Treasure Box Wednesday on Sunday: Time Travel in Blogging

Since I will be heading down to Florida on our usual Treasure Box Wednesday post day, in order to bring my Dad up north with me, I figured I'd make Wednesday come early this week. When ya run a blog, you can do that sort of thing, you know-- make days shift around like dominoes-- and then hope it won't confuse the heck out of the nice people who stop by regularly.

My favorite treasure of this week was this pretty hand-tinted Victorian photograph on glass from We Miss Back When in Apollo, PA...

I had my eye on it a while, and at $8, I finally caved and show them the money.

At the Goodwill in Monroeville, I got this handy-dandy book on British kings and queens...
Now when I have questions about ol' "King Elthered the Unready," "Queen Ethelfleda the Somewhat Snippish" or "King Ferdinand the Impetuous," I'll be able to look 'em up and learn something.

At the same Goodwill, I bagged me a few CDs, too--
And speaking of bagged...
I already had this particular item, but every day I think what a bargain it was. :)

I hope to have a post for you next Sunday. With Dad sick, things are kind of up in the air for me right now, but I don't want to leave you folks with nothing in your blogly goody bags, either. So I'll do my best to keep things rolling.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Cut-Price Clip Art

It's been kind of a rough week for me in the ol' offline world, as my dad has spent it in the hospital and my mind has spent it swirling around, distracted. But I did get a little mental break by hitting Half Price Books, and that's where I uncovered some really fun Dover clip-art CDs in vintage advertising, antique textiles and Celtic pattern themes.

The vintage advertising particularly made me happy. Not only are there royalty-free vintage images I can use here on the blog to make things pretty for you folks...
But I noticed one of the illustrations was actually from George Hood, an early 1900s artist who was considered one of the very best who worked in the Maxfield Parrish style...
I actually have a book illustrated by him, and I love the rich colors and fairytale type imagery.

I will have fun, too, playing around with some of these elaborate Celtic patterns...
And the textiles should be really useful for backgrounds. Possibly even a little tweak to the blog?...
So, that's what's in the Treasure Box this week! Thanks much for stopping by-- as always! The blog would be nothin' without you good folks!

Pretty Maids in a Row: American and Austrian Transferware

Longtime readers of The Thrift Shop Romantic have seen rooms in my small Victorian house evolve, collections amass, and tablescapes and mantles get facelifts. But I don't believe I've ever given any of you a full-fledged peek into the built-in china cabinet in my living room!

It's the place I safely display a lot of my American whiteware pottery from the East Liverpool, Ohio area, as well as its sister transferware pottery from Austria.
Much of the pottery is from the early 1900s, and I've gotten pieces over time at garage sales, flea markets, antique malls and-- yes, absolutely-- even thrift stores!

What I love about it is its rich warm tones, unique, often organic shapes, and the sheer quantity of blossoms.
So much of it coordinates so well with other pieces, making for a case that "more might very well be more"...

I'm always amazed where I find some of these pieces. The central plate, for instance, and rose-hued portrait vase on its left both came from the Salvation Army thrift store!...Now I know they're not everyone's taste. Some might find them gaudy or too ornate for today's streamlined lifestyles. But that's a-okay. It would be really boring if we all liked the same things. And anyway, it may very well be because it's not trendy right now that I was able to get portrait plates like the one on the far left for a single dollar...

This row of pretty plates at the back were also thrift store finds...
They didn't come with the teacups up front-- those were birthday presents from one of my friends-- but my, how they match!

Anyway, that closes the door on this little peek into the cabinet....
I hope you all have a bright and colorful week ahead of you.

Treasure Box Thursday: Victorian Cards, Cut-outs and Cuties

Over the weekend I'd done a little shopping in Pittsburgh's Strip District (don't worry-- no stripping involved!-- it's a warehouse district where you can buy all sorts of interesting fresh foods). And this is also the location of Mahla Antiques. That's where I picked up a few examples of paper history-- some Victorian fringed greeting cards and some brilliantly-colored paper items once in a Victorian scrapbook.

One of the cards is as pretty on one side as it is the other...
And it's hard to believe after all these years the fringe is still bright and intact!...
This is the second of the cards I'd gotten. I thought it was particularly interesting because, even though it's a Christmas card, too, it doesn't have the look of what we think as "Christmas" today...
We tend not to use bouquets of flowers to represent the season these days unless they're, perhaps, red roses or holly.

Last is the bag of cutout goodies. I particularly wanted it for the cherub and the dove... They may get displayed at Christmas somehow with the cards...
And that pretty much seals up this week's Treasure Box. I'm sorry I'm late with it this week. I actually forgot what day it was yesterday and went off to work without posting!

Bad blogger! BAAAAD blogger. :)

Hope to see you again on Sunday for the next post. That is, if I remember when it's Sunday. :)

Autumn Tablescapes: Fun in the Fall

How can you decorate for Fall on a budget? I had fun with it this year using some vintage Carnival glass, and a few discount rack items from Bed Bath and Beyond.

While I love the marigold Carnival glass, orange is not really my favorite color. I think I was scared by Harvest Colors as a child in the 70s...

So my base colors in Autumn are usually sage green and purple, with the Carnival glass serving as my warmer tones. I got the set of Jeannette Glass plates in the Anniversary pattern from Graham's antique mall in Ligonier...
And the grape patterned goblets and centerpiece bowl were thrift store finds.

The leaf placemats were a little over a dollar a piece at Bed Bath and Beyond.

The chair covers are actually 90 inch round tablecloths I got from BB&B's discount area. While chair covers were running a too-pricey $20 a piece, these were less than half that, and I just pinned them at the back with vintage brooches I already had....

They help protect the chair from my enthusiastic kitten friend, Alice...
She's not allowed up on the table, but she feels the need to supervise all activity for quality control...
We're still working on a few things. (Like "no climbing on the table.")

I'm also still working on the Halloween mantle, but you can see where I'm going with it. I need to find a permanent home for that lamp, but it's just so darned pretty I haven't moved it.
The little papier mache style decorations were largely from Tuesday Morning a year or two ago, just after the Halloween season.

And that's what I've been up to this week. I realized that as of September 11, The Thrift Shop Romantic was officially four years old! I'm not sure what that makes it in blogging years-- but I suspect it's about entitled to Social Security benefits.

So have a piece of virtual cake and celebrate with me! And I hope to see you again on Wednesday!

Treasure Box Thursday: Renaissance Plunder

Just a few baubles in the Treasure Box this week! Two items of which were plunder from the Greater Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival I told you about on Sunday.

Their marketplace is filled with everything from replicas of medieval weaponry to jewelry to soaps and candles. Not being in the market for a dagger at the moment, I selected a couple of necklaces, like this one bearing the image of one of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's red-haired maidens...
I also got this shimmering purple pendant made from lab-adjusted minerals...
And beyond the walls of the Renaissance Faire's "Shire," I picked up a curio wall cabinet I'd been looking for for a while to hold some tiny treasures based on Victorian artist John Tenniel's illustrations...
Complete with a dust-resistant glass door, this was more than I had even expected. It was a find from the Salvation Army Superstore in West Mifflin.

And that's it for our teeny Treasure Box this week. I should be back on schedule again this coming week. The Labor Day holiday just threw me a bit off with my posts. Can you believe it's September already?

How does it happen?

Oh, and because I thought it was funny, I'm going to try to start remembering to include my weekly BlueBoy count on my travels (you can read about the running Blue Boy joke here).

This week's Blue Boy Tally?: Two.

Have a great week!

A Trip to the Faire: Greater Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival

"I took a trip down to look at the fair
When I arrived, there was nobody there..."
--Renaissance

I've had the song from the 70s prog-rock band Renaissance running through my head since yesterday. And like that song, my quiet morning in rural West Newton, PA, suddenly transformed into a busy, bustling, magical afternoon of jesters and joking and majestic color.

Welcome to the Shire, where anachronism, entertainment, games, and swordplay abound-- along with food, crafts, and heavy textiles swelter under sunny skies.

You could start with some games. Tell me, how are you with Ye Olde Archery? Can you split your foe's arrow in twain? ...

(No, me neither.)

How about lob produce for fun at some poor dude in the stocks, in "Vegetable Justice"? (I had to take a pic of that, it just made me laugh...)Maybe some grog is more to your liking?

Or you'd like to sit in a wooded glen and enjoy a musical performance...
A parade signals a joust will begin soon...

Here comes da Queen...
And here a rather oversized version of His Royal Majesty. Just look at that papier mache turkey leg behind him... It must be four foot tall. (It's good to be the King!)...

Sir Mitri, of Spain, seems to be eyeing up this girl's lunch...
He gets so busy jousting, pillaging and wenching there really isn't a lot of time for a sensible meal these days .

We all gather for the upcoming tournament. A local Faerie has a minor wardobe malfunction, but doesn't seem to mind.
The crowd gathers, and it's ready to see some energetic combat!...
I notice my favorite knight from last year, Sir Roderick, has made his debut once more. This time, he's on the side of good. I guess he learned his lesson from last year's "cheat to win" mantra...

He wears the colors of black-and-gold... Always popular in Steelers territory.He takes on Sir Mitri, though Spanish-English relations don't seem to improve for the exercise.

Having won a test of skill, Sir Roderick bestows upon a shy spectacled princess, his "Queen of Love and Beauty" favor for the day, giving her a garland of flowers. She didn't know quite what to do with all the attention.

Along the way, I picked up a couple of pieces of handcrafted jewelry, a fine lunch of fish and chips, and a rather remarkable case of sunburn-- the latter souvenir was completely free.

I am a girl who always enjoys a bargain. :)

Hope you all have a terrific rest of your Labor Day weekend. I'll see you again later in the week.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Somebody Else's Treasure

I didn't hit the thrifts and antique malls this weekend. My attentions have been directed more toward wrapping up the draft of my humor novel-- which, happily, I have-- all 530-some manuscript pages of it! (Manuscript pages run about 2-1 on actual book pages.)

It's been a long time coming, let me tell ya. So with another good editorial scrubbing of the draft, hopefully soon, I'll have something truly worth sharing. That was my real treasure for this week: positive progress.

That said, "Why is there a giant deer posterior on your romantic decorating and thrifting blog, Jenn?" you ask.

"Ah," I tell you, "I was just getting to that."

Sometimes, my secondhand adventures lead to items that I do not so much wish to come home with me (please no), but which make me happy by their simply existing, and which need to be documented for posterior-- er, posterity and shared with my blogly buddies. Like this... unique... deer trophy.

We might title this, "The One that (Almost) Got Away."

I also spied this original and possibly hand-made with love (because I suspect it couldn't possibly be mass-produced) banana chandelier.
Doesn't it just make you think of the charm of Carmen Miranda?... The calypso musical stylings of Harry Belafonte... the, er, Clyde from "Every Which Way But Loose"?
I never got a chance to mention to you, that big-eyed pig-dog-Carol Channing-looking painting from the Ohio River Boulevard Antique mall we chuckled about in a post not long ago?-- well, that must have found a home somewhere.

After hanging in that mall for months on its third floor, only a week or two after the post here, it was vanished from its spot.

Did some TSR reader fall in love with it here on the blog and need to make it his or her own? Was it artistic admiration at first sight? Was it the so-tactile black velvet surface? Was it due to falling down laughing and saying, "Hey, won't this be a conversation piece when friends come over?"

I'd love to know. So if one of you dear folks felt inspired to install this art in a spot near and dear to your heart, I hope you'll leave a comment and share with us.

I need closure on this.

Well, must run off now-- like a white-tailed deer through the wall of a second-floor antiques booth. :)