Magpie Ethel

Collection Challenge #139 - Vintage Santa Mugs, Etc.

I posted holiday snippets during Christmas and one of the photos was of my Santa Mug collection. Before I packed them up this season, I took them out for a photo shoot.  It really is quite amazing the variety of mugs there are. Time to share. One last holiday collection for now.

Mini Santa mugs. Each with a different expression.  (I have included a candy cane in each photo for scale).

Original packaging for mini Santa mugs. Sign of the times to suggest using them as cigarette holders.

I like the kind with the jeweled eye. Two variations of sizes here.And then the DOUBLE jeweled eye.

Squinty eye closed Santa.

I throw in the Santa pitchers with the Santa mugs. Adorable winking Santa mugs. Marked Howard Holt on bottom.
This mug is a favorite.  It has one of those blinky eyes that changes positions as you move closer to it.

Santa winking. Left eye open. Santa winking. Right eye open. Evidently the left eye open is more common. And sometimes we have Santa with a lazy eye.Two more favorites. Both marked Howard Holt. Santa both eyes open.

This fellow is big and I think he is a cookie jar missing his hat.  He is displayed with the mugs.

Mrs. Clause smiles from a couple of mugs.

Santa mug with hat handle. This one is taller and I think may be a Santa vase.

This Santa scares me a bit. I would not want him to come down my chimney. 

Quite the variation on paint jobs.
Mr and Mrs. Clause are acutally egg cups. I dug them out a dumpster and they live with the mugs.

A fine, fine assortment of Santa mugs.  There really is a huge variety.  I don't add to this collection much, unless it is a mug I don't already have.

If you have an idea for a future challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show my your collection of ___".  I think this is the last Santa collection for awhile.  With that in mind, ho, ho, ho and happy day!

A Big Day

Today is my birthday.

This cute little vintage rattle arrived in my mailbox yesterday. My friend Doreen, sent him to me as a birthday gift.

I am smitten with the shoes..those vintage details.

In case you were wondering.  I have not quite reached that milestone birthday.  Close, but not yet. I guess I could give some sort of clue...

There you go. Happy Day to Me!

I do a birthday post every year.  You can see past posts here, here, here, here and here.

Estate Sale Friday. How Long Since I Said Those Words?

Finally, finally hit an estate sale today.  Still not much out there to choose from, but I needed that fix today.  I hit one sale half an hour after it opened.  A huge line snaked out front of people waiting to get in.  I decided to run a couple of errands first and returned an hour later to find no line.

Was not an amazing sale and the prices on some stuff were high. I found enough to make my trip worthwhile.

Satin balls in pink and white perfect for crafting.  I also found a BIG bag of vintage plastic flowers which are great to take apart for crafting.

The bag with the flowers also held some plastic strawberries. Was also happy to find a bag of old whistles.
Some fun Easter picks and chenille chicks (all in one grab bag of Easter).Foil letters from a old holiday banner and some gold ornaments. 

A bag of old plastic pink doilies was my favorite find of the day. 

A decent start to the year in estate sale land!  Happy day!

Frosty Love Front Window

I have all my New Years decorations up and will for a couple of weeks. My front window has a different look tho.

Remember this cardboard scene I found awhile ago at an antique shop?

It was time for this darling couple to make their debut in my front window.

I added some old felt snow at the base and a sprinkling of vintage pink, turquoise and silver ornaments.

I hung some vintage cardboard snowflakes from the ceiling that framed the whole scene. Here we are looking in from outside. A fun little wintery land waiting to see if we actually get snow this season!

Brrrr...happy day!

Collection Challenge #138 - Vintage Tin Noisemakers

With New Years Day today I thought it the perfect time to share my collection of vintage tin noisemakers. These are the ones I put out for New Years each year.  I shared them as part of challenge #66, but I added a few new ones this year.

Part of the attraction is the great graphics. Sax playing fellow with his band.

Throw some dancing ladies into the mix.

Clowns are a very popular design.

Gals in top hats and shorts...adorable.

Do you think this couple shared a kiss at midnight?

These were a "Life of the Party" product. What a swell name for a product. The jester is a vintage noisemaker. The noisemakers with the graphic patterns are all newer, but look great thrown in the mix.
Girls in polka dot skirts.
This pair of noisemakers make a ton of noise.  More clown graphics and I love the unusual shape.

This noisemaker looks like quite the wild party scene. 
I did not use these noisemakers last night to celebrate. Quiet night with hubby and a movie.  The kids were both out at parties.  Hope your evening was good to you.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "show me your collection of ___."  Now that the holidays are over, I can move on beyond them!

Happy day and happy 2013.