Magpie Ethel

Collection Challenge #214- Vintage Giraffes

The other day I met Kathy from Kluless blog for coffee. She had gathered a bunch of vintage crafting supplies for me and was passing them along (thank you).  In the bag was a squeaky toy giraffe.

I went to put him away and realized he had a friend.

Then I realized I had quite a few giraffes. 

Vintage cardboard giraffe that lives in my curiosity cabinet.

A tiny giraffe found a few months ago in estate sale land.

Did you know a group of giraffes is called a tower? 

This is one of my favorite squeaky giraffes. He is huge in comparison to the other squeaky ones.

Giraffes come in non traditional colors like this wood fellow with green spots.

Vintage drinking straws with a dotty giraffe graphic.

Anoher vintage drinking straw wiht giraffe. At least I think this is a giraffe due to its long neck.

A cute little ceramic giraffe container.

It lives in my bathroom and holds my Qtips.

One of my favorite giraffes is on this old child's growth chart from Cerevim.

It is tall!

Thanks Kathy for adding to my tower/collection of giraffes!

If you have an idea for a collection challenge leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of___."  Collections, collections, collections!

p.s. Just a side note. Did you know that I used to live in South Africa when I was a teen?  I got to actually see giraffes in the wild when we visited Kruger National Park. They are really beautiful animals...and really tall!

 

My Month of June

Flipping over the calendar to July and time to recap my month in June on Instagram. 

Here is what my month looked like. Farm Chicks. Junking at the beach with Amy. My garage sale. Dahlia and blueberry picking. Estate sales. Basement redecorating (post coming). Lots of little vintage snippets from my day to day world.

And now we are already on to July. Follow me on Instagram and see what my days are like...

Happy Day.


p.s. Remember Etsy mermaids are listed tonight at 5:30 (pacific time)

 

Mermaid Sightings on Etsy

With summer in full swing it is time for those spun head mermaids to be heading to the ocean waters of Etsy again.  I found some great plastic clam shells this year which were the perfect size to accommodate these little gals. 

Etsy mermaids.  Monday, July 7th at 5:30 (pacific time).

Plus a couple extra spun head birthday friends.

Happy Day!

Estate Sale Friday/Saturday. I Passed On a Snake.

After my last collection challenge on my toilet snakes, I am sure some of you were doing some eye rolling. For the record I passed on a toilet snake today.  This one was black. It was not very vintage or chippy and it was plastic. I did not even give it a second glance. I didn't even touch it.

I hit one sale yesterday and one today.  I was pretty surprised to find an estate sale on the Fourth of July...I snuck out between a neighborhood parade and bbq prep for dinner. 

The big metal table in front is awesome. I love these old suitcase style tables and this one was in good shape. I also found a fun polka dot umbrella to use at Halloween.

Part of the bonus on the table was a glittery red handle.

A pair of cute cat Christmas pillowcases.

A bit of the old heavy tarnished tinsel, a few holiday ornaments, vintage birthday, baby rattles and some playing cards. I love the nut cups.

An army of big eyed little ceramic fellows. Ceramic angel and an angel advent calendar. A squeaky dog and a tiny elf.
A fun little Hallmark honeycomb gal.

Old lollipop Easter holders, a couple of honeycomb eggs and some old birthday place-mats with fun graphics.
I found some of the old blanks for playing card decks. There are a bunch of designs and I think they were intended as samples so you could order playing cards with a particular design.
Tiny pixie
I seem to be very lucky finding old holiday seals and to/from cards lately.

Last but not least a cute little couple to pop in the garden. I love the details on the watering cans.
Not bad for hitting two sales on a holiday weekend. Hope you found some treasures too!

 

Fourth of July Decorations #3

Happy Fourth of July! I am ready to lead the parade today with my vintage patriotic sunglasses and my glitter topped baton!

A few more things to share around my house.

I held out a bunch of red, silver and blue ornaments this year for my holiday tree.

Dining room hutch. The Welcome sign was found at Farm Chicks this year.

The sweet little wagon set I found a few years ago and the parade graphics work well with the holiday.

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday.

Fourth of July Decorations #2

Here we go on round two of my Fourth of July decorations.  Fireplace mantle with tiny flag garlands and my collection of patriotic figures.

Vintage spun cotton Uncle Sam
Another favorite patriotic figure. The little plastic surround on this vintage couple is an old clock frame. I love the tiny curtain detail with the little stars. A perfect spot for this darling couple to live. I blogged about the sweet couple here.

My stork gets in the act with a holiday bow.
Love this fellow!

Above the mantle hangs this old newspaper piece with the words to the Star Spangled Banner.  I even dug out red, white and blue clothespins to hang it with!
A silly snippet of red, white and blue. Fun old paper patriotic items.


Getting in the spirit!  One more patriotic post to go.  Are you ready for the holiday tomorrow?

 

 

 

 

Fourth of July Decorations #1

I have had my decorations up for almost a month now and now that it is officially July, it is time for my holiday post.

I got the F-L-A-G letters at Farm Chicks this year not knowing what I was going to do with them.  Here is where they ended up.

Here is the front window from the inside.  I used old honeycomb bells, tin funeral baskets and flags to round out the scene.

My big pink light up star sits on top of my hutch once again (another Farm Chicks find from a previous year). I need to restring in a new set of lights as one side is burned out.

Lots of red, white and blue on the coffee table.

Firecrackers and sparklers collected for graphics.

Patriotic reading.

Vintage matchbooks from the US Army. Note how the matches are blue.

This is my favorite little vignette.  I just found the sailor photo last weekend at an estate sale I worked at.  It found a happy spot here.

The spinach can was a find earlier this year and works well with my vintage white tree decorated with plastic vintage stars.

Fourth of July post #2 coming tomorrow.  More vintage, red, white and blue patriotic fun. Stay tuned....

 

Collection Challenge #213- Vintage Toilet Snakes

This is a weird one. I mentioned to Amy the other day that I had found yet another toilet snake.  She told me I needed to do a challenge on them..and then hounded me about it.  So here it is.

The toilet snake is intended to unclog a toilet.  I am sure it has been many a year since my snakes have even come close to a toilet.  I like them because of their colors and the fact that can be re-purposed into a great stand or base.

When I brought home my first toilet snake from a sale I had no idea what it was. I liked that it was metal and chippy pink. When I showed it to Tom he asked why I had brought home a toilet snake. Of course I had a good explanation!

A second snake in pink.

You can see the coil wound up inside. Tom removes that and also the knob on the bottom.

I have a total of three pink snakes.  I have also found them in blue.
And another shade of blue with a slightly different shape.

Evidently one of the manufacturers had two styles of this toilet snake.  One is Big Pete and one is Little Pete...it is written right there on the handles.

I have used one of my toilet snakes for a project. You may remember my silver tinsel tree.  Here it is with my mica bird collection.

This is the base at the bottom. Love that chippy pink!

I have 5 toilet snakes including the one I re-purposed as the base. The others are just waiting for the perfect project.  When I purchased these snakes I think each one was found in a garage...so if you want to hunt one down that is my helpful hint for today.

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

The only thing that makes this post even crazier is this is the fourth blog post I have done that mentions toilet snakes. You can read the others here, here and here.  Never a dull topic on this blog.

Happy Day.