Magpie Ethel

A Happy Patriotic Gal

I was at a local antique store yesterday and heard a doll calling to me. You may have recalled that this has happened to me before...here and here. I hear the voices of rather bedraggled dolls that are begging for a makeover.

This is the doll that was calling to me.

I loved her dress and cute little shoes.  She was missing her hair and her hat was rather bedraggled. She definitely had condition issues.

Poor gal....

In honor of the upcoming holiday, I think she needed a patriotic look.  She came home with me and spent the afternoon in my studio.

I even had a small felt hat that was perfect for her. I added holiday embellishments.

I think she is quite happy with her new red, white and blue look.

She is going to spread some patriotic spirit and is marching off to Etsy. I was happy to give her a little TLC and she was definitely a fun project to work my magpie magic on.

Hurray for the red, white and blue.

Collection Challenge #59 - Roosters and Chickens

Mary suggested that I revisit some previous collections.  I have been doing my blog since September, 2007, so unless you have followed me from the first day you may have missed some fun stuff.  I recently acquired a swell new rooster named Roofus.

A squeaky rubber rooster that has hardened with age and does not do much squeaking anymore.  He can still strut his rooster stuff tho. He came with his original box.

His original price is still marked on his foot.

I never set out to collect chickens/roosters.  I found this pair of Royal Copley (original sticker on base) fowl quite a few years ago.  They were the first of the flock and with a five dollar price they had to come home with me.

Then I found this darling pair with polka dots.

Condition was not an issue. Chicken yard fights had left some of these finds a little worse for wear.

Salt and Pepper shakers found their way into the brood.

A gifted pair originally from Red Rose Tea.

I don't know what the rings are for on this pair. They are too small for napkin rings. Perhaps they go over a candle?

I love the tattered edges and muted colors of this cardboard pair.

Of course I had to have a honeycomb chicken when I came across it at an estate sale.

I could also not pass up this great book called "Chicken Chuck" that was autographed by the author.  Previous post on "Chicken Chuck" and fowl collection found here.

Chickens and roosters were such a popular motif they made there way onto wrapping paper.

The illustrations on this book from 1938 feature the cutest little red hen.

And last but not least..if you have this many chickens and roosters.  You may need to throw a "Hen Party". I have just the napkins for the event.

Cockadoodle doo and buk buk buk.  I do love this silly flock!

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____."

 

 

Estate Sale Friday (Plus Thursday Too)

I hit one sale on Thursday and it was awesome.  I hit three sales today. Two were duds and one was pretty good. The one sale I hit I was #4 on the list to get in...and I came out empty handed.  Hit or miss all the time.

Here are my hits this weekend.

Vintage Halloween, Tavern candles in original boxes, tidy boxes of Shiny Brite ornaments, holiday cards, paper leis and lots of other goodies.

Time for a closer look.  Vintage Christmas of course, including tiny ornaments and Christmas light reflectors.

A box of Christmas corages.

This was my favorite. How can you pass by a snowman in a glittery pink hat?

Fun holiday trees

A stack of old popcorn bags and a wonderful pamphlet titled "Tummy Tingles" produced by the Wheat Flour Institute in 1937. An assortment of nativity scenes.

Tavern candles in original boxes (a lot of choir boys), a trio of Halloween candles and a plastic Easter basket.

Three cans of Snowman Can'd Ice.  Bought purely for graphic appeal as I love how they looked stacked up and loved the snowman. These worked like a modern day ice pack.

An old display rack that the woman thought was meant to display flowers at a funeral perhaps.  It folds up and has a ton of hooks on it. 

I thought it a much happier idea to display my paper leis that I found this weekend instead of funeral flowers.

The woman from the Thursday sale saved every greeting card I think she ever received.  Lots of adorable graphics.

I make a second run through the basement of the Friday sale.  It was so crowded at first that you could not see much.  I was happy to pick up a bag of vintage Dennison stickers. I love the bright colored snow drops. Near the penny are some tiny bible stickers...tiny!

In the same bag there were about 15 unopened cellophane bags of tiny hearts in red and silver. Perfect for my Valentine gals.

I found an un-priced bag of Halloween at the Thursday sale (actually the whole sale was not priced for the most part. You had to gather and take it to the register to get a price...not a fan of this method).  I held my breath as she glanced at a bag of vintage Halloween that I had.

Let me say that my TWO dollars she quoted me was well spent for all these goodies!

Not a bad haul this weekend.  I am putting on my own garage sale tomorrow.  Our neighborhood has an annual sale and there are 130 homes participating this year.  If you live in the area the Eastmoreland garage sale is awesome...I will be loading my driveway bright and early. Sale is from 8-5. Come by and say hi.  (I may let you peek in the studio too if you ask nicely).  Cross your fingers for a rain free day!

Above image from my Tummy Tingles pamphlet mentioned earlier in this post.

A Special Finial

If you have read my blog for any length of time you know that I enjoy the unusual and quirky in my home.

My ball finial on my bannister did not fit that bill. (excuse the sawdust on it...it is coming down)

It is being replaced with this gem found at a local antique store. It is a metal child's bedpost finial from the 1930s.  I love it.

Silly, but it sure does make me smile.

Honeycomb Mail!

One of my blog-readers Marci, knows that I have a thing for honeycomb paper.  She emailed me and told me she had popped one that she had found recently in the mail to me...

About 12 inches in length and stamped "Made in Japan".

Open it up...

The cutest little chick peeking out of a honeycomb egg.  I haven't seen one like this before and it will be a welcome addition to my collection!

Thank you Marci...L-O-V-E it!

 

Collection Challenge #58 - Vintage Pipe Cleaners

Sara emailed me recently about pipe cleaners.  I know that I find them often and ramble on sometimes about the virtues of the vintages ones.  So today I am sharing that collection. 

I collect pipe cleaners in two categories.  I use them for crafting and I love the graphics on the old boxes and containers.

Pipe cleaners were originally manufactured to clean pipes and date to the early 1900s. Dills was one of the earliest brands and is still manufactured today. I have a stash of those.

But my heart really belongs to those that are colorful!  I like to craft with them organized by color. I organize by color family in each can.

If they come in terrific boxes that is an added bonus!

In my mind I prefer vintage pipe cleaners for crafting due to their colors and the thinner manner they were manufactured in. Sometimes they even came in a stripe!

Boxes come with all kinds of suggestions to use the pipe cleaners for.

Often with instruction booklets tucked in the box.

I am glad I have never encountered a lamp at an estate sale that had this as inspiration.

Bryco had 100 to a pack and in terrific colors that you don't find anymore.

The Long company of NY manufactured them both in colored packs and in a solid white pack.

I love that these were called "Twisticks".

Sometimes I get lucky and find a box of them.  These were made for the hardcore pipe cleaner user...buying in pipe cleaner bulk!

A horse and a goat(?) crafted with skinny old pipecleaners...vintage, as found.

Pipe cleaners were also popular in another form called "bump chenille". This is a small part of my stash.

Bump chenille was often sold my the yard and was called bump due to the in and out bump of the chenille stem. The bumps also came in different lenghts - there are bumps about an inch long and bumps up to three inches long.  The length of the bump actually makes a difference when crafting a project.

Flowers were a popular craft with bump chenille.

I do love my pipe cleaners!

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of _____". I've been stumped with some suggestions ,but fun to see what I can come up with.

Estate Sale Friday

I hit three sales today and the day turned out pretty good...not amazing, but good.

A vintage jewelery box, a Merry Christmas sign and some old ribbon spools.

A smattering of Christmas including a few spun snowman heads, elves, tiny ornaments and a container of glitter.

A old box of paper dolls titled "Outdoor Pals".

Complete with some uncut outfits.

Dick, Dave and Dotty are the dolls that came in the box.  The boys made me laugh with their hiked up boxer briefs and their colorful socks.

A wonderful green plastic lattice style Easter basket.

A group of adorable bendable dolls from Japan.

And last but not least one Inarco baby whale planter.

Happy weekend..may some vintage find have you as happy as this silly whale!

Vintage Camouflage

I picked up the moth ball vaporizer container on the right last week.

I already had the green tin.  I was attracted to the color and graphics on them like a moth to a flame.

They are cute, but they needed to serve a purpose. Enter a common room deodorizer.  Note the unattractive graphics. Not alot of charm to this everyday object.

Enter vintage camouflage. It slid in the can just right.

I can't tell you how perfect this tin worked for this purpose.

Collection Challenge #57 - Vintage Wrapping Paper

Renee from My Vintage Mending challenged me in this category ages ago. I was happy to dig out my collection and revisit all the charm with my stash.

Quite a bit of the vintage wrapping paper that I find comes in boxes like these or in folded sheets (not the modern day rolls).

The graphics on the boxes suck me in of course. Each box contains multiple sheets of paper.  The boxes often contained coordinating tags or other embellishments as well.

Note the tarnished glitter embellishments (bells and candy canes) with this set.

Christmas boxes of wrapping paper

Floral themed boxes. I collect these boxes even if they are empty as they are so darn cute.

These are some of the patterns found in one of the floral boxes.

Most of my stash of wrapping paper is in this wire basket.  That would be 29 inches of vintage wrapping paper glory.

Spectacular patterns like this. They just don't make them the same anymore.

Birthday themed.

These papers are a sign of the era they came from.

Pin up girls and dancing indians.

I love the floral.


I especially love the colors in this one.

Child themed.

I even save scraps if the image is cute.

Christmas.  The trees in the lower left corner have wonderful gold glitter accents.

I often find them in original cellophane wrap still sealed....waiting for the moment when they can actually wrap a gift.

Old wrapping paper catalog from 1958.

With swell designs that a store could order like these.

I used to complain about my sister in law meticulously unwrapping gifts and saving the paper.  They I started to find used folded sheets at estate sales. Now I have a bin of it.

Often with original gift tags still taped to the paper. (1954 date on the Christmas stamp near the tag)

I occasionally find wrapping paper in rolls.

I love this roll of pink flocked Merry Christmas paper.

This roll of nursery rhyme cellophane is adorable.

Was fun to revisit this collection and see what I had tucked away.

And last but not least...a litlle early Father's Day action.

Thanks Renee for this suggestion and this LONG post.  This is only the tip of images for my wrapping paper collection..you could have been reading for days.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of _____."  I will see what I can find in my stash.

Happy Day!

Another Etsy Parade

A few more goodies will find their way to Etsy on Tuesday evening.

Patriotic Abe Lincoln

Some fun medals made from old gymnastic awards.

These partriotic creations and a few others will be parading to Etsy on Tuesday, June 14th at 5:30 p.m (pacific time).

Hurray for the Red, White and Blue!