Magpie Ethel

Basement Picture

Some blog readers asked me to to do a post on a picture that was hanging over my couch in a post last week.

I am happy to oblige.

I don't know much about this picture.  It is printed on a cardboardish material.  I got it at an antique mall about 6 or 7 years ago.  I was drawn to the whimsical design of the children and the size of it.  It is not quite 6 feet long and about 2 feet tall. This is the frame it came with as well.

I love the parade of children with flowers, pull toys and balloons.

In one corner it reads. "School of Emmy Zweybruck Prochaska. Vienna, Helli Fritz, aged 15 years." I do get some information when I google that tag line.  I find an auction listing for a panoramic color lithograph, circa 1920. The colors on the one pictured are much more dynamic than mine, so I think mine is a reprint of the original.

In the other corner is this information.

In all the time I have had this picture, I have never tried to find out any information on it. This post got me going. My daughter Kate mentioned that a friend of hers has the same picture hanging in their house. Even if it is a reproduction, it is still quite a charming piece.

How can these little faces not make you smile?

Valentine Goodies and E is For Ethel

My friend Pam from One Gal's Trash was doing some studio cleaning and gifted some tiny old bird cages to me.  They did not last long in my studio unadorned.

   
I was in the Valentine mood and added tiny birds with hearts in their beaks as well as some other doo-dads. I think they turned out pretty TWEET.

I also made a couple of more Valentine gals to pop onto Etsy with the Valetine Birds.

And speaking of Etsy, It was bound to happen eventually. I find to much cool stuff and bring it home.  It is time to purge my closets and drawers.  For this purpose of purging, I have opened a SECOND Etsy shop that will just be for my vintage finds. I wanted to tie the two shops together somehow with the name, so I have decided to call it "E is for Ethel". I have a few things listed with more to come.

You can find it here or you can use the link of my sidebar.

Pacific Wonderland

Remember the post I did on my collection challenge a couple of weeks ago for state souvenirs?  I posted about how I primarily collect for Oregon (also known as the Pacicic Wonderland).  Amy from Into Vintage and I both have January birthdays and we had a little birthday lunch the other day (Lisa, from A Thing for Roses also joined us).  Anyhooooo, Amy gifted me with the most perfect pillow for my Oregon collection.

Amy is an amazing seamstress and whipped an old vintage tablecloth into the most wonderful pillow.  Loving the details on the back too.


The crazy thing is, she had never been to my house before, but the pillow that she made could not have been more perfect for my family room couch.  It totally fits in with all my other pillows. (ignore photo glare on picture in dark basement),

L-O-V-E it! Pop on over to Amy's blog and wish her a happy birthday...tell her she rocked that Oregon pillow! You can also take a peak at what I made for her birthday....

Collection Challenge #38 - Bridge Tally Cards

Liz challenged me to show my collection of bridge tally cards.  I don't play bridge. My mother played bridge when I was a child, but that was years ago. Somehow I have acquired a collection of tally cards..I think it must be the graphic attraction.

Unopened cards in original packages with flowers and cats.

I love these dogs near the line of laundry.

Even the type faces they used on the interior of the cards are charming and sweet.

These came from the auction I hit in Kansas this past fall.


St. Patty's Day

For the dog lover

These are in a pad form.

Charming ladies

The tally part of these cards are quite fancy.

Short and sweet on this challenge, It you want to stick around maybe we can play a game of bridge...I've certainly got the tally cards.  Three no trump? I double!

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

happy day.

 

Estate Sale Friday....Happy Couples

Today I hit two sales and also stopped by to see a friend who was cleaning out her in-laws house after they moved to a retirement home.  It was not a bad day!

At the first sale I was #27 to get in.  A woman standing near me asked what number I was and when I told her, she asked if I would like to be #5 as her friend that had signed up was not there.  That gesture made my day amd I was happy to jump up to that lower number!

Today was the day of finding happy couples. I found three!

A lovely pair of wooden egg cups.

A pair of book ends marked Japan.

The last happy couple probably hung from a cuckoo clock.  At one of the sales there was a TON of clocks and clock repair items.  The man repaired clocks for a living and he had a gazillion of them. I thought this swinging couple was sweet.

Some old clock hands for crafting.

I bought two empty frames for clocks.  I will figure out something to display in each of them. They have great shapes to them.

A old Bunnykins cup with a darling bunny family dancing about.

Vintage Christmas

Pine cone birds

Tin molds and two tiny spun heads

These are my kind of eggs to find.  Cool graphics on the boxes.

And ornaments inside.

Not a bad day. The clock sale was pretty interesting. I missed the majority of the Christmas stuff there (I saw a woman walking about with it in her basket).  I still found some great stuff tho and left with a skip in my step and a smile on my face. Nice to have a good estate sale Friday after so many bleak Fridays.

Happy Day!

 

 

That Vintage Reputation

My friends all know that I love old vintage things. During the holiday season a girlfriend mentioned she had an old wreath that was her mothers.  Her mother had recently passed away and she and her sister were trying to get rid of things.  She thought the wreath could be taken apart and parts of it recycled. She just wanted it to go to a good home rather than Goodwill.

I was rather skeptical about what she had to offer as she was not very enthusiastic about it.  When I finally got the wreath, I knew there was no way I would be taking it apart, but rather repairing it and enjoying it.  It is amazing!

This wreath is huge.  Over two feet in diameter.  It is covered in old tiny Christmas ornaments, bits of vintage jewelery and old millinery.

The base of the wreath is almost like a steel wool scrunchy material.  There is fishing line wrapped around the whole wreath holding it in place and it is mounted on a wooden ring.

I need to clean the dust and grime off of it and repair some of it.  It makes my heart happy to find this handwritten message on the back of it. I love it when I find a snippet of information about the history of an item.

To add to my joy over the wreath it also came with a smaller wreath and a tree.  I am going to fix up the smaller wreath for my friend and give it to her as a memento of her mother.

The tree is about 8 inches tall.  Can you see the little pink deer hidden amongst the decorations?

I am glad that this wreath came my way. It has gone to a good home where it will be well loved for many years to come!

 

Happy Day!

Collection Challenge #37 - Dolls And A Battle Scar

Mary B suggested this challenge. I would not in any way consider myself a doll collector. Those that I have are from my childhood or those that I feel sorry for at estate sales.  I did come up with some tho...here we go.

Here is my rather forlorn little group of those that I have found at estate sales recently. They are a rather bedraggled but loved group.

Sometimes I will give them some Magpie Ethel magic like I did with this little fellow.

Here is in anticipating his makeover. He has such a cute face.

Here he is as my Valentine Cupid.

I have a Kewpie doll that was a gift from my parents. Supposedly I resembled a Kewpie doll when I was younger.

These are all from my Aunt. She had them when she was a little girl. She was going to sell them in a garage sale, and I could not bear to see them go.  I am the keeper of everything.

These are my skipper (Barbie) dolls from when I was young.  I was not allowed to play with Barbies as they had a breasts. Skipper was flat chested and safe. They live in my old tin plaid lunch box from kindergarten.

This old bride doll was my Aunt's as well. I love the rhinestone detail on her dress.

An old colored doll. It is marked Japan on the back and is jointed.

This was my Mother's doll when she was a child (marked Horsman on neck).  Her name is Amanda. She has some crazy hair. The little floral shirt she is wearing was Kate's when she was a baby.

And last but not least Rosemary. This was my doll when I was a kid. She was a very well loved doll. She has the battle scar I mentioned in the title of this post.

My sister and I are a year and 17 days apart in age. We always got the same gifts growing up, but perhaps in a different color.  We both got exactly the same doll. I was very particular about Rosemary and my sister could have cared less about her doll. On one occasion she was convinced that Rosemary was her doll. A tug of war battle ensued and my doll was ripped. I was so angry at my sister!

Rosemary still has the hand-stitched battle scar. After this incident there were no more mistaken doll identity.

That is my collection of dolls. A collection of dolls that have been loved and played with.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ______". I will see what I can do.

happy day!

Now This Is My Kind Of Party!

I recently was the high bidder on an item on Ebay. My purchase arrived yesterday.

This is my kind of spun head party!

My girlfriends and I plan on hitting the dance floor.

Giggling and hoping that a certain someone asks us to dance...

There are bound to be some handsome young men ready to cut a rug with us.

As this will be quite an affair, the wait staff is busy in the kitchen ready to attend to customers. They look quite snappy in their crisp white and black attire.  I love the little crepe paper towel over one arm and their tall white hats.

Of course there are always some party crashers ready to join the fun. I think they may stand out a bit in their jaunty yellow hats. They look like wild dancers tho!

What a fun party and what a wonderful item to win on Ebay. I love the vibrant colors of these old spun heads figures.  They are marked Japan on the base they are standing on.  Each spun head is a bit of a bobble head as they have the little spring necks. The boxes have the original paper label reading "one dozen" and "made in Japan". I got 34 of these fun little characters.

I hope your weekend brings you some sort of treasure and maybe a wild party like this one! 

Happy Day

Collection Challenge #36 - State Souvenirs

I have had a couple of requests to see if I collected State Souvenirs. I do.  I primarily collect only for Oregon (where I live) and this collection lives in my son's room and is part of the theme of his room.

You have to start with a souvenir glass.

A lot of what I have decorated Ben's room with came from our family.  This wooden map of Oregon from the Blitz Brewing Company was in my husband's room when he was a kid.

This paper placemat was in with my Grandmother's things after she passed away.  It is dated 1954 and is framed and hung in Ben's room.

I live in Portland which is in the center of all those circles.  This map has some great graphics.

I posted about my hankies last week.  I do have one from Oregon (not in use, tucked away with the rest of my collection)

For awhile I collected souvenir pennants from locations in Oregon.  I made them into pillows. These are from The Prehistoric Garden (extinct), Multnomah Falls, Seaside and Depoe Bay.

I found this bandanna featuring a map of Oregon wadded up in with hunting gear at an estate sale locally. 
And last but no least my vintage University of Oregon t-shirt. I graduated from the University of Oregon in 1986.  Today I am mighty proud to be a duck..altho they were not victorious last night, they did give Auburn a good game in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game. I am not a big sports fan, but the state has been a sea of green and yellow lately...a disappointing game, but still proud of my ducks!
Oregon is an awesome state to visit if you ever get a chance. I highly recommend it.

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

Oh, one last thing. 4 little fellows want to remind you that Valentine goodies are arriving on Etsy tonight, January 11th at 6 p.m. (pacific time).

Happy Day!

 

 

Valentine Goodies Arriving Soon

I have been busy in the studio surrounding myself with red and pink love and munching on conversation hearts.

I do love this holiday.

The parade of red and pink Valentine girls will be on Etsy on Tuesday, January 11th at 6 p.m. (pacific time) as well as a few other goodies.

Hope to see you there.