NumberNineteen

Decorating with Thrift Finds

My recent thrift haul kick started a decorating frenzy.  I've been re-arranging, re-painting and generally fluffing everything in my path.  A couple of projects are still in progress, so I'll have to share them in the coming weeks, but I was able to play with my thrift finds this week for a little bit of immediate decorating gratification.

I put my new white pitcher on the mantel along with 2 creamers from my collection. The mantel is always tricky for me because we have high ceilings so we had to hang our pictures pretty high.  The items on the mantel need to "fill in" the area between the fireplace and the pictures, so they need to be tall.  Everything in our old house was on a smaller scale, so I'm still collecting larger items (like the new big pitcher) that fit in the new house.

The Pepsi crate isn't strictly a thrift find -- I found it in my neighbor's garbage pile several years ago!  It was in the closet holding mittens, but in my decorating fever, I thought "That is too cool to be hiding -- what can I do with it???". This little mini wine bar is perfect for our evening glass of wine.

Remember the lavendar find from last week?  They found a good home in the kitchen on either side of the little tureen.

I shifted the topiary from the kitchen (where the lavendar now resides) and added the architectural picture above the table.  We are on a *tight* decorating budget, so buying art for this spot is not going to happen.  Enter my favorite free image sites!  You all know that I love The Graphics Fairy and I've also found a new great site, The New York Public Library Digital Gallery.  The NYPL site provides thousands of images from their collection, which are completely free to use and print!  Gotta love libraries ;) 

I found this image of an old beautiful gate and used a frame that was sitting in the basement.  Instant art!

Thrift Store Bonanza!

I haven't had a good thrift store score in a really long time, but this weekend, I hit the jackpot!

I found all of these items (except the small silver bowl -- more about that in a minute) at the Salvation Army store for $17!

I love this white pitcher ($3), which I think that I might use in the guest room & the little white plate($1).  I"m pulling together white plates for above our bed, so this will be perfect.

These gorgeous classic silver bowls will clean up well and will be beautiful in the dining room ($6 & $3).  I find so many silver items at thrift stores for dirt cheap.  I guess that people don't want to polish them, but it really only takes a minute and I love the way they look in  a grouping.

I love topiaries (are these topiaries??? Close enough!) & these are real lavendar.  They smell so pretty and were just $3 for the two of them.

I also  scored 4 dinner plates that match our dishes (seen in the first picture - $8 total).  We have Martha Stewart Everyday dishes that are no longer made.  I haven't found any other dishes that I like as well so I snatch up extras when I see them in thrift stores. 

As I left the Salvation Army, I noticed an antiques store that I hadn't seen before (how did this happen???).  I went in and found  wonderful pieces for my vintage kitchen cabinet (totaling$32 including the silver bowl).

I just love those ice cream containers & the plate from an ice cream parlor (marked 1947!).  And the colored sugar sprinkles are such a find!  I can't wait to have all of these cute vintage sweet & cooking goodies gathered in my cabinet.  In the mean time, I'm having fun collecting for it ;)

In my next post, I'll show you how I've used my new finds in the house -- I'm on a decorating roll!

Putting the Vintage into Vintage Pretties

I haven't written about it much in the past year, but I'm still a vintage-loving, vintage-selling girl.  I'm soley on Etsy right now, which works really well with the rest of my life right now.  I can put as much or as little time into it as my schedule allows.  I'm gearing up for Christmas right now & have been on the look-out for ornaments.  Look what I found at the flea last week!

A guy sold me everything that he had for a very good price.  Not pictured are about 30 plain colored balls that show their age, but I keep thinking that there must be something that could be made with them. 

You may also notice the Brownie camera on the right side of the photo.  About 2 minutes before purchasing it, I said to myself, "No more cameras!"  Well, this one was there at the right price and what can I say???

If you are interested in seeing the ornaments, I'll be posting them this week in my shop.  I've also recently posted a lot of very cool 1950s office items as well as several tole trays and more cameras. You can find my shop by either clicking this link: The Vintage Mercantile or by clicking on the photos on the left sidebar of the blog.

'Cause You Asked

Pics of my booth, just before the sale started today.  I made a lot of sales today, which isn't that hard when you are practically giving things away...better a few dollars in my pocket than a bunch of boxes in my basement.  One more day to go & the furniture is going to be marked down even further -- I don't want to haul that stuff back to my house!

Just finished watching "Juno"...love that movie...I'm off to do more relaxing.

The Big Flea Is Coming!

Just a quick note to say that I'm going to have a booth at this weekend's DC Big Flea at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA. I'm trying to reduce the inventory that currently resides in my basement, so I've slashed prices to just above cost.  This is your chance to get the goods at a fabulous price!

If you haven't been to The Big Flea, it is a MUST!  There are hundreds of booths with all kinds of fabulous finds.  I'll be in the North Building (the first building that you see when you drive into the parking lot), near the center front.  The show's hours are Saturday 9-6 & Sunday 11-5. If you stop by my booth, please introduce yourself!  I love to meet blogging friends!!!

I'll be blogging more in the near future.  I've been a busy girl, hanging out with Hope this summer!

Sunday Night

I'm sitting here as the Sunday routine goes on...dinner is done and Hope is pretending that she is getting ready for bed.  I'll be going to her room to urge on the process shortly.  I'm mentally praising Glenn & I for fitting so much into the weekend.  Friday & Saturday mornings, I made the rounds of the estate sales & the monthly flea market in Arlington.  I uncovered a few finds:

I just love, love, love the fan & the little platters. I will exercising great restraint by not keeping them.  "They are for Etsy, they are for Etsy"...must repeat to myself.

I'm kicking myself over the typewriter.  It's a great typewriter, but I pretty much ruined it when I tried to clean it up.  Note to self: rubbing alcohol takes paint off of old typewriters.  I think that Hope will be inheriting it as a toy.

After returning from the flea market, Glenn & I attacked our yard with a vengeance.  We showed no mercy to weeds, long grass or overgrown bushes.  Hope "helped" with her play hoe.  We then cleaned ourselves up & spent a great evening at a friend's house for one of the first barbecues of the season.  They have an incredible tree house & the kids absolutely exhausted themselves by playing all over it all night.

Finally, I went to the farmer's market this morning.  I wish that I had taken my camera...all of the produce is so gorgeous.  I came home with asparagus, spring onions, lettuce & tiny sweet strawberries. 

And, that wraps up our weekend. I hope that you had a great weekend too!

This Week's Finds

Hi there!  It's Friday & that means Estate Sale Day!  I went to 3 sales today, 2 of which yielded treasure, the other, not one thing.  I don't know if you can tell, but the suitcase is hunter green, with a basketweave pattern printed on it.  There is one lone sticker, for Northwest Airlines.  I love to find cases & trunks covered in stickers.

The search also yielded an envelope full of postcards from the turn of last century, about half in floral designs & the remainder, pictures of New York City.  I only pulled out a few for the photo, but all of them are really nice.  Also found was a working 1950s "Baby Ben" clock (yay! I look for these!), a small ivory pitcher, & a 1928 issue of Ladies Home Journal with the most gorgeous illustrations.

I came home from my search & took a long nap -- the pollen is killing me!  I feel so sluggish all of the time & have a scratchy throat.  I can't wait until we get through spring & all of these allergies.

Also, you may notice that I have changed the comments section so that I have to approve comments before they appear.  I hate to do this because it gives the impression that I only want comments that please me, but I've been forced to by the spammers, who have become completely out of control.  Keep coming back, bloggy friends!  I'll get rid of these pesky spammers one way or the other!

Looky What the Postman Brought

Somedays the postman isn't so exciting.  He brings boring things like credit card offers and advertisements.  But somedays, he bring ebay finds!  I'm so in love with these little tins that I scored on ebay this week.  Aren't they the prettiest things?  I'm always looking out for old tins with roses to fit into my collection & these will be just perfect.

The Weekend Update

Hello dear friends!  I hope that you've had a good weekend.  Has spring come to your part of the world?  Spring is being a tease here in Virginia this year...one week, we have hot sunny days & the next, it's 50 degrees again.  But, all is in bloom & it's beautiful outside.

I almost titled this post "The Day That Rocked" because Friday was one of those days that just astounds you with how *GREAT* everything turns out.  As you may remember, I found out that one of my items was featured on the front page of Etsy.  Not only such an honor, but that is, short of having your shop mentioned in a magazine, the best advertisement that you could hope for.  I sold 5 items in one day!   To give you a frame of reference, I think that I sold 3 items in all of last month.  I was so excited, I could barely contain myself!!!

It put me in such a good mood that I decided to go to Banana Republic to buy the dress that I've been thinking about since I first saw it 3 weeks ago.  I've dithered & dithered over it because I really have no money to be purchasing dresses.  When the dress was rung up, it turned out to be 50% off!!!  Things were going so well that I called Glenn & told him that he had to take me out to dinner to celebrate such great day.  I know, I totally should have played the lottery. :)

The rest of the weekend wasn't quite up spectacular-ness of Friday, but good stuff.  I ventured out to some estate sales on Saturday morning and came up with this:

"Handy Hannah" -- blow drying your hair, circa 1950s!

After the sales, Hope, Glenn & I literally dug into yard work all Saturday afternoon.

I planted 60 impatiens plants...maybe they will look like this in a month??

 
I also put in another hydrangea, hoping that I'll have some flowers to cut in the future...my other hydrangea has produced exactly one bloom.  Hope springs eternal.

Today we experienced the joy (cough, cough) of a children's birthday party, this time featuring a magic show.  The kids were wild about the show & then they were fed cake.  You can imagine the scene.  However, we did get to see one of Glenn's co-workers (the father of the birthday girl) forced, as part of the show, to wear a toilet plunger on his head, so all was not lost.

Vintage Typewriters Galore

The treasure hunting was outstanding this weekend. Between a few estate sales & a small flea market, I found three (yes, three in one weekend!) vintage typewriters, 2 awesome vintage cameras & a 1950s children's reading workbook.  The workbook has great images but there is a lot of drawing in it, so I'm pulling out the great images & making up ephemera packs.  They are going to be so great in any kind of nostalgic art piece, but I think they are especially perfect for the back-to-school time.

The estate sale at which I snagged the majority of the stuff was held by a company that I really like.  They are always friendly, give discounts after the first day, and this time, the guy told me some hilarious estate sale disaster stories.  Trust me, you don't want to know....