Last Week’s Thrifty Finds

I had the good luck to get out a few times last week for some thrifting fun. Hit my usual GW, VV, SA and also a couple other places I only go to once in awhile.

At the Salvation Army I scored on a couple bags of vintage buttons.  My supply was getting low,  and since I have sold lots of buttons recently, I was really happy to find these.  Lots of great colors too. Here’s just a sampling of what was in those bags.

 

I also got this cute wood plate/magazine rack.  It is currently for sale at Stars & Splendid.

On Friday I hit a little flea market that our town holds periodically and a nearby estate sale and found these cool things.

I love the big mirror! Wasn’t sure if I was going to keep or sell.  The vintage picture frames are always good sellers for me and the etched decanter and roses salt and pepper were too cute to pass up.

A bag of vintage lace,, vintage runner with lace edge, penny doll, heart garlands, doilies and several vintage postcards.

Several vintage hangers.  The two crochet hangers in front came from my good friend Mitzi.

Extra long vintage crinoline/petticoat.

But my best find of the week has to be a very cool, very vintage dress form.  I was chatting with the sweetest gals at the flea market and was telling them about the stuff I make, sell, etc.  We talked about Farm Chicks and they asked me if I sell vintage clothing.  I told them that I do, but mostly things like slips, crinolines, etc.  Then one of these sweet ladies said the magic words, “you wouldn’t happen to need a dress form would you?”  My eyes got really big and I got a huge smile on my face, because, yes, I had been looking for a dress form for my daughter’s room, but just couldn’t find a good inexpensive one.  Well, she told me about the one she had and it sounded perfect. So, on Saturday I went and picked it up and just fell in love with it. (Sheila, if you are reading this, thank you so much!)

Guess what?  My daughter isn’t getting it. I decided to give her Manni from my bedroom and I would use the new one instead.  She didn’t care, she just wanted one to dress up in her jewelry and crinolines. 

And this is what my new (old) dress form looks like.

 

I think she is happy to have a new home and to wear a pretty outfit.  Now I just need to come up with a name. 

Well, I decided to keep that cool mirror after all.  Here’s where it ended up.

I spent a little time last weekend redoing some display’s in my living room.  I should have been cleaning, but re-decorating is so much more fun, don’t you think?

Have a great Monday!

White Wednesday-Ruffles

It’s no secret that I love me some ruffles.  Surfing on Etsy brought me to this listing for an adorable ruffled little girl dress.  Why couldn’t it be in my size?  I then saw some cool vintage tuxedo shirts at a thrift store, with what else?  Ruffles.  Got me thinking about a little dress I had in my closet.  I bought this simple white dress a couple years ago at my beloved Target and have worn it a lot.  So much so that it rarely even makes it to my closet.  You know what I mean.

Here’s a picture of me wearing it at the Barn House Flea Market in July ‘08.

I love this picture as it reminds me what a great day that was.  It was my first time ever at Barn House and I had so much fun hanging with my homies.  In case you didn’t know, that’s Joy in the middle and Isabel on the right. 

So, I took that plain white dress that I love so much and did a little something, something to it and came up with this.

It was pretty easy to do and only took me about a half hour.  I used an old damaged baby pillow to cut strips, used my sewing machine to gather them and pinned and sewed them onto the bodice of the dress.  It’s not perfect, but that’s okay.  

As much as I love ruffles, I don’t really love making them.  So, now I want to get a ruffling foot for my sewing machine to make it easier as I have some great ideas for lots of ruffle projects.

I hope you liked this little White Wednesday project.  I’ve been busy in my sewing room the last few days, cleaning, purging and working on another little project which hopefully I will be able to share here soon.  Hope you all have a great Wednesday!

Metal and Glass

That’s what I seemed to find in my last couple days of thrifting.  It was nice to be out hitting the stores again this week.  While at one GW, I ran into this adorable blogger/artist.  Rebekah is so sweet. We chatted a little about the etsy store I keep procrastinating.  If you stop by her blog, leave a comment and tell her I sent you.

So, are you wondering what I found? Here’s a group pic.

See,  I wasn’t kidding, metal and glass. Okay, there is a little bit of lace in there too.  My favorite find though has to be the vintage glass and metal curtain tie backs.  I’ve never found any before and I love them.  Definitely keeping these cuties.

Another fun find was this interesting coin charm bracelet. 

 

The coins are from all over.  I haven’t looked at all of them, but some are from the 40’s and a more recent one from 1999.  I love finding  funky, unusual stuff like this.

On another note, have you been here yet?  If not, what are you waiting for?  These guys have it going on and great vintage stuff too.  What’s not to absolutely love?

On Saturday I’ll be heading over here.

Can’t wait to see what Cindy has up her sleeve this time.  Each sale is different than the last and how she keeps coming up with such amazing merchandise and ideas I’ll never know.  A visit to the Tarte barn is always inspiring. If you see me there, make sure to stop me and say “Hi!” Hope you all have a great weekend!

White Wednesday

I had hoped to show you a White Wednesday project today, but that will have to wait. Instead, I thought I would show you something else.

The other day I was looking at Sallie Ann.  You remember her, right?  She was the dress form that I found awhile back at the Salvation Army. Well, as I said, I was looking at her and I thought to myself, “she needs a top,” and I have the perfect one for her.

I had found this cute little corset like top at a thrift store recently for $3 and since I hadn’t done anything with it, I thought it would look great on Sallie Ann. And, voila!

Much better I think. 

And an arty close up of her lovely jewelry.  You may not believe this, but recently I weeded out some of her pearl necklaces. She’s got some cute vintage rhinestone necklaces on too.  I just can’t resist buying them if they are a good deal.

Here are a few other White Wednesday images from around my house.

That’s it for me today.  Don’t forget to check out the other White Wednesday participants on Kathleen’s blog.

A Day at the Beach

On Saturday, my family and I decided to head to the Oregon Coast.  It had been awhile since we went and I was desperately needing a beach day.  We weren’t sure what the weather was going to be like, but we got really lucky as it turned out to be a beautiful and sunny day. That almost never happens at the Oregon Coast, in January!

Our first stop was at our must eat at place, Mo’s.

  

A trip to the beach isn’t complete without eating at Mo’s.  This time I had the most delicious crab melt (okay, I let my diet go a little bit) and a cup of their famous clam chowder.   YUM!

After lunch we spent a little time on the beach, just walking and hanging out.

It was so great just being together and the fact that it wasn’t raining was just icing on the cake.

Here you can see the sea lions enjoying the sunshine too.  

Another thing we like to do at the coast is to walk around the little neighborhoods looking at all the cool beach houses and picking our favorites.  This one had flowers blooming already. 

We then decided to hit a few antique shops and the kids wanted to stop at Candyland to pick up a few sweet treats.

Another stop at a grocery store to pick up some bread and drinks and back to the beach we went to feed the sea gulls. 

We headed home just after sunset tired and happy.  A great day!

Here’s a picture of the few things I found at the antique shops.

A cool vintage ticking pocket organizer, rosebud pillowcase and vintage glove case.

I’ll be back for a White Wednesday post to show you a little project I worked on last week.

White Wednesday

First off, I want to thank all of you who posted comments on my last two posts where I shared my most recent crafty endeavors.  I really appreciate all the blog love you sent my way.  You may not believe this, but, yesterday instead of cleaning my house, I spent the day making more soldered charms.  Way more fun, I think.

For my White Wednesday post, I thought I would show you the items I found at the Clark County Antique Show I went to on Sunday.  It was the third day of a three day event, so I didn’t find a lot, but that’s okay, just means I didn’t spend a lot either.

 

As you can see, I found a little (not old) bird cage, pair of white eyelet edged pillowcases and from Joy, I bought three very heavy white chippy metal grates. (The white chippy chair is one I already had)  I’m going to attempt to hang these above either my kitchen or dining area windows.  I think they will look so cool.

I also found a trio of rhinestone brooches for a great price, but I was too lazy to take a picture of them. 

Heading out today for a little visit to my booths for cleaning up and a little restocking.  It’s been awhile since I’ve shown pictures of my Monticello booth.  Maybe if I get my act together I will take some to share on my next post.  Until then, hope you are having a great week!

Crafty me

I don’t know what has gotten into me. Yesterday I woke up really, really early and couldn’t go back to sleep.  This is nothing new as I have had insomnia since I was a teen, but instead of getting up and going on the computer like I usually do for about an hour, I got up and stayed up.  I even did my morning hour long walk which was no big deal.

By 12noon I was a goner and decided that if I was going to make it through the day I needed a nap. After sleeping a couple hours I got up and felt great and was ready to get busy.  As I mentioned in my last post, I got out my jewelry supplies the other day and started planning the project I wanted to work on. I had sorted my jewelry bits and so I could start making some blingy belt buckles.  You probably remember seeing the ones I made last year on my favorite projects of 2009 post.

Well, I have been collecting, saving  and hoarding miscellaneous jewelry bits and pieces for awhile and had accumulated a few buckles as well, so I was all ready to go.  Lets just say, I became an obsessed blingy belt buckle maker and made five of them in one day.  Here they are.

I love how they turned out.  I even managed to make a few blingy hair pins too.

My bling box is looking pretty sad and empty right now so I’m going to be on the look out to replenish my supply.  I’m so glad I’m finally getting my crafting mojo back.  Next up will be some sewing projects I’ve been thinking about.

Today, I’ll be taking it easy though.  I’m going to go see “Young Victoria” with Isabel and Kate. Good times!