VTT - Vintage Aprons

I'm participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday for the first time in forever. Check out the others that are also participating over at ColoradaoLady's blog. 

For years, I've had a bit of an obsession with collecting vintage aprons. I have them hanging in my kitchen, in my pantry, in storage boxes. I don't find them as often anymore since moving from Maryland, but on occasion, one will pop up here and there. I keep the ones that match my decor and then instead of hoarding all of them, I put some in my Etsy shop to share the wealth with others. Here are some of my latest acquisitions. 

Vintage Thingies Thursday

Hey y'all! I'm doing something today that I haven't done in quite a while. I'm participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday hosted by Colorado Lady. I don't think I've taken part of VTT since Colorado Lady took over for The Apron Queen but I think it's time to start doing this again each week. Gives me the motivation to actually take pictures of my vintage goodies!!

Ahem.

Moving along.

Today, I'm sharing with you some of my favorite vintage planters. You know, those little ceramic planter thingies that came with flowers when little Johnny was born back in 1962. Yeah, those kind. For some reason, one of my local thrifts has started to really jack up the price on these things so when I find them for a decent price, I buy them. Otherwise, they can sit on the shelf because as cute as they are, I'm so not paying more than $3.00 for one.

Anyhow. Without further adieu, here's my rather small collection of planters. I have these hanging on the wall in my office/scraproom/studio/place-that-collects-junk.



I love the duck. That was the first one I bought. She was sitting the shelf last year and like the biggest dummy in the world, I decided to HAMMER THE WALL beneath the shelf and she took a fall. You can't see it, but her butt is damaged. Severely. I could probably attempt to glue her back together but whatev. You can't even see it and knowing me, I'd end up super gluing my fingers together.



See. You can't even tell that she's damaged, can you? Nope. Haha So until the time that I feel like inflicting some torture upon myself in the form of gluing my hand to the table, she's going to stay broken!



The ducky sits beside this cute little pair of booties. I like them okay but with the other 3 planters being animals, the booties look a little out of place. I may have to replace them with something else. Like a dog. Or a sheep. Hmm. I need to find a dog. Or a sheep. Ooh, today *is* 25% off day at the Value Villages so maybe I'll find a replacement!!



And these two, ack!! aren't they just too cute? Now, honestly, I don't really like owls. Well, not the ugly brown and avocado green monstrosities from 1976 because those remind me of these ugly coasters my mom had when we were little. There were 4 coasters and they all had different, ugly, scary, mean looking owls on them. ::shudder:: But this owl? This cute little blue owl with the flowers and the baby owl? Yeah, I think she's pretty cute! I think this is the only owl thing I own though and I intend on keeping it that way. Unless, of course, I find another planter like this but in pink. Come on, y'all know me. The pink owl would be coming home with me and I might be tempted to pay more than $3.00 for it too!

And the cute, pink kitty sitting beside Miss-Not-So-Scary Owl, she's just adorable! Actually, I think it's a he, even though it's pink. The face just looks like a boy. lol And boys can like pink too. Just ask my dog Marty - he looooves pink. So, back to the cat, I quite like the little flower on the top of its head. Is it supposed to be a hat? A flower hat?! I dunno, but it's cute!!

Now, most people would probably use these to store bits and bobs of stuff but I keep mine empty. Well, except for the dust bunnies that probably live in there. Why? Because I know if I started putting things in there, I'd totally forget about them and then I'd spend 2 hours tearing my office apart trying to find whatever it was that was conveniently tucked away in the cat's behind. So, I don't do that to myself. I just leave them empty & smile at them each time I glance up at the wall & see them sitting there looking all cute!!

Thanks for visiting me today to check out my great vintage items. Be sure to stop in over at Colorado Lady and see everyone else that's participating!!

Vintage Thingies Thursday- Christmas in July

I'm finally participating again in Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by Lisa over at Confessions of an Apron Queen. Visit her blog to see all of the other people that are participating too!

Today I'm sharing with y'all some of my most favorite possessions - my collection of vintage Christmas ornaments. Back in the fall of 2003, shortly after Will and I got married, we went on vacation with my parents to the mountains of east Tennessee. One day my husband and dad were off doing some manly things so my mom and I set out to find thrift stores. We ran across one that had an entire section of Christmas stuff, including tons of vintage and antique things and it was almost like I had died and gone to Heaven! All that glittery goodness just waiting to be purchased and I couldn't wait to get my hot little hands on all of it! Okay, maybe not ALL of it, but a lot of the stuff that was vintage found a way into my cart! Thus began my obsession with vintage Christmas stuff, especially Shiny Brite ornaments!

Here are some of my fine purchases from that day back in 2003-

First this lovely set of lights. Aren't they adorable? I actually have two sets of these and they are quite old but don't work. So, they sit in their boxes and each year I open the box and stare at them and wish I was able to string them on my tree. Oh well, I still like looking at them even if they don't work!



Next are several boxes of misc ornaments. Some are starting to show wear & tear, we've even broken a couple over the years which makes it even more amazing that they've survived for all these decades. Of course they were probably bought at a store, brought home and lived in one house for the next 50 years. Unfortunately, we move a lot, which means a lot of things are broken. Such is the life of the military family I suppose.









Here's a cute little set of bells. I love these. One year after we moved to Maryland we were living in the cutest little beach cottage and the entire front of the house had been converted to a sun room which the owners had painted a pale yellow. I went out and bought tons of gold, yellow and sage green ornaments that year and then added these little bells. The tree looked so fabulous!



And here are some of the great ornaments I bought earlier this spring at one of the first yard sales of the season. I drove 30 miles to go to this sale that was advertised all over Craigslist as being full of vintage things. Either I got there way too late or the people selling stuff exaggerated just a bit but I did manage to snag all this Christmas stuff for just a couple of dollars. I didn't look thru the box of misc ornaments at the time since everything was wrapped in Kleenex but I was THRILLED when I got home and started unwrapping and saw all of those hot pink ornaments. I looove hot pink.












I also picked up this little strand of lights that have glittery covered bells. I didn't expect them to work either but I was pleasantly surprised when I plugged them in!!



And finally, when the husband and I married, we inherited one of those huge ceramic Christmas trees that his great grandmother had painted some time back. I instantly fell in love with all the little plastic lights and how it lit up at night and was just so pretty. Imagine my surprise when a couple of years later I went to an estate sale and found a lovely trio of white ceramic trees. They were so gorgeous. I really, really wanted to buy the whole set but they were so pricey. I opted for just picking up the smallest one and left the others. Each year I kick myself for not picking up the others and having all 3. Oh well, live & learn I suppose!



Yes, I am clearly obsessed with Christmas. We've always had numerous trees. I cannot wait to start decorating and I think I even get slightly depressed come January when it's time to take all of our decorations down. If the husband and I ever move to a location that has a Christmas store year-round I am seriously going to have to go back to work and apply for a job there. So, tomorrow is the 25th which means only 5 more months until Christmas right? I cannot wait!!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out all of my vintage thingies this week!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

Oooh! I just ran across this blog- Confessions of an Apron Queen and I see she does this thing called Vintage Thingies Thursday. Well, today being Thursday and all, I thought I should participate. It's as good a time as any to jump in, right?

Today, the Apron Queen herself shared some of her vintage Ransburg items. They are just lovely!! It just so happens that I, too, own something by Ransburg! I bought these adorable canisters at the thrift store on the Air Force Base where my husband is stationed a year ago this past April. I knew from the moment I saw them that they had to come home with me.

The set consists of only 3 canisters, so one must have either been damaged or misplaced. I did some research when I first bought them and I believe these to be Era II in the Kopper Kettle pattern. They don't really match my kitchen in this house but I still have them stuck on the counter anyhow!

Check out all of the other people participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday at Confessions of an Apron Queen