Friday, October 21, 2016

Junkin' Finds:October 2016




October has flown by here. I have snuck away from the dust and mayhem for a few hours of junkin' in some thrift stores here in Illinois. I have a few things to share.

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My vintage finds for a couple of weeks. I have been restrained with so many things still packed away from the house remodel. Totes of goodies, I will have to sell, donate, or reuse in some way.

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 This sweet print in an old frame painted a hideous mauve, I mean dead mauve or mourning mauve, we used to call it. That kinda-purple-gray-mauve you wouldn't want anywhere and it was so popular in the late 40's used with gray and teal and lime green, ugh! In the floral design world, I was so happy when mauve morphed into burgundy in the 1990's.

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I love the sweet little bluebird in the foreground with some pale pink peonies. I'm thinking a white frame will allow the cooler tones of this print pop.

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Something so sweet about a child's innocent face. If there is an artist mark, it's under the matt in the old frame. I won't find out until, I'm ready to paint it. Glass not corralled within a frame tends to get broken around here.


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Sometimes I buy things just for educational purposes.  I was pretty sure this was a repro by the feel of this piece. Too perfect, and very sharp edges, and purchased for $1.99.  I found this is a Mosser log- cabin pitcher  (I thought for syrup) and a reproduction from the 1970's in beautiful caramel colored slag glass. The originals are most often clear and go for a pretty penny.

Mosser site states:  "Mosser Glass, located in Cambridge, Ohio, has been manufacturing quality hand-pressed glass products for over thirty years. Our handcrafted glassware lines consist of Carnival, Vaseline, and Opalescent, as well as hand-decorated pieces."


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With the failure of old glass companies during the mid-century, many antique molds were purchase and then later reproduced in the 70's: think carnival, jadeite, coin glass, EAPG and many others. As the real thing became too expensive for the general market eventually new companies began to do reproductions. Mosser established in 1970, continues to produce today, and no doubt if you own a contemporary white or green glass cake plate, it was produced by Mosser.

A key to new/reproduction glass, is it is too perfect in color and often with sharper edges than originals. New pieces are often slightly smaller than the originals. Some manufacturers' mark theirnreproductions with a new mark, others none at all. This pitcher has no mark.

I don't consider this a loss, as I was correct in my original assumption. If it feels new---it still maybe vintage and 40 or so years old, like this piece. Just don't pay original prices. 

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I picked up three pieces of this perfect dresser or chair set: a large oval with the poppy motif on both ends and tatted trim, and two smaller ovals with the ladder framing and leaves only, $1.99 for the three pieces.


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The color was so rich and the linen so perfect, I had to have them.  



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A single salt shaker, probably Nippon moriage...is very enticing with its free form applied gilding over the hand painted roses. I have picked a few salt shakers for their interesting glaze or design treatments. And they can be oh-so pretty.


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This one is probably from the early 1900's.


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Unmarked, but a steal at $1.99.

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I love blue, and I love fine handwork. Two tea towels, totally covered in shades of blue stitching. 
Only 50cents apiece.

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These are very reminiscent of my Royal Copenhagen Flowers pattern dinnerware.


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Here's another piece I bought because it was really cheap---and I wanted to research it. Style looks to be 1920's-30's.  Marked Made in Japan and a logo (might be an elephant)in the middle.

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No luck finding this exact mark, best guess is 1920's-30's. Other styles of this type of pitcher were also made in Czechoslovakia at that same time. Painted with black and red on top of the yellow glaze, have worn off.

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The original paint was actually quite garish with striped wings and orange comb, with beady black eyes and red striped handle. I will probably scrub this clean and be happy with a yellow bird pitcher in good condition. It's about 4.75" tall.

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I love lace that is soft and made with fine materials. This particular piece had nice soft drape to it, 
probably with some rayon in the threads. It's larger than a placemat, so nice for a dresser or table center. I will put it in my stash for projects, it's just the slightest off-white.


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Lots of detail in their piece, definitely older than the 1980-90's mass produced country style 
batten burg lace. This is finer stitches and not the least bit stiff.



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This is a large table piece...probably 60x80. Again this was made with high quality 
silky cotton. Nice pattern, has excellent drape and might be wonderful worked on a quilt, or in some bohemian drapes? 

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Someone had a ton of patience in these motifs and then all linked together and it was in perfect condition for $3.00. A steal!

Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle




Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Rapunzel Fondant Tower

The Grand wanted a Rapunzel cake. Having never seen the Disney version, I surfed the internet for ideas. One of the most consistent DIY ideas was ice-cream cone towers covered in fondant.

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Having never worked with fondant before, I surfed the net some more and watched several videos. Trying to be thrifty, I vowed to make everything or use what I already had. My only purchase was the ice-cream cones: waffle pointy cones and standard cones.


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One thing I did do differently was to stack three standard cones on the bottom and two on the top. These were all glued together with my Cookie Icing, which gets hard. I let this set-up for a couple of hours. We had 100% humidity/pouring rain this day, so I used caution.

 I mixed up three small batches of fondant for flowers by slowly blending in food coloring. These are stored for use in tight containers.

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Later in the day, I started with the black food coloring and mixed a large amount of fondant, easily half the box. As I was mixing it, I realized, by folding it over and over as recommended, I was getting some great marbling. So I stopped mixing and rolled this out to just under 1/4" deep.

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These are all the tools I used. Yes that is a play-doh roller and play doh knife below. Small cookie cutters were used for flowers. I picked lilies and large pink flowers, buds were made by cutting the shapes in half. To get 3 dimensions, I placed the pieces on the edges to get a curve in the flowers.

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I edged the flowers by pressing in the handle of the play-doh knife. The lilies, I simply pinched with my fingers and curved the petals.

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The flowers are really quite simple.


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Wrapping the ice-cream cone tower with the gray marbled  fondant was actually quite easy. The seams were sealed with a bit of water between the layers, and I smoothed it with my finger. A door at the bottom and a window at the top were added, with almost black fondant cutouts.

The excess gray was cut into small stepping stones to use for a path.
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Not really too detailed. The crown parapet was just a straight piece with notches cut in. It curved easily and went on with water. I added purple shutters and door, later.

The roof I covered in fork textured purple. and glued in place with cookie icing.
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The humidity was still quite high, and I made the mistake of hurrying and adding the vines with more cookie icing. DON'T use sparkle gel stuff----it doesn't get hard, the sweet little leaves, pooled and dripped...but from a distance just added color. I used lots of pink blossoms and yellow butterfly commercial candies. I've had these for awhile, and don't know the maker, as they were stored in containers.

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Four layers of confetti cake were baked. I decided to build different sized layers to give a terraced look to the cake. When staking the cake off center, I inserted 4 long plastic 
straws through all the layers to stabilize the cake. 
The tower was not on for transportation...hence I never got proper pictures. We inserted a long chopstick up the center of the tower and into the cake, and it held perfectly.

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Our family has to have chocolate, so I used 'earth' chocolate for the sides of the hill and green for the top. The layers were put together with strawberry, which really made it nummy. The gray buttons for the stairs and were of the same fondant as the tower. A long head of yellow braided fondant hair spilled from the purple shuttered window. The flowers were all sprinkled everywhere. The cake was served on frying pan plates. You have to watch the movie, our heroine was armed with a frying pan which she deftly used.

I'm afraid in all the hubbub, no one took a clear picture. 



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My daughter-in-law made the adorable Piñata..which was filled with all sorts of Princess paraphernalia and candy. It took many whacks with a frying pan to open it.

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We watched the movie, TANGLED, young and old alike, and roared with laughter.
It was a fabulous day, despite the lousy pictures. Thanks for visiting. And Happy 4th Birthday, Jerri!

Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle


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