Thrifty Thursday: Tiki, Barware, and Hankies Galore

Hello everyone! Welcome to the latest edition of my Thrifty Thursday posts, where I share my thrift store/garage sale/flea market finds for the week. We found some great stuff for our space this week! 

A mid-century clay bottle with a funny face and a tiki brasier (unfortunately missing the grill on the top). They're both in the antique space.

 

A plate with a cute Scandinavian bird motif, some cute little statues, a wooden owl, and a floral saucer.

This cool leather bag was given to us by Phillip's stepmom, who inherited it from a relative. I think I'm going to start keeping my camera in this!

 

We scored a huge stack of vintage hankies with great prints. Most will be going in the space (except for the ones I'll keep, of course!).

 

Phillip found all of this great sixties barware and this creamer in one trip!

 

A couple of vintage Tigger stuffed animals.

 

Lastly, a Maori woodcarving, an Asian-motif metal tray, and a glass mug featuring Humpty Dumpty and Tom the Piper's Son.

Did anyone else go thrifting this week? What did you find?

I'll be linking up at Apron Thrift Girl, A Living Space, Sir Thrift A Lot, Joyful Treasure Hunting, and Young Heart. Head on over and check out all of the finds for this week!

  If you see any items you like, they may be listed on Phillip's Ebay account, so take a looksie!

 

-Melissa

My Laurel Dress is in the Voting for Reader's Choice!

I had the best surprise this morning when I woke up and checked my Google Reader: the entries for Reader's Choice in the  Collette Patterns Laurel competition are up and my Blue and White Laurel dress is one of them!

 I'm so excited that my dress was chosen for voting and blown away by how many amazing entries there are! People really stepped up to the challenge on this one!

If you'd like to vote and check out the 20 dresses they chose, here's the post! You have to vote by midnight this Friday, May 17th.

Wish me luck!!!

-Melissa

Birthday Report

I turned 29 last Wednesday! Boy, does time fly! I can't believe I'm in my last year of my twenties, but I have to say it really was a great birthday. Here's how it went:

First, I went to work where my boss had bought bagels for everyone! Each person gets to pick a special treat for their birthday and I had chosen bagels. It's a great little perk of working there. Later, I got a card signed by all of our participants and also one from my co-workers. Everyone had chipped in $5 and I ended up with $45 to spend! 

After work, I spent some time with my mom. We drove up to San Luis Obispo and looked around in some craft stores. She had already given me my birthday present a couple months ago- she bought me a nice Martha Stewart craft table (which is nice and high and perfect for cutting patterns out without stooping down). When I got there she gave me a few magazines, including Mollie Makes, which I always drool over but can never get myself to shell out the $15 for. She also got me a gift certificate for a facial and bought me this book on photography while we were out. What a nice mom :)

We met up with my friend Leslie for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (always a good choice!) and then we browsed in the book store for a while. That's my idea of a great time downtown.

When I got home, Phillip and his mom gave me their presents. Phillip got me this amazing glassware set. I had found one glass a few weeks ago and was dying to find more, and he had come across a whole set while thrifting and snatched it up for me.

The craziest thing happened after I opened that present: I set the gift bag down on the ground and our cat, Ruby, proceeded to come and sniff it (as she does with everything). As she was doing that, she somehow got caught in the handle of the bag, got scared, and went tearing across the room at full speed, wearing the bag of glasses like a cape. Phillip ran after her and got the bag off of her, and we fully expected to find it full of shattered glasses. Miraculously, only one glass had broken, and since I had found that first one weeks ago I still have a complete set!

Phillip's mom got me a whole bowl set of the Butterprint Pyrex, as well as a couple of small casserole dishes. Now I'm on the lookout for a cute mid-century hutch to display my Pyrex collection in!

Phillip also got me some other fun things he picked up at thrift and antique stores. I may be the only person who isn't insulted when someone buys me presents at the thrift store!

How cute is this little bucket? Phillip said the girl on the front looks like me, ha ha. He also got me these vintage sewing patterns that I saw at a local antique shop. The one that says it's "adaptable for chubbies" is hilarious.

Next, a Georges Briard casserole dish. We've been finding quite a bit of things by him lately (like the apple dish here) and I always love the graphics on them.

Lastly, these silver filigree earrings. They're so cute but since they're screw-backs they tend to slip off of my ears. I might try to get them converted to posts.

The next evening, we had a family dinner at McClintocks, a local resturant famous for their steaks. I don't eat steak often, so I figured it would be the prefect birthday treat! Unfortunately, it's also the kind of place where they embarrassingly serenade you and make you blow out a candle as they take your picture. They even made me do this trick where they pour water blindfolded into a glass on my head. Everyone else thought it was great, but I could have skipped it, ha ha. Here's our Polaroid from the night:

After contemplating for a while about what to do with my birthday money (savings? clothes? serger fund?), I decided to invest a little in my blog (one of my goals for this year), so I purchased the Blog (Design) Love E-course from A Beautiful Mess. I had been interested in it before but at the time didn't feel I could justify spending $34. Anyway, now I'm already really glad I bought it and my head is swimming with ideas for the design and future direction of this blog. The course has just the information I wanted and is written in a simple, step-by-step way that I feel I can handle (I'm not a computer wiz by any means!). I'm already drawing out my new design and I hope to get it up sometime next month! Stay tuned!

I'm also thinking about purchasing my own domain name. Any of you fellow blogger have thoughts/suggestions on that? Is it worth it?

I hope everyone is having a great week! I'm so relieved to finally be done with the craft fair (more on that soon!). I'm trying to get the house back in shape and then get to some more projects I've been dreaming up. I'm also anxiously awaiting the results of the Collete Patterns Laurel competition- the suspense is killing me! 

Here's to a happy Hump Day! We're halfway through.

-Melissa

Spring Craft Fair Sneak Peek!

Hello friends! As I mentioned previously, I've been hard at work the last couple of months preparing to sell at my second craft fair (find out about my first one here), and I'm happy to share a peek of some of the things I've made to sell this weekend:
 

Fabric flower brooches and hair clips...

 

Felt hair bows...

Tote bags lined with vintage sheets...

Hair bows...

 

Adorable owl pincushions...

 

Resin flower earrings...

 

Applique makeup bags...

 

and origami earrings...

I've also been working on display items for my booth:

I prettified this cork board I got from the thrift store to display some of my jewelry on.

 

I made a bunting with vintage sheet fabric to hang around the outside of my booth.

I made signs for the new items on Photoshop.

 

I scrubbed down these pretty teal suitcases (an epic thrift store find for $5 apiece!) so I can use them for displays.

 

And Phillip helped me to finally get this mannequin fixed (it wouldn't stand up) so I can use it for a display- she'll be wearing a bunch of accessories I have for sale!

I hope you enjoyed my little sneak preview! A full report of this craft fair selling experience will be coming soon :)

Do any of you sell at craft fairs? Any tips/advice?

-Melissa

PS: For those of you who may be local, come stop by and check it out! It'll be at the Halcyon Store in the tiny town of Halcyon, CA (right next to Arroyo Grande). This weekend, May 11th and 12th, from 10 AM to 4 PM. Hope to see you there!

Thrifty Thursday: Indians, Records, and More

Hi everyone! Welcome to this week's Thrifty Thursday post, where I share my thrift store (or sometimes estate sale, flea market, or yard sale) finds for the week.

This week was a fruitful one on the thrifting front, which is great because as I mentioned last week, we now have two antique spaces to fill! Phillip and I are both really curious to find out how our new space is doing but we probably won't be able to get down there for another week or so because I'll be selling at the Halcyon Store Spring Craft Fair this weekend (more on that soon)!

Without further ado, here are this week's finds:
 

From Left: a Trader Vics decanter (unfortunately missing the top), a vintage Indian girl doll (I'm not sure of the era), a little porcelain bull, a pair of Grand Ole Opry mugs, and in the back, a shelf for hanging tea cups and saucers. I was especially excited about the indian girl because she reminds me of some dolls I had as a child (I went through a phase of being completely fascinated with Native Americans). She's a keeper, at least for now!

Phillip picked up this vintage first aid box for $3. We'll be putting it in the antique space.

 

Phillip was super excited to find this Monster Mash record at a local thrift shop. Apparently he had almost bought one on Ebay a few months back, only to drop out after the bidding had climbed upwards of $50. And then he found one for less than $1! Funny how things work out like that. He also found this lion and tiger statute, the political nesting dolls, the little ceramic cats, and this funky Asian head.

I love this light green floral Weil Ware tray, which I found at the estate sale a couple weeks ago but forgot to photograph. It looks good with these Winfield plates I picked up this week. The name of the pattern is "Dragon Flower."
 

We found a few Christmas items this week: a pretty paper bowl with angels, a couple of glass ball ornaments, and a little elf man. We also picked up this cute book from the 1930s "The Little Spanish Dancer," and this enamel flower pin.
 

Phillip found this TV tray for $1.50.
 

I found this cute yellow Pyrex, a striped belt buckle for my new sewing section in the antique space, and a pair of adorable red shoes (which I wish fit me, but alas I have huge feet). Phillip found the glassware: a set of pirate drink glasses and some from a Masonic lodge.
 

I hit the jackpot with all of these pretty embroidered linens at rock-bottom prices (most were 65 cents). They're headed for the space to add some prettiness!
 

Lastly, we found a couple of plaques from a local hotel, the Royal Scandanavian in Solvang, CA. We love finding fun little pieces of local history! We found a very chipped but still pretty chalkware Virgin Mary statue, a little mouse in a hat, and this hen box.

Did anyone else go thrifting this week? What did you find?
 

I'll be linking up at Apron Thrift Girl, A Living Space, Sir Thrift A Lot, Joyful Treasure Hunting, and Young Heart. Head on over and check out all of the finds for this week!

  If you see any items you like, they may be listed on Phillip's Ebay account, so take a looksie!

 

Have a great rest of your week!

-Melissa

DIY: Origami Blossoms

A reader recently asked me how I made the origami flowers that I have featured in my blog header, and I thought "why not make a tutorial"? I made these years ago when I worked at Achievement House. Part of the work we did involved recycling the paper from old books. I saved a few pages from some old atlases that came through, just because I thought the colors and designs were so pretty. I decided to make some flowers out of them, which ended up turning into this little art project, which is currently sitting atop the curtains in my sewing room. I topped them all with vintage mother-pearl-buttons.

If you would like to make your own, here's how. It seems a bit complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it you can make them really quickly. You'll need to start with a perfectly square piece of paper.

I'm sure there are tons of adorable things you could do with these blossoms. I've made a mobile and made really tiny versions into earrings (I'll be selling some at the craft fair this weekend). If you would like to make them out of map paper, I would suggest checking your local thrift store for used atlases and road maps. Feel free to link back to this post and share what you've made!

-Melissa

And Then There Were Two: Antique Space Update

 As I mentioned in my last post, Phillip and I recently decided to expand our antique selling venture and rent a second space at the Depot Mall. We spent all day moving in, and after hours of lifting, hauling, loading, unloading, arranging, and organizing, finally left happy, proud, and completely exhausted. Here's a tour of our two spaces. The new one is shown in the picture above.

 

Here's the Turtle Wax barrel we picked up at the estate sale last weekend. We have $250 on it- we'll see how it does!

  I love switching things up and making the seasonal displays. This one is for Cinco de Mayo, of course. I think the tissue paper flowers I made and the last two masks left over from the craft fair add just the right touch.

 We brought the trusty bar cart out once again to load up with sixties barware. I love the way the new green and gold drinking glasses look on it!

 This light blue doll trunk was another estate sale find. I'm loving the silver star patterned interior! We've paired it with some of our silk scarves and vintage hats.

Our Vegas-y display has been growing lately and getting too crowded for the shelf it was on, so we moved it onto a bigger shelf and made it more clearly visible from the aisle.

I made a small vintage sewing section. I'm not sure how many people there are out there like me who love vintage sewing supplies, but we shall see!

I think one of the best moves we made was to bring the garment rack into the new space and make it more easily shop-able. It was in a corner in the other space and it was difficult to see everything clearly. Phillip's dad gave us a couple of shelving units from the gas station he manages, which you can see in this picture. I'm loving the black wire one, which is just perfect for handbags and linens, but I'm not such a fan of the Dr. Pepper one. Someone buy that thing please!

Moving on to our old space, we freshened it up with this new display- summertime, camping, and BBQ related items. I love making new displays! It really makes the place feel new and it helps less-noticed items get some attention.

I laughed when Phillip stuck this ceramic fish in the frying pan.

 

One awesome thing I've noticed is that once your friends and relatives know you sell in an antique shop they're likely to give their old things to you! This wooden rocker was a donation from my aunt. Thanks Aunt Linda!

Phillip bought this turn-of-the-century folding bed from an older lady we met through one of his classmates. It has made a great rack for all of the linens!

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into our antique spaces (plural)! We have been working really hard on this little venture and it's been great to see it paying off little by little. We're really looking forward to the summer and the tourist season and hoping that will be our busiest time yet! Do any of you fellow sellers have any input on that? I'd love to hear some tips!

Have a great weekend!

-Melissa