The other day I came upon a fundraiser that was running all week, if I would have known about it, I would have been there the first day. You could donate what you wanted, I came home with some Christmas goodies, some went straight to the garbage but I ended up with a few things and for that I'm happy.
This is what I saw right away, knee huggers, well, of course, I have to buy any of these I see and a dwarf, he's pretty cute too!! I am feeling really lazy today, I couldn't be bothered to get my good camera out, these pics are all taken with my iPhone, for anyone following me on Instagram, a couple of them have been on there already.
More cute vintage Christmas
The angel isn't in the best shape, but her face was so cute, I can use her for something.
Finding some Made in Japan reindeer is always good!
I just love this picture I took of this Santa - I know a lot of people out there think these Santa's are creepy, personally, I like them!!!
Not too bad for a stop on the side of the road!!
I also bought this book which even though it's a teen book, I'm going to read it. For any Canadians out there that grew up in the 70's, they might remember this CBC television series, "Adventures in Rainbow Country" which ran in 70/71 - the thing that is amazing to me now is that I now live in the area where this show was filmed, "Rainbow Country" is close to where I live now - it's the North Channel area of Lake Huron - that was a world away from Prince Edward Island at the time. I opened the first page and there were local place names, this was a fun find!!
Last Tuesday, I tagged along with my husband, he had two days of meetings in London, Ontario, I had two days of poking around down there and then Friday we headed for home but crossed into the US at Port Huron, Michigan and drove the length of the state until we were back in Ontario again. I'll just say that the weather was not great, especially Saturday, high winds, snow squalls and slippery roads did not make for good driving, it was tense at times!!!
I hit quite a few thrifts in London, along with a couple of antique shops - I picked up a few things, if I had been actively looking for Pyrex, I could have probably purchased something at every shop I was at - it has to be pretty special for me to buy a piece now, unless it's a fridgie!!!
I went to one thrift in Michigan, it was in and out pretty quickly!! But, the antique malls and shops that we went to, oh, my - we went to the largest one in Michigan in Bay City - it was huge and definitely the biggest one we had ever been in - there was just so much to look at - I wish I could go there every few weeks!!!
My plan was to show a few pics from my trip as well, that will wait for another post, I'm afraid I might loose your attention, it would be too long, so here it goes with my purchases. I kind of went crazy on the Christmas.....
This is definitely my favourite purchase of all - this is just the cutest little planter - and he's stamped on the bottom - 1962 - Napco, Bedford, Ohio - Japan, it has also a sticker on it - National Potteries, Cleveland, OH - I hardly want to put this away!!
Is this guy a gnome, an elf? I'm not sure but he caught my eye right away - he also has a sticker on the back - Brite Star - Japan.
Finally, I don't have to be jealous anymore, I have my own spun head - stamped Japan on the bottom!
Every shop had baskets of shiny brites and various ornaments, I looked at so many and this is the only one I bought, I think I didn't know what I was doing!! This one is really pretty though!
Some plastic Christmas is always good!!! Made in Hong Kong.
This package is for display, I don't think I'll be taking the cookie cutters out.
I am always hopeful I will find another piece of Christmas Pyrex, but once again, no luck. But, this will do, it's a McKee bowl, I assume it's a punch bowl, I think I might leave it out for a while yet.
Both of these books are older, from the 50's - I posted a picture on Instagram yesterday of a young girl making spaghetti and meatballs, they're some monster meatballs -here they are - are you on Instagram? If you're not, you should be!!!!
It seemed like every shop had tons of Little Golden Books but not an Eloise Wilkin that I didn't have, I looked at so many. This book was at the last shop we stopped at - the illustrations are so sweet...
This one is my favourite in the book!
I bought Little Swimmers because I had that when I was a wee girl. The Mary Poppins is missing its record, after seeing Saving Mr. Banks, it got me to thinking about my Mary Poppins book that I had and gave away, so until I see that one, I have this copy! The Golden Book is an old one, anytime I see an old Golden Book, I usually purchase!
My trip was complete - I found some Vera too - and one different item - a pink necktie - Vicky Davis - made for the Vera Companies, I've never seen one of these before.
We had a great time, even if the weather was not so great, I came home with quite a few vintage things and a pile of stuff for SMASHing - I'm happy!!
Today I'm linking my finds up with Sir Thrift a Lot of Thriftasaurus fame and Dawn at We Call it Junkin
Things are getting back to normal and I really needed to photograph these goodies so I can put them away - I've been working on putting Christmas away for three days now, at least pretty much all of it has moved to the basement to be packed away until next year.
My husband gave me this beauty for Christmas - what could be prettier than a Pyrex turquoise chip and dip set?
I found this fridgie over the holiday, I had to buy it - it was turquoise and it was 30 cents.
I received some nice packages over the holidays, you know who you are, I'm so appreciative, thank you very much!
I thrifted a couple of Vera's, the rest were gifts - lucky me!! I also received a couple of beautiful Vera Christmas tea towels - and both different, they're packed away already for next year, or they'd be on here too! I found a Vera table runner at Winners this year and that was a shock! There were tablecloths, napkins, oven mitts(got one of those) - what's the chance they will ever have Vera again??
There are so many ways to tie a scarf - this is a cute booklet!
Christmas still in the package - I couldn't bring myself to open them, maybe next year...
I thrifted some great Christmas books too - but, why didn't Value Village have their books marked down after Christmas, I even asked, she said 'no"
This is the sweetest book - it's by Ideals - I love the illustrations..
This isn't an old book but it is Charlie Brown and it is Christmas. This book was a gift to some children in 2005 - they sure didn't hang on to it long. It looks like it was never opened!
Remember Fraggle Rock? Everytime we mention Fraggle Rock, we remember my grandmother, who one day said she didn't like those Fraggles, she had dreamt that they were on the end of her bed!! I thought this might be a good one to sell!
My husband gave me a portable photo studio and lighting kit and now you get to see my first pictures taken with it - I really like the way they turned out.
How's this for a piece of kitschy Christmas? All Christmas at this shop was priced at 25 cents - that's the kind of clearance that I like.
This Santa must have been a bell, cute, isn't he?
I had to buy this pixie planter, even though the paint is missing on his face and arm - after all, he was only 25 cents!!!
This is my second little rubber Santa like this - were they light covers? They have a hole on the bottom. I don't remember these, do you?
And, that's it, my first sharing post of 2014 - I'm linking up with Junkin Joe and Thrifty Things Friday
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I love blow molds - if you don't know what one is, well it's those plastic lawn decorations that were everywhere from the 60's through to the early 80's - now they've been replaced by the inflatables - no inflatables for me, I'll take the blow molds anyday!!
The other week I was in the lineup at Target, an older gentlemen was buying a snowman, he started talking to me how he didn't like these new figures, that he preferred the "old plastic ones" - that was all I needed to strike up a conversation with him, he proceeded to tell me about his display that he's been building for 20 years and is worth thousands - he told me where it was, last night we went there, on probably the coldest night so far! That's the reason I didn't get very good pictures, the wind was raw, it was freezing!! He came out to talk to us when we were walking around and told us where he got various pieces - I just have to go back out there in the daylight and get some better pictures. We couldn't believe it - there must have been 100-150 pieces of blow mold Christmas heaven!!
This is just one scene, they covered the whole front yard - there was just everything....
This is just a small section of the snowmen - there was every size...
We wanted this one, we wanted a Mrs. Claus, we wanted a very retro Santa - there was lots we wanted. I saw a different Santa yesterday at the thrift store and I left it there, after seeing all those last night, I should have bought it!!
I can share all of my blow molds with you because I have a very small collection compared to what I saw last night.
The big Santa on the left was my very first one I ever found - he's a 4 footer.
I have been so lucky finding all of these and never paying more than $5 for any of them.
I found this one at a yard sale this past summer for a couple of bucks! I didn't see this one at the big display last night, we put him on top of the shed.
We bought this back in the 80's, long before we knew what a blow mold was - he sits on top of the clothesline pole.
Blow molds come in all sizes, we love them all!! Not only are they outside, they're inside too!
The only blow molds I can ever remember having at home were these candles - here's Darcy back in PEI in 1989 - I never really cared for those candles , every Christmas Dad had them tied to the front step - those are long gone but I just had to find a set of my own and I did!
I finally have my corner shelf decked out in all the beautiful red shades of Christmas - but when I was setting it up, it seemed like I had a whole lot more vintage Christmas than I did last year, I didn't think I accumulated that much but apparently I did, so much that my husband made me another corner shelf yesterday. They are just the greatest shelves, that will make two in the livingroom, one in the kitchen, and two in the gameroom. If you want a closer look, just click on any picture!
Here it goes - the top shelf..
Every item on this one is thrifted except for the reindeer and the Santa and the chimney, the chimney came all the way from Holly in Newfoundland!! It's so cute, this is the first year on the shelf for it. I've had the deer since the 70's, my penpal, Carol was from Red Deer, Alberta she sent that to me at her Mom's urging, it has been in the house at home, now it's here with me once again. Carol and I have been friends ever since, actually, she just sent me a new bell for the "Red Deer". I was asked if he was a Dream Pet, I don't really know anything about Dream Pets, although I know I do have one that I'm sure of - this one is made of a rubber or faux leather material - Carol says that the city was selling them as a way to promote the city. Were Dream Pets made of this material?
Not so many thrifted items on this shelf - the Santa and the sleigh belonged to Mom, it was made in Japan. The Santa and sleigh behind it belonged to my great aunt, it has the original sticker on it, Thames, hand painted, made in Japan. Everything else was purchased except for the classic Night Before Christmas, a trade from Molly, we did a fun trade back in the fall, check out her blog - We Have No Enemies
This shelf is pretty well all from home - the Putz houses, bottlebrush trees and little guys at the front were all Mom's - I found the knee hugger this summer at a yardsale.
I am going to do a little video on Instagram some day soon of the music box in the back, it belonged to my grandmother, I still have the original box, it holds a candle but there is no room for that on here. It's the cutest thing, it plays Silent Night and was also made in Japan, as is the Santa. I actually finally have a couple of Gurley candles, I have never ever seen one of those around here, I had to order one on Ebay, I was that desperate!! Last year I found the little mouse, it's a Josef Original. Thanks to Erica, that's Golden Egg Vintage Erica for her creations at the front, so very cute!!
Erica is so good to me - I love the Annalee Santa in the sleigh. Everything else is thrifted in this pic.
My only new item on the bottom shelf is the plastic Santa and sleigh. The little girls with hair are all Napco, made in Japan. I bought those years ago on Ebay, I guess another "Jill" owned it, her name is written on the bottom! I didn't know at the time that I had found a Bradley doll, but I guess that's what she is.
I have become crazy for all this vintage Christmas red, I decorated the tree yesterday which I used to do with mostly primitive type ornaments - wood and dark colors, I used none of those this year, everything is shiny and bright now!! I'll be sharing some of my other vintage Christmas shelves in the days ahead but today I'm linking up with a special party - Vintage Christmas at Organized Clutter and also Thriftasaurus.
This shelf is close to the corner shelf - I changed it up this year and made it about the lights, because I found myself with quite a few boxes of lights! I just hope there is no door slamming though or everything on it could come crashing to the floor! I like it!
Have a great day - hope you're displaying a little bit of vintage Christmas too!
