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: May the Thrift Be With You

Sorry for the e-silence last week. I had a record number of blog posts I had to write for a client for my day job (30, if you can believe that!) and my brain was too broken by Friday to even consider sitting down and speaking coherently to you good people.

But it wasn't because I didn't have any secondhand goodies to share with you. In fact, you'll probably get a chuckle from one purchase because, as wholly impractical as it is, it made me very happy-- a set of four Star Wars dolls from the 70s, which were exactly like the ones I used to play with at a friend's house when I was but a wee lass...

Inside this copy paper box lid was wrapped Luke, Leia, Chewbacca and Darth Vader. (My friend had everyone but Vader.) Leia still has her belt and her shoes; Luke still has his belt, weaponry and boots; Vader is, well, Vader.

It was at the L&L Fleatique in Adamsburg, and I stood there in the booth holding the box when one of the employees came by. "Do you want me to put that up at the front for you?" (They have shelves up there so you don't have to carry stuff around.)

"Um, no, I'm not sure if I want it yet." Meanwhile, I was probably hugging it a little, a flood of happy childhood memories crashing over me.

"Well, you can think about it and decide at the counter."

"No, I'm still deciding." (hug, hug, hug-- I realized she was going to have to pry it from my hands if she wanted to get it up to that counter.)

So I pretty much knew then it had to come home with me. Leia still needs her hair wrapped back into buns and Luke's shirt could use a good soaking. But they're in incredibly good shape. Better shape than I am after almost the same amount of time. :)

I'm going to give it to myself for my birthday in December. Remember, they are not dolls, they are "collectibles." :)

On my travels that weekend, I also found this cute Wizard of Oz juice glass...

It looks like it's an illustration from the book version of the story, given one of the scenes shows Dorothy putting on the green glasses that make her see the Emerald City in the right light.

And last, I bought two cute little vintage custard type cups which were exactly like the ones my mother used to use to bake popovers.

Same colors, same style, I got these from an antique shop in Bellevue.

And so that rolls the credits on this thrifting saga!

Oh, and while I remember-- for anyone who was interested in a paperback copy of my novel, There Goes the Galaxy, Amazon seems to have it on sale this week. You can check that out here: http://www.amazon.com/There-Goes-Galaxy-Jenn-Thorson/dp/0983804508/ Happily, it seems to be getting some good reviews.

Have a great week folks, and may the thrift be with you!

Of Teacups and Toto: Holiday Decorating Swap

What do you get when a fan of the Wizard of Oz, and a lover of Victoriana swap holiday treasures? Some wonderful surprises for the season.

This was my third swap arranged by the members of the Cottage Living decorating forum, and like the others, it was enormous fun planning, scheming, and scouring the shops for the right things. Our challenge this time was to create a package for our swap partners with items that reflected any of the fall holidays. and there needed to be at least one item that would be for a holiday table, and one ornament.

The package from my swap partner, Jenny, arrived this last week, and it really was a bit like Christmas opening it. This is what she sent me:


Some dried flowers-- (what good Victorian doesn’t have dried flowers at least somewhere in the house?), a paint brush to enable a bit of art, a candle which smells temptingly like orange creamscicles, a jar of olives and an amazing teacup.


The teacup is an absolutely shining addition to my collection. It’s a dark green covered in a really unusual combination of delicate spiderwebs and purple foxglove. I’ve never seen any like it and can’t wait to use it on my table!

The jar of olives I thought was an inspired bit of humor-- which is also pretty obscure, so I’ll explain. For folks who read my recent blog tag about “Seven Things You Might Not Know About Me,” (as clearly Jenny must have!) you might remember I have this inexplicable, deep-rooted love of black olives that traces back to childhood, where my family would actually put a can of them in my Christmas stocking. (Or on the mantle, really, because hey, a can of olives is REALLY HEAVY.) So this year the fine tradition of Christmas Olives carries on. I think if I can hold out from dipping into them until then, I’ll put them on the mantle at Christmastime. That would give me a laugh every time I go into the dining room.


Now onto the package from me to Jenny!


My swap partner I knew was a big fan of The Wizard of Oz. (I totally understand-- it was a favorite of mine growing up, too.) So I thought it might be fun to make her something along those lines. That’s what got me started on the “There’s No Place Like Home... For the Holidays” plaque project. (Instructions on how it was made and more photos can be found by clicking here.)


This, however, while a joy to make, didn’t fulfill my “something for the table” criteria of the swap. So I found this cute Frosty the Snowman inspired tablecloth.


Because my swap partner said she has a Craftsman house, and that she likes some non-traditional Christmas colors, I thought she might also like this basket of rustic-look apples in purples, navy and off-red. I thrifted a cute icy blue doily that appears to have poinsettias on it, just to soften it up a bit.


I also included a pretty Christmas-look tin filled with some fun vintage-look ornaments. Hopefully she’ll be able to find a place she can use them.


And that about wraps up the Holiday Swap! I hope you’ll come back next week when we step back into the late 60s and early 70s and discover “What In the Macrame Is It?” (And no, I didn’t even have to make up that title. You’ll see.)

Have a terrific week!