New Life for Vintage Linens

I love to collect vintage linens. It is so fun to discover them at thrift stores and yard sales and then take them and make them into throw pillows, valances or other items for my home, as well as to sell. These pillows were made from a bedspread I purchased a few years ago in a little antique shop. It had been sitting in my linen closet with some other quilt tops. I finally came up with the idea to make all the separate days into pillows, as in the above grouping. I sold the "Friday" pillow in a craft show recently.
Some of the squares were painted and the outlining is hand embroidered. The painted designs with the little girl are so pretty and unique. I have listed them in my Etsy store. I just love the detail on the squares.
This picture shows the pretty pink bow on the little girl's apron.

This pillow is made from a vintage tablecloth I purchased from a garage sale at a local fundraiser. I love the pretty aqua color. The flowers are done in embroidery. I also have this pillow in my Etsy store. I've called it "Dancing Flowers", since the flowers appear to have movement. Beautiful colors. I have made all the pillows as covers so the forms may be taken out if the cover should need to be washed. Practical as well as pretty.

Pretty and Pink

My favorite color by far has always been pink, especially pale pink. I guess that is why I love collecting pink milk glass. I have also heard it called "shell pink glass". These two pieces sit on my dresser, which happens to be painted almost the same shade of pink. I pick up pieces wherever I can find them, usually as inexpensively as possible. The pedestal piece came from a yard sale and the jar with lid came from an antiques store.
This beautiful piece features embossed grapes and leaves. I discovered it on one of my many yard sale expeditions. It goes well with the vintage rose print, another yard sale treasure.
This piece is special to me in that it belonged to my mother-in-law. She gave it to me just recently. She and my father-in-law got it as a wedding gift in 1958. That makes this piece over fifty years old. I felt honored that she gave it to me for my collection and promised her I would pass it down to my niece later, to keep it in the family.

My Shop on Etsy is Open

After preparing and attending several craft shows in late summer and fall of this year, I have finally gotten my store on Etsy ready for shoppers.

I will be adding items regularly to the online store. Currently, I have some Christmas stockings, ornaments and tag sets listed. The dove ornament above is one of my listed items.

I am also offering Free Shipping to my customers, so please stop by and take a look.

The Garden Gate

It has been over six weeks since my last blog posting. I apologize for the long absence. A month ago, I got a respiratory infection and it is taking a while to recover. My dr. told me it has left me with an asthma-type situation with my lungs. This Texas heat and high humidity isn't helping me one bit, either. In the midst of all this, my brother and I gave a big 50th. Anniversary party for my parents. I had so much fun working on all the decorations, of which I will be posting soon. Alot going on, but I had planned this post before I got sick and wanted to share it with you.
My husband made a gate to surround our vegetable garden. The gate was just plain and white, until one day, when I was sorting out some things in the garage, I ran across these precious metal dogs. I had gotten them when we were going through my grandparents' estate a few years ago. I thought they would be perfect to mount onto the gate to "guard" my garden. I love the rust and age on them, also. I think it gives them a nice, antiqued look. This one looks like an Afghan hound.
This dog stands on the opposite end of the gate and he looks like a type of Spaniel. These gate ornaments date back to the 1960's. My paternal grandpa had a fence company in our area for a number of years, back then. These have extra meaning to me, as well as being beautiful, since they are a part of my family's history. I also kept one of my grandpa's metal signs, he would put on his customers' fences, and mounted it to my chickens' pen. Every time I look at the dogs on the gate or the sign, I remember Grandpa. These types of things make life special for me.

More Yard Sale Treasures

I thought I would share some more of my recent yard/garage sale treasures with you. I had hoped to post this much sooner than now, but I have been under the weather. The above is a ceramic piece that I bought for only $2.00. It is about a foot in length.
This is a closeup of the lady in the center. The piece has a pretty, aged look to it and appears to have never been painted. I like the look of the white against the green of my wall. Very soothing.
I have been collecting white glass and can usually pick up some pretty pieces for very little cost. The above vases ranged in price from .25 cents (center) to $1.50. Again, very pretty against the green wall.
The above shows a close up of the flowers on the base of the center vase. It looks very old. I love the colors of the flowers. When I found this vase, it was at the bottom of a box and had dirt all over it. I knew it would look good after a good cleaning.
I purchased this beautiful botanical print for $1.50. It is 11"x 14" in size. I have seen these in antiques stores about $30 or $40.
This closeup shows the detail of the flowers.

I hope you enjoyed a look at these wonderful finds. I am anxiously awaiting my local newspaper, which is put out on the news stands on Wednesdays, for this week's list of yard/garage and estate sales. There are usually more of them on the first weekend of the month. It should be fun.

Treasure Hunting

I thought I would share some of my "treasures" that I have recently found at local yard and estate sales. These first two photos are a sampling of a large box I purchased at a yard sale. The lady told me that the box of assorted trims, laces, ribbons, and etc. belonged to her grandmother. I bought the whole box for $5.00. What a deal!
Some of the items are vintage and some are newer, but what was so nice, was that she had all of the related colors wrapped together on separate pieces of cardboard. I can't wait to work these items into some projects.
This beautiful, old print of a cottage and garden was purchased at an estate sale for .25 cents. I just love the soft colors. It is about 11" x 14". I had to tape the upper left corner on the back, but the picture will still look good in a frame.
I purchased a plastic bag that contained about a hundred or so of these clippings of cartoons from the Waco, Texas newspaper. Some of them were dated "1938". The cartoon is of Flapper Fannie. I paid $1.00 for the bag. I will probably sell these. They would be great for use in paper-crafting projects.
Another thing that is so interesting about these cartoon clippings, is that on the back of them they contain little bits of history. Reading all of them was like going back in time.

As much fun as it is to find all of these treasures, I think the even greater thrill is the hunt. I have said many times, that I can go to a dozen yard sales, and not find a thing, but the next one that I go to, I will find that special something, like the box of trims. It can be such an addiction, but a fun one. It really gets under the skin.

I believe when I first caught "the bug" was when we would visit my Papaw Matt (this was his nickname, since he looked so much like the actor, James Arness, of Gunsmoke fame). He had a perpetual sale in his garage. He would always invite us kids in and say "pick out something". Some of the relatives still talk about how much fun we had rummaging through that garage. This was in the early seventies, before garage sales became so popular.

Even though Papaw and my Grandma were divorced, Grandma did the very same thing in the garage at her home. If she wasn't going to garage/yard sales, she was having one of her own. My mom and I would occasionally help her with her sales. I remember getting to make a little extra spending money selling my unwanted clothes or toys this way. I remember that my Grandma would have a separate glass on her kitchen table, for each person who had items for sale, and when each of us sold something, she would come in and put the money in the appropriate glass. Grandma ran her garage sale off and on for many years. This was before some of the city ordinances that we now have, that limit the number of garage sales a person can hold in a year's time. Those were the days.

Grandma and Papaw Matt passed on years ago, but their love of garage sales and treasure-hunting lives on in me and my family.

Fresh-Picked Berries

We had a bountiful crop of strawberries in our area this Spring. I recently picked strawberries at a local farm. I froze many of the delicious berries for smoothies and strawberry shortcake, but some I made into jam. If the jam will last long enough, I plan on giving it for gifts at Christmas. I use decorative lids, like the one above, for gift-giving. I also add a bit of vintage ribbon or raffia, and tie on a pretty label, for an instant gift. One that is always very appreciated. My favorite way to enjoy strawberry jam (we call it jelly here in Texas), is spread on the top of a warm, buttered biscuit. Yum, Yum.
I also "picked" these cute, little, cloth berries at an estate sale, recently. The estate sale happened to be from my second grade teacher. She lived to be one-hundred-and-two, and was still able to live at her home. Who knows how long she had had this little basket of berries. I just added the green and natural wood shavings to the basket. It makes for a cute display, especially in the kitchen.

I still plan on picking some more strawberries before the season ends here, which will be soon. Also, the dewberries are beginning to ripen. They too, will make scrumptious jams or jellies.