Magpie Ethel

My Kitchen

Blogland friend Melissa has been after me to show some of my kitchen. We updated it a few years ago and I am still in love with what we did. I tried to keep it vintage looking to fit our 1940s Tudor house. 

It is not a big kitchen by any means. I have had to make the most of space and be creative.

This is looking from our back door into the kitchen.

This is standing near the table looking the other way.

The yellow door in the back is our back door.  The white door in front of that is a kitchen door that is usually open but is handy to shut if there are kids in the basement for a slumber party. (stairs to basement are back there too) The floors are Pergo and are a great blue color. When I first had them installed I chose them to match counter-tops that were there when we moved in. The old blue counter-tops have been replaced with marble, but the blue Pergo is still a fun kick of color..plus it is still in great shape after 18 years.

The kitchen has the original cabinets. I painted them all white at first and didn't like it. I repainted the bottom cabinets a vintage green and was much happier with that look. I ALWAYS have fresh flowers on my kitchen windowsill. There are also lots of vintage touches of course.  Note the vintage green towel bar below the sink.

I gather all my soaps on the counter on a vintage enamel tray with green trim.

My splurge in my kitchen were this reconditioned O'Keefe and Merritt vintage stove. I had it shipped from Kansas.  I have very little counter space, so Tom and my dad made the cabinet next to the stove that houses my microwave. I don't mind the microwave being low and the extra counter space beside the stove is a bonus. The cabinet has a galvanized metal top.

My second splurge in the kitchen was this Northstar fridge. I seriously love this look of this fridge.  You can see behind the fridge on the wall a couple of vintage green metal shelves that I use for additional storage. There is tons of collected green metal in this kitchen..recipe boxes, a stool, trays etc.

The fridge is not magnetic on the front. That is fine by me as I like the clean, uncluttered look. The sides are magnetic so my calendar is on one side. We have a butler door on one side so it pretty much hides the calendar clutter but is still easy to access.

On the other side of the fridge is my cute vintage child's iron towel hook.

We are lucky to have a little nook in the kitchen where we eat about 95% or our meals. It has an original built in.

I added the mirror backing years ago.

Fun details like this old metal floral trivet which helps protect the top of the built in. Estate sale found.

I use part of the glass upper cabinet for everyday use for dishes and glasses.

I use part of the cabinet for vintage eye candy.

Silly details everywhere.

I really like my curtains. I open and close them every day.  I added these fabric bands and there are cup hooks/circles that I unhook and hook each day.  They work really well. The fabric is vintage.

Love the vintage style light fixtures from Schoolhouse Electric.

Vintage collected tin plates above the window along with my collection of curtain tie backs.

Kitchen shadow box. Post on that here. Fun to fill my cupboards with some happy plates.

Love this space. Definitely lots of vintage and green touches everywhere.

Fun, fun, fun!

Happy Day!

 

Collection Challenge #216- Vintage Doll Heads

Doll heads.  I found one the other day that just made me crazy happy and realized I have a small collection. I saw this particular head at Farm Chicks and did not buy it (you may have seen it on my IG feed if you follow me there). It stayed in my brain and when I saw it again at Palmer Wirfs Expo show, with the same vendor, I knew I had to bring it home.

I thought it was a doll head when I first saw it, but evidently it is a ball!  It is marked Tommy Boy on the back. I can't imagine it being tossed around and so glad it survived the years of being thrown about.

The best collection of doll heads I have seen was in Flea Market Style Magazine, Fall/Winter 2012 issue.  You can see the cabinet FULL of doll heads.

I will never have that amount as I only pick them up if they look forlorn or smile up at me from a sale. This gal lives in my studio. (her eyes blink back usually, so she does not have this sleepy eye look)

This gal lives in my studio too. I could not resist the blue bow!

My mom gave me this three faced doll a few years ago. She lives in my china hutch. Sometimes I flip it around to reflect my mood!

Usually the middle face is turned outwards..the other faces scare me a bit!

Short and sweet today and happy to bring Tommy Boy home to live with me and add to my stash!

If you have and idea for a future collection, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ___." Another week, another collection.

Estate Sale Saturday. My Morning Was Good.

I hit three sales today. One complete dud and two that were decent.

I have been on the hunt for an old flannel sleeping bag for my daughter Kate.  She is moving into a college house next year and has a woodsy/vintage map/outdoor theme going.  I love the old deer print on this bag.

I did well with Christmas. 3 boxes of vintage ornaments and some tiny teardrop ones.

Vintage mica/pinecone birds.

A vintage ornament hook box (for my collection) and a pair of holiday salt and pepper shakers.
This Santa mail pouch is taller than I am. A child's tea set with a cute little poodle by Ohio Art. Tom is really into the stars and I thought he may enjoy the Space Fun cards. Vintage honey tins.
Fun red, white and blue finds. The little sailor cap has red, white and blue panels on the top (barely visible from the photo).
A vintage fuzzy deer puzzle.
A great canister and a tiny child's dustpan. The glass knobs were in a hodgepodge of stuff in one of the honey tins.
A fun little embroidered kitchen towel. This sweet little celluloid doll was mixed in with a bunch of random household stuff in a very hot driveway. I felt sorry for her and she had to come home with me. I think I was hypnotized by that piercing stare.

I was pretty pleased with all my finds for the morning. As I walked out the door of one of the sales I spotted one last goodie which turned out to be one of my favorite finds.

A old juice glass that is decorated with vintage seahorses. Notice the waves that circle the bottom of the glass.

It was a good day in estate sale land.

Plucky Pickings

Today was one of those days when I went behind the scenes at an vintage show. My friend Pam put me to work. I spent the morning chalking out spaces and hanging up decorations for the Plucky Maidens Junk Fest here in Portland.  It was really fun to see the show come together and the anticipation that comes with an event like this.

This year the show was held at Oaks Amusement Park, which is an old fashioned park here in town.  It is on the Willamette River and has been around since 1905.  I have gone there since I was a kid. It was a fun venue for the Plucky Show.

It was a glorious day weather wise and vendors had lots of goodies to choose from. I did not leave empty handed.

The turquoise display shelf is awesome and angled to hold books or such.

Everything else I bought fit in this nifty little cooler.  Note the fun plastic flowers peeking out the top...such a jaunty load I carried as I shopped!

The nautical cooler was just too fun to pass up. Duffel cooler..how awesome is that? It is insulated to keep stuff cool.

This silly pocket hankie came home with me.  I love give-aways from businesses.

The rest of my finds from the day all seem to have a underwater theme to them. 

Vintage mermaids

Note the jeweled eye.

A great seahorse from the same vendor.

A tweet find here with this Lefton wall pocket.

It was a great day to be Plucky!

Happy Day!

Collection Challenge #216- Red and White Salt/Pepper/Sugar

This is one of those unintentional collections.  I had this one first. I bought it because I like the salt script writing and thought it may make a sweet vase.

A family friend was cleaning out cupboards and gifted me with this.
And also with this pair.

At the doozy of an estate sale this past weekend I picked up this mismatched pair. I liked the cute sailboats.

I realized I had a teeny collection going on.  I am not exactly sure what to even title this category...a category of red and white cute.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of _____." Big collections, little collections...something new each Tuesday!

p.s. I did a collection challenge on salt and pepper shakers on #28. None of these shakers were featured. The red and white graphic look is what I love with this group.

Estate Sale Friday/Saturday....Doozyville

Friday.  2 sales. #5 to get into a 10 a.m. sale (after waiting over an hour to get a number) 2nd sale I hit about an hour and a half after it opened.

Saturday.  2 sales. #2 to get into a 9 a.m. sale (actually was #6, but four people didn't show, so I moved up in line). DOOZY of a sale!!!  2nd sale I hit about two hours after opening and was glad I had chosen to hit the other sale first.  I found things at all the sales, but the first sale Saturday was a goldmine of vintage. I actually ended up hitting it three times!

I am still a bit overwhelmed with the the crazy amount of stuff that I found.  Little commentary today...lots of photos.

A crazy amount of vintage playing/game cards. This only scratches that surface.

I was thrilled to find these little ribbon flag pin-backs.  The silver sequin trim is made in France and is new to me for crafting!

Fun vintage fish wallpaper.

I got lucky with vintage Halloween.  Love the cardboard jack-o-lantern. I also scored on big rolls of vintage wrapping paper.
Pipe cleaners and 2 scrapbooks full of old greeting cards.
Quite a few squares of wallpaper from a vintage wallpaper book.
My spun head magnet was on.
I scored big the other day on old shelf edging and got lucky again this weekend.
One of the silliest but most charming things I bought was this vintage child's chicken costume. It is layers of crepe paper and includes the little cone beak.
I can only imagine some patient mother sewing this costume for their child.  The base is an old jacket or such with the original clothing tag.

Vintage decals. 
This old silver and blue box is actually once held perfume. I thought it would make a great Fourth of July base for display.

What a doozy of a sale! 

Happy Day!

 

Smitten, Tickled and In Love

The mailman delivered one of my favorite finds EVER TODAY.  A pair of cherubs. Their faces are adorable!

I was the high bidder and this pair is even cuter in person.

I have seen lots of vintage items, but never a pair like this before. They are about 15 inches tall and made of a plaster composition material. The little bulbs on the gifts light up.

Darling little wings at the back.

SERIOUSLY IN LOVE.  Won't they be cute at Valentine's Day?

Happy Day!

 

Collection Challenge #215- Vintage Big Little Books

Evidently Eddie of Eddie-torial Comments has been wracking his brain for quite awhile for a challenge for me. When he saw the Big Little Books lined up in one of the photos of my family room yesterday, he wanted to see more.

Here you go Eddie. A small collection with some interesting titles.  A trip down memory lane. These are all tiny books, roughly 4x5 in size.

Copyright 1969, hardcover.  I remember watching the Lone Ranger on tv.

Copyright 1968, hardcover.

I have never heard of this series/books so I have no clue who this cute little Blip is!

Copyright 1968, hardcover. 

Of course I know the Flinstones quite well.  I loved Fred and Wilma and can probably rattle the theme song off. Copyright 1968, hardcover.

A couple of Donald Duck books of different eras. The one on the left is hardcover and larger and is dated 1948. The one on the right is softcover and is dated 1973. And last but not least, dated 1949, hardcover.

Thanks Eddie, for the suggestion. A fun little collection. If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ___".

And lets see if you can remember all the words...

 

Yabadabadoo and Happy Day!

 

Family Room a la Peach Sorbet

Our basement family room has stood the test of time. Hard kid use for 15 years. Cream colored carpet that is not longer cream.  Couches that have hosted numerous slumber parties and that have become lumpy.  A glow stick opened on the carpet that left a permanent stain (grrr Brady) ...you get the picture...this room needed a little attention (visualize this space as I can't find the photos I took of the basement at its worst).

With both kids growing up and away most of the year it was time to reclaim this room and spiffy it up.  I wanted carpet as it is a basement and carpet makes it feel a bit cosier.  I chose a couple of boring beige carpet samples from the carpet store and then on a whim I grabbed a sample called Peach Sorbet.  Peach Sorbet won....Tom even okay-ed it!

You can see a snippet of the carpet here.

I so, so love this carpet color. In addition to new carpet, I ordered a new area rug and a couple of new couches.  I also fluffed the room with tons of my vintage finds.  I think the family room deserves a tour!

Can you tell I like color? I repainted the bookshelf above in a coral color. It was previously navy blue and had lived in Kate's room, then Ben's room and finally migrated to the basement. My vintage linoleum poster (found at the Alameda Flea Market) fits perfectly in the corner.

Tom wanted an area rug in front of the couch (it protects the rug a bit from wear and we had one there before). I got this polka dot one at Overstock.com. The coffee table was an estate sale find years ago.

Corner table.  It does double duty as it has a file cabinet with a round table top under the tablecloth.
I love the new couches. I wish this one was a bit longer, but I made it work.  The color is a greeny/blue.

Amy made the Oregon pillow for me as a birthday gift.

Lots of vintage eye candy everywhere.

My father in law is cactus crazy and gave Tom this cactus. I had to add a vintage twist to it of course.


The self portraits are a favorite. The kids did their own in first grade. My mom had saved one that I did in first grade. The one of Tom, Kate drew. I used to teach a ton of parent art lead classes in elementary school and I led the class on self portraits for Ben's class. Kate being a younger sibling, sat in on the class and drew Tom. (from left to right; me, Ben, Kate and Tom)  There is storage in the white cabinets above.

Chalkware floral collection.

I still have a few unfinished projects.  I need to recover this metal chair (I think with this sweet vintage towel).  The chair is a great coral color and was found on a road trip south with Amy.

And you know how one project leads to another? Next is putting new treads on the stairs and then adding a runner.  The stairs look really bad now as Tom has already started that project with some sanding.  Post coming when he gets them finished.
Love how colorful and cheerful this room turned out! 
Happy, happy, happy day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Estate Sale Friday. Pigland

Estate sale land looked pretty dismal this weekend. Most of the sales are on Saturday and I am going to Palmer Wirfs Antique and Collectibles show instead of the sales. I was reading the Friday paper with no agenda for the day and decided to hit a nearby sale that was advertised. What the heck.

It turned out to be family run. There were very few people there and I was one of the first at the sale. Lots of stuff. A couple of metal boxes and a wooden wall staircase.

This woman loved pigs. There were pigs everywhere. Ceramic pigs, framed pictures and dishes with pigs.  I passed on most of the pigs but I did get a few.

One of my favorite pigs was this little Steiff Pig. I have never bought a Steiff item at a aale before, but this one had a good price and had the original tag and button in the ear (altho I think missing an ear tag).

A trio of holiday figures and some old model airplane propellers. (the propellers were in a tackle box I bought, but are pretty nifty) A set of NOEL angels in the original box.
A few pixies and some angel figures.

A darling Santa and an old kitchen what-is-it?
Blogland, what-is-it? I liked the colored handle.
I don't usually do clowns, but this fellow works and has the original box. Behind the clown is a whole bunch of black and orange honeycomb halloween balls.

The original price tag on the clown toe was a bonus.

A couple of bow ties, a box of nails with nifty graphics and a old squirt gun in the original box.
I could not pass the mini brooms by with the chippy handles. There is another shot of the what-is-it.
An old child's cash register and a couple of darling pixies.
An old lantern
This was one of my favorite finds. I looked at it a couple of times to see if it was old. The backing is an old cardboard box with advertising and it has some verbiage at the bottom which told me it was old. I paid 50 cents. It is already hanging in my house.
This gal looks a bit dismayed at her horrific hairstyle. She needs a little Magpie Ethel holiday makeover.
A vintage beach towel for my collection.

Big crazy Halloween. I think I may do a Skeleton theme in my window this year. I believe the biggest skeleton head glows in the dark.A Christmas list box and a couple of old coffee mugs.
The Christmas list box has pop up Santa inside.


The two coffee mugs are pretty nifty. There was a huge table of mugs and I usually don't give them a second glance. Ben and Kate have both been asking for funny/unusual mugs for their apartment/houses.  The two mugs I found were for the Coon Chicken Inn. The CCI was a restaurant here in town that was culturally and racially offensive and before my time.  You entered the restaurant through a smiling blackface caricature, which is also on the mugs.  These are the first CCI things I have ever found.

It turned out to be a really good sale...just oddball tidbits, but interesting.

OINK! Happy Day.