One Last Find For 2015

Popped in to Goodwill tonight to put together an 80's outfit for my daughters and son-in-laws Flashback 80"s New Years Eve Party. Got everything I needed from head to toe and still had about 15 minutes to shop before they closed.

I always look over the furniture section knowing that I can't possibly squeeze another piece in...but I still like to look. In fact, I recently passed up a rather new and not gently used, French Provincial night stand and dresser that with work could have been rescued...just no more room.

UNLESS IT'S A CHAIR 

 Then I saw this sweet leggy chair with pretty petit point flowers and my heart and head were gone!

This cutie is rather new but real detail has went into making it appear as if it were made long ago. New type material underneath but tacked in the old fashioned way. And the wood work and upholstery is nicely done. No makers label but still quality craftsmanship. It's very sturdy and the wood has some very itsy bitsy blemishes and the fabric doesn't have a tear or stain on it...could use a good vacuuming though!

The back and arms are upholstered in a soft sage green velvet.

Pretty arms and legs!

The beautiful petit point flowers is what convinced me
that I could make room for one more chair!!!

I just love those fancy tacks and pretty trim anchoring all the fabric.

 

It wasn't priced and I was a little concerned it might be out of budget. The girl came over and said "oh, you

want this chair", she sounded a bit disappointed. But she gave it a good look over and said "it's new on the floor and it's $39.99" and I said " do I still get my senior discount?" and she answered "yes". So I did some quick calculations in my head, 10% off makes it $36.00, I had a return card good for $10.00 more off, so now we're talking a budget friendly $26.00 and yes, I would have paid more than the $39.99.

I'll take it!
I really didn't need it. I'll have to squeeze it in somewhere. But oh, how it makes my Victorian heart happy ;)

This chair looks as if it belongs in one of the many rooms of Downton Abbey. I can even envision Lady Violet perched erectly upon it's pretty hand needled cushion.  And I might just use it to watch the last and final series six, premiering January 3rd (Sunday night on PBS)!!!

Might even put on my lace gloves! And hat too!!

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Adding Pizzazz!

Of course this is an AFTER picture. I get my tools out to work on something, get it taken apart and then remember to take pictures!!!
 I've had this stool for quite awhile. It's a nice, very heavy piece, but not vintage...just looks that way now!

It worked for me but it lacked pizzazz.  And I need pizzazz!!!

 Molly decided to photo bomb the picture! But you can see the before fabric that she's standing on. Sort of blends with the floor.

And here's a shot of the original fabric and a leg that I haven't wire brushed yet.

It doesn't show in the pics but the white paint has a green tint to it, probably from the gold underneath, so it has a cool look and I prefer warm colors. Also the backside of the leg was severely white, I don't care for distressed pieces that still show "new paint" underneath. As in this case it would really be noticeable.

So I took it apart and wire brushed the legs with my cordless drill fitted with a wire brush.

Wire brushing metal is an easy way to remove rust and paint.  It's also an easy way to remove

your skin...so be careful.

See all of those little wires poking out every which way? I use a pair of long handled pliers to hold the chuck while tightening.

 I used the razor blade to scrape along the sides of the legs to chip off paint.

 After the wire brushing I applied stain with a brush to get into all the nooks and crannies (wiping most of it off with a rag) to change the tint and to help age the paint out. I also distressed the underneath and used stain on it so it has an overall aged appearance.

I got about 4 yards of this beautiful rose upholstery fabric at Goodwill last summer.  There's bits of light blue color thorough out the fabric. It's a nice visual surprise and gives it a modern feel.  I have a couple of projects in the guest bedroom that I'll be using more of it on.

I let the stain set for a day before I used clear wax to add a bit of luster and reassembled.

Here she is all pizzazzed and finished and in the bathroom, a great place to sit while drying my hair!!!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing all of you the Very Merriest of Christmas's. May your Time with Family and Friends be Joyous!

White Ironstone Finds For A Christmas Table

I pulled out my Quaker Lace table cloth to layer under this vintage 1950's Christmas table cloth.

 

I realized that they both needed pressing...DARN! So I put a large, folded several times, heavy  cloth down on the table and pressed each one on the table. My table is not the greatest so I didn't have a lot of worries I'd do it damage. I'm not saying this is how it should be done but, it worked really well.
 

The newest finds are the platter it's just a simple squarish-oval. A Mid Century coffee pot marked USA. Some references say that it's restaurant ware...it's home ware now!!! And those pretty doily's.

 Just realized you can't even see the top of the platter!!! But here's a shot of the back. Loved that it's named Snowhite~~~

A pretty ironstone bowl with pink roses and a blue ribbon. I just filled it with glittered pine cones and glass ornaments.

The Salvation Army had about eight of these  petite sauce boats. I limited myself to just one. At fifty cents each I probably should of got two!

I also just found the silver wire and capiz shell cross while out junking. Capiz shell is so hard to resist...it whispers to me..."take me home". The shell actually comes from the Windowpane Oyster, which is edible, but valued more for their pearls and translucence shells

Picked up several boxes of those glittery snowflakes last year, so they will be popping up here and there in my decorations. I'm liking them on the table with the aged music sheets.

This little Angel is from Germany and I found him several years ago.  I think it's the most sweetest of figurines. 

 Every time I look at him (he stays out all year in my bookcase) with his hand to his heart at the wonder of the child before him, I always have a rush of sweet emotion.

Got this huge candle several years ago while out junking. It had several layers of a cellophane type wrapping, so I didn't know that it was broken in half and it was literally hanging by a wick! So I had to get creative in order to salvage it. The vintage page was the folder for the music sheets and is of a heavy weight paper so I thought that it would work well. I aged it some more and just modge podged it on.

Added a couple of different widths of lace and tied on the big button with aged rayon seam binding. 

 

 Used two sizes of small dishes layered with a doily and set the candle on top and propped up a snowflake. And here's my Fitz and Floyd Christmas Geese shakers from my previous post.

These pears were such a great find. They're ceramic with metal stems and I believe they were rather high end. I found them while out junking...they were offered as a set, you got the six pears and a glass bowl for one price. Of course it took about a half bottle of Goo Gone to get all of the tape residue off of them. They had secured the "set" extremely well!

Just layered a doily under the pears to add pattern and interest. Two of the plates are French Haviland and two are White Mist, Staffordshire England

Since it's mostly just me, when I have a meal, I move things over and pop down a place mat . I can have my table and enjoy it too!

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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.

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Happy Hunting and Gathering~~~ 
  
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