Why 'My Mink Betty'?

Why 'My Mink Betty'?
I'm not your common, everyday twenty-something year old and when I graduated from High School I got an equally uncommon gift. My parents found for me a beautiful 1940's mink stole at a garage sale. It had belonged to the woman's Great Aunt Betty who had married late in life to a man with money and had only allowed him to buy her this one luxury. The unusually styled stole has the name, Betty L. Jones, embroidered in the satin lining so that's what I call her. They never had children of their own and the mink was passed to Aunt Betty's niece and on to her daughter. Until it got to me, no one since Aunt Betty had worn it. Now Betty the mink and I go to the theater together on special occasions and I hope that someday I can take her to the Symphony or the Ballet. Although Betty hadn't been worn or loved for many years she was waiting for someone to love her again as are most other things I look for when thrifting.

Friday, December 31, 2010

The Year in Thrifting

Here are my favorite thrift and estate sale finds of 2010 in no particular order:

Rhinestone Necklace for myself.
I finally found a good one at an estate sale rather than an antique store.

Our mid century coffee table for $1.00


\So much Pretty Pyrex!!!
This was the first year I really started to collect it and I have gotten so much I can hardly believe it.

Assorted mid-century specialty cookbooks.

Various assorted books from the '50s and '60s on "better living" through home improvement
and craft instructions.

Tons of adorable baby planters and the vintage quilt in the picture.

Vintage Shiny Brite ornaments, specifically two with flocked lettering and images on them.

Remington Quiet-Riter and a Eureka typewriter ribbon (in the cutest little tin ever).

Vintage Hotpoint refrigerator.

Old slides, a projector, slide viewers, and even a screen to view them all on.

My vintage pink Sunbeam Mixmaster ca. 1957.

It's been a wonderful year of thrifting and brought me many useful and fun things. How's your year in thrifting been? What are some of your favorite finds?

I'm linking this post to:

Thrifty Thursdays@Bloggeritaville
Junkin' Finds Friday@A La Carte

Join the parties and see what others have found.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

It's Mary Engelbreit Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

Just before Christmas I found a very pretty Mary Engelbreit square covered butter dish (7 inches square) at Goodwill. It even matches a couple of M.E. teacups that I already own. Isn't it just the cutest butter dish ever? I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet, but in this house with all the people in and out I couldn't use it for butter without it getting broken. I'm thinking I'll use it to hide hair clips or something in my room. (If you look carefully, there's a little chip right on top of where a black square should be. I'm not sure how to "fix" it, but any suggestions? My mother suggested china paint might seal it.)


I got something Mary Engelbreit for Christmas, too. My sister knows that I've loved M.E. since I was a child and she found this at Macy's while she was wrapping presents with her Relay For Life team.

It's a tin of Candy Cane Cocoa with a Mary Engelbreit design on the outside. It features three Santas on twistable rings of metal such that you can mix and match hats, jackets, and boots to make several different outfits for Santa to wear. It's only 4.5 inches tall but it's just the cutest tin I think I've ever seen.

Did anyone else get a Mary Engelbreit goody or something almost as cute for Christmas?

M.E. Monday

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas


Merry Christmas from 1965! This is my mother's family photo after all the kids were born. The nine range in age here from 11 months up to 15 years.

My computer is back up and running and I just wanted to stop in and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful time with your families.

The thrift and estate sale universe has been particularly nice to me recently and when the holidays are over I'll show you my loveliest finds. Here's a teaser just for now...




Some proof here that my love of vintage things is genetic. Look at that shiny brite! oh... and my Mom.

Monday, December 13, 2010

$1.00 Mary Engelbreit and Pyrex Magic

Yesterday I went to the local Goodwill to look for Mary Engelbreit Christmas things and this is what I found:


Well... This is a picture I had to find online because my computer is being fixed, my mother's doesn't have an SD card reader and I cannot find the transfer cord for my camera. So pictures of most things will have to wait a bit. What I found was a cute 6x8 tin with this picture on it, for just $1.00.


We also saw THIS:



The 1983 Strawberry Shortcake Berry Happy Home Dollhouse with a bag of assorted accessories. They were asking $30 for it and I think I might go back for it. At the very least I can bring it home and see what accessories there are and then return it later. I LOVE Strawberry Shortcake. She was always my favorite and I still have a few dolls. She was a little before my time, but I got dolls because my sister had them. The local video store had a supply of children's videos they would rent for free, and I always took a Strawberry Shortcake one. NO MATTER WHAT.

I haven't blogged about my Pyrex for a long time but recently (the last couple of months) I've discovered that I'm Pyrex magical and have been reluctant to talk of it for fear of the jinx!

I've found that if I see a new Pyrex piece online and think to myself how lovely it is, it will show up at the thrift store within two weeks and for a good price and I can buy it. This happened to me with these two items yesterday:



The Golden Willow Snack Server I saw on Ebay three days ago and then here it is! It was just waiting for me at the Goodwill for $4.99



This Pyrex Juice (or Lemonade) carafe didn't have it's lid but was only $1.99. I saw it recently in someone's post over at the Pyrex Collective and wanted it immediately. It took a little more time to show up but I'm still thrilled with it.

This Pyrex Magic has happened with a few other things lately as well but I only have the pictures of these that I was able to take on my phone.

Have you had any Thrift Magic lately?

I'm joining:
Mary Engelbreit Monday
Thrift Share Monday

 http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/


junkinfinds

And... We Have A Winner!!!

The lucky winner of my Christmas giveaway is P.

Congratulations to P. from The Way I Sew It!!!

As soon as you answer my Email I'll send them off in hopes that they'll be there in time for Christmas.

Thank you to everyone for reading my blog and participating in my giveaway. I really loved it and think I'll be doing this again.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Giveaway Extension


I've got a giveaway running for some lovely Christmas picture books that was supposed to end tonight and I've decided to extend the time limit!

The giveaway will end on Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST.
The winner will be announced on Monday.

The books included in the giveaway are all lovely and intended to help you start a Christmas Book Advent Calendar of your very own.

Please go check it out and enter if you love children's books. Here are some pictures of the books being given away:







For more pictures from the books being given away go to these posts here and here


Thank you all for reading, I hope you enter!

Monday, December 6, 2010

M. E. Monday

It's M. E. Monday over at Cherry Chick's blog and I'm joining in to share my newest Mary Engelbreit treasure.


I found this lovely decorative plate at a local Goodwill store for $2.99. It's 6.25 inches in diameter, marked on the back with Applause, Inc, Made in Japan, and SKU # 52158. I don't see much ME stuff at the thrift stores, except for mugs, so I was thrilled to find it. I was also pleased to find something with a holiday theme that was not Christmas.


But speaking of Christmas...

Here's a picture of my favorite version of Clement C. Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas."

For more Mary Engelbreit goodness, hop on over to M.E. Monday


There's still time to enter my Christmas Book Giveaway. For more information, click here

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Didn't You Ever Want to Color in Your Books?


Included in my Christmas Giveaway is a thrifted paperback copy of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," a classic children's book. It was an even better thrift store find than I could have ever imagined.

After we brought it home, I was leafing through it and remembered how much I had wanted to color in the pages of our own copy as a child. But of course, I was raised right.

"Thou shalt not color in the pages of a reading book... unless your brother does it first -- then it's okay, he'll get the blame".

What?
I was five years old. I think it was quite devious sneaky conniving clever of me.

I was at the college the day after we bought it and I received a phone call that went something like this:

Me: Hello?
Mom: I have a question for you.
Me: Yes?
Mom: Did you notice that this copy of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is a coloring book?
Me: Seriously?! That is SO cool!
Mom: Yeah. I was taking pictures for you and it says it right on the cover. How observant are we?

As a child, I had an obsessive method of coloring in my coloring books. Everything had to be just so and as accurate to real life as possible. If it was a Barbie coloring book, her hair had to be yellow because Barbie's hair was yellow, not pink or blue or even brown. I was also meticulous about the lines.

I remember once, when I was about five years old, I got mad at my (then fifteen year old) sister for accidentally coloring outside a line in my Cinderella coloring book and told her that her "coloring privileges" were "rebroked".

She gave me the strangest look, probably thinking "Where the heck did you learn the word 'rebroked'? What in the world are they teaching you at that kindergarten? What privileges do you have to get 'rebroked'? Have you been listening to my phone conversations again? Man... I have the weirdest little sister. I'm SO coloring Cinderella's hair Brown while you're asleep." Then she just put the crayons down and walked out of the room and I thought to myself "Man... I have the weirdest big sister".

My only exception was with eye color. Everyone had to have green eyes because I wanted green eyes like my mommy. They had to be forest green regardless of my mother's eye color because no other green was just right. Once, when I couldn't find my forest green crayon and was very upset, my colorblind father tried to console me with "It's not that bad, they're all the same color brown to me." His crayoning privileges got "rebroked" too.

And... back to our original topic:

Not only was "The Grinch" a desirable coloring book, we also had "Horton Hears a Who" and "Yertle the Turtle," all of which were done in two-tone schemes and I thought they didn't have enough colors in them.

When originally looking through this book, I didn't realize that the pictures were supposed to have any color in them.

Click on the picture to enlarge.
The pictures are just so detailed and so much fun that it makes me want to not give it away! There's so much to color. There's the Who-feast with the Who-pudding and rare Who-roast beast.


There's the Who girls and boys playing with toys and making the NOISE. When I was little I especially wanted to color the Christmas trees and the presents that were everywhere in this. I wanted to make striped and spotted and colorful papers and ribbons and ornaments.


The Grinch is in the fridge taking their feast! I love the General Who-lectric icebox and the way that the Whos stack their eggs. Wish my eggs would do that, don't you? See that fish in the bottom? He shows up again later.


Did anyone ever notice the bunch of bananas hanging from the top of the tree on the right hand side of the sleigh? What the heck? Didn't anyone tell Dr. Seuss that the rum is for the fruitcake and not his stomach? Goodness. See? The fish is in the top of one of the sacks!

This book is just so fun I can hardly keep myself from coloring it all in! If you like this as much as I do, you should go on over to my giveaway and enter to win this and six more lovely Christmas books so that you can start your very own Christmas book advent calendar.

Was there a book you always wanted to color in or that you wish had been made into a coloring book? I had a "Wizard of Oz" coloring storybook that I insisted upon coloring in the monochromatic schemes of the actual book, much to my older sister's annoyance as she just didn't understand.


Yes, I'm quite aware that I was a very strange and meticulous child.

By the way, this is a special 40th anniversary edition (over ten years ago by now) and I'm not sure if they still print the coloring book version. Fortunately, you readers know how to find vintage books such as this.


I'm linking this to these parties. Come join the fun:

Thrift Share Monday @ Apron Thrift Girl

 http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/



junkinfinds

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Christmas Giveaway Book Scans

I have posted a picture of the books in my Christmas Book Giveaway. And here are some scans of some of the books. I will be adding more as I have time. If you missed the post about the Christmas Book Advent Calendar, you can find it here.

Click on the picture to enlarge.


The first book is a version of the classic poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas."

Illustrator Cyndy Szekeres shows us Christmas Eve in the Mouse Family house.


Those thrifty mice sure are good at repurposing things, aren't they?.

And here's St Nick delivering the presents.
I didn't know mice liked to play the ukulele. Did you?

The next book, "The Crippled Lamb," was written by Max Lucado with help from his three daughters,

and beautifully illustrated by Liz Bonham.

It tells the story of Joshua, a lamb with a crippled leg,

who feels left out, because he can't run and play like the other lambs,
and his friendship with Abigail, the old cow,

who tells him, "God has a special place for those who feel left out."

And one night, Joshua finds his special place in a stable with the baby Jesus.

The third book is "Little Polar Bear Finds a Friend" by Hans de Beer.
While not a Christmas book, I think it fits well into the winter theme.

Here's the description from the back cover.

Lars and the other animals after they escape from their crates.

Lars and the walrus are hesitant to join Bea in eating honey.
Lars and Bea arrive home.

I found a cute pocket-sized edition of "Olive, the Other Reindeer,"

written by Vivian Walsh and wonderfully illustrated by J. Otto Seibold

Olive is a dog who hears a Christmas song on the radio and thinks she must be a reindeer.

So off she goes to the North Pole to join Santa.

Santa encounters several problems on his ride, but Olive uses her special doggy abilities to save Christmas Eve.

The next book is another of Alyssa Satin Capucilli's books about Biscuit, the little yellow puppy.
Illustrations are by Pat Schories.

I was not familiar with Biscuit before, but I've discovered that he's the star of quite a few "I Can Read" books.

In this story, his little girl is taking photographs;


photographs of Biscuit celebrating Christmas.

And as you can see from the back cover, you get to add your pictures to the photo album, too.

This next book was also new to me.

"Santa's Favorite Story" by Hisako Aoki, with marvelous watercolor illustrations by Ivan Gantschev.

Santa is in the woods, telling a story to all the animals.

A story about a faraway place a long time ago,
where shepherds watched over their flocks at night,

and a bright star suddenly appeared in the sky,

and led them to a baby lying in a manger.

If you would like a chance to have these books for your very own, all you have to do is leave a comment on my giveaway post. The winner will be announced on December 11th.


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