Scotty Dog Pitcher and Pulled Thread Table Cloth

In September, darling daughter and I visited the folks out "west".  We stopped at a farmer's market, popped into one of our favorite independent book store/coffee shops, Books On Broadway,  and then walked down the block to a fun little antique store.

At the antique store I came across this scotty dog pitcher.

 

 

And even though it doesn't perfectly match my scotty dog glasses, I still love it.

 

The backdrop for these photos (that is in desperate need of ironing) is a small table cloth.

 

 

It would look real cute on an antique card table. 

 

 

The threads used for sewing are light blue, which I think makes it very pretty.  It would be a nice tablecloth to use in winter with blue and white china.  

 

 

 Yup, I'd say they look pretty nifty together.

 

Well, that's all I have to share for today.  Until another time have a happy vintage day!

 

 

Home Arts Magazines

This past weekend's flea turned out to be a fun one!  This is one of my finds, a stack of Home Arts Magazines (Needle Arts).

I apologize for the photo quality.  My scanner is on the frizz again!  This is the second printer-scanner-copier I've owned that goes bonkers when I try to scan!  I'm ready to buy a plain old scanner.

This is probably my favorite one of the three I bought over the weekend. It's from January of 1940!

 

These magazines are full of beautiful embroidered tablecloths, pillow cases, and crochet patterns.  One thing that surprised me about these Home Arts magazines is that they are not JUST about needlepoint, crocheting and other needle arts.  There are small tid-bits about beauty and full articles on making ones home a cheerful place to be.  Especially the kitchen.  Putting three meals on the table everyday could be hard, busy work, why not have a cheerful kitchen in which to work?  

The article below is titled, "Your Kitchen...Make it Compact, Convenient, Colorful"

 

 

And what a cute little kitchen this one is!

 

 

The article goes on to say...

"Even if you can't start from scratch and install that perfect kitchen you want, do something now about the one you have."

"You may assemble canister sets, coffee-makers, cutlery, mixing bowls, and dish towels in fun colors, or black and white, to give zest to your color scheme."

 

Ummm, was this article written for me?  This is exactly what I did three summers ago.  I hated the "vineyard" look of our kitchen decor, we had had for ages.  So I took it all down and replaced it the dusty olive oil bottles and fake grapes with wonderful vintage bowls, tins and goodies I'd collected through the years, including vintage linens.  I love my cozy "vintage" kitchen now!  It's my favorite part of the house!

 

And then there is this fun page...

 

 

"Hello, and Happy New Year again!  Do take down your receivers, everybody, and let's chat, for there are parties afoot, and plans to be making;  and I wonder if you wouldn't like, this year, to help me solve some special party problems."

 

Apparently January and February were the "party" months of the year.  I suppose it makes sense with the cold weather keeping everyone from enjoying the outdoors.

 

 

Finally, the back inside cover is illustrated with 7 or 8 dress patterns.  A gal could choose a pattern, write to the Home Arts Company and buy the patterns.  The patterns were 15 cents back in 1940.  I found this one to be my favorite. 

 

 

What a fun little glance back into time this was for me.  I imagine the woman who received this magazine (she lived on a farm) studied it and read it cover to cover...there are so many interesting articles! 

 

That's all for tonight!  Until another time, have a happy vintage day!

 

 

 

 





New Vintage Linens

One of my favorite things to collect are vintage linens and tea towels.  If it is a kitchen towel, I try to imagine the kitchen that it came from and the people who used it.  If it is a fancy towel adorned with needlework, I think of the time someone spent working on it.  Did she find the time after all of the supper dishes were washed and put away.  Were the stitches stitched by the light of a kerosene lamp or electric?  Was she able to sit and stitch for a spell in the afternoons, while sitting on her front porch swing?  Maybe watching her children playing nearby. 
I love kitchen linens but most of all I love their untold stories.
Here are a few items I've been able to pick up recently.

These cuties are bright and colorful, but they aren't in the best of shape.  I am hoping to be able to save them....somehow.

This beauty above is so precious.  I'm not sure what it was used for, maybe a decorative bathroom towel...maybe a wedding gift from an Aunt who lives in Iowa.  We'll never know.  Below, is the flower detail.

My mom bought me the cheerful little blue and yellow serviettes below, and I think they go quite nicely with the my yellow tablecloth!  These make me long for an old farmhouse type of kitchen table, white with two folding leaves that can pop up or down.  I'd decorate the table with these bright linens, and set a bouquet of daisies in an old fashioned milk bottle right in the center.  Instead of wishing for something that I don't have...maybe I'll try it with my little card table someday!

And finally, my mom and I spotted these at our favorite little vintage shop, Vintage City, and I just love them.  Merry Christmas to me!  Again, they are hand stitched and I wonder, "By whom?"  And I didn't even ask if the seller knew their story!  Shame on me!

Well, that's all for today.  Daycare projects have been taking up a good majority of my time lately, and I'll try to share some of those ideas with you all soon.  It's just so hard to find an hour or two here and there to do some blogging!  So, until another time, have a happy vintage day, everyone!

Some Recent Finds and Goodies

The Flea market was back in town in mid-February.  I walked away with a couple of goodies including this sample size of Sal-Soda.  It has a tiny hole in the front of it, but is unopened!  Here, it is pictured with the regular sized box my Uncle Stan gave me for Christmas a couple years back.

And this past weekend I found (actually my daughter saw it first) this neat old iron from (I'm guessing) the early 1960's.  It will be a back up to the other beauty I have from the 1960's.  They are the BEST irons!  Nice and heavy-duty!

 

Soon I'll show you some linen finds from January and February!  I just love vintage linens and hope you do too!  Until then, have a happy vintage day!

Family Vacation

We went to Minneapolis for a family vacation this year.  And because my husband is such a huge movie fan, we kept humming "Holiday Road" from National Lampoon's Vacation and making comments like, "Sorry folks, park's closed.  Moose out front should've told you." the whole way there.
It was a fun trip. 
Here are the goodies I picked up on our adventure....which included visits to the Mall of America, Stitchville USA, Como Zoo and Conservatory, and a flea market in Medina MN.

Picking a favorite item is difficult.  I love the little Whitman books and paint box I found at the flea market and the Apple/pear pie server that matches my little casserole dish that I found at an antique store.  Finding a book all about vintage gas stations filled with neat-o photos and advertisements of gas and oil companies was a bonus...at Barnes and Noble!  And yup, that's Black Jack and Beeman's chewing gum.  Found that at a candy store.

I found this at the flea market for about the price of a soda pop.  This kind of needlework is so interesting to me.  Tiny little cross stitches in bright and beautiful colors.  I was so happy to find this one and give it a good home!

Items found at the Antique Mall in Moorhead MN...a stop we make every time we are in the Fargo/Moorhead area.  The folks who own/run the place are always so friendly!  But I do wonder if I maybe got two peppers in the pears or two salts. 



Happy 4th Red White and Blue Vintage Goodies

Just want to wish everyone a Happy 4th!!  Here are some Red, White and Blue goodies to celebrate the holiday!

It has been another crazy month!  We were finally able to get a bobcat in to rip up our old sidewalk and put in a new one.

While all of that was going on, we decided to do a little house hunting.  But after two weeks of that "roller coaster" we've decided to stay where we are at for awhile.  The housing market where we live is VERY high.

The good news is I have been able to visit a few garage sales!

I picked up this Shawnee USA '70 corn creamer and the corn potholder in the same day...each from a different sale.
The other little treasures have yet to be photographed!  I know, I'm so far behind!

Stitching time has been rare, but I will do an embroidery post soon.  I have been working on a couple of little projects AND I bought a magnifier which really helps when doing long and short stitching!
Until another day, have a great holiday!

Garage Sale Finds

Here are some lovely weekend finds from the past weekend's sales.

A yellow handled vintage ice cream scooper.  It need a little TLC but the price was right.

 

As a lover of Old Time Radio, this was my FAVORITE find.   The dog's name is Nipper and he was an advertising icon for the RCA company.  He's listening to his master's voice being played on the Victrola.

The yellow handled scooper inspired me to fine some yellow items to photograph.  After I had taken the picture I realized I'd forgotten my yellow lemon sugar bowl.  Oh well, I'll remember next time.

Until another day,
Have a happy, vintage day!

The Last Flea of the Season

A few weekends ago Autumn and I attended the last Magic City Flea of the season.  Because it was the last of the season, there were vendors galore, the most I've ever seen.  And we managed to get our butts out of bed in order to get there at opening time.  I did my best "Kevin Bruno move" and scanned the first few rows to see who was new, who had the "same old, same old" and to separate the vintage booths from the booths selling Avon and Scentsy  (No hate towards the Avon or Scentsy dealers...I love their products, it's just not what I'm looking for straight out of the gates at the Flea).  Walk and scan....walk and scan.

We came out of there with some pretty good finds.

The first item I bought was from a booth and dealer I had never seen before.  It's an Anchor Hocking Ivy bowl, and I call it #3 because it is the 3rd largest in my set.

Now I have a set of three!  And to think they all came together from different sales and antique stores.  And if you really want to make your brain think...each most likely came from a different kitchen.  Who knows where these babies spent their formative years.  One was maybe used in a farmhouse kitchen, maybe one in a parsonage long ago, and one in an apartment.  Maybe one was part of a set that was given as a wedding gift or a Christmas gift.  Now, these little orphans are in my kitchen cupboard waiting to help me serve up some peas or corn (they make perfect little serving bowls).

Found this very LONG Christmas themed table runner at the same booth.  For about the same price as a Whopper Jr. I just couldn't pass it up, even though I have NO IDEA what I will use it for.  It's one of those, "well maybe someday I'll have a real, vintage table" kind of purchases.  I do that a lot with vintage linens. 
I have yet to find a vintage table cloth that REALLY speaks to me, but when I do I think the conversation with myself will go something like this...
"But you don't have a vintage table."
"Well, I don't have a vintage table right now...but someday I might so I'd better be prepared and buy this precious fruit motif table cloth AND the matching napkins before someone else snatches them up."
"Where will you store them?"
"Oh, I'll take another dresser drawer full of clothes to Goodwill and they can live in there.  You only wear 10% of what you own anyways...right?"
"If that were true I'd be wearing the same shirt every 3 days".
But it's true, almost half of my dresser is filled with vintage linens and other items...I wonder if it is weird that I'd rather store vintage treasures than clothes.
So, of course I bought the table runner.

Walk and scan...walk and scan.

These little chalk ware fruits were practically jumping up and down screaming my name as I came around the corner, towards them.  They were a little grungy from being on someone's kitchen wall the past 4 decades, but for less than a dollar a piece I figured they'd be worth the work (nothing a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser couldn't tackle).  They now live happily, one on each side of my apple pear bowl.  (I photographed them in the front for easier viewing).  They came with a grape friend, but he still needs a bit of cleaning and a home....maybe a dresser drawer for now.

This beautiful hanky (bluebird charm bracelet not included) came from one of my favorite booths.  There is another in our collection quite similar, so now Autumn and I have two.  I looked them up on the computer when I got home and found they are most commonly known as "wedding hankies".  They are much fancier than regular hankies and usually have a "lacy" look to them with very fancy embroidery or pulled thread work.

The bluebird charm bracelet in the center was actually a purchase I made at the Chelsea Flea Market Garage in NYC.  But I'll talk about that another day.

Other items purchased were a Farmers Union Creamery Minot ND milk carton featuring "Betsy" the cow, and a Louis L'Amour book, Where the Long Grass Blows. 

How badly do I want to fold this puppy into true milk carton form?  Pretty bad!!  But I won't.  I will take good care of it and leave it flattened.  I'm really getting into learning about Dairies and Creameries that existed back in the day.  I hope to stumble upon more great creamery finds such as ice cream and milk containers.

That was quite a day for us and we were happy with our finds.  Now, it's garage sale season and we are hoping to hit a few of those this summer if time allows.
Until another day.
Have a Happy Vintage Day!