What you find at thrift stores...

Isn't it amazing what you can find at thrift stores?
My mom had three floral plates from a trunk her great grandparents. They have no markings so they probably are not something special. But they are pretty. The kind I am attracted to.
So a week or so ago I was at the Deseret Industries thrift store and I spied the plate that you see here...a plate that is exactly like the kind from my great grandparents, except it's in better condition. It's now sitting on the plate rack in my mother's dining room with the original three.
As the in store ads at Deseret Industries would say, shopping there is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you'll get. (Yes, it seems they stole that from Forrest Gump.)

Vintage Wallpaper & Bingo Card Pockets

I spent some time the other day making these two little "pockets" out of vintage bingo cards on one side and vintage wallpaper on the other sewn together. And lace and other bits and bobs used to create a sort of collage art on both sides of the pocket as well. They have lace handles so you can hang them on a doorknob or anywhere else you can hang things, and then tuck things like love notes or whatever you like inside.

Dream Pocket
The first one is my "dream" pocket hanger. On one side is the bingo card with a "price tag" that says "dream" on it, a rose made of ribbon placed within a slide thing, lace, etc. And on the back side is the vintage wallpaper. Glued to it is a little doily folded in half so it forms a little pocket as well, and it has the word "dream" taken from a dictionary page tucked in it, and a paragraph clipped out of a copy of the Simple Abundance book is pasted onto a cute bit of ribbon with pink roses on it, and the word Dream is written on the wallpaper as well.


Dress: A Reflection of Your Mood Pocket
This next one is my "dress" pocket hanger. On one side is a page from the book Simple Abundance with a quote on it. And just underneath is a scoop shaped pocket made from cute pink, vintage wallpaper. Part of an old children's dictionary with the definition for the word dress has been glued onto the wallpaper. And a little rose made from ribbon is glued on as well. Along the bottom is a fringe of pink pom-poms.

On the back side is a bingo card. With clip outs of words and cute images from an old children's dictionary, a bit of ribbon, and little white flowers.

I had so much fun making these that I'm sure to make some more.

Once Upon A Suitcase (or two or three)

Okay, so as mentioned in another post or two, I love vintage suitcases. Some may say it's an addiction. It all started with just one. A small one. But that's all it took. I brought it home and put some of those reproduction travel labels on it. And I was hooked...hard.

Since then I've even managed to get one of my friends hooked as well. We have very different suppliers though. I usually get my fix at thrift stores. While she's more uptown and will often get hers from eBay. Although she has bought a few off of me as well.

Yep. I'm not just a vintage suitcase addict...I'm a dealer. I sell them to help pay for my own habit when I need a suitcase fix. Even though they're smaller I personally find the little train cases (also called cosmetic cases) give me the sweetest high when I spy one.

Over to the left you can see a pic where the light is being shed on some of my scandalous suitcase activities. Yes it's the truth caught in pixels by a digital camera. The one's shown here are for sale...by me.

One clerk at the thrift store where I'm a regular, after seeing me buy my fifth suitcase from the store in just a few months time asked me, "What do you do with all of these suitcases again?" Another time when I was leaving the thrift store with one of these suitcase finds even the assistant manager, Dan, mentioned that my behavior...constantly purchasing old suitcases...was very "suspicious."

People see me carrying suitcases, always different ones, from the car and into my home, or from the car and into the store I sell them at and they ask me..."Are you going on vacation?"

I've gone beyond just suitcases though. Other cases catch my fancy as well. See in the pic I posted...the little mini brown suitcase on top and which the lamp is sitting on really isn't a suitcase, It's a barware case (probably had a martini shaker and such in it, for making your drinks shaken, not stirred). But it's cute. Cute!? See what a problem this is for me? Thinking cases are cute? It's a serious problem indeed.

But even worse, you may have seen the rusty old tool box in my previous post too. Yes, my habit has spread to old tool boxes as well. I've managed to keep only one of them at home for myself though. The others I'm trying to sell to other fanatics like me. I met another box and cases addict recently and didn't even have to sweet talk her into buying one of my toolboxes. She looked longingly at another as she left the store. I've seen it before. She's a hardcore case addict. She'll be back.

And though I don't own any myself, I've caught myself looking longingly at old steamer trunks and other old chests. There's even an old cardboard footlocker at the store I sell at with a soldier's name stenciled on it with rusty hinges that taunts me sometimes.

In my own room I have a stack of about five of these babies sitting at the foot of my bed (they store my collection of vintage linens. Ah, the vintage pillowcases, the dozens of them I have...uh, that's another story). The suitcases in my room are all blue...blue is a more common color when it comes to vintage suitcases I have found. Or maybe that's just how it is in Cedar City. Brown ones are more popular sellers. Maybe because they give off a more sepia toned, old world, Hemingway vibe. I save the best stuff for my customers. And keep the more common ones for me. Except now and then when I find a sweet one I just can't let go.

Heed my warning and beware the lure of vintage suitcases.

Halloween '08

Happy Halloween!

My friend Talisha was nice enough to take a picture of me in this years Halloween costume when I went and visited her at work.

I thought that the green walls would look good with Halloween colors of orange and black and so added embellishments to the pic in those colors even though they don't match my outfit.

I'm calling this look eclectic sweet punk chic. Vintage 1950's prom dress, denim jacket, vintage 1950's spike high heels, hot pink fishnet tights, antique silver mesh purse, and miscellaneous jewelry. Oh, and of course, pink hair (this time I tried something different, I powdered my hair with blush...what you normally put on your cheeks...with okay results. But at least this year I wasn't coughing up pink spit from that horrible hairspray stuff like I did from a previous year.

I went shopping for thrifty treasures wearing this outfit. A lot of people liked the dress. Some liked the tights. And it was pretty fun. But it didn't take long before the very cute shoes became an ultra pain to wear. I usually wear low heels, not high heels, let alone skinny spike high heels. So I wandered all over the store carrying my shoes (getting my feet pretty dirty) as I found the greatest stuff! I am very excited about some of what I found.

So here are some of my Halloween treasures.

First I fount this awesome, rusty, and huge old treasure box...er, tool box. It's full of all sorts of nuts, bolts, a few tools, and lots of...bark. Little bits of bark from a pine tree. Go figure. But because the rusty color is kind of Fall like I may end up using it in the Fall/Thanksgiving window at the store that I will be doing tomorrow to replace the Halloween one.

Then I have all these little goodies. A train case (to those who know of my suitcase addiction you know I am thrilled to have found this). A bag of pink sparkly felt that I have plans for making into something sweet. A tole painted tray of roses. A little wood tote (will probably paint white and line with some vintage wallpaper I have). A little white wood cart that looks like carved tulips (it will look pretty good in the garden area of the store). A vintage Sunbeam mixer with the milk glass bowls. Two old bread pans. An interesting tray. Some really pretty ribbon with purple flowers on them. An old LDS song book. I don't think I'll get the song book back though. My mom got hold of it and is singing songs from it even as I type. :) It has lots of songs she remembers singing when she was a teen. A children's book from the 60's with quaint illustrations. A Final Fantasy VII book written in Japanese. And a book on scrapbooking. And a pair of modern Japanse sandals. (You can't have them Talisha...lol.)

Suddenly etsy...

I've finally got around to listing a very few things on etsy.com again. (If you're by any chance interested in checking the items out you can click on the pics and they should take you to my etsy shop).

First are some vintage bingo cards and markers that I've managed to successfully sell on etsy before. The red (alright, it's kind of orange), white, and blue coloring makes them fun for any body wanting to use them for an Americana themed collage art.




Next I have some vintage and very kawaii (that's Japanese for cute) hair barrettes, with yellow kitty cats, turquoise strawberries, pink apples, blue stars, and peach hearts. I think they'd be great for someone who's into the Japanese Street Fashion look or any other funky style. or of course you could be normal and just give them to a sweet little girl to wear in her hair.




And last (for now), a funky vintage beaded purse almost just like one I remember from my childhood.



I have a confession to make regarding the beaded purse...the one like this that we had when I was a little kid, only it was bright orange...well I used to pick the plastic beads off of them and chew them...hey I was four or five. I chewed on those little pegs from the "You sunk my battleship!" game too. This may only paritally account for why I am so weird today.

That's all I've listed for today, but there will be more later. In fact, you might see somethings I actually made myself, and not just vintage things. Something more shabby chic like even maybe.