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

I'll be visiting these fine blogs, 
finding Silver Pennies
Amaze Me Monday
Metamorphosis Monday
Show and Tell Link Party
Make it Pretty Monday
What Did You Do This Weekend
Tuesdays with a Twist
Share Your Cup

Vintage Charm
Friday Feature Linky Party

Sandi

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

I'll be visiting these fine blogs, 

Show and Tell

Metamorphosis Monday

Wow Us Wednesday

Finding Silver Pennies
Amaze Me Monday
Make it Pretty Monday
What Did You Do This Weekend
Tuesdays with a Twist
Tutorials and Tips
Share Your Cup
Vintage Charm
Friday Feature Linky Party

Sandi

Amaze Me Monday

Barbie Vintage House REDO

Okay, so I'm in my local Goodwill...and sitting under a table was this Old Barbie house all folded up---for 499, yes, $4.99 for a mansion.

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A Victorian circa the 90's, 1890's that is....sigh...very much like our first house in N. Wisconsin built in 1902.

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I passed it by---because the Grand already has the NEW Barbie House we built last year for her, you can see the DIY and REDO posts here, HERE.

BUT, 

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We play Barbie's at Gramma's, too. 

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I passed it by---next time I came around someone had opened it, and I totally fell in love. 

It wasn't perfect, but it was in super condition. A fixer-upper, yes, but with great bones! 

At home, I left one side open to look at the construction. Quite ingenious as the whole thing folds up, and when open locks in place.

 Mattel released this house in a variety of colors over quite a few years, with small decorative changes and different furniture.

I brought it home and Hubby just laughed. He found a board to put it on in the extra bedroom.

I think a total remodel may be in the works.

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Here's the original configuration with the walls where they are supposed to be. The elevator really works, but the Grand can't reach it, so we are going to use it in place for more room and not even tell her it is an elevator. Some information on the internet said it was originally for the handicapped-Barbie that came in a wheel-chair at one time.

I wonder if I could extend that floor forward for more room. Oh dear, construction mess again, lol.

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Elevator going to the lower floor. Notice the built-in fireplace. I love the turret, can just see a Christmas tree in that space. Oh, and a window seat, to the left. The columns are quite nice, along with the stained glass windows. 

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The kitchen was in rough shape. Kitchen counter sink and appliances are in dire need of an updates.

Hmm...shopping list, look for compatible kitchen. And the front door is missing, having a hard time finding what it actually looked like?

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The stove was totally trashed.  

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Rest of the counter works, but..., it's so 90's.and no refrigerator, and no doors that open. NO STORAGE...lol? The decals in this house are really cute though.

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 The room above the kitchen...is the bathroom/bedroom. There are several cute little stained glass windows, throughout the house.

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Above the kitchen is the Bedroom/Bathroom,  The turquoise counter is the vanity sink, but...

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...here you can see the dresser/tub as it looks pulled down. 

I found a great article on the best Barbie Mansions, and this one is listed as it was originally furnished and set up, OLD Barbie Dream Houses. 

I love the the cottage feel to this house. We will keep that, and this one will be furnished with Gramma's taste with a more antique vibe. Except for the kitchen. 

Ebay will show a multitude versions of this house in so many different colors...all for quite a pretty penny, too. 

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Ahh, at the end of the bedroom is this built-in armoire. The drawers don't work, I may have to remedy that, somehow.

 And the elevator area with the elevator in place on the second floor.

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Having the house open this way, makes me think an addition might be the way to go. Extend the upstairs floor under the bathroom and also the downstairs with the bigger kitchen. 

The Grand is a major cook and so many mouths to feed...so hmmm.

 Also, one thing about Barbie houses, they have no closet space, we could do more sleeping area or closets. 

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Here's the front porch, with more stained-glass, all windows in great shape, planter box was empty, all except the mailbox intact. I love the posts and upstairs porch gingerbread.

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But, when the Grand showed up, we dug in my box of Barbie size leftover furniture from the DIY Barbie House, and the girls moved in even before the remodel. 

Notice the washer dryer now in the proposed kitchen addition. Our Barbies are very clean.

Currently there are 6 Barbies/Elsa/Anna. It looks like an addition will be absolutely necessary, we/they think. And the Grand says we need to find a toilet, and another sink.  A new upstairs floor will allow the bathtub to be used all the time. Like I said, our Barbies stay very clean. 

So Where are the boys?

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The 3 boys are lounging on the front porches and in the Tupperware pool. It was hot that day? Now, how do we find a man-cave for them or a bunk house? Another addition? Another house? Maybe they just visit, lol?

Stay tuned for remodeling updates: DIY Victorian Barbie house REDO.

I have some great ideas, a Victorian oval double bunkbed, a new kitchen, chandeliers, closets, a paint refreshening, and someplace for the boys?

Also some vintage Barbie furniture redo's.

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

I'll be visiting these fine blogs, 

Best of the Weekend

Show and Tell
Metamorphosis Monday
Wow Us Wednesday
Finding Silver Pennies
Amaze Me Monday

Sandi