Greenmead Finds

Greenmead Flea Market in Livonia is always fun!   It only happens in June and September and I think I look forward to it more than any other one I go to, except perhaps Midland (which I'd like more if it wasn't almost 2 hours away).  I went last Sunday and had a wonderful time.  The weather was ideal -- low 70s and sunny -- and it was a perfect day to shop!

This is the only picture I took of the market -- I guess I was too busy shopping...

Mr. KV went with me and it's a good thing he did, because I filled up the granny cart and had lots of extra stuff to carry besides.

Here's most of what I found...

A shabby birdcage with cool pink accents

White painted breadbox

This pillow cover is hand embroidered and painted.  It's in perfect condition!

Souvenir linens

Lots of tea towels and a tablecloth

Lots of RED -- a metal bin with wood handles, a metal watering can, tin tray and a 48-star flag

A collection of kitchen items, including to fired-on individual bakers

I love this little cat & kitten pot holder holder!  It needs new hooks and then it's ready to sell

A collection of glassware, some burlap & melmac bowls and a wood wall plaque for a child's room that has animals & circus people on it.  I have another one like this that's orange and white that I added coat hooks to, but when I took it to the mall, I ended up bringing it right home -- I can't part with it!

A Pyrex tulip pattern casserole with rack

A 1943 boxed set of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights with woodcut illustrations.  I have this one  myself (it was my mom & my aunt's) and I've always liked it a lot, though the illustrations used to scare me

This yellow formica table is in really nice condition!  I've never bought furniture at Greenmead before, but it was a terrific bargain

These guys are the only thing I bought for myself -- I'm really on a flamingo kick lately

The conference I'm at is at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island -- a wonderful historic all-wood hotel, built in the 1887.  It has the world's longest porch, is quite posh and is a bucket-list destination for lots of people.  It's a little TOO posh for me -- has a strict dress code for dinner in the main dining room and hanging out in the main lobby after dinner.  I'm more of a jeans and gym shoes girl, but I'm managing.

The 1980s movie Somewhere in Time was filmed here and there's even a Somewhere in Time weekend --I've never seen the movie, but it seems to have a cult following.  So far -- in a day & a half, we haven't been out of the building (training sessions all day and all meals provided in-house), but if I get outside and get a chance to play the tourist, I'll be sure to post some pictures to the blog.  In the meantime, check out the Grand Hotel website to learn more about it.

I hope you had a fun weekend and are busily mapping out your thrift shopping route for the coming weekend! 

Easter Pretties

I've finally gotten out my Easter pretties. I never decorate for any holiday like I do for Christmas and some years I don't get anything out at Easter, at all. Since it's a serious Christian holy week for me, I've never really gotten into the more commercial side of it, I guess.

But, being a lover of all things vintage, I just can't resist the Easter decorations of the past! Here are a few of my little pretties. I apologize for the pics -- it's so gray and rainy here, I had to use a flash:

This is my most treasured Easter decoration, made for me by my mom in a ceramics studio in 1960. We used to put jelly beans on toothpicks and stick the toothpicks in the holes in his tail.
You can see the wind-handle on the Easter basket music box next to him. Sadly, the music box doesn't work.She also made this egg for me in ceramics.Here's the music box basket, along with some cool retro 'picks'. The little chick peeping out of the plastic egg is a favorite!I'm a sucker for paper ephemera & any kind of postcard -- this is my favorite Easter one because I love the little cottage (I want to live there) and the bunny's sweet puff tail!A vintage basket with a little 60s nodder and an old bunnyI remember these little chicks and bunnies from when I was little -- we always got a few in our basket. So I usually pick them up when I find them -- aren't the ones in the eggs cute?Gurley and Tavern candles -- animals & flowers. The blockey bunnies are ones I'd never seen before and haven't since (the 3 of them came in the Tavern box behind them)
You can learn more about Tavern & Gurley candles here

These are the only really 'new' things I put out -- three Easter figures by the Snow Baby peopleThanks for visiting my Easter pretties!

A lost 'treasure' found at last!

My booth inventory has been taking over our finished basement, so I've been re-arranging lots of things and going through cabinets in the process of organizing it all. Yesterday, I found a Christmas 'treasure' that I've been looking for for a long time!

In the 50s and 60s, decorating things with sequins was a really popular craft (a 1950s version of the Bedazzler...) My mother made lots of Christmas items decorated like this -- the same things we now see at estate sales and thrift stores.

She made the Christmas tree skirt in this picture, decorated with sequined lanterns and 'beautiful' gold fringe. I really don't like it, but use it every year anyway, just because she made it and I'm really sentimental like that.She also made these napkin rings, which I do like. The reindeer (top right) has been in my jewelry box for at least 5 years (probably closer to 10), waiting for the remaining 7 to turn up. It got separated from the rest when they were 'put away in a safe place' (translate: lost) after Christmas all those years ago. Because I never throw anything out, I was sure they'd show up sometime. Well, I just found them yesterday, in the folds of a tablecloth (isn't that where you would have looked?) I'm really happy to have found them & will take better care of them now.Now if the styrofoam-ball ornaments decorated with sequins & beads held on by stuck-in straight pins would only show up, too. Sadly, they're long gone -- but this is what they looked like...Do you have any fun craft memories from your childhood?

Pics from the Sale of the Year

As you may have read in previous posts, this weekend my friend Bargain Hunter and I went to what she calls the 'Sale of the Year'. I got lots of stuff and (if you read yesterday's post) even had so much that I forgot a box and almost left some of it there for the dealers to sell again!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the sale. I love to pick up box lots, because they're a little like a treasure hunt -- you never know what you're going to find in them. I've always found at least one good thing in them & usually more.

The 'stuff' from the Sale of the YearThe canister set I almost lost -- before cleaning
After cleaning (it's amazing what Soft Scrub and elbow grease can accomplish!)
A box lot of plastic dishes

Here's what was in the boxA box lot of plastic Christmas 'junk' revealed all of this! I'm really happy that the tree toppers, sled with reindeer, beaded candy canes and the snowman were hiding in thereThe light-up snowman works (and doesn't need rewiring)!A lot of it unpacked & cleaned (the puzzles are from a Flea Market)This clock jar and burlap coffee mug might be the only two things I end up keeping. I've been looking for a clock jar at a bargain price for years and it was in the forgotten box! I think I was the more stressed about that than losing the $20!
Being a history buff (and basically nosy, as I think most history people are), I love to pick up scrapbooks, letters, diaries and anything else that gives me an eye to the past. Maybe that's why I collect old things, too. Anyway, I got this scrapbook for $5 and was happy that the dealer felt it had no value at all. I was so excited to see the pile of papers stuffed inside -- I could hardly wait to get home to go through them! Everything in it is from the war years in the 40s -- mostly from 1944 & 1945. There are lots of old newspaper clippings about the war -- even one that says that television will be an important thing after the war ("83% of people say they'd like to have a television receiver in their home"). There are also lots of artistic pictures of rural scenes, children, birds & animals that used to be popular in magazines, plus old greeting cards, postcards, church bulletins and paper badges from Sunday School classes. It's so much fun to look at it all!

I think the scrapbook & its contents are my favorite buy from the Sale of the Year (aside from the clock jar, of course)!

Temporama - A Retro Find!

I found some Temporama dishes at my local thrift store last week. I'd never heard of Canonsburg Pottery or Temporama, but was instantly drawn to the retro pattern & colors. It has a circular pattern of squiggles, sunbursts, lines & snowflakes in turquoise and tan.Since I'd never heard of the pottery company or the pattern before, I did some research. Here's what I found out:

Canonsburg Pottery was started as Canonsburg China Company in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (outside of Pittsburgh) in 1900 by John George, but the name was changed in 1909 to Canonsburg Pottery. In 1959 they bought the molds & equipment from the Steubenville Pottery Company when it closed down and continued making some of their patterns under the Steubenville name. Canonsburg went out of business in 1978. Though Temporama is very 1960s in style & color, Canonsburg is probably best known for its floral patterns.

At the thrift store, I got 2 small oval platters, an egg platea gravy boatand a covered casserole
I priced them and put them in the shop, but have 'seller's remorse'! As I write about them and look at the pictures again, I want to go right back and get them to keep for myself.