Magpie Ethel

Collection Challenge #187 - Vintage New Year

With 2014 about to hit it made perfect sense to share my New Years collection. I have shared snippets of the collection before with #66 Vintage Party and #138 Vintage Tin Noisemakers.

There is always more to share though.

Large Dennison paper cutout.

Vintage New Year head bands

Giant New Year foil and glitter cutout bells. A trio of old New Year plates with fun graphics.


Two paper table cloths in original wrappers to go along with those party plates.

A New Year place mat.

A New Year banner.

Another New Year banner.  Foil, and in the original packaging. A New Year party horn.

A darling bridge tally.

One of my favorite finds this year was this celluloid head top hat fellow. He is part of my New Year decorations. Darling huh?

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____."  We have run out of time for suggestions this year, but 2014 and 52 more collections are yet to be discovered.

Happy Day and Happy New Year.  Make it a safe one.

 

 

Collection Challenge #186 - Vintage Night Before Christmas

It seemed fitting on Christmas Eve to do a Night Before Christmas collection challenge. Someone asked me about a challenge like this last year, but I didn't have things together to do a post..this year I was prepared.

Was the Night before Christmas..

Vintage Shiny Brite ornament with Night before Christmas graphic.

Night before Christmas..cutest Gurley candle set ever.

The candles aren't in the best shape, but still charming. The little fellow looking up the chimney is just adorable.

Night before Christmas..assortment of vintage books.

A giveaway from a family that owned a Texaco gas station.

Little Golden Book, dated 1969

Dated 1964

I especially love the older Night before Christmas books.

Dated 1939

There is nothing like the old illustrations.

Coloring book, dated 1939.

Dated 1949

Dated 1940

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

I hope Santa is good to you this year. Happy Holidays.

 

 

Clock Is Ticking

 
2014 is just around the corner and I had to get a few New Year's gals ready to hit the road to Etsy. I went ahead and listed them. No heads up as I wanted to get them mailed ASAP for the New Year. They are on Etsy now.

How this year has flown by!

Holiday Land #4 - Reindeer/Deer Land

I mixed up my spot where I display my reindeer collection. I moved it primarily because of the awesome reindeer head I found last year.

I displayed all my vintage trees and assorted reindeer in this little niche.

The wreath behind the giant head stays up year round.

Reindeer and trees.

A variety of trees and reindeer.  I like them displayed together.
I also found one rubber reindeer face the other day at a local antique mall. I need to do something with it, but haven't had time. I think perhaps it was from a stuffed animal?  Thoughts? I may make a kitschy holiday pillow with it.

Reindeer Land..vintage style.

 

Holiday Land #3 - Shiny, Shiny

I named my blog Magpie Ethel for personal reasons.  One, magpies collect shiny, glittery things.  Two, Ethel was my grandmother and it is a good old fashioned name.  That is her photo on my the left side of my masthead.

I started out my shiny, shiny world with not one, not two, but THREE vintage aluminum trees found in my crawlspace adventure.  I love them at night with my color wheel on them.

We didn't cut down our traditional Christmas tree this year. I did not get out my box of usual ornaments but only got out those old Shiny Brite like ornaments.  I love how they pop on the trees.

Love all the color and shapes and aparkle.


I have one smaller table top aluminum tree that lives in a vintage wastepaper basket. Love the graphics on the bucket.

I love the pop of shiny color garland between my living room and dining room that hangs from the ceiling. I hang it there with fishing line that is attached to the picture molding on either side of the wall.

If you lie down on the floor underneath the garland this is the pop of color that you see looking up!

I have a shiny world of swags, ornament candles and beaded garland that I display on a table. 
Paperwhites are a holiday favorite and I force them for the holidays each year. I force them in pots and  put ornament swags over the top and the paperwhite just grow up in between.

Santa with one more shiny vintage aluminum tree.

Love, love the shiny world.  A house that makes me happy.

PS. I found one more light up Santa for my Santa land. One I did not have and could not pass by.  Happy Day!

 

 

Holiday Land #2 - Santa Land

I have a thing for Santa at my house. That is evident when you see my front porch.

This year I really mixed it up in my living room.  Once you walk in the front door it is ho, ho, ho...Santa Land!  I have a collection of Santa heads. They have always lived in my basement. As my collection has grown I ran out of room in the basement, so this year I brought them upstairs and made a wall of them. Walk in the front door and bam! Santa Land!

I got a rubber faced Santa last year at one of Aunt Tillie's sales. It sits in the living room on its own chair surrounded by Santa heads.

Last week Pam, of Plucky Maidens fame brought me a larger rubber faced Santa. He is about 40 times the size of the other one...a tweedledee and tweeldledum pair!
Vintage cardboard Santas on top of my cabinet.

An aluminum tree with assorted Santa friends.

My favorite Santa head just fit in the nook above my fireplace.

I hung vintage Santa photos and cardboard Santa photo folders from a garland above the Santa head.
I got an old mirror the other day at an estate sale. I had a project in mind when I bought it. I added some vintage sytrofoam letters that I had to the front of it and some vintage bump chenille poinsettias to decorate the top.
A few cardboard Santas add to the fun.

Ho, ho, ho! 

Loving Santa land!

Holiday Land #1 - Snowman Land

I found three new items which added to the charm of Snowman land this year. First, I found a giant snowman head in Round Top, Texas when Amy and I made that trip earlier this year. Second, I found a fabulous Season's Greetings sign (which needed repairs). Third, I found a great big turquoise striped candy tin at Plucky Maidens. Snowman land is better than ever!

Most of the snowman are vintage. There are I think about 4 that are new but made to look vintage. I seem to add a few new characters each year.
This large striped candy tin was perfect for this holiday scene. I also used some other vintage candy containers to add height and fun to the display. The snowman with the blue hat is a light up fellow.
A pair of white vintage trees are perfect here. The snowman ornaments I do have seem to pop off that white.

I think if I was a vintage snowman this is where I would want to live!

Collection Challenge #185 - Vintage Holiday Angels

Karen from Recycled Rita challenge me to show a collection of angels. She collects them herself and wondered what my collection looked like.  I don't actively seek out angels, but have acquired a heavenly group over the years.  I did a post on spun head angels on challenge #137, but I have others beyond those.

Each year this little ceramic pair lives in my bathroom.

I have a trio of Gurley style vintage candles. This is a sad look angel

This pair of candles are much cuter than the other angel even though they are a bit faded. They are attached to their original cardboard base.

Three little ceramic angels that have been made into tassels hang from my living room lamp each holiday season.

I also have some darling ceramic head angels.  Here we have one modelling the ever so angelic sombrero like hat.

The ceramic head angels with the netting bodies are so charming.  In cream netting.

Teeny tiny in cream netting.

A darling angel in pink netting.

I also have a few sheets of vintage wrapping paper with angels.

Thank you Karen for your angelic challenge. If you have an idea for a future challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ___." I know you are hanging on the edge of your seat for the next challenge post...

Happy day!

 

Crafty Wonderland SHOWTIME!

I spent the past weekend as a vendor at one of my favorite holiday shows of the year, Crafty Wonderland.  This is my fifth year doing the show and it is like no other.  I love to see my vendor friends and my customers that come year to year and tell me how much pleasure they get from my creations that they purchase. I love my large booth (10x10) where I can work some holiday magic and make my own colorful, glittery world that I can share.  It is a show that leaves me exhausted, but with a happy glow for the holidays. There were over 15,000 customers that shopped the show so it has great traffic. A crazy, crazy weekend!

This post is picture heavy.  Very picture heavy. Come on in the booth and take a look around.

Tom made a PVC pipe curtain backdrop for me this year. My mom helped sew some teal curtains. It worked like a charm and gave me a color wall to work with rather than look into the next booth. If you notice quite a few of shelves that I use are vintage ironing boards.

Doll face tree topper and reflector clips.

Ornaments that showcase vintage doo-dads. They are soldered with glass that would go over a clock face.

I had three different trees that were covered in handmade ornaments.
I am tickled when I craft with items that become magical. This ceramic dog head had no body and needed a new life.

Vintage rubber deer heads grinned at customers from the tree.

I love to hunt all year and stockpile my vintage finds for holiday crafting. Each year what I have is unique.

Snowy friends smiled at me while I manned my booth.  I also had help both days as it is just busy.

A sea of swimming swans for birthdays.






Tree number two was covered in Carmen Miranda fairies and Holiday Greeting Elves.


Using vintage containers and props added to the fun in the booth.

Party birds were a big seller. Some will be flying to Etsy soon as well.

I have a huge black folding cabinet with shelves. I line them all with flipped Putz style houses and ceramic deer.  What a neighborhood of color and whimsy!

Felt angels.

I used this full size turquoise heavy duty metal ironing board for part of my display this year.  It was AMAZING as it provided just the right amount of flat space and a spot to showcase my repurposed vintage jewelery boxes.

I did a post the other day on vintage glass birds.  I sent some out into the world after adding spun glass tails and mercury glass perches for them to sit on. I was smitten with vintage pixies this year.

If you have made it to the end of this picture heavy post I congratulate you!  Thank you to Cathy and Torie for once again putting on an amazing event. Thank you to my customers both old and new.  What a holiday season this has been. 

Happy Day!

 

 

 

 

 

Showtime Attire

When I have my shows I always try and wear something that fits with the look of my booth.  Here is what is currently in my holiday show attire rotation.

I have my own personal tailor.  Amy from Into Vintage is kind enough to help me with my latest holiday look. This year I got a cropped blazer from H&M on sale.  It was a perfect holiday color, but needed a little funkiness.  I had Amy use some of my vintage holiday hankies and she worked some needle magic for me.

Here is a closer look at the details. Along the front is the edging from a hankie. I covered the buttons in vintage holiday fabric.

Another couple of hankies provided the little trim along the bottom of the jacket.

I had one great hankie that we could not figure out what to do with. Clever Amy came up with the idea of using it kerchief style on the rear of the jacket. The Santa has google eyes! (He was found at an estate sale with those eyes)

Cute huh?

My second outfit in my show attire rotation was also embellished by clever Amy.  I got a gingham shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch. (I got it in the men's department on sale.)  I provided Amy with some old holiday aprons and she used the fabric to applique Santas onto the shirt.

I had some trim that was candy cane striped and Amy used it to add to the festive look.  The candy cane in the pocket is from a vintage aprons.

My last look in my closet is a necklace. I found it when cleaning out my neighbor's hoarder house a few years ago. It is hand crafted and made with glass garland.

I get compliments on this necklace whenever I wear it. Over the years some of the glass garland beads have broken, but it is still amazing. I was super excited last year to find a nearly identical necklace at a local antique mall. It was a bit fuller and a little longer.

Now I can wear both of them together for more vintage bling!!

Fun to mix it up from show to show and I enjoy fitting in with what I sell. Easy to get dressed on the morning of a show too!

Speaking of shows, today is load in day to Crafty Wonderland.  I will spend the weekend manning my booth and selling holiday treasures. Post coming on the show. Wish me luck!

If you are local come by and see which outfit I am wearing!