Bluebirds, Golden Shamrocks & Red Elephants

I manged to find quite a colorful collection of glassware while out junking the other day. With several pieces of French origin, I was a happy thrifter!

 

Aren't these bluebird bread plates the sweetest?  Just found the five little plates, no other pieces, although I did give the shelves a good looking over.

I always get these decorated French, glass canning jars to hold bulk items in my pantry. They make for such pretty storage and I do prefer glass over plastic. I especially like this pattern. The red Poppies are so fun, and how often do you see Viola on something? The metal band had some oxidation that I cleaned off with steel wool and a brass brush, the brush gets into areas that you can't reach with the steel wool. I detached the metal from the jars before cleaning, otherwise the glass gets scratched.

Don't you just love the vibrant, bright green, fruit design on this container? I don't think it's ever seen the inside of a dishwasher! I've passed up quite a few of these because the top spout flap was not functional or partially missing, sometimes the whole lid is missing. In memory I associate these with "Tang", I know they produced a multitude of different containers for this "space age" drink. This one is going to hold my coffee, I think the rich brown and the lime green will look nice together. And easy to find in the fridge in the morning!!!

Along with the memory of seeing these when I was a child (1950's) and a wee bit of research, this cute as pie, little cup ( only holds about 2 ounces), was a "complimentary" container that held processed cheese spread. Referred to as "Swanky Swigs" they were introduced by Kraft Foods in 1933.  Love the wee little animals marching around the top and the red Polk-a-dot elephant. I think this one lived with the other jars, it's also in pristine condition.

I have a growing collection of floral frogs, so much so that I thoroughly look and debate the necessity of each new find. Well I was giddily surprised to see that this pretty crystal one was made in France. It is marked on the bottom and also has a paper label.   Wooo Hooo...crystal AND French, going home with me!

I don't need a salt and pepper set, but I did need to get these in the box Fitz & Floyd Christmas Geese shakers. They were just to pretty to pass up.

The petite little "Carolers" were gold with heavy dark brown antiquing...the first thing I did when I got home was to lighten them up...so much better! Also, this is a better picture of the Bluebird plates.

And the cherub got a "wing makeover", I didn't quite care for the copper and gold rather messily applied color of the wings.  The rest of the body was already white.

I also just gave a very light antiquing of golden oak stain. I pretty much dry brushed the stain on and wiped off immediately. I used another dry brush to pick up the excess out of the nook and crannies. Just be sure to keep this brush wiped off with an old rag. This way you can achieve an old look without the heavy build-up. I keep separate brushes to use with this technique.

Also got this smaller (15" x 18"), ornate frame (hard to find these in any size in my area). It was originally gold, rather flat and very light in color. So while I was spraying everything else, I gave this piece just a light coat of white (just a little so that the crackling from age is still visible) and used the same aging technique.

All three of these makeovers were so simple and easy.

But I believe the "piece de resistance" of my finds are the Gold Shamrock wine glasses.  Guess where they were made? If, like me, you thought Ireland (because of the shamrocks), you'd be incorrect!!! You have to go a bit further east, cross the English Chanel and set foot in France. Yes, these little pretties are French.

They might only be three leaf clover, but I feel very lucky to have found them! And they also must have lived with the other items that have never seen a dishwasher.

I wonder if most of these items could have possibly been donated from the same home. I often get this notion when I come across finds like this in a thrift store.  Do you ever get that feeling?

All of the new pretties arranged for this photo shoot are sitting on my granddaughters birthday surprise (that it's done). She has patiently been waiting for me to paint this stand for over 6 months. She found it at Goodwill for the unbelievable price of $4.99. Her selling point to me? It had a magazine rack and the cut outs were sooo cute! (I've trained her well, extremely proud)!!!

It was just your basic stained, wood tone piece of furniture, but very sturdy. Her color choice is Passion Blue (premium flat) by Benjamin Moore. Primed, painted, lightly distressed and clear waxed was all this piece needed, and was wanted! She knows what she likes.

Delivered and now in use as a bedside stand...Happy 11th Birthday Ciara!!!

...Love, Gramcracker.

~~~Thanks for popping in

Happy Hunting and Gathering~~~ 
  
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