Summer Decorating with Vintage

 I love to decorate around the house with vintage items. I change the decorations for each season/holiday. Here are some of my summer decorations.

I collect old planters. I put this Uncle Sam planter out for the 4th of July every year. Here it is filled with vintage flags.

Something my husband and I will always buy if affordable are vintage fans. We love them and use them throughout the house in the summer. Since we don't have air conditioning, these vintage fans really come in handy. Some of the fans are strictly for display, like this one. I recently found this small-sized fan at a garage sale. I love the name of it - Zero. I think it is cute sitting out for summer. The colors are great too.

 

This metal toy lawn mower was just purchased last Saturday at a yard sale. I have always loved vintage toys for some reason. I love to use old toys and children's furniture in my displays. The lawn mower is on my front porch.

Another thing I decorate with is vintage household items in their original packaging. You can find things like this at estate sales.  I found both the package of plastic forks and the pack of Ice Cream Sticks at estate sales. I especially like it when the packages have the original prices. It is neat to see how much stuff cost 40 or 50 years ago. I just sit things like this out on my china cupboard or in my kitchen and they add interest.

I also like to decorate with vintage linens. I found this amazing embroidered linen doily at a yard sale years ago. Since I have two daughters that are obsessed with anything mermaid, I had to have it. I always thought it would look cute made into a pillow or just sitting as a doily on the top of a little girl's dresser.

I also like keeping vintage books. This is an old book from 1960 discarded from a local elementary school.

Since my kids don't seem to know too much about American History - which I discovered when I asked them why we celebrate the 4th of July - I made Hannah sit and read some of this book.

This summer I joined a CSA in my community. CSA stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture. Here is my weekly share of eggs - sitting in Pyrex. I am always using my Pyrex bowls in the kitchen no matter what the season. I even change which bowls I use to match the colors of the particular season or holiday I am celebrating. That is how crazy I am for Pyrex.

I love the freckles on the eggs!

Here's wishing you a happy 4th of July and fun summer days ahead!
KayteeJane

Baby Shoe Planters

For a while now I have been in love with baby shoe planters and other vintage baby items. I have a small collection. I recently put all of my baby planters together on one shelf for display. Here it is ~

A closer look ~

Even though my babies are grown ~ i plan to keep collecting vintage baby! I love it!

KayteeJane

My favorite vintage finds of 2013

I've been enjoying visiting some of my vintage blog friends who are posting about their favorite finds for 2013. I thought it would be fun to think about what great things I found this year also. Here are my favorites.

Best Pyrex find from a thrift shop - This entire set of Butterprint refrigerator dishes was found sitting on the shelf at my favorite thrift store. I bought the entire set for less than $10.

My first Fire King bowls - found on Craigslist. I can't wait to look for others to complete this set.

Milk Glass - 2013 was the year of milk glass for me. Previous to this year I never looked twice at it. Now I can't get enough. I love it. I went to an amazing estate sale this year where I bought several beautiful pieces all from the same sale. Husband also found me that beautiful milk glass punch bowl this past year too. It is hard to choose my favorite piece but those candlesticks (the ones in the back - not the hobnail) rank up there pretty high.

A new collection - horse ribbons. I've always had a fondness for vintage things with horses. I guess it comes from the same place in my heart that longs to live in the country. I found these ribbons at an antique shop in Virginia this summer. I love them. The brown one is my favorite. On my wish list is a tin cup of some sort.

A hankie box filled with vintage buttons. I bought this at a flea market. The seller had more buttons for sale that I wish now that I would have bought also. These just make me smile when I look at them. I doubt I will ever use this box for hankies after all since I love it with the buttons inside.

Pink Pyrex. I bought my first piece of Pink Gooseberry this year. I found it at a second hand shop. I hope to complete the set at some point.

Another awesome find from the thrift store - and from my least favorite thrift of all Goodwill no less! Hazel Atlas Pink Crinoline dishes!!! This is a case of being in the right place at the right time. These had just hit the sales floor. I also think I bought them because of the price. Usually vintage stuff at Goodwill is marked higher than the other junk but in this case they kept to their set prices for dishes and mugs which means I bought the cups for 25 cents each and the plates for 50 cents each. As much as I bitch complain about GW I guess I did score there after all.

My list wouldn't be complete without my most favorite thing to collect - McCoy pottery. It has always had my heart and that hasn't changed. I found a few pieces this year. This lovely flower pot was found at a yard sale this past summer and no that price is not fake. I decided to keep the price tag on permanently for smiles. I love how M.P. initialed her tag. She didn't want to lose out on her 10 cent sale. God love her.

All in all it wasn't a bad year of junking after all. As I look back through my posts I realize that I found a lot of cool stuff, but much of it was sold online - which is ok as the money helped out a lot this year. I did keep many good things for my personal collections and there is definitely not a lack for great junk around my house at all. I don't know about all of you collectors out there but I want to hold on to my vintage more and more these days as good sales are few and far between. Do you think there will be a day in the future where all we will find at yard sales and thrift stores are Dollar Store and Walmart crap? I loath the thought.

So what are you looking to collect this year? I know for me I am always on the lookout for more Pyrex for sure. Most specifically I would love to find the Green Dots #404 bowl to complete my set and also the Hot Air Balloons #444 bowl to complete the chip and dip set. I may have to end up going online for those.

I'm also hunting for vintage clothing these days. After my stint as a 50's housewife for Halloween I'd love to find a few great dresses from the 1940's - 1960's.

I love looking at the collecting blogs that I follow to see what great things others find. It certainly inspires my collecting. All in all anything vintage from the 1940's - 1960's has my heart and if it is priced right I will buy it. Kitchen stuff and glassware are favorites.

Here is to more great vintage finds in 2014! Thanks for coming along on the hunt with me.
KayteeJane

Cyber Monday

Since it is "Cyber Monday" I wanted to share some snaps of some of the vintage Christmas things that I've collected and am now selling on eBay. Yesterday all I did was take pictures for some 40+ items and then begin to list them for sale. Fellow collectors will understand - sometimes you just need to lighten the load. I love all of this stuff, but none of it has sentimental attachment so I've decided to send it on to the next collector. Everything shown here was found at either a yard sale, estate sale or thrift shop. If you are interested, I sell under the name kayteejane on ebay. Or, just enjoy the vintage eye candy!

Happy Monday!
KayteeJane

Chocolate Town Classics

I love vintage cookbooks from the 1940's, 1950's & 1960's. I think I like them most for the pictures that show pretty cakes and pastries displayed on vintage glassware. I picked up these vintage recipe booklets some time ago. They are a small tri-fold pamphlet with a few recipes made with Hershey products. I'm guessing they were a freebie given out to visitors of  "chocolate town" a.k.a. Hershey, PA.

They were printed in 1963. The pictures showing the milk glass cake plates are my favorites.

Dainty's? A cute name for chocolate chips.

Delcious!
KayteeJane

Throwback Thursday - Loom Potholders

How many of you can remember making these loom potholders as a child? My man bought these at a yard sale for me. They are very soft and worn and look like they have been washed many times. The weaved fabric is very tight and thick. I am in love with the colors the most - red, blue, aqua, orange & black. Whoever made these chose the color combinations well. I use these all the time and they are very functional as well as pretty.

I remember making these when I was a kid. I had a plastic loom kit like THIS ONE. I spent hours putting the fabric bands on the loom and working them up and under each other. I doubt I was concerned about the color combinations that I was choosing - I was just enjoying the craft itself. Now the craft of the moment is the Rainbow Loom. My 8 year old is obsessed with hers. I bet she would enjoy making these throwback potholders. Maybe I'll think about getting her a kit for Christmas.

Those throwbacks are sometimes the best.

KayteeJane

Vintage Halloween Blow Molds

This summer we found a few vintage Halloween items while out junking. I decided to sell these blow molds. I think they are really cool but figured I didn't need them and would rather have the money. So off they went to ebay. I'm happy to say that they are now on their way to new homes.

Witch with a Pumpkin

Vintage trick or treat pumpkin bucket. This is a really tiny one - but very cute. The bottom makes it even neater in my opinion.

KayteeJane

Linking up with Sir Thrift A Lot - go visit!

Plates

I love antique plates. The ones with roses and flowers are my favorite. If they were made in Europe I am especially smitten. Here are a few that I own.

These hang on the wall in my dining room.

These are waiting to be hung.

Dishes as art!

KayteeJane

Red Cupboard

I have this amazing red country cupboard in my dining room. I use it to store some of my vintage glassware and dishes - those that I don't use all of the time. I love the color of the red paint that is on the inside of this cabinet. I have a soft spot for red! Sometimes I leave the doors open and enjoy the display of "stuff" and other times I close the doors for a simpler look. The outside of the cabinet is white. I bought this as is at an antique store. I haven't had to do anything to it.

 

Right now I have my ever-growing milk glass collection displayed on the top.

 

A peek inside...

 My flower glasses collection

 vintage tablecloths

I hang things from the doors too. 

 

KayteeJane