Summer Decorating with Vintage

 I love to decorate around the house with vintage items. I change the decorations for each season/holiday. Here are some of my summer decorations.

I collect old planters. I put this Uncle Sam planter out for the 4th of July every year. Here it is filled with vintage flags.

Something my husband and I will always buy if affordable are vintage fans. We love them and use them throughout the house in the summer. Since we don't have air conditioning, these vintage fans really come in handy. Some of the fans are strictly for display, like this one. I recently found this small-sized fan at a garage sale. I love the name of it - Zero. I think it is cute sitting out for summer. The colors are great too.

 

This metal toy lawn mower was just purchased last Saturday at a yard sale. I have always loved vintage toys for some reason. I love to use old toys and children's furniture in my displays. The lawn mower is on my front porch.

Another thing I decorate with is vintage household items in their original packaging. You can find things like this at estate sales.  I found both the package of plastic forks and the pack of Ice Cream Sticks at estate sales. I especially like it when the packages have the original prices. It is neat to see how much stuff cost 40 or 50 years ago. I just sit things like this out on my china cupboard or in my kitchen and they add interest.

I also like to decorate with vintage linens. I found this amazing embroidered linen doily at a yard sale years ago. Since I have two daughters that are obsessed with anything mermaid, I had to have it. I always thought it would look cute made into a pillow or just sitting as a doily on the top of a little girl's dresser.

I also like keeping vintage books. This is an old book from 1960 discarded from a local elementary school.

Since my kids don't seem to know too much about American History - which I discovered when I asked them why we celebrate the 4th of July - I made Hannah sit and read some of this book.

This summer I joined a CSA in my community. CSA stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture. Here is my weekly share of eggs - sitting in Pyrex. I am always using my Pyrex bowls in the kitchen no matter what the season. I even change which bowls I use to match the colors of the particular season or holiday I am celebrating. That is how crazy I am for Pyrex.

I love the freckles on the eggs!

Here's wishing you a happy 4th of July and fun summer days ahead!
KayteeJane

Recent Finds

I have been going to my favorite thrift store every Friday night after work as a little end-of-the-week treat to myself. I haven't found much. I did luck out and get 2 Pyrex casserole dishes. I was especially pleased that one of them was Butterprint and had the lid. It is in mint condition.

The other one is "Forest Fancies". It did have the lid but there was a big chip in it so I just got rid of the lid. I have extras so it wasn't a big loss.

At an indoor flea market I bought the 401 Autumn Harvest bowl. I love the color of this one. I plan to use it in the fall. Also found a Floraline planter in matte white.

I also bought this cute apron at the flea market.

Not a huge haul but I am still pretty happy with what I did find. All very cheap also!

KayteeJane

Baby Shoe Planters

For a while now I have been in love with baby shoe planters and other vintage baby items. I have a small collection. I recently put all of my baby planters together on one shelf for display. Here it is ~

A closer look ~

Even though my babies are grown ~ i plan to keep collecting vintage baby! I love it!

KayteeJane

Valentine's Day

Here is what is on display for Valentine's Day this year ~

Remember that red tinsel tree that I bought at Target after Christmas for $4? Well here it is with Valentine's Decorations on it. The felt owls & hearts were also Christmas ornaments from Target that I found on clearance after the holiday. I thought they would work better for Valentine's. I hope to add more ornaments on the tree each year.

My Hazel Atlas Crinoline is front and center right now on top of my shabby cabinet.

This Storybook Doll was my mom's when she was a child. 

 

The corner cupboard decked out with milk glass and Valentines. 

{I put all the yellow pottery away until Spring.}

 Westmoreland Glass birds in the background.

 Aren't these two faces adorable? These were actually found in someone's garbage several years ago {along with many other fantastic treasures!}. I was thinking of selling them both but decided at the last minute not to. I think it is the boy's plaid hat that grabbed my heart.

Honey Valentine - love this one.

McCoy heart vase in a very soft pink. This was a gift from my husband last year.  

One of my favorite gifts ever!

Love birds

Pyrex on display. I decided to go with my Friendship pieces this month - and some pink.

Paper straws with hearts {Target dollar bin} in an old milk bottle.

 Some vintage linens from my collection. Red roses are so perfect for Valentine's Day.

Last but not least ~ my "Sweetheart" planters. The pink one was my first {another Valentine's Day gift from my husband a few years ago}. Since then I've found two more in white & blue.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love,

KayteeJane

Thrift Store Finds - December

I have been doing some SERIOUS thrift store shopping over the last few weeks - and I've scored some amazing things! After months of finding nothing special, my luck has changed and I've been finding some good stuff. I've always thought that December is a great month for thrift store shopping. My theory is that while most people are out shopping at the box stores buying Christmas gifts, the thrift stores aren't as busy and the good stuff is ripe for picking. Just a theory - but I'm about to prove it right.

First let me begin with these. This has to be the BEST find yet from a thrift store in my shopping experience. Not vintage - but awesome still. The only thing to top these would be the Pyrex Christmas bowl (which I'm still waiting to find).

The back story on these is that my oldest daughter has been wanting a pair of UGGs for while and asked for a pair for Christmas. Now if you are familiar with UGGs you know how expensive they are. That is why I've not bought her a pair before - too pricey. The boots at the thrift store just happened to be in her size! And - here is the amazing part - I only paid $1.49 for them!!! I am not kidding. I decided to give them to her the night that I bought them - instead of for Christmas. I cleaned them up a bit and she has been wearing them every day since.

I also found this set of Hazel Atlas Crinoline dishes in pink this past weekend at a Goodwill store. Happy Christmas to Katie!! I am tickled with them. There are 12 dishes, 8 cups & 11 saucers. Plus a sugar and creamer that matches. (not crinoline pattern but also Hazel Atlas). I can't wait to use these on Easter. They are so sweet. Baby Shower anyone??

I decided to buy these Mary planters from the thrift store this weekend also. I've never collected Mary, but being that it's Christmas I thought they would be pretty on display. They are vintage Haeger pottery.

And these came home with me too. I have a weakness for hand crafted things at the thrift store. I envision some sweet grandmother making these - only to have her family donate them to the thrift store years later - oh how mean!!! OK I know I am insane, but I can't help but feel for these sweet granny-square stockings. They are hanging in my dining room as I type this. A new home - a new life!! ha ha

I enjoy thrift store shopping more than any other kind of shopping around. I love the hunt, the thrill of finding something vintage or getting an amazing deal. When I'm Christmas shopping at the mall or box store I don't enjoy it at all. It zaps all of my Christmas spirit (and my money). I'm telling you - you can find some awesome things at the thrift stores if you take the time to visit often. I believe that you could probably buy several items on your Christmas gift list from the thrift stores - and your recipients wouldn't be the wiser.
I did just that when I bought both my daughters a pair of Christmas jammies at the thrift. I actually hunted for PJs at Target and Kmart a few weeks earlier but couldn't find anything in their size. I was lucky enough to find some at the thrift store. I didn't have to spend a lot of money on them - which in the long run is great because I doubt they will wear them more than a few times anyway. I also found some great vintage items for a few people on my list who appreciate old things. I (can't show pictures because the people I bought them for do read my blog.) Anyway, you get the point. Happy thrifting!

KayteeJane

Recent Finds

Here are some of my recent vintage finds. I thought it would be fun to make a fancy little collage to show off these scores!

Lots of milk glass! We went to an amazing estate sale recently at the home of a collector. In the basement there where lots of shelves {picture warehouse style} loaded with vintage glassware! When we arrived at 1 in the afternoon {half off time} there was a line to get in the door and cars parked as far as the eyes could see. Some of the milk glass I bought is shown above. I am in love with the "milk glass taco". Not really sure what the official name of it is. I have the same exact thing in a cake plate. I think it is pretty neat. I can see putting Cannoli's {I am Italian after all} on there. I think that would be super cute. I will find a use- I will, I will!

The amazing finds shown above were brought to you by my hubs. a.k.a. "master junker"! He went away for the labor day holiday and happened to stop at a few yard sales & thrift shops. The McCoy pot only cost 10 cents! I kid you not. I mean what can you buy these days for a dime? Apparently you can score an awesome piece of pottery actually!

The cheese dish was made by Lefton, Japan and was FREE. "Master Junker" stumbled upon a yard sale with a sign that said "FREE Market" - instead of Flea Market. Everything was free.

The Pyrex mugs came from the Sal Army store. All four for 99 cents! Gotta love these deals!

KayteeJane

Retail Therapy

I have been engaging in quite a bit of {vintage} retail therapy these days. This may or may not be a good thing, but it sure does feel good when it is happening. The up side is that most of this stuff was purchased for far less than new retail - so of course I can justify buying it in that case right?

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment which just happened to be located right next to a St. Vincent de Paul store {oh how convenient!}. So after my appointment I decided to reward myself with a stop there - just in case there was any Pyrex to be found. I lucked out! I walked out with 6 pieces of Pyrex plus some other stuff.
Here is my cart while wheeling through the store looking for treasures:

 Once home and washed up:

I can't believe my fortune at finding an almost complete Butterprint "fridgie" set. I have all of the pieces now except for the lid to the loaf-shaped one. I also bought some Butterfly Gold fridgies. This isn't one of my favorite patterns but I really like the small ones. I was able to find 2. Because I bought those I didn't want to leave the loaf-shaped piece behind. I don't know why I do this - as if the item has feelings or something - but at $1.99 I figured I would buy it and either gift it to someone or use it in some way.

Speaking of "fridgies" I have been using the small ones as bowls. I have a lot of them without lids. I do use these with lids to store leftovers, but I find that they make such a nice sized bowl and so cute too!

I also found some more milk glass. I think I have a problem when it comes to this stuff. I already had the bowl shown to the right. I use it to hold fruit. When I saw the mate I decided I just had to get it. The metal tray in the background was also found at this same trip. It was 59 cents.

Here is a picture showing a corner of my kitchen where most of this stuff sits ready to be used. I do use everything that I find. If I don't it goes. Period.

I also found this. If you have followed my blog for awhile you may have seen my pictures of another of these vases in pink that I received for Valentine's one year. There were two of these in white on the shelf. I bought them both! One is to keep and one to sell on etsy.

To top this day off Hubby found these two bowls at a church sale that he stopped at on his way home from work. What a coincidence! I didn't already have these two. I prefer this style of bowl to the princess style. I already used these for serving last night's dinner.

More finds from the same church purchased earlier:

Lastly I found this "fairy light" a few weeks back at a Salvation Army store. I have been casually looking for one for a short time. My mom had some of these when I was growing up with an owl face. Not sure what happened to them. Recently I saw people on Instagram post pictures of their fairy lights. I was inspired to try and find one for myself. I was super excited when I found this one.

 It looks so nice when lit. 

I hope you don't think of me as a hoarder! I promise you that I am keeping things in control!

Thanks for stopping today! I appreciate all of you for visiting!

KayteeJane