What I See In My Crystal Ball

I'm sure none of you are surprised by what I filled the new glass globe with.  My crystal ball always sees buttons in my future - lol!  I picked out all neutral tones and it took about 6 hours of sorting because the globe is so big so I got a mega-fix of button sorting.  It is pretty impossible to control the placement of the buttons so I was very happy when that little star button settled in exactly the right spot.

No Black Friday for me.  I am hoping everyone else is at the retail stores and I have the thrifts to myself.  A girl can dream!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends!

Junk and Inspiration

 First stop on my Saturday junking was the Plucky Maidens Junk Fest.  On my way there I saw a sign for an estate sale so I made a stop there on my way back and then swung in to Division Street Antiques to see if they had any Christmas out yet.

 Plucky Maidens is all about inspiration, for me.  I visited Magpie Ethel for the pink reflector flower which I am planning to use on the top of my tree this year and a couple of pink bottle brush trees to spruce (he he) up my little deer collection for the holidays.  I also found two tiny bottle brush trees for a project I am working on.  My indulgence was the empty watch case.  I want to do some kind of vignette inside it but it has to "steep" on my desk for a while until I figure out just what to do.

 The estate sale looked like a bust when I got there but I managed to scrounge up a shoebox full of fun little bits and pieces.  I was especially happy to find all those old-style Altoids tin.  The ones that start out with paint on them always seem to patina better than the reproduction ones.

 The flower globe, postcard and doily are from Nina and Joe's Division Street Antiques.  They did not have Christmas out yet but Nina said they would be working on it today and tomorrow.

Some fun little vintage office supplies and I am always delighted to find original Dennison.  90 for 30¢, those were the days!

My favorite part of Plucky Maidens is all the vintage inspiration!  I saw one of these at the show and remembered I had seen one at Nina's so headed straight for it when I got there.  I had one years ago but seem to recall that it was plastic and not as big as this one.  The flower frog in the bottom unscrews and comes out. It is a project in progress on my work table.  I'm sure it isn't a big mystery to those of you who know me but I will show it in my next post.

Saturday Junk Fix

 I didn't get out much last weekend and so I was ready for a junk fix.  I hit the VOA and the new Bins for a look-see yesterday.

 I found this neat old cardboard manger at the VOA.  The figures inside are chalkware.  It needs a little TLC but has great "bones" so I am sure someone will enjoy it.  I usually avoid buying much Christmas for my Etsy because my space to store the things that don't sell is so limited but I couldn't pass on this one!  The two Forest Green teacups are also from the VOA.

 The hand painted tole tray and rose picture are from The Bins.  The back of the painting says Joan Case painted it in 1954 and she lived in Newport Oregon.  No fine art here but I love the subject.

 This might have been my best Bins score.  It has the original Madame Alexander tag.  I managed to wash it without any damage and it looks much better now.  I don't know enough about dolls to know which one it fit but will list it with measurements.

 A great little toffee tin that I did NOT put in the dishwasher - LOL!  That sailor looks pretty pleased with himself.

 A stack of patterns that I need like a hole in my head.  I bought the one on the right because I had the exact same pattern in high school and remember the dirdle skirt my mother made for me.  Patterns for men and boys don't sell well on my Etsy, no matter how old they are, but I can't resist some of the old graphics on them, especially not at Bins prices. Also a pretty piece of old filet crochet lace and peeking out behind that is a Daisy Kingdom nursery pillow kit.

 Vintage evening dresses always seem to be popular.

A pretty floral plate.  I have the exact same one hanging on the wall in my bedroom - LOL!  How things like this end up at the Bins really is testament to one [wo]man's junk being another [wo]man's treasure.

 This bedspread is something I have never seen before.  It looks to be floral terry washcloths that were crocheted together.  It is heavy and really quite pretty.

It has some stains like it was accidentally washed with something red and one washcloth has come loose on one edge.  First I will try to remove the stains and then I will see if I can repair it.  I have a front-loader washing machine which really doesn't lend itself to soaking things and I don't have a laundry sink so I have to figure out where I can soak it.  If I can't mash it in to the kitchen sink I may have to resort to the bathtub.  I really hope I can rescue it because it is very pretty and very unusual.
It is football day in American.  Go Seahawks!!

Button Love!

Oh my!  After a marathon of cleaning and sorting, I can finally reveal my favorites from the recent Button Motherlode.

You can click these pictures bigger but I took a bunch of close-ups so here we go on a photo-heavy post.

All of these buttons on the ecru paper doily are glass.

I adore those clear ones with the painted flowers!

The milk glass buttons right below them are whistles.  Sorry I didn't get an angle where you can see the side with two holes.

Big white Moonglows.

There is a little black and white china stencil down at the bottom, above the glass flowers.

These rhinestones are set in plastic buttons.  Glass rhinestones are a favorite but if it sparkles, I'll take it!

There were a lot of the tortoise shell-type buttons in this lot.

These cut steels are the result of my rescue attempt.  They were in the smelly tin that I had to dump straight in to the soapy water, in spite of what they were made of.  Just way too stinky to even have inside my house.  Naturally, they rusted.  I did the best I could to clean them up but I suspect the original finish was somewhat different than what I ended up with.  I am still happy to have them and managed to salvage about 20.

The black buttons at the top are unusual, or at least I haven't encountered them before.  The dark part is made from some sort of composite material and the centers are clear plastic that seem like it might have been poured in.

These beautiful blue buttons are metal.

BIG Lucite buttons with white centers.

I still can't get over the variety.  Those red buttons did not warp when I washed them.  They started out that way and I think that is the way they were originally made.

Looking at these photos, I see those green ones and the red ones down at the bottom could use a little more cleaning.

There are quite a few that I think are Bakelite but it isn't that important to me to know so I haven't bothered to test them.

I already gave these butterscotch ones another clean after I took this picture.

Love these little "gears"!

These have a metal ring set inside them.

More plastic rhinestones. I can't usually bring myself to part with them but there were so many duplicates in this lot that I listed some on my Etsy.  I will be putting together some mixed lots for Etsy, as well.
Maybe someday I will be a real collector and mount them on cards.  For now, I just started a new jar. I really should sort some in to categories and take some intentional pictures for Pinterest.  I already have a huge virtual collection on my Buttons board but I never seem to get around to posting any of my own buttons.  So many ideas and so little time.  I am going to ROCK retirement one of these days!
For those of you who suggested Barkeepers Friend for the mark on the Pyrex bowl - THANK YOU!  It worked like a charm and I have a new tool in my cleaning arsenal.

The Pay It Forward Project

I jumped in on the Pay It Forward swap way back in April.  We had until the end of the year and it took me a while to decide what to make.  I finally got my swaps mailed out last month and they have been delivered now so I can show you the project.

My inspiration was the Natures Blessings swap I recently participated in.  I had so much fun making my pages and wanted to make more to share.

Each little journal is one signature, bound with a pamphlet stitch.  They are each similar but not the same so everyone got a one-of-a-kind.

I liked the idea of leaving room for the recipient to make it their own so I left plenty room for them to add their own embellishments.

I included pockets so I could slip in a few tags and papers they can use for this project or another one.

The pages are heavy so they can hold up to plenty of playing.

I combined both vintage and new papers.  Some of the images are from my horde of Somerset artwork.  I always have a hard time using those but this was a special project so it was time to let go and I loved the feeling of sharing.

The stamps on these pockets are from a great Etsy shop called StampsForCrafts.  She has such fun assortments!  I ruffled some old crepe paper for the edge on these pages.

The covers, front and back, are vintage wallpaper.  I hope they will enjoy playing in them as much as I enjoyed making them!
Cataract update...  My surgery went well on Thursday.  I bounded out of bed yesterday morning, thinking it was back to life as normal.  Well, not so much.  DOH!  This eye seems to require more resting and sleeping.  I will set my expectations a little lower today but still hoping I can get out in the art room to work on that big pile of buttons on my work table.