Recent Finds

This weekend was the first estate sale that I have been to since winter began. It did not disappoint! I was lucky enough to find these pink beauties - pieces that I did not already have. Just in time for Easter and Spring.

I also bought a stack of vintage linen dish towels. I love vintage towels - so soft and the graphics are the best.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Also bought this Snowflake Garland lidded dish. I am going to use it to hold salt on my counter.

All in all I think I did great for my first estate sale of the season!

I also hit a few thrift shops this weekend. I bought these. Not sure if I will keep them or not. The longer they sit here the more tempted I am to keep them.  I already have so many drinking glasses that it is hard to justify 8 more - but these look so good with my Pyrex. :)

Did you find anything good this weekend? Please share!

Thanks for stopping by!
KayteeJane

Hoop Art

For several years now Hoop Art has been all over the internet. I think I first saw the idea years ago on the delightful blog Posy Gets Cozy. I googled it when writing this post and the picture appeared. I love how she makes fabric into art with a simple embroidery hoop!

Since I first saw that picture it seems like the popularity of hoop art has exploded. Creative women everywhere are making something unique with fabric and a hoop. Maps, sweaters, quilts, old t-shirts, burlap, vintage linens, embroidery, lace - it is made all the more lovely when framed in a hoop and hung for display.

I see hoops for sale all of the time at thrift stores and yard sales. They are so reasonable. I recently priced a new hoop at Michaels and almost fainted when I saw the price. Something like $12.99. When you are used to seeing them for sale at GW for around a quarter, full retail will knock you over every time.

A while back I found this super cute handmade baby bib at an estate sale.

The minute I saw it I thought it would be adorable framed in a hoop. I pictured a sweet Italian grandmother making this for her chubby-cheeked Italian grand baby. All I know is that my favorite comfort food of all time is Spaghetti {a.k.a. spaghette} I am Italian myself and I loved my Italian grandma. This bib begged to be framed and hung in my kitchen. So after holding on to it for a good 2 years with the intention of doing something with it, I finally did.

Here is how I did it in case you get struck with embroidery-hoop-fever and want to try your hand at it. It is a great way to use those sweet embroidered table scarves and such that you can find for pennies on the dollar at church sales and thrift shops that are too cute to leave behind but once you get them home you can't figure out what to do with them.

You will need 1 embroidery hoop, scissors and some hot glue. I opted to spray paint my hoop to match the embroidery but you don't need to do that step if you don't want to.

Split the hoop apart and lay the larger of the two hoops on the top of your fabric and the smaller of the two pieces under the fabric. Line up your fabric in the hoop as you would like to it be when finished.

 Next push the two hoops together and pull the fabric taut. It should be as tight as a drum. When you get it nice and smooth and taut tighten the brass screw at the top that holds the two hoops together.

Make sure it is where you want it to be before moving on to the next step.

Flip the hoop over to the "back side". If the fabric is where you want it to be trim the excess off leaving about an inch of fabric peeking out from between the two hoops.

Run a line of hot glue on the inside surface of the wood and then fold the excess fabric over the wood so that it sticks to the glue.

Now the back is neat and tidy and the cut fabric will not show when the hoop is hung. The glue keeps the fabric secure.

If you want to go one step farther, buy a piece of felt at the fabric store and cut it to the same diameter as the smallest hoop. When your hoop art is framed glue your piece of felt to the back of your work so that the back side of the embroidery {or fabric} is covered and doesn't show. I didn't get around to doing this step.

Here is the finished hoop hanging in my kitchen.

On a side note - I probably used a hoop that was a tad too large for the bib. As a result some of the red seam binding is showing. I used a size 14 because I found one for cheap at a sale and didn't want to purchase a new 12" hoop for full price. I have intentions of gluing some rick rack or something around the face of the hoop to cover that seam binding that is peeking through. {My OCD kicks in whenever I look at it and realize it isn't perfect.} I am however glad that I did at least get it framed and hung!

I hope you will try some hoop art for yourself and recycle some beautiful old embroidery or pretty fabric from your stash.

KayteeJane

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

Recent Finds

I have been going to my favorite thrift store every Friday night after work as a little end-of-the-week treat to myself. I haven't found much. I did luck out and get 2 Pyrex casserole dishes. I was especially pleased that one of them was Butterprint and had the lid. It is in mint condition.

The other one is "Forest Fancies". It did have the lid but there was a big chip in it so I just got rid of the lid. I have extras so it wasn't a big loss.

At an indoor flea market I bought the 401 Autumn Harvest bowl. I love the color of this one. I plan to use it in the fall. Also found a Floraline planter in matte white.

I also bought this cute apron at the flea market.

Not a huge haul but I am still pretty happy with what I did find. All very cheap also!

KayteeJane

Weekend Finds

It was a good weekend for vintage treasures - which is surprising given the time of year.

I have been longing for a good estate sale for weeks now. I search the ads on Craigslist every week looking for something, anything, that looks like it may have some good vintage junk. This past week my husband saw an ad for a sale close to us that looked like a good one. Only problem - it started on a Thursday. Since I work during the week I wasn't going to be able to make it the first day or the second day. Saturday was to be half-off day. I didn't figure much would be left over by then but since there wasn't any other sales around what was I to lose if I went? So off we went. Well I was pleasantly surprised to find some good stuff left. Although it was picked through there were lots of boxes in the basement that still had things inside. After digging I was lucky enough to find a few treasures. Here is what I bought from that sale - my total $ amount - $12 for all. It does pay to go to the half-off day.

My best find at this sale - the Pyrex Heinz promotional #503. It was buried in a box in the basement. This was a promotion item sold in grocery stores in 1953 for 79 cents when you purchased 3 cans of Heinz baked beans.

 My friends on Instagram tell me that there was originally a lid that went with this piece. I didn't find the lid at the sale - but otherwise this in in very nice condition. This is a pretty green color that is different than the Pyrex turquoise or primary green. Apparently it is the same shade of green as the label on the Heinz baked beans at that time. After finding this on Saturday my husband found a Good Housekeeping magazine from that year for sale on eBay with the original advertisement inside. He bought it for me. I haven't gotten it yet but when I do I will post a pic. I think I may frame it for in my kitchen.

Also inside a box in the basement were these cookbooks. Not sure if I am going to keep these or not. They are in very nice condition. There is a little musty smell to them but otherwise look like they weren't even used.

This cute basket was also in the basement. The bottom of the basket is in pretty bad shape and broken. I removed the liner and washed it in the washing machine to get it clean and fresh. I think I will just use this to hold yarn so I'm not worried about the bottom being broken as it is just going to sit on the floor.
The table cloth is vinyl. I love the print and vinyl is so useful on a table when you have kids at home. The only problem is this particular tablecloth has a weird smell to it. I washed it 2 times in the machine and also put it through the dryer. It isn't a moldy smell but a plasticy smell that makes me gag. I don't know if this will stay or go.

I also found a Bingo game, a Federal Glass bowl, a smock-style apron, and this cute crochet drawstring purse in red and white.

We hit two other estate sales besides the one mentioned above. Mostly newer stuff at these sales but I did find this cute apron for $1.

I also found this bun warmer. A really useless item but oh so cute for display. I saw one of these for sale in an antique shop this past summer and was tempted to buy it but didn't at that time. Glad that I held off because this one was only $1 at the estate sale. It matches my aluminum cake carriers from the same era.

On Friday evening after work I went to my favorite thrift shop. I didn't find much in the way of vintage but I did find this wonderful ripple/chevron blanket. It has the most beautiful shades of blue and brown - a color combination that I love. It is a lap-size. I am having a love affair with crochet these days. I wish that I could actually make something like this but for now I will just thrift it!

All in all a great weekend for finds. It satisfied my cravings for vintage junk for sure!

Thanks for visiting.
KayteeJane

Linking up with:
Sir Thrift a Lot Thriftasaurus
Ivy and Elephants