A New Collection Begun

I have mentioned my new fascination with vintage Christmas ornaments so thought I better post some of my finds before the season ends. I have been having a ball searching the local thrift stores. I love the hunt no matter what I'm collecting! As Christmas grows closer they began marking down the Christmas stock so they don't have to store it for next year. Even better! I did hang quite a few on the blank spots I left on the living room tree and they are hard to photograph once they are on the tree so this is just what is sitting on the table in my art room.

This is the extent of the pink ones I have managed to accumulate toward that pink theme I had in mind. Something to aspire to for next year! I was at my hairdresser yesterday and she had the sweetest modern pink feather tree. It was tiny so if I find one of those in white I think it would be perfect for my tiny pink collection. A vintage-style white one would be even better!

I think these teeny tiny bells and the smallest indent I have ever seen are my favorite finds after that very first ornament I blogged about here. I put a quarter in the picture so you can see just how tiny they are. Adorable.

I don't know quite what to make of these. They are marked Shiny Brite and I have learned from Oodles and Oodles post here that they are called "unsilvered". I loved that post, by the way. I am wondering if they were intended to be Easter decorations. I MUST visit Amazon and see if there is a good book on vintage Christmas ornaments.

I couldn't get a close picture with these in the glass jar that is in the first picture so I poured them out in this dish so you can see them better. I added a quarter to this picture for scale as well..I hope to glue these tiny balls to some bottle-brush trees, just as soon as I find some of those - LOL! I got about half of these today. They were in a bag that included so much junk I didn't want that I asked the clerk if I could pay the full price and just take these out and donate the rest back. I don't think they are ever going to sell that sack.

The silver is worn off (I think it's on the inside so where does it GO??) most of these but I thought they were interesting because none of them are really round so I think they must be hand-blown. They are just marked Japan. I keep hearing the term "mercury glass" for these old ornaments but I question if they were really mirrored with mercury. I know if they are and I tell my geologist son I am hanging mercury all over the Christmas tree he will probably freak out and refuse to come over for Christmas.

I picked up this pair of ceramic candlesticks because of the unusual colors and the pink theme. It seemed like a good idea at the time but now I'm kind of rethinking that.

So there you have it. I am hooked. I will continue to search the estate sales and hope to know more about what I'm looking at by next Christmas.

I didn't think there would be a Show and Tell Friday since it's Christmas time but it looks like it's ON so I am IN!