Vintage Linen Q & A

This post is for you, Miss Sarabeth! Sarabeth posted this lovely comment this morning:

Hello Heidi,
This is off your topic for today, but I'd love your advice on a thrifting question. I've been enjoying your blog for a while and you have inspired me to get over my fear of the "linens" area of my local thrift shop. My questions are
1) how do you know when sheets, pillowcases, etc. are vintage?
and 2) What do you do the clean the average sheet when you bring it home? Is it safe to use bleach if the sheet has a colored pattern? or do you clean it some other way?
Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom! I just bought a cool (I think vintage, but who knows) sheet with big pink and yellow flowers all over it.
--Sarabeth in Mass.

I don't have Sarabeth's contact information and I thought it was a good post topic so I'll answer it right here. Also, I know there are readers of this blog who also love vintage linens and probably know a lot more about them than I do, so I hope they'll leave a comment or two and we can all learn from each other!

Question 1: How do you know when sheets, pillowcases, etc. are vintage?
The more linens you look at, the easier you will be able to distinguish vintage linens from newer goods. Thrift stores are a good place to practice this as they will usually have many examples that you can compare, whereas yard sales might have only one or two.

One distinguishing factor is the pattern. I like floral patterned sheets in bright pinks and yellows and aqua blues. Look for bright, happy colors! Same goes for pillowcases. Often they'll have a nice contrasting "cuff" (is there a better term for that?) like you can see on the yellow pillowcases in the photo. The older ones seem to have nicer details than newer pillowcases. Embroidery or monogramming is another giveaway on pillowcases, although from time to time I do see new cases that have been embroidered with old patterns. I can tell they're newer because the quality of the fabric isn't as nice as the old ones. That's another distinguishing factor: fabric quality. Again at the thrift store, run your hands over the pillowcases and you'll be able to tell which ones are made of yucky synthetics or blends (the kind that pill and look all crummy) and nicer quality cottons. Sometimes you can even find real linen. Good fabrics are heavy and smooth and feel cool to the touch.

As for printed tablecloths (my favorite!), they're easy to recognize because they all have a certain "look". To see what I mean, head over to Sarah's blog and check out the link to her flickr, where she has lots of photos of her fabulous printed tablecloth collection.

Question 2: What do you do the clean the average sheet when you bring it home? Is it safe to use bleach if the sheet has a colored pattern? or do you clean it some other way?
If the linens are stained or just looking dingy, I like to put them into a good OxiClean soak. Personally, I am afraid of bleach--ever since the incident in high school where I dropped a bottle of bleach with a loose cap down the front stairs of my house with predictably disastrous results, I've steered clear of using it. That's why I like the OxiClean and then usually a good hot wash right after, but you could probably use color-safe bleach and be okay even on patterns. Maybe another reader has experience with this and will comment. Tablecloths are more likely than bed linens to have tough stains, just given the nature of their use. If you have a clothesline (I don't, darn HOA regulations) you might want to hang out your linens to bleach in the sun a little. I've heard that Biz detergent can work for really, really grungy stains but haven't ever tried it. Sarah cautions against using OxiClean on tablecloths that have gold printed details, as it will eat through the gold and leave you with holes in the fabric!

Most of all, I think you should just buy what you like and what makes you happy to look at, no matter how old it really is. I hope that helps!

Hollyhocks

The town where my parents grew up and where my grandparents still live is a small one; the population is under 10,000. It's full of old houses and old yards, which fortunately equates to an abundance of hollyhocks! Hollyhocks are an old-fashioned flower. I rarely see them in my area of the 'burbs, but they seem abundant in the old parts of town and in the small, rural towns we so often pass through on our road trips.

I tried my hand at hollyhocks of my own last year and planted a whole packet along a back fence, but nothing came up. I can't say I was too surprised, given that the ground there had more in common with a concrete sidewalk than a flowerbed. This spring I vowed to rip out the ugly, scraggly ground cover and work some fertilizer into that dirt so that I could plant the hollyhock seeds I received from Linda. I have to shamefully admit that I didn't get the work done in time and my laziness coupled with our unusually wet and cold May-June meant that I didn't get any more seeds planted.

Imagine my surprise when a few green shoots with heart-shaped leaves popped up! A few of the seeds I planted last year survived the cold winter and the poor soil and up they came. They weren't completely unscathed, as the stalks are much shorter than they should be and only managed a few pitiful white blooms before they keeled over and died. Next year I'm going to try again with Linda's precious seeds and some old ones I found in a bag at an estate sale. The old seeds may be dead, but what have I got to lose? I'm sure Linda's are still good. I have already worked several bags of Soil Pep into the ground and I'm determined to have my own hollyhocks for next summer! Maybe in a few years mine will look like the flowers I saw all over Alamosa, in gorgeous fuschias, pinks and whites. Maybe they'll add a little old-fashioned charm to my otherwise modern, suburban backyard.

Happy Mail

My goodness, it's been a while since we visited, hasn't it? Since I last posted, my parents came to visit from Utah and then together we drove to Southern Colorado to spend 5 days at a family reunion. The rest of the days have been spent getting the house put back together and getting back into the swing of everyday life. I admit that I haven't felt like I had much to write about, hence the blog silence. I don't know why but for me it's so easy to fall out of the blogging habit and such a struggle to get back in the saddle. How about I ease back into things by showing you a few photos of fun mail goodies I've received?

The first package was just a fun, no-reason Happy Mail box from Miss Andy, who is on a fabulous island vacation as we speak. She sent me a set of handmade tissue paper cards and envelopes, a bottle of her favorite OPI summer polish, perfect for pedicures, a bookmark (which promptly went into Harry Potter), cute H sticky notes, and a great vintage Colorado plate for my guest room wall! The plate was even tied up in a vintage apron. What a fun surprise it was to receive those goodies in the mail!

The second package was from Shara, who very sneakily found out when my birthday was and sent a box full of red & aqua goodies! Everything was wrapped creatively in red or aqua fabric and tied with ribbon and vintage seam binding. Isn't it just darling? I had to take a quick photo before I opened it all up so I could remember how cute it was. I still haven't unwrapped the books tied up in the red nylon scarf and vintage aqua earrings--I just like looking at them on my desk! LOL

Inside all that wrapping and ribbon was a neat vintage Fire-King turquoise mug, a set of vintage Colorado salt & pepper shakers and a Colorado bell for my guest room, the books Heidi and Heidi's Children, a hilarious t-shirt with Heidi the Hen on the front (conveniently done in red & blue!), a baby Leo Ward bluebird (to go with the mama bird Shara sent me a couple of weeks ago), a cool letter H from a sign, a set of glass salt & pepper shakers with darling red lids, a very funny Rugrats book for Miss Maren (who is not too young to love junk!), red and aqua foil, and two darling aprons. One has buttons strategically placed so that the wearer can make a little pocket to hold eggs or veggies (or Legos, as Shara suggested LOL) and the other one is probably my new favorite: it's done in turquoise polka dots and seam binding and has bright red radishes appliquéd on the front. I love it so much that I very nearly wore it to dinner that night, only to chicken out at the last minute! One of these days I'll get up the courage and do it. Shara's package was an absolute delight to open!

I did some good junking in my travels last week and I'm off to take photos so I can show you all my goodies!

"Cheap" Thrills

I love getting a bargain! Tonight I had to run a few errands and I got good deals everywhere.

First stop was Albertson's (a grocery store). I spent $10.49 and walked out with the following:
--two containers of Earthbound Farms organic salad greens, $5.99 BOGO (the other grocery store sells 16 oz. of the same salad for $5.99 but my two containers added up to 22 oz.)
--three boxes of 100 calorie Pop Secret packs, retail $5.39 each and I got them for $1.00 each because I had a rain check
--a bottle of taco sauce, free (the checker asked if I wanted free taco sauce--it was $2.50 and she had a $2.50 off coupon for me to use)
--one lb. of strawberries, $1.50 (that's cheap around here, regular price would be at least double that)
So I figure I got more than $33 worth of groceries for $10.49. Not bad, especially since Albertson's tends to be on the pricey side for food.

Next stop was Office Max. I got a coupon in the mail for $10 off a $10 purchase. I bought an ink cartridge for my printer; I got the Office Max brand which was $10.49 so my total out of pocket cost was 53¢. I had another identical coupon that I used last week for the same deal. Plus, Office Max lets you bring in used cartridges for a $3 credit on your purchase, so I'll use one of those the next time I have to buy ink.

And last I went to Blockbuster, where I had a coupon for a free non-New Release movie. I picked out an Elmo movie that our library doesn't carry and I'll take that on our trip this weekend for Maren to watch. Cheap thrills, indeed!

*******************************************************

Thank you all so very much for your kind birthday wishes! DH and I went to a swanky Italian place in the happenin' part of downtown Denver. The food was delish and for dessert we walked around the corner to a gelato shop! He gave me the cutest purse from my favorite shop in Utah and I got other wonderful gifts from my family and a dear old friend. It was a perfect birthday--I couldn't have asked for more! Your comments only made it sweeter! :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! I'm 29 this year. We started out the festivities this morning with strawberry pancakes at IHOP, I spent 3 hours of Maren's naptime on the couch with Harry Potter and now we're getting dressed up to go downtown to dinner. It has been a wonderful day!

Thrift Thursday

Last Saturday Maren and I packed up and headed out early to hit the yard sales before it got too darn hot. Our first stop was a church sale I'd seen advertised earlier in the week as starting at 8:00 am. We got there at 8:30 and they were still unloading boxes and furniture off of trucks and nothing was put out on tables--just piles and piles of boxes. Argh! Normally pawing through boxes doesn't bother me but that takes a lot of time and attention, something I don't have when Maren is in tow. I poked through a few boxes but got frustrated and made to leave, but not before Maren latched onto a little hard-shell Hello Kitty rolling suitcase. She dragged that thing the whole time we were there and I knew if I made her put it back she would throw a fit of epic proportions, and I really didn't want to start out my yard sale day on that note. Although I usually have a policy of NO NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS, sometimes it's worth $1 and a little bend in the rules for some peace and quiet!

We only hit a few more sales after that, but I found enough goodies to feel like I'd had a productive day. All of the things pictured came from one sale. It was an older couple and they were selling off some of his mother's Christmas things. Yay for me! There was an old box of Shiny Brites with great graphics but it had a huge tear down the front so I passed it up. I bought the three German pressed paper bowls at the top for 50¢ each (there are two of the flowered design). The stuff at left came from the 25¢ box: an old box of ornament hangers, a sparkly bottlebrush tree, a bag with the three birdies and the plastic Made in Japan reindeer, the Hallmark ornament, and the MIJ Santa on Stork ornament.

Also from the depths of the 50¢ box were this vintage box of candles and crepe paper napkins (unused and in perfect condition, will probably end up on eBay this fall) and the antique flower frog. I've been looking for a flower frog like this forever, since I've seen them used to great effect as photo and card holders. This one is crescent-shaped and it must be made of lead or something because it weighs a ton! My only other buys were a Pyrex pie plate for my pie giveaway prize and a blue glass Ball jar with a zinc lid. The jar is an ugly 1976 repro so it will get tossed but the lid fits perfectly on a good blue lid-less jar that I already had. I didn't buy much but I love everything that I found, so in this case quality definitely won out over quantity!

Summer Swap Lovin'

I do believe that I should get some kind of award for showing restraint, as I've had my Summer Goodness swap package for well over a week now and I didn't open it until yesterday! Normally I am tearing into my packages before I even get in the door of the house, but this time I made myself wait until I'd sent my package off to my partner, Leigh Ann.

I'm telling you, that package was worth the wait! Leigh Ann absolutely knocked my socks off with her interpretation of the summer theme. All of the items she sent are for a summer picnic for Maren and me! Everything she sent was wrapped up with the cutest yellow & orange rickrack and twill tape and gingham ribbon. There was a little handmade album explaining the theme and how everything worked into it.

The first two steps were to make invitations for the picnic using the adorable vintage stationery (on the far left in the first photo) that is patterned with yellow butterflies. Second is to make the treats, using the YUMMY chocolate orange cake mix, and the darling orange and yellow tulip-shaped cupcake papers! Leigh Ann sent two vintage aprons for us to wear and a bright potholder to help us get them out of the oven.

Step 3 was to decorate the cupcakes using the orange and yellow sprinkles and to clean up using the cute bandanna-print Martha Stewart dishtowel. Step 4 is packing up the darling bucket to get ready for the picnic! Leigh Ann used a bright yellow metal pail and embellished the front with images from an old Richard Scarry book, buttons, and more ribbon, rickrack and ball fringe! It's absolutely adorable!

Step 5 is to head out for our picnic, but first we have to get properly fancied up! Leigh Ann sent a cute thrifted yellow and orange and pink floral scarf, two pairs of yellow and orange sunglasses (the yellow ones had already been swiped by You-Know-Who before I took the photo), candy jewelery, a sparkly butterfly pin and the cutest handmade yellow flower pin. Once we're dressed, we can do Step 6--get all set up and enjoy! Leigh Ann sent orange plates and cutlery, awesome bright cloth napkins, and two cool vintage mugs. For fun we can do bubbles (which Maren loves) and eat our yellow and orange pixie sticks.

So, can you see why I was totally in awe? I love everything that Leigh Ann sent and I am completely tickled at how she thought up the theme and found things to go with it! Thanks again, L.A.! :)

Thrift Thursday

I didn't actually thrift the items in this picture: they were thrifted for me. I love getting thrifted gifts! My mom found some of these goodies in the small town in Southern Colorado where my grandparents live. We've only had the opportunity to go yardsaling there a couple of times but it has always netted us good stuff! On the left is a very cool vintage coloring book about all of the different states. I love the way the mom is dressed! At the top right is a flag-shaped Jello mold from the only thrift store in town, and on the bottom are an old aluminum heart mold and a huge American flag-printed silk scarf, perfect for my patriotic decor.

Mom also found these goodies at a garage sale. On the left is a very old Loto game (it looks to be the same thing as bingo) and it has the neatest old game boards and wooden number tiles! They'll be great for an art project. The Loto box is falling apart so it was stored in a neat old vintage Christmas card box--bonus! The other item is a vintage jigsaw puzzle of the United States, with a map to show you where everything goes. It was packaged in a vintage box that held ladies' stockings.


When I was visiting in Utah a few weeks ago I went to an amazing yard sale. It was held by a woman who goes to my mom's church who was moving out of her home and needed to both downsize and make some extra money. She has some MS and some other health problems so some of the people from my mom's church helped her clean out her house to get ready for the sale. My mom tipped me off that there might be some neat things, but that I would have to dig, which is fine with me. That usually means there are treasures to be had.

Folks, this was one amazing yard sale. I have never been to a yard or estate sale for a single person where there was this much stuff. In fact, I'm not quite sure that the owner doesn't have a bit of a compulsive shopping thing going on, combined with obsessive hoarding. Whoa. When my dad told me they had filled 24 long folding tables with stuff for the sale and that was only scratching the surface, I knew it would have to be seen to be believed. Nearly everything was in multiples...2...3...12...20. Stacks and stacks of identical picture frames, still in their plastic with the prices on. Multiples of ceramic figures. Probably 20 hanging light fixtures and enough lamps to light up a mansion. Enormous piles of brand-new throw pillows. Boxes and boxes and boxes of unopened Christmas decorations. Most of the stuff still had tags from T.J. Maxx, Ross, and Big Lots. Unfortunately for me, there wasn't much vintage stuff, which is what I was really looking for.

I managed to spend $10 on the old Martha Stewart book, a box of reproduction vintage Christmas ornaments for my dad's tree, a sparkly rhinestone flag pin, a pewter trinket box engraved with an M (for Miss Maren's room) and 3 strands of vintage glass Christmas garland. I did see a huge Annalee Mrs. Santa but it was in pretty rough shape and it was so large it would have been a pain to ship, so I passed it up. One thing I missed that I'm still kicking myself for was an old photo of a little boy on a horse. It was in a large oval frame and had convex glass and the lady in front of me bought it for $5! Ack. Maybe that's my karma payback for the aluminum mold-snatching incident! The other thing in the photo is a set of vintage painted turkey salt and pepper shakers from another yard sale, along with an item for my Summer Fun swap partner.

Harry Potter countdown: T minus 2 days! Not that I'm counting or anything...

Harry Potter #7 review and thrift finds

I'm back with a movie review. I think a better title might have been "Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix: The Highlights" because that's what it felt like! I know it must have been a screenwriter's nightmare to try to condense an 800-page book about fantasy and magic into a two-hour movie that needed to be done on a budget. All the most vital plot points made it into the movie, but it felt a bit rushed and choppy--I wonder if you haven't read the book if you'd really understand what was going on! I think the Harry Potter movies are better viewed as companions to the books, not replacements for them.

At any rate, the new theater was an interesting experience. The theaters were small by normal standards but the chairs were big and comfy and they all had either a counter or a table in front. The servers took our orders and we got our food right as the movie was starting. The servers came and went during the movie but it wasn't really that distracting. What was distracting was the giant green line that kept showing up down the middle of the screen! For a movie that is less than a week old, I definitely expect the print to be in better shape than that! I complained to a server who said she'd talk to the manager. She really must have followed through, because not long after that the manager came through with free movie tickets for everyone to compensate for the poor screen quality. That was definitely the right thing for them to do!

We had one minor disaster--when we left, Maren and the babysitter were outside in the backyard. I opened the sliding glass door to say goodbye and then as I shut it I must have locked it out of habit! We left on our merry way and had just sat down in our seats at the theater when my neighbor called to tell us what was happening. The babysitter had gone over to their house when she found the doors locked and luckily her 8-year-old son was home. They have one of our spare keys for just such an occasion but since the new Maren-proof sliding lock at the top of the front door was engaged, they couldn't get in! The garage keypad doesn't work right now because it needs to be reprogrammed, so the neighbor called his mom, and she in turn called us. Luckily, the theater is only about 10 minutes away and so I rushed home and opened the door for them. Also luckily we had been really early to the theater so I was back before the movie even started. I was so embarrassed, and it does give me the impetus to get that garage keypad reprogrammed NOW!

I promised yard sale goodies, but I think I'll post them tomorrow so I can tell you more about the yard sale where I found them. What I do have for you are a couple of thrifted items from a while ago and some stuff that my mom found for me.

First is a set of vintage curtain valances with the most charming print! They are covered with tulips, windmills and little Dutch girls, all in red and yellow and gray. There are four panels and for valances they are quite long. I think they're handmade because the stitching is a little wonky on one of them but they are lined and the fabric is in really great shape. They are SO cute and I love them so much I want to string a ribbon through the casing and wear them as a skirt! If I really wanted to hang them I'd have to cut a bunch off the bottom and re-hem and I'm just not brave enough to do that right now.

This is a really sweet vintage cardigan. It is cream-colored wool and is lined so that it won't be scratchy. It is covered front and back with these beautiful embroidered roses in pink and yellow and it has pearl buttons all up the front. There is a tiny moth hole and some of the buttons need to be resewn but I thought it would be fun to wear this winter. I need some funky jewelry and boots or something so I don't look like too much of an old lady, though! I may have to get some fashion advice from Miss Jungle Dream Pagoda! She always knows what to do. :)

And one last photo for today, of the old windows I bought a few weekends ago. They're still sitting in the garage, all dirty and covered with spiderwebs, so I need to get them out and hose them off. If you look close you can see all the old chippy paint and the cool hardware up on the top. My grand plan is to hang these by chains from the ceiling but I'm going to need some engineering help to make it work so it may be a little while before that happens. I've got plenty to keep me busy in the meantime!

The Goblet of Fire has spoken #3

Wow! I am just tickled to death with the response the pie giveaway has gotten. I think that's a record number of comments for me! Many of you were first-time commenters and I had such fun going to visit your blogs. I do hope you'll stick around, I'd love to have you!

So, on to the winner. I put everybody's names into the Goblet of Fire (it is so convenient to have one's own Goblet handy) and had DH draw a winner:



Congratulations, Preppy Pink Crocodile! You are the winner of the fabulous pie giveaway. Email me your address to fraulein_h AT hotmail DOT com and a package of fun goodies will be on its way to you shortly. Do go visit Miss Crocodile's blog and see the super cute bag she made with grosgrain ribbon ruffles all over the sides--it's to die for! And again, thank you all so much for participating and commenting about your favorite pies!

Speaking of the Goblet of Fire, we're in full-on Harry Potter nerd-out mode around here. DH and I have a hot date tonight to go see the Order of the Phoenix movie at a new theater called the Movie Tavern. It's one of those combination theater/restaurant joints so we can do dinner and a show at the same time. Bonus: the nearest Baskin Robbins is right across the street, so I've got my fingers crossed for a scoop of Blue-Ribbon chocolate on a sugar cone after the movie is over.

Back tomorrow with yardsale goodies to share!

It's High Time for Pie Time!

I promised a giveaway, and a giveaway we shall have! Last October I entered a pie baking contest at my church and I won! I actually won both first and third place with the two pies I brought: Pumpkin Apple and Lemon Pecan. Both of the winning recipes came from a book I was reading at the time called American Pie, which I bought at a thrift last summer for 25¢. The book is all about the author's road trip across America in search of the perfect pie. It's a fun and entertaining read and includes a ton of great (prize-winning, apparently!) pie recipes as well. Unless it's contest time, I'm more of a cookie and cake girl myself, so I'd like to pass this on to someone else. I figure summer's a great time for pies, with all the beautiful fresh fruit and the outdoor gatherings and all.

So here's the giveaway: my copy of American Pie, a brand new Pampered Chef Slice n' Serve pie server, a cool vintage apron (to keep you clean when you bake your own prize-winning pie) and some other fun surprises to help you in your pie-making endeavors. If you want in on the action, just leave a comment on this post between now and 10 p.m. Sunday night. I'll put the names in the ol' Goblet of Fire and on Monday I'll draw the winner!

Birds of a Feather

Hello again, everybody! I know I did a little drop-off-the-face-of-the-earth maneuver there, didn't I? We went out of town for 11 days to visit family, spend the holiday and attend a funeral. I fully intended to keep up my blogging while I was gone, even going so far as to take along a CD full of pictures so I'd have photos to accompany my entries, but somehow I just never got around to it. I'm glad to be back!

I came home on Sunday night to find a surprise in the mail from the lovely Shara! It was a wonderful "just because" package of goodies with a birdie theme. I wish I had taken a picture of the way it was wrapped with blue feathers and all, but I was so curious to see what was inside that I forgot the camera.

The first things I pulled out of the box were a vintage 1950s bird identification book that has awesome illustrations, a piece of old bird wrapping paper, and a darling vintage birdie greeting card. Under that was this very cool box that is shaped like a book that Shara embellished with vintage Scrabble tiles. Nestled inside was a set of four darling vintage glass tea bag holders painted with little birdcages and the most beautiful Leo Ward "Bluebird of Happiness". Shara has a whole collection of the glass birds, which are made at studios near her home in Arkansas. I mentioned once to her that I had looked for one of these birds but haven't found any yet, so the little note she included said that NOW I have one! I absolutely adore him and I'm going to put him in my kitchen windowsill so the sunlight will shine through him in the mornings. Shara sent me one other thing that I forgot to photograph: a piece of vintage sheet music of a song from "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Shara thought it might go along with my patriotic decorations and she is right! It looks just perfect. Thanks, Shara! I love it all. :)

I'm thinking that it's about time for another giveaway--more info to come soon!

Final cake & weekend thrifty scores

Here it is: the final cake for my Course I cake decorating class. I fully intended to practice my roses all week before class...pretty obvious that I didn't, right? LOL I had frosting consistency issues once again, which is why my roses are all ruffled and cracked along the edges instead of nice and smooth like they should be. I have no idea what I did wrong as I followed the frosting recipe exactly, but what I do know is that I will never be using that nasty Crisco recipe ever again; it's real buttercream or nothing from now on. I went through an entire large can of Crisco to make the frosting for my three class cakes. If that doesn't give you the dry heaves, then I don't know what will. ick. Course II makes all different flowers with royal icing and I'd like to do that one someday too. For now I'll just keep practicing the roses.

I had a great day yardsaling on Saturday. I hit good sales early so it didn't take me long to spend my $20 limit. I only went to three big church sales and one regular garage sale but I found great stuff! The first church sale netted me three old Martha mags and three old Cooking Light mags for a dime apiece. I've wanted A Patriot's Handbook ever since it came out when I worked at the bookstore but even with my 30% discount it was still too expensive. This one was a buck! The other two books were 50¢ each: an old Things to Make and Do book and a children's cowboy novel, both from the 1950s. The cowboy book is for a friend who's doing her son's nursery in a vintage cowboy theme. The orange envelope is a souvenir copy of the Declaration of Independence (for my 4th of July decor) and it was a quarter.

These were from church sales as well. The star-shaped brooch was 50¢ and is the start of a stash of pretties to take to Silver Bella. The blue flowers are a pair vintage clip earrings and were $3.oo: those will go in the Silver Bella pile as well (incidentally, I tried them on and they are huge as earrings. They almost cover up my entire ear!) The little vintage Christmas figures were a dime each. The Mexican silver bead necklace is sterling and was a steal for $1.00--I polished it up and added the labradorite and garnet pendant. It's all sitting on a very vintage piece of Tupperware--it's marked 1954! It's a great big container, the kind that are perfect for holding cookies or rolls or caramel popcorn.


These sconces were also from a church sale, $5.00 for the pair. Okay, now I will admit that in their current state they are 100% tacky. However, I think that if I gave them a coat of white or cream spray paint and added pretty candles then they'd go from tres tacky to shabby chic! If nothing else, I could strip off all the chandelier crystals to use elsewhere and I'd still come out ahead. On closer inspection, I realized that the crystals hanging on the sconces are actually made of plastic but unless you look close and find the seam, you'd never know. In addition, the box held several real glass crystals and a bag of four glass crystal chains that I can use elsewhere.

This very fabulous vintage mold came from the only yard sale of the day. I hate to admit it but I might have earned myself some bad future yardsale karma with this little gem. I spotted it on the table and grabbed it, just as I heard two ladies just over my shoulder say "and that too" pointing at the pan. Literally, this all happened at the exact same time and I heard them kind of gasp and laugh when I picked it up right from under their noses. So I just pretended that I didn't hear them and walked over and paid for it immediately! Bad, I know! I look for this pattern everywhere (I have a muffin tin and a heart cake pan in the same style and am dying to find more) and this one was only 50¢. Someday I'll be paying for that bad karma, I'm sure.

At this same house I bought three old windows, but I don't have a photo yet. They were the amazing price of $3.00 each (old windows at the salvage store start at about $20) and the lady who sold them to me said they came from the garage of a 100-year-old house downtown that was being torn down. They're not paned, just one solid piece of glass and a frame around the edge but they do have the original hardware and old chippy white paint. I had to giggle as I found myself carefully choosing the windows that showed the most wear! Usually I'm trying to find the best specimens, not the junkiest. They need a good washing: I'm all for shabby but dead bugs, dirt and spiderwebs are taking things a bit too far. I'll photograph them then when they're all clean. They were my big score for the day!

If you want to see more bloggers' junk scores for the weekend, check out Sarah, Lucy and Andy--they all found great stuff!

Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue!

I love to decorate for the Fourth of July. LOVE it, I tell you. I love it so much that my family room is done in Americana all year round: the walls are navy blue, we have this print hanging on the wall and above it I have a vinyl lettering phrase that reads "God Bless America." I have a wreath with rusty stars and flag pillows and I just love it! In June I get out the rest of my patriotic decor in time for Flag Day and I leave it up until the end of July so I can enjoy it for a while. Because I've had so much fun decorating, I thought I'd post a few of my favorite red, white, and blue things this year:

**I'm running out of time, but still hoping that maybe I can get some of the projects in the July Country Living done before we leave to go out town on Thursday. It's a tall order, we'll see. I really love those rosettes and I've already bought all the crepe paper so I need to get crackin'!

**We all know that I love cupcakes, but festive and patriotic cupcakes are even better! Look at these cuties here and here from the Wilton website. The first one with the fireworks looks tricky with that fancy tip but the second one using a star tip probably isn't as difficult.

**These red, white and blue candies from Hammond's are making my heart go pitter-pat! I think I may need to make a quick drive up tomorrow morning to check them out in person. Isn't the flag ribbon candy neat? And those great big round lollipops--wouldn't they look great displayed with a big red ribbon on the sticks? I want it all. Bad.

This cute pillow by Bethany Lowe Designs. Heck, I love her whole July 4th line. There's also a matching table runner.

**This last one isn't exactly red, white and blue but I think it goes along with the theme. For an upcoming church activity I'm in charge of coordinating donations for care packages to be sent to deployed military service members. I went to AnySoldier.com to compile my list of requested items and was very touched by the simple requests that so many of the soldiers & Marines have made, and their responses telling just how grateful they are for the packages that they have received. I think I'm going to make a personal goal to send one package per month to someone on the list. We have friends who are deployed and I know we need to be better about sending some mail love to them too. I encourage all of you to think about putting together a care package for a soldier in honor of July 4th--it doesn't take much to stuff a Flat Rate Priority box good and full, and I know that it would be appreciated!

And now off to bed! I've got to get up bright and early for my field trip to Hammond's. :)

I buy old people's junk

I said I'd be back on Wednesday with photos, and I lied. Sorry about that! Here are the promised photos of the junk I bought at 2 estate sales and a VFW garage sale last weekend.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but this stack of embroidery pattern transfers actually filled a plastic grocery sack: a huge amount of both the packaged Aunt Martha patterns and also pages and pages of hand-traced patterns. If you click on the photo to enlarge you can see my two favorites: the scottie dogs and the adorable little mermaids! Okay, I have got to learn to embroider so I can use these cuties! I bought a kit to get started, oh, about 2 summers ago and haven't touched it. Once I go through all the patterns and organize them back into their envelopes I'll probably keep some and sell the rest because there are many that just aren't my style. I was quoted $5 for the whole pile but I think the lady overcharged me when she rang me up. Oh well, I don't mind giving a couple more bucks to the VFW.

At that sale I also bought a gorgeous vintage linen pillowcase for 25¢. It has hand-crocheted lace along the bottom as is monogrammed with an M--perfect for a pillowcase dress for Miss Maren! I also picked up four little Gurley caroler candles, which I couldn't find when I was doing the photos. Seriously, I have no idea where they went. That is not a good commentary on the status of my eBay/yardsale junk pile.

On my way home from the grocery store on Saturday I saw a sign for an estate sale just a few blocks from my house. Of course I had to visit, even though I had frozen shrimp and frozen sausage in the car and it was about 90 degrees outside. It was pretty awesome. The seller was getting rid of her mother-in-law's things and she had them priced to move. Clothing was 25¢, books were 10¢--that's cheaper than any garage sale I've been to, let alone normal estate sale prices! I wish now that I had just loaded up the books and taken them to the used book store for credit. I'll remember that in the future.

The woman who owned these things had been a nurse in the Army and had served in Korea during the war, finally retiring as a Lt. Col. She had several nurses' capes for sale, so I bought one, which is the background of the picture here. I couldn't pass up the apron made of vintage hankies and the buckles on the bottom right are from a huge bag of old shoe clips. I went through and picked out a few that I wanted and the rest will get donated. The floral thing on the top--well, I'm not sure exactly what it is but I think it was 25¢. It is made on pink velvet ribbon and the pink & green things sort of look like old silk flowers, but not quite. It looks like maybe something you'd wear on your head? Anyway, it is pretty and foofy and shabby and that was enough for me!

The vintage Santa is about 12" tall, I couldn't pass up the crocheted bloomers potholder, and I bought several bags of vintage ribbons that need to be ironed. While the nurse was in Asia she had many of her clothes custom-made. I bought a couple of like-new day dresses hoping they'd fit me but the lady was a bit thicker in the waist than I am so they will get donated. I also bought 2 frilly vintage nighties (for display, not to wear) and the most gorgeous formal satin dress. There was a huge pile of vintage gloves but I didn't buy any--couldn't think what to do with them and I don't think they're huge sellers on eBay unless they're very unusual.




And finally, I bought three pairs of vintage shoes and a huge stack of unused stockings (total price for all: $1.00). You can't tell from the photo but these are actually platform shoes! The ones on the left are sort of suede-like and the ones on the right are faux croc or something reptilian. The ones on the left are from Saks Fifth Avenue and one of the shoes had a crumpled piece of newspaper stuffed in the toe. The date? March 3, 1950! This woman had some tiny feet, because both of these are size 6 1/2, aaa width. Yikes. The other pair are newer, but they are Neiman Marcus and once I get them cleaned up a little, all are going up for sale on eBay. The shoes are resting on the satin dress I mentioned before; it's the most beautiful seafoam green and I can tell it was made to order. Like the shoes, it's tiny. One of these days I'll steam it to get all the wrinkles out and try to get a better photo so you can see how elaborate it is. Oh, how I wish it fit me! It's just gorgeous. I also bought several old toys and stuffed animals that are destined for eBay. In all, I spent $6.50 at that sale and had so much stuff that the seller's kid had to help me carry it all to my car!

At the other estate sale I bought a vintage Spirograph game for $1 (resale), a Teletubbies coloring book for Maren ($1) a big bag full of assorted crapola for $2, and an old set of Wilton cake decorating tips in a little case ($1). There are a couple of church sales I'm hoping to hit tomorrow morning. Quin will be gone all weekend for work so I'll have Maren in tow. If you're headed out for some yard saling this weekend, I wish you good luck and Good Junk!

Cooking like crazy

Here we go: Cake #2 from my decorating class. This week we did drop flowers and scary clowns. I found the drop flowers to be harder than they look to execute correctly. Mine look nothing like the little practice sheets we were using! I think my frosting consistency had something to do with it, as the edges of all my flower petals look like they were nibbled on by aphids, rather than being all smooth and even like they are supposed to look. My frosting issues also caused my roses to look like old heritage roses with ruffly edges instead of the kind you get by the dozen from the florist. Oh well, I'll fiddle with my frosting and keep practicing. I really love how the roses look and I'm determined to get them right!

I did a lot of baking and cooking this last weekend, with varying degrees of success and failure. I hosted a baby shower at my home on Saturday morning so Friday I made 4 dozen chocolate cupcakes and 4 batches of buttercream frosting to top them, along with a double batch of pasta salad. Then on Sunday afternoon I made my first cake for my decorating class. I say 'first' because the one you see above is actually the second. I made the fatal error of letting the cakes cool in the pan, and even though I'd greased and floured the pans well, the cakes fell to pieces when I tried to turn them out.

What's more, just before I tried unsuccessfully to turn those cakes out I had actually whipped up a quick chocolate snack cake and put it in the oven to bake. My plan was to crumble that chocolate cake up with some chocolate pudding, whipped cream and raspberries and make a trifle for Father's Day dessert. I don't know where I went wrong, but that cake was a complete disaster--it fell horribly and looked like someone knelt right in the middle of it! That brought my cake disaster count to (2) for the evening. I was able to salvage the first crumbled class cake (a white cake mix) and use it in the trifle instead, which actually worked out really well, although I didn't have any instant chocolate pudding mix so I had to use cook n' serve instead and I wasn't paying attention and scorched the bottom. At the same time as I was doing all this I was trying to make mashed potatoes for dinner while Quin grilled the steaks.

Dinner and dessert turned out to be great, but when that was over I had a total disaster of dirty dishes in the kitchen, I was tired, and I still had to make my cake for class and 2 batches of nasty Crisco frosting and dye it all the appropriate colors for decorating my cake. It was past 10:00 pm by the time I got it all done and I was absolutely exhausted. It's probably no surprise that for dinner last night we had leftovers--I needed a break!

I hit a couple of estate sales this weekend and one VFW garage sale and found some fun goodies to show you once I get them photographed. Right now, I'm off for a little nap while Maren sleeps. We went to a Colorado Crush arena football game last night and didn't get home until well after 11:00 pm, which is way past our normal bedtime! Back with thrifty photos tomorrow!

Happy Flag Day!

Apron love

At Friday's church sale I nearly scored a Triple Crown (vintage Pyrex, apron and tablecloth). I found the vintage Pyrex (pink with white daisies), apron and lost out when it came to the vintage tablecloth. I did however find a printed vintage dishtowel (at the top of the photo) so maybe instead of a Triple Crown I got more like a Two-and-a-Half Crown? Two-and-a-Quarter?

Anyway, back to the apron. As I was walking down the aisle toward the linens at the sale I passed a woman who was also pushing a stroller. I glimpsed a blue and white gingham chicken scratch apron draped over the handle and inwardly groaned. Now, I don't normally pick up chicken scratch aprons (although I think they'd make an awesome collection) but I hated knowing that someone had beaten me to it! It all worked out though because I found a much cuter apron buried in the piles of linens on the table. I don't think it's vintage, but it's so well-made that I couldn't pass it up! It's a sewing apron and all across the bottom are these hand-embroidered images on pockets (click to make it bigger):

Darling, right? You would have bought it too, I know. The apron also has long bias tape ties sewn to the waistband, which I think is for tying onto the handle of your scissors before you tuck them into the pocket. Cute and clever!

I also picked up a few other aprons a couple of weeks ago at a garage sale. It was being held partly by an older woman and she said the aprons belonged to either her or her mother. They were all starched to within an inch of their lives and folded neatly. She was asking between 50¢ and $1 for most of them which is a total steal but I only bought a few, as I'm trying to be more selective as my collection grows. Here is my poorly-executed attempt at a photomerge so you can see all three at once:

On the left is a fab vintage Christmas apron. There are even pockets cut into the shape of the ornaments at the bottom. The one in the middle has nice appliqué work (the flowers in the middle all have French knot centers as well) and I love how it looks like a wrap skirt! On the right is a detail from the last apron. It is a bib apron in pale yellow trimmed with orange rickrack and it has these gorgeous pansies embroidered all over. Such a lot of beautiful work that I had to bring it home with me!

Now all I need is a beautiful antique dress form to show off my aprons. My birthday IS coming up, you know..... :)

Eyebrows, rainbows and yo-yos

"They're only eyebrows, right? Eyebrows grow back....eventually. Everybody loves the Mona Lisa, and SHE doesn't have any eyebrows."

Those are the thoughts ran through my head repeatedly last night as I was laying on a table, being pecked to death by a persistent bird with a razor-like beak. All right, not so much a bird as an aesthetician with a pair of really sharp tweezers, but it did feel like I was the victim of an an angry woodpecker attack. I can't believe I actually paid someone good money to do that to me! Normally I just pluck my eyebrows on my own but I've been wanting them to have a more pronounced arch and I thought it might be better to have a professional do that for me, lest I slip and poke out my eye or pluck all my eyebrows off or something. I will grudgingly admit that I do like the arch better now, although I have considerably fewer eyebrows than I did yesterday at this time. I think I'll be maintaining them myself from now on, though. I'm just not willing to go through that again. Labor and childbirth--yes; eyebrow tweezing--no. Right-o.

I had my second cake decorating class yesterday, and made my first fancy cake. Our first technique was learning to use the star tip to make stars and other squiggles. Wilton makes a tip that actually has 3 stars in one, which saves you time but takes a little maneuvering to get the stars close together without any space showing. That's definitely something I need to work on but I think with a little practice it shouldn't be too difficult. We also experimented with writing tips and making Swiss dots, which were more difficult. I purposely made a boring yellow boxed cake because I knew the frosting would be yucky, and I didn't want to waste good cake on mediocre frosting. We each had a piece when I came home yesterday and now the rest is going straight into the trash. Wasting cake pains my sweet-loving soul, but I'd rather use my calories on something that doesn't taste like cardboard. On tap for next week: scary clowns and drop flowers. Whee!


On Friday morning I packed up Maren and went downtown for a church rummage sale I'd seen advertised. It was run by little old church ladies and had a darn good amount of stuff at very reasonable prices. Now I see why the folks on Yardsalequeen rave about church sales all the time! I picked up a bag full of stuff most of which is for resale. After the church sale I drove around the area to hit a few more yard sales and found these in a bag for $1. These are circles of fabric that are already cut for making yo-yos. I've wanted to learn to make yo-yos for a while, and now the hardest part has been done for me! Cute fabrics, maybe vintage? Not sure, but there are probably a couple of hundred all together, enough for me to decide that making yo-yos is a tedious waste of time after all, LOL. There was also a baggie full of old yo-yos but they have what I can delicately call a "condition problem," meaning: they are full of dead bug carcasses. ICK. The skeeve factor is pretty high but I might be able to get over it and clean them very, very thoroughly. We'll see.

And I'll leave you with a photo from the 15 minutes we were at the pool yesterday, before the rain and lightening forced us out! See you tomorow!

Obsession

Fire-King Red Dot Bowl:


Pyrex New Dot bowl:


My new skirt:

Coincidence? Nope.