Thrifting Catch-Up

The following finds were found at thrift stores, antique stores, and garage sales recently. I don't usually do so well in finding these types of things, so I feel so lucky to have found all these goodies.

I've recently discovered oilcloth and found the perfect pieces yesterday in a cute strawberry print, red gingham, and green gingham. Now I'm itching to cover something with it! I'm thinking of covering some of our dining chairs here and possibly the piano bench here. I feel these oilcloth prints will go so much better with what's going on in the house right now and tie things in better. Any other ideas? I've thought of just putting it right over the existing fabric (which won't show through) and that way, if I ever want it back the way it was, it'll be easy to remove. Do you think they'll be too shiny? I know the chairs will be easy to wipe clean. The oilcloth on the piano bench would also make it easier for sliding across.

(edited to add: after writing about the oilcloth last night, I was quite pleased to find this link in my inbox this morning)

I also found the vintage Pyrex plate bordered with sweet red flowers and the perfect red napkin rings.

In this picture, you can see a pretty scalloped cake plate (?) that reminds me of vintage milk glass. Then a vintage vase which I didn't get in the picture very well, a sweet old tea towel in red and blue strawberries that will be perfect for the 4th of July, a small vintage Fire King bowl, some vintage enamel pins and a meat fork with the cutest little mushrooms on the handle. I like the old Jello molds because they're perfect for making individual tea cakes. I love the ones that look like mini bundt cakes!

My husband has an aunt in Sweden and so when I spotted this little trivet, it reminded me of her with it's pretty tulips and flowers - very Scandinavian.
This little luncheon set was found at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately the set of four was missing one of the cups, but it was too pretty to pass up. Every time I set it down thinking I didn't want it because of the missing cup, I'd turn around and go back to it. I did that several times and figured that if it was that hard to turn down, I'd better get it or I'd wish I had. The white reminds me of vintage milk glass, too. Maybe someday I'll find an orphan cup that will fit right in.
These two letters in the perfect shade of red were found at Marshall's. I love monograms and initials and always see them in black or white. When I found some in red, I couldn't say no! As I was making a quick trip down the aisles, these jumped out at me right away. I wish they'd had the first letter of our last name but alas, they didn't. So our first names will do!Vintage seed packets in the PERFECT shades of red and green. Love them!!! Now I'm on the lookout for some more. I'm thinking green peas, watermelon, strawberries, and tomatoes would be cute, too.
Of course when I saw at a garage sale a huge bag of cookie cutters for pennies, I snatched it up when I spied a few vintage ones with red and green handles. I took out the three or four I wanted and left the rest in the bag to put in the donation pile. So worth it for those few I wanted!

I've wanted a vintage milk bottle with red lettering on it for quite a while now. I just love thinking about the days when milk was delivered to your doorstep in crates. I wish they'd still do that in our area. I even checked it out, but it's not available here (yet). So the bottle was a must-have when found at the same garage sale.

I love these old hobnail lamps. I'm pretty sure my grandma had a few around her house when I was growing up. Now I wish I knew where they went. Anyway, I'm hoping my hubby can rewire this one for me. There were three of them at the yard sale we stopped by this morning. They were all different, but I liked this one best.
It's usually hit and miss for me when looking for finds like these and usually more miss than anything. Recently, however, it's been more hit and I'm loving it!

Fab Fourth

I'm hoping all of you out in blog land had a wonderful 4th of July like we did! We had a large gathering of family and friends for a BBQ and it turned out great.

Here are some of the many flowers we planted in red, white, and "blue". I'm so glad we decided to go with these colors because they just added to the fun! They are doing so well this year, too.

This is a closer picture of the sweet red, white, and blue vintage tablecloth I recently won on eBay. I'm thinking it would be fun to collect a few more of these in time for the next 4th of July.Below are some impromptu centerpieces I put together using stuff I already had on hand. Trying to keep it inexpensive and unique. Only problem was, I set them on top of the refrigerator to free up some precious space in the kitchen to prep food for our party. That's where they still were during and after the party. Oops! I had to post pictures to make putting them together worthwhile.

A vintage child's shovel and seashells in a vintage star colander.

Vintage and not so vintage star cookie cutters and mold with a few vintage red and blue buttons and some star garland on a small glass cake stand.

The cutest vintage stir sticks with mini whistles propped up in the middle of some vintage red dominoes in a glass compote.

Happy July!!!