Vintage Christmas ornaments,Velvet millinery rose pins and Ghostly Occurrences

Hi guys! I was busy today taking photos of vintage Christmas ornaments, rose pins that I made last night and some old hardware..I took pix and listed some things this morning.I also have a ghost story to share at the end of this post!

                                             
 I love old shabby Christmas ornaments! They remind me of Christmases of my childhood. My mom always picked real trees then..usually somehow crooked. One year we had to tie it to the window handle to keep it upright! (she has since switched to artificial). I remember laying on my back snuggled in with the presents looking up through the tree and picking out my favorite ornaments...always the bright pink indented ones!

I have a soft spot for Shiny Brites..which most of these are. They just look so fab on the tree or as here..piled in my old silver plated wine cooler. I love this piece. In the summer it holds old baseballs and softballs!

 I have 2 vintage glass tree toppers to list. They were both marked West Germany on their boxes. I saw a lady once who had collected these and displayed them on a board that had lots of dowels attached. She surrounded them with ornaments and mercury glass beads garlands. They looked like a Dr. Seuss forest! Sooo cool! The other topper I have is an indented one.

 The ornaments with the narrow caps are usually European..German or West German, Poland or Czechoslovakian. Sometimes you see a Japan one. The ribbed , scalloped caps are usually Shiny Brite..an American bulb. Some are stenciled and some have mica glitter.

During WW2, every piece of metal went to the war effort, so from those years you see unsilvered balls..usually striped (to add interest and make up for the lack of silvering).They even had cardboard caps or hangers..no metal! Some of these were put out by Corning..the makers of lab glass and Pyrex.

          Did I mention I have a soft spot for pink?? The hand painted balls are generally European too.

 It is always fun to see an odd shape like the cupcake shaped one bottom center.I collect these all year to sell and I have a lot more to sort and list!

This was an old lock I got at the Estate sale  Friday morning..I am a sucker for heart shaped things! Rusty and crusty is a plus!

This was an odd door handle. I wish there was 2, but one is cool to put on an old primitive cabinet.

                             These are the flower pins I made last night.They come in several colors.

                   I love the way these velvet roses look..they have a vintage millinery feel.

                                 I added a fringed net rosette to the back and a pinback.

 You could use these to wear ( lapel, scarf, hat, headband, tote) or for home decor..pin on a pillow, lampshade or pin on a ribbon and tie where you want it..on a package or vase..or all of the above!

 Or this would look pretty on a cottage style Christmas stocking..you can unpin and use elsewhere later!

I have an eye on some vintage plaid and tweed woolen in my fabric stash for totes. The dark ones would look nice against that "gentleman-ly" fabric..hmmmmmmmm.

OKAY

Now for the ghostly encounter...

 After we got my son from school and went to the PO, I went up and tore my booths at the antique mall apart and re-arranged a bit..ok..a LOT! Moving things, bringing in new and marking down or taking out old things keeps your booth fresh and interesting and as my best vendor in my former antique mall said, "Instills a sense of urgency to regular customers..maybe it won't BE here next week!" I flip flopped furniture and took some pieces in and a couple out. I moved a couple racks and redid a couple displays. I need to get back in there and mark things down that have been there awhile and rearrange the shelves I didn't get to. It was so HOT today! I had sweat running off my face while I was re-arranging the booth. Next time I take a fan with me! Probably because I haven't been exercising much lately. 

ANYWAYS...

 While I was working, my son Jack was in the booth helping me. All of a sudden in the booth across the aisle (which nobody was in) a old metronome just started loudly ticking away! There was a customer in the next booth and I asked him, "Did you do that?" and he said "I thought YOU did!" My son said, "It was the ghost!" The antique mall I am in is supposedly haunted. I have never seen "Charlie" but several people ..employees and customers.. swear they have! There was supposedly a hobo found dead on the train that runs through town during the Depression. The town elders were afraid that the town would get quarantined for smallpox (which they were afraid it maybe was) so they buried him in a small courtyard between the then hardware store (now antique mall) and the pharmacy next door. The only entrance to the small courtyard was through a secret door in the pharmacy and only visible if you were on one of the roofs and looking down. Now people keep seeing an older guy in bib overalls who is there..and then instantly ...not. Creeeeeepy! Of course someone could have been in the booth earlier fiddling with the metronome and it may have just somehow jiggled loose and took off...yeah....that's it! LOL Maybe Charlie was getting me ready for the Halloween season! 

Hope you all have a safe blessed week..my baby turns 11 tomorrow and I will be taking several 10-11 year old boys bowling and to the park for cake, ice cream and pizza..hope it doesn't rain or we may just be at Pizza Hut! 'Til next time! Julia