Magpie Ethel

Estate Sale Friday/Saturday....Moody

I wasn't expecting much this weekend. I only had an hour on Friday to hit sales and most of the sales for Saturday didn't look too enticing.  I found very little on Friday and when I left my house this morning my mood was not very optimistic.  I returned victorious and in a much better frame of mind.

I really like the big metal cabinet. It is a bit rusty and has two doors that shut. There is a drawer on the bottom that is divided into sections. It is going to live outside. The great floral tablecloth will be added to my stash.

A nice tree topper, a drum (I think I have found a drum or two each week for about the past month), some tiny old party favor axes and a vintage washcloth with the original price of 15 cents. The mohawk boy was in a grab bag. I bought a bag of clothespins because I wanted the colored ones.  I got a couple of half doll faces for crafting. A Spangler brand candy cane Santa and the lid and ladle to a pineapple syrup container with a great black and white porcelain knob. I thought the Santa would be fun danging from a jar of candy canes during the holidays.  
A trio of swisstraw bundles (for crafting) and a box of chalk I DID NOT HAVE for my collection! 

A nice foil Easter egg candy box. A box of red Anagram letters and a blue divided box. The box will head to the studio for some Fourth of July fun. An old metal Good Seasons salad dressing display shelf.
I have no idea what a walnut filled chip is, but this was a big green tin that once held them. I always buy the red striped tins when I run across them as they are great for display. I was taking some photos for Instagram the other day and really wanted a toy cow. I now own not one, but two..one big, one small.  The fabric hanging down behind the cow is a long strip of yardage with a great cheery floral
It was nice to have a change in mood today after hitting a few good sales. Evidently vintage is the cure-all for me!
Happy day!

 

 

Ooops! I Forgot a Pair. #207

Amy had suggested the challenge for yesterday's post on vintage shoes (that don't fit my feet). She also pointed out after I did my post that I forgot a pair.

This pair needs their 15 minutes of fame. Vintage swim shoes.  They don't fit my feet nor would I try to wear them as they have become brittle with age. I got them at the Alameda Flea Market. They are in with my vintage swim caps for my someday beach house. They were intended to wear around the pool deck or to and from a swim.

The little bows on the toes!  The two fish are old water bottles.  One was gifted to me by a blog reader Bette after she saw the other one I had. (thank you)

Another pair of crazy shoes that make me smile..

Collection Challenge #207- Vintage Shoes (That Don't Fit My Feet)

I bought a pair of super cool vintage shoes the other day at an estate sale. They don't fit my feet but I love the pointy toes. I texted Amy a photo of them and she texted me back and said "clown shoes, kid shoes, crazy shoes..show me your collection of shoes!"  It dawned on me that I DO COLLECT SHOES!

These are the shoes that prompted her to text me.  I love their Ked like look.  Those pointy toes...those stripes...they are awesome! Amy was also with me on the Alameda roadtrip when I purchased these amazing shoes.  They don't fit either.  They are child's shoes and I love the color and the darling bows.

I love this tiny pair of shoes so much they are currently living in my living room under a cloche. A tiny work of art.

You may remember my post on the PINK clown shoes I bought.  They make me smile.  They don't fit me either (my feet swim in them).

This pair of baby shoes definitly don't fit me. I could not pass by their sweet little bunny cutouts. I display them at Easter hanging from a cabinet knob.

This pile of baby shoes have all come my way due to my collection of baby shoe boxes.  Sometimes a pair of shoes is still tucked inside.

My first pair of shoes that I picked up (that do not fit) were picked up years ago. They are golf shoes and I picked them up because of their patriotic look. I display them during the 4th of July holiday.

For the record I wear a size 8 and have super flat feet. I really should buy shoes that fit, but this collection of off the wall shoes bring a smile to my face and I can't pass them by.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ___."  One two, buckle my shoe....

Estate Sale Friday/Saturday

I hit one sale yesterday and two today. I was not expecting much with it being a holiday weekend, but I still did well.

A couple of old Gurley Halloween jack-o-lantern candles, a fun shoe shine box and a large bottlebrush tree. A village of putz style holiday houses.
A couple of old felt holiday stockings.

A Rempel rabbit (say that ten times fast) and a tiny kitty.  The kitty will head to my holiday crafting box. A couple of squeaky toys and a bunch of gold holiday picks. I bought a random bag of party stuff. I was thrilled to find some vintage silk American flags and some Dennison four leaf clovers. The two holiday drums were in a box with assorted Christmas ornaments.

This balloon bag was in with the above goodies and was a super bonus. I am in love with the little blue bird tweeting "Always ask for Blue Bird".  The balloons are past their prime, but I am keeping this sweet little item..original price 10 cents.

Loose mercury glass garland beads and some "Made in Japan" netting butterflies.

Some assorted holiday ornaments including 6 strands of mercury glass garland. I sure get lucky finding that garland.  One lone ceramic angel.

Decent weekend finds.  I sure love estate sale land..new treasures each and every sale!

How To - Vintage Style Flashcards

My post yesterday with my vintage telephones had many people commenting on my flashcards I sprinkled through the post.

I make the majority of my flashcards. I have some vintage ones, but I often need a word I don't have so I decided to make them. They are super easy!

Here is my stash of flashcards that live in my studio. I keep them in this old wire rack.

These are vintage flashcards. They come in an assortment of sizes.  The vintage ones seem to often have a tiny word or number up in one corner. I don't bother with that detail when I make mine.

Here are some I have made over the years.

I make the flashcards on my computer and use my printer.  I buy manila file folders to use for the paper.  I think I got this box at an estate sale.  I REALLY like it when I find some older used folders in a free pile at an estate sale as the paper looks a bit more aged.  I didn't have any on old ones on hand..so am resorting to new ones.

I cut the folder in half and then cut the two pieces down as close to 8.5 x 11 as I can get them.  I am not precise with the size (sometimes when cutting off the tab it compromises the size) and my printer has no problem taking something just under a normal paper size. Sometimes I use my paper cutter and sometimes I just wing it with scissors.

Watch out if your folder has creases like this as you don't want to words to print through them. Also beware that some folders have a logo on one side and you want to make sure that prints on the flip side.

I then just print the words out on the manila paper.  I use Times Roman in 60 point type. I use my computer word processing program (Microsoft works). I fit as many words as I can on a page.  Eddie from Eddie-Torial Comments left a comment yesterday on my post and asked if I every found cards with words like "Gosh" or "Gee Whillikers".  I thought those would be perfect words to use for this tutorial. (thanks Eddie)

I just eyeball them when I cut them out.  These are roughly 1.75 wide and then the length of the card depends on the word.

The one trick to make them look like flashcards is to round the corners. I use a corner rounder that I got from Creative Memories years ago. I am sure you can find a similar product at the craft store.

Freshly made flashcards!  Super easy!  You could age them a bit if you wanted to with some distressing ink, but I usually don't bother.

Happy creating.  Happy day!

Collection Challenge #206- Vintage Metal Toy Telephones

Last Saturday I hit a local vintage sale and scored three metal telephones in one booth.  They came home to join some that I already had.

Dang. I only found the receiver for this phone.

Love the well loved look of these old phones. They have definitely been played with and had many a conversation.

The Dial O Phone marking on this one with that script writing....adorable!

A fun little collection.  I don't find them often and if I do the price is often more than I want to pay. I got lucky this past weekend.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____." You never know what collection will be dialed in each week!

 

Vintage Christmas Gambling

A few years ago I did a post on my type of gambling.  I talked about how I had never been to Las Vegas or a casino.  Poker, slot machines and the like all hold little interest for me. That has not changed.  Today I gambled my style..on a box of vintage Christmas. 

It was a huge bin at an estate sale and had no price.  I asked and the harried woman said she had not had time to go through it.  I glanced through the first few layers and it was older stuff.  I asked her again if she could give me a price and she threw a higher price at me.  I decided to gamble and told her I would take it.

I had so much fun going through the layers of tissue and holding my breath hoping I had not overpaid.  I didn't. It was a good box of Christmas.

There were quite a few ornaments made from the old silvery tinsel.  Lots of figural ornaments, bells, indents and some I had never seen before.

There were quite a few plain ornaments (some are huge though), a Santa boot candy container marked Germany, a flocked deer, chenille candy canes, Christmas to/from tags, a tablecloth with original label and about 6 strands of mercury glass garland.

Lots of fun sparkle.  Big and little ornaments!

This oversize garland (at the bottom of photo) will be perfect for the Fourth of July on that spinach can holiday tree (yesterday's post)!

Here are my favorite things from the bin. I love all the tiny indents and the fruit.

A pair of spun cotton fruit, some great cotton sheep and two little wood angel candle ornaments (Made in Germany, US Zone).

The Santa is awesome.

A couple of the ornaments I have never seen before. There was some fruit/vegetables..a plum, a tomato, a potato, a lemon and a pear.  I think this is a tomato.

Here is a plum? It is flocked and love the coloring.

It did end up being a good box and a good gamble.  PHEW!

Estate Sale Friday. A Good Day.

I hit one sale yesterday and two today.  I love estate sale land and am so glad the season is starting up again!  None of the sales were amazing, but I still managed to find some fun things at each one.

(Please ignore the wonky photo. My 50 year old picnic table that was my grandfather's is finally rotting out. The cattywampus angle is due to a very broken leg)

One of my most unusual finds this week was this CARDBOARD child's cabinet.  I believe it came unassembled as there are marked slots to help someone put it together.  I have never seen one like this before.

An old Chinese Checkers set with the original box and marbles.  I also found a pair of Holt Howard cats and a sweet little set of deer. I was semi lucky with a few things in the holiday department.  A Santa mug with jeweled eyes, a lone pincecone elf, jingle bells on original cards, heart picks, ornaments, paper pulp bell (Western Germany), tinsel reflectors and lots of tiny ornanents.

A darling big eyed skunk, a recipe box and an old Crosswords game with fun letter game pieces.

I could not pass by a silly FROSH hat.
Some tinsel Christmas picks/plastic floral in a vase (for a dime) and a cute paper deer cutout.
A great Humpty Dumpty, a floral candy tin and a super duper USA trash can.  I also got a bunch of cardboard boxes to craft with. I have been to Michaels TWICE in the past week to buy a couple. Once the registers were down and the other time they were out of stock.  I guess it was meant to be to find them at an estate sale! My daughter Kate, loves vintage things with maps and has claimed the trash can. It was in the garage with a bunch of tools in it.  The garage is often where you find gold!

This felt snowman has seen better days but he will see a little Magpie Ethel love in the studio. A little tomato pincushion (with attached striped tin) and a smiling little gal. I got this spinach tin because of the red white and blue colors.
Last Sunday while driving home from some errands I saw a free pile in front of house. I plucked this old white tree from the pile.  Tada..a Fourth of July tree! I just need to add some decorations.
A good day in estate sale land.  Sunny skies, saw some junking friends and found fun stuff.

Hope your weekend is happy.

Baby Rattles Find A Home

All those baby rattles from yesterday's challenge needed a new spot to live.  They looked sweet in my studio, but I didn't have room to have them grouped together.

I decided they were moving into my bedroom (and my husband was fine with it). I had been searching for a shelf for awhile for them to live on.  Last week I hit HomeGoods and found the perfect one.  I like the two tiered shelf.  It was new, but chippy so it looked like it had some age. It also was the perfect size for this spot on the wall.

Bonus was that it was mesh like so it made it easy to hang some of the rattles from.

I was able to group them all together and I still have room for more. This is a shelf of happy!
Super happy...and a great new spot to live

Collection Challenge #205- Vintage Baby Rattles with Faces

I did a post on baby rattles and teethers on challenge #72. Since that time (two and a half years) I have become very enamoured with rattles with faces. Very enamoured. In my previous post I had four of this variety.

These smiling faces have been living in my studio.  There is just something about their darling expressions that speak to me.

They come in a variety of sizes and styles. Here are those of the handle variety.

This fellow is lacking a few facial features. He stands on his own and has the most darling details on his shoes.

This cutie was given to me by a blogland friend Doreen, for my birthday.
These two are both meant to suction onto something. The suction on the left has seen better days. The majorette head is a favorite.

Note the bow detail in her hair.

The majority of my collection I have found locally. Every once in awhile I get one off Ebay or Etsy.
They are usually made of plastic. I have a couple that are celluloid.  An assortment of beads make up their bodies as well..so many variations on style,shapes and colors.

Some are in their original packaging.

These smiling faces are just hard to resist!  The smaller heads have bells inside and were attached to baby slippers.  When the child walked they would jingle.
I gravitate towards human faces, but a few animal heads have snuck their way in as well.

I really, really like this collection.  It finally has outgrown the spot in my studio and was scattered here and there.  Since I really like things grouped together, I had to find a new spot for them. That post coming tomorrow.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____."  Fun to share a collection that has grown so much!