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!
First, how great is this window at the shop?! #BIA I didn't buy anything from the window... yet, but trust that I have my eye on several of those Santas. I have been so crazy busy trying to get caught up on everything and I'm not there yet. Since I haven't mentioned it, and it's better late than never, fat quarters are half off on Spoonflower until 10 PM EST tonight. I just made my new 2016 tea towels available for sale. Hot dog!
Things have changed since these photos were taken because our new space is already going well! I wish I would have done a before and after because the room used to be neon red and lime green. Without stuff it in, the red was blinding not to mention really hard to cover! I think we got most of it pretty well covered and I really love the butterprint turquoise with the jadeite green accent wall. I brought a BP bowl into Menards and asked them to match the color and the guy was really rude and said, "I guess we'll see what it does..." Um, okay, sorry that I asked you to make a color that isn't on a swatch. We walked around the store while it was mixing and when we came back my bowl was just setting on the counter unattended! Normally I like Menards over Home Depot because the people are generally nicer, but not this time.
We never would have been able to put out Christmas like this if we were still in our lone shelf situtation!
I love that we can have a dedicated area for the more manly things we pick up!
That shelf is how it all started. We got SO. MUCH. STUFF. out of the apartment!!! Condensing crap is still on my to-do list. The studio is almost walkable!
We've had all these awesome things setting in a pile leaning next to the shelf and nobody really ever dug through it. I'm so happy to finally get them all the attention they deserve! Every time I see that crewel I think to myself it needs to come back home with me, but I have nowhere to hang it right now... I'm okay if no one buys it.
We found this awesome lamp and shade at Goodwill several months ago and never had space to put it our old booth. We have so much space now! There's enough room to put even more stuff in it if we want and I finally got rid of all the bins of Pyrex! As someone who admittedly hoards Pyrex and struggles with where to put it all at home, I looked at the bins and bins of it that we brought in and claimed too much Pyrex! Just wait until I move into a house... UGH! The thought is horrifying, but it also can't come soon enough.
Over our week off there were a lot of great finds that I'll share soon! I'm in the midst of catching up on thank you notes for the wedding and orders while trying to get all the Halloween picked up and packed away and simultaneously putting out Christmas because I can't deal with the mess of unpacking and repacking everyday decor two weeks later. I've started my Holiday Hutch and have a couple other shelves set up. The goal is to get the tree and outside solar lights up by the weekend. We have to work the Stroll at the shop on Saturday afternoon, too, so I expect I'll be busy busy busy through the holidays! Don't worry though because I'm a huge procrastinator so this is a perfect excuse to put down whatever I'm doing!
BJ and I celebrated our 1 weekiversary this past Saturday and I'm sad that it's now back to life, back to reality. We didn't have a honeymoon, just a week off in which we actually did a lot of work. Now I'm playing catch up on Halloween packing and overall cleaning. I thought I'd take a break from the boring mess to share the very few picture I have of the party. Everything happened really fast and I didn't have time to take good pictures, so excuse the poor lighting. The picture above is a cool spider pumpkin made out of some kind of old farm equipment. It's hard to tell, but that pumpkin is huge.
The party was in my mom's garage. I think it turned out really festive!
I really regret not taking more pictures. BJ surprised me with a couple of crafts that he came up with and made all by himself, which I didn't take pictures of because I didn't have my phone on me.
This picture doesn't do the tree justice. My sister painted it candy corn colors and I decorated it with my large collection of blowmold pails. It was probably my favorite part of the decor!
This was the photobooth. I bought a prop pack from Target with the hope that people would have fun and take pictures. That didn't happen... I worked really hard on the moon and it was a huge source of frustration because Basil kept scratching and breaking it so I had to keep fixing and painting it. I'm really glad that I didn't spend a ton of money on one from the Paper Moon Shoppe since this wasn't a hit like I thought it would be.
We wanted to surprise people with some floating wish lanterns. Most of them didn't take flight... and a lot of people were trying to leave while we were doing it. This was around 9 pm or earlier. That made me feel like a total loser... A quarter of the guests left before dessert was served! >_< I'm pretty sure a party at a nursing home is more swinging than our reception.
We bought 2 and a half dozen vegan donuts from Glam Doll. They weren't cheap donuts from the gas station... and most of them came home with us along with almost everything else I made! The problem is that when people know they're eating vegan food it goes from being delicious to disgusting because anything vegan just has to be gross. I didn't tell anyone, but I heard several conversations about it being vegan. All of the food I made has been taste tested and approved by several non-vegan individuals prior to this so I know it wasn't just good to me. I made approximately 1 million pinwheels because they usually disappear quickly. I came home with most of them and now they are going to compost.
Overall it was a pleasant experience, but it was definitely disappointing because I felt like people didn't really want to be there. I actually spent most of the party awkwardly standing or sitting by myself. BJ stepped up and did a lot of things to surprise me and made it a special day which is really all that matters. I appreciate all of the effort that my mom and sister put into the party because it looked awesome!
Our wedding may not have been the best day ever, but we have a lot of excitement in our future! Check back soon and I'll share photos of our new booth and how it is already awesome!
