It's Rednesday--vintage apron, pin bead Mrs. Claus and gratuitous cute baby photos

Yippee, it's Rednesday! I'm joining Sue's Rednesday party today.


I love this pin and bead Mrs. Claus! She's a Walco craft from the early 1970s and is reminiscent of the pin bead fruit that I collect as well.
I found her at a thrift a few weeks ago, but sadly there was no Mr. Claus to be found. I now have a mission: locate a pin bead Santa and reunite him with the lovely Mrs.!

Found at a rare weekday garage sale when I was out visiting my mom in Utah, I think these are actually from 2008 but I never blogged about them. The crocheted apron is a child's size and somebody turned the vintage tablecloth into cute red-hemmed cloth napkins.

And a favorite red (and blue) thing around here:
Would you just LOOK at that hair? Hee! It's like Muppet hair.This one's blurry but Porter is just the happiest, most smiley baby! He'll be 12 weeks tomorrow (HOW?) and is an absolute delight!

Vintage Christmas Monday

This has been the state of my front room table for about a week now:
I'm going to call this, "A Beautiful Mess"It may be a disaster but somehow it bothers me far less than the other messes around my house at the moment. :)

After a poor showing at the thrifts so far this season, I scored on Friday afternoon. Yay!Lots of goodies to keep and lots more to put in my etsy shop!

I'm joining in on Joan's Vintage Christmas Monday!

Goody Goody Gumdrops!

I love gumdrops. I love the way they look and I love the way they taste. I love them at any time of the year, but most especially at Christmas! A jadeite bowl full of gumdrops is just a happy sight, isn't it?
I saw a gumdrop wreath in a Martha mag years ago and have always wanted to make one, but never got around to it.
Until this year, that is! I decided that it would be the perfect festive activity for Maren to help with, so even though the Thanksgiving decorations still sat in a pile on my table, I set out to make a gumdrop wreath. After looking at two stores with no luck, I happened upon big bags of gumdrops at JoAnn's, of all places! I didn't even think to look there but as I was buying my wreath form, I found bags of candy near the cash registers. Not only did I save myself a trip to another store, I was able to use my 40% off coupons for them as well! It worked out perfectly.

Although the construction seems pretty self-explanatory, I did use the instructions found here, via One Pretty Thing. I used a 12-inch white foam wreath form from the craft store, but I did see 10-inch green forms at the Dollar Tree this morning as well. I used nearly three 20-ounce bags of gumdrops (the small size) and that allowed for plenty of 'sampling' opportunities as well. I took Cheryl's advice and used my hot glue gun rather than toothpicks to attach the candy. I went through several glue sticks, more than I had anticipated, so make sure you have plenty on hand. From there, it's easy.
I applied mine in a CPR fashion--CPR in this case standing for Carefully Placed Random. I didn't want to think about it too hard but I also wanted a fairly even distribution of colors. I just fit my gumdrops together like bricks. If you look at Cheryl's photos, it looks like she did one wreath that way and one where they are placed in more orderly rings. I still need to spray my wreath and add a little bit of glitter, and once I decide where to hang it I'll add a nice wide RED grosgrain ribbon to the top.

I wish gumdrops came in pink--I think a pink gumdrop wreath might make me feel faint from the super-high cuteness quotient. I do remember that Martha showed all-white wreaths made of champagne-flavored white gumdrops in one of her wedding publications, and they were quite pretty. I know that Walgreen's has bags of red and green gumdrops on sale this week for 99¢, so if you purchased a dollar store wreath form and a couple of bags of candy, you could have yourself a very cute little holiday decoration for around $5!

It's Rednesday--vintage spaghetti ware Santa

My favorite color is RED (has been for years) so it's only fitting that I join in Sue's Rednesday party!Today's RED item would also fit for Vintage Christmas Monday. Oh heck, most of what I post this month would probably fall under that category! I found this guy a few weeks ago at the thrift. I bought him to sell, but as it seems to happen all too often, I think I like him too much to let him go.I'm not usually one for figurines (aka dust collectors), but come on--isn't he darling? I love the spaghetti 'fur' trim.
It's so rare to find something like this at the thrift and have it be intact, but he's perfect--not even any chipping on the spaghetti trim! I think I need to find some candy canes or barber poles to fill his sack.

We had a self-imposed snow day today. It was snowing and the wind chill was 4 degrees this morning when I got up, and I just couldn't face going out in that to take Maren to preschool. I haven't yet figured out a good solution for keeping the baby warm and wrapped up while I take Maren to school. The stroller is a pain (especially in the snow) and carrying him in the bucket carrier is unwieldy and heavy, but just holding him in my arms wrapped up in blankies doesn't seem warm enough, and I sometimes worry that I'll slip and fall with disastrous results. I've got to get something figured out though, because we have about 5 more months of cold mornings to look forward to here in Colorado! Right now the wind chill is a whopping 10 degrees, and tomorrow morning won't be much of an improvement from today. It has been a good day to stay inside and work on crafts and decorations--hope to have some to share tomorrow!

Vintage Christmas Monday

I'm joining Joan's Vintage Christmas Monday blog party!

All of the digging through bags of overpriced junk at the thrift is worth it when you find a bag that contains these:
Yum. Makes me want to put my shoes on and run to the thrift store again! Thrift store treasure hunting is like gambling--usually you lose but sometimes you win, and those wins make it all worth it!

This was found at an antique mall. Love the original box!And these were found at my new favorite vintage store in town, Pink Attic Cat:

More toadstool ornaments for my collection (are those Smurf houses?) and a fun little green mylar spray that wants to be a Christmas corsage.

Still haven't got the Christmas decorations out. Hoping to change that soon!

Thanksgiving leftovers

I'm getting all the Thanksgiving decor ready to put away so the Christmas decorating tornado can commence, but wanted to show you this before it disappears into a box for another year. I initially started this collage to put in my etsy shop, but 1) I took too long to make it so couldn't get it listed in time and 2) I fear I might like it too much to let it go!

I've said it before, but these bits & pieces collages are SO much fun to make. I love having a way to use up all the precious little treasures I've collected, and a 3"x3" square is a whole lot less intimidating to fill, even if there are a dozen of them to do. I think this is my 5th bits & pieces collage, and it certainly won't be my last.

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend. I'm going to try to get the house cleaned up today so I can start bringing up the Christmas boxes. I can't wait to get a look at all of my vintage Christmas pretties again!

It's Thanksgiving Time!

Thanksgiving Time
by Langston Hughes

When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down,
When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round,
When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground,
It's Thanksgiving Time!

When the pantry jars are full of mince-meat and the shelves are laden with sweet spices for a cake
When the butcher man sends up a turkey nice and fat to bake,
When the stores are crammed with everything ingenious cooks can make,
It's Thanksgiving Time!

When the gales of coming winter outside your window howl,
When the Air is sharp and cheery so it drives away your scowl,
When one's appetite craves turkey and will have no other fowl,
It's Thanksgiving Time!