Last Thrift Haul of 2011???

I don't know if there will be any garage sales on the last day of the year so I anticipate that this is my last thrift haul for 2011. It has been a good year and I've been working hard to get more items into my store.

My favorite find is this vintage tablecloth of apples, pears and cherries in my favorite retro colors of red, blue and green. I love the feel of old tablecloths.

I also found a red/blue/green tea towel. I am just drawn to this color combination.

We found this little address holder. I guess it would have been carried in a ladies' purse. Not real pearls but still a novel little piece that caught my eye.

The last thing we found was a violin bottle. My mother used to collect old violin bottles. I think this one used to have perfume inside.

I'm off to work on listing more items in my Stuff to Treasure Store. I wish everyone a healthy, prosperous, creative {if you're a crafter} and {if you're a thrifter} successful thrifting New Year. 

This is linked to:

Coastal Charm and Very Merry Vintage Style

Christmas Decorating With a New Puppy

I love decorating for Christmas. I have been collecting ornaments since the early 1970s. This year we have a new puppy that is a little too curious for her own good. So this year I am not putting up a full Christmas tree and exposing my ornament collection to the whims of a very nosy pup.

This year we are decorating in miniature and high off of the ground.

I placed my silver tree with all of my small Shiny Brite ornaments on top of my display cabinet.

In the cabinet I placed my other vintage Christmas items as well as some dolls and silver. Everything is thrifted except for the Midge doll.

I had to find a way to display my larger Shiny Brite ornaments so they are nestled in a tiered basket along with my large vintage bottlebrush wreath.

My final bit of decorating is my stack of vintage doll suitcases. I tied them up with large red ribbon to look like presents.

So far the puppy hasn't been able to reach anything. The house isn't quite as festive but at least everyone and everything is safe.

This is linked to:
Beyond the Picket Fence, Blue Cricket Design, Brambleberry Cottage, Coastal Charm, Creating a House of Grace, Life Made Lovely, Mod Vintage Life, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Rook No. 17, Savvy Southern Style, The 36th Avenue, The Colorado Lady, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Southern Institute, Thrifty Decorating, Type A and Very Merry Vintage Style

Christmas Pocket Card

I finally completed my annual Christmas card for Dear Handyman's sister in England. Yes, I know it is terribly late. Inspiration doesn't always obey the calendar.

Every year I like to send Brenda a mini-scrapbook Christmas card. She doesn't often get photographs of her family here so I like to send a card that is filled with photos. I'm not going to show the photo tags but you can imagine all of these pockets having photos and stories. I created this using the Sizzix Pocket Page & Tag die that I designed.

This is the front page. I used the Basic Grey Curio line of papers. I wanted a two-sided paper that was in a non-traditional red and green color palette. On this cover I used vintage lace that I tea-dyed, a vintage Bingo number and vintage holly leaves. The Christmas quote was from an old Christmas card that I scanned. I stamped the words "Merry Christmas" on a die cut Tattered Banner.

I kept this next page very simple. I first glued a piece of vintage 8mm film around the page. Next I scanned and printed an old Christmas sticker of Santa Claus that I thrifted here. I trimmed it and glued it inside a bottlecap. I then filled it with a layer of Glossy Accents to add shine. Here is a detailed image below. You can download the Santa image at the end of this post.

This is the other side of the page above. You can see the film strip here as well. I sewed some vintage buttons to a ticket.

This next page was to announce the engagement of her nephew. I used some small white silk flowers and tied them to the word key. I glued on a clear heart button on top {hard to see} and then glued everything to the ticket.

On the tag below, I used a vintage earring as the embellishment. I cut the back off of a piece of costume jewelry and glued it to the tag. Because the tag was decorated, I kept the pocket page very simple.

The last page has a rubber stamp of Santa because I love this Retro Santa stamp by Tim Holtz.

I know this won't get to England before Christmas but it is the thought that counts and there is a lot of warm thoughts in this card.

Here is the vintage Santa sticker that I used inside the bottlecap. Feel free to download this as long as it is for non-commercial use. Merry Christmas!

This is linked to:

Blue Cricket Design, DIY Home Sweet Home, Home Savvy A to Z, Life Made Lovely, Making the World Cuter, Passionately Artistic, Sew Can Do, Sew Much Ado, Singing Three Little Birds, Skip to My Lou, Someday Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Southern Institute and Vintage Wanna Be

Slow Thrifting Day

Yesterday was a very slow-paced kind of day without any of the hustle and bustle that is usually found at garage sales. We didn't find anything at the first two sales although we were the first people at both of them.

The third sale was better. I think these people were garage salers that were selling their previous garage sale finds. In any case, they had similar tastes to what I like.

My favorite find was this vintage, pink plastic tissue box. I believe it is from the 50s. It has a lovely shabby chic look to it. The roses are a creamy color and the lid is hinged in back. This going to be a Christmas gift to a Thrifting friend.

We also found a red and green, vintage metal table mat. I must be attracted to the red and green patterned kitchen pieces since I've collected so many pieces this year {cake tin, sifter, canisters, biscuit tin, dustpan, matchstick holder and spice rack}. Some of these have sold in my store. I will add more pieces soon.

The last item we found was some vintage Christmas wrapping paper. Perhaps these will be used in a crafting project later.

I hope everyone had a good thrifting day!

This is linked to:
A Very Cherry World, Her Library Adventures, Hey What's for Dinner Mom?, Mod Vintage Life and The Thrifty Groove

I've Been Published!

I am thrilled to announce that I've been published again in Inspired Ideas magazine! Amy Powers has out done herself in putting together an awesome publication for the Holidays. It is unbelievably exciting to be featured among such talented people as Mary Englebreit and Matthew Mead.

To make this even more exciting, the Holiday issue is now available in a print format. I guess I'm just old skool and really enjoy holding a printed copy of magazines and books.

So whether you enjoy an online or print version, this magazine is truly amazing. Amy is one very talented artist and her love of crafting shows in everything that she creates. 

I hope you get a chance to check out this online publication because it is inspiring and very well designed. {Plus you get to see my Magic Blooming Stocking project that I created but couldn't share on my blog until it was published.}

Here's a sneak peek. The instructions are included in the magazine.

Enjoy!

This is linked to:

Brambleberry Cottage, Passionately Artistic and Somewhat Simple

Thrifting Through Southern California

I have been working long hours in preparation for the upcoming Craft and Hobby Association {CHA} tradeshow. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to create a lot of projects to post on my blog. I have been creating a lot of things {catalogs, packaging, booklets} but it is all top secret until CHA in January. So my few moments of fun and relaxation have been in thrifting on the weekends and this weekend was FUN.

We covered a lot of miles, across a lot of Southern California today. I saw an ad for a garage sale listing vintage Halloween and Christmas items. Oooh, how could I pass up a teaser like that? My favorite finds were these vintage plastic holiday figurines. The large snowman has an opening in back to hold candy. I adore the kitschy look of these.

I also found these Holiday Putz Houses.

There was a lot of Halloween items but I wasn't sure if they were truly vintage and some were huge scary skull faces that would have terrified my poor dog. I had to pass on those but I did find this metal hanging cone. Hmmm... not sure if this is vintage but it looked old and wouldn't scare a puppy.

On the way back from our early thrifting I received a text message from my friend saying that there was an amazing estate sale close to home. We got there rather late but found some wonderful things. The owners had a building in back that was set up to look like a vintage mercantile shop. They were avid collectors of ephemera, cigar items, old food tins and shell art. I can't even imagine how much stuff must have been in that house when they first started the estate sale in the morning.

We found two scrapbooks filled with old cards. One had mostly Christmas cards from the 1920s. The other scrapbook had some Easter and Birthday cards from the 1930s. Here are just a few pages from the books. I will scan a few images and share them later.

This is such a hectic time of the year but it is so much fun to find treasures every weekend. I hope everyone else had a lot of fun treasure hunting.

This is linked to:
Apron Thrift Girl, Her Library Adventures, Hey What's For Dinner Mom? and The Thrifty Groove

The Hunted and The Hunter

I woke early Saturday morning in anticipation of some good garage sale hunting. Because of my two recent coyote encounters, I am much more cautions when walking my dog when it is still dark outside. This morning we were about 20 yards from my front door and I just happened to glance behind us. A coyote was coming towards us at a fast trot. I made myself look big, I yelled and I had pepper spray ready. The coyote paused about 10 yards away then started to advance again. My dog started to lunge which only caused her leash to wrap around my legs. Finally a car came down the street and the coyote casually walked away.

We went back inside and called the police. They informed me that an earlier report in the area described a pack of three coyotes. Later that day I bought pepper spray that will stop a bear. I live in a gigantic urban city and am not accustomed to being hunted by predatory wildlife but I am becoming more prepared.

Things I've learned about urban coyotes: they will approach large dogs as prey, they are not scared of humans, they will approach downwind so be aware of your surroundings and a single coyote will try to lure an animal into a trap situation where the pack can attack.

Well so much for being the Hunted.

We did have some good treasure hunting later. My favorite find was this engraved silver tray. On the back it reads: "To Lyn, From your friends at Mattel, 11/21/75". I love that this is a bit of Mattel history. 1975 was the same year that the original founders, Elliot and Ruth Handler had to resign from Mattel.

My other favorite find was sheer serendipity. We were at a garage sale when the seller asked if I was interested in any Japanese American memorabilia from the World War II Japanese Internment Camps. I have done some genealogy research on my family so I knew where they were interred. It turned out that the seller had a large batch of propaganda photos showing how "happy" the Americans of Japanese descent were while being interred in these Camps. The photos all have captions neatly typed on the back so I have a lot of reading to study up on. I feel like I've bought a bit of my family's history today.

Manzanar Relocation Center - Manzanar, CA, 5/30/1942

Colorado River Relocation Center - Poston, AZ, 12/31/1942

 Jerome Relocation Center - Denson, AR, 11/18/1942

On a lighter note, we found this vintage cake stand and cloche that I will use to decorate for the holidays. I found the vintage bottlebrush trees and mercury glass beads from previous sales here and here.

We also picked up a sweet Christmas hankie just in time to use for a bit of holiday decorating.

I think we did very well on our treasure hunt. I just hope we don't continue to be the hunted.

This is linked to:
A Very Cherry World, Brambleberry Cottage, Coastal Charm, Creating a House of Grace, Her Library Adventures, Hey What's for Dinner Mom?, Mod Vintage Life, Savvy Southern Style, The Colorado Lady and Very Merry Vintage Style