Thrift, Craft, Love

This post has all those things :)

First - Love.  My sister has been here this past week for a visit and it has done my heart good.  We shopped and laughed and cleaned and organized -- we even crafted together!  

Second - Craft.  A friend of hers is having a flip-flop, tie dye-themed birthday party for her 6 year old daughter and wanted invitations.  So, here's what we came up with:

What a great summer theme!  The glittery tie dye card stock and flower brads came from Michael's; the flip flop card was cut using "Life's a Beach" Cricut Cartridge and the rest of the supplies were from my stash.  We made 35 in five colors -- pink, orange, yellow, purple and green.  

My peonies bloomed and they are gorgeous!  I cut a big bunch for a centerpiece:

More love :)  I couldn't stop there; more bloomed so I cut some today too.  The kitchen smells heavenly!

They are all in thrifted vintage flower vases - the first batch is in my favorite milk glass vase (I found it at GW last June), the clear ribbed vase is Randall glass and the rumply clear glass vase is by Brody. 

Shell and I did our share of shopping.  She hadn't been to a Home Goods before --what!? --I couldn't allow that.  Friends don't let friends miss out on HomeGoods.  I got a picture and shelf for my bathroom.  I still do not have the bathroom completely finished.  It's the longest. project. EVER.  But here's a sneak peak:

The sea horse print is pretty cool; the glass has an overlay of the seahorse painted on it in white, kinda like a skeleton.  It's different and neat.  I thought the shelf looked like driftwood and it had hooks for towels which make it a win/win! 

And last but not least - Thrift.

Shell & I thrifted some too.  We hit up a couple local fave places and also took an afternoon to head to Richmond.  Not all the thrift finds are from this past week; I've included some things from the past couple months that I haven't posted.  Like this first find; it came from the GW outlet.

Look at this darling vintage tin:

The bottom is printed with what the little tin contained - Mrs. Leland's Old Fashioned Golden Butter Bits - and it still has a small piece of the "key" attached used to open the lid.

There's quite a few pictures to follow but I want to share the whole scene with you!

Look at that aqua hutch!  The stripes on the dishes and the pot the lady is carrying are done in metallic gold paint which is also used to accent other things throughout the scene.  I love that cat :)

Can you believe it was in an outlet bin?  The graphics are really wonderful.  The aqua lid is what caught my eye and when I saw it was from 1960 I thought "SUPER SCORE!".  Since it was a "household" item, it was less than 59 cents.  I also picked up this book from the outlet for 50 cents.  

I found this Fire King Sapphire Blue trivet (1941-1956) at the Family Thrift Store in Richmond.  The price tag was marked 65% off so I ended up paying only $2.08.

I was particularly delighted to find it since I had thrifted the matching Casserole last June!  A month after I found the casserole dish, I found the 9" pie plate too.  I'm pretty happy to have this set:

This next find was from my thrift trip with Shelly.  I am so excited to find this:

EIT ironstone in the Blue Willlow pattern.  It came from the GW outlet in Richmond.

There are 4 dinner plates, 4 bread & butter plates and 4 coffee mugs.  It was 59 cents/pound.  What a great deal at under $6!  My grandma and my mom had this pattern.  I didn't know there was a story behind the pattern (you can read it here:  Blue Willow Legend) I just remember liking the birds and trees as a kid :)

I dug this out of a bin too - a Pyrex Crazy Daisy lidded refrigerator dish:

It was crazy greasy and dirty!  I don't understand.  Do people just empty the sink or dishwasher into a box to bring to GW?  Shell gave me a doubtful look when I dug it out and did a "woo hoo!"  I told her it wasn't anything a little soaking, a little Bar Keeper's Friend and a healthy amount of elbow grease couldn't tackle.  It was sparkling in no time and Dan used it to make Buffalo Chicken Dip in!

I found some art for our bedroom:

These prints are from Eugene Garin's painting called "Sheltered Cove."  The colors are gorgeous!  I love the way the waves look transparent (it's what his work is noted for).    

I. LOVE. THEM.  It's so moody, isn't it?  The mix of grays, teals, blues, and white look fantastic against the light gray walls.  *swoon*   I painted the frames the dark shade of gray we used to paint our drama wall behind the bed:

It's pretty cool both pictures were still together (though priced separately at $5.99/ea) at our (retail) GW.  They totally caught my eye but had me at the name "Sheltered Cove".   The weather has turned cool these past few nights so I have enjoyed snuggling in under the covers and looking at this scene :)

This next painting was at our GW also:

There isn't a title on this but my sister and I have decided it's the Outer Banks :)  It was $3.99, despite the $35 garage sale tag.  

And finally, this ornament holder and beautiful mercury glass holder from GW:

The ornament holder was originally from Pier One (it came with its original box).  And I bet you can guess why I bought the votive holder - yup, the beautiful color :)

I'm linking up!

Apron Thrift Girl, Thrift Share Monday, Memorial Day

Bright Green Door Blog: Get Your "Garage Sale On"

Finding Silver Pennies, Silver Pennies Sundays Link Party

One More Time, Share It One More Time

A Living Space, The Nifty Thrifty: Brass and Tweed

Mod Vintage Life, Mod Mix Monday #103

Coastal Charm, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday No. 165

Birthday Gifts and Thrifty Finds!

Hello All!  I've got a bazillion projects, all in various stages of incomplete but I missed the whole month of April and thought I'd try starting out May with a post!   Although it's been busy, I don't know how the time keeps getting away from me.  As I sit here now trying to think of  newsy things, there really isn't much to share.  I have been working new hours at work and even though they are later, it's been hard to adjust.  I've always worked early hours - 25 years of it --so this is like teaching an old dog a new trick and you know what they say about that - Hahahaha!

I got a bee in my bonnet a couple weeks ago to clean out the garage.  It turned out the bee was bigger than my bonnet -- cleaning out the garage was a huge undertaking and I have no idea why I thought it would be a piece of cake.  It's done though and it's wonderful having it cleaned out.  Dan and I are looking into storage and organization systems but first, there's painting and flooring to do.   I never realized there were so many options for a garage that would create so much more usable space.  Hopefully there will be some share worthy progress soon.

In the meantime, I had a birthday.  It was a lovely day - a Thursday -  and it streeeeetched into the weekend - woohoo!  ;)  Jenna and I had a mom/daughter breakfast.  I went to work and my co-workers had decorated my cube with balloons and there was cake!  Dan planned a thrifting extravaganza for me for the weekend and it was awesome.   Before I get to the finds, I want to show you this...

I was crushing on these BIG TIME:

Martha Stewart china dinnerware collection, "Sky Song." *love* 

And won't these look gorgeous with it:

They are La Rochere Carat Blue Ice Cream "bowls" --so, basically they are sherbets, right?  Ok, I've got dessert covered --now how about these for the beverages:

Vintage Noritake Provincial yellow goblets.  But these aren't the only vintage glass in this table setting because I'm going to use these too:

The napkin rings were thrifted.  But the rest I got for my birthday!!!  The goblets came from EBay, the china from Macy's and the sherbets from Overstock.  So, arranging a fabulous table scape is on my to do list and hasn't made it to "done" yet even though they are sitting out and admired daily!

Now, on to the thrifty finds!

I think this is really cool.  It's a one pound butter dish OR...wait for it...a FRUITCAKE dish!  How cool is that?  What's funny is I don't even like fruitcake but totally get that this little dish would be perfect to house one :)   As a matter of fact, this was so stinkin' dirty, it looked like a fruitcake had been baked in it!  But it sparkles now and it's perfect.  It was $1

I saw this unusual shaped dish and it spoke to me.

The lovely little bubbles, the dignified flea bites, the decorated bottom, all whispered of age.  Oh, and look at the detail in the scene:

I love the vine trailing up the tree :)  McKee Brothers, Deer and Pine Tree, 1886, (also known as "Deer and Doe").  127 years old, sitting on a shelf at the Goodwill with $1.99 price sticker.  What an incredible little treasure.

So we all should have a chicken in the kitchen right?  Who's with me?
I don't know what this guy is made of but his chicken legs are metal and there's just the right amount of chippy paint to make him all the more charming

He hangs out on kitchen island.

Lemony Chickets.  The basket was a thrift find too - 99 cents.  (The flowers are from my birthday - they are looking rather wilty here.  I have them in a thrifted vintage Hoosier Glass vase).

Funny story about this.  The darling swirled glass cups with hook handles (so smart!) were dug out of a bin at the Richmond GW outlet last summer.  12....a dozen perfect little punch cups but no punch bowl.  They are Hazel Atlas (Hazelware) swirl Colonial and they were orphaned.  I decided to take them in and foster them with my plain glass Crate & Barrel punch bowl.  Then, all these months later, on Saturday, sitting on a shelf at the Village Thrift --the punch bowl!  Three dollars later, the darling little swirl cups have been reunited to their rightful match.

GLEEEEORIOUS!  I love it when a plan comes together --or glassware--ok, yeah, that was a reach so never mind.  But seriously, it's these kind of things that reinforce that patience is a virtue and that you can find anything at the thrifts :)

I was excited to finally find a rose bowl...and a rose-colored rose bowl at that!

I love the diamond optic pattern.  There are no markings and I don't collect this pattern so I'm not sure of the manufacturer.  It's the color that landed it in my basket...oh and it was 99 cents - cray cray. 

This is another thrilling find!  Bryce, Higbee and Co. Grand Pattern (c.1884). 

Such a pretty pattern!

By now you all know how I love a good chunk of glass, right?  I am equal opportunity when it comes to chunks of glass milk glass, green glass, art glass, no matter thank you, I'll take it.  Look at this stunning ginger jar shaped art glass:

It was $10.  I painted some lamps parts with Valspar outdoor paint.  Now I know I have a lot of nerve for attempting to use a yellow paint considering my past experience with yellow paint *but* this buttery yellow did not disappoint, am I right?  It looks happy against those aqua walls and perfect for summer :)

I painted the base, rod (through the center of the lamp), finial --basically everything but the harp & socket, but I've decided to paint the harp as well because just the very edge of it winks out from under the lamp shade.  Since I had all the pieces for the lamp (the lamp shade came from the lamp that usually sits in this room) and the paint is for another project (this chair) all I paid was the cost of the of the glass - $10. 

My final share is this gorgeous cerulean blue glass compote. 

It's stippled and has a pattern on the pedestal that I think looks like waves!

That's all I have for now.  I'm so excited because my sister is coming to visit next week and we're going to have a blast!  I'm looking so forward to our thrifting excursions --and oh my sister is such a hoot!  She will have me laughing until my sides ache.  She's also incredible at organization and she's up for tackling my basement store room!  Only a sibling would have my back like that :)

I'm linking up!

Bright Green Door, Get your "Garage Sale On" Linky Party

Happy Mother's Day and have a GREAT weekend!