Glory Days Antiques Joyeux Noel 2012

Glory Days Antique Mall is my most favorite antique mall.  It is 10 minutes from my house and Maddie and I try to get in there at least once a week.  Every season, they host an amazing open house to celebrate the beginning of the season.  All of the booths set up their holiday/seasonal decor and there are wonderful refreshments and music.  It normally goes on all weekend beginning on Thursday evening.  Maddie and I are always one of the first people there on opening night.  We look forward to it for weeks.

This year, the theme was Joyeux Noel.  There were so many people there on opening night that it reminded me of Black Friday!  I kept losing Maddie and didn't get to go into several of the booths because they were always packed.  But don't fret, readers!  I did manage to find a couple new things that I couldn't live without.

Sister will be here this weekend and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will have time to do a little flipping on these Putz houses.

Maddie didn't know I had these in my basket and her little eyes literally lit up when she saw them.  I love moments like that.

Can you ever have enough spun head Santa's?  The obvious answer is no!

How about too many Santa picks?  No again!

I love finding random little things and then incorporating them into my displays.  This is my first mini tape dispenser.  I love the two little chenille picks.  They will fit in well with the rest of the ones I have found.

This is my first snowman blow mold.  I was a little creeped out by it for some reason but Maddie really loved it so what was I to do?  The Santa is much bigger than the last one that I found but not as big as the one I found at Goodwill last week.  You will have to wait for my next post to see that one!

Have you been noticing the fabulous backdrop to all of my recent photos?  I first saw this vintage holiday tablecloth on Pinterest a while back.  I was super excited to find it at the open house.  It is so different from any of my other Christmas tablecloths and I love it!

Tomorrow is yet another no school day for the Springfield School District.  Maddie and I have big plans for a girls day. We will do a little thrifting in the morning then have lunch and do a little shopping at Glory Days. Then Sister will be here tomorrow night.  I can't wait!

Linking up with Sue for Rednesday over at It's A Very Cherry Christmas and with Suzanne for Vintage Thingie Thursday.

Diann is also back with with Thrifty Things Friday over at The Thrifty Groove!

Happy Holidays!

Erica

Christmas Time At The Thrifts!

After two whole days of decorating, I am done.  The displays are ready and the trees are up.  I have even taken pictures to show all of you but I am going to wait a couple of days.  No, I'm not trying to torture you.  I just want to share some of what I have found at the thrift stores before I show it to you in my holiday decorations.

I have been hitting the thrifts pretty hard in the last couple of weeks.  Almost daily I go to at least two and mainly just to check out the Christmas stuff. You just never know what kind of vintage treasures you may find.

I brought home this Holt Howard pepper shaker from SVDP.  I left behind his salt partner because he was missing a hand and the top of his hat.  I felt so bad leaving him behind but he was just too badly damaged to display.

Last Summer when I was cleaning out our shed and getting ready for our garage sale, I found a Santa boot that my mother-in-law had made my husband when he was little.  It was in with our camping stuff (Don't ask.  This kind of thing happens here all the time).  Ever since then, I've decided I'm going to start collecting them.  I found this one at the same time as the HH shaker.

I have a small collection of spaghetti style vintage Christmas figurines but this is the first planter that I have ever found.

These little matching candle holders were caked on with candle wax and some sort of sticky substance (I don't even want to imagine what).  It's amazing what a little hot, soapy water can do.

Wait until you see my collection of Santa mugs.  I pick them up whenever I find them.  The tiny one is my first plastic one.

I had to buy a big Ziploc bag that was mostly full of dollar store crap to get to these little Made in Japan figurines.  They are really cute and tiny.

The tree topper came with the original box.  I found an identical one yesterday.  The blue Shiny Brites are for Sisters wreath attempt.  The white bottle brush trees aren't old but are made to look like it.

When we go into a thrift store, Maddie always takes off for the office supply section first.  The little weirdo loves office supplies!  I could hear her running through the store  yelling for me and I knew she found something good.  She found a huge bag of these little bird lights that go on the old ceramic trees.  There were at least 100 of them in the bag.  You will see why I was so excited for these soon.

I don't think these icicles are old but they will be good for crafting.

Linking up over at:

Thrift Share Monday

 

Thriftosaurus Thrift Haul

The Nifty Thrifty

Next time I will show you what Maddie and I found at the Open House at our favorite antique mall.

Until then....Happy Holidays!!

Erica

I'm Back!

Happy Monday everyone!  Florida was a busy and beautiful trip, but I am surprised to say I'm happy to be back to chilly, wet Oregon.  One of the main reasons would be, thrifting there was strange.  The only Goodwill I could find was in a weird part of town and I was expecting something much bigger and exciting.  Instead I found an older Goodwill with only 2 aisles of glassware.  I wanted to show you proof that I actually went.  On a side note, I managed to drag my cousin along who is not a thrifter, and even better we pulled up in our Mimi's Cadillac.  We looked silly, but here I am.

I probably would have stayed longer, but cousin looked a little traumatized and the smell was something horrific.  Afterwards we headed back to Mimi's to make a peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecake.  Let me tell you I was surprised to find part of the Pyrex Primary set in Mimi's cupboards, she's never really been one to cook.  Here is cousin making a delicious pie!

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what I found.  Don't worry nothing too exciting like Pink Butterprint or something.  I did find this martini shaker, with no lid sadly, by Anchor Hocking.  It has people dancing and partying on it, I really like it.  There is one drink called, "Alexander."  Doesn't sound really good, but can I make it for Alex when he turns 21 Sister?  He might never want to drink again after tasting it!

I also made a quick stop at a thrift store I only go to if I'm headed to the post office and picked up a 2 new animal shaker friends today.  Look closely, one has a pearl tear in his eye.  They are Enesco and I think look like Piper when we left her to go on our trip.  I love them.

Well, I've finally acquired a cold (which is a miracle, I've usually been sick 5 times now being a teacher.)  Lucky me, I get to see Sisterita and Maddie this weekend for some Pick-A-Dilly fun.  Can't wait to share again.

Until Next Time!
Sister Hanna

Let The Decorating Begin!

Well, we made it through Thanksgiving!  I heard from someone the other day that Thanksgiving is a week earlier than usual this year. Do you know what that means?  That means we have a whole extra week to enjoy our Christmas decorations.  I always decorate and get our tree Thanksgiving weekend.  I can't wait to use all of my "new" holiday items in my decor this year.  I just brought everything in from the shed and put away all of my Harvest decorations so I am ready to start sorting.  Forget Black Friday! 

 

At the end of the Summer, Maddie and I went to a small sale close to our house.  While I was perusing the garage, Maddie kept trying to get my attention to show me this big box that was out front. 

 

There was a sign on the front that said "Ornaments 50 Cents Apiece".  I opened the lid and saw this

And this

And this

Three layers of vintage ornaments with 28 individual slots in each level.  Most of the sections had 2 ornaments!  I asked the lady running the sale if any had been bought yet.  She told me that despite the amount of people crawling all around the sale, no one had even looked in the box yet.  I made her a ridiculously low offer for the whole box which she happily accepted and Miss Maddie and I were on our way to the car, both grinning from ear to ear.  Do you see now why I miss Maddie so much at the sales.  I had walked right by that box on a mission to look at something else I had my eye on.  Thank God someone else had their senses!

 

Ready for the breakdown?

 

All of these are unmarked except for the yellow, red, and green tree in the back. It's a Shiny Brite!

 

Striped Shiny Bright Goodness

 

These are all marked "Poland"

 

All of the pink are Shiny Brites and all the rest are marked "Japan"

 

I am in love with the shape and colors of these Shiny Brites

 

Hand painted marked "Poland"

 

"Made in Germany" sparkly glittery beauties

 

These are all unmarked

 

These are the only two indent ornaments that were in the whole box.  The one on the left is unmarked but do you see the original 10 cent stamp on it?  Can you imagine only paying 10 cents for these?  The light pink on the right is a Shiny Brite which is my definition of Heaven.

 

Hand painted glittery "Made in West Germany"

 

More glittery Shiny Brites

 

Maddie said that these were "ugly".  I told her that there was no such thing as an ugly Shiny Brite.

 

I love the scenes on these Shiny Brites.  I have never seen these particular ornaments before.

 

I love the handpainted glittery pictures on these "Poland" ornaments.  I wish there were more!

 

These two ornaments marked "Poland" are the most unusual in the bunch.  Why are they riding a zebra and an elephant and what does that have to do with Christmas?

 

I was just telling my BFF Rachel that I am going to need a 12' tree.  I was only half kidding.

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are all as excited as me to begin decorating!  I will be sure to take lots of pictures of my progress to share with you.

 

Linking up with Beverly for Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

 

Until next time...

 

Erica





One Sister is Off to Florida

Happy Tuesday everyone!  What a strange and hectic last few days.  I don't have nearly as exciting things to share with all of you compared to Sisterita, but still a few prizes before I head off to Florida.  First, I have to tell you, we've had some crazy weather here in Astoria.  It started with a thunderstorm that wouldn't end on Saturday, and then a wind storm that started Sunday afternoon and lasted clear into Monday night.  I had to drive to work and let me tell you it was sketchy.  Trees down, standing water, thank goodness the power went out and they sent both the students and me home.  Then I had to get all packed and prepared for our short visit to Florida for the holiday, which meant leaving our house at 3 am to catch our flight in Portland, yuck!  My husband and I are visiting Mimi who turned 90 years old last month.  Should be a crazy family visit with a lot of longing to be with my Sister.  This is the second year in a row that we've been apart on Thanksgiving and I promise this will be the last.  I hate holidays without her and Maddie and I barely get to see them as it is.

I realized that I had quite a few new Pyrex pieces that I've picked up or Sister has gifted me in the last few months (I'm fibbing, one piece dates back to Memorial day weekend,) that I keep forgetting I have.  You know you have a problem when you go to get out a casserole dish and think, 'where the heck did this beauty come from?'  So, for your viewing enjoyment........

 This is what Sister brought me over Memorial day, a gorgeous Orange Fiesta casserole.  Totally my color, I love it, thanks Bloggerita!

 When I was a Pic-a-Dilly with Sister I definitely picked up this Orange 2 1/2 quart Daisy but I can't quite remember where the Pressed Flowers came from.  I really don't like the Daisy lids, so I'm happy it had just a clear lid.  I do love the color orange and it is definitely one of my favorite colors for Pyrex.

 I had to add my Mod Kitchen in, because I think that the yellow and black patterns are my other new favorite.  I guess I will finally have to get the yellow and black Gooseberry, darn.  On a sadder note: One of Sister's gifts arrived from Ebay today and it was not in the condition it was advertised to be in.  I was devastated.  No one should ever see what I saw, terrible abuse of vintage pretties.  Anyway, off to shopping for her some more, which is so fun!  I'm hoping to hit the few Goodwill's in the vicinity of Mimi's, so hopefully I will have some Florida Pyrex to share early next week.

Have a Great Thanksgiving Everyone!  I'm thankful for all you blogger friends that show Sister, Maddie, and I so much love!

I'm linking up over at Rednesday even though I don't have anything that is a true red.  I think the Orange Fiesta casserole qualifies since it is an orangish-red, don't you?

~Sister Hanna

Finally...The End

Ready for another picture heavy post?  I think that I may have saved some of the best for last.  This final post will show you what is tied with the beautiful mercury glass garlands as my favorite finds from the vintage Christmas box haul.

Here we go...

 

 

You knew there had to be more crafting stuff, right?

I wish there were more of these mercury picks.  But believe me, I'm happy with what I got!

I love these Christmas cards.  Especially the green tree that stands up in the back.

This package of greeting card holders is pretty cute.  The holders are actually tiny little plastic clothespins.  The Bowmaker Kit has about a zillion parts and looks really difficult.  I think I will let Sister or Maddie try and figure it out.

I was super excited to find a vintage tablecloth.  Look at how cute the print is.  I have quite a few Christmas tablecloths but this is my first green one!

I think it's pretty safe to say that I was even more excited to find this sequined felt handmade banner.  I am not sure if I will use it as a banner or a table runner.

 

I love honeycombs but I am not overly thrilled with the colors of these bells. 

Maddie scored the three vintage Christmas books and the Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer record.  Now we just need to find a record player.

 

 

 

 

 

All of these Dennison cardboard cutouts were in the original sealed packaging.  I think I will put them in Maddie's bedroom windows.

Okay, are you all ready for what is tied with the mercury glass as my favorite find of the whole haul?  These were all scattered throughout the three boxes and when all was said and done, this is what I had...

This set of Gurley choir boys are the super tall ones.  They are each 7" tall.  The small Gurley candles that are more common are 2 1/2" tall.  That should give you an idea as to how giant these are.

There were also some of the more average sized choir boys and girls.

 

Although I already have a good amount of the choir kids, these are my first carolers!  The box isn't in the best condition but it is still the original box so who cares?

I couldn't believe all the Gurley candles!  Do you think I saved the best for last?

I want to thank everybody for taking the time to comment on our blog.  Also, welcome to all our new members!  As soon as we reach 100 followers, Sister and I will be putting together a giveaway so stay tuned.

Maddie and I are getting ready to sort through some more stuff that we got from an entirely different sale.  I cannot wait to share it with you.  Speaking of Maddie, what do you all think of our new blog title?

Linking up with The Nifty Thrifty over at A Living Space

See you soon!

Erica