This Weekend's Vintage Finds Part 1

Hi guys! I'm sharing some great vintage finds I got this weekend. I have already shown the can can skirts and the vintage tablecloths and fabric and I have 2 more groups to share. I was going to do it all at once but I took a bunch of pix and want to show most of them! As you can tell from the background fabric in my Etsy shop, I looove old pillow ticking. I got 9 vintage/antique pillow tickings this time and a pretty floral cotton curtain panel. It has a tear on one edge but doesn't seem to be dry rotted..just got torn somehow...so I will wash this up to sell or use. The tickings range from pristine to grungy and they will also get washed and get the sunlight and dewy grass treatment. (See my last post!) I plan to either make these into totes or pillows or just sell. I have lots of ideas! I think with these I would like to use vintage lace and add vintage mother of pearl buttons, linens bits or maybe even the now hot burlap! Hmmm...

I believe the wider striped ones of these are generally the older ones. I love blue and white ticking..so farmhouse chic!

More vintage feedsack fabric! The pale pink on the bottom is actually part of a curtain or something..I couldn't quite figure out what it was supposed to be, they had pieced together old sheets and muslin and sewed the feedsack on the edge..maybe some sort of a dust ruffle? I am going to take this back apart and sell the fabric. The other 3 are vintage feedsack made up into cute little bolero jackets! I think they are teen girl size but my daughter tried them on and they fit her and she is a size 7..but the sleeves are 3/4 and it is a bolero length. I will get this on the line to pic soon! The red white and blue one is my fav. I can just see it w/ star spangled pants on a child in a parade!

Ohhhh..journals and ledgers! I also always snab these..is snab a word? LOL These have filled out pages and blank pages. They appear to be farm ledgers and run from the 1940's to 1951. Fabulous bases for altered journals..just glue in your personal pics, drawings, doodles and jottings. The grain sack underneath was also something I almost missed..it was hanging over the porch rail. It does need cleaning, but I have a couple dozen old feedsacks that also need cleaning so it can just go in with those!

The handwriting appears to be "farmwife".

I also got this cool pitcher/vase. It is unmarked. I thought I had seen it in a McCoy book someplace but couldn't find it in mine. Maybe Shawnee or Hull..definately cool! There is a glass flower frog hiding behind the teacup. It has some chippage on the edges so it will go in my booth where that cannot be missed by the buyer. The teacup and saucer with the sweet violets are Lefton. I have actually sold one of these before!

This is just the cutest vintage clothepin bag! It has a bit of grunge so it also it getting washed and I must scrounge up the appropriate vintage wooden hanger for it. I love clothespin bags like these..you just don't see coolness like this nowdays. All my Grammas had clothespin bags. I love line dried clothes..especially sheets and maybe I'm weird, but I like how the towels get all crunchy and good smelling! Line dried jeans..not so much, but I will do my part for being Eco friendly when I can!

These make my heart beat faster. They are vintage glass Christmas garland beads. I use them in my handmade items and I am always glad to resupply my stash! The little angel is sort of trash but as I was going to toss her I thought..you know..some glue..some glitter..and back she went into the basket!

A fab pair of 1960's unused JCPenneys asian insired PJs. I love electric blue! It has bright yellow piping and black and gold metallic dragons. The black pants still had their original pins in them..I guess they were too snazzy for someone! The belt is missing but a black satin ribbon can easily fill in. If these fit..I may keep!

Rowwwrrrrr....I love vintage tins. They are ususally plentiful and cheap! I look for cute/cool graphics. This one was cute.Probably held cookies at one time. I love aqua so this may go in my studio to corral supplies. I always shake these and make sure they are not a button tin..when I hear a rattle, my heart skips a beat! This was empty but sweet! They are also a great , green giftpackage. Just rinse, dry and fill!

And this is my Perfect Ending. I love this cookbook and have a copy on my cookbook shelf! Hoping your day has great finds and perfect endings! Til next time! Julia

Laundry Day OR Washing Vintage Linens

Hi guys! I got quite a few vintage fabric pieces this weekend. A couple had spots so I thought I share my spot removing process. First, soak overnight in your presoak of choice NO BLEACH. You could use Biz or Oxy..I just use Tide and warm water. Yes..that is my impossibly green bathtub..When we bought our house we called it "The Brady Bunch House" miles of shag carpeting and green and gold everything! I have gotten used to the tub since removal would be a headache and until we do an entire bathroom remodel, I have a granny smith apple green bathtub! ..but I digress *ahem*. Step 1: Soak your linens overnight before washing. Most old linens are cotton and cotton dries out and becomes fragile over time. Soaking rehydrates the fibers and makes it strong enough to stand up to a trip through the washer( usually..there are the occasional dry rotted pieces that just disappoint!)

Step 2. The next morning run it through the wash NO BLEACH... BLEACH IS EVIL TO OLD FIBERS! and take it outside and spread it out to dry on the dewy morning grass. Obviously my technique does not work for me in the cold months! Green grass is a must and sunshine. The sun was still lollygagging this morning, but the weatherman said it was supposed to show its face today! The sun shines down, the dew evaporates through the damp cloth and the cholorophyll in the grass also adds to the spot removal process. This is an OLD, effective process! You do have to take your chances with low flying birds and curious pets and in my case, nosy peacocks but worst case scenario..you rewash!

I looooove vintage floral tablecloths!

This one is my fav..it has a mend on one edge but I love the roses!

I love roses on anything! I got a couple more of these tablecloths, but the other ones were spot free.

So pretty!

This is the yardage... a huge honking piece. It had some overall grunge...faboo print! Wouldn't this make a cool wedding aisle runner? The heck with boring white, instant rose strewn path!

This is my idea of a "yellow brick road"... I'd follow it anywhere! I have tooons of stuff to take pix of today. I hope to get some pix of my "treasures" from the weekend up on here soon..maybe later today! Hope your day is rose covered! Til next time! Julia

Pretty finds from the weekend

I went to an estate sale on Friday morning (leaving my daughter and grandson to hold down the fort at my flea market booth). It was day 2 so I was sort of un-hopeful of finding goodies..but I did! It was fun..I was just grabbing and piling things next to the checkout. I found these fabulous net can can skirts!

I am a total girly girl even though I don't always dress the part. I love pink and frilly! I spent my 9 year old year in a pink satin ballerina tutu costume with a frilly pink net skirt, a silver lame front insert and silver sequins. I would even stuff it into jeans when I went outside to play and wore it until I totally grew out of it! These remind me of ballerinas and girly tutus. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up..they were so beautiful and graceful. Alas I was a SD farm girl and the oldest girl of six and my mom did not want to haul me to any lessons. My youngest 2 sisters had ballet, tap and jazz lessons..can you feel the bitterness? LOL Ah well. My backup plan was "make stuff" and that is exactly what I do now so I guess I am on track there!

2 of these have "waist nipper" tops. I would keep them and flounce about town but I can see the hubs"raised eyebrow" from here! Not that I care..maybe I'll have to try one one and do a few pirhouettes and see! Anywhoo..they looked pretty on my clothesline even though it is cold and grey today. I hope you find some pretty in your day! Until next time! Julia

Playing with Picnik or Dandelion fireworks

I had to play with this pic in Picnik. See the original below.If you don't know what Picnik is, it is a photo editing site. (www.picnik.com) Their basic editting (which I use because..again..I'm cheap!) is easy and fun. Just sign up and download your pics..hit the create button and click away! When I was looking at this dandelion pic this morning, all I could think was "fireworks". So I went to Picnik and played around until I got this. I may print it off and add some pops of my always favorite glitter because glitter makes everything better! Good night! Julia

Flowers and serenity

Hi guys! I took these pictures of some of "my" flowers this morning. They look so serene. My day has been less so. More about that later..first the pix. This is Queen Anne's lace. It is a wildflower or weed here. When it crops up in my flowerbed as this has, I leave it be. It is quite pretty. The mature heads are about softball size. I believe they are also called "wild carrot".

This one is less open..they remind me of snowflakes. The symmetry and geometry in nature is quite amazing at times!

They have a touch of pink when opening. If I actually planted this, I could probably not get it to grow! Sometimes I just go with the flow!

My hydrangeas are jusssst starting to open. These will be a pretty blue. I believe these were Nikko.

This is some self reseeded nigella in my garden. It is also called "love in a mist". The flowers are about the size of a 50 cent piece. It has spectacular seed pods which I will be showing you later. They come in purple, pretty blue...

white and pink and mixes..

and purple-y pinks. The foliage looks spiky but is soft and ferny. I planted these once and they just keep coming back..my favorite type of flower..hard to kill and self sufficient! These seeds used to be harder to find but thanks to Martha, they are in most seed displays now.

THIS is poison ivy and it grows like crazy here. I am generally not affected by it. It sprouts up in my flowerbeds and I just "yoink" it right out. My daughter on the other hand is horribly allergic. She doesn't even have to touch it herself and she gets a rash. She had such a bad case last summer she went in to the walk in clinic for help and they gave her a hydrocortisone shot and steroid pills..she was so pitiful! That actually helped her quite quickly. Someone on my Etsy team said goats eat poison ivy..I may have to look into that!

A flower that grows so well in my lawn. My Grampa used to dig and burn these out but I live in the country and really have no animosity to the lowly dandelion. My kids always got so much joy picking me dandelion bouquets..I can still see their proud little faces in my mind's eye. My grandbaby calls these "wishes" and blows the seeds all over the place..Grampa would cringe! My Gramma on my Mom's side actually ate dandelion greens and made dandelion wine. I guess she just rolled with them too! My lack of serenity was spending the afternoon fighting with my printer..an Epson..not an actual person! It was being a butthead..skipping lines, printing red, printing NO color, alternately not recognizing one ink cartridge after another.."Yellow..hmmm I don't think I know you..you LOOK sorta familiar but NO I do not recognize you!" *insert me taking half full or more cartridges out and shaking them silly and putting them back in and giving the printer a smack* OHHhhh...Yellow!! I know YOU..but who is that shady looking "Cyan" over there? Arrrggghhh!! I cleaned the heads 5-6 times and finally just put it in a time out for a couple hours so it can reflect on its bad behavior. I don't know if there is a patron saint of printers..maybe mechanical things? I guess I'll just ask St Anthony and St Jude for some intercession (patron saints of lost things and lost causes). I do wear those 2 saints out! (for the non Catholics "intercession" is like them putting in a good word with the Lord) Of course this happens when I really need my printer to be on its best behavior! Oh well..we'll see. And yes I do know this is what sometimes comes of not buying the expensive Epson ink but overall the savings of buying ink online far outweighs the occasional frustrations! Plus..I'm cheap! LOL Hope your day is going smoothly! Until next time! Julia

Tennessee is smelling reeeeal good!

Hi guys! I wish my blog page had "smell-a-vision"! Tennessee smells maaaaahvelous this week! I'm not sure WHAT this shrub is but it is blooming all over the place. It smells very floral/powdery..I'd say "Gramma perfume" but I am a gramma now so maybe GREAT gramma perfume or little old church lady. It smells good, I'm just not a big powdery scent lover.

Close up! I feel bad for those with allergies this week. You can even smell this in the house with all the windows closed!

Of course THIS isn't helping! This is honeysuckle and it grows rampant everywhere. I actually love the scent of this..a sweet green scent. It comes in white or yellow or white and yellow. I taught my kids how to get the "honey" out of these...oh..OK..my neighbor had to show ME, I am a midwest farm girl! If you pull the flower off and pinch off the very tip and squeeze, a drop of sweet nectar appears for the tasting.

As my daughter said the other day..smells like summer!

Not a good cut flower but still gorgeous.

Daisies also grow wild in the ditches. This little bee was just the biggest ham ever. Every time I moved to another flower to take a picture, he would go there too!

He was in pollen heaven!

These are sweet peas..they also grow wild in the ditches. I love this color, a bright magenta.

They come in a couple shades of pink.

This one is pretty too! I feel lucky to live where so much beauty is just around me every day!

This was the rainbow I saw tonight on our car ride home from a graduation party. My daughter and her best friend are graduating from college tomarrow and our 8 yr old is making his first communion in the morning..a busy day! I am off to bed early to rest up for tomarrow. Wishing you have a sweet weekend! Until next time. Julia

Our Saturday at the Antique Fair

Hi guys! Okay..so I cheated on this pic..it was the view this morning when taking my little boy to school. This is our neighbor's pasture..so pretty in the fog! We did an antique fair this Saturday. When we left the house it was still actually quite dark! I was a bit groggy and not snapping pix before 6am!

This is the tail end of my husband's truck in front of me. He had all the shelving, tent and a couple big things in his truck. I took most of the seats out of my minivan and packed it to the gills!We got things set up pretty quickly. I used step ladders and boards for shelves and other boards on top of a couple huge totes we had some things packed in covered w/ a tablecloth. All these suitcases that you see were also packed with goodies!

A grungy old ladderback ($10) and a chenille spread and a couple very nice embroidered bedspreads.

I really liked this aqua divided wooden case but alas it sold..what an attitude! LOL. It was oak under the paint and heavy! I thought it was cool and could be used either direction. Someone else thought so too! In front is a folding picnic table (also sold) All the plastic dishes went with and it all folded up into a metal suitcase! Vintage school chairs with some vintage ticking feather pillows that I added vintage buttons to the edges of..one of these went too...also that cute aqua folding chair and the glass floats.

These are my board and ladder shelves. I like these because they fold up flat.

Some primitives..a cool old wooden trunk and some wooden factory molds. The molds were packed in wet sand and then removed and metal was cast into the sand hollows. My fav is the big one that you can use as a bowl.

Some Fire King Jadeite, Royal lace green depression glass and some cool vintage hardware store jars complete w/ contents..I think we were selling these $4 for large and $2 for small..great price, I believe these are DuraGlas.

Cute wooden stool, wooden mold/bowl and an antique coverlet piece. I am totally torn between primitives and 30's-50's vintage!

This is a cool little corner cupboard made from crates and some stars I made from antique quilt stars, yo-yos and vintage buttons.

I have a weak spot of vintage tins. This is one of my fav chalkware lamps..so sweet! And a Niloak pink vase that may eventually just stay with me!

This is an awesome midcentury rocker I got last fall. This fair was it's first outing. It has faaaabulous lines, a wide seat and I think it is oak. I would add a black leather seat myself if I was keeping it!

This was also a maiden voyage for this quilt. I got this last summer in my old hometown. It is unused. The entire back is the floral feedsack print..all matching. The front is the same atomic print in 3 different colorways. This is a tack quilt and faboo.

A vintage suitcase (sold) with some vintage hankies and some lavender sachets I made from vintage hankies and vintage tulle, lace and buttons. I love displaying in vintage suitcases!

A very cool metal tote/caddy and some hearts I made from antique quilt squares, buttons and stamped muslin. The coverlet cushion is as I found it.I also like old wicker floral baskets and flower frogs. These are cage style..I also had the "holey" glass ones. I think I sold every vintage garden tool I brought along!

A birdhouse I made w/ vintage dominos and game pieces and 2 cigar box purses I made below.

A cool vintage camera, vintage giraffe toy and a vintage metal picnic tote. I love these and have several at my house..great for storage!

Another view of the Niloak vase, prism-y lamps and a sweet pitcher... I am a sucker for roses too! We had a great day and sold lots of things and most important..no rain!

This a a 4 leaf clover my daughter picked me today. As I am doing a 4 day flea market this week AND we have our daughter graduating from college and our 8 yr old making his First Communion the same day..I need all the luck I can get! My daughter has a knack for finding these. Last time she really looked she picked 23 of them! Our old neighbor taught her the trick.."Look for the one that doesn't belong". Hoping your day is filled with luck! Until next time! Julia