Wrapping it Up - Our Last Halloween Thrift Find Treasure

It was only by accident that I found this thrifty treasure!  I walked into the thrift and spied a box on the floor at the entrance, I didn't go examine it but I mentioned to hubby--I thought he was looking at it as he stopped to look at something.  I asked him if he saw the werewolf, he hadn't, so I made sure to point it out to him as we were leaving (just ran in to look for Pyrex!)  I showed it to him and his eyes lit up which I was sure they would--my hubby is a big kid when it comes to holiday lights and moving figures. It was a vintage 1980s Telco Motionette. We took it to the testing station to see if it worked, which it did and I asked him if he wanted it (of course he did).  It was a high price for us thrifty folks--$13.50.  I have to mention that over 20 years ago hubby picked up a new Telco Motionette teddy bear holding a candle (and we put one of those flame bulbs in it).  The bear goes up every year as it has become our family tradition.  That bear cost $19.99 at the time (that was a lot back then) and so we found $13.50 for this secondhand werewolf a bit steep.  Here he is:

Like the teddy bear we have, this werewolf head moves smoothly around and his arms go out and come back in.

Yeah so, he's a wild looking critter.  I had to style his hair out and take a lint pick-up roller thingy to him.  I did my usual research on vintage finds to see what the history is and value--just for fun.  What I found is that this particular Motionette has recently sold for $165.72 and $192.51 and one that was listed for $555.55 (but a Best Offer was accepted, so I don't know what they settled on).  Now we would never sell this guy, but it did tickle us that we thought $13.50 was expensive!

Here he is with his face lit up.  He looks best at night .

Bits and Pieces - Vintage Christmas Finds

Halloween hasn't passed yet so there is little in the way of Christmas stock at our thrifts, but I'm scouring what's there when I go none-the-less.  One of the things I look for most are miniature pieces for my putz.  Here is the stuff I have found this month so far:

I put a quarter in the picture so you could see how small these pieces are

These miniatures pieces are going to be for my putz.  The vintage box of hand painted nativity figures is embossed "Made in Hong Kong".  I will pluck the Santa, tree and reindeer from the wreath.

I love these old Japanese ornaments.  I wanted to find one of these last year, but it never happened.  Here she is and she's in fantastic condition.  She was in a bag with 4 other angels unlike her that I didn't want.  The bag was 99 cents and someone obviously left the bag in a different unrelated location, it was luck I found her as I went back to browse as I waited for hubby to finish looking through CDs.

Boo! Sweet Vintage Baby Ghost

 

Hubby spied this cute little baby ghost amongst all the Halloween junk at the thrift.  I couldn't resist this little sweetie!  It has the sticker  'Originals by Erika Japan' and what appears to be the remnants of a Woolworth price tag.  Looks like it could be porcelain and  is about 2.5" tall. 

Happy Halloween!

Autumn Leaves Pyrex Display

I have lasted about 3 weeks with my first autumn Pyrex display of (old) Butterfly Gold.  I was ready for a change.  I have Pyrex with price tags still on them that haven't been washed and I'm trying to get them all washed up so this was a good excuse to clean the Autumn Harvest.

Trees in our areas are ablaze with color right now and what better way to bring that color indoors than with Pyrex!

Coolest Vintage Halloween String Lights!

It's just my opinion...but these are definitely the coolest Halloween string lights I have ever seen.  They were given to us years ago, I'll guess about 8 to 10 and they were a thrift store find.  I don't know the age, I'm guessing they are 1980s.  I just have to share these cool lights!

There are 10 lights on the string.  Each figure has a unique base color and there are at least 6 different hand painted colors.

Of all the lamps, this Egyptian one is my favorite.  It is the only one with with metallic paint.  It looks really cool with the light shining through it and on the backside there is a mummy stepping out of the sarcophagus!













Here are the other guys on the the strand...

Halloween Thrift Find

I don't do much in the way of Halloween decorating, I like decorations but it's too much work. Unpacking, repacking, dusting around it when it's out...I'm just not into it.  But--I do give in a little for my hubby who loves it.  He agreed to weed out some of the old decorations last year at my behest.  We were running out of storage room ( I limit all decorations to one closet).  So we have a few things including a string of super cool lights we got as a gift one year.  Today we ran into this ceramic piece and I said "we are going to get this".  It lacked a light, it actually is totally open on the bottom, but I rigged one up.  The piece is about 12" tall and 9" wide.  It's all one piece but the figures stand away from one another. It doesn't appear to be vintage, it has a made in Taiwan sticker on it. It is so darling, reminds me of vintage Japanese ceramics.

I like how the light shines through several different places.  The owl is so adorable!

Can you ever have too many Pyrex 401s? Heck no!

I was curious how many 401s I have and what better way than to stack them all together!  What a happy sight!

Fantasic Find of the Day -- PY Miyao Gay 90's Cups and Saucers

Oh my!  What luck we had today!  Fortunately we swung by our neighboring town and did a Pyrex run...no Pyrex but we got these!

These beautifully hand painted 1950s PY Miyao cups and saucers are part of a collection called The Gay 90s.  I noticed one of them and picked it up.  The second one was on a different aisle, I'm so glad I caught sight of it before leaving the store!  I won't disclose how much we paid, but I will say less than $10 for the pair!  Hubby wants to go back and check if any other pieces show up, but we won't be able to do that for a few days.  As it was, these just went on the shelf yesterday so they didn't sit for long.

Finding the Unexpected! -- When Things Come Together!

I was tickled recently when I was at the thrift, on my endless hunt for Pyrex and saw something that made my eyes open wide.  Hubby wasn't with me, so I couldn't do the "look at this!"  I picked it up and went looking for hubby and showed him.  Well, he was  a bit puzzled and unimpressed even when I told him this matches one of our  previous finds.  Once we got home and I put things together, he then thought it was cool.

I have a weakness for vintage California pottery, I have to fight sometimes to leave it at the store.  About a year and a half ago I found this covered dish trimmed in gold I couldn't pass up.  On my recent trip I found four matching trays!  I had no idea there were any to go with it--what a nice surprise.  After finding them I decided to keep my eyes open for a lazy susan and that appeared at the next store. The picture is deceiving, the pieces are identical in color and the covered dish is much larger than it looks here.  These dish are rather large, so it will be for around the holidays--fill with meatballs, cocktail shrimp etc. and the covered dish can hold a whole lot of potato salad!

Star of the Show - Pyrex is a Hit at Movie Night

Friday night and us boring folk took to our recliners to rest our dogs and fill our bellies!  We hit the thrifts all afternoon and stopped by the store on the way home to pick up deli chicken and a bag of those frozen fries (never had them before, but they were pretty good!)  Yes, this is our idea of partying on a Friday night.  I think there was even pop from our soda maker.  This activity was accompanied by an old corny monster movie which will remain nameless.  It was a great Pyrex hunting day and how better to celebrate but to enjoy our grub in a couple Pyrex divided dishes!

Vintage Wall Art -- Paintings

I'm always looking for stuff to hang on the walls when I hit the thrift.  And I'm always delighted when I find something that appeals to me!  And I'm thoroughly giddy when it's dirt cheap! Being a lifelong amateur artist myself, I look for things that inspire me and as an artist.  Here is a large painting I purchased for $9.99!  It is wonderfully rendered, professionally framed and the choice of framing material is perfect.  The painting has very nice brush and palette knife work.  Even more, it works with the decor in our den which sways Danish modern.  The cognac color banding in the frame of the painting matches the color of our Norwegian leather Ekornes recliner--love it when things come together!

 

Though I posted the following in a previous blog post, now that I've hung them on the wall I couldn't help but snap a pic!  Here is the set of 1950s Japanese hand painted porcelain tile paintings.  These were sold separately and I managed for get all four at once for $3.99 each.  I have this mentality when I go to the thrifts that I don't spend in the double digits for a single item--so I wrangled with the fact the set cost me $15.96.   Sometimes I can be such a cheapskate--sigh.  But I absolutely LOVE these!!!!!

A Day in the Life of Pyrex

It was at Pyrexy day in the kitchen, well--everyday is really.  I usually prepare meals from scratch no less than twice a day.  I cooked growing up and continued that tradition when we got married.  Now I have to eat a particular way for health reasons, so preparing meals is a must.  Today I got the bug to chronicle my Pyrex use. (I have my Butterfly Gold collection on my peninsula for autumn).  The day isn't over, but I won't be cooking anymore so here it goes!

It started with lunch.  Hubby is teaching a morning class and late afternoon class this term, so he gets to come home for lunch.  I'm not always sure exactly when he'll arrive. I like to have the food ready before he gets here and get the kitchen back in order, but I don't want the food to dry out or reheat it again, so I put it in the oven to keep it warm. 

Hubby's lunch du jour was Hungarian style goulash with red cabbage!  He was a happy boy!  I kept it warm in this plain gold 471.

Me, I couldn't eat what I fed him and opted for egg flower soup as I felt a bit under the weather but...

not enough to keep me from whipping up a batch of low starch/grain free brownies!  I need something sweet in the house and there really isn't anything I can buy in the store that I should eat. 

And since hubby is going to be home past dinner time and the oven was hot, I threw in some lasagna from the freezer for him.  I nibbled on turkey breast and avocado--I used Vernonware for that!  I used a Pyrex cradle I found at the thrift recently, for the first time.  I love it!  I see on ebay they came in different sizes.  Hope I find some more of the other sizes!!  I'm loving my new retired (for good I hope) life.  It gives me a lot more time to really enjoy my Pyrex!!

Vintage String Art - Who Would of Thought!

Yeah, that's kinda how I felt even before I showed this to my husband at the thrift store.  Recently when I purchased a pair of 1960s Syroco wall plaques, he was totally surprised. He said "I saw those, but I didn't think it was something you would've wanted".   I think that is because typically we pick up 1950s items.  Little did he know I was on the lookout for just the right piece of string art and I found it! I've seen these on ebay, no way I would pay those prices and then shipping on top of it.  This cost me a whopping $3.70!  I didn't measure it and I'm too lazy to get up and do it, but I think it's around 16" x 24".

The laundry room is evolving into a 60s-70s style.  I have mismatched curtains on the window and door, so I need to keep on the lookout for some curtains or fabric that I can sew up into matching pieces.

Handmade Copper Mid Century Wall Art by R. Dehl Coppercraft, Inglewood CA

I picked up this wonderful piece at the thrift for $4.  It is handmade copper art with a walnut frame and measures roughly 10"  x   23".    The bamboo design  goes beautifully with the large Chinese hand painted fishbowl planter my sweetie gave me many years ago!

The relief work in this piece is so beautifully executed.

Before and After - Repainted Vintage Fish Wall Pocket

Here is the ceramic/pottery fish wall pocket vase that I picked up at the thrift recently.  The brown paint had spots and blemishes and it was too dark for my liking so I decided to repaint it.  I primed it with many coats of white paint trying to avoid brush stroke marks as much as possible.  It took a lot of layers to cover up that dark brown paint (I used a blow dryer between coats). 

Before painting

Here you can still see the shadowy affect of the dark paint.  I painted 5 to 6 coats of cream after the white to create a warm base color and lighten it up even more.

(after)

I mixed two pink hued paints into a pearlescent white paint and watered it down to create a 1950s pink.  The pearlescent paint has a sheen to it which is nicer than a totally flat paint.  I probably put on a good 10 thin coats which gave me the ability to control the color saturation and also keep the surface smooth. Lastly,  I touched up some of the "mosaic" boundaries with a mix of  two brown paints and added touch of copper metallic to add shine.  It was painstaking, but it was worth it!  This will go in my guest room (pictured) that is a muted pink.  I think hubby was disappointed I didn't paint it turquoise instead, but we have a number of green/blue fish things already.

(I'm going to the thrifts today!  Hope I find something!)

Embroidered Vintage Pillowcases - Ironing is no Fun!

I'm sitting down sipping the rest of my coffee that went cold.  Found myself ironing this morning.  Though I dread ironing, I can't help but iron the bed linens.  I hang my linens (I have an indoor line system for the rainy season), and yes, I iron them.  I just love slipping into a bed of freshly ironed bed sheets!  Since we are both quite fragrance sensitive, I wash with soap nuts, oxygen bleach and baking soda resulting in linens that aren't masked with perfume but smell fresh as the summer breeze!

I haven't been looking more recently for vintage pillowcases--I have a lot.  I do check now and again just out of curiosity and now that I don't want them I don't see them.  Funny how that happens to me a lot.  Anyway, here are some of the pillowcases I picked up.  I was getting these for $1.99-$3.99 a pair.  I cook them in oxygen bleach in an old stock pot and then run them through the washer and they come out beautifully.

I had to re-embroider much of the flowers and foliage on the lambs case, but it was worth it.  I use these pillowcases for the extra pillows on our bed.

Vintage Rubbermaid - Turquoise!

Most of the time when I buy some vintage thing at the thrift, I clean it up right away.  Heaven knows my to do list is always longer than I like--so I like to get those thrift finds cleaned up pronto.  It doesn't always happen of course, I only just got to cleaning up this find today.  I scooped up this old Rubbermaid piece before it made it to the shelf.  Nothing screams everyday mid century household than turquoise!  Gotta love the gold starburst design!  This works great in our second bathroom with our vintage acrylic aqua dophins!

Vintage Kitsch - Ceramic Fish Wall Pocket

We haven't been finding much in the way of our kinda kitsch lately.  Hubby and me have been moaning about it the past week.  It gets old looking through shelves packed with stuff and finding nothing.  Well, I did run across a fish wall pocket.  I'm not into the brown body--it also has spots on the matte finish.  But I love the gold and silver accents that look like mosaic and the blue rhinestone eye.  I'm going to repaint it, not sure what color yet.  I'll post it again once it's done!