Magpie Ethel

Holiday Home Snippet #1

Each holiday season I post snippets of my holiday decorations.  With Christmas less than a week away, I figured I had better get cracking on these snippets. Some of it you have seen in previous years, but I mix it up a bit each season and my collections seem to grow from year to year.  We start in the kitchen this year.

I love my built in cupboard in the kitchen.  Some of my Santa collection lives there during the holiday.

Mostly vintage, but you can see one of Elizabeth's santas (blue hat) from Creative Breathing is quite at home here. The darling pink Santa is from The Polka Dot Pixie.

Glass cabinet door open.

Shelf one.

shelf two
shelf three

Kitchen windowsill. (tiny holiday banner by Amy of Into Vintage)

I love the graphics on these can'd ice cans.  They are an early version of an ice pack. You freeze them and use them to keep items cold.  Paper whites grow in the old mugs. I also love the old Christmas list tins.  The can of Christmas tree preservative is another item I love because of the graphics. I have a few more boxes and you can see them here.

Last but not least the vintage tin pedestal that I built earlier this year was put to good holiday use.  I needed something to hide the back of Santa that sits in my front window.

A fun little tin to fill with holiday goodies.
More snippets to come...

Collection Challenge #136 - Vintage Holiday Inflatables

I'll huff and I'll puff and I will blow up these holiday figures!

Crazy collection today. Not a large number,  but kitschy and silly. Vintage holiday inflatable figures. 

I have collected these for a couple of years.

Ho, ho.

ho.

Ho, ho, ho!

Ho, ho!

How can you not smile at silly blow up Santas?

Now add a pair of reindeer into the mix. 

I love how they look together.

The whole jolly holiday lot.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____." Some of these collections are just meant to bring a holiday smile...and I think we all need one lately.

happy day.

 

 

 

Estate Sale Friday Plus One

I hit one estate sale late on Friday.  I had hit another mid week the previous week, but did not have time to post since I had Crafty Wonderland looming.  Estate sales are definitely dwindling with the season, but the two I hit did yield a few treasures.

A small herd of deer...two plastic and one Rudolph Gurley Candle. Two boxes of vintage Shirley Temple sewing cards. They have both been used, but the cards and the graphics on the box are charming. Dated 1936.

I did not have to wait long after Thanksgiving to add to my rafter of turkey candles. A couple of baby rattles and two vintage dolls.  I love the dolls look of anticipation with the thought of an upcoming Magpie Ethel makeover. I have found this vintage Easter cutout book before, but it had been used.  This one is in perfect shape and all the pages are intact.  Dated 1936.
An adorable (Rempel?) figure (cat? dog?) and some vintage Christmas foil candy canes on original card.

I am always a sucker for vintage advertising items.  This is a vintage comic style advertisement with Daisy the cow.
It was put out by the Sperry Suremilk, which aided in milk production for a herd of cows.

Not bad for estate sales that are few and far between during the holidays!

Happy Day.

p.s. I added a few more holiday things to my Etsy shop

 

Ice Cream Trees

Sometimes I don't know how I come across the items I do on Ebay.  Ice cream trees! Who would have thought?

These are basically little popsicles that you make with a paper Christmas tree wrapper.  The base/handle is included.

I thought they would make great Christmas trees for my spun head gals.

I am really glad these never were made into ice cream treats. What a crazy find!  How odd to have a cold treat during a cold holiday....

Collection Challenge #135 - Vintage Christmas Stockings

I seem to have a thing for accumulating Christmas stockings.  I would need a mighty wide fireplace to hang all that I have.

These little knit stockings with the cute graphics are a favorite. The larger ones have drawstrings at the top. They are about 12 inches long. The shorter ones are about 5 inches.

I love when I find them in the original wrapping.

With the original Meier and Frank price of 20 cents.

The front of this stocking is a clear plastic and the faces are raised. When you put items in the stocking you can see them through the plastic...no guessing to what this stocking would hold Christmas morning.A felt stocking with snowman graphics. Two sided as well.

I really like these simple stockings with the charming old time graphics.  This pair belonged to Leah and Kenny. More of my favorite style of stocking. These felt stockings are a bit smaller and about 7 inches tall. The two on the left are the same stocking, one was just printed with colored ink.

Same stockings, different sizes. The colored ink was not lined up properly on the larger one. Front side
Flip side. Felt stockings with furry trim and a couple spun head figures that decorate them.

Front side with snowball throwing children.  Happy New Year flip side.
All shapes and sizes....Jacky and Clark.

I wish I could say I had a cuter stocking when I was a kid.  This was mine.  It really is quite bedraggled looking. I  used to get up in the middle of the night and go through my stocking as well as my brothers and sisters.  My stocking was really tricky because I had to be really quiet and it has those darn jingle bells sewn across the top.  I used to bundle them all in my hand to muffle the noise as I rifled through the stocking...I did not want to wake up the house.  My brother and sister did not have bells on their stockings so it was easy to look through theirs.


If you have an idea for a future collection challenge leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____."  With the holidays here I think the month of December will have that Christmas flair.

Crafty Wonderland....Truly A Wonderland

This is the fourth year I have done Crafty Wonderland.  My only request each year is for a corner booth which works well for my layout. This year I was assigned one of the FIRST booths you see when you walk in the door...my booth greeted customers with crazy Christmas color. It was a wonderful, insane, tiring weekend.  I loved it.  I met amazing people. I  had lots of repeat customer and friends stop by. I had many people tell me they were dazzled by what I make.  It truly, truly made me glad that I do what I do.  The door count for the two day show was 18,000 people... this is a show like no other!

I was down to the last few minutes for set up before the doors opened.  I did squeeze in photos, but already had other vendors shopping in my booth.

Let me just let the photos speak for themselves...

I almost ran out of reflectors after the first day. I went home after the show and watched Frosty the Snowman and crafted some more.

Thank you to everyone who came and shopped my booth this weekend. Thank you to Cathy and Torie for being the force behind a great show. It truly was a wonderland...a Crafty Wonderland.

Pajamas are now on...I am off to a well deserved night's sleep.

 

Crafty Wonderland Here I Come

This weekend is my fourth and final sale of the holiday season. I have everything boxed and ready to load in my dad's truck.  I am excited to put it all together in one magical booth.

Ornaments are ready to be hung from trees in my spot.

Shiny reflector flowers are ready to sparkle.

I like to switch displays up each year and for each show.  This year I am using a collection of embellished vintage netting table covers over white table cloths on my tables.

As if I don't have enough sparkle and color, I am using some estate sale found garland to add a bit more bling. I am hanging hot pink ornaments as well.

I will have characters like this to keep me company.

Can you tell I am a wee bit excited to finally put it all together?  I have been working long hours in my studio for weeks.

Crafty Wonderland. The super colossal holiday sale.  I love this show.

Saturday and Sunday. If you live in Portland, you must stop by!

p.s. I will take photos and do a post!

 

The Land of Rainbow Snow

Have you ever heard of the land of rainbow snow?  Snow falls in different colors...imagine a snow covered hill in pink, one in blue and one in orange...hill after hill of assorted colors.

In this land the snowman are extra special.

Forget the traditional white of a snowman..these little creations smile with color.

Only in the land of rainbow snow.

Happy Day!

 

Collection Challenge #134 - Vintage Holiday Trees

When I pull out my bins for holiday decorating I am struck by the small forest of different vintage trees that I have collected.

Large tinsel tree.  (I have included a yardstick on the side so you can get an idea of size..this one is tall at 28 inches)

And this tinsel tree is short.

This pom pom aluminum tree was newly acquired this year and is a table top size.

This cardboard tree has little slits cut into it.  When you plug it in it lights up ever so nicely. The top of the tree rests on the pointy tip above the light bulb.

I love these old netting trees.Plastic trees heavily flocked with fake snow. I just marvel at the many varieties of trees that I come across. These foil ringed trees are another favorite.


Blogland friend Mary sent me the one on the left in the original box. It lights up. They have great embellishments. The white tree probably also lit up at one point, but is corroded inside now.

Small foil covered reflector tree.

This is an old party place-card tree that Pam from Plucky Maidens gifted to me.
Vintage pipe cleaner ornament trees.
A pair of embellished bottlebrush style trees. Holiday tree constructed from pipe cleaners, ornaments and silver leaves. I love the star shaped ends of the branches.
This tree is made of super thin plastic and has three light bulbs inside.  It lights up and changes colors from red, blue and green.  When it is lit it is very hypnotising!
A plastic tree similar to the Crystal Pines that I have blogged about before. (they did not make this post which is getting quite long) There are also tiny ornaments that hang on the branches, but I have not gotten them out yet.

Bottlebrush trees embellished with fruit, pinecones and flowers.
Teeny tiny bottlebrush trees. The great bottlebrush trees I found this year in the orignal boxes.

Crazy good embellishments on these trees.  I have many more bottle brush trees that did not make this post.  They are all ready out and part of my holiday displays.

A great fluffy white tree.  I don't know what this one is made of...some sort of soft chenille?

I love the pink snowflakes on the ends of the branches. White tree hung this year with pine cone ornaments. I have a larger version of this tree that I use at my shows.

Bottlebrush tree and a Charlie Brown like wisp of a tree.

This tree was given to me by a friend and needed repairs. I was happy to give it new life.


I have a few more trees that did not make this post. This tree filled post is getting crazy long and it is time to say TIMBERRRR..and call it quits. If you are curious about where I display my trees, most of my trees live here with my collection of Christmas light bulb boxes. You can also see a couple of trees that I plugged in for the photo.

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

happy day!

Laurelhurst Holiday Show

Another holiday show today.  Out the door at 6:30 a.m.  Quick stop for coffee at Starbucks and then spent two hours loading and futzing my space before a 9 a.m. opening.  I had to do some quick thinking this morning as I did not have my normal spot, but ended up with a larger, island like spot.  Luckily I had thrown in some extra tables and tablecloths.

I stood in the middle and had two tables in front of me (above) and a table and a metal stand on the other side of me.

I had never had a booth configured like this, but it worked really well and I had lots of room to spread out.  The only hard part was that I had customers on three sides of me. 

I was down to the wire on set-up time, but still took some photos to share. I also like to do a post on my shows as I go back to them from year to year to jog my memory about how I did things...a show diary of sorts.

Look at the ceiling and see how charming this school cafeteria is with the old beams.  They even have stained glass windows.  They hang paper chains each year for the show. Darling. A wonderful day.  Great customers and nice comments on my creations and displays.  I love to do these shows.
Tired.  Off to bed.

Next week is the granddaddy of all shows here in Portland...Crafty Wonderland! A two day show.  Will be a busy crafting week for me!