Magpie Ethel

Easter

Happy Easter.

Nothing cuter than vintage Easter stuff. I am packing mine up today so I don't have to return from Texas and have it waiting for me to do.  Leaving for Round Top bright and early in the morning.  Have a wonderful day and a happy week!

Easter Bonnet Parade And A Confession.

I shared a photo on a recent post of my cotton Easter chick collection.

I love the variety of hats that these little chicks wear.

For being such a simple item, these chicks sure have an assortment of headgear!

This Napoleon style hat is a favorite.

Chicks in top hats.

Now for my chick confession.  I am a chick snob.  I only collect the older chicks with the wire feet.

It must be some sort of vintage wire foot fetish.

True confession....but this fetish only applies to chick feet.  I have no other feet issues.

Estate Sale Friday.

Slim pickings in estate sale land with a holiday weekend.  I ran out at 6:30 this morning to sign up on a list and was number 2(the list went out this morning).  The sale was advertised on Craigslist and was tooted as the estate of a woman who had been a sorter for the Salvation Army in her day.  That part sounded great.  I had been to a sale a few weeks ago at the same house, so wasn't too sure what I would find tho.

It was worth my time.  I seemed to shop with a holiday theme today.

A bunch of blue teardrop shaped ornaments that will be great for the Fourth of July as well as a box of tiny ones.

I scored in the pink department.  I don't find pink garland often, so was thrilled to find two full boxes of it.  I like this smaller thinner size.  I also found a bunch of pink cluster ornaments.

Coronation souvenir tin dated 1953.

I got lucky again with cardboard holiday cutouts. I don't have these jointed witches.

The Halloween was one price for the lot including the witches above. It was a good day.  Evidently the company that held the sale buys out estates which explains why I had been at the house the other day. 

Happy day!

 

Happy Easter Hop Dance

Yesterday I hit a local creative reuse center where they have a hodge-podge of arts, crafts and office supplies.  I don't hit it often and I don't always walk out with anything.

Yesterday I did the happy dance ...or should I call it the happy Easter hop?  A huge stash of vintage cardboard Easter cutouts. Some in the smaller 6 inch size and some in the larger 12 inch or so size.

They were all in a big plastic tub with some more contemporary Easter decorations.  I had to dig a bit...but the digging was good.

Most of them are of the older variety, although I did pick up these that a bit more contemporary.

I think my happy Easter hop was well deserved!  I ended up with 21 cutouts!

I may be happy hopping for a few days.

Easter Decorating, China Hutch

My china hutch always become a good decorating spot during a holiday.  For Easter it houses my candy box collection, a few rabbits and some vintagee chicks. (please excuse the reflection in the glass)

Top of the hutch.

Doors open on the china hutch.

I do like my Easter decorations!

Bunny Tutorial

I am often inspired by vintage creations that I see or find.  With my Etsy orders I send a little something extra with each order.  One of the items I tucked in some boxes was a handmade bunny.

They were super simple to make, so I thought I would share.

Bunny heads cupcake picks.  These are vintage, but some cake decorating stores carry similar items.

For this project you will need bump chenille, florist wire, a cupcake pick head, pipe cleaner and embellishments.  I also used a hot glue gun.

Wrap the pipe cleaner around a pencil to make the bunny body. I just wrap it round and round to form a coil.  I used about half a pipe cleaner and saved the other half for the bunny arms.  I used two "bumps" of the bump chenille for the legs.

These are the bunny parts unassembled.  I slid the pencil out of the pipe cleaner coil.  I bent the bump chenille so the top of the V would pop into one end of the pipe cleaner coil. Bend the pipe cleaner into a V so you can find the middle and glue that at the base of the neck.

Here is the bunny assembled. I hot glue the legs, arms and head into place.

I add a loop of florist wire for hanging.  I hot glue it to the top.  I love hot glue.

Embellishing is the fun part.  I use ribbon and millinery flowers for embellishment.

Here are the finished bunnies.  I always have to play around with a project.  I had a couple of fatter patterned straws on my work surface and used a couple of those cut down for a body instead of a pipe cleaner coil.  I added a skirt to one bunny.  They all got little ribbon bows and flowers. It is fun to see the variations on each bunny.

Easy peasy.  Perhaps some of these bunnies will be hopping into your Easter crafting.

 

Collection Challenge #150 - Vintage Gameboards

Vintage game boards.  I grew up playing games with my family. My favorite game as a kid was Pig in the Garden where you fed a pig vegetables.  I did a post on my game boards quite awhile ago, but my collection has grown and it needs to be officially included in Collection Challenge.

I often find just the game board and no playing pieces or box.  I like the boards because of the graphics

Branded. Dated 1966.

Walt Disney's Fantasyland. Jack And The Beanstalk. Dated 1957.

I love the patriotic graphics on this Our USA game. Dated 1962.
Products and Resources?  Dated 1962

Diver Dan Tug-O-War game has a great underwater scene. Lolli-Pop Lane. With stops on the game board at places with fun names..like Martha Marshmallows.

Huckleberry Hound Western Game
The Merry Bell Game. Dated 1957.

I have two versions of Uncle Wiggly Game. 

This version is dated 1954.  I believe the game board above is earlier, but is not dated.
The boards are very similar, but the images have been updated over time. Here are two images of the Bad Pipsisewah.

Go To The Head Of The Class The Tripoly game board is my all time favorite in terms of graphics. Dated 1939.The Shopping Center Game. Dated 1957.

Another favorite game board is Pirate's Island
Supercar To The Rescue. Dated 1962.Casper The Friendly Ghost. Dated 1959.
Chutes and Ladders.
  I have always meant to do a project with the boards, but have yet to do so.  I like the way when they are all laid out they look like a big patchwork quilt.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ___."  Did you notice this was my 150th collection challenge?  I have diligently posted every week for 150 weeks.  I am taking a break next week.  I leave for Round Top on Monday and am taking a little collection challenge vacation while I look for vintage goodies in Texas.  Who knows I may start a whole new collection on my trip!

Easter Decorating, Living Room

I showed a couple of snippets from the living room in my last Easter post.  Here are a few more.

I have a ton of cotton vintage chicks.  I think I counted 130.  I display them with vintage Easter grass and tin Easter baskets.

I have quite a few new nodders this year and corralled them all up in a old metal wire floor display.

Living room mantle. The honeycomb egg garland was a lucky find this past year.

I love this holiday. Pastel colors and springtime goodies...fun stuff.

Estate Sale Friday and Spring Daffodils

I has a small window of time today for estate sale land before I needed to pick Ben up from college for his spring break.

I hit two estate sales. The first estate sale was crazy. You can email the company to get on the list to get in.  I have no idea where my name fell on the list I only know I hustled in the door when my name was called.  There were probably 80 or 90 people in the house and you could barely move.

I usually go through the house a couple of times to see if I missed things on the first round.  Once was enough with all these folks in the house.  I found some goodies and was out the door.

A stack of plastic frames with a tiny floral motif on them (perfect for a craft project) and a battered metal pot. A great green vase with nice detail on the base and a vintage first aid kit.
Evidently the original owner of the first aid kit never had a medical mishap as I don't believe the kit has been used.

A few boxes of ornaments and some nice oversize cardboard vintage bells.

Some smaller Christmas ornaments and some satin balls for crafting.

I use old pipe cleaners (the kind that were sold to actually clean pipes) quite a bit in my crafting.  I thought this old tin would be fun to display them in...plus I like the fellow's crazy mustache.

Hawaiian punch can and old plastic bells.

This box was purchased for one dime. Stardust Knit Undies.  This will be a very cute storage box.

Daffodils?  I had to pick Ben up in Corvallis and I know from past experience that this time of the year there are roadside honor system stands that sell bouquets of fresh field daffodils.

It was a happy day.

 

Demo Day and Vintage Bathroom Stash

I mentioned awhile ago that we are redoing our main floor bathroom.  We have been waiting for a bathtub to be delivered before we started demo. The bathtub will be here on Monday so today was demo day.  The dumpster was delivered this morning and demo quickly followed.

One crazy thing about this demo was the floor that we found under the brown hex tile that probably dated to the 1970s.  The original floor was white hex tile with yellow trim. It is similar to the new floor that I will be installing.  I wish it could have been saved.  Here is a bit in the dumpster with the brown tile on top. It even had sweet little yelow details.

We got rid of the weird short wall at one end of the arch and it is now evened out.

There was an original medicine cabinet here once.  Why did they take it out?  I am happy to report that after going down to the lathe and plaster that there are no hidden problems.  Phew.

With this bathroom remodel I have been gathering vintage goodies as they crossed my path at estate sales for the past year or two.  I don't know if they will all work, but this is my stash.

I had a major haul with vintage glass towel bars at one sale.  That is 7 bars with hardware on the ends, plus two extra glass rods.  I am going to use a couple but will not be putting up this many in my bathroom!

I need to clean up the hanging metal hardware on the ends, but at least they have the original hardware and I don't need to hunt it down.

I also have these towel bars and matching soap dish. I like the color, but they may end up elsewhere and not in the bathroom.

I got this laundry hamper the other day after being the high bidder with a bid box.  I am hoping it will work in the bathroom. I don't need it for dirty clothes as the kids are both off at college and have hampers they already use.  I am going to use it to hold extra toilet paper.

This tin soap container came from my hoarder neighbor's house.  I like the script writing.

I love this old floral bath sheet. It is huge and I don't think it has been used.

I also have floral towels monogrammed with an M.  I don't have any Ms in my name unless you count the magpie. I have bath towels and hand towels.

I love this old chenille bath rug.

The graphics on this old soap dispenser are awesome.  I got this at Farm Chicks.  I have a project in mind for it.

I am excited to put some of these finds to use when the bathroom is done.  I am sure they all won't work, but I know I definitely want some vintage details in the room, and these are a good start. 

More bathroom updates to come as the project rolls along.  The plumber comes tomorrow.

It was a happy day!