Magpie Ethel

Estate Sale Friday....Two Choices

Today I had the choice between two sales that I was signed up for.  They both started at 9 a.m.  I was number 17 on one list and number 7 on the other.  I chose the sale where I was number 7 as I liked the company that was running the sale...it was a good choice.

A good amount of small Christmas ornaments, Christmas reflectors, a Christmas corsage. a Donkey card game, plastic snowflakes and a giant plastic whistle

Three boxes of tiny Christmas ornaments.

A small planter with a deer and an old bingo game tin.

A cute old pink and blue plastic lock bank and a vintage swim cap for my collection. A box of old unused clothespins.

A wooden cutlery tray with good green paint and tiny windmills painted on the side.

My favorite find was this old Christmas card holder in original box. I don't think it had ever been used. I have a few old card holders, but have never seen this one.
Pretty nifty.

A good sale choice and good finds.  Happy day!

Alameda Show Finds

As I mentioned in my previous post about Alameda, I did find some fun stuff. I did not buy a huge amount, but found a few things that I had never seen before.

I always seem to gravitate towards smaller items and this trip was no exception.

A pink tinsel tree that is about 10 inches tall.  It needs a bit of help with a new base, but that is an easy fix.

A vintage celluloid party girl complete with tiny hat but missing her arms. She had seen better days.  She was the best of about 10 that were there, and I thought she should have a home in my cabinet of curiosities.

Old paper cups with a good holiday snowman graphic and an air bon tin.

A tiny vintage spun head bunny and some old Dennison type stickers.

An old Halloween cardboard spinner game.

An old Humpty Dumpty style cardboard figure that may have REALLY fallen off a wall as he has seen better days.  He will go live out the rest of his life in my cabinet of curiousities.

Anthropomorphous melon(?) fan with wonderful googly eyes.  He was part of a set that also included a couple of elephants, Minnie and Mickey Mouse and a few other figures.

I bought a good sized box of old paper items. The box had old greeting cards, wrapping paper, ribbon and gift tags. 

Yet more vintage wrapping paper to add to my stash.

And last but not least, my favorite find.  A dice throwing tiny celluloid boy.  I liked the detail and expression on his face and he will live in my cabinet of curiosities.

Fun stuff and a fun show! Wish I lived closer and could hit it every month!

Sunny Day at The Alameda Flea Market

I just got home from 5 days in San Francisco.  I went down with a girlfriend to help "fluff" her college daughter's new apartment.  I agreed to go and help as she dangled the "carrot" of a trip to the monthly Alameda Flea Market.  The "carrot" was well deserved after lots of apartment projects and was a wonderful day.

I spent over 6 sunshine filled hours just browsing the aisles of the show. (view towards the city)

It was good people watching and had a huge variety of stuff to buy.  I did not find anything that was mind blowing, but did enjoy the hunt and found a few goodies.

A glimpse of some of the booths or objects that caught my eye...none of which came home with me.

French posters

Yummy colored crepe paper, which I passed on as I have a huge stash.

A petunia pig head.  I don't think anyone bought this as It was still there near the end of the show.

For those jadeite collectors.

This booth only sold paper items, posters, old advertisements and such.

Watch parts, old keys and other goodies to sift through.

Tons of vendors had a good assortment of vintage clothes.

And speaking of clothes, this was a great spot to people watch.  Some of the outfits that I saw were one of a kind.

Note the stockings, the orange gingham skirt and a tiny straw hat perched on her head.

I liked this dapper sailor outfit as well. Even the shoes were vintage with a little green embellishment.

A giant metal turtle perhaps part of an old play structure. It I had bought this it would have had to have been strapped to the top of our car from San Fran to Portland!

My favorite thing I saw was this old ice cream sign.

Alas, she had a $400 price tag and I did not have a spot that she would have fit in my house.

She sure was sweet tho.  We left the show with a bag of freshly made kettle corn to munch as we started our drive home.  What I found will be in my next post.  Awesome day!

Collection Challenge #91 - Vintage Alphabet

Sarah asked to see what type of alphabets I had.  Most of the alphabets that I collect are game pieces and I use them for crafting. When I started pulling them all out for this post, I was amazed at the variety of letters that I had.

Probably the most well known letters and easily collected are those from the Scrabble game.

There is a huge variety of other styles to be found tho.  Here we have vintage Anagram games. There are quite an array of styles of letters.

There are a plastic and cardboard variety.

These are some that are heavier and embossed.

A yellow variation.

An assortment of cardboard letters from different games. They just live in a jar waiting to be used. The bird lives on top.

More cardboard letters. The four smaller boxes are all a variation of a game called crossword.

Same basic style of letter. One big card and one smaller.

I like the old fashioned refrigerator letter style magnets.  A good variety of letter styles and colors.

These are from an old sign.  I use them for birthday message decorations.

These are some of my favorite letters (there are numbers too).  I don't know what they were originally used for.

Those old fashioned children's blocks.

I have a permanent message spelled with them for my taller guests that venture into our basement...watch your head.

And last but not least, lettered dice from a spill and spell game/throw and spell game.

A fun assortment of alphabets and letters.  I am sure I will run across more after I do this post.  I seem to have them tucked everywhere.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "show my your collection of _____".  You never know what fun I can spell out....

Studio Window Clutter.

No mimimalism in my studio.  Just a window full of colorful clutter.  (doulble click for a closer look at the chaos)

Dining Room Redo and The Snowball Effect

I bought a new/old table last fall at a local consignment shop.  It replaced one that was about 15 years old and had seen better days.  The table fit our old house, but was always a bit large for the current dining room.

I bought this. The size is perfect and I loved the detail on the table, but I did not like the veneer wood top or the fact that there was so much brown wood going on in this space.

Leg detail that I like.

Before the holidays I decided to paint it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I liked that I could just paint it without prepping with this paint and the fact it would paint over any surface.

I chose Paris Grey and went to work.  It took me awhile to get it right as you paint and wax and sand.

I really like the color choice and I enhanced the leg detail with a second paint color, Duck Egg Blue. I used both a clear wax and then a darker wax to give it a deeper older look.

I loved it once it was painted. Then the snowball effect started. I did not like the current chairs with it.  I had an old set of estate sale found metal chairs in my parents attic, so I brought those over.

before.

After. I went with a safe fabric, but I think I will choose something funkier once I make one more purchase.

The final snowball of the snowball effect has yet to be found. I have four metal chairs, but I left one of the old wood ones as I really want to replace it with a settee or love-seat pulled up to the table.  We don't use this table a ton, so I am not concerned with daily use. I also don't have little kids anymore, so the kid factor isn't huge.  I have been on the hunt for a new or vintage one, but that snowball has not materialized.

I want one that is a higher back and tufted.

This one is only shipped to Canada.  I live in Oregon.

I also really like the look of this vintage one (no pillows tho). 

I sure hope to finish up this project soon and get that last snowball in place.  Then I can get onto the next project.