I'm going to call this, "A Beautiful Mess"
It may be a disaster but somehow it bothers me far less than the other messes around my house at the moment. :)
Lots of goodies to keep and lots more to put in my etsy shop!
I saw a gumdrop wreath in a Martha mag years ago and have always wanted to make one, but never got around to it.
Until this year, that is! I decided that it would be the perfect festive activity for Maren to help with, so even though the Thanksgiving decorations still sat in a pile on my table, I set out to make a gumdrop wreath. After looking at two stores with no luck, I happened upon big bags of gumdrops at JoAnn's, of all places! I didn't even think to look there but as I was buying my wreath form, I found bags of candy near the cash registers. Not only did I save myself a trip to another store, I was able to use my 40% off coupons for them as well! It worked out perfectly.
I applied mine in a CPR fashion--CPR in this case standing for Carefully Placed Random. I didn't want to think about it too hard but I also wanted a fairly even distribution of colors. I just fit my gumdrops together like bricks. If you look at Cheryl's photos, it looks like she did one wreath that way and one where they are placed in more orderly rings. I still need to spray my wreath and add a little bit of glitter, and once I decide where to hang it I'll add a nice wide RED grosgrain ribbon to the top.
Today's RED item would also fit for Vintage Christmas Monday. Oh heck, most of what I post this month would probably fall under that category! I found this guy a few weeks ago at the thrift. I bought him to sell, but as it seems to happen all too often, I think I like him too much to let him go.
I'm not usually one for figurines (aka dust collectors), but come on--isn't he darling? I love the spaghetti 'fur' trim.
It's so rare to find something like this at the thrift and have it be intact, but he's perfect--not even any chipping on the spaghetti trim! I think I need to find some candy canes or barber poles to fill his sack.
Yum. Makes me want to put my shoes on and run to the thrift store again! Thrift store treasure hunting is like gambling--usually you lose but sometimes you win, and those wins make it all worth it!
And these were found at my new favorite vintage store in town, Pink Attic Cat:
More toadstool ornaments for my collection (are those Smurf houses?) and a fun little green mylar spray that wants to be a Christmas corsage.
I've said it before, but these bits & pieces collages are SO much fun to make. I love having a way to use up all the precious little treasures I've collected, and a 3"x3" square is a whole lot less intimidating to fill, even if there are a dozen of them to do. I think this is my 5th bits & pieces collage, and it certainly won't be my last.
Heidi Heidi Heidi YOU WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS! Please email me all your info so I can get her on her way to ya! YAY!
that my visiting mother-in-law actually came running to see what was the matter with me! Oh my gosh, I am SO excited! Jen's work is completely gorgeous and original and I simply cannot wait to see it in person, sitting on my table where I can look at it and examine each little detail and drink in the vintage Christmas goodness all December long. :) Thanks again, Jen!
I'm a little late so I don't have a post for yesterday but I'll be joining in next Monday for sure. It's the most wonderful time of the year at the thrifts, you know, and I've already been hitting them hard, scouring the racks for the vintage holiday goodies that I love so much. I'll also be stocking my etsy shop over the coming days with the few finds I can bear to part with. :) Back tomorrow with pictures of what kept me busy this weekend.
I saw an ad for the Zoku in a magazine and was intrigued. It's currently exclusive to Williams-Sonoma and on their website there's a great video that shows the Zoku in action. Basically, it's a popsicle maker that needs no electricity or freezing time--amazing, right? The mold unit is made of aluminum and has a liquid inside that gets extremely cold (much like the bowl of an ice cream freezer, I'm guessing). You store it in the freezer and when you want to make ice pops, you simply put in the plastic sticks, pour in your liquid and the pops will freeze in 7-15 minutes! It's kind of like magic, although I'm guessing to a kid that would be the longest seven minutes EVER. There is a tool provided to loosen the pops so you can remove them from the mold, and then you can use it again twice before it needs to go back into the freezer.
And my trusty assistant helped me choose the winner 
She even wore pink for the occasion! And the winner is:
is this lamp. (Man, that's a lousy picture--it's hard to take a picture of a clear glass object!) I bought this lamp during a pre-Halloween thrift run for $1.99. It stayed in a bag under my desk for a few days until I realized in my Halloween party house-cleaning frenzy that I needed more light in a particular room, and remembered my "new" lamp. I plopped it on a table, swiped a shade from another lamp and turned it on--I confess I didn't even clean the dust off first!
Last November on our girls' weekend trip to Phoenix, I purchased the wee pink squash on the left. It's teeny and made of the most beautiful rose-colored velvet. I loved it so much that even though it's a pumpkin it has stayed on my desk for the past year, where I could admire it's soft pink sweetness. When I found out that Kim from Olive Juice & Company was selling kits on her blog for her "Posh Squash" you better believe that I hopped over there in a hurry and ordered! I received the kit back before Halloween but just haven't had the time to get them made until now.
There's a Martha Stewart pink tissue paper pom-pom kit, a cute little metallic pink bag with two bottles of OPI nail polish, a wee pink office set with a stapler and other office tools, a pack of fun pink playing cards and a pink felt chandelier.
Head over to Sweet Goodness Swaps to check it out and get info on how to sign up!
See what I mean? Seriously. That's some vintage Christmas goodness, right there. And she's having a giveaway, so go enter!
Not technically thrifted (found at a little artsy/vintage store instead) but it was thrift-store priced so it had to come home with me!
Little Red Riding Hood & Robert E. Lee, 
Curious George & the Man in the Yellow Hat, 
Hester Prynne & Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter, 
the Evil Queen from Snow White & her poisoned apple, 
Where's Waldo & Wanda, 
Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & Mother Goose, 
two characters from a Terry Pratchett series, and not pictured is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
The Mister is dressed as Greg Mortenson from Three Cups of Tea (he's missing his tea cup), and I'm Waldo. With all the books out there, what are the chances that we'd have two Waldos? My first idea was to be Nancy Drew, but I didn't come up with that plan until Tuesday morning and I knew with the impending snowstorm that I wouldn't be able to put together a costume in time, so I went with Waldo instead--I already had the striped shirt in my closet. The party was fun and I'm so glad everyone came and dressed up!
I will fully admit that dressing up as the characters from Alice in Wonderland is something I've wanted to do for years, but I'm brunette and I never could convince anyone to be Alice to my Queen of Hearts. I think this may have been the last year that I could suggest to Maren what she was going to dress as, so I had to take advantage of it and make her be my Alice! Originally I purchased a pattern at a thrift and was going to sew her an Alice dress myself. That brilliant idea lasted about five minutes, until I remembered that I don't sew, especially when putting in gathered sleeves and a zipper are involved. Thank goodness for eBay and the Disney store.
I couldn't decide if I wanted Porter to be the White Rabbit or the Cheshire Cat. It would likely have been easier to find him a ready-made bunny costume, but I have a thing for the Cheshire Cat so that won. I had to get creative for this one, as they don't sell a ready-made C.C. costume for infants. Instead I bought a pink kitty cat costume (thanks again, eBay) and a roll of purple duct tape from the craft store and I made my own stripes!
Okay, so it's not perfect but you get the idea, right? And at least he was warm!
The Mister and I whipped our costumes together pretty much at the last minute. I had planned to be the Queen of Hearts and borrowed the foofy red dress from a friend. I used a tiara from Maren's 2008 costume and a red sequined heart from my craft stash for the crown and made a heart scepter with Maren's fairy princess wand, red cardstock and red glass glitter. I wore a black wig and made the white collar out of white posterboard that The Mister taped to the inside of my shirt collar as we were walking out the door.
My cute new ballet flats that I purchased on clearance at Wal-Mart (of all places) for $7.00, worn with the top that I just got on clearance at Ann Taylor LOFT for $4.88. Woo-hoo!
One of my favorite and most versatile Halloween decorations is my black feather wreath. I bought it several years ago on post-Halloween clearance at Target after wanting one for several years but being too cheap to pay full price. You can make your own feather wreath a la Eddie Ross--but mine was cheaper and I didn't have to clean up feathers afterward! 
