The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever

I had a nice Mother's Day. It was laid back, without a lot of stress, which is what I like and really seemed to need. This year my daughter's, which are 8 and 12, went the extra mile and each presented me with something that they chose themselves and paid for with their own money. I really didn't expect them to do that as I would have been very happy with a home cooked meal or for them to do the dishes on their own.

Hannah gave me an amazing vintage pottery vase - pictured below (that is her school picture in the background). I couldn't have chosen this better myself. My husband took her to a flea market one recent Saturday and she spotted this for sale amongst a lot of other items. My husband said she zoned in on it and knew instantly that she wanted to buy it for me for Mother's Day. It only cost her 50 cents - which she happened to have - which makes it even more special because she was able to buy this with her own money. I love that this gift is one-of-a-kind and probably no other mom on the planet received one like it for Mother's Day. She couldn't have picked anything better for me if she would have tried. I totally love it! She did me proud picking something vintage & collectible! I'm not sure of the maker but I would be willing to guess McCoy. I think it is fabulous. It will sit proudly amongst my other pieces of pottery.

My older daughter also bought me something wonderful. She overheard me say once that I wanted a CD of Christian hymns. Well she found me one at Target - purchased with her own money - and lovingly presented it to me on Mother's Day. I was so surprised that she actually listed to what I was saying at that moment and remembered it. I am touched by that.

Hubby bought me the cookbook "The Back In The Day Bakery Cookbook" by Cheryl Day & Griffith Day. I wanted to show it here because in addition to the delicious recipes the book features pictures from The Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia. The owners have many lovely vintage  items on display at the bakery. It is a beautifully designed book that inspires me to keep collecting vintage kitchenware.

Some of the inside pages:

I hope your Mother's Day was wonderful too!

KayteeJane

Status Update

Hello Friends! It has been a few weeks since I've posted. Thanks to all of you who continue to stop by to see what I've been up to. I do appreciate it. Seems like May is a very busy month for our family as the end of the school year wraps up and we are consumed with all of the activities and events that go with that. As much as I love posting here, my Mom duties have a way of keeping me off the computer.

I have been able to get to some yard sales. The pickings have been slim, but I did manage to find a few treasures.

I bought this lovely white pottery vase at a flea market this past Sunday. It only cost me $2. It is fairly large in size in comparison to the other pottery vases I have collected. It is marked USA on the bottom. I love how these lilacs look in this vase. White has become one of my favorite colors to collect in vintage pottery - especially the matte. Not sure if that is because I haven't seen much of any other colors lately to buy or because of it's simplicity.

After the flea market we spotted a yard sale sign and of course I had to check it out. It was the second day of the sale so there wasn't much left. Sorting through a box of cookbooks I came across this vintage gem. It was 25 cents. I love it. The recipes inside are great. I am looking forward to sitting down with this book and reading it cover to cover - and then trying some of the recipes.

 
I love looking at the pictures in these vintage cookbooks. They give you a real history of what housewives were using in their kitchens at the time. Check out this photo.

I have a soft spot for vintage glassware - and these tug at my heart strings. They are light blue. The pattern is similar to hobnail but more like bubble wrap. Not sure of its official name. I remember my grandmother having dishes like these. I have been told that she hosted luncheons at her home for her lady friends and they enjoyed delicate salads and jellos on dishes like these.

At another yard sale I scored this great Maxwell House Thermos for $1. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you have probably seen this already. I love old coffee cans and coffee advertising so this is a treasure in my book. I used to collect plaid Thermos's but ended up selling the collection when I got tired of it. I don't think I will part with this one. It will be on display in my kitchen. I have never seen another like it.

Sadly, this happened this week as well.

My laptop - pretty much ruined, but still in service until I can afford to buy another one. This is how it went down....I was carrying the laptop in my hands as I was coming down the stairs. Being the clumsy person that I am, I missed a few steps, fell, tossed the laptop into the air, it hits the wall and I hit the ground. Luckily I didn't break any bones, but now my computer screen is permanently damaged. Needless to say it is difficult to do most tasks, but if I change the size of the screen and move things back and forth a bit I can still do what I need to do. After shedding a ton of tears, receiving some very consoling words from my sweet husband and a love note from my daughter which said "don't worry mom it was old anyway" I got over it and moved on. That is life I guess.

Until next time...

KayteeJane

Linking up to:
Sir Thrift A Lot

Saturday Scores - Earth Day Edition

Hi Friends! Happy Earth Day! For this edition of Saturday Scores I'm sharing some earth-friendly vintage goodness!

Take a look at this score! I can't even take credit for finding it - hubby did! As I've always said, he is a better treasure hunter than I am.

If you are a lover of vintage you probably share my passion for vintage tablecloths. I have an especially strong weakness for 1940's tablecloths. I've been collecting them for years and now have several. The ugly side of this is that I RARELY want to part with any of them. I just keep finding them and hoarding them all to myself. This is actually the first state map souvenir tablecloth that I've ever bought - and guess what? I'm selling it. In fact, it is for sale right now on eBay.

Take a close look. Pre-Disney!

I love the colors too - yellow, teal & orange. I can't wait to see if it sells. I sure hope it does. I won't share with you what I paid because frankly - that would be bragging - as it was such a great deal. :)

This yard sale was my favorite type of sale - an older lady who is cleaning out her house and selling things she no longer wants or needs. Funny thing about these sales is the vintage stuff is usually marked very cheap! These ladies don't hold much value in the older things. Which is great for me because I love a great bargain on vintage. I bought a few vintage tablecloths and some dishtowels - which were all in immaculate condition - clean & pressed. I didn't even have to wash these when I got them home - they were that nice. This sweet lady even had a section of free items for people to take - but with one condition - you could only take one or two because she wanted to save some stuff for everybody! GOTTA LOVE THAT!!!

I bought this from her as well. 100% Linen. Tags still intact - and by Kay Dee too! You would think that just for the name I would keep it but no, it is for sale on eBay too.

Don' get me wrong, I love using vintage linens. They are great for the environment - and for my vintage style! I guess I am just in the selling mood. I need the money, so I'm parting with stuff. This has been hard for me in the past, but it isn't so hard right now. I am a praying woman and I do pray that God would change my heart when I feel that I am being way too materialistic. I guess He has answered and is freeing me up to sell, sell, sell. Yes, I still have my collection of tablecloths and that won't be going anywhere right now, but other things, we will see.

Happy Earth Day!
KayteeJane

So Long Shabby Sweet Furniture

When my second daughter Hannah was born I looked around for furniture for her bedroom that was vintage with the shabby-sweet style that I love. As with ALL of my furniture and home decor, I am usually on a very limited budget. Most of my furniture, with the exception of a few chairs from Ikea and my television set, are second hand. I'm not sad about that in any way. I actually prefer older styles and a rustic & worn patina. The great benefit of old furniture is that it is usually solid wood and well constructed  - which is uncommon in the furniture for sale new today - unless you want to pay out of the nose for it.

This is the furniture that was bought for my sweet baby girl's room.

I think I channeled a bit of Rachel Ashwell on the day I found these pieces. They were not purchased together. The dresser with the mirror was bought first - at an auction. I saw it and instantly fell in love. We lingered at the auction for a bit and the dresser still hadn't come up for sale. Having to leave, I left an absentee bid and prayed that I would get this piece. A few days later I heard that the dresser was mine. It is hard to see from the pics but the paint is perfectly distressed and cracked. The color is close to the shade of cooked oatmeal. There is even a floral decal on the drawer of a pansy. Now this kind of ready-made perfection doesn't happen much in my world. I usually have to paint, distress, or refinish to make a second-hand piece of furniture in my price range look like I want it to look.

The wardrobe came a short time later when I spied it at one of my favorite antique stores for sale. It too was painted like the color of oatmeal and already had decals. It was in my price range and it was the perfect match to the dresser.

Sadly, they are leaving us and moving on to another family. Hannah is 8 now. Her room went from pink, to purple to the latest...green. She has new paint, new bedding and she is done with this old furniture. She wants Ikea. (it pains me to say that publicly) - I want my kids to love their rooms and feel comfortable there. That is why I agreed to sell this furniture so that I could buy her some Ikea stuff (junk). Oh well. We are not our kids. They have their own style, and that is great. God made us each unique and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So goodbye perfect, shabby, sweet, distressed, adorable, Rachel Ashwell-inspired furniture. Have a good life at your new home.

Love,
KayteeJane

Craft Tutorials Page

Hi friends. Happy Wednesday. As you may know, I love to craft. It is one of my favorite past times. Some of my craft projects are straight out of my own creativity while I also get many great ideas from other bloggers and also from Pinterest. In the spirit of sharing I have decided to condense all of the craft tutorials that I've shared previously on the blog onto one page for easy access. Instead of searching through many posts to find the one you are looking for, you can now open up the page "Craft Tutorials" by clicking the tab with that name at the top of the screen.

This page will have links to all of the craft projects that I've done on the blog (with more to come). I'm hoping that some of these easy projects will inspire you to take some time and make something for yourself.

Happy Crafting!
KayteeJane

Saturday Scores

Here are some finds from this past Saturday. These items were all found at one estate sale. Yard sales haven't really kicked in yet here in PA but I sure love me a good estate sale. This sale was a "ladies sale" if I ever saw one. The house belonged to an older woman and was filled up with her clothing, sewing notions, linens and knick knacks. Not a tool or a gun in site. Here is what I couldn't live without.

These are vintage hair combs. It is hard to tell from the picture but they are quite large. They were 25 cents each! What a good deal. I'm not sure what I will do with these. Probably tear them apart and re-purpose the flowers into new hair bows. The one below is my favorite. It will stay as is. I can actually see someone wearing this one. The others are all huge and make quite a statement.

About a year ago I posted about buying some vintage flower pins with the idea to make a brooch bouquet with them. I haven't started that project yet because I am still looking for more flowers. I found this pin with matching earrings. $2 for the set.

A cute candy/cookie tin made in Germany. This will be for sale on etsy.

I love these. They sort of fall into that category of "I want to keep these but should probably sell them". They are bark cloth pillow cases. They are in nice shape - no holes or tears. These will probably stay with me...at least for the time being.

My favorite type of find at any sale - vintage chenille blankets. I have been lusting for a red and white chenille blanket for years but have never seen one (other than on ebay) to buy. Hubby spied this one in the basement folded up and discarded in the corner. It is in bad shape. It has holes and is very worn. They only charged me $1 for it. Alas it will not be my dream bedspread but instead will be made into some Christmas trees come fall. The blue one - the twin of the red one - is in perfect shape. It was for sale in one of the bedrooms - wrapped in plastic for preservation :) - Not sure what I will do with this one - probably make something with it too. I'm not in love with the design so I think this one will be made into a shower curtain for my blue bathroom or into pillows.

This was my favorite find of the day. This sale had a lot of vintage ladies clothing. This awesome dress was hanging in the basement along with several other vintage dresses. Obviously the family running the sale didn't think much of these. I love this dress. It is white satin with small red flowers on it. My favorite color combo. It is in perfect shape - no stains! I paid $2 for it. I am planning on hanging it in my bedroom on the back of the door or something - just to look at it and think about how fun it would have been to wear something like this to a party or a wedding back in the day. I definitely was born in the wrong era.

Another vintage dress from the same basement rack. At $2 each it was so hard to walk away from these. This one has orange strawberries on it. I don't think they are faded red either because the lining of this dress is as orange as a pumpkin. This baby will be for sale at an upcoming show I am doing. Hopefully there are other lovers of vintage clothing out there that will appreciate this. PS - did you spy my kitty in the photo sitting on the toilet? He just has to be involved in some way.

The last of the dresses bought from the basement. This one is longer than what the photo shows. It is navy, red & white. I believe it is rayon. I could actually see someone wearing this currently. It is very neat. This one will be for sale.

I also bought some other small items that will be going for sale in my etsy shop. Speaking of the shop, I listed the music box/jewelry box (shown in the last post) on etsy and it sold within 1 hour of posting it. It has since been mailed to Detroit. I knew that it was cool!

Have a great day!
KayteeJane

Saturday Scores

Hubby and I went to a few sales this past Saturday. That is our usual routine. We get up early and hit any local garage or estate sales and are usually home by 10 am. Plus, now that my kids are older we can leave them home alone for a few hours and go without them - which is great. This is my favorite time each week - looking for junk with my favorite partner in crime. Here are some highlights of what I bought. Most everything that I bought this time will be for resale. I am committed to only keeping the things that I absolutely cannot live without.

This was my favorite find of the day. I found these at an estate sale. They were in a jar inside the kitchen cabinets - mixed in with some other random corn holders & screws. These will be for sale - although I think they are awesome and are sort of tempted to keep them.

Vintage musical jewelry box with ballerina. I love this one. My favorite thing about it is the ballerina turning in front of the triangle mirror surrounded by her "stage". This is very "shabby chic" and feminine - a style that I love. However, even though I love it, I am putting it for sale on etsy. I know it will find a home where it will be loved and appreciated by a kindred spirit.

I have been buying a lot of vintage Tupperware lately for resale. Here are my latest purchases soaking in my sink for a good cleaning. Turns out that older Tupperware is collectible. I recently bought a vintage canister set at and estate sale for $1 and turned around and sold it on eBay for quite a bit more. I am hoping that lightening will strike twice and that I will be able to sell these other pieces as well.

I also bought this Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic camera. I like these older cameras for display. I usually just sit them on my bookshelves. This one will also be for sale on etsy.

I'm going to make "Saturday Scores" a regular feature here on the blog. I hope the weather is turning warm were you are and that you are able to get out and treasure hunt too.

KayteeJane