Vintage Glass - a collection

I've been meaning to photograph some of my collections for awhile now, so when Casey from Elegant Musings posted that she wanted to do a blog tour of collections, I immediately emailed her. Can you tell I'm motivated by others?

I present my installment of:

Hello class, I'm Katie, and this is my vintage glass collection:

I started collecting vintage cut glass in 2005, and it all started with a green glass vase. I loved the color and the elegance, and I easily started a collection. It didn't hurt that there's a profusion of glassware in thrift stores. Six years later, I still check the glasswares section when I'm thrifting. 

Although it started with green glass, I quickly expanded to blue, gold and white - known as "milk glass." My collection is not mere decoration, though, I use it in every room in the house. Vintage glass makes great storage containers for craft materials, jewelry, cooking utensils - you name it, there's vintage glass to store it. I even store my button collection in vintage glass!

The humble beginnings of my glass collection in 2005 (taken with my first digital camera - oh, technology!):

Crafty Peep Swap

Earlier this Spring, I signed up for the Crafty Peep Swap on Becky's blog, Strumpet's Crumpets (the most awesome-ly-named blog, right?!).

At the time I signed up, I was going through somewhat of a creative slump. Nothing serious - more like crafting apathy. Sigh. Let me tell you - ain't nothing like a swap to help you get your mojo back!

But, not only do you get to make something awesome - you get to RECEIVE something. My swap partner was the delightful Katelyn of the blog likes & loves. She made me this cute wall decoration, with a bunny on it! You know how I feel about bunnies...

It goes perfectly in my living room. A nice bright little corner! 

I made Katelyn this embroidered wall hanging. The flowers are felt applique, with embroidered accents. I put it in a patchwork "frame," and I love the way it turned out! I was a little sad to let it go, I'll admit, but I shall comfort myself by making more. 

Thanks to Becky for hosting this lovely swap!

Pyrex find!

A few weeks ago I met up with my friend, Susan, to do some knitting. Instead of actually knitting, we ended up eating cupcakes and shopping. That counts as knitting, right? .... 

As we were perusing some fancy antique stores, Susan excitedly cried out, "Katie! I read your blog, and... they have Pyrex here, and I think it's your pattern!"

Sure enough, stashed down on a junky shelf in the back of the store was this:

A nice addition to the collection! And an excellent example of a good friend. 

recent vintage finds

I haven't had a ton of time to thrift lately, but I did want to share a few fun finds from the past few months.

First, the prettiest vintage sheet you-ever-did-see:

Second, when I went home to my parents' house for my cousin's wedding in February, my dad insisted I look through some of the stuff in their basement. I found this groovy hanging lamp, perfect for illuminating my favorite crafting spot:

And finally, some Pyrex. I've dabbled in collecting Pyrex in the past, but never really got INTO it. Well, watch out, because this gold butterfly pattern is awesome:

I was gifted the casserole dish, and found the butter dish on ebay and the shakers on etsy (here). All in great condition and all in frequent use in our home!

looong weekend

We took off early last Thursday and had a long weekend at home in Michigan, heading back to Chicago yesterday just in time to avoid most of the blizzard that hit Michigan. 

My cousin got married on Saturday, and a large amount of my huge extended family was there (my dad has 3 brothers and 4 sisters - makes for a lot of cousins). Funny thing - my cousin who got married is named Christopher and he got married to a Katie, and they are the same age as us! 

So, here's Chris & Katie, the not-married:

I always find it difficult to dress for winter weddings, so I've worn this dress to two. It's a vintage dress I found in terrible condition - ripped and broken zipper - and I repaired it and love it now. I am such a fan of the sheer neckline.

I have today off for Presidents day and took a ton of pictures of all the crafty work I've been doing lately, so stay tuned!

Traverse City - The Wedding

Chris and I had a great weekend in Traverse City, Michigan. It was absolutely gorgeous. 

Brooke & Michael, the lovely couple, put together a really sweet, homegrown wedding. Even though it was a bit cold, and it rained for a minute, it didn't ruin anyone's spirits. 

There was some crazy dancing (talk about sweaty), ending with an hour of 90's hits. Nothing more fun than being surrounded by your friends, belting out songs you loved in middle school.

I wore a vintage 60's dress, and it was almost a huge wardrobe disaster. The night before, I went to iron the dress with steam, and the minute water touched the dress, the fabric puckered up. I maybe freaked out a bit - luckily Chris is the most patient, and came with me while I drove around in a panic, looking for a back up dress.

It all ended well (with a good stiff dry ironing), and was a wonderful night all around!

the girl scouts return

So I'm still working on the finished products from my screen printing class back in July, but I did finish up this little pillow for myself. 

I printed in a few different colors on this grey felt, and for the most part I loved the result. But this yellow color... it just doesn't really show up. It was too light for the darker fabric, but if you look closely you can see its the girl scouts print. So this little pillow is for me!

I backed it with my favorite vintage sheet and trimmed it with some vintage fringe trim, procured from a friend's grandmother. Those grandmothers - they know where it's at.

a lovely vintage dress

I'm pretty lucky to have a few friends who are of similar size to me. This means that when they clean out their closets, I reap the rewards:

I almost didn't take this one home. I don't usually wear blue, but I think this dress is a-ok. I love the little tab & button details

This is a pretty standard look for me: vintage dress, cream slip, and cowboy boots.

and then there was patchwork

This is another little project I finally pieced together this weekend. There was a huge stack of strips on my ironing board for about two months. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. It's about the size of a place mat currently. I could just keep adding to it as I get scraps.... the never ending project!

a few thrifty treasures

One of the best things about vacationing in a small town in southwestern Michigan is the profusion of "Antique Stores." I put that in quotes because, honestly, some of these places are just small, overpriced junk shops. 

However, I was able to find this beauty:

Right before I left for vacation, some friends and I went to eat at Sticky Rice (some of the best Thai food in Chicago), and walked by a huge garage sale. Turns out this guy sells stuff on ebay, but just had too much and needed to clear out some room in his garage, which was packed to the gills. There was a big crate of colored glass, one of my favorite things to collect.

He sold me this glass milk pitcher and sugar bowl for $4 each, while telling me they were worth $30 each. Hrm... not so sure...

my success at the Vintage Bazaar

Yesterday I attended the Vintage Bazaar. It was hot, it was crowded, but I still came away with some great stuff. And a chocolate chip scone (not pictured, unfortunately).

found at Vintage Goodies

This may sound silly - but I've been looking for a cute vintage napkin holder for awhile now. Something that can sit on my table all the time, so I don't have a messy pile of napkins hanging out. 

The lighting was pretty bad at the VB, so when I spotted the Vintage Goodies booth full of kitchen wares lit by clip lights, I followed the light and found the napkin holder of my dreams!

found at Vintage Goodies

... and was talked into the matching canisters. They were a set! How could I split them up?!

found at Ord-Red

I have been obsessed with paint-by-numbers lately, and our bathroom is sort of Our Lady of Guadalupe - themed, so when I saw this paint-by-number of Our Lady, I knew I had to have it! I bought it from Ord-Red as soon as I walked in the door, and got many compliments as I carried it around. She is now happy in her new home next to the alpaca. 

Although not as big and exciting as last time, these finds were still great - I can't wait for the next Vintage Bazaar!

my coffee table

I wanted to share some fun "coffee table books" with y'all:

On my last trip home to Michigan, my Mum was giving away a ton of old books, including these two "Harry" books. I just looked it up on Amazon, and the first one was published in 1956. I took one look and knew I must have them - they match my living room!
The other little book is a photo album for my Fuji Instax camera. I found it via Holly at her blog {create*loves} and it's from the Etsy shop Sassy Talk Cafe. I am planning on filling it up with any Instax photos that don't immediately get used for projects or get hung up. It's such a shame to have them sitting in a drawer!
And last but not least: a bunny.

Thrift Store Treasures

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of fun stuff with paint-by-number. Elise has a really lovely collection she posted on her blog, and check out this awesome project on Design*Sponge. If I could paint in my apartment, you'd bet I'd have a scenic paint-by-number wall.

Last night, while I was supposed to be exercising (oops), my friend Gwen and I went thrifting. And I came away with this:

I found it at Surplus of Options. You should really visit if you are in Chicago. It is on Lincoln right across from Trader Joe's. It looks pretty small, but they have a huge back room with furniture and home decorations, and that was where I found this, on the very back wall.

Now the only question is:
Should it be flanked with ballerinas?
Or large-eyed circus children?

I am a lucky girl

So when we moved into our new apartment, and furniture and things began falling into place, I had a few things in my mind that were ideal. Things that I had wanted for awhile, or things that made more sense than things we had before.

And I am lucky, because at the Vintage Bazaar, I found two of those things:

Chris insists that we have a fan in the bedroom. The one we had was a sad, black, plastic eyesore in our mostly-vintage room, and I was on the lookout for a vintage fan. We found this beauty within 2 minutes of walking in the door, and it works! It's a lovely seafoam green, and was $30. A pretty good deal, if you ask me.

I have wanted this headboard for years. I swear, I have been thinking of this exact one - one of my best friends in college was staying in a friend's basement, and he had a similar headboard for his bed in a deep gold color. It was awesome, but I wanted a green version. And somehow, some way, I found it at the Vintage Bazaar. It was a mere $45. Incredibly cheap, considering how similar looks are selling at Urban Outfitters for $350!

It was incredibly packed at the bazaar - there was one point where I literally could not move - so we left right after buying the headboard. Overall, there was a lot more clothing than I expected. I thought it was going to be mostly home stuff, but it was about 60% clothes. I am still looking forward to the next one - which will hopefully take place in a bigger room.

Thrift Store Find!

I found this little guy a few weeks ago:

I loved the image, and immediately recognized vintage milk glass. The back says this:

!!! What?! It is so random, so funny, so cryptic! After I got it home, I did a quick search on the interwebs. It turns out this was a promotional product manufactured by a company called "Federal" for different corporations in the 50's. I even found a yellow one! I cannot imagine what the motivation for giving these out would be. Rewards for the worst idea? The "baddest guy?" Either way, there are a lot of them out there, so keep your eyes peeled, and maybe you too could own your own "I had a bad idea" mug.

Craigslist Finds

My boyfriend and I moved into our apartment just over two months ago. We both lived with other roommates before that, and had very little furniture to call our own. No table, no couch, cheap dressers, etc. It was a dire situation.

I turned to the Craigslist.

First find: In December we found this gorgeous "credenza," which we use as a dresser in our bedroom.

Ok, it's a bit small. But I had to have it. It is really beautiful. Definitely the highest quality of all our new furnitures.

After that, I was on the look out for a similar piece to serve as an entertainment center to set the tv on. I didn't really find anything I liked until we stumbled across this unique cabinet:

It's a cabinet for holding records! Inside there are two shelves with wires to stand up your records. We put dvd's in there. Modern times, you know. I really like this piece because it is a little bit smaller. Our apartment is big for us, but it is still only a one-bedroom. Small things make more sense.

Chris needed a new desk, as his old desk had died a pathetic death as only a cheap particle board desk could do. It literally just pulled apart.

After searching many places online (Target, Ikea) and scouring the CL ads, this baby popped up. Happy Birthday, Chris!

Last, but not least, the sofa.

I search for a good long time for this one. I considered buying an "expensive" couch from a store. Did you know that couches are really expensive?! But then, about a week ago, I found this: vintage, brocade, gold, with wood accents! It's really much more gold than the picture shows, which means it is my favorite color. I am planning on doing the room in gold and grey, a current color combo obsession. Also, we bought this for $150. It was so cheap because the springs were all popped out underneath. The woman we bought it from explained how to fix it, and Chris did so! So far it is holding up...

One thing I have to say about all these purchases: buying from Craigslist has treated us really well. Not only is it good for the environment (reusing!), but there are some really cool, quirky things out there. On top of that, the people are genuinely interesting and interested in you! Of these four pieces, two were bought from independent furniture businesses, one from an artist working in a garage, and one from a professional furniture maker. All these people were very kind and fair. Many of them gave me first dibs (because I had responded first), even when offered more money! All-in-all, I would reccomend the Craigslist.