Yay! Thrifting Day!

The weather finally warmed up above freezing yesterday, it started raining and the snow started to disappear!  We were able to go to all our usual thrifts locally and in our neighboring town today, and we did pretty good on finding vintage Christmas goodies.  Here's a single picture of most of what we got, I got a little bit of miscellaneous crafting goodies too.

I shouldn't forget to mention, that before we left the house today, hubby made the comment that he was going to find another dancing Santa today, but a big one!  I didn't want to discourage him but I thought he was being a little too hopeful.  Well, I guess he knew what he was talking about, he found a 13" one!  He's a little rough, but his beard and trims are clean.  I'm going to paint his suit with a little diluted acrylic paint to freshen him up.

We were on our way out of one store, empty handed.  As we are nearing the door, I saw something I couldn't leave without getting.  I've been wanting one, I see a lot of them, but I wanted just the right one and this one was it.

A 24" Atlantic Mold ceramic light up tree!  It's big! (And in this picture you can see a miniature sleigh and reindeer on the bottle brush trees, I wanted to comment on that later).

I like the way the snow was applied.  It's nice and textured, very dramatic.  No colored light pegs came with it, but I found a small bag of some later at another thrift.  I think I'll put all red on it...I'll have to look for those.  Oh and this tree cost me $5.40!  I was very pleased.

Some of the little stuff includes a couple plastic Hong Kong elfish boys, a pair of Lefton Mr. & Mrs. Santa, a box of Jewelbrite angels, a pixie with go-go boots (tee-hee) and some other assorted glass ornaments, one is a cello! I also picked up the table cloth in the picture, I need something to brighten up the peninsula for the holidays! More pink Shiny Brites!!!  I know I have enough now for my 4" aluminum tree--for sure!I couldn't resist boxes of ornaments that included pretty indented ones. 

I found these two plastic clip on birds marked Japan.  I ran across the pink one and thought it was interesting, but didn't think it was vintage.  Then I ran across the blue one (and had my glasses on) and I saw Japan on the clip.  Then I had to have them both, so I spent 10 minutes going back through the junk pile to find the pink one.  Always discovering something new during the vintage Christmas hunt!

I can't believe my day is practically over!  Time to rest up!

Dressing up the Kitsch Katcher - Another Work in Progress

Today was another day of hiding from the snow and ice.  I was thinking about making an ornament wreath, but first I wanted to re-organzie my mini glass Christmas balls.  Well, one thing led to another and the wreath never happened.  Instead, I tended to my 'kitsch katcher' that I built early last month.  I've been throwing stuff on it just to get it put somewhere and it was time to actually 'decorate' it!

 

I used two old doors and hinged them together.  Primed it with a few coats of white and then attached a variety of shelves I had on hand.  Some were cheapies from Ikea, little wooden boxes, a myrtle wood  planter from the thrifts and so on.  Here's what it looks like today.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look nearly as nice in the picture as in person.

I still want to decorate the bottle brush trees, that is a project within itself.  I took a bunch of pictures of the goodies up close.  I have a bunch more Christmas kitsch, but this can only hold so much.

I've fallen in love with Christmas planters.  Here are a couple I decorated.  I look for plastic greenery at the the thrifts like the one in the Santa planter.  I stuffed one of those flocked dancing Santa's and a vintage bottle brush tree in this reindeer's sled. (I need a candle for the holder).

I intend on decorating this large bottle brush tree in this Santa's harp planter.

 

Instead of putting the Holt Howard candle hugging Santa on a candle, I let him hug a tree instead.  A little star on top would be cute!

I got a set of 3 Shiney Brite stenciled ornaments that are much too big for my tree or wreath making.  I hung them on my kitsch katcher and attached old plastic corsages to the tops.  The first one is so cute, there are two flocked red reindeer in the corsage!

 




Here are a couple of the Nutcrackers we have.  The one on the right is a Steinbach which I purchased (a long time ago) at the factory outlet in Germany the first year hubby and I were married.  Recently hubby has been finding vintage Erzgebirge from the GDR.  I found this white vintage bottle brush tree new in the package!  I'm going to put mini glass balls on it.







Cute little Lefton Santas with a vintage bottle brush tree marked Japan. Hubby found this Lennox Rudolph porcelain box, it's not vintage, but so well executed and so cute we couldn't pass it up.  Santa express with an elf on one side and Santa on the other is a piggy bank.




 And more cute stuff....

I am absolutely worn out.  I fought to get these images loaded, loader was being difficult.  I'll be fiddling with my shelf for a while--I'm sure!  On to a good nights rest, we may be able to go thrifting (and grocery shopping) tomorrow!

Vintage Christmas Finds - Over the River and through the Woods...

Here I am!  This was on Tuesday, it's Thursday night and it still looks pretty much the same out here (in the place where it hardly ever snows).

Me and hubby hoofed it to the store for much needed cream and eggs.  It's been tough being stuck since Friday's snow storm, today is 6 days we haven't been able to drive!  We haven't been wanting to risk banging up the new car if we really don't need to--rather wait until things get better.  We are thankful that the term is over and hubby doesn't have to drive to the university.

Anyway, my neighbor called and asked if we wanted to go out with her in her four wheel drive.  Hubby has grading to do, but I went.  It was so nice to get out!  We hit 4 thrifts.  Nothing at the first 3 for me, but things perked up at the last one.  In addition to a few different bags of small glass balls for crafting, I got a bag of vintage ornaments and this other little goodie.

Lots of great vintage ornaments in this bag!  I was so pleased.  Bradford lanterns and bells, I saw one of these lanterns last week but decided not to get it.  The red balls are old ones made in Japan, no necks (well, really short ones), small openings, and collars stamped Japan.  There is one hand painted pointed type made in Poland, 3 multicolored Shiny Brite, 2 old glass bells (one still has it's hanger and bead) and a spray of lavender with one blue.  I was happy to pay $2.70 for the bag.  This bag was much better than most of the other combo bags I run into.

The other neat-o thing I found was this angel with bells mobile with the Enesco label still attached!  It is small, which is nice, easy to put somewhere without needing much space.  I need to stuff a little cotton or something in the gowns, they are a bit flattened out.

Weather isn't promising tomorrow, we may have freezing rain into the afternoon as well.  So we will just stay home and hope for a drivable day on Friday.  I may craft tomorrow, the situation with the weather coupled with my mad crafting there for a while has me uninspired.

I did finish knitting a scarf today...I got some beautiful baby llama yarn the last time I went to an estate sale.  I have enough to make a matching hat, maybe I'll do that tomorrow or maybe, just maybe a small ornament wreath as I only have one 8" ring left.

Vintage Kitsch Ornament Wreath #7 - In Progress

I can't believe I am working on my seventh wreath!  And it won't be my last with all the crafting goodies I have left.  I've been collecting quite a few of those little kitschy non-glass ornaments last year and this year.  Most of them are red.  I wanted to make something more pastel than red.

I picked up this white, silver and gold colored loopy garland from the thrift.  It is so pretty.

I picked through my stuff and started adding things...

And decorated one of the bottle brush trees I bleached...

This is as far as I can go with what I have on hand.  It could use some more pieces, but they will need to be just the right things.  I don't want to fill it too much and take away from the cuteness of the figures nor do I want to cover  up all the beautiful garland
.

We are snowed in another day.  The day is young...I need to think of something crafty to do!

A Snowy Day!

They predicted it may snow and weren't they right!  Looks like we aren't going anywhere today.  Hubby went out to try to make it to work but came back, fortunately he can make other arrangements.  It's been snowing steadily for the past 5 hours.  Here's a picture of the little potted fir on the patio, this was early this morning and it's noon and been snowing ever since!  We aren't accustomed to much snow here.

I have some leftover plastic ornaments, had I been thinking--I could have put some on this little tree, sure would have been pretty!

I am admiring my Evergleam tree, I couldn't resist taking some pictures.  It is so bright outside and the tree in the daylight is sooo pretty!

Oh how I love these Shiny Brite ornaments!!
 

I was browsing online about a month ago and got weak when I ran into these vintage glass and plastic face ornaments made in Japan.  They are so cute!  There are six total and four unique characters: Santa, elf, angel and snowman.

Other vintage related things of the day were washing up some vintage textiles...

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I got a pair of these vintage hand embroidered peacock pillowcases more recently at an estate sale.

One of the first things I did this morning was put on a roast, nothing like a roast in the oven on a cold snowy day!

Ah--now that I have had lunch, I'll take a break!

Wreath Making and Vintage Christmas Finds

Wow!  The day flew by!  I planned to get together with my neighbor friend to help her make her first vintage ornament wreath.  I raced to get chores done before she came over in the morning.  Making the wreath takes some time, so we wanted to get started early.  I got the kitchen set up.

I had the foam ring wrapped and wired and the ornament colors she wanted to use ready to go.  My pup kept an eye on things.

Baklava and tea were in order.

And here is our merry wreath maker in high gear!  She brought an assortment of vintage fun stuff to add to her wreath.

She's on a roll!

Ta da!  Everybody is admiring the new wreath--even pup! 

The day was still young, young enough to hit the thrifts and so we girls bundled up (it's cold!!!!) and off we went.

Decorated Shiny Brites (and a few others in the box), plastic angels playing instruments (made in Hong Kong), another dancing Santa and a super cute Josef Originals reindeer were some of my favorites.  Oh yes, can't forget the pastel pink glass balls and I found this German hand embroidered table cloth with pink and purple candles (I have a weakness for my German textiles).  I'll put this on my 1790s German peasants table in my spare room where I plan to put up my 4 foot aluminum tree with plain pink Shiney Brite balls.  It's the girls pink room (wink).

I'm pooped!  That's it for today.  Tomorrow will be another day of thrifting IF the weather cooperates!  We may have snow!  If we don't go, it will be Christmas decorating and crafting and hot cocoa!

Wreath #6 Plastic Outdoor - Washing Chenille

I don't think a day will go by that my fingers aren't busy with something Christmas!  Today I had to move some of my stuff out of the den, it was getting a bit chaotic, plus I need to do some more decorating as there is still stuff hubby knows I haven't put out. Earlier in the day I took apart the chenille flowers, I discovered that some are polyester (a synthetic at least), I posted one earlier.  However, the others suspiciously look like cotton, so I test washed one piece and it lost it's shape.  So those won't be washed.  I did tumble them in the dryer on no heat to remove dust and lint.  I washed all the poly ones, here's a picture of them drying, I had yet to wash the black ones.

I was also determined to make a wreath.  In the course of buying ornaments, some of the mixed bags I got had both glass and plastic.  I almost donated the plastic ones back to the thrift store, but I liked the turquoise and got the idea to keep them and buy some super cheap plastic ones to make an outdoor wreath for my friend.  My friend is mommy to more than a couple kitties, so I made sure they were represented in this wreath!  This is the same friend I made the blue and gold vintage wreath for.

This wreath took me less than 2 hours.  I pretty much used all the ornaments I had, thank goodness for that as I really wanted to have it done today.  I haven't posted wreath #5 yet, the recipient wants to wait to see it and she reads my blog, so I won't post until she gets get.  Tomorrow I am going to help my neighbor make a wreath for herself!