It's my birthday and I'm giving YOU a gift!

Today is my birthday! Some people don't like their birthdays because of the reminder that they're getting older, but not me, I love my birthday! I love cake and ice cream and pressies and getting to choose what is for dinner (okay, as the mom and chief cook in the house I do this every night but as a kid I loved it). I don't mind getting another year older; today I'm 34 years old and proud of it.

Normally on Mondays I post my Weekend Junk Finds but today I wanted to do something a little different. To thank you all for reading my blog and leaving wonderful comments, I wanted to give one of you a gift!

I've gathered a few fun treats to send to someone: a copy of one of my favorite junking inspiration books, Collection Style by Country Living. A sparkly beaded ring handmade by me, a set of 6 covered buttons made with vintage feedsack fabrics, a stack of cool vintage store price signs, a set of hand-stamped typewriter notecards, and a few other surprises I'll slip in!

There are two ways to enter my Birthday Giveaway:

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. 'Like' my The Merry Magpie Vintage Facebook page

You say you didn't know I had a Facebook page? Well, you're not alone. :) I created it way back in April but have been waiting for the right time to tell everyone about it, and I think my birthday is as good a day as any!

You can enter by one or both methods, but please leave a separate comment for each one. The giveaway will close Friday, August 3 at 8:00 a.m. MDT, and I'll draw a winner and post later that day.

The Mister just graduated from Jumpmaster School (on his first try, which is uncommon. So proud of him!) and there are no wildfires burning so I think we may finally be back to a normal schedule for the the first time in two months. Whew. Today for my birthday celebration we're going to visit the new History Colorado Center, I'm going to make my all-time favorite Texas Sheet Cake, and then I think we'll go have sushi for dinner at our favorite little place. I can't wait! :)

London 2012

We are big Olympics nerds around this house, and add to that the fact that they're taking place in my very favorite city on earth? Total nerd overload.

Even my chalkboard got in on the act!

Junk I didn't buy

Scenes from a(n Antique) Mall:

These darling Hazel Atlas glasses and caddy were at a booth in my local antique mall. The glasses were in really fantastic condition, but can you guess the price?

No, go higher.

Higher still.

Did you guess $90? Dingdingdingding! Yikes.Wonder if they'll ever sell at that hefty price? And that booth never runs sales as far as I can tell, so it's not like they marked them up so they can be 'discounted' at some point. Too rich for my blood!

Remember my awesome Royal Haeger Colorado ashtray? I found one of its buddies. Looking fine, Mr. Lincoln! I kind of wish I had a whole wall of these, even though I know they only made a handful of states.

This is a sad, sad story, made even more tragic by the fact that I KNOW BETTER. These cute little school chairs were marked down to $16 each. I very seriously debated buying a pair of them to replace a couple of my kids' little wooden chairs that are literally falling apart. I walked around the antique mall for a while thinking about it, but ultimately left without them. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

The next day I came to my senses and realized that was a really great price and what I should have done was asked if the seller would give them to me for $14 or $15 each if I bought them all. Then I would keep two and sell the rest for a profit at my (hopeful) booth at a vintage/craft fair later this fall.

You know what happens next in the story, right? I went back the next day and they were GONE.

And I wept.

Okay, not really, but I still get a slightly sick feeling whenever I think of those chairs. I know from previous painful experiences that the Cardinal Rule of Junking is BUY IT WHEN YOU SEE IT and what did I do? Ignored it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

More school chairs. They're haunting me! Actually, these were smaller than the other set so I wouldn't have considered buying them. But look at that darling desk/table that goes with them! Wouldn't that be darling in a playroom?

Now, everybody repeat after me: Buy It When You See It.....Buy It When You See It...Buy It When You See It....

I scream for Ice Cream

You'd think since I'm training for a triathlon and all (thank you all for your sweet supportive words on my last post!) that I'd be really watching what I eat and getting all skinny and stuff.

Annnnd....you'd be wrong. I'm working out now more consistently than I probably ever have in my life and still my pants are too tight. I'm pretty sure I know the culprit:

How can I be expected to eat healthfully when there are a million different ice cream flavors out there just begging to be made?

Among others this summer, I've made Fresh Cherry

http://pinterest.com/pin/126311964519580043/

 And Fresh Raspberry

http://pinterest.com/pin/126311964519506267/

 

 

And the BEST, most rich and smooth homemade chocolate ice cream I have EVER tasted:

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/07/10/chocolate-ice-cream/

There have been three different vanillas and another round of the chocolate. Next up is rhubarb and I haven't even made my favorite lime ice cream yet, then there's that recipe for peanut butter cup ice cream that I've had my eye on as well. I'd also really love to make some homemade Rocky Road because I love the combination of the creamy ice cream, soft marshmallows and crunchy peanuts. And Palisade peaches will be available soon, so I'd better make some fresh peach as well!

We've had to invite friends over to help us eat all of this ice cream, so I've been having fun with the toppings, too:

from our first Sundae Sundae Sunday party: French Vanilla and Fresh Raspberry

from the night we had Fresh Cherry ice cream--had to use my vintage cherry tablecloth!

from our Fourth of July party, with homemade hot chocolate in my US Presidents jug

So can you blame me for indulging a little (or maybe a lot)? Pretty soon summer will be over and my ice cream maker will go back into hiding in the basement. Then I'll start in with the salads, I promise.

I can do hard things

I did it. I took the plunge.

 

I signed up for my first sprint triathlon! I've been training for a few months now, I just haven't said anything about it here yet. My race will be September 15 so I still have some time to train, which is good because I'm going to need every minute! The photo of me above was last week at the local reservoir (which is actually the race site) when I had just completed my first half-mile open water swim. You should have seen the funny look Porter gave me when he saw me in that get-up. :)

A sprint triathlon is the shortest distance. My particular race has a 750-meter swim, a 14-mile bike ride, and a 3.2 mile run. Which for me might as well be about a zillion miles. You have to know that I am NOT athletic at all. AT ALL. In elementary school, I used to sit at recess and read a book (usually the latest installment in the Baby-Sitters' Club series) rather than run around playing soccer or whatever. I never liked sports, can't hit a ball, hate running. This whole swim/bike/run thing is so far out of my comfort zone, it might as well be in outer space. Every single time I get in the pool, on the bike or the treadmill I  think, "I am out of my mind. There is just no way I am going to be able to do all three of these things in a row because just doing one at a time wipes me out completely."

But. I AM GOING TO DO IT. My new motto for myself is "I can do hard things." I want to show my kids that they can work hard and do things that don't come easily to them. I want to show Maren that even Mommies can be physically strong. I want to prove to myself that I can set a goal and finish it.

I can do HARD things!

Weekend Junk Finds: Christmas in July

I heard it, calling me from the thrift store. And since The Mister came home early for a change, I had the opportunity to heed the call. Look what it was:

 

I have long coveted the vintage costume jewelry trees I've seen on other blogs. I've come across a few at antique stores, but who wants to pay antique store prices? Not me, when I know that if I'm patient and listen closely, I might be able to find my very own tree for a few bucks at my favorite thrift store!

 

I know these things are probably the height of tackiness, but man, I LOVE them! This one is a pretty and well-made version. The base tree shape is made of silver mercury glass beads, and then the jewelry is glued on top. There's a spot on the lower left where a jewel is missing but I have plenty of pieces that I can use to fill in. Hardest thing about that will be deciding which one!

 Other vintage Christmas that was waiting for me that night: a cute puzzle and a LGB.

And rounding out the thrift store haul is a cute book about rainbows and three pewter goblets that will be perfect for my Harry Potter-themed Halloween party.

And there was even FREE junk! A friend and I went out shopping on Saturday and just happened to walk by a bookstore that was closing. At that particular time, everything remaining in the store was FREE for the taking! There were thousands of old magazines and some huge wooden bookshelves, but what interested us was the dozens and dozens of old wooden fruit crates that the store owner had used as magazine shelving. Some were nailed/screwed together so we had to leave them, but otherwise we loaded up with as many as we could carry! On my way out the door, I spied this little chrome stool and snagged it as well. The vinyl and foam on top are destroyed and there is rust on the chrome legs, but I think I may be able to clean it up and recover the seat. If not--well, it was free so it won't hurt me to trash it!

Did you find any good junk this weekend? I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

Weekend Junk Finds: Fire-King SCORE!

I happened to be driving home from the gym last weekend and noticed a yard sale sign pointing towards a sale in my neighborhood--right across the street from Maren's school, actually. Now, normally I don't make it a point to stop at the sales in my neighborhood because I live deep in the 'burbs. Most sales in my neighborhood are filled with baby gear and inexpensive decor and furniture pieces. I'm not judging; heck, it's the same kind of stuff that's in my own house, which is precisely why I'm not looking to buy any more of it!

Occasionally, I hit a little pocket of vintage in the midst of suburbia and this particular Saturday I got lucky enough to do it again, and in spectacular fashion!

When I hopped out of the car, this was the first thing I saw on the table and I about started to hyperventilate:

Vintage Fire-King. Vintage Turquoise Blue Fire-King. Vintage Turquoise Blue Fire-King SWEDISH MODERN NESTING BOWLS!! They weren't marked--a yard sale technique that normally makes me just walk away without asking or buying--but in this case, I was more than happy to ask a price, especially when the seller said, "Well, the middle bowl is pretty chipped up, so how about a dollar for all three?" At which point I stifled a giddy shriek and tried to play it cool as I pulled a dollar bill out of my wallet.

According to my glassware identification book, Anchor Hocking made Fire-King Turquoise Blue dinnerware from 1957 to 1958. There were two types of mixing bowls that went with the dishes--a Splash Proof set (the same shape used in the popular dot and tulip sets) and this unusual teardrop-shaped set, which is also known as Swedish Modern. Originally there were four bowls to this set: 1 pint, 1 quart, 2 quart and 3 quart. I believe I am missing the 1 quart bowl, and the 2 quart is pretty severely chipped on the spout and the back. The other two bowls are in great shape and for that price, I don't even care that it's not perfect!

 

On the same table as the bowls was this cute set of vintage glasses and caddy. Price? Also $1. The glasses have a somewhat random rural theme of images of chickens, trees, brick schoolhouses(?) and windmills. There are four of this set and I'll try to find another set of glasses to fill the other four spots in the caddy. Additionally there are two glasses on which the gold printing is nearly gone. I think maybe I can get rid of it completely with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, leaving two solid-colored glasses.

 

And the last vintage thing on the table was this vintage pink Glasbake mixing bowl, which the sellers threw in for free. I hesitated to take it because it was covered in gray marks, but I put it in the back of the car anyway. I'm so glad I did because I was able to get all of the gray marks off using a bit of Bon Ami powder on a damp rag and now the bowl looks great! I also used Bon Ami to remove the big gray mark on the pink Lu-Ray platter I showed last week:

I'm so glad that I stopped at that yard sale, which just serves to remind me that there are vintage treasures to be had even in suburbia, I just have to get out there and look! Did you find anything good this weekend?

Today I'm linking up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds and Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

More about feedsacks...

I posted yesterday about how much fun I'm having with my reclaimed feedsack fabric squares and a pile of covered button blanks.

I've been reading to Porter a library book called The Animals of Farmer Jones by Richard Scarry. It's a Little Golden Book that was originally published in 1942.

The story is told by all of the various animals on Farmer Jones' farm. They're hungry and waiting for Farmer Jones to show up and feed them, which he eventually does. I've read this book over and over to Porter and one day I finally really looked at the illustrations instead of just focusing on the words, and was delighted at what I found:

Do you see them? Here, how about another illustration:

Printed feedsacks! Suddenly I don't mind reading this book for the 150th time. :)

Crafting with Feedsack squares and Covered Buttons

So, remember these?

A few hours spent on the couch with a seam ripper and then a date with a steam iron turned them into these:

Oh, the possibilities! I knew just where to start--I pulled out my stash of thrifted covered button blanks and started playing:

Making covered buttons is completely addicting! The instant gratification factor for this craft is pretty high. Even Maren helped me make some buttons, to which we added hair elastics to make pretties for her and her dollies.

I have several covered button crafts in my Craft Ideas & Instructions Pinboard: this bracelet, these cute paperclip bookmarks, and these adorable little thumbtacks. I already have bracelet blanks, ring blanks, hairpin blanks and thumbtacks--now I just need more covered button blanks! Time to do some Etsy shopping!

Weekend Junk Finds: Small town thrifting edition

I mentioned in last week's Junk Finds post that I was visiting my grandparents and hoping to get in some small-town thrifting while I was there, and I did manage to do a bit! I've said it before, but thrifting in this little town can be frustrating. There is one little thrift store (and two stores in the nearest town 17 miles away) but it has an attached 'boutique'. They skim off any of the decent donations or anything that looks remotely 'old' and then put a ridiculous price on it and throw it in the boutique. The other branch of this store in the nearest town is even worse--they don't have a boutique, but they regularly put ridiculous prices on things, especially when you consider these are tiny, poor, rural towns where the only 'big' place to shop in the whole valley is the ONE Wal-Mart store. Oh, and they did recently get a Dollar Tree and a Family Dollar, which are pretty big developments if that gives you any idea of the retail options. So charging $9.75 for a set of 5 mugs at the thrift store, just because they look 'old' (they were Glasbake, nothing special) is pretty obnoxious in my opinion.

At the same time, I did manage to find four items in the store which combined cost me $1.05.

Apparently the people in the store who pull 'old' things for the boutique aren't always on their game.

This beautiful old transferware platter is crazed and yellowed and has a few chips here and there, which only adds to the shabby perfection. It was 10¢.

This tiny little dish (a fingertip bowl?) is similarly brown and crazed. It was 20¢.

And you know I'm always thrilled when I can find any Lu-Ray, especially when it is PINK! and a PLATTER! and marked 50¢!

The fourth item didn't make it into the pictures, but it was a little bottle filled with loose pink and green mercury glass beads. That one was 25¢.

I also found some crafting materials:

Not exactly what you would normally classify as supplies, but if you've seen the July/August issue of Country Living magazine, you might guess what I'm planning to make! If you don't have a copy of the magazine handy, you can see a peek here.

By the way, after my last pity-party post about the Fourth of July, I had not one but two wonderful invitations extended to me and my family from dear friends. We ended up having a really fantastic day and even got to see fireworks! The Mister started a new training course yesterday morning that goes straight until the 27th with no weekends off, so unfortunately he's not going to get a break from the relentless work schedule we've been dealing with since June 11th. This was not exactly the summer vacation we were hoping for, but I guess we'll just have to make the best of it, right?

Miss American Pie complains

Independence Day is probably my second favorite holiday after Halloween. Okay, maybe it's actually tied with Christmas for 2nd place, but it's right up there in the top three. I love patriotism, American history, the Stars and Stripes, red-white-and-blue, summertime, and fireworks.

This year? I'm not feeling it.

The last few weeks have not been my favorite. The Mister has been heavily involved in the National Guard response to the tragic wildfires that have ravaged Colorado in the past few weeks. As such, he's been working 6:30 am to 8:00 pm (or later) most days, with no time off. That leaves me with the kids all day, every day, unless I pay a babysitter $$ to sneak out for an hour or two. I am trying to plan activities and outings for us so that we have a fun summer and don't just watch TV all day long. Porter has rather erroneously decided that he no longer needs afternoon naps, robbing me of my two precious hours without him in the afternoons. My house is a mess in every single place that I look, my Etsy shop has been neglected since February (even though I proclaimed that June was going to be the month I finally took care of it), I was an unheard-of WEEK late sending out a swap, and I'm generally feeling overwhelmed and under-motivated in every single facet of my life.I finally managed to drag the box of 4th of July decorations downstairs a few days ago, but didn't have the motivation to put them up before we left town. I LOVE my patriotic decor, so this is particularly sad and telling to me about my current state of mind.

And now, tomorrow is the holiday. We're still in Southern Colorado (The Mister of course couldn't get away from work to join us as planned) and planning to drive the 4 hours home to Denver tonight. I'm bummed because we have no plans for tomorrow to make the holiday fun. Because of the extreme fire danger, all individual fireworks in the State of Colorado have been banned. Ironically, there is still going to be a fireworks show in this tiny town that I am leaving today, but nothing at all in the Denver metro area. I look at the horrifying photos of the smoking ashes that are all that remains of nearly 700 Colorado families' homes and I completely understand the fireworks ban, but that doesn't mean that I'm not really disappointed. I mentioned before that I LOVE fireworks and I feel like without them, it's just another day. We have no family in Denver and it's too late to make plans with friends so having a party is out to fill up the evening hours where we would otherwise be celebrating.

The Mister suggested that we just stay the night here and drive home Wednesday morning, but then we would miss the 4th of July Breakfast and Bike Parade with our church friends, which as of right now is the only thing we have planned to celebrate tomorrow. It's not a big deal, just pancakes on the church lawn and crepe paper on the kids' bike handles (I guess I could reuse the decorations I made last year) but at least it's something.

I know that I could plan something fun for us to do to make the day special, but right now that sounds like so much WORK and I'm just feeling so blah about the whole thing that instead of doing anything about it, I'm complaining to all of you.

The photos in this post are from the day after the 1940s WWII Ball. My hair was still straightened so I decided to do Victory Rolls one last time for church. The dress is this cute one and I wore my red patent pumps, a vintage red enamel flower pin and a red flower in my hair. I played around with my photos in PicMonkey to get the black and white and the cute vintage-looking photo corners.

Weekend Junk Finds: Blogging from the road

We're on a little road trip to visit my grandparents in Southern Colorado this weekend so I'm blogging from a phone and a strange computer.

This week's junk finds are from a variety of sources.

 

The vintage Christmas tablecloth was from a local garage sale, the orange prize ribbon (destined to be altered for Halloween) was from an estate sale in a $2.1 million home, and the earrings and metal animal buttons were also from local garage sales.

 

These sweet homemade pillowcases were from a local estate sale. They're so pretty and fresh for summer!

Last week I had the opportunity to go estate sale shopping with a good friend. We shared a babysitter at my house and set out shopping. I think it might have been her first time at an estate sale but I doubt it will be the last!

 

 I only bought a few things, but they were fun. A red yardstick, an old bottle of brightly colored nonpareils, a red, white and blue tape measure (perfect for 4th of July!), three pair of sparkly earrings for my craft stash, and a really fantastic pair of embroidered pillowcases with owls. They're really nicely stitched and I'm tempted to keep them because they're just so darling, but they don't match my colors so they're headed to the Etsy shop.

This last group of items was from a local consignment store that I just discovered.

 

I took in a jacket to be consigned but didn't expect them to have so many cute decor items, many of them vintage! I picked up the cool red and white pop bottle and yet another soda crate because apparently I'm starting my own bottling company. I also found the old photo of the little boy talking on the telephone--you may have to click on the picture to enlarge so you can see it better, because it's just charming! After I came home, I collected a box full of stuff and took it back to be consigned. On that trip I found a vintage 10-oz. milk bottle (a completely weird size--it's bigger than a half pint). 

This consignment store gives a 50/50 split on items sold which is a better deal than most of the other local stores, but their prices aren't high to begin with so 50% isn't going to make you rich. However, for items I was just going to donate anyway, it might be the easy way to make some money. I'll be eager to see if I make anything from this last box-full that I took in. Heck, if they keep getting in cute vintage stuff like that soda crate, I'll just take my sales in store credit and be perfectly happy!

Today I'm hoping to do a little small-town thrifting and maybe I'll have something to share with you next Monday!