Owl Planter

James surprised me with this awesome vintage owl planter (which I picked out on eBay) to put a smile on my face last week. Whoo, whoo!

There are no markings on the bottom, but I love them just the same!

Crochet Butterfly Necklace

I made this seaside butterfly necklace for my friend's birthday from this pattern. I made the butterfly a while ago and hid it so she wouldn't find it when she came over to crochet. Of course, I left it unfinished and had to scramble to find it to finish it for her party tonight because I hid it so well and it took me forever to find! I sewed on some vintage pearls and attached a chain from the craft store.

Weekend Tag Sale Finds

No flea markets this weekend, but we did stop at a tag sale on our way to the apple orchard. I found these cool vintage goodies to use for scrapbooking:

Never A Dull Moment - party games for every occasion. The box is full of printables to use for party games, recipes, mysteries to solve, and fun pictures. I also picked up a pile of vintage valentine's for $1.50. And a book with tips on taking pictures. Because I think I need it!

I also found this fun box of disposable coasters. I love the saying on the box!

Stormville Flea Market Treasure Hunt!

In the words of Bill (words I never thought would come out of his mouth, although I detected a hint of sarcasm), "Let the treasure hunting begin!"

To celebrate Labor Day weekend, the family headed to Stormville, New York for some bargain hunting galore! Lauren only looks crabby in this picture because Bill was living up to the picture on his shirt. But I know she was secretly excited inside...

Especially about these $35 EACH seltzer bottles. We would have loved them to adorn our kitchen counter tops but they were way out of our price range!

I loved the McCoy pottery. I tried to convince James and Bill that I could use the Shawnee globe as a candy dish but they just said it looked broken. Men!


Of course there were plenty of salt and pepper shakers for me to dream about adding to my kitchen and dining room shelves. I think that the key is for me to just take pictures of all of them from now on since I have absolutely no space to put them!

Bill is not smiling on the inside. James was being a good sport though!


Maybe because he was excited about the $10 Otis Anderson (does the name ring a bell Dad?) signed Sports Illustrated that he bought within the first 5 minutes of the morning.

Daddy and I liked the HO scale Monopoly trains. How cool!?! But again, we weren't big fans of the price!

While my family finished shopping, we stopped to rest so I could take a picture of our purchases:

Vintage postcards to use for scrapbooking $2
Winnie the Pooh salt and pepper shakers $5
White Owl cigar box to go with our snowy owl collection $4
Morton pink peacock wall pocket $15 - now I have a girl peacock and a boy since I already have the green one at home!

We ended our family day with a trip to Stew Leonard's for lunch and a trip to the petting zoo. Lauren is happier here because Bill isn't nagging her about spending money at the flea market anymore. Despite some newlywed turmoil (okay I'm exaggerating a little), it was definitely a successful trip!

Crochet Bougainvillea

I finally finished my Bougainvillea hairpiece to wear to the next 3 weddings. We're halfway done for the year, woohoo! I found the pattern through Ravelry on Crochetology.net.

Antiques Capital of the U.S.A.

Also known as Adamstown, Pennsylvania. We went to a wedding for one of James' college friends this weekend. The four hour drive wasn't so bad, considering that it gave me time to crochet 8 baby hats, and I had something to look forward to...antiques! We started our journey in a magical carriage...















Not really, but I thought it was really cool so I took a picture. It was a little out of my price range. Going to Adamstown is sort of like going to wine country with sprawling vineyards as far as the eye can see. There is a street full of miles and miles of antique shops and flea markets everywhere you look. Lot of fun kitchen collectibles...















And, of course, salt and pepper shakers. I took home the cute little mouse sitting on the clock in the top center of the picture. Hickory, dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. Cute, right?






























Here is a hot picture of our legs in the mirror of a fishy display. What you can't see is the scowl on James' face. Which is not fair because he spent more money than I did! He found a Star Wars Jeff Gordon car - now what are the chances of that?

Putnam Antiques Road Trip

My mom and I decided to do some exploring last week and what better way than to drive two hours (ugh) to Putnam, CT for some antiquing. Although it wasn't as exciting as the first time we came across the town last year, we definitely found some treasures!















First, we stopped at the Boxcar Children Museum. Putnam is the birthplace of Gertrude Chandler Warner, one of my favorite childhood authors. Of course it was closed, but we still got to see the boxcar that started it all.















Then we headed to the antique shops. Here are some cool vintage packages. I think that I'm going to start saving empty Goldfish boxes so that after I die, my grandchildren can sell them for a fortune. I mean, really!















And of course, salt and pepper shakers were in abundance. I stayed strong and didn't add any to my collection on this trip though.















I did, however, become weak in the knees when I spotted these buttons. They were only $6 and I know they will look amazing on my crocheted flower hair clips.















And I also got this cute Lefton girl with apples. She is sitting on my shelf at home reminding me of fall - I can't wait! Although I can wait for school to start back up again signaling the end of my summer exploring days...so sad!

Mystery Tin

I think that maybe I should make this a recurring post theme. Like a "Guess What's in the Mystery Tin Day"?















Yup. I bought a $4 tin of 228 matchbooks from the 1960's and 1970's. They were so fun and colorful that I just couldn't resist. What am I going to do with them you ask? Maybe I'll be a millionaire one day for having some really rare matchbook that every single collector wants. Unlikely, especially since most of them have the year inscribed in ink. But a girl can dream!















Here are some with great illustrations and captions.















Gotta love Smokey the Bear from 1965! Just imagine all the adventures
the original collector experienced along the way.















And my personal favorite...it's a good thing I can cook!

Winter Scrapbooking

In an attempt to stay cool in the 100 degree weather, I decided to break out some winter pictures to scrapbook inside. Unfortunately, the craft room has the worst temperature control in the house. And our air conditioner won't go lower than 81 degrees due to the beaming afternoon sun. So I only got two pages done. But that's definitely more scrapbooking than I've done in months, so I'll take it!






























I'm so lame that I even scrapbooked a page with my Christmas salt and pepper shakers! Ohhhh man...

Buttons!

I've been organizing my craft room lately. I had this vintage typeset tray sitting in my closet for a year now and I finally decided to paint it - hot pink of course - and use it as storage for buttons. It was fun to look through the piles of buttons I found at tag sales and flea markets through the years.















Which brings me back to that vintage tin from my last post. Of course it had buttons in it. Because I really need more buttons.















I didn't get a chance to look through them all at the estate sale because, if you remember, I was in quite a hurry. But I would say that I definitely got my $2 worth. So many beautiful colors and designs. There were even - wait for it - OWL buttons.















And at least I have a use for all of them now!

The Epic Estate Sale

Also known as the estate sale of the century.

Or the reason I feared for my marriage today.

It was difficult enough convincing James to go to the beach today. But when I saw the estate sale sign I knew I had to go. I asked him to turn around at least 20 times in 30 seconds before he finally turned onto a side street and decided to submit to my pleading. I knew that I hit the jackpot when we walked in the house and found a shelf with salt and pepper shakers. "There are more in the dining room," said the estate sale lady. James just rolled his eyes and complained about how he was suffocating from the old person smell and went to go wait in the car. He seriously left me alone in 93 year old woman's house full of salt and pepper shakers. And to make matters worse (or better for me!), they were only $1 per pair. I picked out a few and started a pile. Then I toured through the house as quickly as possible so that James wouldn't have enough time to file for divorce while I was shopping. There were beautiful crocheted doilies and embroidered linens that I have absolutely no use for but wanted to buy so badly. Old sewing supplies, vintage Christmas decorations, antique teacups and kitchen accessories. I could have stayed there for hours. But I tried to be good and only spent $7.















First was this Dickson Christmas Angel planter. Not that I'm going to plant anything in it. Because we all know it will just die.















The pigs with the flowers in their hair were absolutely adorable to begin with. But then I spotted the ones in the little Scottie dog sweaters. With diamond eyes. Are you freaking kidding me?















Aren't these deer adorable? They have glue spots where their hair used to be on their heads and tails. And I already have like 3 sets of deer salt and pepper shakers at home. Oh well. Too bad I bought them anyways.















These two definitely are definitely reminiscent of James and me in the future. He's already really pumped up to sit on the front porch (don't have one yet) in his rocking chair (need one of those too) and yell at those darn neighborhood kids.















I bet you can't wait to find out what's in this container....















And last but not least...when I showed these to James in the car I knew he still loved me. Phew! Catastrophe avoided. They're almost the same as my original salt and pepper young lovers! Reunited at last. No more broken pieces or broken hearts anymore!

Railroad Museum

We went to the Mansfield Flea Market a few weeks ago and stumbled upon the CT Eastern Railroad Museum.















Of course my dad and I were really excited to check it out. James rolled his eyes but begrudgingly joined us on our adventure.















My mom passed so she could rest from all the excitement of the flea market. And she missed out on all the cool antique stuff.






























We even got to go for a ride on the pump car. Just like in Looney Tunes!






























Are we having fun yet?















Then we took another ride on the turntable outside of the roundhouse.















James pushed.















Hi dad!















After all our fun we went to the goat farm for some cheese tasting and we got to meet the new baby goats! They even gave kisses!