Musings of a Vintage Junkie: March 2015

Monday, March 30, 2015

Bunny Accents

As my husband walked through the house today he commented on how he liked all the bunnies I had placed around. I hadn't planned on decorating for Spring or Easter, I just love having my bunny collection out this time of year. His comment made me realize that a few little bunnies as accents here and there can create a Spring-y, Easter feeling.

As you'll see, my decorating style reflects country/primitive, to industrial, to Victorian, to vintage and Traditional.

I have a bunny for that.

In the center of the kitchen island I put a ceramic lettuce bowl with bunnies popping out the top onto my quilted placemat. Just enough cuteness.

I let my Peter Rabbit trinket jar hang out with the vintage scale on the top of the fridge.

A smaller Peter Rabbit salt shaker keeps the vintage green bottle and toy iron company.

In the dining room on my pie safe cupboard hangs a pipe cleaner bunny. He's holding a pink egg.

Ten bunnies are hanging on my favorite corner cupboard, made from die cut wooden bunnies I found on Etsy.

On the top of my large mustard cupboard is a handmade chalkware bunny and another Peter Rabbit!

In the parlor on one end of the window seat I changed out the glass jar from winter décor to a ceramic bunny from the '80's with some glass and handpainted eggs on a bed of pink grass. The large pink bunny was a find last year from a local thrift store. She looks like mercury glass. I decided to hold on to her awhile before selling her!

My newest bunny is from the 1950's. A stuffed, pink plush music box baby bunny with a plastic painted face. So reminiscent of my childhood, I had to have her.

On the parlor mantel I added a glass brown bunny to my vintage vanity mirror and glass bottle stoppers. He feels right at home.

On the parlor table between the wing chairs are the two little bunnies that I talked myself into keeping because I don't think they are old enough to be called vintage ;-) Actually I just can't part with them!

This bunny IS old enough to be called vintage since I have had her for as long as I can remember and she comes out every year to her place by the side table and pocket door. She loves it there in the late afternoon sun.

As you enter the living room my wooden bunny pull toy found a spot to rest in front of my large glass bottle with my cotton stems from Décor Steals and my chippy painted child's chair.

This is a unique bunny in that it is made to look like carved wood on a wooden base but the bunny is actually made of something breakable.....I found that out the hard way! She has recovered nicely.

Easy.

No dismantling one or more areas to decorate.

Just tucking a bunny in here and there.

My kind of decorating!

AnnMarie xoxo

I am linking up with these great blog parties:

Show and Share
Amaze Me Monday
Make It Pretty Monday
Treasure Box Tuesday
Let's Talk Vintage
Vintage Bliss Tuesday Linky Party
A Return to Lovliness
Roses of Inspiration
Share Your Style
Share Your Cup Thursday
Home and Garden Thursday
Freedom Fridays With All My Bloggy Friends
Best of the Weekend
Pink Saturday
Something to Talk About Link Party
So Much At Home Link Up Party

Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Thrifter's Creed

"Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail (nor migraine) shall keep the thrifter from her appointed rounds."

Obviously I changed the postal workers creed to suit the thrifter in me!

Sometimes you just get the feeling that your favorite thrift store just has something there for you and you've got to go check it out. No matter the weather. Or if said weather triggers a headache!

This week I had a yucky migraine. The barometric pressure changes here in the northeast are killing my head! By midday as it started to lift I just got this strong urge to go check out my local VOA. I hadn't been in a while and I needed some fresh things for my Etsy shop.

The first thing I spotted was this great wooden stool with a braided rug top. It is in great condition and it happened to be Manager's Special day.....30% off furniture and lamps! Plus I get the senior discount of 20% off (you only have to be 55 to be a senior there).

When I went to the counter to pay the clerk said that the stool had only been there a few days and it was waiting for me. See!! I knew I had to go!

Of course I had to see what other treasures were waiting for me.

I spotted this cute wooden bunny with a pull string. My granddaughter Chloe just loves these. She loves swinging them. She won't know about this one! It's going in my shop.

I was so excited to see a piece of black transfer ware. It has a great flower knob on top which is repeated in the handles on the side. It is quite old with just a triangle mark on the bottom. There is one chip on the whole thing. I have to research it because I have never seen transfer ware in black in person.

This sweet folk art girl caught my eye. When I picked her up I was surprised how heavy she was. She is made of terra cotta and hand painted. The back is quite interesting. It has a hanger for the wall.

I picked up the red framed rooster on the left a while back on a thrifting day and so when I saw the Cock a Doodle Do picture I had to have it.

I think I may hang the first one in my kitchen after I am finally done painting it (yeah I am still working on the white.....took a break over the holidays!). My kitchen is cobalt blue and white and I have recently been adding in touches of this great deep red.

On my way home I stopped at a few of the thrift stores on Main St. in my town. There was a huge box of bottles outside one of them. I have a huge box that I got last Fall full of late 1800's bottles. But none of them were this color. For a $1 I had to have it to add to my bottle display in my bathroom.

I spotted this basket in the front window of another thrift store on my way out. I went on my way to another store but eventually I had to go back and get it. It was 20% off and matches my parlor perfectly. It is all silk fabrics and tiny pink and blue beads on the trim. The bunnies are a find from another trip that I am keeping for now. Too cute not to!

I am finding these days that I am keeping almost as much as I am listing! They may make their way to my shop eventually but for now I am finding great treasures to fill my home.

Is it just me or do you do that too when you are out hunting and thrifting?

AnnMarie xoxo

I am linking up with these great blog parties:

Vintage Inspiration Party

Share Your Cup Thursday

Share Your Style

Home and Garden Thursday

Flashback Fridays

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

What I Buy on Etsy

I just love selling on Etsy.

And, I love buying on Etsy too!

I find such unique and special items from Etsy shops that seem to be there just for me just at the right time. I see a lot of what I buy through searches and on the threads of the teams I belong to. I have bought from some great sellers and I just wanted to share some of my great finds with you.

My lastest find are these cute wooden bunnies. They are from Artcuts, a shop based in London, UK.

I ordered them with the string so that I could make a banner out of them. I kind of have a soft spot for bunnies.....you could say that I have a bevy of bunnies.....but none like these! I strung them all together and found a perfect spot.

My first attempt at some spring decorating even though my snow lady is still sitting around!

All winter I had been wanting a red plaid slouchy, cross body purse. I don't know why, I just did. My dreams came true. One of my favorite blogs I follow featured the handbags from Polyester and Trash in her post and I fell in love. I found my red plaid bag. It has a big sun on it made from a sack that held mixed nuts. And all the materials used are vintage!

This bag is huge. It is made of all different fabrics with the handle made out of a man's tie. There is a pocket on the inside. It fits cross body in a slouchy, funky, messenger style kind of way. I just love it.

I ordered this at the end of the summer last year from Crafted by Gale and can't wait to put it up above my new side porch door this Spring. My garden is right there so it is so apropos.

I fell in love with this muslin and tulle tree from Provencal Market and used it the last two Christmas' for decorating. I didn't want to put it away so I found a way to leave it out year round.

My husband and I run a Christian Community Arts and Cultural Center so when I found the comedy/tragedy mask ornament, they just went together. It works for me!

There are lots of shops on Etsy that offer printable downloads of great graphics. I had just started knitting prayer shawls for a ministry called the Knit Wits. My friend Bonnie, who heads it up just loves sheep and yarn and all things knitting. I just had to order this four piece printable from Lorraine's Graphiques.

Couldn't pass this great graphic up from Cottage Rose Graphics because, well, it's me! Debbi, the shop owner added the Musings of a Vintage Junkie in for me!

This t-shirt just spoke vintage to me with the old truck. Plus grey is my new favorite color. I ordered it from Tattered Tique. It is the most comfortable t-shirt and my favorite to wear. Just ask my friends and family who saw it on me constantly last summer!

Junkin Queen, Vintage Girl, Picker, Junker, Antique Hunter (hey, I have a cool key chain inscribed with those words from Etsy bought for me as a gift by my daughter!)....whatever you want to call me, I am proud of it!

I could go on and on with many more examples but you get the picture. You can find so many things that speak directly to you and become those items you just have to have.

Okay, just one more. I just remembered this one.....

I bought it a few years ago from Mitmunk, a cool shop full of funky stuff "for the creative spirit".They specialize in some wild leggings. When I saw the cat and the 13 I had to have it. It is a nice burnout style t-shirt with a quality graphic on it.

The listing title calls it the "unlucky 13" t-shirt. But for me, 13 is not unlucky. When my husband and I were looking for a wedding date in July the only one available was the 13th. I didn't like it but wasn't going to let superstition bother me. When we got to Italy for our honeymoon I found out that 13 is considered a lucky number there. I bought a silver 13 charm to commemorate our honeymoon and now proudly wear my t-shirt with a kitty, (which I love, black or not) and 13. It definitely has become a conversation starter!

From diaper bags to a custom leather bracelet, velvet pumpkins to American Girl doll clothes, I usually find what I am looking for on Etsy when I am looking for something unique.

What do you buy on Etsy?

AnnMarie xoxo

Disclaimer: These items may or may not still be available in these shops but the shops are all currently open!

I am linking up with these great blog parties!

Roses of Inspiration
Show and Share
A Little R & R Wednesdays
Share Your Cup Thursday
Freedom Fridays with all My Bloggy Friends
Anything Blue Friday
Pink Saturday

Saturday, March 7, 2015

The Changing of the Mirrors

When it comes to decorating, I like to figure out exactly what I want and then enjoy the hunt for all things I need to do it. If it comes out the way I want, it stays and I never change it. Not too crazy about change.

BEFORE

Every once in a while though, I get a bug to just change things up a little, even though I may still like the original decorating. That happened recently with my tiny main floor bathroom.

My sweet daughter Jena painted it garnet red for me years ago. It was quite the job....something like five coats to cover. She already said up front she is not painting it again! I still love the color.

So for this redo, I had to work with the colors I have, which are the garnet red walls, white tile and light beige trim. The original shower curtain and valance match with a garnet red toile pattern on a light beige background. They had to go. The rug, toilet seat cover and towels are all garnet red. They will stay. The Victorian light fixture will have to stay for now also.

The mirror was the star of the room. It is a very heavy chalk ware, Victorian style round mirror. I found it in the early 90's at my favorite antique/thrift store at the time. I fixed it up and painted it white. It hung proudly in the only Victorian room in my 1900's farmhouse, the master bath. I was so happy to find a place for it in my current home when we moved.

I decided to move it to the parlor and hang it over the mantel. It goes with the style of the room and I am living with it right now to see if it will stay or not. The parlor is the middle room so it is a little weird walking through and catching myself in the mirror!

This is the before of the wall above the mantel.

Once that mirror was moved from the bathroom, I went to the front hallway and took that mirror. I had a hunch it might work in the bathroom as it was the one from my farmhouse bathroom. I always loved it. It has lots of mirror to check everything before leaving the house! I never did like it in the front hall.

Remember this mirror? I got it at a yard sale for $2 and debated about where to hang it in a post a year and a half ago, here. Well, I hung it in the front hall and it looks great. It actually matches better than the wood one did because it is gold and so are all the framed pictures!

So now that the mirrors have all been switched around, back to the bathroom re-do.

This bathroom has issues. The floor is from the 1960's, the tile around the sink needs re-grouting and fixing (see the grey strip on the end of the sink? Yeah, that's duck tape from where the tiles fell off. A contractor friend is coming to fix it, hopefully sooner than later!).....

....and, it's very tiny. Your knees touch the tub when you sit on the toilet. There is about 2 feet between the sink and tub. Small! But I had to work with what I've got because once I get the bug to change it up I won't be waiting for someone else to do their part first!

I started looking online for shower curtains and realized quickly I'd be pretty limited with the color and price.

Just happened to be in Bed Bath & Beyond with my daughters after my oldest daughter's birthday lunch. They found the curtain for me, which has the smallest amount of garnet red. I knew it would work though and my daughter had two $5 off coupons. I got the cute soap dispenser too.

From English toile to Spring garden......

There is enough brown in the shower curtain to pick up the wood mirror and enough beige to go with the trim. It also has some different shades of gold which helps balance the wire bird cloche and the framed picture of lacy underwear which is hung above the toilet. I asked my husband if he minded looking at it while he, well you know, and he said not at all! Gotta love that! Not sure it is staying there though.

There are also some pretty shades of aqua in the shower curtain so I put my sweet little shell trinket dish on the window sill and an aqua bottle in with the clear ones.

The wire bird cloche is from Decor Steals.

I bought a huge box of vintage glass bottles from a man that used to work construction for the city of Rochester. He dug them out back in the 1980's and believes they are from the late 1800's.