Thanksgiving Thrifting

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for my Dear Handyman. What a trooper! After a Thanksgiving feast he drove me to a house that was scheduled for an estate sale the following morning. We left a box at the door as a placeholder to show that we were first in line {which is the custom at this particular estate sale company's sales}. We woke at 4:45 a.m. the following morning and drove to the sale only to find that someone else had come after us and removed our box. There was nothing we could do to prove our case so we ended up 46th on the signup sheet and the seller took in the first 40 to the sale. By the time we got inside the dealers had bought all of the items we wanted. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

We did find a very early Monopoly set probably made between 1939 - 1940. The game pieces are made of a composition material, possibly Bakelite. The shapes are crude but they include a horse and rider, train, elephant, car, bathtub, shoe, lamb and iron {the handle of the iron is broken and it seems to be made of a dry composition material}. The wooden hotels have printing that say "Grand Hotel". The old board and pieces were in a newer Monopoly box which also included a set of old dice. These were a fun old find.

More fun finds...

More Pyrex and Vintage Christmas... Oh Happy Heart!

I admit that my heart skips a beat when I see Pyrex or old Christmas ornaments at a garage sale. And my heart sings with joy when the prices are reasonable. Today I have a really happy heart!

I had three favorite finds today. The first was a good stash of vintage Pyrex. The sellers laughed at how happy I was when I saw the Pyrex.

More favorite finds...

Vintage Jewelry Christmas Tree in 3-D

I love a creative challenge so what could be more fun than a Christmas themed Challenge using Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest and a Smoothfoam Cone!

The idea for a 3-D version of a vintage jewelry Christmas tree came from one of those vintage framed jewelry Christmas trees that I found at an estate sale. The jewelry was interesting but the shape of the tree just wasn't pleasing so I decided to disassemble the pieces and make my own modern version of this classic kitschy tree.

I began with a 9" Smoothfoam cone and added a stainless steel scrubber that I loosely pulled over the cone shape. It didn't cover it completely but the idea was to create a filler so that later, the styrofoam would not be seen between the jewelry pieces.

Then came the fun part of sorting and selecting the vintage jewelry. I chose only silver tone, white or pearl jewelry, avoiding colored stones and most gold tone metals {I had to keep the crowns seen below}. I used hot glue and began at the bottom with the largest pieces of jewelry.

If you check out the original framed jewelry tree you will see this dog and the crown as they originally appeared.

You can see how the stainless steel scrubber works as a filler.

Because I didn't use any colored jewelry on this tree, the shiny red Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest add just the right amount of accent color throughout the tree.

I only used the red Dew Drops which really adds such a nice pop of color.

This is linked to:
30 Handmade Days, 504 Main, Cherished Handmade Treasures, Craft-o-Maniac, Gingersnap Crafts, JAQS Studio, Just Us Four, Kammy's Korner, Kathe With an E, Knick of Time Interiors, Ladybug Blessings, Mad in Crafts, Not Just a Housewife, Our Delightful Home, Sew Can Do, Sew Much Ado, Simply Designing, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tatertots and Jello and The DIY Dreamer

Designers Craft Connection - Thank You Gift

Welcome to the Designers Craft Connection Blog Hop for the month of November. This month's theme is a "Thank You Gift". I am especially thankful that Dear Handyman and his son-in-law both like to cook and barbeque so we will have a feast on Thanksgiving. Since I enjoy crafting more than cooking, my Thank You Gift is a Thanksgiving Table Runner.

The fun part about this felt table runner is that everything is thrifted. I began with a stack of felt that I found at an estate sale two years ago. There was only a small handful of felt scraps left after I cut everything that I needed.