My all time favorite (thrifty) vintage finds!!

We woke up today to our first snow day... The kids went out as soon as they could get their winter clothes on!! (note to self: make a bag for Goodwill with outgrown winter clothes...). It was very cold and they had to come in periodically to warm up. I love snow! The first time I saw snow I was in my late teens... I don't know who gets more excited, me or the kids!! Of course the best part of the day for them was when they found out that school has been cancelled for tomorrow!!




















































A great day to stay home and catch up on some things I've been wanting to do... I was planning to go to Monticello but quickly changed my mind when I saw TV reports on how messy the roads were!! So, instead, I am posting about some of my all time favorite thrift finds!! I am sure I am missing some, but it is a start!







I found this adorable vintage chair at a rummage sale a year ago... I paid a whopping $5.00 for it!! I was going to sell it, until I decided it would look great in the master bathroom
































I love this little aqua dish with tole painted roses, very reminiscent of french toleware... I found it at a thrift store for 99 cents!



















The large mirror hanging in my foyer was a put-together project. I found the large frame (with an old faded Paris print in it, which I later sold) for $5.00! The mirror was found at a garage sale for a couple of dollars, it was larger but I had a glass shop cut it to size for me (they charged only $6 to do so).
Considering that I sold the print that came with the frame, you can say I got the whole thing for free, and still made a few bucks!!





This is one of my favorite lamps... I paid only $2.95 at a thrift store! It does have a small piece of the base missing on the side, and one of the cherubs had his head glued back on, but I don't mind!! A great way to expand a collection without spending too much money is to buy less than perfect things, with cracks or chips!! I get them for the look, and not for the collectable value... My home is full of less-than-perfects (starting with me)!!!

On the way out from an antiques show, I spotted this old album... Not much from the outside, but when I opened it, I was so excited to find a scrapbook full of old postcards, clippings and calling cards from the turn of the century... The best part was the price: $7.00!!

I found this vintage framed painting at our local American Cancer Society a while ago. I was on my way out when I spotted this painting on the floor leaning against a wall... It was marked $5.00! It has been added to my growing collection of rose paintings!












Some of my favorite vintage finds cost me a little more than a single digit number, but I still am so excited about them!!

This is one of the first rose paintings I ever bought. It is a yard long watercolor and it cost me $36 at an antiques show, still a great deal, I believe!!!






I absolutely looooove this victorian fireplace screen, with gorgeous hand painted roses!! I paid $30 for it at our local flea market, from a lady who was liquidating her mom's estate (I have a fireplace which sits up high and is flush against the wall - not MY kind of fireplace, too modern for my taste!).


























And, of course, this is probably my all time favorite find, and the one I have used for my blog banner!! I have always loved vintage baby and doll buggies, and when I saw this one, my heart skipped a beat!! And pink, on top of everything!! When the lady asked me $15 for it, I paid quickly and walked away happy, happy, happy!!


Last Thursday and Friday I had, as you know, jury duty!! I served my country but I have to admit it wasn't much fun... The good thing is that the Courthouse was around the corner from a few antique malls (Le Stuff and Snyders Antique Mall in Hillsboro), so during our lunch break I did some shopping!! I am very excited with what I found! Many booths had big sales (everyone is trying to survive in this difficult economy...), so I found some things to keep and some to resell...

I love this old tin and I have a collection which I have displayed on top of the guest bedroom canopy shown here.

This vintage pink radio is adorable and was a steal!!

One can never have too many hatboxes!!

At a lovely shop called Auntie Addie's Attic, which specializes in vintage clothing and linens, I found 5 great vintage dresses, including an old wedding dress, all for an obscenely low price!!

... from their pile of "Seen Better Days" linens, some great gently flawed pieces at incredibly low prices!!

This amazing floor lamp with vintage glass lampshade was maked down so low that I had to bring it home!! There is a part of the glass in one pane missing, but I don't care!! Less-than-perfect right at home!

But my latest favorite find is this great old wooden loveseat I found on Craigslist for a song!! The lady I got it from told me that it actually came with her ancestors in covered wagons!! It even has casters (one is missing)!! Now I just have to figure out how to upholster it...

A first for me... Jury duty!!

Not much time to post, I'm in the middle of jury duty!! I spent all day at the Courthouse today and have to go back tomorrow!! In the meantime, I leave you with some random pictures of previous projects... Be back soon!

Why I am the biggest party pooper on the planet!!

We had fun cheering our girls at the Gymnastics Championship in Coos Bay this weekend!! My 12-year old Clara had a rough day, she had been harboring a cold and cough and had a sore throat, then ended up having an asthma attack in the middle of the competition... In addition she had hurt her back on a fall at practice and ended up not being able to do her floor routine! On Beam she fell twice! Still she came home with a 5th place in Bars... My 10-year old Rita had a better day, she qualified first in Bars, second in Vault, and even though she, too, fell twice on Beam, she came home with a 4th place all-around for her age group!! I was hoping to get some pictures, but little miss airhead here took a camera with no memory card inside.... Typical!!

On the subject of cough, I learned this trick from a friend, and I have to tell you, it really works!! If you child has a persistent cough keeping them up at night, rub some Vicks Vaporub on the soles of their feet and put socks on just before going to bed. It works better than any cough medecine!! And my husband tried it and it helped him too!!

Sunday we went to get a Christmas tree. We are very lucky we live by a ton of tree farms, so there is a lot to choose from! We ended up finding a place where any tree was no more than $20!! We ended up getting an 8 ft Douglas Fir for $15!

A few years ago, a friend of ours said we could come to her property and pick any tree for free... I was teaching a quilting class that day so I sent my husband and kids. This is what I came home to find:


I know it is hard to see the scale of the tree, but you do remember the living room I showed you a couple of posts ago... This tree covered the entire diameter of the room (my husband had to move the sofas out of the way as you can see). Our ceilings are about 22 feet high and the tree actually touched the ceiling!!

After I came in and saw this monster, I was speechless for about 10 seconds and then could only utter...NO!!!!!! How did they even get it in???!!! Within minutes many of our neighbors had heard about it and were ringing the bell to see the biggest Christmas tree in the neighborhood!! My husband ended up having to saw the tree into smaller pieces so we could discart it, and my kids still hate me for being the biggest party pooper in the whole world!!

So, now we are back to NORMAL trees...!!!

I have a dilemma I hope you can help me with... As you can see, the girls have been accumulating a good number of medals. I need some ideas on how to display them! Right now, they are hanging them on the canopy above their beds (which is actually a planter we hung upside down and then added a gauzy swiss dotted fabric). I would love to figure out a creative way to have them hang the medals, but no ideas are coming up...!!! Can someone help me? I would be so appreciative!!!!

I will be back soon with a post about my all time favorite bargain finds!!

Fast pillows and new finds

Yesterday, I pulled some of my vintage fabric out and started cutting panels for the sofa pillows I have been wanting to make. Because I have a house full of kids, I always make sure to have pillow covers with openings in the back for easy clean up. But sometimes I am not in the mood (or I don't have the time) to go through all that extra work, so I use a shortcut! I've been doing this for years, and let me tell you, it's so much easier! I went through my closet and found a cute floral button shirt that I haven't used in a long time. Then, using the front part of the buttoned shirt, I cut a piece the size I needed (in this case I had a 20" pillow, so I just added seam allowances). I pinned the two pieces, right sides together, and sewed all the way around. Presto!!! Your pillow is ready!!

If you don't have any cute shirts laying around, make a trip to the thrift store... You will be sure to find something there. I always make sure I am getting 100% cotton or linen, and look for shirts with no pockets or darts. Goodwill and Value Village also offer regularly 50% discounts on certain color tags, so make sure to take advantage of it! Recently, I found a darling linen robin's egg blue shirt and decided it was pretty enough to be the front of the pillow! So, this morning, I had a new pillow in less than 15 minutes!!! It would also be a great use for a favorite shirt you don't want to get rid of....

Tuesday Lisa and I went to an auction... Just the word auction makes me sweat! I am not used to it, I am always afraid I'll waive at someone and they'll take it as a bid, and most times I have no idea what they are saying!! We picked a great day, as they had quite a few antiques, and actually ventured a few bids of our own!! This is what Lisa's car looked like when we returned home...!!

I got this darling vintage doll stroller with cardboard wheels...

... an adorable boudoir doll...

... a box full of vintage umbrellas and parasols...

... and a box full of various things, including three small lead windows, a mirror, a vintage clock case, two sewing machine table drawers and an old radio wood case. We truly had a blast!! Go to Lisa's blog to see her finds!

This weekend we are all headed to Coos Bay, on the coast (a four hour drive). Both Rita and Clara have qualified for the Oregon State Gymnastics Championship this saturday, and are very excited!! We are very proud of them!!

My progress, room by room

Where did the week go??!! I started off with high ambitions, and of course didn't do everything I wanted (I would need at least another week or two...), but I did work hard... Organized drawers, scrubbed bathrooms, combed through bags of old mail and kids school art, sorted toys, cleaned my closet, listed items on Ebay, sold furniture on Craigslist, filled the car twice with Goodwill donations... Didn't get to steam clean the carpets, made only a dent in the laundry and didn't even get to touch the sewing machine, but I know it will get done, now that I'm encouraged by what I have accomplished so far. May not seem like much to the naked eye, but for me it's big!! The biggest challenge was the magnitude of it all. I decided to tackle room by room. I started off with the room you first see when you open the door, the formal living/dining room. This is the place where the kids (and I) dump everything on the way in, and I was always so embarrassed to even open the door!! Stuff everywhere, things I had just brought home, and things on the way out to Monticello, shoes, bags, crap. After a lot of work, I looked around and was happy! Only problem? All I was doing was moving all the stuff from one room to the other... Now it was all in the kitchen!!!! Yikes! I quickly realized that I needed to "deal" with the stuff right there and then!! It literally took forever!

When my family arrived home yesterday, they were quite impressed and all I could say was, "but I'm not done yet!!". My husband said the house looked fabulous, and even danced around in the now uncluttered great room! Would you mind if I proudly shared a little bit of my accomplishment?



















My living room is still a work in progress. I didn't get to sew new pillows for the sofas, but will soon. I found the sofa and loveseat at an estate sale for $75 for the pair. They are covered in a large green and white checkerboard fabric, so on I went with a white slipcover from Target. Eventually I would like to make new slipcovers, but that will have to wait. I love my coffee table! It started off as a kitchen table, to which I (painfully) cut the legs to the right height.













































The vintage wicker settee is one of my favorite pieces. I had seen it at our local antique mall (where Lisa and I had a booth) and had been thinking about buying it. One day, while there, I was at the counter telling the owner I was seriously considering buying it, when this lady came in and said "I want to buy this settee!". We looked at each other, and I told the lady I was just discussing the possible purchase. The mall owner whispered to me, "you have to make a decision right now!" I told her I have to have it, I would never forgive myself for letting it go! Needless to say, the lady wasn't happy and I felt bad, but I am so happy I have it!



























You can read the story behind my wicker dressform here...

I made this lampshade out of vintage barkcloth. Here are some other lampshades I have created.

My flea market dolls...

... an inexpensive tieback...

Believe it or not, I bought this china cabinet on Ebay...!! Even with shipping it was a good price! It holds many of my favorite collections, like my vintage celluloid boxes and my roses and cherubs clocks.

This is the space above my entry door.

I bought this darling pink cabinet from Lisa and just love it! The fabric covering the door is as cute as can be!!

I will share pictures of some other areas of my home soon! I hope you will come back!