Christmas Finds - Lefton's Wins Again!

The thrift stores around here are finally getting into high gear with Christmas stock.  We looked for glass ornaments, crafting supplies and kitsch.  Here are a few pictures of finds from last week--I didn't include a picture of glass ornaments, though there were many!

 

I found numerous unopened packages of vintage craft supplies.  The older sisal wreaths have that nice thick snow on them unlike the painted stuff they put on these days. Not pictured is some gold Hollywood brand glitter! I bought the National tinsel as it's like the German lametta and it's just neat to see the unopened package.  I have my lametta I purchased in Germany 30 years ago--we don't use it every year, but when we do we take it down strand by strand and pack it away for another year.

Vintage kitsch finds included figures made in Japan, each stamped or with label.  I found this unopened package of Christmas garland!  A couple of the bell cages are out of shape, but cute all the same.  I've gotten into the vintage Hong Kong plastics!

My favorite piece is this Lefton's reindeer planter!  So sweet!

Project -- The Kristmas Kitsch Katcher!

Those who know me well know that I am always creating something in one fashion or another. I have a hard time sitting still! I've been thinking and thinking about how I will display Christmas decorations this year without buying any new furniture such as shelves.  After chewing on it a good week, I came up with the idea of creating a display shelf from old closet doors.  The doors have been hanging around in the garage for a good 6-7 years since I laid the new floors.   I've been reluctant to give them up--one of them on a couple of saw horses comes in handy for a temporary work table.  So...I grabbed my camera and snapped a pic before I go any further with this project, I'll update as it evolves!

Here are two doors of 24" width each that I hinged together with standard door hinges.  I didn't bother to chisel them out, just screwed them on leaving a gap in between.  These were originally varnished and I primed them with 3 coats of white primer.  I started to put a shelf on when I remembered to take a picture!

 

I have placed this in a corner of the family room which is behind our recliners.  It's a perfect space as it is out of the way, in plain view and there is no other furniture on the two walls.  There is also an electrical outlet.

 

I have attached numerous small shelves that I had stored away (they always come in handy!)  A couple little wooden boxes and a myrtle wood planter I found at the thrift store recently.  I'll likely pic up some more shelves and little crates, maybe a basket.  Yes, it requires measuring and drilling, but it isn't hard--just takes patience.

 

Here's a closer view.  So much to do yet, but I'm happy to have gotten this much done today.  Now on to folding laundry!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

Okay, I'll cut to the chase--the Evergleam Christmas tree is up!  Yes, it's true.  Trust me, I didn't plan this, one thing led to another and it is up.

Vintage ornaments on my Evergleam: Shiny Brite, Czechoslovakian, Bavarian, Coby and a wonderful mushroom from Sears!

Since our thrift stores have started to stock Christmas decorations, we have been aggressive in getting out there early in hopes of finding some much wanted treasures.  I plan to make a wreath out of mercury glass bulbs  this year and so I've been scouring every thrift store.  I needed to go through all my ornaments and decide what I wanted to use exclusively for the tree, what could go to crafting and what I still needed.  The only way to do that was to put up the tree and decorate it.

My cart of ornaments for crafting.

I also need to unpack my putz and ceramics to see what all I have as some of the things I packed are vintage felt and plastic ornaments.  Here's a picture of finds from last week of miscellaneous Christmas vintage.  Doesn't include any glass ornaments, but in the previous picture you can see part of the haul of pink vintage teardrops I got.  They were priced very high, so I kept passing them up.  I figured if they were still there when it was 50% off, I would get them.  I also got tinsel, plastic wreaths (for foliage) and bottle brush trees and wreaths.

 

I was thrilled to find some vintage hard plastic Santas, a Gurley candle choir boy and ceramics made in Japan.  The vintage garland unlike today's garland is made out of metal.  The yellow box contains a 1970s mobile with silver bells and red ribbons which have faded to pink but still super cute!  I've been wanting a vintage mobile, I have fond memories of the one I had as a kid.


Another vintage item that we are on the look out for are blow molds.  Unfortunately, I think we have too many now--but to hubby there is no 'too many'.  We get them for two to three bucks on average, they are always nice and nasty having been outside and in the garage so I have been doing A LOT of cleaning!  Most of these will be displayed (and stored) in the house as I'm not going to clean these every year!  

We got this big Santa and two of the Noel candles last week and also some other smaller ones not shown.

Santa blow mold

Figuring out where to put all these light up characters is no small task.  I'm a stickler for organization and have to have the house clutter free--so no help from hubby when it comes to decorating!! Not "working" doesn't mean I get a break around here.  I have spoiled my husband with pretty neat Christmas decorating in past years, so he knows I have it in me and starts early with his not so subtle (he thinks they are) comments.  And of course, I give in--sigh. 

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!