Weekend Junk Finds: It's a Wonderful Life Houses

Today's junk finds were actually bought on a weekend back in 2011, right before Christmas, but I never posted them then. I literally bought them on Christmas Eve last year, which was a Saturday. So technically they are Weekend Junk Finds, just not from a recent weekend.

Literally two days before I had read about the It's a Wonderful Life village houses on one of my favorite blogs, 320 Sycamore. Because it was Christmas Eve, all of the Christmas stuff at the thrift store was 50% off.  I first noticed one house, and then another. And then even though I'd already walked through all of the Christmas aisles, I headed down them again and found three more houses!

Then I packed them away in my crazy vintage Christmas closet (remind me to show you that mess sometime) until this year. I had hoped to get them listed on eBay before Thanksgiving but that didn't happen. I didn't get them listed until December 2.

 This morning when I woke up I got the notification that the last one sold! Woo-hoo!!

Just wanted to let you know so that while you're trolling the thrifts this year in search of vintage Christmas goodies--keep an eye out for these! They're not really the style I'm looking for and I don't have room in my house for a village, so I've probably walked right by them in the past. It was only Melissa's post that clued me in and you can bet I'll be on the lookout for them in the future!

I've linked up with the Nifty Thrifty at A Living Space and Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage Christmas Loot

 Blurry photo, sorry--it was taken with my phone and looked fine on the little screen. This represents the fruits of my Black Friday shopping. When you're in a tiny town where the only major store is Wal-Mart, you have to get creative. I hit the local thrift stores and turned up these. I'd rather have a pile of pink vintage Shiny Brites than a $79 flat screen TV any day!

The beautifully tarnished vintage glass glitter on this sleigh stuck out like a shining beacon on a thrift store shelf full of ugly figurines (one of those seasonal eye exams Barbara is talking about). It's a fun piece--it's marked Japan on the bottom but the fun thing is that the sleigh itself collapses almost flat! The flat part in the middle is actually two pieces connected with elastic string. They can be folded together, pushing up and making the glittered sides of the sleigh come together. Very handy for storage!

Why, oh why did the fashion of wearing a festive Christmas corsage pinned to your winter coat die away? Who's up for helping me to bring it back? My collection is getting to the point where I could wear a different one every day for the whole month.

 And one last small-town thrift store find. I saw this rubber-face Santa on my way out the door, after we had already paid. He was on the floor and I walked right by him the first time. I wasn't sure if I ought to spring for him, so I took the Phone-A-Friend option. Actually, I texted the owner of another rubber-faced Santa, who said she'd buy him.

I'm pretty sure I knew that would be her answer before I even hit "Send". I went back for him and I'm pretty glad she talked me into it. ;) My Santa is 24" tall with a rubber face, gloves, and boots. He's not in perfect condition by any means: there's a chunk out of the back of his peplum (the belt is cleverly attached to the peplum, to give him the appearance of wearing a separate coat and pants), there are marks on the rubber and some paint loss on his face and hair, and the tip of his hat seems to be covered in a glob of melted candle wax. I like him more and more every day! There are some faint markings on his gloves but I can't read them so I don't know anything about his manufacturer. Does he look familiar to any of you?

We dragged the Christmas tree up from the basement yesterday so that I can spend the week getting things decorated. I must admit that right now, the thought of having to haul out all of the boxes and bins, make a gigantic mess figuring out where to put everything, and then stow all the boxes again has me feeling completely overwhelmed. I have two events this weekend, and I have some other projects going on as well, all with top priority so I'm starting out the month already feeling completely stressed out. I think by a week from now I'll be feeling much better but for now I'm already feeling the holiday crunch.
What's your best tip for dealing with holiday stress?

Vintage Christmas Math

MINUS

EQUALS

Now that's my kind of math homework!

Product Review: Carbona Silver Wipes

A few months ago, I applied to test and review a new product made by Carbona: Silver Wipes. I have used Carbona products before in my laundry and been very happy with them. Once, The Mister left a pen in his uniform pocket, which I unknowingly sent through the washing machine with predictably disastrous results. I scrubbed the spots with Carbona Stain Wizard Wipes and was able to get nearly all of the set-in ink out!

When I saw that Carbona now makes Silver polishing wipes, I thought would be a great product for all of us thrifters and junkers that love to buy vintage silver and silverplate treasures.

When I saw this cute little tarnished Revere creamer, I knew it would be the perfect test subject for my Carbona Silver Wipes! This is the Before picture so you can see the tarnish.

And here is the After--it looks so pretty and shiny now! The Carbona Silver Wipes were very easy to use. I normally use cream silver polish and it tends to have a very strong, stinky chemical odor, but I didn't notice any odor with the Carbona Wipes. I only had to use one wipe for this small creamer, but I imagine that depending on the size of your piece and the severity of the tarnish, you might need to use more than one. They're very inexpensive though, so that's not a problem.

One thing I thought was interesting--although the product is called Silver Wipes, you can use them on other metals such as brass, pewter and copper. I've been on the lookout for brass items to resell in my Etsy shop so I'm eager to give the Silver Wipes a try when I find a great brass piece!

Overall, I'm happy with the Silver Wipes and would recommend them. Polishing silver isn't my favorite job but these definitely make the task easier!

(I was provided with the Carbona Silver Wipes to review but the opinions are strictly my own!)

Reproduction Gurley candles

Gurley figural holiday candles are one of my favorite little things to find while thrifting. I haven't managed to find many but I love the ones I have managed to turn up. (check out today's Gurley haul from the Thrifter Sisters!) Two of my most prized specimens are the little boy and girl pilgrims that I have displayed right now on my blue dresser.

This photo is from 2011 but you can see them up there in the right hand corner. Here's a close-up:

So imagine my surprise when I found these at a local gift shop this weekend:

Wait a second! The colors are slightly different, but otherwise they look exactly like my vintage Gurley pilgrims! I've never been lucky enough to find any Gurley Indians, but I'm guessing that they look an awful lot like this pair.

And then at yet another store, I found these:

I'm pretty sure in my Christmas junk I have a couple of Gurley Santas just like this one. And there were these, too:

Now I know I have a whole bunch of Gurley choirboys that look just like this!

So it would appear to me that this Two's Company has purchased the original Gurley molds and is making reproductions or something. Strangely, nothing on the box said anything about them being reproductions of vintage candle designs. The Pilgrims & Indians were priced at $10 for the set and the Christmas candles were $16 at a different store. It makes me wonder if they had any Halloween versions? Have you seen these? What do you think?

Elf on the Shelf

Hello! Today's normally-scheduled Weekend Junk Finds post has been postponed. Oh, there were plenty of junk finds all right--but I haven't had time to photograph them all and the fact that it now gets dark by 4:30 pm certainly isn't helping matters. Instead, I want to talk about the Elf.

The Elf on the Shelf, that is. I think I'm going to try it out this year with my kids. Pinterest made me do it!
I've heard of it for a few years now but when I saw all of the clever and funny Elf posing ideas that people Pinned last year, I got sucked in. I even started my own Elf Hijinks Pinboard last year to collect ideas for the future. I'm not sure who will be more amused by it--the 7-year-old and 3-year-old, or the 34-year-old.

I hate having to pay $30 for the book and elf set, though. Yes, I'm cheap. But seriously--that's ridiculously expensive IMO, and as far as I can tell it never goes on sale anywhere. I've been watching.

Which is why I would LOVE to win this really FANTASTIC Elf on the Shelf giveaway over at See Jane Blog. She's put together a package including the book & elf, and also 25 days' worth of silly things to do with your elf. Go check it out! If nothing else, because she includes 25 really fun ideas for what you can do with your own elf, even if you don't win.

The Denver Ugly Sweater Run

I signed up The Mister and myself for this:

Image source: http://theuglysweaterrun.com/

The Denver Ugly Sweater Run 5K! Hilarious, right? A few of our friends signed up as well and I'm going to do my best talk everyone I know into doing it with us, because I definitely think this will be one of those "the more, the merrier" type of occasions!

Even though I did a triathlon back in September and can technically run a 5K (albeit slowly), a race with aid stations that consist of sledding hills, hot chocolate tables, and snow machines sounds MUCH more my speed. Participants get to wear ugly sweaters and fake mustaches and basically the whole thing sounds like an excuse to get together and have semi-organized, festively-themed mayhem!

I love this quote from the race website:

"If you want to wear spandex under your sweater and race fast, that’s cool,
but you’re missing the point."

Now, that's my type of race! After the race there are some ugly sweater contests, a fake mustache contest, a real mustache contest and more. December weather in Denver is a total crapshoot--it could be 50 degrees and sunny or 32 and snowy, but no matter what I think it's going to be AWESOME! I never thought I could be excited to pay somebody money to do something I hate, but I can honestly say that I'm really looking forward to the Denver Ugly Sweater Run! 

And possibly, I'm thrilled to have any excuse to hit the thrift shops more frequently. If we're being totally honest.

Weekend Junk Finds

Oh, who am I kidding? The thrift freeze is over. Truthfully, it never really got started.

I'm always on the lookout when thrifting for great old wool blankets, but they seem to be harder to find for me these days. Back in 2006 I found a vintage wool Hudson Bay stripe-style blanket with a tag that reads "Faribo".

After some research, I found out that Faribo was a phonetic or Anglicized spelling for the French Faribault--as in, Faribault Woolen Mill in Michigan, where these blankets are made. Since that time I've been on the lookout for more and this is the first I've found in all those years! This one is yellow and brown plaid. Not my ideal color combination, but it's perfect for autumn so it's currently covering up the ugly upholstery fabric on the new chair in my front room.

This guy is an older find, but I just never posted it. It's a vintage Arkansas Razorback hog pottery statue. I showed it to my personal Arkansas expert and she said that it might even be a Camark piece. Camark pottery was produced in Arkansas from 1926 to the early 1960s. I waited until football season started to list it on eBay and nobody was more surprised than me when the auction ended at $102.25! I still have no idea what made this piece so desirable, but I'm sure glad I picked it up!

Ah, my favorite time of year at the thrift stores! All of these came in one big bag mixed in with newer junky ornaments. The fluffy pile in the lower right was a beautiful delicate glass bird ornament that had old silver tinsel for feathers. The beautiful delicate glass ornament is now a bundle of beautiful delicate shards, but I thought I might be able to rescue the perfectly aged tinsel.

Free junk! This pretty aqua blue ball pitcher was found at my favorite little consignment shop. I had credit for items I consigned, so this cutie was free! I actually already have a beloved Lu-Ray aqua pitcher (a gift from a sweet bloggy friend) so as much as I adore the snowflake shapes on the sides, this guy will probably be for sale next Spring when/if I do another vintage market.

Did you find anything this weekend? Any squirrel dishes, perhaps?

I'm linking up with The Nifty Thrifty at a living space!

Squirrel!

Back when I was thrifting inventory for my two vintage/craft shows, I came across this darling squirrel nut dish. I was excited to find him because I was particularly looking for 'autumn-ish' items for my booth, and this fit the bill perfectly!

He sold pretty early in the day of my first show, so it looks like my instincts were right on mark. I must admit I was sad to see him go.

Which is why when I found this version of the same dish at the very same thrift store recently, I snapped it right up! I'm not dumb enough to let something this cute get away the second time.

But then it got a little freaky. I was at a different thrift store THE VERY NEXT DAY (uh,what thrifting freeze? I don't know what you're talking about) and guess what I found:

A pair of them! They were sitting on adjacent shelves, but had different colored tags (and different prices) so they didn't even get priced and put out in the same week. What are the chances?

And then it got weirder because a few aisles away, I found another one! Of course I had to take him back for a group photo:

I think they're following me. Or maybe I'm just a little nuts (hee hee.)

Halloween 2012

The Art of Compromise. "If you will wear a Peter Pan costume to indulge Mommy for 5 hours, she will buy you any superhero costume that you want."

Easy costume for Maren: $5 cat accessory kit at Target, shirt & pants from her closet, nose & whiskers drawn with eyeliner.

 Action shots

Spooky glowing eyes in the bushes! This is hard to see but check out this pin to see how it's done. It looked great on Halloween night. We'll definitely be doing this again.

Another fantastic Halloween!

Disneyland Halloween costumes 2012

We had two Halloweens this year. For someone whose favorite holiday is Halloween, that was a dream come true!

The first Halloween was at Disneyland, when we attended Mickey's Halloween Party. As usual, I started planning months ago for our costumes. I wanted us to have a group theme, something possibly Disney-related. In the last year the kids and I have listened to a series of books called Peter and the Starcatchers that we've really loved. They tell the origin stories of Peter Pan and Neverland and I highly recommend reading (or listening to the audio read by Jim Dale) the books on your own or with your family! I knew Peter Pan would be a perfect theme for us.

I asked Maren several times if she wanted to be Tinker Bell and she held firm that she wanted to be Wendy. What kind of strange 7-year-old girl gives up the chance to wear a sparkly fairy costume for wearing a nightgown? She didn't even want a blue nightgown like Wendy in the Disney movie--she insisted on wearing her own pink stripey nightgown. We put a pink bow in her ponytail and she was happy. Easy for me!

I knew finding an adult-sized Tinker Bell costume that wasn't ~ahem~ inappropriate would be a challenge, so I started looking early. I thought about making my own but ended up ordering one from eBay, though it was still far too skimpy to wear in public. I needed pants and a shirt to go underneath and found a crazy pair of bronze metallic Spandex leggings at Forever 21 that I cut off at the knee. Those and a matching shirt I already owned provided some coverage but let the green sparkly dress be the focus of the look.

For shoes, I found a pair of green ballet flats at the thrift store and hot-glued on a pair of pom-poms I made from sparkly white yarn.

We knew that The Mister had to be Captain Hook but I also knew that his costume was far too complicated for me to DIY so we ordered it from Amazon. He already had the long, black curly wig from a previous costume--it was perfect! We had planned to resell his costume next year but I think now that we might have to keep it for our costume stash because The Mister looked really fantastic!

Porter did not want to be Peter Pan. He wanted to be a FIREMAN. I worked on him from the time I got the costume idea because I knew he would be a tough sell. About a week before Halloween, he informed me that he wanted to be Captain America and because I was willing to bribe him, I told him I'd buy a superhero costume if he would just be Peter Pan for me at Disneyland. I still expected a big fight when we actually got to California but was shocked when he was excited and happy to wear his Peter Pan costume!

Porter's costume was an easy DIY. I bought an oversize bright green t-shirt at JoAnn's and simply cut off the sleeves and bottom hem to look raggedy. I initially cut the neck into a V but the first version was cut too wide to stay on his shoulders--whoops! Luckily the shirts are so inexpensive it wasn't a big deal to run and get a new one. The pants are actually toddler girls' size 3T brown leggings. I bought a brown leather belt at the thrift store and cut it off and made new holes with my Cropadile. Using felt that I already had in my stash (thank you Gram!) and this tutorial, I MacGyver'd up a hat and a dagger, all with my hot glue gun. He was adorable!

At Disneyland, I made sure that we had a group photo in front of the Peter Pan's Flight ride!

And then we got really lucky and Peter and Wendy themselves were out signing autographs!

I know the days of my beloved group costumes are coming to an end (Maren is willing to go along with it still, Porter--not so much) so I'm happy we got at least one more good one in. Mickey's Halloween Party was really fun and I know our costumes contributed to the whole experience for me!