Estate Sale Vacation Days

I took two, half-day vacation days this week. For both days I was up at 5:15am and out the door. I went to two early estate sales and would you believe there are people who park motorhomes outside of the estate sale locations and sign up on waiting lists beginning at 4:30am! {Hats off to any reader who might be one of these dedicated estate sale hunters.}

Although I wasn't the first person in the door, I did find some lovely treasures. My favorite find of the day was this biscuit tin with poppies and plaid. It needs a good cleaning but I love the vintage look. Luckily the inside is clean and the dirt is only on the outside surface.

I also found this green biscuit tin, also very dirty but the pattern is so quaint. Both of these tins need a good, gentle cleaning.

I love old world globes and have a small collection so I was thrilled to find this vintage beauty. I did a little research and believe this to be from the 1950s since it still shows Hawai'i as a territory.

The best deal of the day were these vintage games. I got them at a great price. I bought several more but these were the most valuable.

I also found a handful of mercury glass spikes and a few other Christmas decorations. This will be added to my ongoing collection of spikes. I'm curious about the gold spikes at the top of this picture. They have labels that say "Japan" and they look awfully shiny yet the bead at the very end looks like old Mercury glass.

These are Santa cupcake toppers. I love the three skiing Santas at the bottom.

I found a vintage tablecloth decorated with 19th Century scenery.

I also picked up an odd lot of toys including a vintage, wind-up walking turtle (marked Made in Japan), tin train, old hand-buzzers and a wooden Pinocchio toy.

I also bought three little jars of old buttons. In the first jar there were these strange looking buttons. Take a look at the bugs and worm buttons at the bottom of this photo. When I first saw the worm buttons I stopped to make sure they weren't moving before I touched them. Has anyone seen these before?

I returned to one of the estate sales that I visited during the week and found a few more treasures at half price.

This is a set of three pitchers marked Royal Holland Pewter. I loved the sleek lines. 

I also found this mid-century ceramic piece marked Frankoma. 

It was a great three days of thrifting. 

Happy Mother's Day!

This is linked to:

Apron Thrift Girl, Coastal Charm, Common Ground, Creating a House of Grace, Finding Fabulous,  French Country Cottage, It's a Very Cherry World, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, The Shabby Chic Cottage, The Shabby Nest, The Thrifty Groove, The Thrifty Home and Very Merry Vintage Style

Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop - Mother's Day

Welcome to the Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop for the month of May. This month we are celebrating Mother's Day (or Birthdays.)

My mother was an excellent seamstress and taught me to sew at a young age. Thank you mom! So to celebrate Mother's Day, my project is a wreath made up of various, vintage sewing notions.

On this wreath are vintage button cards, spools, tomato pincushions, strawberry needle cleaners, snaps, sewing needle cards and two measuring tapes. Everything used to create this wreath has been thrifted. Here are some detailed images.

If you looked real closely you might have noticed that the filler material between all of the vintage notions is actually die cut pieces of a sewing pattern. The following is a tutorial to make the basic wreath.

To make the wreath, I used the Sizzix Frame, Circle Scallop die and cut scallop circles out of a sewing pattern. 

Using thrifted straight pins, I pinned scallop circles around the wreath form.

I used about 1 1/2 sewing patterns to create enough scallop circles to cover this wreath. Once the basic wreath is created then you can decorate it any way you like. Some other decorating ideas might be large buttons, lace or ribbon. If you want to make the wreath permanent then I suggest hot gluing all of the parts. I chose to pin my vintage pieces onto the wreath.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful moms out there. Please continue to hop through the Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop using the button on the right.

Proud to be Featured at:

Maybe Matilda's

Cherished Treasures

SNAP!

                                                            

All Thumbs Crafts/Sunburnt Cow

Marvelously Messy

Rook #17

                                                    

A Girl and a Glue Gun

The 36th Avenue

This is linked to:

4Rs, A Little Knick Knack, All Thingz Related, Between Naps on the Porch, Blue Creek Home, Blue Cricket Designs, Brambleberry Cottage, Cherished Treasures, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Coastal Charm,  Common Ground, Craft Envy, Creating a House of Grace, FaveCrafts, Finding Fabulous,  French Country Cottage, Homemaker on a Dime,  I {heart} Naptime,  Inspiring Creations, It's a Very Cherry World,  Keeping It Simple, Krafty Kat,  LollyJane, Lovely Crafty Home, Making the World Cuter, Marvelously Messy,  My Romantic Home, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Paisley Passions, Passionately Artistic, Rook No. 17, Running With Glitter, Savvy Southern Style, Sew Can Do, Simply Designing,  Singing Three Little Birds, Skip to My Lou, Someday Crafts, Somewhat Simple, Sunburnt Cow, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Tatertots and Jello, The Colorado Lady, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, The Girl Creative,  The Shabby Chic Cottage, The Shabby Nest, The Thrifty Groove, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Thirty Sixth Avenue, Truly Lovely, Under the Table and Dreaming, What Allie's Making Now and Wildflowers and Whimsy 

A Long Day of Shopping

My day started at 5:15a.m. I was meeting my friend at 5:45 to hit some early garage sales. I just got home at 5:15p.m. It has been a long day full of adventures.

The best find of the day is this vintage, toy cake tin. I just couldn't resist the cheery red and green design.

I also found this toy sewing machine labeled Casige, made in West Germany.

At the same sale I also found this Ball Mason, Salt and Pepper Set. 

I also bought another vintage, leather suitcase. It has a lovely red lining inside.

So that was our adventure at garage sales. Next, we picked up another friend and drove into downtown Los Angeles' Garment District. What a different world that was! There were shops and shops filled with fabric, lace, buttons and so many different types of trim. It was overwhelming. I bought just a handful of buttons. It was a unique experience but almost too much for one day.

The final part of our day found us 55 miles away searching for a thrift store that someone had told us about. It was closed but we explored other thrift stores where I bought some items that I plan to use in future projects.

It has been a long and fun day but now I think I need a nap.

This is linked to:

Apron Thrift Girl, Coastal Charm, Creating a House of Grace, Hey What's For Dinner Mom?, Tales from Bloggeritaville, The Colorado Lady and The Thrifty Groove

Mother's Day Coupon Book

Mother's Day is fast approaching so I wanted to make something to celebrate all of the mothers out there.

I used to make coupon books for my mother when I was little. Inside were handwritten chores that I promised to do when asked. So to continue this tradition, I created a Mother's Day coupon book.

I used the Sizzix, Bigz Pro Die, Pocket Page and Tag that I designed. It will be available in craft stores in May. This is exactly the type of project I had in mind when I created this die.

I also used the Flowers, 3-D die to embellish the cover. All of the papers are from Cosmo Cricket.

Here are the inside pages with their removable coupon tags.

Here are a few design tips:

I used four sheets of double-sided cardstock. I also cut additional tags out of solid-color cardstock. Once everything was folded I began embellishing the pages.

I die cut the 3-D flowers and then lightly inked the edges. After they were glued to the page, I added small pearl buttons in the center. 

I used double-sided foam adhesive to slightly raise the bee off of the page. This added a little dimension without adding too much bulk.

 I first stitched the lace onto the page and then glued the rick-rack on top of the stitching.

 Nothing is complete without vintage buttons. The card that reads "Bon Appétit" had a straight edge along the top which didn't match with the scallop edge of the pocket so I added the buttons to hide the edge.

I had cut the blue zigzag edge off of the tag on the cover that reads "For You". I used the leftover zigzag pieces to soften the edges of this red bowl tag. The brad was meant to read "WOW" but everyone knows that MOM is WOW upside down.

 I added a few bits of bling to the center of these flowers.

I left the last page very simple. I envision this as the page where you could add a personal note to thank Mom for everything she does. This could also be the page where the gift certificate to the spa could be included... (hint hint, in case my son reads this).

I was featured on:

This is linked to:
504 Main, A Little Knick Knack, All Things Fee, All Thingz Related, Between Naps on the Porch, Beyond the Picket Fence, Blue Cricket Design, Cherished Treasures, Common Ground, Craft Envy, Creative Every Day, FaveCrafts,  Finding Fabulous, Homemaker on a Dime,  I {heart} Naptime, Inspiring Creations, It's a Very Cherry World, Just A Girl, Keeping It Simple, Krafty Kat, Lolly Jane, Lovely Crafty Home, Making the World Cuter, Marvelously Messy, My Backyard Eden, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Paisley Passions, Passionately Artistic, Rook No. 17, Running With Glitter, Savvy Southern Style, Sew Can Do, Simply Designing, Singing Three Little Birds, Skip to My Lou, Someday Crafts, Somewhat Simple, Sunburnt Cow, Tatertots and Jello, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, The Girl Creative, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Trendy Treehouse, Truly Lovely, Under the Table and Dreaming and What Allie's Making Now

Thank You and a Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered in the 200 Follower Giveaway. It pleases me to announce that, through the use of Random.org, the winner is ...

Jackie at Let's Go Thrifting.

Congratulations Jackie. I will be contacting you soon.

And thank you to everyone for visiting, commenting and Following.