Thank You Easter Flamingo ... Bawk, Bawk

Happy Easter to everyone!

This is the basket that was waiting out in our front yard for me today.  Elvis saw it first & it startled him so much that he flipped out & started barking (while running in the opposite direction) which alerted me to its presence.  I hope the Easter Flamingo left you all of your favorites this year as she did for me.  PBR tall-boys & all things filled with marshmallow & mint.

I went to brunch with my  Mom & sister while our husbands golfed.  All of my nieces are out of town, as is my little brother so it was a very mellow day.  I baked a Pig Pickin' bundt cake (everybody's favorite) & am preparing to enjoy dinner & conversation with my family.

Seed Catalogs & Sunday Tea : Treasury

Remembering long weekends with Grammaw Lou.

Up on the mountain,

Sipping homemade herbal tea,

Wandering through the woods,

Chasing Bardoes & Whomperstompers through the fog on our midnight walks,

Searching out Witches Butter & Boletus,

Brown salamanders with red bellies & slow smiles,

Marvin Gaye & Julio Iglesias albums,

Playing Scrabble,

Dreaming our way through seed catalogs,

Planning our summer garden.

That was truly "Home"

Thrifted Finds # 10 : Vintage Linen Madness

My weekend of scavenging can only be described as Teh Awesome.  So many things I love crammed into such a short period of time, totally makes up for getting up at 5 am in the super freeze-cold to go to an "Estate Sale" that turned out to be anything but.  Two tables in a tiny garage split between four different sellers does not an estate sale make.

There were better rummage sales & yard sales & our weekly flea to enjoy & you can bet I made the most of those.

• Three darling Holly Hobbie glasses from 1972.  I love that each one is a different color.
• Two little chipmunk figurines with super sass, their expressions make me smile.
• A little bronzed deer California souvenir.
• An amazing gray ceramic owl.
• Antique kitten cross stitch ... the fabric is yellowed with age, I love that it is all done in black thread.  I've been bringing home tons of kitten stuff lately.
• Two little ceramic squirrel figurines.  Not a set, but both very sweet.
• An entire set of Child-Craft books from the 1950s.  I love these books, I have a few singles, but this was an entire set in near mint condition & got them for .25 apiece.  There are 15 of them in the set.

The cover art is one of my favorite things about them, each one is different.  If I could convince myself to cut them up, the covers would look amazing framed & hung in my sewing room, but I don't think that will happen even if they were only a quarter.  Destroying books that are still perfectly good for reading makes me cringe a little.

Two Joan Walsh Anglund twin sheet sets, made by Utica in 1973 & in brand new condition.  I have quite a few of her darling children's books in my collection & love flipping through the illustrations.  It would not be surprising if I eventually end up with a tattoo (or two or three) inspired by them.  The combination of olive green & goldenrod is so reminiscent of my childhood.  These sheets are bound for my Etsy Shop, though if I had a guest room with two twin beds they'd be staying put.

It was certainly my week for linens.  This Smokey the Bear flat sheet from the 1970s is my favorite of the sheets I found.  It is all done in dreamy colors with every forest friend imaginable,  plus mushrooms & trees & bushes & some of the little animals are holding up forest fire awareness safety tips on signs that say, "Be careful with every fire" & "Break all your matches" & "Drown every campfire".

I found Transformers, Rainbow Brite & Charlie Brown sheets from the 1980s & 1970s also.  They'll end up in the shop later this week.

 Then there's this AMAZING Empire Strikes Back bedspread.  Possibly the best picnic blanket I've ever seen.  It's worn & you can tell it was very well loved.  I got it from the yard sale of this lovely lady who had lost her son last year.  It was his when he was a boy.  His name, Matthew, is stenciled on the front.

There are a few other great things I found that I will post about later on in the week.  A 1940s baby quilt with embroidered cats all over it that makes me swoon.  I've got to figure out a way to photograph the whole thing, it's just so very sweet.  There's also a large paint by number of a girl & her kitten.  It's all about cats right now, we're on the list at our local humane society & at the pet shop next to my husband's tattoo shop for an orange male kitten (need a kitten to grow up with our three LARGE dogs).  It's been almost a year since my MuShu died & I miss having a lazy bones lap cat.

Linking up with:

Thursdays Are For Thrifters

Etsy Shop Spring Cleaning Sale

 

Too, too much inventory & it's time to clear some out so everything in the shop is 40% off for a short time.  Spring cleaning also means unearthing things you forgot you had & my goodness did I forget quite a lot!

If there's anything you've been eyeballing in the shop, now's the time to grab it.

What a lazy Sunday, listening to Cat Stevens & the Avett Brothers, cleaning like a madwoman ... staring longingly at my banjo case & wishing I was sitting in the sun practicing my rolls instead.

Thrifted Finds # 8 : Floral Commode

We attended an estate sale way out in the middle of nowhere this past weekend, apparently everyone else gave up because we were the ONLY people there the entire 45 minutes we stayed.  That's a first for me.  It was great to be able to look around & not feel hurried or pushed as I'm a slow grazer when it comes to these things.  I like to take my time & inspect each item.  I picked up some lovely stuff, too.

Like this flowery toilet planter!  Flowery.  Toilet. Planter.  As if I could leave that behind.  It was covered in dusty, greasy shmutz, but I took a chance (for a dime, I'm quite the risk taker) & after a decent soak it came nice & clean.  I'm guessing this little beauty will eventually be filled with geraniums & white trailer park rocks & set next to the front door.

Some old Avon perfume bottles, my customers just LOVE these things.  I only buy the ones I have sold out of or styles that seem a little awesome.  I'm thinking I'll paint the unicorn's horn white & cover it with some vintage iridescent glitter & that bluebird's head needs a coat of paint as well.

The inside of the unicorn was covered in dried out, stuck on dots of ancient cologne.  I tried baking soda & vinegar, goof off, bottle brushes ... what finally worked was boiling water & a good swirl.

That platter they are sitting on is large & lovely.  It's by Paul McCobb, the Sparkler pattern for Contempri.  So springy.  I haven't yet decided if it's a keeper, probably not as I really don't need any more platters.  Ever.

My very favorite find for the week is this little elf book from 1950, The Little Kittens' Nursery Rhymes.  It is filled with these charming photographs of very awkward looking kittens & puppies wearing clothing & posed just so.  Most reenacting the stories from the rhymes.

It is in very poor shape & looks like the animals within tried to eat their way out, but I just love a battered children's book ... I cannot leave them behind to be tossed.  The lady looked at me like I was a complete nutter & told me I could take it.  I disassembled the darling thing & now I have a stack of perfectly frame-able vintage art.

Their little eyes just kill  me.  I remember well, dressing my sister's kitten up in doll clothes & riding her around in my plastic, floral bike basket when I was a youngster.  I'm sure I'll share more when I get them framed & hung.  There are so many & each one is just so precious.

Linking up with:

Thrifted Finds # 7 : A Good Mouse

Lately my area has been estate sale central.  Sadly the company putting most of them on is very unprofessional & super unorganized which makes these crowded events pretty nerve-wracking (especially for those of us with anxiety disorders).  Despite my own personal "invisible dinosaurs" creeping around lately & making my body go haywire, I've been soldiering on & making myself attend the sales.  Huzzah, I've found some lovely things for the shop & for myself.  

These were some of my favorite finds from the past weekend.  The tschotchkes all came from the same estate sale & the 3D illustration books were found in three different thrift shops.

So, how sweet is this stuffed mouse!?  I fell in love the second I saw him from across the room ... just look at that little red felt hat & that faded pink bow!  Sadly his tag has been cut away, but he's in excellent (if slightly shabby) condition & I couldn't love him more.

I haven't decided yet whether he's staying or going, but for now we're calling him Gerald & he's keeping my matryoshka collection company.

He's a pretty big vintage mouse, sitting an impressive 7" tall from his toes to the tip of his hat.  I adore that crooked little tail & how he's got no arms.  He's a Dream Pet, his tag has been cut off, but you can see the orange edges & the beginnings of the lettering.  Figures, aren't Dream Pets just so dreamy!?

This wee yellow hen I found perched on a shelf in a kitchen window along with a bunch of other things I purchased that I believe people just overlooked because they hadn't been taken down & placed on the counters with everything else.  It has spring loaded legs & when you push it down it lays tiny, white plastic eggs.

I also found a wonderful old red & chrome Thermos & some darling turquoise measuring cups on those little window shelves.  Luckily I was following my own rule of, "Look UP!" that day.

A pack of Whitman miniature playing cards with cross-stitched bird & flower pot pattern.  I can't decide which is sweeter, that pattern or the perfectly playful little Joker illustration.  These may end up as business cards if they don't make their way to the shop.  I never know what to do with vintage playing cards ... split them up for folks to use in craft projects or sell them all as a pack to a collector.

Possibly one of my favorite finds this year, a brilliant wooden Mid-Century cat pen.  It has a removable brass refill & I'm going to take it in to an office supply & try to find a replacement.  It may stay as well, but I don't know.  I'm sure there would be someone out there who would love to use it every day.  We shall see.

 

Lastly, my small collection of 3D illustration children's books.  As a child you couldn't get me away from books, I started reading at 4 years old & haven't been found without reading material on hand since!  These types of books were always very dear to me & I read & reread them ... hypnotized by the details in those pictures.  Check out the lovely cuckoo clock & their kinda spooky green eyes.

I remember this Peter Rabbit book by Grosset & Dunlap very well.  This illustration in particular, from the part in the story where Peter comes upon the mouse who cannot help him because she's got a pea in her mouth.  Peter is so sad & has these enormous tears in his eyes.  It tore at my heartstrings 25 years ago & can still do so today!  This is a 1985 edition of the 1968 classic.

 

Lastly there's this amazing 3D Playmore Peter Pan.  I can't stand how lovely the pictures are, so detailed & kitschy.  Sadly the 3D plate that should be on the cover is long gone, but maybe someday I'll find one that's intact.

I was so excited to find them all in such good condition.  I always keep a lookout for these type of vintage children's books; strange that I'd find three of them in three different thrifts in one day.  They are welcome additions to my collection.

Linking up with:

  

DIY Business Card Tutorial

I ran out of business cards this past week & then the shop got very busy.  Without any cards to tuck into packages I looked around my studio for other options & my eyes settled on a 1967 Memory game that I picked up at a local thrift for fifty cents last week.

I bought it because I was in love with the illustrations on the little 2" x 2" cardboard game cards, why not utilize their awesomeness for the shop in a way other than reselling?  So here's what I did.

 Vintage game pieces (playing cards would work well too), craft glue, a sheet of printed out shop info & my trusty scissors.

 I cut the printout into long strips & then into squares.  Put one card onto a cutout & used my scissors to trim around the edges.

 Then I used that first cutout piece as a template for the rest of them.  This part was a bit tedious, but I listened to some Old 97's & it moved me right along.

 I mixed the craft glue with water (2 parts glue, 1 part water) & brushed it on the back of the cards with a small paintbrush & applied the cutout.  I put them face down on a sheet of newspaper & weighted them with books for about 15 minutes until all of them were finished.

Then I set them in the windowsill behind the woodstove to dry ... it only took about twenty minutes.

 Now I have a tray full of 64 super fun "cards" to tuck into my packages before mailing them.  Even when my new shipment of Moo Cards arrive, I'll probably use these once in a while ... they're SO darn cute.  They took about an hour to make & cost me a whopping fifty cents (plus two cents worth of card stock ... maybe ten cents in printer ink & maybe a penny's worth of glue).

They look super cute on my packages ... the hard part is giving them up, see what I mean about those illustrations!