Take two tablecloths and call me in the morning

Wishing I felt a little more like this...

I've spent every minute lately with my new sidekick, the head cold. Despite my best efforts to sprint ahead and shake it, it always seems to catch up with me later in the day. Admittedly, I don't do sick well, spending most of it in denial about actually being sick, even as I'm hitting the couch with blankie, pillow and cup of tea in hand. ("I'm not thick. Whereth my kleenexth?")

Fortunately, just when I really needed some perking up, the mailman delivered a box of good cheer from a certain Sweet Bee at Sweet Bee Cottage. Thoughtful Janelle (aka Sweet Bee) and I go way back -- we 'met' on ebay years ago and then we started blogging around the same so she knows all about my vintage tablecloth addiction.

And she sent me a fix. Thank you for these, Janelle! My cold is much better now but my addiction just got a little worse. 

I confess I had one more vintage Christmas (and Halloween) lucky streak at an estate sale recently -- a sale I pretty much forced myself out of my sickbed to attend because I am dedicated. Or delirious. So glad I went and I'll share more later this week. This Beistle honeycomb Santa was one of treasures I found.

Meanwhile, it's back to the Doily Factory for my regularly scheduled Christmas sewing. 

P.S. Regarding vintage tablecloth addictions: Have you been to The Little Round Table? Candy has created an amazing Index ... for the 120-ish vintage tablecloths in her collection. This lady is or-gan-ized!

Here's a link to her Vintage Tablecloth Index (once you get there, scroll down to see the photos).

I suddenly feel the need to alphabetize something.

Warning

 To me, this guy is a little 'clown-scary'

Some of what you're about to see is ridiculously cute and sweet and may lead to a toothache.

Stop me if you've heard this before: This morning I stopped by an estate sale that had already been open for a couple of hours. This is my motto regarding estate sales: Arrive late, don't expect much.

This sale had His & Hers outbuildings -- His was all tools & bolts & drill bits but ... Hers was dedicated entirely to vintage holiday crafts! And there still was plenty to choose from despite my late arrival and low expectations. 

A vintage Christmas Vegas chorus line

I just couldn't help myself but I probably should have.

This summer's yard sales have resulted in an unexpected 'abundance' of vintage Christmas everything,  so I've decided to sort through it all, keep only what I really, really love (I might need one more 'really' in there so I'll actually get rid of something) and am most likely to use (snore) and then the rest will go in my etsy shop. 

I may be experiencing a delayed reaction to the silverware hoarding at Estate Sale 2.0.

So hard to resist ... how cute is this little bunch? 

 

 There was also a bit of vintage Easter which included this barnyard of cuteness.

I found one vintage Christmas tablecloth which came with (no extra charge!) a glob of vintage Christmas dinner. Kind of like a really gross gift-with-purchase. 

Didn't stop me though.

The offending tablecloth came home and is currently taking a timeout soak in the vintage-linen-laundry-bucket.

 

 Hope you have a terrific weekend!

Between the posts

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for all of the information regarding my questions on the last post. I learned a LOT from all of you, so much that UPPER CASE is required to express my appreciation. I knew you would have the answers!

Meanwhile, I've been busy sifting through the 340 photos I took recently of vintage burlap bags, a giant fork & spoon, vintage typewriter keys, a wooden shoe, pillows I made, vintage fabrics I bought, vintage fabrics that were given to me and assorted yard-saled doodads.

Some of the photos are for my etsy shop, PeppermintBark (why not a Giant Fork & Spoon, I say?!), some were for this blog post and some were test shots of recent Doily Factory projects which are eventually headed to my other etsy shop, VintageHome. 

Even though it feels suspiciously like summer around here at the moment, the PNW rain is coming and the days I'll be able to take photos outside are numbered so I like to do a little practicing indoors to see what works.

Usually I take a variety of shots just to see how everything looks from different angles...

 Then I tinker with the details like adding a little color to the empty not-for-canning jars using vintage spools of thread, puttering with the height of things and editing out odd bits & pieces like that button-covered thumbtack stuck in the wall...

And voila -- the result. Which seems to be more in focus if the photo is clicked on to enlarge. So now I have an indoor set for photographing pillows. 

Just need to make some pillows.

 Here's a few additions to the vintage fabric stash.  I'm quickly becoming addicted to the graphic florals from the '60s & '70s -- I love those big blue roses. 

 But vintage tablecloths will always be my first love.

These vintage beauties were a lovely surprise from Lisa at A Thing For Roses. I can't even tell you how much that middle fabric thrills me -- I've never seen it before and something about it really makes me vintage-giddy. Thank you Lisa, you're a peach!

Wishing everyone a wonderful day!

I have the Q if you have the A

So many questions.

I'm hoping you can shed some light on a few things around here and with that in mind ... 

I've prepared a little list.   :-)

Number 1. 

These mystery objects arrived mixed in with some vintage sewing notions -- they're metal and about 4" long. One is marked '2' and the other is marked '3.' I imagine they're something anyone who sews a lot might be familiar with. Anyone but me, that is. Do you know what these are?

Number 2.

I'm wondering if these Halloween noisemakers are vintage or reproduction? Two of them have wooden handles, one has a plastic handle and there aren't any manufacturer's marks. It would really make my day if we could turn this into an Antiques Roadshow moment where you tell me how rare and unique and valuable these are and then I tell you how I found them for a dollar at a thrift store. 

Number 3.

Lately I find myself buying old canning jars. I don't can anything so why are these coming home with me? (that's not my question about these but if you have a theory, I'm all ears)  What I'd like to know is this: Are these jars unusual or are they pretty standard in the vintage canning world? For all I know, I brought home a box of empty peanut butter jars. I thought I might fill them with vintage Christmas ornaments.

Number 4. (last one!)

These grow in my yard and I would love to know what they are. I snipped a few for this photo and about 20 minutes later the room was filled with a bologna-like smell. I think that's nature's way of telling me that some flowers prefer to be left outside.

Thank you for your help. Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Estate Sale 2.0

A few weeks ago I attended an estate sale inbetween a long list of yard sales I wanted to attend. I thought I could zip through the estate sale since I arrived well after it had begun and assumed there wouldn't be much left to choose from.

You know what they say about assuming...(and if you don't, you can email me)   :-)

Inside this modest house were thousands and thousands and thousands of pieces of silverplate flatware.

In boxes, bags, cases, on tables, under tables, in bins and coming out of the ears of everyone who had been through the house. Random pieces and patterns all jumbled together.

There was so much of it that I only managed to poke around in a couple of boxes before I decided to leave. I was unprepared to deal with it at that moment due to my pressing yard sale schedule. Ahem. 

But... (and there's always a but)

Later that week after I had a chance to process the ginormity of the situation, I emailed the person who posted the original estate sale ad on craigslist to see if everything had been sold.

As if.

Turns out she was the daughter of the folks who had collected all of this and she was holding phase two of the sale herself so would I like to come early and start digging since it was now all half  price?

I came home with 300 pieces and the story.

The daughter's parents, who were retired, had decided to collect/acquire silverplate flatware and then resell it to help fund their retirement. As it happens, they both became ill and passed away before they got much beyond the acquisition phase of their plan. Knowing this, I didn't feel right taking photos in the house but it was definitely something to see.

Please don't worry because after a little research in my big blue book of Silverplated Flatware, I've already started reselling what I bought so you won't (hopefully) come across a similar story about me somewhere down the road.

But if you do, I suspect 'silverplate' will have been substituted with 'vintage fabric.' 

Putting away my tiara

Guess I won't be wearing my sundress and tiara for a while.

It's as though someone flipped a switch here -- suddenly it gets dark early, the distant mountaintops have a fresh coat of snow, I'm wearing socks and most telling of all: The yard sales are fading away.

Dahlias gathered last weekend at the local u-pick-'em flower patch

I'm also playing my favorite game of the season called "How long until the heater comes on?"

So far, so good. Because it's still summer if the heater isn't on.

Some of the summer yard sale loot that's been piling up is slowly getting photographed so it can be listed in my etsy shop.

My dining room has gone from this...

To this.

Someday I'll realize that just because I call it a dining room doesn't make it one.

And sadly, those hideous chairs have still not been recovered. 

Hello, Almost Autumn. Thanks for your colorful inspiration but please go easy on me. I'm not quite ready for you yet.

Where were we?

Oh yes -- my tiny space in the antique mall.The space is actually a display case that I've renovated to be more like a (very) little room. 

'Renovated' might be overstating it a bit. It's more along the lines of 'had some shelves removed.' Too much HGTV again.

Located right there between the seller with antique glass and the person who makes things out of scrabble tiles.

I have a famous neighbor across the aisle from my little space, Tracey from Notes From A Cottage Industry. It really is a small world.

The mall is Camas Antiques in Camas, WA, very near Portland, OR, in case you're ever in the area and want to see things for yourself. I strongly encourage it. It's for your own good, of course.

With that enormous renovation behind me, Christmas sewing has now moved to the top of my to-do list. All of my vintage Christmas tablecloths that are destined to become pillows, banners and table runners have been unpacked, sorted and inspected.

And since the weather here today is acting like November, I am much more inspired to dream in red & green for the next few months.

You can click the photo to see details

Normally by this time of year, lots of these would be rolling off the Doily Factory assembly line but I'm running a little behind. 

Fortunately it's still only August so I'm good.