Bee Well

Sill here, still stitching, still doing a lot of reading, and still not managing to take pictures of finished projects to post them. That's why there was no mid-year totals post this year. Well, that and the fact that there weren't a lot of finishes by the end of June. 

I did  finish Bee Well, a free pattern by The Blackberry Rabbit. It would have been a quick stitch, but I had unexplainable trouble with the wings and wound up doing one of them three times. They're probably not perfect, and bees probably do have perfect wings, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. 

And I'm swooning over this little pressed glass boot, which is the exact color of honey straight from the hive. A few weeks ago, I saw some similar shoes at Goodwill, but they were eight bucks each and I didn't like them quite that much.  I was sure I'd find one at an estate sale if I was patient...and I did. This one was a dollar. And it's the color of honey, so I love it more than the blue ones I saw at the thrift store.

Google tells me that they're by Fenton and apparently people collect them and, compared to etsy prices, the ones at the thrift store were cheap. But I'm not a collector so I'll just keep haunting the estate sales for pretty sparkly treasures.

{Estate Sale Temptation} Pearl and Earl in PINK!

You know how sometimes an idea makes it into the corner of your mind and just won't leave? That's what happened with the black and white applique plates I found back in February. A few months later I found the original pattern in an old craft pamphlet. 

And on Sunday I found another set of the plates.... 

They're way too pink for my taste, but it was the last hour of the last day of the sale and everything was super cheap. So they live with me now and if I find another inexpensive pair they're going to live with me, too.

This time it wasn't a game of "was there a stitcher here?" because there was needlework in just about every room. Someone did embroidery and latch hook and crochet and crewel....

There were also some amazing old craft books. I don't know why I needed one on sewing for the house during wartime, but I wasn't going to leave it behind.

For three bucks, I got the booklets and an old unused scrapbook and a whole stack of damaged embroidered linens that I'll make into something else.

And the plates.

Most of the house had brand new carpet but the kitchen and this downstairs room still had their original flooring. Just look at that carpet! I'm guessing it's from the same line as the stuff I grew up with, only less vivid. 

I've seen people saying that estate sales are over for the year, but I checked old blog posts to confirm that I go to them year round. Which makes sense -- houses have to be cleared out and sold and sometimes its not in the best of weather. Do you stop looking when it gets rainy and cold?

I Found the Pattern for Pearl and Earl!

Remember these two plates that I saw at an estate sale and didn't buy?

I  found the pattern! Or what I suspect is one of many versions of the pattern since the one I found was published in 1959 and I've seen a sources that dates plates like this to the 1920s.

It's honestly not much of a pattern at all, is it? I couldn't bring myself to spend a dollar for the plates I found, but now I'm wanting to make a set of my own. And a bunch of other things from the same book that would have been completely reasonable in their day but seem a bit silly now.

{Thrift Shop Temptations} I Love the Graphics

I left this vintage cooky and donut press on the shelf and did not buy it for its wonderful vintage packaging. Mostly because I know I've bought other cookie presses over the years and never used one.

If I want to swoon over the illustrations, I've got a whole stack of vintage cookbooks to go through.

I also didn't buy myself a scary looking 1970s pressure cooker, despite the fact that it was harvest gold and had extremely entertaining pictures on the top. 

The boys and I could have had a lot of fun trying to figure out what those illustrations are supposed to actually be.  It wouldn't have been the first time I'd bought a vintage pressure cooker just because it looked cute, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise that this one was so badly scratched up.

I can appreciate that this box of hair pins survived the years with its contents intact without wanting to own it myself. If this sort of thing makes your heart flutter a bit, go follow Magpie Ethel over on Instagram. Her feed is full of amazing vintage goodies, lots of them in their original packaging. And her Someday Beachhouse is amazing.



Are you more tempted by old packaging designs than new ones, or is that just me?

New-to-Me China

For a while now, I've been on the prowl for a set of inexpensive thrift shop china. We've gone through plates at a ridiculous rate because this old house has never had a dishwasher and I'm a klutz. The fourteen-year-old has taken over hand washing the dishes and I don't think he's broken a plate since, but I already had the idea in my head.

I keep seeing articles about how no one wants Grandma's old china sets and they have no value. Why not make our next set of dishes pretty antiques instead of Dollar Tree plates?

Then my mom visited a rummage sale on the last day and the plates were a dollar a set.

Look at these! 

I'm swooning over the grapes and walnuts.

This set seems to be a little newer and if I wasn't giddy about that vintage fruit, they'd probably be my favorite plates in the world.

Now we've got two partial sets of gorgeous dishes and I love them so much more than I'd love a brand new set from the department store.

There's also a third set that's white with blue stripes. It nice looking and functional and exactly what we needed...but these are what I wanted.

{Thrift Shop Temptations} Another Musty Trunk

Remember that trunk I showed you in my last thrifting post? A week later, I found this one at a thrift store about a mile down the road from the shop where we found the first one. It's got the Hartman trunk company logo, but not the nifty "Gibraltarized" one.

It's almost as musty and it's missing one of the big drawers. I'd think that would be a significant flaw and detract from its value. But they're asking six hundred bucks for this one and that tag is a color that won't be marked  down.

Look at the shipping tag that's been wired to the handle for a hundred and ten years. I can't be the only one who loves that, right?

While the trunk didn't tempt me, this antique baby buggy sure did, especially since it was sized for dolls.

I want one!

I've told you about Grandma's knack for finding whatever we were looking for. She might have passed down that trait to my daughter because I'd been talking to Alex earlier in the day about a weird old children's show one of the boys was telling me about.

Alex found one of the dolls. This thing lights up and plays music and squirms and it's hard to imagine a more unsettling toy. But I'm beyond impressed that she was able to come up with one. (I left it at the store instead of bringing it home to torture her brothers...but we texted them pictures.)

{Vintage Show and Tell} Vickie's 1940s Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book

You already know that I've been on a vintage cookbook kick and that I've got Better Homes and Garden editions from when my mom was first married and when I was first married. Now I've got Vickie's, which appears to date from the late 1940s.

I don't know who Vickie was, or share her taste in recipes, but I love how she punched holes in things and added them to the binder. I think there's more extra stuff than original book here. I found foreign stamps and pressed leaves and odd newspaper clippings. 

By far the best is this valentine from her husband. I wish that it was dated.

There's also a letter postmarked 1958, from a friend who moved to Colorado and had a disappointing Fourth of July. 

If you want to see everything that was inside, click the video below for a complete flip through.

{Vintage Show and Tell} The Famous Artists Painting Course

Remember those advertisements on matchbooks or in the backs of old comic books promising that if you could draw Tippy the Turtle you could win a scholarship and become a famous artist?

I always wondered about those, so when I found this set of four huge canvas covered binders for three dollars, they were definitely coming home with me.

It turns out that Tippy was advertising for Art Instruction Schools and my set is from the Famous Artists Painting Course.

Close enough!

Someone spent a lot of money on these and enrolled in January of 1969, then only completed the first four lessons. The forms to cut out and return with the other submissions are still in the binders.

 I wonder what happened. These would have been a huge investment at the time. In 1950 the course was three hundred dollars and I can't image that it got any less expensive before this edition came out in 1965.

I thought my son might want to flip through these, but he'd rather learn painting by trial and error or through online videos. I can't say that I blame him -- Bob Ross is a lot more fun!

Art Nouveau Pie Crust

One of the members of our local stitching group has been posting her amazing antique finds on Instagram. Her Habitat for Humanity is so much better than ours! (And, because we drive to the meetups from opposite directions, it's way beyond my reasonable day trip range.)

One of her finds,an antique frame with an intriguing rattle under the backing paper, got me thinking about this print and its frame and wondering if maybe it had a fancy name. Google did not answer my questions but, according to Lori, it's an Art Nouveau Pie Crust frame. 

My original plan when I found this in the bins at the Goodwill outlet was to use the frame for a sampler or something. I'd design a whole project just to fit that frame with those gorgeous corners....but it seems wrong to take out the print when they've been together for so many years. And the print is growing on me a bit even if it makes me feel cold just looking at it.

There's also the poor condition to maybe consider. There are some big chips of wood missing, but that's probably what landed it in the bins and let me find it in the first place. I can be happy with damaged antiques that I otherwise would never own. As much as I adore this frame, I wouldn't spend antique shop prices to have it in my life.

I also love having knowledgeable friends who can help me identify things.

{Estate Sale Tempatations} Cornhuskers

You know how sometimes you find a thing and it needs to come live with you even though you don't know why? This box is one of those things.

I found it at an estate sale that had advertised itself as a lifetime collection of craft supplies.  Or something like that. It's been a while and I don't remember the exact phrasing, but the ad definitely over-promised. They didn't have much and it was one of those sales where almost nothing is priced.

But I had to ask about this box...and you can tell by the fact that I'm posting pictures I took in my own yard that it came home with me. The lady wanted two dollars and she had to tell me the story behind it. 

Of course if there's a story I need to hear it. The box was painted by her partner's mother, whose husband had made the box. To me that didn't sound like much of a story, but to the person running the estate sale, it was important...enough so that I'll probably write it on a card and tape it to the bottom of the box.  It's made of heavy plywood and the hinges need some TLC. It's also the shiniest tole painted thing I've ever stumbled across. Not that I've ever seen tole painting sealed behind a high gloss coat. 

There are corn husk people on all four sides, from the Cornhusker pattern books by Bonnie Seaman. Three of them look like corn husk dolls, but the lady with the sunk has an unsettlingly human nose. She's probably the reason I bought the box. 

There's also the fact that we had a painting from the same pattern book hanging in the upstairs hallway when I was growing up. And the fact that the handle on top is a lot like the door pulls in our kitchen were. Not an exact match, but close enough to make me feel nostalgic. 

Mantlescapes

I keep drooling over mantlescapes on blogs and Pinterest. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous and we all know that I love vintage clutter....so why don't I have one of my own? 

I've got the perfect mantel for it. This hundred year old fireplace dominates the house and I couldn't love it more. 

I didn't have the stuff to make a summery display, but fall is here and I'm in my element. I've already got ideas for winter.

Ignore the oil lamp. I washed it to get off a heavy layer of dust, which took off the soot and left it looking new and straight out of the box. And it's been too hot to burn the lamp just to add some patina and cover up that shine.

{Thrift Shop Temptations} Is she Cinderella?

I'm not a fan of needlepoint framed behind glass. The glare on this piece was so bad that I thought it was a flat reproduction of a needlepoint piece until I took a much closer look. 

The flamenco dancer was huge, and this piece was even bigger. Apologies for the bad picture, but glass outside on a bright summer day is probably the worst circumstances for trying to photograph needlework....

He was sixty-five dollars. After seeing that, I didn't even look for the price on the dancer. I'm not in the market for vintage needlepoint....

Then I saw this one. She's under glass, but it seems to be the anti-glare kind. And she was eight dollars.

I managed to resist until I stepped inside the store and saw that all wall art was fifty percent off. Four dollars for a gorgeous piece of vintage needlepoint? If I'd left her behind she would've haunted me for years.

I thought the colors were too bright, but now that she's inside the piece is steadily growing on me. I love the fireplace, and her shoes, and the hatchet. (Please tell me that she isn't planning on cooking any of  those birds for dinner!) 

This post is linked to Share Your Cup. 

{Rummage Sale Temptations} Church Fundraisers and Wonderful Poodles

On the way to the bowling alley on Friday, we stopped at two rummage sales. One was a fund raiser for a church preschool and you were supposed to donate what you thought the stuff was worth. It's the first time I've seen a sale like that and I've got to admit that I had a hard time with it.  

What's stained old embroidery worth? I think it'll clean up, but at the moment it smells funky and is having a time out on my porch. How about old poker chips in banged up wooden holders?  An old cross stitch kit that has a price tag on it from someone else's garage sale where it obviously didn't sell?

There was a young couple in line ahead of me who were interested in a wooden table and chairs. How much is that worth? (Remember that St. Vinnie's was asking six hundred for the twin of my awful set.) I didn't see what they paid, but the lady in charge suggested ten or twenty dollars. I came up with what I thought my box of dirty linens and random stuff was worth and doubled it, because I assume that the church preschool I know absolutely nothing about must be a good cause.

Stuff at the other sale was three dollars a bag. That's easy, until you only find a couple of little things that you want. I got a couple of old paperbacks from the 1940s and a stack of cloth napkins that are unfortunately pink, but should be useful.

And the cross stitched poodles! I saw them out of the corner of my eye as I was debating whether to put my meager bag of stuff back.

Aren't they the most adorable thing ever? They were in a frame with glass and the glare made it impossible to see the details of the stitching. I think they look older than 1981, which is what was written on the back of the frame, but the edge of the stamped cross stitch says 1977 so that date must be pretty close.

There was another rummage sale a couple of weeks ago because the local pool is raising money to replace their hot tub.  The ladies there were urging people to stuff their bags as full as possible. No wonder I'm confused about these fund raising sales!

What I'm actually looking for are old boxes or trivets to use for finishing cross stitch projects, but I haven't found those yet. If you want to see everything that came home with me, it's in the video below.

{Thrift Shop Temptations} The Video Games from 1982

Another thing to add to the list of things I've never seen at a thrift shop before -- a fancy leather cover "For Your TV Guide" 

I can vividly imagine the family room that might have spent years in. It's got a woodstove and cedar shakes on one wall. And it might be in the same house that had these...

I always love fireplaces with cooking going on, and the kerosene lamp and clock made it even better. They were molded plastic and had depth to them and I'm lucky something else distracted me or they might've followed me home.

When I was about ten, we had an Intellivision. Everyone else I knew had an Atari, but my parents owned an appliance store and Intellivision was what they sold because it was, in someone's opinion, better. My early childhood gaming days were spent playing games no one's ever heard of and when I was in my early twenties I got rid of the console because Super Nintendo had just come out and no one was ever going to play games like these again.

So of course I went on to have three sons who are all super into retro gaming and I've been kicking myself ever since. I hadn't thought of these particular games in years, but as soon as I saw the Night Stalker box I could hear those flapping bats. With a dozen games it seemed like there had to be a console, so we searched the entire store until we found it.

I suppose it's a good thing they wanted eighty bucks, because that was way out of my budget for something that might or might not work.

I looked it up when we got home. Night Stalker has bats, but they don't make noise. The flapping bats are in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and it's probably a good thing they didn't have that one, because it might've been too much temptation to resist.

I Think I Know What to Make For Dinner

A few weeks ago, the boys and I were at the thrift shop and I was irresistibly drawn to this plastic box of recipe cards. It's the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library (published in 1971) and I am smitten. 

I've been in a complete and total rut when it comes to dinner ideas. Years and years ago, my husband suggested opening the cookbook at random and picking a recipe to make for dinner. Now that I've reminded him of that and started actually doing it, he might be regretting the idea.

Instead of choosing at random, which would not end well, I went through the box and picked half a dozen things that looked like they had potential.

So far, we've had Salmon Noodles Romanoff, which were mediocre at best, Chicken Fricassee With Dumplings, which was pretty darn good with the substitution of a Costco rotisserie chicken, and Oven Porcupines, which kind of bewildered my husband and sons. I got some validation at an estate sale a few days later when Hubby opened and old cookbook and the first recipe he turned to was for Oven Porcupines. They're a legitimate thing!

The Toasty Cheese Bake was awful. Imagine French toast with hamburger and cheddar cheese layered in. Its a bit worse than it sounds. My oldest son has a plan for making it into something tasty. I'll let you know if that works out.

For five bucks, this thing was a great investment. I saw an identical one at a garage sale last weekend for a dollar, but I'm not beating myself up over that. I also saw just the cards in a bag at Goodwill for the same amount I paid. Despite the prices I just saw on Etsy and Amazon,  these are out there and they're inexpensive.

I love that there's no coconut oil, or kale, or quinoa... These meals call for stuff I've got in my kitchen and the ones I've chosen so far have been surprisingly inexpensive to make.

And I love that this thing was doing Pinteret before Pinterest was a thing. Look....there's knitting in this one!

At that estate sale I posted about a couple of days ago, I found a different boxed set of cards, The McCalls Great American Recipe Card Collection, and a huge armload of recipe books and I think I pulled a muscle hauling them down the street to the car.

My future looks like it's going to be filled with fun dinner time experiments. If you had one of these sets, are there any recommendations of  things to try or avoid?

Can You Help Me with My Vintage Ladle Full of Hens and Chicks?

Anyone good with Succulents? I am absolutely terrified that I'm going to kill this old ladle full of hens and chicks and could really use some advice from someone who knows what they're doing.

This is how my banged up old ladle full of hens and chicks looks now.

I found it in Grandma's garden last spring, hanging from a birdhouse. At that point, it had been through at least two winters without anyone taking care of it. I hung it from our dying walnut tree and made sure to bring it in before the temperatures hit freezing.

This is how it looked when I found it.

A couple of months ago, it had started to completely spill out of the ladle. The dead lower leaves were pushing the living plants over the edge. I watched some Youtube videos about pruning succulents and got everything back inside of the ladle. That seems to have worked, but now I'm wondering if I need to remove the thick layer of moss that's under the plants...but there probably isn't much dirt under the moss. (I'm willing to buy soil for this project, but I need to know what I need.)

Were the leaves with the black tips dying or damaged? What I've got right now isn't as pretty as what I started with, but I think it might be healthier. 

Help! 

The Fort Rock Homestead Museum {Part 1}

Last week, the family took a road trip to the Fort Rock Homestead Museum in Central Oregon and I fell in love with every antique quilt in the place. 

I love reading about the era, and I definitely love reading about the quilts, but I never ever would have made it as a homesteader. Just listening to the wind whistle through the walls of these little houses was intimidating enough for me.

This kitchen confirmed my fears that I've messed up my children. One wanted to know why there was so much new stuff in a museum. I guess when Great Grandma owned an antique mall and Mom loves the thrift shops, the line between "new" and "old" gets really blurred.

Every one one of the five houses had embroidery and quilts to drool over. There wasn't a lot of information given about the houses and their contents so I'm guessing this was all donated to the historical society by different sources, and that a lot of  the quilts are, although old, newer than the houses themselves.

Can you imagine what that view must have been like in winter? The house has been moved to its current location, but I'm guessing the desert outside was pretty much the same.

I really wanted to see what was inside of that sewing machine case. The top seems way too short for any machine I've ever seen and the pedal is definitely different... Anyone know what one of these looks like inside?

Even the doctor's office had a frayed quilt on the bed.

I'm going to split this into two posts  because there are so many pictures.