Pretty Creamers survive the decades

I am participating in Vintage Thingie Thursday at ColoradoLady's lovely blog! Be sure to click through to see many more treasures!  Today I'm sharing two very special Depression Glass creamers. Special because, not only have they survived many, many decades of use and display, but they've been handed down through my own and my husband's families - so they've not just survived, they've remained in the same family hands all this time. 

The first creamer is a Fenton piece in the Orange Tree pattern. This pattern was introduced in 1911 and was one of Fenton's most popular over the many years it was produced. It features an iridescent finish in the marigold color. Apparently, many footed Fenton pieces of this era suffered damage to the feet, even just coming out of the mold during production. I'm amazed that this piece, which was passed down through the paternal side of my husband's family, has no damage whatsoever - to the feet, the scallops, or anywhere. 

The second piece was made by Indiana Glass Company in the Bird & Strawberry pattern, which was introduced around 1916. My grandmother passed this piece to me when I first professed an interest in Depression Glass as a young adult. She told me it had been purchased new by my great-grandmother. Since Great-Grandma had married in 1905, and had children in 1906, 1908 and 1910, I imagined her purchasing this for her young family's breakfast table. It, too, has survived the decades with virtually no damage - a tiny nick in the spout is the only imperfection. Both of these little creamers have long been retired from daily service and today sit in the built-in hutch in my dining room alongside several other pieces. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to share them! 

Not just for special occasions

I might be obsessing just a bit about dishes this week, but while I was enjoying a few vacation days I made an effort to do a little re-organizing of some of my dinnerware. We have a built-in hutch on one wall of our late-50's dining room (it was probably pretty mod-looking when it was built, but I would love to find a way to shab it up a little) and previously, this unit was displaying some family keepsakes and my Depression Glass. Several of my most recent dishy finds were hiding in a cabinet in the Mom-cave, and I wanted to bring them out so they could be easily accessible. 
To accomplish this, I moved all the keepsakes to the top shelf of the hutch, moved the Depression Glass to the more un-accessible side behind the dining table, and used the two remaining half-shelves to make some pretty stacks. Here are some of the goodies now contained in the hutch, right next to the table where they might occasionally get used! 

In addition to my lone piece of Franciscan Apple (a beautiful serving platter, which was a wedding gift), there are lots of other lovelies in this small space - most of them thrifted or the result of disciplined eBay bidding. I don't certainly have a collection yet to rival those of my favorite Blogland tablescapers, but I'm working on it! Here are some of my favorites:  

Royal China Currier & Ives, here stacked with a plain white/gold-rimmed dessert plate from Pier 1. These were a gift from my grandmother - she gave me complete service for 8, which we had used at family celebrations in her home for more than 20 years as I was growing up. I had also collected a few serving pieces over the years, but after the flood in 2008 I actually down-sized this collection based on what I reasonably expected to use. I now have 8 dinner and 8 bread plates, an oval platter and two round platters, plus a small tab-handled underplate and a lidded casserole dish. 

Homer Laughlin Glenwood - four dinner plates, which look lovely stacked with the Homer Laughlin Empire dessert plates I recently acquired. 

Cunningham & Pickett Norway Rose - two oval platters. Notice how similar they are to the Glenwood! (I've noticed other similarities between various C&P and HL patterns. "Veddy inn-terr-esting," as Arte Johnson used to say.)

Johann Haviland Moss Rose - three dinner plates and four berry bowls. 

Set of four un-marked dessert plates. 

And my favorite among  favorites, Royal Albert Old Country Roses (again layered with the Pier 1 dessert plate). So far I have three dinner plates, three salad plates, two dessert plates, and one cup & saucer. I'm working on acquiring four of each of these pieces, but I'm determined that each and every acquisition will be a great bargain so it's slow-going. 
My attempt to re-organize was met with some gentle teasing by Mr. Piglet, who thinks that because we have a three-person family we only need three plates. He doesn't know I am dreaming of the day when I need a dedicated dish room! 

Dishing up some new thrifty finds

Haha, no, contrary to the way it may appear, this little blog has not completely fallen off the face of the earth! I haven't been posting here much (or anywhere for that matter) but I am still keeping up with reading all my favorite home/decorating/DIY/craft blogs... it has been a busy year with my daughter graduating from high school and now getting ready to go off on her summer missions trip and then head to college. I am a proud (if somewhat weepy) mama! 

I also finally have a few days off from work, and got the bug to go thrifting today. Tried a few garage sales but found nothing worthwhile (I feel a "pet peeve" post coming on!), then hit one of my favorite thrift stores and found this pristine Liberty Blue dinner plate. 

This is a pattern I've wanted to collect for awhile - I love the rich blue-and-white combination - but, I am actually doing a little experiment with this piece. You see, what I really would like to have is another Royal Albert Old Country Roses dinner plate, so that I will finally have a set of four. So I have posted my Liberty Blue in the barter section of my local CraigsList, and I have also started an "Items I'll Barter" board on Pinterest - all in hopes that someone locally will want to trade plate-for-plate. 
I also found a few other wonderful bargains, including this little set of four Fireking bread/dessert plates - just 89 cents apiece. 

And, three pieces of Pfaltzgraff Summer Breeze - a 14-inch platter, and two 8-inch serving or mixing bowls, just $2.99 each. I might just try bartering these too, but I do love the colors. Maybe I'll keep the bowls and barter the platter. 

More soon!  

Vintage label projects

I'm linking up to "Brag Monday" at The Graphics Fairy! Be sure to check out all the wonderful projects featuring vintage graphics! 
Well I can't believe Valentine's Day came and went, and from a decorating and crafts perspective, I missed it! LOL One thing I really would like to do is get in a groove of crafting decorating accent pieces for various holidays throughout the year. Valentine's Day would have been a great opportunity, but I've had a crazy-busy month at work and have barely had time for any crafting at all! 
At any rate, I do have a few small projects I've been working on, and I've been meaning to share this fun series of label projects I completed using pretty vintage labels from The Graphics Fairy. (What a wonderful site for images to spruce up your vintage finds!) For containers, I used a tall Ball jar, a half-pint Ball jar, an old recipe box, and a junk-pile medicine bottle.   

With the exception of the half-pint jar, the containers are all vintage finds. I started by choosing images of a shape and scale fitting for each container, then sizing them and cutting them out. 

I swirled enough school glue on the back of each label to cover it, and used a foam brush to make an even coat. Then just pressed them down onto each surface.

Next I taped off around the labels on the glass containers, leaving just the tiniest margin. I then sprayed each with a couple of thin coats of spray sealer. The margin allowed the sealer to hold down the edges against the glass. No need to tape off the recipe box - I simply sealed the whole container. 

Here are the results:

What have you been up to? Finding vintage treasures, I hope! 

Vintage Thingy Thursday - a 60's barrel chair and a special bunny

This week I've been doing a bit of re-organizing in my mom-cave, and I keep tripping over these two special items because I don't really have a spot to keep them in. So thought I would share them for Vintage Thingy Thursday over at ColoradoLady's blog. 
The little barrel chair is a kid-size seat that's been in my family since about 1960. Barrel chairs were popular around this time - must-haves for the discerning rec room of the Boomer family! My older sister, myself, and my younger brother all used this chair, as did my daughter. I've re-covered the seat a couple of times over the years - a simple tuck-under-and-staple job - but other than that the little chair is all original. 

Seated in the little chair is a hand-sewn bunny I made in about 1990. Around that time, beautiful lop-eared rabbits in extraordinarily fancy dresses were all that on the craft show circuit, and oh how I wanted one. But oh how I did not want to pay the asking price for them, even though of course it was obvious how much time and love went into making them. 

So I did the next best thing - I bought a pattern, and decided to make my own. Now make no mistake, this pattern tested my sewing skills. And although I opted for a very simple dress (no patience to make the fancy pinafores and lace-trimmed skirts), I think she turned out very well!  
And my bunny story goes even a little further: at that time I had a step-daughter who was about 12 years old. She saw my bunny, and said she wanted to make one for her mother for Mother's Day. So we went to the fabric store to choose her materials, and over a weekend she made her own bunny with really just a little coaching from me in interpreting the pattern directions. She told me later how much her mom loved it, and to me that made the bunny pattern extra special. 
Both the little barrel rocker and the handmade bunny are destined to be handed down to my daughter and her little ones when the time comes. Maybe I'll take time to whip up a fancier dress for Miss Bunny in the meantime - and if not, I'll at least recover the rocker seat a few more times. 

Celebrating sunny orange and yellow!

What an odd week it's been - such lovely mild weather (in the 50's! In Iowa - in January!), and yet a little gloom in our home as we had to say good-bye to our 12-year-old dog, Bugs.

We got Bugs from our local rescue shelter in 2003 - he was a new arrival, a stray rounded up from a neighboring county. He didn't even have a name yet! But he had a soulful look, and a calm disposition in the midst of all of the chaos of the shelter, and we brought him home. He was a loving family pet for the next decade.

Maybe it's a combination of losing the dog and being stuck inside at work during all this beautiful weather that had me yearning for some sunshine - and I found it, in one of my all-time favorite color combinations: orange and yellow!

I first knew I was in love with these two colors together when I was about five years old. Our dance teacher's assistant had a hobby of making beaded rings, and my mother agreed to buy them for my sister and I. We could pick any two colors we wanted for each ring, and after looking at all the beads I decided on orange and yellow. I remember my mother making a point to ask me, "Are you sure? They're kind of loud." I was sure, and soon I had my cheerful, sunny ring. I've been a fan of orange and yellow, together, ever since!

I can always count on these happy colors - even if they are LOUD together - to bring on a little cheer.

Do you have a color combination that you love... that makes others question your judgment? :)

Make a can opener cozy!

Today I got to cleaning off my kitchen counter top, which had become a bit of a (ahem) storage area, and I got a little fixated on the ugly utilitarian look of the electric can opener. Decided I needed to make a little cozy-cover for it, and knew I had just the fabric to whip up a cute, quick project. Here are the materials I used:

2 cloth napkins (you could also use kitchen rags or towels)
1 stem silk flowers
Hot glue or Fabri-Tac

My fabric was actually a pair of red-and-white-striped kitchen rags. I didn't have a plan, but my original idea was to build a sort of fabric "box" complete with formed corners. Because of that plan, I started by sewing the two rags together, but ultimately decided I was making things way too difficult. I settled on just laying the rags right-sides-together, and cutting out a dome shape.

I pinned and sewed the whole thing together, trimmed my seam to a quarter inch, clipped my curves, and hemmed the bottom. Once turned right-side-out, it looked cute, but a little plain and even boatsy.

Obviously, embellishments were needed. I settled on a sprig of small silk daisies that I had on-hand - there isn't really a theme in our kitchen right now except perhaps "out-dated 70's stuff with red accents," but I thought the daisies would fit in better than my go-to choice of romantic roses.

I separated the daisies and leaves from the wire stems, and knew I was going to attach them to the cozy with glue. (I like to use FabriTac instead of hot glue - it works great for a project like this, and I don't burn myself. If you're adept with a hot-glue gun, go for it!) One problem, though, was that the backs of the daisy blooms didn't lend themselves to easy gluing. I simply clipped off the excess yellow bit, and was left with enough surface to apply a good dab of glue.

I pressed everything down into place, let it dry, and fitted it over the can opener. Here's the result:

It's not as complicated as the constructed "box version" I was going to make, but I sure like it - it only took about 15 minutes to assemble from start to finish, and it goes great with my red cannisters!

I've linked this quick and easy project to Making Monday Marvelous over at C.R.A.F.T. Dozens of fun, creative ideas - be sure to click through!