Treasure Box Tuesday: Roses, Glasses and Goodies

It's been a crazy few weeks for me. I've had to put in many extra hours at work for projects, as well as taking care of cat with a respiratory infection (Harry's doing better, happily) and so many other things, would you believe I didn't realize how many weeks it had been since I posted? (?!)

I hear the brain is the first thing to go.

So the thrifted and fleamarket finds I'll show you today are a collection of a bunch of weeks put together. All the items have found their right spot in my house. This was a Victorian transferware bowl I found at the Goodwill in Irwin a while back. 

 I loved the colors-- perfect for the curio cabinet in my diningroom!

At the L&L Fleatique on Route 30, I got this marvelous Hull vase with a waterlily on it. I love the soft pastels and matte finish.

 This sits on top of the aforementioned curio, next to THIS transferware vase from Austria...

I got that at Junk for Joy in Jeannette, PA. Love it! It's quite tall, too, so it makes a nice statement.

At the Fleatique Too in Ligonier, my shopping buddy Scoobie spied these two Wizard of Oz drinking glasses...

I had gotten one from Junk for Joy a while back, of Dorothy, and these belong to one of three different sets put out by Swift Peanut Butter in the 50s and 60s. They look really cute in my kitchen and match the colors of my Fiestaware.

My favorite piece of the past few weeks has been this Roseville console bowl. It was a price I could actually afford because someone had glued a styrofoam flower frog in the center of it to hold their centerpieces...

I had an inkling that antique glue might not be too hard to get off there without damaging the bowl. And with some careful tugging, some very hot soaking water and a little Palmolive, the whole thing came out bit by bit. Suddenly a good buy had turned great!

Lastly, but probably less excitingly, I picked up a whole bunch of file folders and hanging folders in pinks, purples and aquas. This was from the Goodwill Outlet, where tons of them were just tossed in the bins.

So, that's it for today's Treasure Box. We have our neighborhood yard sale this weekend, so I hope to have some fun finds to share with you next week, too!

Happy hunting!

Treasure Box Wednesday: Lucky and Unlucky Breaks

I have some pastel pretties to share with you this week, but first, I wanted to mention I'm doing a giveaway on my humor blog, Of Cabbages and Kings, where participants have a chance to receive one of two free copies of my new humorous space fantasy novel, There Goes the Galaxy. I know that kind of reading isn't everybody's bag here, but I also know it is for a few of my readers. Plus, it's free. We all like free. It doesn't get more thrifty than free. So I figured I'd mention it. You can check out the There Goes the Galaxy giveaway fun by clicking here.

Okay, that said, back to the order of business! I wanted to show you photos of the little mantle decor I've been working on. The newest acquisitions here are the two green and pink vintage lamps, which I got at the Salvation Army Superstore a few weeks ago...

They needed rewiring and shades, and oddly I found a pair of perfect shades at TJ Maxx the day after I bought them. They match my mint-green Victorian fire tiles perfectly.

The second item that's new is the blue Hull vase in the center of the display. I got this at an antique mall not far from the Greater Pittsburgh Renaissance Faire. The Hull vases on the ends, if you remember back, were also from the Salvation Army Superstore.
Above, you can see the blue Hull tulip vase just a bit better.

And lastly, when trying to rewire a different old lamp I had an experience I've never had before in all the lamps I've redone...
THAT is the metal base which was apparently totally cracked and missing much of itself, and it was replaced at one time by some cork panels. As I was working with it, it simply began to crumble apart. I know spelter is a soft metal, but WOW. Sooooo, I will be searching for a boring vintage lamp with a similar base I can take apart and put on the vase of this one.

This lamp vase is gorgeous-- pale green with handpainted roses, so it's entirely worth the effort. I just figured you all would find it interesting to see when these projects take unexpected turns.

And at THIS turn, we must end this week's Treasure Box post. Wishing you happy days as we make our journey quickly into October.

Lamp Lunacy and Porcelain Prettiness

Lamps: they are my mostest favorite thing to thrift. Favorite in kind of an obsessive, too-excited way, in fact.

An interesting vintage lamp gives me a thrill that other folks get over, oh, a new love, winning the lottery, or chocolate cake. (Though I wouldn't turn down any of those things, either.)

As a result, I have a lot of them in each room. And this is okay, given my house is an otherwise pretty dark little Victorian.

Lamps offer that warm glow that also warms my heart.

So when I saw this baby at the L&L Fleatique over the weekend, I could not leave it there.

It's not actually stained glass, but some sort of frosted plastic material made to look like glass. I imagine, based on the materials, that it was probably made in the 60s or 70s, when they started really incorporating plastics into lamps.

I thought the whole thing was sort of gaudily beautiful, which is often my quirky criteria for a good lamp. And the colors are just so inspiring to me when lit. It's now residing in my livingroom.

At the Salvation Army thrift store earlier in the week, I nabbed this glass, pink vintage ceiling light shade...

I plan to use it on my third floor office, where currently there is a white, plastic, very sterile Atomic Age shade which just doesn't work with the rest of the house. It should be a fairly simple swap, and at just $4.99 the price was right.

At only $5, was this frosted glass, depression era boudoir lamp of a lady in a belle skirt...

I'm not sure why it was marked to just $5, when it had been listed at $35, but everything in that area of the Fleatique was, so I couldn't pass the deal up. Again, because of lampaholism.

At the Good Samaritan thrift store, I got these two painted plates from Germany (I plan to hang them on the wall)...

And these Moonstone pattern cups. At $0.69 a piece, it was a very good deal.

Oh, and last, I got this nice little dresser jar from Germany the same day I got the pink lampshade. I think it would be handy for storing cotton balls, Q-tips or something like that.

So that's the thrifty goodness for this week. Quite a lot, really, at one time-- funny how that happens!!

Let's hope none of you are too "shook up" from yesterday's earthquake. I was standing at work, talking to someone and didn't feel it at all, while all my colleagues seated at their desks were really feeling it rock-n-roll.

Roses, Pinks and Prying Paws

This past week was an unexpectedly productive thrifting week, and I wasn't even trying. Needing a break at work one day, I happened to the Salvation Army thrift store at lunch and came upon my favorite items of the week-- some lady's hand-painted and transferware plate collection.

As you can see above, I chose three which never left their original plate hangers and got hung on my own wall in record time.

Here's a close up of one of my favorites. I love the soft gradated background...

This one reminds me of a plate I have displayed in my china cabinet. The greens and pinks are perfect for my diningroom...

And lastly, this little gold rimmed number appears to have some hand-painted details...

There must have been about 20 different plates there of various styles-- some in jewel tones, some in less dynamic rose prints. I've been wondering whether these two chocolate/coffee cups might not have been from the same home...

And last, I found a giant pink-lidded Tupperware storage container to help keep prying paws out of the kibble. (You can see one perpetrator there.) Earlier in the week I had MELTED most of my pink Tupperware in an accident so dumb, I had to write a humor piece about it. You can share in my horror by clicking here.

And that's it from me for now! Take care, friends, and I hope you have a great rest of your week.

In the Pink for a Post-Holiday Vintage Tablescape

This past weekend's bitter and snowy weather found me inside tackling all those little things I had been putting off: taking down the tree, packing up all the garland and cardboard village homes, and encouraging my very zealous kitten, Harry-- who wanted to be a part of it all-- to find himself some other more kitten-appropriate hobbies. 

I even spackled some long-lingering cracks in my diningroom walls. It's almost embarrassing when I think about how long this project had gone undone! 

But my favorite activity of the weekend was definitely transforming the diningroom decor from Christmas Lite to springy pink good cheer.
The pink, burgundy, blue and green tablecloth was a long-ago thrift store find, as was the marble and crystal candelabra which I'd painted a pearl pink.

The pinkish purple goblets were purchased years ago from either TJ Maxx or Marshalls. And as you can see I'm using the beautiful opalescent "American Sweetheart" pattern depression glass plates I got via a friend and thrifting...

On the mantle, I coordinated with a rose-printed lace mantle scarf and some of my favorite lusterware plates.

I think these all came from the Red White and Blue Thrift Store, though not necessarily at the same time.

In particular, I love the shape and pattern on this one...

This little pink luster plate is one of my most recent finds.
And I figured I'd add in this nice luster bowl I'd gotten at the Goodwill in Indiana, PA a while back. It had been so dirty when I got it, you really couldn't appreciate its pattern and shine...
A little color goes a long way to soothe the winter blues-- particularly if it's got some winter pinks and winter greens along with it!

Do you folks do any decorating post-winter-holidays, or are you pretty well sick to death of the thought of decor after all the Fa-La-La-ing Festivities?

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 Wednesday: Beauties in Bloom

Given this week's treasures of a nifty, thrifty kind were shared on Sunday's post about the Regent Square neighborhood yard sale, I thought today's Treasure Box might take the time to share a little beauty of a different kind.

My Helen Hayes roses are gloriously in bloom right now... Or rather, I should say "were." An enthusiastic rainstorm stripped them of many of their petals. Which is why I'm so glad I captured them in pixels when they were in their glory.

I present them to you today, with just a few verses courtesy of one of the 1910-ish illustrated poetry booklets I got recently from the Pottery City antique mall. These are by Ella Wheeler Cox from a book called Blossoms...

Sunshine and Shadow

For the longer I look on the bright side of earth,
The more of the beautiful do I discover:
And really, I never knew what life was worth
Till I searched the wide storehouse of happiness over.
It is filled from the cellar well up to the skies,
With things meant to gladden the heart and the eyes.
The doors are unlocked, you can enter each room,
That lies like a beautiful garden in bloom.

Summer Song

I am glad as a child in this beautiful weather;
I have tossed all my burdens and trials away;
My heart is as light-- yes, as light as a feather;--
I am care-free, and careless, and happy to-day,
Can it be there approaches a dark, drear to-morrow?
Can shadows e'er fall on this beautiful earth?
Ah! to-day is my own! no forebodings of sorry
Shall darken my skies, or shall dampen my mirth.

And just to keep today's post on a theme, I'll leave you good folks with the following...

Contentment

If in any way I have helped a soul,
Or given a spirit pleasure,
Then my cup of joy, I shall think is full
With an overflowing measure.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Treasure Box Wednesday: Coming Up Roses

In my recent travels to Fiestaland, I did pick up a few goodies at the surrounding antique malls which I thought I'd share with you today.

From Pottery City, I got this rather unusual hand-painted, art nouveau style bust...
She's just plaster and probably isn't very old. I suspect she was someone's craft project, someone with an eye for detail who thought that what usually took on a uniform bronze cast would benefit from a bit of color and livening up...


I liked her because of the cheery pastel colors, her luster overcoat, and the careful painting of the piece. (Also because she was cheap!) So she lives in my blue sitting room very happily next to a vintage rose painting.

And speaking of roses, I couldn't resist this great vintage print of a lady in a garden, carrying a bushel of fresh flowers...The vibrant color caught my eye right away! It just felt like summer to me.

And lastly, at that same antique store in Columbiana, Ohio, I found these Fiesta (yeah, I know: surprise) candlesticks...
They were $10 for the pair. Which made me chuckle a bit, because apparently different grades of Fiesta-- condition, whether they're discontinued or not, maybe even manufacturing runs-- can cause pieces that seem to look virtually identical (at least to my untrained eye) shoot off into the skyrocketed-crazy price range. I mean, one vendor at Pottery City had a pair of orange candlesticks in this very same style-- possibly from the 30s-- for...

(Wait for it...

Are you sitting down?...

Good. Because you'll need to.)

That vendor had ones in this very same style for...

Over $900!

G-ah! Yes, yes, I know-- rarity, condition, blah, blah, blah-- but OH WOW.

And I've seen ones for $20, $30, and $80 as well. Just goes to show, it's very important to know what you want to pay for things, and stick to it. If I had $900 candlesticks, I think I'd never use them. I'd just put them in a clear glass box with a spotlight on them and charge for tours.

And is that really what Fiesta-- such usable dishware-- is about?