all new in the original packages at a yard sale.  I got all of it for $2. And yes, I do plan on using it. 

One of the newest things that I have started collecting are vintage souvenir tablecloths. I found this Texas one at the Picadilly flea market. It is one of the very few tablecloths that I have that didn't require a major Oxyclean soaking.  I don't think it has ever been used.  For $4 how could I pass it up?

The boys went fishing so Maddy and I are headed to a couple of Saturday sales. Then it's off to buy some fresh strawberries for the strawberry pie we are making for Brian for Father's Day. 

Have a great weekend!

Sister Erica

Schools Out!

Well, we have survived another school year. Miss Maddy will now be "head of the school" as a fifth grader and Alex will be a Junior in high school.  Normally, I'm not completely excited for summer vacation only because it seems like all I hear is "Mom, I'm hungry, bored, hot....etc.".  But as time seems to be going at warp speed lately, I find myself wishing I could press the pause button and keep my kids smaller for a little longer.  I have a feeling that I am not alone in this thought...

Okay, enough wishful thinking.  On to a couple of recent finds!

I found this Santa and some indented ornaments at a sale up the road from my house. The two ladies running the sale were frantically trying to get everything unpacked and ready because two of their helpers bailed on them. They were super nice and one even started to cry because this Santa belonged to her aunt and she remembered it from her childhood. 

I bought this cute little child's suitcase for a dollar at a yard sale.  I planned on using it to store some of my vintage linens but I can't seem to get the "old lady" smell out of it.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

I went to an estate sale and everything looked like it came out of an overpriced antique mall booth.  Nobody was buying anything.  For example, they had an incomplete set of Pyrex Blue Horizon Cinderella bowls for $35.00.  The price sticker said "Vintage Pyrex from 1962".  However, I did manage to find this really super cute set of vintage child's bedroom wall plaques.  I may have paid too much for them ($7) but I figured that they may come in handy in the future (right, Sister?).

Swanky Swigs & a couple of cute juice glasses from an antique mall booth for 20% off.  Need I say more?

I drove clear across town for a sale that promised tons of antiques and vintage housewares.  I got there right when it opened and it was in a teeny, tiny little one car garage and there wasn't a single kitchen collectible to be found.  It was really a bunch of crap.  People were asking for certain things that were in the ad and were getting answers like "oh, we decided not sell that" or "oh, our daughter took that home this morning".  So basically, all the good stuff was skimmed.  The worst thing I saw was someone asked the lady running the sale if the stack of picture frames on the floor were for sale.  She said that yes they were but she probably wouldn't get around to pricing them until later on in the afternoon.  She wasn't doing anything!  I guess they didn't weren't really too interested in selling anything.  I managed to grab these little bunny picks out of the free box. Oh well, you can't win them all.

This is the tiniest little piece of pottery I have found for my collection.  It may be hard to tell from the picture, but it is the prettiest shade of teal green. I bought it at an antique mall and the tag said "Bauer" but it isn't signed. 

And finally, some Pyrex!  Have you ever gone to a sale and upon walking up the driveway know right away that it is a dud?  Well that happened to me last weekend.  The house was going into foreclosure and the yard was more dirt than grass.  The garage was full of junk (and I don't mean the good kind).  I wanted to turn around and go right back to my car but the two girls running the sale were so sweet and I didn't want to be rude so I though I'd at least make an effort.  After doing a quick walk through of the garage, I started to leave when they told me there was more in the back yard.  And there she was.  In the midst of Dollar Tree crap and Goodwill cast-offs, sat this beautiful and perfectly shiny 501 refrigerator dish sans lid from the Daisy pattern.  I asked how much and was told "um, how about a quarter?".  I'm pretty sure she didn't know what kind of treasure she had in her possession. Moral of the story is to obviously not judge a book (or a sale) by it's cover.

So far I'm doing good on keeping my promise to myself to blog as bring things home. I still have a little catching up to do but the fact that I blogged twice in one week is a definite improvement.

Hope you all find some great treasures this weekend!  I'll be checking your blogs to see!

Sister Erica