Mantel Decorating

After decorating my kitchen fireplace mantle/mantel for Fall, Halloween, and Christmas , I had considered doing a "Winter", "Valentines", "St. Patrick's Day", etc. theme for the next few months, but then decided it was too much trouble, and stuff.

Stuff I need to be getting rid of. I was kinda proud of myself earlier, when I was sorting some through some stuff to keep or get rid of and came across a bag of Valentines cards, candy containers, decor and more. And 2 vinyl Valentines tablecloths.

Most of the cards was boxes of the kind kids exchange in elementary school so I knew I didn't need those, and some of the decor I decided I didn't want to hang on to. But I was pretty torn on the candy containers. They're so cute. They might be "kitsch" one day. I love kitsch.
But oh well, I've got kitsch coming out of my ears as it is, so I let it all go.

I allowed myself to keep one of the vinyl tablecloths, though. Tablecloths come in handy.

So anyway, I have a lot of vintage kitchen-y things like vintage Pyrex and enamel cooking pots, so I decided I'd go with a "Vintage Kitchen" display theme.

But it's not working for me. I'm not feeling this.

This isn't everything I have, but I picked out a few pieces to start with, and would add or subtract or whatever was needed once I got an arrangement going on. Only, I can't seem to get an arrangement going on.

We replaced one of the upstairs' really old windows a couple of weeks ago, so I used part of it for my "vintage" display, but....it's just boring.

Other people turn Pyrex dishes up-side-down to stack like this and it looks great. I do it and.....nope, not that great.

Goodwill Thrift Store

Guess I've been MIA a few days. It's been J's two-weeks off from the ambulance service. He's been gone deer-hunting some of the time...but not enough of the time.

Last weekend I had planned us a family outing, we went up to Blue Ridge, Georgia and rode the Fall Foliage excursion on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway.
The weekend wasn't without it's difficulties, though I tried to concentrate on the positives and blow off the negs.
I'll try to get around to posting about it on my Family Travel blog sometime this week hopefully.

And the weather and change of the Sun's position isn't helping my moodiness.

Anyhoo....blah blah blah. Yesterday, J decided he'd *fix* the back door deadbolt that ate his key a couple months ago.
Long story short, we ended up going to Home Depot for new deadbolts and doorknobs for both back doors.

While we were out, we went by Kmart to pick up the Free stuff I'd ordered with my Points over the past couple weeks. Ended up with 2 12-packs of toilet paper, and 5 bottles of Dishwashing liquid.

After there, I wanted to go to the Goodwill to look for Christmas sweaters and me some jeans.

My oldest son's fiance' had the idea for all of us to dress in *ugly* Christmas sweaters for our family photo this year and I loved that idea. So I've been trying to look for Christmas sweaters for us at the thrift stores and yard sales this summer, with very little luck. I've only found one so far.
Seems so strange, how everyone hates the Christmas sweaters, and yet I can't find any at thrift stores. Where are they?

I did manage to find myself a couple pair of jeans. A nice pair of Levis and the others are AB, I guess? I'm not familiar with the Label, but they fit my growing arse, so that's all that mattered.
About $7.00 each pair.

I tried on like 7 pairs of jeans around the same sizes, but they all fit so differently, these are the only 2 pair that fit comfortably.

I probably could have found more if I'd tried on more, but I don't really enjoy clothes shopping or trying on clothes, so I settled on these, and maybe I'll try again next time.

While I was looking for myself some jeans, I sent J off to look for some for himself. He found one pair (that I think are a size too short, but if he wants to look like stupid stumpy-man, what do I care?), and a nice looking pair of Field & Stream shorts.
About $7.00 for the Levis, and about $4.00 for the shorts.

I found the boys a pair of shorts. They wear the same size now so it's a little easier.

It's not really shorts season anymore, but finding their size (30 waist) isn't that easy so I grab it when I find it, whatever the season.  Summer'll come back around soon enough.
About $4.00.

Then I checked out the Other Stuff I like to check out, Home Goods and such.

I found a Fire King glass pie plate for about $2.00. Looks like it might be worth a little more, but I actually bought it to use myself. I've always used tin pie pans for pie baking, but decided I wanted to try using glass for a change.

The spinning coffee cup hanger thing was 99¢. Don't know if I'll hang coffee cups on it, or what. It looked like it might have lots of potential uses, in the laundryroom, maybe even the bathroom, or workshop.

Then there was the Salt & Pepper shakers....

I was standing there when the employee put them on the shelf and my first thought was "Those are something."
I didn't know what they were, but I knew they were something, so I grabbed them up.

I tried to read what was written on the bottom, but it was white on white, and I didn't have my reading glasses with me. Tried to get J to help me read them, but he's the same blind as I am.

At first I thought it read "Junior", LOL. Then I traced the first letter with my finger and I thought it was a "T", then I could finally make out the "enton" at the end. Trenton?

Finally the lightbulb clicked on - Fenton.

I don't know from where I know anything about Fenton (an image of my (paternal) Grandmother popped into my mind along with the word, so I assume I heard it from her sometime in the past) but I got out my phone and googled Fenton Salt & Pepper shakers and got my answer.
Yes, I would be buying these for just less than $4.00 for the set.

I'm pretty sure my Mom has some matching pieces to these somewhere.

Yard Sale-ing!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning, about 45 minutes from home, so on the way back we stopped at a ton of yard sales between there and here.

I was able to find some more orphan beaters for my clock project. I need to count and see if this makes enough or if I still need more. Hopefully I don't. (I can't seem to find the old posts from where I was finding and collecting these from yard sales and thrift stores last Summer to try and make this Clock I saw on Pinterest.) Total cost of all 4 was 75¢.

The other egg beater has a hole in the red plastic covering, and they don't turn/beat very well. I think I could tear the red plastic coating off the gear/wheel and they'd probably look and work better, but I already have a good working egg beater so I believe I'll leave this one like it is and put it up or hang it near my Sweetheart cabinet as decor. It only cost like 10¢.

The green/glass chopper thing, my Mom had one when I was a kid, back in the 70's. I don't know what I'll chop in it, but it was only 50¢.

The Potato Chipper I paid $1.00 for. If we manage to grow any potatoes, or even if we don't and I end up buying a bunch on sale again, I spend a lot of time peeling and slicing or cubing potatoes into fries or cubes for potato salad and put them in the freezer. Maybe this thing will help make it a bit easier chore.

I saw these white bowls and my first thought was they'd make good cereal bowls. My bowls at home have a lip around them that makes turning them up and drinking the milk out of them hard. They were 6/$1.00.
I noticed later they say "Made in Korea" on the bottom. I don't know anything about Made in Korea dishes, if they are old or no older than any other dishes. (I tried google'ing information, but apparently I'm a google-failure. I don't seem to do well at finding information. Probably don't know the right keywords to use or something.)
Anyway, they're still going to be cereal bowls.

These bowls have no markings on the bottom and I don't know anything about them except my Mom collects bowls like the one on the left, with a pretty/colorful design. I couldn't make up my mind about the brown bowl but J said "It's only a quarter, get it".

The little Pyrex refrigerator dish minus it's lid was only 10¢.

I bargained the "Aunt Jemima" shakers down to 50¢ from $1.00. They say "Japan" on the bottom. I am sure these are pretty vintage.
Checking on ebay, they are apparently one-half of a set that includes "Aunt Jemima" and an "Uncle Mose". I wondered why they both had the same number of shaker holes.

I got this huge - maybe King size, not sure yet - Chenille bedspread for $5.00.  I love Chenille bedspreads, probably because my Grannie's and Great-Grannie's had these on the beds when I was a kid.
Or, possibly, because I'm still a big baby that likes to be swaddled. These blankets are thinner than most blankets and comforters, but they are soooo heavy. I love these and the old handmade quilts that are a lot heavier than modern day quilts.

And I bought these three blankets for $2.00 (total, not each).  I already have a ton of blankets and throws, but I didn't have these blankets, I guess.

Love the tag in this one.

This ladder, LOL. The man had three gallons of paint sitting on it, and I totally didn't even see the ladder.

We had gotten back in the car and was turning around, discussing the possible reasons these people still had so much stuff left for sale when pretty much the rest of the subdivision was close to being sold out and some of them even closing up already. J said "Blah blah - wooden ladder for two dollars - blah blah blah"...I was like, hold on. What? Ladder? Two dollars? How did I not see that? Go get it, man.

I found this (potentially vintage Lamplight Farms hobnail glass) oil lamp at one of the yard sales for 75¢.  Saw the exact same one at the Gold Mine store (see below) priced at $12.00.

On the way back home we ended up coming across this new Antique and Flea Market store about 10 minutes from the house neither of us knew was there. It was awesome, there was so much neat - and freaky - stuff to look at.

I totally would have popped the $10.00 for this fire bucket had it been more red.  If I was any kind of half-ass good at decorating my home with Flea Market finds, I would have anyway. Heck, I may still go back and get it, lol.

Sigh. I wish I could go to yard sales and thrift stores and find awesome stuff and be able to bring it home and put it in some awesome decor and take awesome pictures of it like so many other frugal/thrifty bloggers (and others) are able to do.

Oh well, I keep trying. One day, maybe......