Been doing a little decorating...

This year I decided to change things up a bit and go for a simple mantle. I love the bottle brush trees I bought on sale from Target last year. The mercury glass candelabras are from Home Decorators. They are large and really nice, and the best part was they were on clearance. The Dept. 56 Snowbabies were all purchased from the thrifts for a few dollars each. Here's a few pics of my tree. First without bubble lights and then with. It looks so different with the bubble lights on! This year I decided to add tinsel that I bought from the Goodwill. I do like the look of it, if only my two dogs would leave it alone! One of my favorite tree ornaments is the cute kneehugger elf. I only have one, and I would love to have more, but this is the only one I've ever found while junking. I'm too thrifty to pay the prices on Ebay or in the antique shops. Another of my favorite types of ornaments are the indented mercury glass ornaments. I have several of those, bought at yard sales and estate sales for pennies.

A Vintage Halloween

I have not posted in a really long time. Not because I haven't been junking or don't still have my booth. My son started High School and with that came Marching Band. That in itself has been keeping me busy picking him up from after school practices, getting him ready to perform at football games, taking and picking him up from the contests. I'm just plain wore out. I did make time to decorate a little bit for Halloween this year. I never decorate for Halloween, but I was inspired last year by some of the bloggers decor that I started picking up vintage inspired items this past year.

This is the console in my front entryway. I think it looks pretty cute.

I got this cute felt pumpkin at the Goodwill for $1.29.

The Happy Halloween picture came from Kirkland's. I bought it last year after Halloween for 75% off!!! The cheshire witch was found at the Goodwill for $2.49.

These two cuties came from Tuesday Morning and were $1.99 each in the clearance bin. I think they are just adorable.

I found these mercury glass pumpkin candle holders at Kirkland's last year for .80 cents each. I already had the rusty looking candelabra and the pumpkins fit perfectly in the holders. Hope everyone is doing well. Happy Halloween!

It's Nice To Share

Every once in awhile I find an online store that has good stuff for cheap. Just to let you know, I am in no way being compensated for this, but I wanted to share the information. www.craftcatalog.com is the website. I've liked everything I have bought from them. Mom and I finally got moved over into the smaller booth. It is a tiny 5 1/2 x 7. We arranged everything so that you can still walk in and turn around, but it is teeny, tiny.

Happy, Happy - Joy, Joy!

I'm feeling pretty happy today! My Mom and I went to our antique mall to give our two week notice that we were going to have to shut down our booth because we weren't making enough to cover the rent. We told them that we loved being there, but we were slowly losing ground and losing money. Clark, the guy that manages the mall when the owner isn't there told us that they had been thinking about splitting some of the booth sizes in half and would we be interested in keeping the same location, just less square footage. We jumped at the chance because right now we have a nice big booth, and cutting it in half would really help us financially. We will be able to keep it full more easily, and we will be on a corner in the front of the store, which is what we want. I'm so glad he mentioned that to us because we really didn't want to give it up. We'll be sliding over into the smaller space at the end of the month. At least I've still got an excuse to keep junking and not be considered a hoarder! "It's for the booth" is my standard excuse. Lol. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Good News, Bad News

Bad news first: My mom and I have decided to shut our booth down at the end of July. We are just not making enough to meet our rent. It's not for a lack of trying though. We always have a nice variety of cute items, rotate our items, rearrange our booth about every other month, etc, etc. It seems that people who shop our antique mall prefer to purchase mostly furniture instead of knick-knacks. Neither Mom nor I have a truck to be able to transport furniture home and then to the booth, we're pretty much limited to smalls, and you gotta sell a lot of smalls to make the rent!

Goods News: I'm not done with junking, oh no. Mom and I both will start selling on Etsy in the near future. I will still get out and junk, mostly for myself. I'm going to start focusing my blog on decorating my house. I've got several projects in mind and soon, I will have the time to devote to those projects.

Celebrating 50 Followers!

I'm so excited because I have 50 followers as of yesterday. I know that might not seem like a big deal to most, but I've often wondered if anyone is reading my posts. I'm a lurker for many posts, but I've finally figured it out that by participating in the "parties" and posting comments on other blogs rewards you with new followers. Thank you to all who read my posts, I'm glad you are here!

For The Birds...and a couple of other things

I made this bird feeder a couple of years ago, but thought I'd share it. It's made out of an old graniteware lid. I removed the wood knob, used a long screw to screw the lid into a wood spindle that I painted, added a screw eye to the top of the spindle, then added a chain for hanging. It works great and the birds love it. I was looking for a clever way to display my potholders and ran across this turquoise laundry dryer at the Goodwill for $1.50. I hung it from a hook in the ceiling. A simple way to display them and it doesn't take up much space. This past weekend, we had the last of our yearly yard sales to finance our travel expenses for our family vacation. One of my brothers and his wife donated some items for the sale. While going through the boxes they sent over I gasped and said "What?". In the box was the jadeite platter above. They know I've collected jadeite for many years and I couldn't believe they were holding out on me! I'm assuming this was from my SIL's mothers estate as she passed away last year. I kept digging through the box and again said "What?" because I was staring at I Love Lucy wind chimes. I didn't get a picture of them, but they are so darn cute! I've been an I Love Lucy fan since I was a little girl. I found two treasures at a yard sale Saturday, my own yard sale! We made our goal of $1000 for our vacation, and I found some treasures too. It was a good day!

27 Days Till Florida!

Every year my family and I take a family vacation. Before we go on our vacation, we have a couple of yard sales to finance a portion of our vacation. The money we make goes for gas, hotel, food, or whatever else we need. This past month we have had two yard sales (one day each). One at my Mom's house and one at my house. So far we have raised $623! We are going to have one more at my house in a few weeks for two days. I'm cleaning out my garage and getting rid of a bunch of stuff I just don't have room for. I'm only keeping my very favorite things, or things that can go into the booth. We are hoping to hit a grand total of $1000 to take on our trip. This enables us to get rid of stuff we don't need anymore and provides us with money for a vacation. The items that are left over are donated to charity. This year we are going to Florida. One of my favorite cousins has a vacation condo in North Redington Beach and has invited us to come and play for a week. This is just outside the door of his condo. White sandy beach. Ahhhhhhh...I just can't wait to get my toes in that sand! I am such a beach lover. We have been to Florida many times, but not to North Redington Beach. It's my dream to live near the beach someday...in a cute cottage...with part of it made into a quaint antique shop. I can dream can't I? While we are in the neighborhood, we are going to go to Disney World for a day. We've been there many times before, but you can hardly go to Florida without going to Disney! We are also going to hit a few thrift stores there and along the way. I've always heard that Florida is a great place to go junking due to the number of retirees that live there.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Wishing all Mothers, Grandmothers, Step-Mothers, and motherly persons a Happy Mother's Day. You are special all year long!

My Cute Hutch!

About six months ago I was at the Goodwill and it was announced over the intercom that it was 50% off all furniture day, so I decided to take a look around and see if anything appealed to me and I saw this cute hutch and it was originally marked $100.00. It is large, solid wood, and has lots of storage space, not bad for $50.00. It's been sitting in the garage all this time waiting for me to paint it. Over the weekend, I decided to clean it up and bring it into the house anyway because I don't know when I'll get around to painting it. I went ahead and put some of my stuff on it and it looks so cute. Let's just say I'm inspired and should have done this months ago!

Recent Finds!

Certain items you are looking for seem to come in waves. These past few weeks has been about linens. The past couple of weeks I have been out junking and have found some good items for cheap. The set of morning glory pillowcases were $1.00 for both. The pink crocheted single pillowcase was also $1.00. The hankies were .50 cents each. The lady selling these at the Antique Alley sale had a basket full of them. I can't believe she was selling them so cheap, but good for me! Moda Home Christmas towels were brand new and $5.99 for the set of four at the Goodwill. I looked these up on Ebay and they were going for $24.99 for the set. They look so vintage! The red handled rolling pin was $1.00 and the birdhouse was $2.00. These tablecloths were .50 cents and $1.00 each. Love it when I find tablecloths and people don't know the value! I'll add these to my hoard collection. This vintage Christmas table runner was .99 cents at the Goodwill. It fits my sideboard perfectly, so I will be keeping it. It has the same design on both ends. I'm going to hit the Salvation Army today during my lunch hour. I hope I find something good!

Ancestry Is Facinating!

I've always been drawn to all things British. Ever since I could remember, I wanted to go to England. Before I got married in 1997, my husband-to-be asked me where have I always dreamed of going and I told him England. We went there for 9 glorious days for our honeymoon. Flash forward to 2013. This past couple of weeks, I have been researching my heritage on Ancestry.com and discovered that nearly all of my immigrant ancestors were early settlers in Massachusetts immigrating from England. Oh we have a few from Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland, but the majority are from England, and some are very interesting characters. I've been able to go back as far as the 1400's with my lineage. The most intersting thus far has been Sir John Baker (1494-1558), who is my 13th Great Grandfather on my Mother's Father's side. According to the information on Wikipedia, he was a politician. He was Speaker for the House Of Commons and Counsil for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth I. He had a castle! Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, and it is still standing today. There are still two more weeks left of my paid month on Ancestry.com, and I can't wait to see what other interesting things I'll find. Putting the pieces of my ancestry together has been alot of fun so far!

My Recent Finds

Hi everyone! Hope all is well. It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, but I've been busy junking, and finding some great stuff. This jadeite was found at an estate sale. I got there an hour early and was second in line to make sure it was mine! I paid just under Ebay prices, but I wanted it because it's getting harder to find. I started collecting jadeite years ago, before it got popular and I got most of my 200+ pieces really cheap. Ball and Atlas canning jars. Clear jars were $1 and aqua jars were $2. Metal 45 record holder $3 and hymnals .50 cents each. Wood items to be painted and repurposed for the booth. I picked up three Scrabble games for the letters and holders for some projects. Shawnee corn creamer and mixing bowl. Aluminum S & P shakers. Vintage linens. Two sets of embroidered pillowcases $3, apron $3, kitchen towel $1, and cross stitched tablecloth $5. Milk glass hobnail lamp, old cake plate, and a silver tray that was made prior to 1912 according to the hallmarks on back. Knowles grease jar was $2, pottery picher was $1, and Pyrex Butterprint fridge jars were $2.49 each. Jim Shore Santa was found at an estate sale. I'm keeping him as I have a Jim Shore Santa collection. Solid oak doll cradle will be painted and put in the booth. Radio Flyer mini wagon will also go into the booth. Finding Fiesta always comes in waves for me. I found all of these pieces at two different Goodwills. $1 for dinner plates, .50 cents for salad plates, saucers, and cups! I got this lot of Cronin pottery for $37. I'm only keeping the ball pitcher. I saw one at the Highway 80 sale last fall and wanted it so bad, but it was $35 and I'm too thrifty to pay that. I was thrilled when I got all of these pieces for what the pitcher would have cost me. I will put the rest of the pieces in my booth a few at a time. I picked up this bird candelabra for $6. It's so pretty, and I'm keeping it as it will go great in my bedroom. I can't imagine why anyone would want to get rid of it. Good for me! Moda and Waverly fabrics. Apple core and four patch quilt templates. Last but not least, this metal picnic basket and jars were found at World Market. They are new, but I didn't care because they were so cute. I'm keeping these.