Vintage Christmas Monday: Upcycled Sweater Stockings

a few years ago, my sister and i made these stockings out of old sweaters that we thrifted, felted, cut out, and then stitched up by hand with some chunky yarn. i love how rustic and homey they look. every year that i pull them out of the storage box, i think of the day we made them. they are so very special to me!

(i should also mention that my sister is an amazing seamstress and should start her own Etsy shop...once her little ones get a bit older, for her sake!)

thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit Joan at Anything Goes Here for more Vintage Christmas Monday fun!

glowing

a tree transplant

in this post, i showed a photo of my branch tree sitting on the little table below. unfortunately, it had to be moved due Vintage Modern Boy running into it quite frequently...don't ask me how, though by the fifth time i started to get a little suspicious. so to avoid a potential tragedy (i.e. broken ornaments or VMB losing an eye), i moved it to a safer location. which meant a new arrangement for the little table.

i wanted to keep the same feel...a bit of nature and a bit of sparkle. i'm very happy with how it turned out. i think this smaller stick, in a very, very old liquor bottle, is much more appropriate for the space. the mercury glass and that oh so sweet little bottle brush tree give it sparkle and warmth.

as for the big branch, it now happily (and safely) resides on my bedroom dresser. i think it is a much better spot for it as well. and it has been reunited with my "jewelry branch" that came from the same tree.

a happy ending for all!

Vintage Christmas Monday: Mercury Glass Ornaments!

hello! today i'm joining in on Vintage Christmas Monday hosted by Joan of Anything Goes Here.

i thought i would share some of my favorite vintage mercury glass ornaments...

i began collecting them a few years ago after i found some boxes of old Shiny Brite ornaments at a garage sale (for 50 cents a box!).

in an effort to display them and keep them safe from our Christmas tree climbing cat, i put them in this bowl that i got on clearance at Target a few years ago. (ironically this bowl was adopted by aforementioned cat as his preferred napping bed when it was empty...though not anymore!)

i like the bright funky retro-ness of them...they remind me of the decorations in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"! (the colors are really quite wonderful in person, but i just can't seem to get a good photo of them)

thanks for stopping by! now go check out all of the other Vintage Christmas Monday goodness at Anything Goes Here!

sparkling

this morning i woke up to sparkling mercury glass (and a snoring Vintage Modern Boy). i jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera, and snapped away. i realize the black tapers are a bit non-traditional...especially for the Christmas season. but i really love them!

and yes, that poor pink tree has been moved...again. (things rarely stay in one place around here!)

i hope you all had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving! i sure did! i had plans to share a pre-Thanksgiving post, but it never happened. but i want you to know how thankful i am for all of your encouragement and inspiration!

the Christmas decorating is mostly finished...photos coming soon! but for now, it's hot tea and Meet Me in St. Louis in the glow of the Christmas tree. and maybe some Candy Cane Joe Joe's (Trader Joe's!).

a good night, indeed.

trimming...

while i try to wait until the day after Thanksgiving, it's inevitable that some Christmas decorations will manage to find their way out of storage in the days..er...weeks before. such as what happened last night, shown in the photo above.

i started looking for vintage mirrors after falling in love with the awesome arrangements in Found Style and Flea Market Style. i've had the little silver hand mirror for a long time...it came from the estate of my great great aunt. the oval mirror at the bottom is from my local flea market and i got the bigger mirror on Etsy. i think they look just fabulous with those 1930's vintage ornaments and the mercury glass trees.

this cute little bottlebrush tree was a compromise between Vintage Modern Boy and i. you see, i really wanted a bigger pink table top tree. unfortunately, that idea didn't go over so well. i think the actual words were pepto bismol, barf, and hideous. so i settled for this teeny tiny pink tree, found on Etsy. (and it came with a little baby pink tree, too!)

so that's it for today. i'm trying to keep my mind occupied so that i don't end up getting the rest of the decorations out today, so i think some thrifting and a little Christmas shopping is in order!

have you started your Christmas decorating yet?

rearranging

hello everyone! thank you all so much for your well wishes! i am feeling much better today...though i was home sick from work the past two days! yikes! lots to catch up on. ugh.

so this weekend, while i was still feeling okay, i decided to do a little rearranging...


i mentioned this painting before in this post, but i decided to move it to this wall where it would be more visible. my great great Aunt Leaflet painted this canvas in 1911, and there are so many things i love about it...the horse, the grey hues, the wintry landscape, perhaps most of all, because it was painted by a beloved relative...who happened to share my love for painting. i really like how it looks with the velvet pumpkins, tarnished silver pitcher, and the "hydrangeas" (yep, their fakeness warrants quotation marks).


and the silhouettes were where the painting now hangs, but they too are in a better place. they are still just as visible...maybe a bit more so. and they look less cluttered than when they were above the DVD stand. (sorry...i don't have a before photo...and sorry this one is so dark!) unfortunately, none of these are my actual relatives...but i've adopted them in to my family! i've even named them...is that weird? of course, you may remember Hazel in the center from this Vintage Black Friday post...i believe that is her actual name since it is written just below her silhouette. and then starting at the top, going clockwise, we have: Harold, Ethel, Frances, Mary, Edith, and Susan.

what about you? have any of you named your inaminate "friends" (or "relatives"), or am i the only one?? actually, i know some of you have, so you better be speaking up!

still

this weekend has been an unusually calm one for me. unexpectedly, i got the entire weekend off, which is a good thing because i think i may be coming down with one of the many viruses being passed around as of late. apart from some much needed errands and cleaning, i have spent my weekend thus far trying to stay still. not necessarily not moving physically, but more staying still mentally. does that sound odd? i have been downing cups of hot green tea, reading some of my favorite home style books, taking a few photos around the home, lighting candles, and listening to classical music. it has been really nice!

how are you spending your weekend?

a hat!

i've been meaning to show off the hat that i got from Littlebyrdvintage awhile ago, but since it hasn't been too cold yet, i kept forgetting.

however, the weather here turned sharply colder overnight and the trees are becoming more and more bare, and before we know it, it will be snowing! and while i'll still hold on to Fall for a little while longer, i believe i will be wearing my new hat in the coming week...winter or not!

i love this hat! (you can click on the photo for a better view) Rebekah of Littlebyrdvintage is so talented! she upcycles old sweaters into these wonderful flapper style hats. (she also make some amazing fingerless mittens, but i'll save that for another post!)

mine is made from a grey cashmere sweater and it is so very soft!

and i love the way it looks with my newly thrifted sweater that i found at Plato's Closet...one of the few non overly teenagey things i've found there.

sorry for the grainy picture quality here. chalk it up to the aged mirror, poor lighting, and my limited photography skills. let's just pretend i antiqued it, okay?

p.s. the clump of black fur to the left behind me would be Gimli. he hangs out on those suitcases whenever i'm in the bedroom. the funny thing is, the green one that he lays on is tapered, but he seems unaffected by it. weird cat.

Vintage Black Friday No. 2

welcome back, Vintage Black Friday junkies! thank you again to Jill at Gypsy Brocante for hosting this fabulous party!

so i took these photos with the ones i took for last Friday's party, but i decided to save them for this week, rather than overwhelm you all!

i acquired this lovely old compact from my great great aunt many years ago. i actually carry it in my purse...why keep it shut up in a storage box? i took the original rouge tray out of it when i first got it, and it actually has enough room to store a few of my favorite jewelry pieces when i travel.

i love this old camera! i originally got it to use as a display piece, but when i discovered that it was still in working order (minus the flash), i got a whim to actually try to take photos with it! i found some old unopened film spools on ebay, and used them all. unfortunately i can't find any places that i trust to develop it...but the dream of having some neat "old" photos waiting for me is just wonderful!

vintage embroidery thread spool labels...aren't they lovely?

so this one might be a bit of a stretch since there's only a little bit of black...but i love it nonetheless! i found this old chipped black frame with the bird print already in it at the thrift store for 70 cents! old black frame + birds + 70 cents equals...well, wouldn't you have gotten it, too??

so that's it from me for this week, but be sure to check out the other AWESOME Vintage Black Friday party-ers at Gypsy Brocante!

thanks for stopping by!

P.S. several of you wondered about the new boots i mentioned on my Pretty Things post from earlier today. well, i posted a comment on that post and spilled my secret!

pretty things

remember the silver pitcher i found at the thrift store for $3? i wanted some dried real hydrangeas for it, but i found these fake (gulp) ones at Michael's and thought they would do. plus it helped to have a nice little 40% coupon. i love, love, love that B monogram and the tarnished patina!


my lovely new old glass locket from BrianneLee (AWESOME shop!) i think this may actually be a piece of Victorian mourning jewelry. the side you see here has the original photo of a dapper looking gent, and the talented Brianne added a snippet of a Robert Browning poem to the other side. oh i love it so!


my FABULOUS clutch from Littlebyrdvintage. i carry it everywhere and always get tons and tons of compliments from strangers. it is very well made and i love that it is made from vintage materials, so it's environmentally friendly!


new boots! i don't need the jaws of life to zip these boots up (which is usually necessary for my "man-tastic" calves), so naturally i love them!

my little velvet pumpkins. they are handmade and have real pumpkin stems! sorry this picture is a bit dark, the color of the bigger pumpkin is a rich brown and the little one is a lovely grey/slate blue. they are so pretty together! a very dear friend graciously picked them out for me and sent them all the way from Portland, Oregon!

since the days are getting shorter and shorter, i decided our home needed some more warmth and sparkle. Edna graciously obliged.

and finally, my latest thrift store find: a wonder ball! i was so excited to find one that has the rubber stopper base. i think i'm going to fill it with leaves for the rest of Fall, and maybe put some pretty vintage mercury glass ornaments in it for Christmas.

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what pretty things are inspiring you today?

an award and some things about me

so, Rachel of A Little Bit Vintage gave me an award! i am thrilled and honored!

thank you, Rachel!

one of the rules of this award is to share 7 things about me that you may not know. and because it is a rainy Fall day and the week of Halloween, i'm going to go for a bit of a theme here...

1. when I was in kindergarten, my mom made me a "sack of potatoes" costume for my class Halloween party...no joke. the costume featured an actual burlap potato sack, that i wore like a dress, and had "potatoes" (made of brown panty hose and cotton stuffing) sewn at the top around my neck. i even wore a piece of panty hose over my face so that my head was the biggest potato in the sack! i definitely stood out amongst the witches and vampires of my class!!

2. in seventh grade I memorized "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe in its entirety and recited it in front of my class. it was not a requirement and i was the only one in my class to do so, though i did get a trophy for it. i guess i have just always had a thing for Edgar (yes, we're on a first name basis). he had such a sad life, but what an artist!

3. a couple of years ago in October, our tv started randomly changing channels. it did it at least once a day for a couple of weeks, and then stopped on November 1st. at first i thought my husband was playing tricks on me from another room, but then it happened when he wasn't home. it was the freakiest thing i've ever experienced. we never did figure out what caused it and it hasn't happened since.

4. "The Village" is one of my very favorite movies. i love the autumnal setting and the creepiness ot it!!

5. i have never gone trick-or-treating. it's true! my family has never celebrated Halloween (beyond school parties and such), but don't worry, i got PLENTY of candy anyway!!

6. it was not an unusual thing to have bats get in the house while i was growing up...old house, old windows. it was always such a family ordeal when it happened that the memories i have are quite fond. and it probably helps that i like bats. the rest of my family is pretty much terrified of them.

7. i listen to George Winston's album "Autumn" every Fall (makes sense, right?). whenever i happen to hear a song from it, even if it is Spring, Summer, or Winter, i think of rainy nights and pumpkin candles. in fact, i'm listening to it right now.

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and now i am supposed to pass this award on to 7 blogs, but i always have a hard time choosing. there are so many amazing blogs out there, and i'm so afraid to leave anyone out! i guess i'm just reliving the nightmare of always being picked last in gym class, and i don't want to do the blogging equivalent to someone else! i think all blogs are deserving because of the time and creativity put into each one, whether large or small, so please forgive me for skipping this part!

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but i am going to ask that you DO leave a comment and share your favorite spooky, Halloween, or Fall memory!

Vintage Black Friday

i'm finally joining in on a Vintage Black Friday party, hosted by Gypsy Brocante!

i certainly do love me some vintage, but i didn't realize how much of it happened to be black!

my beloved Royal typewriter...someday i'll have the drawband repaired so i can write novels with it...ha! a girl can dream...

the latest member in my collection of old silhouettes...her name is Hazel and she is from 1929!

this "Big Ben" still ticks away...quite loudly, too

an American lit book from the 1920's that belonged to the sweetest little old lady who lived across the street from my family while i was growing up. her name is even written on the inside cover which is so dear to me.

and finally, a vintage playing card that my sweet friend gave me.

thanks for stopping by! now head over to Gypsy Brocante to see some more vintage black goods!

gotta hand it to me...

i just wanted to show off the latest addition to my spooky Fall good-ness...

a vintage porcelain glove mold!

you wouldn't guess it from the photo, but it is HUGE! over 14 inches tall! i love it! it is so creepy, and yet friendly...like it's permanently waving, "Hi!" (at least that's what i tell myself so it doesn't freak me out!)

ok, off to have a cup of hot cider and find a good movie to watch!

how are you spending your Friday night?

gypsy blood

i'm watching the leaves fall today, like gold glitter in a water globe. most swirl downward, but i saw one that was caught by the wind and i swear it was pulled higher than the tree that it came from. have i mentioned before that this is my very, very favorite time of year??? alas, no camera with me today, but i wouldn't be able to do those leaves justice anyway.

speaking of fall, i have an old, old copy of Bartlett's Quotations that belonged to my great great Aunt Leaflet. a couple of years ago, in October no less, i happened upon that book on my bookshelf and i pulled it down to look through it. an old envelope fell out the instant i opened the book, and on it was scrawled this stanza from "Vagabond" by Bliss Carman:


"There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;

We must rise and follow her,

When from every hill of flame

She calls and calls each vagabond by name."



amazing, isn't it? and exactly how i feel. every October. (google it, the whole poem is quite awesome!)

also loving right now:

vintage cologne bottles, those metal labels for old liquor decanters, oxidized silver chains, rhinestone costume jewelry, earthy linen, jadite, buttons, organic potatoes, and hot cider with cinnamon sticks.


what about you? what stirs your gypsy blood on this lovely October day?

disfruta

i really love this fabulous piece that Michelle of StoryBookCharm put together. since i already have a glass display globe and silver pedestal dish, i decided to shamelessly copy her and create my own (shown below). good thing, too, or that one would be long gone from her shop! (P.S. just checked, and it's still available!)

i went a little crazy...oak leaf, old ribbon, vintage rhinestone hair ornament, floral frog, silver fork, and that fabulous photo of a pipe smoking sailor with his girl.

and as promised, a few photos of the vintage goodness my mama gave me:

spooky little bottles: these seem to be all the rage on Etsy right now for Halloween. i have some neat old label-less bottles that i will be listing in the shop soon...

milk bottle, clock, and my great grandmother's tarnished silverware.

the milk bottle in its new home, next to my new old scale! i was supposed to sell the scale for my mama...until i got it home and realized it was, in fact, the perfect place for my thrifted china bowl. i'm sorry, mom! i am so very, very weak! (don't judge until you are faced before an old chippy scale yourself)

this is a random photo i took while visiting an old church this past weekend. this particular room happens to be in the upstairs of the former manse (parsonage) that is now connected to the church. i love that cracked pink wall and old white door!

and finally, the biggest reason for my title: my beloved Mexican Coke. glass bottle, real bottle cap (one that requires an opener!), and no high fructose corn syrup!

disfruta, indeed!

fresh in the shop

i am feeling so very inspired by this rainy October night! i've spent much of the evening photographing and listing some new vintage goodness in the shop. i am so thrilled with my new shoe crate for photographing! Of course, it's a bit of a pain to lug over to my good lighting spot (which is unfortunately right in front of the door). but it's totally worth it!

i forgot to mention some of the other vintage lovelies that came home from my parents' house with me (and are staying!): an old chipped-paint Hanson scale, a glass milk bottle from a local dairy, a green Waralarm alarm clock, some old tarnished silverware, and three spooky little glass bottles with labels intact. hopefully i'll have some time later this week for some leisure photography!

but for now, here are some photos of my favorite new things in the shop:



E. Ingraham "Harmony House 8 Day" alarm clock: still works!


little silverplate bowl, lovely and sweet


four melmac cups in a pretty soft blue color


a working Westinghouse fan, in fabulous condition

there is more good stuff that i listed with these, but i'll let you check them out for yourself!

and now, i think this rainy evening requires a candle and a cup of hot tea. and some of my favorite big band songs, including "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", both of which my Grammy used to sing to me when i was a little girl!

how do you enjoy your rainy nights?

from the weekend...

i had a super nice time visiting with my parents this weekend. unfortunately my poor mama has had bronchitis so she was a bit worse for the wear. but i think we had fun nonetheless...at least i did. it was good and rainy for much of the weekend, perfect for relaxing and thrifting...and ice cream: the good old 'rents were kind enough to surprise me with a trip to one of my favorite childhood ice cream haunts! thanks, mom and dad!

i was also able to get outside between drizzle spells to get some photos of the vivid colors that the rain brought out. i am so thankful that it is finally really Fall. welcome, October!

how was your first weekend of October?