Summer Decor

After our snowpocalypse this past winter, I kind of thought we would never see summer.  With extended days and make-up days, we just now finished school.  I finally got tired of looking at Easter eggs and bunnies and decided to haul out the summer stuff.  This is our front hallway.

It is my homage to playtime of yesteryear.  My grandkids call it heaven.   They love playing with the toys.

We have pried the croquet balls out of toddler fingers countless times and I am sure my son and daughter-in-law wish I would choose a different theme. 

  I own three old picnic baskets.  I don't know why...I think they remind me of all the picnics we took when I was little.  We used to picnic all the time....people just don't do picnics any more.

 The dominos and Parade magazine came from a garage sale,  The marbles are actually from the Dollar Store and the pool balls were left over when we got rid of our pool table.

Thrift Chick found the pick-up sticks at an estate sale.  Aren't they fun?  She has their vintage container on display in her apartment....I just stole the sticks. 

I love old wooden Scrabble tiles and pick them up at thrift stores whenever I can find them.  I have about three games sets right now.  The "Let's Play" looks cute doesn't it?  However, my children can't seem to leave it alone...I am always coming home to find strange new messages there.


Patty

Party, Party, Party! Part 2

If you are a regular reader, you know I had two baby showers the last week of school.  The second party was for our school psychologist.  Since she did not know the gender yet, she had not yet picked a nursery theme.  We decided to go with a bird theme with a vintage flair.  Okay, I confess, I have been dying to use some of my vintage pottery...but the theme really did fit her....I promise.

This teacher's lounge is quite a bit older and a bit more in rough shape.  We needed to cover a lot of tables cheaply so we did end up using plastic...not my favorite, but I have to be realistic.  We also did repeat the waffle and yogurt bar idea because it was a nice change from our usual breakfast casseroles. (Plus, I am a terrible caterer and had waffles  and yogurt coming out of my ears....who eats just one waffle???)

 All the dishes and vases are thrifted or from estate sales.  The yellow batter bowls are actually from that same 60% off sale at Michael's from the first party.  I am telling you, we made off that day with a huge pile of loot.

 I paid $1.50 for the green vase at a recent estate sale.  (We go on Saturdays when things are marked half off.)  I am really falling for pottery that has a thirties and forties feel.  From the muted colors to the awesome unique shapes, there is just something nostalgic about how they look.

 This sugar and creamer as well as the bowls and plates from above came from a lot of Vernonware California Pottery I picked up at an estate sale a couple of years ago.  It was an impulse buy.  I paid $50 for ten dinner plates, ten dessert plates, five cups and saucers, the sugar bowl and creamer, salt and pepper shakers and some assorted cereal bowls.  They are in pastel colors in the muted vintage tint I love.  I love all the little details.  I have been looking for other pieces and just don't find them.  There are a few online, but they are pretty pricey...turns out I got a great deal.

Besides the nesting birds, we made centerpieces out of cupcakes.  My daughter-in-law is a talented cook and she made me a beautiful bouquet of cupcake roses for Mother's Day.  I asked her to make some more a little smaller.  She did a great job, don't you think?

For this shower, we showered her with books....fitting for a school!  We also created a book for her.  Each teacher completed gave her advice on what to teach your child before kindergarten.  My favorite was "Before kindergarten, be sure to teach your child that the cookie found on the playground should not be eaten, no matter how good it looks."

I must say, the teachers ate more at this shower than the other one....but I still have three boxes of waffles in my freezer and four large containers of yogurt in my refrigerator.  Anyone have a great recipe for toaster waffles and yogurt?

Patty

Pyrexmania

It all started with these

 and these

 They came from my mother.  She's had them for as long as I can remember.  The yellow one held our Sunday night popcorn.  When she was downsizing, I took them home with me.  Thrift Chick has already called dibs for when I downsize.  Since she has bugged me day and night to give them to her, I started keeping my eye out and picking up vintage looking pieces at thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales.  Soon Thrift Chick joined me and it evolved to this

and this

 We never pay more than a few dollars for any piece and we have one rule of thumb.  The piece must be usable.  If you do any research, you will find that there are tons of vintage pyrex patterns out there.  I love coming across the odd piece here and there.  Together we have amassed quite a collection.  For me I love seeing things that were used by generations before me.  I love seeing how the patterns and colors changed and evolved with the decades.  

What makes pyrex so fun to collect is that is just so useful.  As you can see we use it everyday!

Patty

Party, Party, Party!

The last week of school was party central!  We had two baby showers...one at each of the elementary schools I serve.  Of course, I couldn't use the same theme and decor at each school...they were two very different girls!  Thrift Chick said I always go overboard, but it is so fun to decorate for a party.

Party number one was for my clinical fellow SLP.   Her nursery is going to be navy and lime with a woodland animal theme.  Her husband loves to hunt and wanted a hunting theme, but like any good woman who cares about decor, she said, "No way!"   Cute woodland animals was as back to nature as she was willing to get.

So woodland animals it was.  The teacher's lounge at this school is very nice and new.  We didn't really need table coverings or anything.  I used my Silhouette (stay tuned for a post about this fantastic tool) to create some adorable creatures.

I texted my assistant to see if her dad "could cut some logs like a vase and drill some holes in them for the centerpieces."  That is all I said.  She said they read and reread that text trying to figure out what I meant.  They finally just cut them randomly and added holes.  She gathered twigs with berries.  Isn't it amazing....not at all what was in my head, but so much better!

Sorry for so many pictures, but they are so stinkin' cute.  I just used a bunch of random scrapbook patterned papers in navy, green and browns.

For food, we did a waffle bar.  This was the simplest food I have ever done.  We used toaster waffles and then brought all the fixings that people love on waffles.

The circles garland took me all off 15 minutes to make.  I cut circles using the die cut machine at school.  (Seriously, if you are trying to make some decor, check out your local school, they probably have a die cut machine that will cut out letters, shapes and all kinds of objects.)  Then I simply sewed the circles on my machine.  I just ran the circle through the machine and counted to four between circles.  For a tutorial, check out here at Positively Splendid.

 The peanut butter and sugar ceramic jars were found 60% off at Michael's.  They have brightly colored ceramic lids as well. I stole them from Thrifty Chick's apartment.

 The ceramic berry baskets were from Michael's as well....the same 60% off line as was the granola glass bins.  I paid just $2 for them.  Needless to say we snatched up all they had.

To stay with the waffle theme, we had ice cream waffle bowls for yogurt parfaits. With vanilla yogurt, fruit and granola we had a nice alternative to waffles.

 I got the white pitcher at "garage sidewalk sale" at our local antique mall for $7.  It is one heavy sucker.  I have this love of milk glass....it just calls out to me!

No one really used the straws, but I couldn't resist because they added such a fun pop of color.  The vase is one I find all the time at thrift stores.  It must be very common because I now own about five in various sizes...why you ask?  I don't know...they are super cheap and I love their clean look.

Seriously, this was really a fun one to do.  I think I liked it so well because the colors are so clean and bright and those animals....they are just so cute.

Patty

She's About to Pop Party

My speech assistant was pregnant with her third child. (I am a little late in posting this as she has had said child and is now enjoying a lovely break from school whiling away the hours taking care of three little ones under the age of four.)  I wanted to give her a fun send off at school so I created the "She's About to Pop" popcorn bar.

 I bought pre-popped popcorn from Gordon Food Service.  I purchased various kinds of popcorn salt from my grocery store and Big Lots and then transferred them to Dollar Store salt shakers.

 The banner I made by printing out flags on card stock and scrapbook paper and stringing them on Baker's twine.  Here is an easy tip another teacher gave me as I was trying to get the banner to stay up.  She suggested I hot glue it to the brick.  It worked like a charm and it came off super easy.

 The small signs were also done on card stock, printed and then cut out.  Again I googled tag templates and just added my own labels.  I tied them on with baker's twine as well.

I made the pinwheels from a template I got from Googling pinwheels.  To get the two pattern look, I glued two different scrapbook papers together and then cut them out.  I hot glued a button in the center and hot glued them to kabob skewers.  I made the popcorn balls the night before.


I went with the red, black and whet theme because that was color of the enamelware that I had.  (I am sure that is what the professional stylist do...right?)  All in all it was really pretty simple to throw together and it came out so very cute.

Patty

City Wide Garage Sales -The Great White Sale

Call me Ishmael.  You know when you are out thrifting whether it is at an estate sale, a thrift store, flea market or garage sale and you have the deep hope that you are going to find the sale of all sales? You know the kind I mean.  The kind you read about in magazines like FleaMarket Style (where they never print the prices...I always suspect they pay a lot more than I would ever pay.)  You know the kind where someone is cleaning out their attic and just wants to get rid of stuff.  Well, we hit one during the city wide garage sales.

After trolling through countless sales with baby clothes, afghans and a thousand candlesticks and bad eighties decor, we drove by this driveway that had one table and lines of boxes up and down the cement.  It didn't look promising, but my daughter-in-law said we should stop.  At first we saw a few things and then my daughter-in-law started digging through the boxes and oh my...things got real fun.

The homeowner didn't have very many prices on things and when I inquired about a lamp, he said the words every hardcore thrifter longs to hear.  "Just make a pile and we will work something out.  I made a pile and he charged me a whopping $5.  That's right.  Five whole dollars for this pile of fun.

 As per my last post, my son took the pictures...a little more artistically than I would have.

 I would have paid $10 for the lamp.  My husband isn't too sure about it, but my daughter-in-law and Thrift Chick both said, "I can see you spraying that some fun color....they got that right.

 These are Pyrex tear drop measuring batter bowls.  I usually don't buy clear pyrex.  However, my daughter-in-law unearthed them in a box and we both thought they would be quite useful.  Turns out they are also quite vintage and single pieces of them go for $15-$20 on Ebay.  I saw a few full sets for the $40-$50 range.  I just like how much use I am going to get out of them.

 The enamel pot was filthy.  It is amazing what a magic eraser can do.  I have a growing collection of enamelware.  However, I have never paid more than $1 to $2 per item.  I actually saw some enamelware at some other sales for $15 fa piece.  Some day I will do a post about how I started getting enamelware when I didn't actually like it!

 Okay the Pyrex gravy boat and saucer is not all that vintage because it has microwave instructions on the bottom.  I just liked the look of it.  I actually collect the red translucent vintage cookie cutters and put them on my white Christmas tree (see it here)  My mom used cookie cutters like these so I threw them in my pile.  I am sure I will find a use for them.  The flocked vintage Santa was a piece I threw in at the last minute.  I couldn't think of how I would use him, but he reminded me of my grandmother's decorations.  Thrift Chick said "He's cool in a real creepy sort of way."

There was also this vintage small casserole dish in the browns and harvest gold of eras gone by.  I forgot to have my son take a picture of it, but you can kind of spy it in the top picture.

If you divide up the $5 total by pieces, each item cost me less than $1.  Now that is a "Great White Sale" for ya!

Patty

City Wide Garage Sale

I am not a fan of blog posts where people post their recent thrifting finds.  After all, it is not like it is going to inspire me....more like make me wish I lived in an entirely different state.  However, I had such a great haul at our city side garage sale days that I feel the need to share.  Outside of Thrift Chick, no one else in our family really gets it.

This year Thrift Chick had an out of state funeral to attend so she missed out, but my daughter-in-law stepped in.  My lovely daughter-in-law had never been to a flea market until she started dating my son.  She is a fast learner!  She was a great companion.  She was on the hunt for preschool clothes and kid games.  However, she is also is very knowledgeable about kitchen items and has a great eye.

This lovely plastic pitcher set cost me a whole quarter.  I bought them for Thrift Chick's apartment.  She has this whole vintage vibe going and was in need of some display items.

 I have this thing for old thermoses.  I think it is because I carried my lunch to school every day with a lunch box and thermos.  It was the highlight of school shopping to pick out a new lunch box.  These were $2 and have also found a home in Thrift Chick's apartment...but they will be back home soon.

Whenever I see pyrex in vintage colors I pick them up.  I will post about our growing collection of pyrex.  However, we have two rules.  One is we use the pyrex.  If it is not usable, I don't want it.  The second is we refuse to shell out big bucks or antique store prices.  These two were just $2 each.

About a year ago, Thrift Chick picked up four Apollo 13 glasses at a Salvo.  She thought they were kitchy and fun.  She paid 50 cents a glass.  Turns out that many people sell them on Ebay for around $3 a glass.  I came across some also for 50 cents a glass.  They also had Apollo 12 glasses so I picked up some of those as well.

Lately I have had a thing for old textiles.  I don't know why.  Thrift Chick uses vintage 50's era ones in her kitchen.  I mostly have them stored away.  I think I like them because I know someone long ago sat down and hand stitched them....that kind of effort is worth more than $1 but that is what I paid for the two towels (which also came with a bunch of handkerchiefs to add to Thrift Chick's collection) and $1 for the tablecloth.

I also picked up these old skis for $8.  My family laughed, but they will be a part of the Christmas decor.  However, if we have another winter like this last one, they just might be how I get out of my driveway!

I also picked up other miscellaneous things like a toy box and new toys for the grandchildren as well as a dog cage.  You know the everyday things you need, but gasp at the retail prices...that is what garage sales are really for!

Stay tuned for one more post on the city wide garage sales.  I hit one sale that deserves its own post!

Patty

Disclaimer:  My son took these photos for me.  He has a real artistic eye and takes some amazing photos....so that is why some of these are less about getting a good look at the haul and more about the cool angle.  However, since they don't have the bad lighting and fuzziness I tend to end up with, I will take them.