Forgotten Finds

I updated my last post with new pictures because the sun finally came out! While taking pictures today, I discovered some things I never shared. I found the ornament above at Arc's. It's sadly broken in one spot, but when I saw him while digging through the ornament bins, it was love at first sight! The one behind him is the spinner that I picked up at Loft Antiques this fall. My lights don't get warm enough to spin it though... :(

I found this NIP pinecone set at Arc's. I almost passed right over it because I thought, "oh that's in a box, it must be new." Then I turned it over after rethinking and immediately set it in my cart. I paid for it because Arc's is really cool and thinks their an antique store, but I doubt I'll ever find another any cheaper. 

Here's a closer look at my cart o' Santas. I found the Rushton Coke Santa with his bottle at Arc's the same trip as the pinecones. Only 5.49!!! They have a rubber faced Santa in the case right now with a huge tear in his arm for more than double the price. My heart was racing when I saw him in a box that hadn't been unpacked yet. He is my greatest Christmas find ever from the thrifts! The hat that Velvie is wearing is from my coworker's shop. She had a booth at a holiday fair last week and I ALWAYS find something from her! I also came home with a Holt Howard candle holder with a little girl and deer that can be seen on my deer table in the previous post. We share an affinity for kitsch. I haven't discussed it with her, but I think of her as my shop bestie. 

I caved and got this guy on eBay. I have almost no willpower when it comes to Christmas kitsch so the internet is a very dangerous place that I avoid browsing. I think he was worth it though. All the creepy Santas, please!!!

I found this tablecloth at Arc's this year for a steal. I just finally got it washed and put on my table and I'm really sad that I don't have longer to spend with it. It is one of my favorite Christmas items that I've thrifted!

Here's this one again. The Tom and Jerry set is another thing that I paid a high price for at Arc's, but we had a coupon that made it almost half price so I'll call it even. Not even close to what you'd expect to pay on eBay. It's setting on top of my Golden Poinsettia that I wish so much was in better shape, but I can always trade up when I find one. 

I threw my glittery Santas and their deer friends into the gumball machine with a disco ball ornament so they could party all season long. These are a favorite find from this past spring. It was the Jadeite swirl sale by the B's in pink that we waited 3 hours for only to find it priced at a very high-end eBay price. Needless to say we didn't get it, or bother going back the next day because it would only be 30% off and still not worth it in my mind. I did get a bunch of Christmas kitsch though!

This shelf houses all my early and pre season Thriftmas finds mixed with coordinating Pyrex and mugs.

And here's a long shot of the scene simply because the aluminum tree looks so glamorous and makes my heart sing! Now, I'm off to make cookies! 

Christmas Magic

I've been meaning to post a Christmas tour of my apartment for a long time, but life got in the way. The sun hasn't shone here in two weeks so that doesn't make for very awesome pictures. I decided to just take pictures anyway, but have since updated them! Yay! I've added a few really spectacular vintage Christmas things to my collection this past year. Our furniture setup has really changed and I like how my displays came out because of it. It really feels sparkly and magical in here. Then I hear the guy on the other side of the wall howling and the annoying kids crying, screaming, and banging on my bathroom wall and I'm ripped out of my dreamland. Please help me send good vibes into the universe for us to get out of this awful place ASAP! I'm dreaming of a hot shower/ just like the ones I used to know/ Where the water had pressure /and silence wasn't precious/ to hear...

Probably the most significant of my additions is this 6' pom pom aluminum tree that we scored on Craigslist! I really had no hope left that I'd have a full-sized one this year, but then I did a search for one expecting nothing and there it was! I can't believe that it had been posted for so long. It was meant to be I suppose. By next year, I'd like to have a rotating stand and color wheel.

Of course if I hadn't found the tall one, I still had two tabletop trees! This one is from the first estate sale we ever were first in line for.

So is this guy. The original plug is in it, but it doesn't work. I don't know if it's the bulb or the cord because I can't find the right sized light. It's one of those things that really pushes the limit on fire hazard. He's made of a really fragile, thin plastic and backed with cardboard. One spark and the whole thing could go up in flames. For that reason, I'm not sad about not lighting him up!

This tree is from a second day garage sale where everything you could fit into a paper bag was $10 total. We fit A LOT into that bag including this tree. I felt like I was stealing it from them, but with consent. The lady it belonged to said she used to be an antique dealer and this was her first ever Christmas tree that one of her coworkers gave her because she didn't have one. 

I seem to have started a small collection of ornament hook boxes. They all have such great graphics! I displayed them in the Christmas List box I found at Arc's when Thriftmas opened. The Holt Howard cookie jar is a $1.49 find from last weekend! When I spotted it, I couldn't grab it fast enough! There was a snooty guy couple looking through the Christmas stuff and they kept giving me the evil eye for being in the same aisle. Don't get in my way of Christmas kitsch.

This is the other thing that I wanted and I didn't even try to find! I was quite envious of all the people posting pictures of theirs on Instagram and thought I'd never find one. We went to visit the booth one weekend day and the first thing that I saw when I walked through the door was this in it's original box for a crazy cheap price! My hands grabbed it and brought it to the register. It took FOREVER to setup and by the end I was sweating because it is really involved and there is so much cardboard! It looks like it wasn't put together many times because the creases were still crisp. I imagine a lot of people probably just smashed these all up and tossed them at the end of the season. I don't look forward to taking it apart...

I found the red and white table runner at a second day sale in St Paul this summer. We met a very tame white squirrel who wanted to be fed there. I love the coziness it gives to my Lane cedar chest! The Shiny Brite ornament tree is from an estate sale this fall where everything was super over priced, but this seemed cheap. It has the original box which is in great shape and I wanted to display it on it's own, but couldn't find the space. The topper is broken at the point though.

I saw a Santa tree on Instagram and knew that I had to find a way to do one of my own! I collected most of these guys over the past year from various sales. This tree definitely makes the top 5.  (I have 7 trees.)

I'm deeply in love with this display! The Santa mug shelf makes me feel like I'm living in a department store circa the 1950's and that is basically how I want to always feel.

My mom found the pink tree for me at a thrift store and I decorated it with all the pink ornaments that I had. I don't know if it's vintage or reproduction, but it is great either way! She told me that several ladies came up to her and ogled the tree in her cart. Isn't my tiny Jadeite collection great? The wreath was the inspiration for this shelf.

These pictures are terrible, I'm sorry. This is my extra Pyrex display. 404's don't fit in my hutch so I couldn't incorporate the Golden Leaf I got last year after Christmas. I love my candy cane stack of 501's!

Here's the hutch this year. I decided not to change it too much from last year because I liked it a lot, but wanted to make sure all my snowflakes got in there. Boy was it annoying to take out all of those balls at Thanksgiving to use a 045! Luckily I just got the Golden Poinsettia 045 so I don't have to do that for Christmas! I found the lid in Lamberton on a pink daisy DD and the cradle at Animal Ark with an opal DD and an 045 lid. I waited 6 months for that to go on half price because they had a crazy price on it and it was mismatched. I just wanted the cradle. I had no idea what it went to and when I found out, I was on a mission to get the 045 to complete it! That is currently in the sink waiting for a wash. Hopefully we have hot water tonight...

This is a new 501 snow scene that I made this year with little porcelain carolers. 

Can you spot the hidden Mickey?

I found the Holt Howard candle holders after Christmas last year at the shop that we had no idea we would move into! I found the candles at an estate sale I think. I really love tacky plastic greenery. They all go well together. I had no place to store my Fenton cake stand so I thought I'd use it to add some height and interest to my tablescape. The fuzzy Santa boot holding my poinsettia is from the estate sale we went to last weekend. I was very disappointed to find a Pyrex display table in the attic with a sold sticker, but I got an ugly furry booth made out of a coffee can and a giant plastic Santa head that fits approximately nowhere.

This is my deer table. When I unpacked my deer after Halloween, they just kept coming. I had no idea there were so many! They're lucky we're vegan and there is no open season in our apartment.

I made this smallest display out of bits I've found over the past year.

Here is a cart of creepy Santas with a bed beneath for my cats. They don't really seem to use it when the cart comes in for the winter, though.

That brings us to the main attraction! Our second live Christmas tree of the year. The first one was a blue spruce and was dead the morning after we bought it. The lot said that several had been brought back so I guess they weren't a good crop this year. We exchanged it for a Frasier Fir. The cats get their bed under the tree so they don't feel the need to be their naughty selves and ruin presents and ornaments. So far so okay... My cats are light chewers! 

"What's that smell?" "Fried pussy cat!"

It is almost a tree in the round in the corner we have it, which is great because I can see all my ornaments!

I wrapped presents this week. There was so much cute paper this year that I decided to wrap boxes that can be reused. I thought I'd get crafty with it and make cute things to attach to them like people used to way back when. These are all vintage findings thrifted or found in estate sale land.

Only 8 sleeps until Christmas, Kittens! Only one thing in the world can drag me away from the soft glow of electric sex. I have to go make dinner... Happy holidays!!!

Recent Roundup

I have been cleaning, putting, and organizing since we got married on Halloween. I am sooo over it! Since our week off was dedicated almost entirely to getting our new booth setup, I wasn't able to put the decorations away. I decided that I'd just switch out Halloween for Christmas in an effort to do less exchanging of seasons, but I don't think it ended up being any less work. I felt like I was living in a hoarder nightmare! But with Thanksgiving behind us, all that's left is to decorate the tree. We got a real tree today! More on all that in another post. For now I want to get caught up on some recent finds.

We had another great bakelite haul! So much amazingness for so little! My favorites are the red prystal UFO, the red bookend match set, and the green one that I'll show a closer look next. Each one or group was so cheap I could resell and make a tidy profit, but I can't pick any that I'd like to live without, so for now they stay in the keepsies pile. I definitely need a new display rack for all my beauties!

It pairs perfectly with the red bookends for a Christmas stack!

The set of winking Santas on the left side was at my main thrift... and I paid out the nose for them because I just couldn't leave them behind :( The cookie jar is also new from the same trip to an occasional as the Bakelite. I got it thinking I could let it go, but now that it has made its way into a display I'm not sure of that.

The ornament and the deer came from the occasional as well. The mug I picked up during the sale at our shop because how can you work without shopping? It's Hazel Atlas. There was also one with a blue design, but I thought the black looked nicer and it was much more than I usually spend on mugs with a firm price. Maybe I'll find it in the wild someday.

Bad picture, but I was so excited to spot these in the case at the thrift store! It was marked more than the retail price printed on the sheet, but I've always regretted not buying these when they were being sold at the post office, so I'll take it!

I got a gift certificate to an antique store for Christmas last year and didn't know that the store had changed a lot since I'd last been. I could never find anything to spend it on. Until our last trip! I picked up a vintage spinner ornament, a Scarlet O' Neil Better Little Book, a mica reflector ornament, and a set of six Bakelite scottie napkin rings with working wheels and all their eyes in tact!!! The rings were a steal!

BJ found me a jadeite batter pitcher for a reasonable price, but definitely higher than it should be at a thrift store. I found a lucite Mickey Mouse pin for just .79 along with a vintage hand mirror and comb brooch, a cat watch brooch, and a brooch with a woodland scene. I also picked up a green bakelite spacer when it finally hit half off day because they price them crazy. Right now there is a bangle they obviously think is Bakelite, but definitely is not, for $27.49 or something around there. They also have one of the reddish orange tubes that I picked up for around $3 or so last month priced at almost the same price. Nutty.

Last time we went to the shop to clean up I found three Santas that were too weird and wonderful to leave behind. One is playing volleyball or something, another is rappelling with gifts floating on his back, and the best is chatting on his jeweled phone!

His rocking chair has gems and he looks like a teenage girl saying, "No way. No. Way. NOOOO WAAAYYY!!!!"

Black Friday wasn't good to us this year. It wasn't worth waiting in any lines, so we didn't. Except the checkout at Joann's. Luckily we had few enough items to sneak through the express cutting counter. Those ladies are serious! I picked up a couple strands of glass garland at an occasional. I love the big beads! I also got another flocked Santa, a plastic deer, and a couple of bump chenille/ mercury bead doodads that I'll craft into something. I left behind a lot of knee huggers, but maybe we'll go back because I was told there would be more vintage Christmas.

I'm sure there is plenty that I left out, but chances are that it was Christmas and you'll see it when I share my decorations this year. It feels particularly vintage-y and magical in here and I can't wait to finish up the tree!  Check back soon for more awesome!