Christmas Thrift List!

I'm slowly starting to get into the decorating spirit! November was a busy month with my son's birthday and BFF's wedding taking center stage! 

Last week I made a point of visiting a couple of the thrifts in hopes of finding a large Santa blow mold. It's been on my Christmas Thrift List for a while!

Mission accomplished! There at the back of the store I spot it~ A Jolly Saint Nick blow mold. He's waving at me and all I can hear is buy me, buy me! And for $6.99 you can bet he came home with me that day!

Jolly old Saint Nicholas,
Lean your ear this way!
Don't you tell a single soul
What I'm going to say:
Christmas Eve is coming soon;

A sneak peak at my dining room buffet vignette! Stay tuned ~more to come in the following days...

Buried in a pile of dollar store Christmas crap decor I spotted these two free standing vintage angel tree toppers in a bag for 99 cents. Love their angelic faces~so sweet!

I picked up this darling vintage cream and gold trimmed, Elf shoe planter from GW for 50% off. It is marked on the bottom with embossed lettering SHAWNEE, USA.

Excited to find some vintage holiday fabric gift bags. I picked these 5 fabric gift bags from a Church rummage sale a few weeks ago for $1. I've always wanted to sew some re-useable Christmas gift bags but never got around to it.

Haakon is modelling this vintage Christmas half apron from VVs for $1.99 and I found the hand made oven mitts at Sally Ann for 99 cents. Don't they make a nice set!

What's on your Christmas thrift list?

Linking up with The Thrifty Groove for Thrifty Things Friday!

Until we thrift again...

AJ

Retro Mr. Men Bowling Party

    

This weekend we celebrated Haakon's 6th birthday with friends and family. It was a retro inspired Mr. Men & Little Miss Bowling Party!
 

 

I ordered a downloadable invite from Distink Design's Etsy shop. In lieu of birthday gifts we asked guests to bring a non-perishable food donation for the Ottawa Food Bank.

The party was at West Park Bowling in an area of Ottawa known as Hintonburg. West Park Bowling is a fully automatic 5 pin bowling alley. It is one of the original bowling alleys in Ottawa and opened in 1946.

I found some Little Miss and Mr. Men fabric in the clearance section of JoAnn Fabric's and sewed a Happy Birthday bunting. 

Here's Haakon lining up the bowling ramp.

"Spare Me!" 

I ordered retro inspired bowling shirts for the family! They were having a Close-out sale!

A photo booth wall complete with discounted Little Miss and Mr. Men costumes I purchased after Halloween. Here I am as Mr. Bump with my niece, Little Miss Chatterbox and RJ's cousin's son as Mr. Strong!

Here are the bowling trophies I picked up at an estate sale a few weeks ago and some vintage bowling pins. I thrifted one  of the them and borrowed the other two.

  

Kids enjoyed tasty snacks from the vintage nesting snack bowl set!

Haakon's aunt made the cake using a vintage bowling pin cake pan I picked up at VVs for $2.99! 

Happy Birthday Haakon! As of today, you are 6 years old.
As we watch you grow into a backpack-toting, homework-doing,
independent kid, we have a few special wishes for you.
We wish for you to always be surrounded with love, happiness and
positivity. You have such a good heart!
We wish for you to forever keep your enthusiasm for life. We all adore hearing you laugh.
We wish for you to continue to be creative and imaginative.
You are obsessed with everything Legos – how you manage to put them together and then keep them together is impressive!
Hugs and Kisses,
Momma, Dada, and your baby sister Elsa!

It's Rednesday so I'm sharing this bowling of party with Sue at It's A Very Cherry World and Linda's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm. 

Until we thrift again...

AJ

DIY Vintage Brooch Hair Clip

Happy Monday!This past weekend was my BFF's wedding and I was her MOH! That's why I've been MIA the past couple of days...I wanted to share with you an easy and inexpensive way to dress up a formal up do using a vintage brooch. I found this vintage brooch at Salvation Army for $2.99 and thought it would make an amazing hair clip for my BFF's wedding day.

Here's how I transformed this vintage brooch into a hair clip. 
You will need the following supplies...
-a pair of scissors
-strong glue (I used Gorilla Glue) or a hot glue gun
-piece of dark felt
-alligator clip (I bought mine from the dollar store)

First cut a piece of felt slightly smaller then the brooch 

and glue it to the back of your brooch. You could remove the pin closure at this point if you like. I decided to keep it just in case I wanted to wear it as a brooch again.

Next is to glue the alligator clip to the back of the felt. When choosing your clip make sure it is smaller then your brooch. 

Viola! A vintage hair brooch! 

Congratulations Christine and Spencer on tying the knot! 

I'll be joining Sir Thrift A lot's Thriftasaurus and Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday! Hope to see you there!



Until we thrift again...

AJ

Collection of Money Banks

Most of us had a money bank or piggy bank as a child to save for something really special! My first money bank was this dog...he isn't marked nor do I remember where it came from. All I know is it's over 30 years old and still has it's original plastic stopper!

My first money bank

Both my sisters had similar money banks except one was a lion and the other a cow. Recently while thrifting, I spotted this cookie jar that looks identical to KJ's lion bank! I had to snap a picture for her.

I thrifted this vintage Fisher Price piggy bank for Haakon. His hat twists off to remove the coins. The Bottom Reads 1980 Fisher- Price Toys Division Of Quaker Oats Co. 166. He's in great vintage condition! Love his piercing blue eyes and rosey cheeks!

I thrifted this "Ontario Pork Pig" piggy bank made by Decal Artistry by Catterina Hamilton, Ontario Canada. The funny thing is anyone who knows me knows I don't eat pork! but his face is really sweet~ don't you think?

I recently thrifted this ceramic, square money bank created for the Design Centre London. It has a mod design of a Royal Guard on the front and the back shows the Tower of London. It's marked made in England and paid only 99 cents!

Here is my 1970s Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken bank. I purchased him while in university for a quarter at a garage sale! The pig in a barrel I thrifted at VVs last month.

With a cashless society and the penny being phased out (In Canada) do you think money banks will be a thing of the past?

I'll be joining Sue's linky party for Rednesday! 

Until we thrift again...

AJ

Vintage Kids books I Love!

I have quite an extensive collection of children's books both new and vintage. I'm a kindergarten teacher and mother of two small children so many of the books I collect are picture books. I have kept many of my childhood books but there is one book I will forever cherish. It's written and illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa~ "Oh, What a Busy Day!" This book was a gift from my Australian grandparents back in the late 70s! I have very few memories of my grandparents seeing as they lived on the other side of the world! I met my grandmother twice~ once as a newborn (have no memory of this!) then later as an adult before she passed. Many of her gifts to me were picture books. 

As you can see it's well read!

What draws me to Gyo Fujikawa's illustrations are the sweet,round faced children. They all have bright eyes and rosey, red cheeks! 

"Happiness is a gooey mud puddle!" ~Fujikawa

Recently while thrifting, I found 2 more Gyo Fujikawa's children's books. Her signature is so distinct I can spot them a mile away! I found these two hard covered books that she illustrated; "Mother Goose" and "Fairy Tales and Fables." I paid 99 cents a piece at Sally Ann. 

My Gyo Fujikawa vintage book collection!

I have selected a few illustrations to share...

Jack and Jill

Old King Cole

The Cat and the Fiddle

Fujikawa's illustrations are so captivating and spark young imaginations. While thrifting, if you spot one of her books I recommend picking it up. These are the kinds of books that stand the test of time. 

What vintage kids books have you thrifted recently?

Hope to see you over at A Living Space for this week's Nifty Thrifty. 

Until we thrift again...

AJ

Bric-à-brac

Bric-à-brac! I love that word...the thrifts have been rather dismal lately and I've come home rather empty-handed~ which isn't such a bad thing since I'm not a reseller. So I've put together a collection of household items that were thrifted in the past couple of weeks. 

I haven't been able to find much on this unique piece of pottery entitled "Fred & Ginger." I'm not sure if it has a utilitarian purpose or is strictly decorative. 

I paid $2 for the set at Sally Ann.

Once I brought them home, RJ discovered that the pieces interlock as dancing partners! So clever

The bottom is marked copyright FF~ not sure what that stands for? 
If anyone can shed some light on this piece I would love to hear from you!

2 Vintage Hall green and white custard ramekins. Stamped 351.

These were half off at GW! Paid $1 for the pair.

Vintage rollerskating Garfield stoneware mug marked Made in England. I thrifted this at a church rummage sale for 25 cents! It's been great for my morning coffee.

Couldn't resist this 90s WWF drinking glass by TITAN with Brutus the "BARBER" Beefcake for a quarter! You can see more of my vintage WWF finds here.

Here we have the Little Old Lady who lived in a shoe's house boot! It's stamped on the bottom but I'm unable to identify the maker's mark. It may reappear in a Christmas vignette. 

A random assortment of vintage Pyrex. 

Two 1 1/2 pint mixing bowls and a verde casserole dish sans lid! 

I have yet to find any vintage pyrex with lids but I'm half way there to completing the 400 Series of the Primary Color Mixing Bowls. I now have the yellow and blue mixing bowls. 

Paid $5 for the lot

I paid 50 cents for this vintage Pyrex juice container with lemon slices...unfortunately it's missing the lid. What's with all the missing lids! It looks great with my Libbey Cherry juice glasses I thrifted recently.

So there you have my assorted collection of Bric-à-brac!

Be sure to check out other thrifty finds at Sir Thrift A lot's Thriftasaurus!



Until we thrift again...

AJ

I found it!!! Fisher Price Play Family A Frame

As you may recall in some of my previous posts that I have a love affair with vintage Fisher Price toys! I've been looking for the Family A-Frame house since I had my son almost 6 years ago! I finally found it~ YAY! and it just so happens the day I found it toys were 99 cents at Salvation Army! It's in fantastic vintage condition and there are no tears on the lithography or child graffiti! The only thing missing was it's driveway door but...

if you remember I posted here about my two sisters cleaning out the crawl space at my fathers house where they found the folding driveway from my house that I had in the early 80s!! Unfortunately I sold my house at a garage sale.

A perfect fit!

Last night Haakon set up the house with some furniture and little people we found over the years at thrift stores. I don't normally buy things from Ebay but I might be tempted to buy the original A-Frame furnishings!

These are the people in my neighbourhood!

I love it when you can check an item off your "Thrift List!"

What items have you checked off your thrift list lately?

I'm heading over to Have a daily cup of Mrs. Olson for Share your cup Thursday! 
Until we thrift again...

AJ