Went Away - Shopped!

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

Red - The Color of Christmas

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!

Vera and Christmas

My dry spell for finding Vera's finally is over, for now, anyway, I found six scarves on a thrift shop table, all in a jumble with winter hats, scarves, mitts, I was happy to find one, I just kept digging and ended up with the six, it was my lucky day for sure.. I bet they all belonged to the same lady.   I also found quite a few for resale that day, but that would just make too many scarves on this post and it might be just a bit boring for some people so I'll switch to some little Christmas items I found.

Ladybug Vera

Another Ladybug

A colorful one

These two both have the ladybug, the scarves are the same pattern but different colors, they're sheer scarves

Sheer

Carol had doubles, so she sent this beauty on to me - thank you!

I found these at a junk thrift shop - I didn't notice until I got home that half of his ear was missing  - he was such a nice size but not much good with a broken ear!.  The plastic Santa still has the tag on, it was made in Hong Kong.  The corsage is in the original box - also made in Hong Kong.  

Have you ever seen a stocking like this?  It's vinyl, sort of ugly, actually - I think I'll be listing it and probably some of the other items, as well.   It's in perfect shape.

I don't want to wash this as I know it will really fade,  it's so bright - and still has the tag on it, it was made in Canada.  Notice on the 4th day, it has colley birds, not calling birds as we normally hear - a colley bird is a type of blackbird

I'm undecided on this little guy - sometimes he's cute, sometimes, he's not.  He's a Josef  Original, the tag is still on the bottom.  What do you think of him?

Today I'm linking up with Thriftasaurus, Junkin Joe, and  The Nifty Thrifty - check them out...  And, Apron Thrift Girl is back....