Happy Monday!

It has been a long day.  I got up at my usual 5:30 am (doesn't matter what day of the week it is, my internal clock hates me) and after some coffee and a shower, jumped right into my chaotic day.  After getting the kids out the door, I headed into Maddie's room to do a much needed deep clean and overhaul.  The only time I can do it is when she isn't here.  Otherwise there is a constant screech of "YOU'RE GETTING RID OF THAT???!!!" going on in the background.  5 hours later of non stop organizing and throwing away, I was done.  I even rearranged her furniture to make her room look like a new room.  So of course she took one look at it and declared that she hated it and wanted it moved back to how it was.  Too bad, little one.  Not gonna happen.  I told her that when she could take care of keeping her room cleaned and organized, she could have it how she wanted.  I know, meanest mom ever, right?

So now here I sit with a much needed cup of coffee ready to blog.  It really is one of my most favorite things to do and best ways to relax.  Sounds heavenly, right?

I love my new desktop organizer.  It fits in really good with the rest of the eclectic decor around my house.

 

I finally had some luck finding vintage greeting cards at Goodwill.  They had them in the collectible display case but only marked $1.99 for the whole package.  They are unsigned and so cute I can't stand it!

I found some more mugs for my souvenir mug collection.  10 cents apiece at a garage sale down the road from my house!

I picked up all of these goodies from the same sale.  I think that the dispenser is a honey dispenser because the bottom part of it has a honeycomb pattern.  The blue bottle is marked with my favorite initials HA for Hazel Atlas.  The McDonald's mug was a little more than the other two.  It was a whole quarter.

I picked up this Hazel Atlas jar full of old clothespins, the birthday angel, and the Fourth of July boy from my favorite antique mall during their customer appreciation sale.

I keep finding photos on my computer that I haven't shared with all of you that are from quite a while ago.  I found this old letter R at a roadside antique store when we went on our girls trip during the summer.  It is really heavy and looks awesome sitting up on my mantle.

Stacey over at The Gluten Free Pastor's Wife blogged recently about her laundry room makeover and was wondering if it was strange to have Pyrex in her laundry room.  Well, behold the shelf above my washer and dryer in my laundry room.  Obviously, I don't think it's strange at all!

Sister and I hope that all of our east coast blog buddies are staying safe during Hurricane Sandy.  We are all thinking of you here.

I am linking up with:

Sir Thrift-A-Lot
The Nifty Thrifty at A Living Space
Apron Thrift Girl
Rednesday

Until next time...

Erica

PS: Hope everybody wasn't too confused when they saw the new layout of our blog. It's a constant work in progress until we get it just how we want it.

Halloween Tricksters

Happy Saturday everyone, Sister Hanna here! I was in Portland last weekend and went to a few antique malls, lucky me. It was fun seeing all the vintage Halloween decor for sale, even though I never really decorate, I leave that to Sister. Anyway, I found my expedition in one mall turned into a trip with Sister via phone. I felt like a personal shopper for her as I picked up the few good Halloween deals. Here is what I got for her:

The Jack-o-Lantern actually came from my Goodwill for 99 cents. He is faded, but I really liked his top hat and knew Sisterita could give it a good home.

This owl is in almost perfect condition, which makes me think it's not vintage, but still so cute.

And last, one of the little witches. Do you see the ghost photo bombing her? What a trickster! She is so sweet, I can't wait for Sister to add her to her collection.

Until next time-
Sister Hanna

Happy Holidays?

I heard something on the news this morning that freaked me out.  There are two months until Christmas!  Next week is Halloween and we all know how fast Thanksgiving comes after that.  But seriously, two months until Christmas?  It's not the gifts or all of the family chaos that stresses me out.  I do most of my shopping online so that is pretty easy.  Who's house we go to and when never changes year after year so no surprises there.  No, what I am talking about is the decorating.  Not too many years ago, I was able to focus on just the tree and our mantle since that is all that we ever decorated.  Now, with my obsession with any and all vintage Christmas, I am going to have to decorate every single room in my house in order to justify everything that I have drug home over the past couple of years.  Decorating my house this year will definitely be a week long process.  Good thing I start Thanksgiving weekend!

Now onto the junk!

This is a pretty amazing assortment of vintage glassware that I got at an estate sale recently.  All from one sale and all 50 cents or less.  The Swanky Swig was a quarter!

My next house is going to have to have a library if Maddie keeps on collecting vintage books.  I found her this bell cookie cutter at Value Village in an assorted bag of plastic junky ones.

More amazingly cute vintage cards. 

I picked up these Putz houses from the booth that was going out of business that I mentioned in my last post.  I think I am going to add a couple of bottle brush trees and spun cotton snowmen to make them a little more interesting.  Oh, and maybe some mercury glass beads around the roofline. (Yeah, this will probably never happen).

I went to an estate sale in a manufactured home park down the road from my son's school last week.  The former owners were dealers so I thought the pricing might be a little high but I still wanted to check it out.  There was a shed in the back that was turned into the cutest little craft studio (but not nearly as swoon-worthy as Magpie Ethel's).  There were a ton of beautiful handmade wreaths but the kind that you can go to Michael's and learn how to make.  Nothing vintage.  I spotted the telltale look of a box of Shiny Brite's toward the back underneath one of the tables.  It was part of a small pile and I grabbed them all.

 

 

So none of these boxes were priced and when I asked I was told that the large boxes were $3 apiece and the smaller box was $4 because "the smaller boxes are worth more".  Uh, ok.  Even if they are missing ornaments?  This ignited an argument between the two ladies working the sale.  Evidently the other lady thought this was a ridiculous price for an incomplete box of "old ornaments" and threw it in for free. 

I am going to have to get a bigger tree this year.

Linking up with:


Vintage Thingie Thursday



Rednesday
 

Until next time...

Erica

Spooooooky!

Miss Maddie and I put out our Halloween decorations this weekend. But before I show you the displays, I want to share our recent vintage Halloween finds.

I found these Gurley candles in a 30% off going out of business booth in my favorite antique mall.  The booth owner just so happened to be working at the store that day so I got the story behind the framed collage.

Her mother was a member of the Girls League in 1945.  These cutouts were part of their annual Halloween party. She brought some of the decorations home and made this amazing memory collage.  The lady told me that it hung in her mother's house every Halloween until she passed away two years ago.  She was so pleased to know that I wasn't going to sell it and that I was going to use it in my own vintage Halloween displays.  Don't you love hearing the stories about the vintage treasures we find?

This makes 3 Beistle honeycomb pumpkins Maddie and I found at the sales this year.  Not one of them cost us more than 50 cents.  Does anybody have any idea how old these are or how to tell?

I got both of these Beistle honeycombs at the Coburg Antique Fair this year.  My little bartering queen, Maddie, got the seller to drop each one 2 dollars.

 

I got all of these cake decorating things at the second day of a big estate sale.  They were all in the original packaging and the packages were closed with staples so I didn't feel bad about removing them and using them to decorate with.  I paid a dollar for all of it.

The day we left for Vegas it was a no school day.  Maddie and I were in line for a big estate sale at 6:30 in the morning.  I needed to be there early because they had tons of vintage holiday, mostly Christmas.  These were the only 3 Halloween things there and I managed to grab two of them.  Maddie my Eagle Eye girl found the honeycomb and told me that she figured something was wrong with it because I didn't pick it up. No, I didn't see it! I so miss her going to the sales with me!

More vintage Halloween from my favorite antique mall.  I am planning on making a few more trips in there before Halloween just to make sure I didn't miss anything!

I picked up the pig and Rosboro candy holder from an antique mall I rarely go into on Friday.  $7.50 for both!  I have been eyeing the witch at another antique mall for a really long time.  The booth owner has her in a locked case with a $28.00 price tag.  I will take the $5 that I paid any day!

Ready to see our displays?

This is the buffet table that sits right beside our bar area.

Close up of the table top.

This is the bottom shelf of the buffet table.  I love how I incorporated my Pyrex Butterprint yellow Cinderella bowls into the display.  Don't panic.  I purposely and safely have them tilting to look a little imperfect and spooky.

This is a close up of the little window shelf I have hanging above the buffet.

This is the table in our entry way.

 

A couple close ups.

I like to add a little new-made-to-look-old decorations for space filler.  One of these days, I will have enough actual old stuff that I won't have to do this!

Like my honeycomb pumpkin tower?  These things are so huge that this was the most space saving way to display them.

 

A few of my Beistle cutouts displayed on the entryway mirror.  I have more scattered throughout the house looking outside.

Wow.  This is the most picture heavy post that I have done in quite a while if ever! I hope you enjoyed it and that if you haven't decorated yet, you will be inspired to!

Linking up with:

Apron Thrift Girl for Thrift Share Monday
The Nifty Thrifty at A Living Space
Sir Thrift-O-Lots Thriftosaurus Thrift Haul

Until next time...

Erica

Who Wants A Perm?

Today was kind of a sad day.  I went to one lonely garage sale where I spent more time talking to the sweet little old lady giving it than I did actually looking at her stuff.  It was super rainy here today so there were not a lot of people out hitting the sales.  She didn't have anything I was interested but I felt bad not buying anything!  She was so sweet and I think maybe a little lonely.  So I grabbed this cute tin.

I thought with the red and green colors I could incorporate it into my Christmas decorations.  Plus it was only 50 cents.

It was full of home perm supplies.  I tried to give them back to her but she told me "Take them.  They are vintage and maybe you can sell them!". Uh, ok.

 

So if anyone out there is feeling a little crafty and can think of a way to use all of these vintage perm supplies or if you just want to give yourself a perm, leave me a comment and I will send them to you.  Otherwise they will end up in my garage sale pile for next Summer. 

Until next time...

Erica 

 

Linking up with

 

Pink Saturday







Birds in the Bathroom

Hi there, Hanna here!  Thrifting has been TERRIBLE in my neck of the woods!  Thank goodness I have some prizes from this summer and few gifts from Sister to share.  I was noticing the other day that every room in my house has something bird related, even my bathroom.  I realized that I had to find a place for all my pretty prizes and decided to copy Sister a little bit and make use of some of my glassware in the bathroom.  Here are the results.

 I found the piece of pink USA pottery at Goodwill for $2.99.  It is more Sister's color, so I think I'm gonna make a trade with her next time I'm down.

 Isn't it pretty?  And it holds my favorite lotions so well!

 Sister got me this pink pressed glass bird cup at an estate sale this summer.  It's hard to tell, but it's iridescent like carnival glass.  I'm usually not into that, but this glass is a little beauty.

 Another pressed glass bird mug.  This one was really hard to photograph.

 At the same sale that Sister got me the pink cup, she also picked up this little container.  It is perfect for cotton balls and I feel so lucky that she shared this prize with me.

My favorite find from recent is this bird planter that I picked up at Pic-a-Dilly opening weekend with Sister.  This crazy Australian guy had this little bird.  I paid $4 for it and I think disappointed Sister that I didn't barter, but I was so in love with it I couldn't resist.  He told me he was looking around for stuff to sell in his house and this little guy had sat in his kitchen window for years.  I found it online and it is McCoy and at some point had a black eye (kind of creepy.)  He isn't the cutest bird in the world, really he is actually kind or strange looking, but I love him as a q-tip holder.

Lets cross our fingers that thrifting picks up for me out here on the coast!

Linking up with Vintage Thingie Thursday over at The Coloradolady!

Until next time,

Hanna