Magpie Ethel

Collection Challenge #271 - Vintage Packs of Photo Corners (Nuace)

I have a weakness for Nuance photo corners.  I always pick them up in estate sale land if the price is right.  They are the little old fashioned corners that you put on photos to adhere them in a photo album.

I love the little fellow on each envelope...perhaps he entices me to buy them.   I like how his body is constructed of the little corners.

Lsst weekend in estate sale land I found the corners in both red and green.

Gold. I wish they had a little more sparkle to them.

Gray

These baby blue are a favorite. 

Black is probably the most commonly used color.  I like how the prices range from 10 cents for 100 corners to the jumbo pack of 300 for a quarter.

A sweet little original price tag from Meier and Frank. A great vintage detail.

The cellophane packaging is not as charming as the paper envelopes. I think this is a more modern version as the price for 300 is now 37 cents. (In an earlier photo it was a quarter)

I notice on the back of one of the packages that the colors available were listed.  I still need to hunt down white, sepia, ivory, silver and pink. The hunt goes on.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "show me your collection of ___".  A new collection each Tuesday.

Estate Sale Saturday. Double The Fun.

This past weekend there was an estate sale that featured sales at two houses that were side by side....a sale at each house. Both sales were run by the same company.

The downside to the sales were that they were about an hour out of Portland in a town called St. Helens. The houses had a great story attached to them. Besides being super beautiful, old stately houses, they also had an amazing river view. Two women had lived side by side in these houses for many years.  They were best friends and raised their families there.  Their husbands died before both of them and they died within three and half weeks of one another. They saved everything and the sales were really fun to shop.  I can only imagine they lives that they shared by the treasures they left behind.

I decided to just enjoy the drive in the country and make a day of it. I got there about three hours before the sale started (sale started at 11).  I passed the time talking with all the other regulars in line.  My wait was worth it for sure.

I wish the Valentine book was in better shape, but there are still enough valentines inside to salvage.

I always snag the photo corners when I find them.  These are in red and green..colors I don't find often. I did well with Easter...some bunny records and a few candy containers.  I have never seen those with the hats.

A tiny deer, vintage place cards, a total of 4 old coffee cans, an ornament hanger box (for my collection) and foil danglers.
I really like this silly little drum.  The graphics are super.
I am always in love with these Rempel Santas. This one is frozen rock hard and does not squeak (most of them I find are like that). The SC on his belt buckle is  adorable.  I also found some vintage holiday toilet paper. Those glasses are pretty funny. I thought they were lenticular when I bought them and was going to use them with some Halloween costume items I put out as decorations. 
Imagine my surprise when I got home and looked at them closer. They are risque girlie glasses!  Look at the way the one eyeball ogles the woman!  Crazy.
I got the doll craft box to display in the studio.  The contents are pretty much long gone, but I love the idea they are similar to what I make with my spun head girls.

I don't think I have ever found both the man and woman Valentine Rosen figures at a sale at the same time.  I was also happy to find a Putz house, a Three Bears Honey tin and a great Western Germany turkey. The sales had lots of little doodads.  A tiny purse with a snowman, a vintage space chart, mica birds, baby rattles, tin molds and some Christmas ornaments.

I am very excited to craft with this snowman. He has some condition issues, but is perfect for a new holiday look.

I have never seen this fold out nativity set before.
I got lots of old Children's books.  The illustrations are amazing.
This fish was a favorite find and will be added to my collection. Hopefully it will go to my "someday beach house".
I'm a sucker for old sewing cards.
A ceramic fish for the "someday beach house".
What a super fun sale. I spent about two hours digging through the two houses.  Another good day in estate sale land!

 

Collection Challenge #270 - Vintage Embossed Cardboard Scenes

I was at an estate sale last weekend and found an old embossed calendar topper.  It was hanging on the wall of the house and I removed it and added it to my basket.

The pages of a calendar would have one hung from the bottom. I thought the birds were super charming.  It is marked Made in Western Germany.

I have a similar bird scene hanging in my kitchen. It is not vintage, but vintage style. I got it at Castle in the Air in Berkeley years ago.

I hung the bird I got at the estate sale near this one.  They pair well together.

I got this little elf at Castle in the Air as well. Again, not vintage, but looks it. 

He lives year round in my built in in my dining room. 

I have one more calendar topper that I found in estate sale land. This one features scotty dogs and was rescued from a wall in a basement. Again, a cutie for sure.

Made in Germany. There are some really darling embossed calendar toppers on Ebay.  There are more out there than you think. I have this scotty on in my Etsy shop right now. I just can't find the right spot for it in my house. 

A fun little collection today. If you  have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "show me your collection of  ______." A collection each Tuesday.

p.s. I hope to be back up to my blogging speed. I am still crazy busy with getting ready for the holidays, but I do have Halloween crafting behind me. Phew!

 

Halloween Etsy Reminder

Just a reminder that Halloween Etsy will be going up tonight at 5:30 p.m. (pacific time).

I will be listing over 90 Halloween items!  There is lots of variety.

I sure enjoy making what I do.

 Hope to see you later on Etsy tonight.  

 

p.s. I am feeling more caught up now that Halloween has been crafted and hope to get back into the blog swing again this next week.

Halloween Spookiness to Etsy

My Halloween goodies will be headed to Etsy on Wednesday, September 16th at 5:30 p.m. (pacific time).

I have been VERY busy and I have lots of spookiness ready to enchant you.

Spun heads of course.

Whoooooo doesn't love a good owl?

This fun trio were crafted with some vintage plastic fruit or vegetables I found this year with the best faces.  

Kewpie Witches

Scary (but cute) witch gals.  They all look quite serious about their spell casting.

Bingo witches.
A black cat or two may cross your path.
A little bit of this and that.
I've had fun crafting for Halloween.

I hope to see you on Etsy this Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.(pacific time).  

Please also remember that an item is not "safe" in your cart until it is paid for.  An item can be in multiple carts at once.  If you purchase an item to make it yours and then do some more shopping...I will reimburse overpaid postage.  Etsy operates funny with the shopping cart situation...I have no control over it.

 

Break

No collection challenge today. I am feeling overwhelmed with everything on my plate and taking a week break to get back on course. I have been crafting like mad on Halloween and Christmas.  I hope to get Halloween listed next week (the 15th or 16th..I will do a heads up here).

I really have been very busy.

I am still posting on IG if you want to follow along there....it really is fun if you haven't tried it.  Blogging just takes more time, and I'm putting that on the back burner for a bit.

Happy Day.  Back to crafting....

Estate Sale Saturday. Nearby.

Holiday weekends often lack sales. That was the case this weekend. I decided to hit one sale on Saturday ONLY because it was close to my house and looked so-so.

I got there about ten minutes before the 9 a.m. start and they had JUST opened. There were only a couple of other people shopping.  It turned out to be a decent sale.

 A collection of dream pets.

I just liked the quantity of badminton racquets they had.  They had fun graphics  on them. I got a bunch of campfire beads (already in studio) and some old boy scout books A chalkware pig bank and a couple of old plaid thermoses.  The tan thing next to the thermoses is an old bike seat.

Old garland boxes were only a dime apiece.

These were my favorite find of the day. Some old MIP blow up seagulls. Such a odd blow up toy.  They will go to my someday beach house.  The tin gingham container was dug from HIGH on a shelf in the storage shed.

A big roll of wrapping paper, a glass jar and a few old plastic Easter plates.

Not bad when you weren't expecting much.  I was in and out in an hour...and then home lickity split.  Got my vintage fix for the day!

Collection Challenge #269 - Vintage Cottage Cheese

I have been working really hard in my studio and spending lots of time out there.  The other day I was poking around and realized I had a big assortment of cottage cheese items. I NEVER set out to collect cottage cheese stuff, but somehow I did.

I collect them because of the graphics and this one I use for storage in my studio.
I love the pink color on this one.

This one is GIANT and holds my vintage sparkly pinecones. It is a 5 lb size.  That is a ton of cottage cheese.

I found these all at one sale...they hold nothing yet. I am always a fan of Elsie the cow.

I got a pair of pink cottage cheese containers at Farm Chicks years ago. This one lives in my house with this little handmade doll I also bought at Farm Chicks.  They live under a glass dome on my dresser.

You may remember the blog post I did on exploring the crawl space at Aunt Tillie's hoarder sale a few years ago. You can read about it here and here and here.  (one of my favorite estate sale times ever).  One of the finds in the crawl space was a box of old lids.  Many of them were from cottage cheese containers.  I could not toss them.  I can not imagine eating this much cottage cheese either.

Lid after lid after lid.

These are all metal lids. What an assortment.

For the record, we did eat cottage cheese when I was growing up.  We mixed it with applesauce. I don't think my Mom ever served it like this.

Great lid still has the paper with recipe suggestions attached to it.

This one has a deal for seeds still attached. It is dated 1954.  These cottage cheese lids sat in that crawlspace for a long time.

For the record, I like cottage cheese. I don't eat if often but I do like it.  I don't mix it with applesauce like I did when I was a kid.

A MY-TE-FINE collection!  If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____." Congrats, if you read this far you have now read a post on COTTAGE CHEESE CONTAINERS.