Treasure Box Wednesday: Thrifting, Stitching and Surprise

I'd caught a glimpse of the images as I'd passed the Red, White and Blue thrift store's hanging decor section. It was amid the art class paintings, the 70s mushroom plaques in plaster, dusty prints and framed posters. I got a sense of color, of intricacy, and, well... a lot of legs.

The section was crowded. I would have needed a cattle prod and more chutzpa than I certainly could ever summon, just to take a peek. I decided to pop back later, when the area was less... leggy.

So I bobbed and weaved around the store, and returned 20 minutes later to the spot, to find it much more managable. And that's when I got to see the first side of the three framed items that had been stacked and taped together.

The mermaid needlework had my attention immediately. Not only for its size, and color, but the fact that I knew how much work went into the thing...
At least a foot-and-a-half square, the design was chock full of mer-people...
...jellyfish, sunken ships and thready kelp.
On the other side was Rapunzel, letting her long hair down for the prince to make his grand entrance....

And this one had all the detail of the first... Castles and flowers and the great effort of the thing was remarkable to me...

I had no idea what the third one was (it was firmly taped inside facing the other two), but given it was in the same sort of frame and size, I expected it might be another Grimm tale. Perhaps Cinderella? Snow White? I looked forward to getting it home and finding out.

When I did, I was in for a big surprise. As it happened to be depicting my very favorite of childhood tales...

Alice in Wonderland.

What luck! And as you can see, the piece is as lush with detail as the other two...

Here's our friend the Hatter...
And even the Cheshire Cat makes an appearance. Albeit how much of him remains there at any time is up to him...
Moving on, at the Ohio River Boulevard antique mall, I found a Victorian luster portrait plate for just $6...
And at the Salvation Army on the South Side, I uncovered a McCoy pinecone patterned creamer (this had been a part of a tea set at one time), for just a few dollars...
It was a fun week of finds and very easy on the pocketbook in total... Perhaps this pocketbook...
Which was a whopping $1.50.

So that's Treasure Box Wednesday for this week. May you find your own delightful surprises, treasures, and perhaps even some Wonder in the days ahead.