Carlisle, PA

The birthday adventure I mentioned yesterday also included a stop at some spots in Carlisle on our way back home.  Despite it being pretty close to home, I've never really explored Carlisle.  We found some great antique places, a good place to get coffee and macarons, a neat little European food market, and the cutest candy store around.  You can check out some links and more photos from the entire day at Heidi's post, here.

 I am a sucker for vintage metal toys and this drink stand was no exception, but it was sadly out of my price range.  This find is from Serendipity Antique Gallery which also had a great selection of old military items and some really cool old Skee-Ball machines.

 This set of dolls at Northgate Antique Mall is one of many on my dolly wishlist.  I really liked this antique mall and found a couple super reasonably priced treasures.  The European market I mentioned earlier is right next door.

 We went to Helenas Chocolate Cafe & Creperie specifically for macarons and they didn't disappoint!

The macarons were delicious, but the cake at Helena's was to die for!  I had black forest cake, my very favorite, and I think Heidi's was a combination of lemon, blueberry, and lavender.  The downtown area, where Helena's is located, is so charming.  I think it definitely merits some more exploring!

Easter Decorations

With just a few days to spare, I finally decorated!  I realize I have less than I thought, although I think there may still be a box left in the attic.  So instead of spreading things out this year, I just went one extra festive space and few small touches elsewhere.  I have everyone's Easter treats and baskets ready, eggs have been dyed, and now the house is festive.  I think I am officially ready for Easter!

Spun Cotton Heads

Thanks to a tip from an Instagram pal, Heidi and I were recently able to snag a huge lot of cake toppers and decorations from an online estate auction, including all the great old spun cotton heads you see here.  Heidi drove past Lancaster to pick up our lot and some other lots she won, because I wasn't able to get off work, and then we sorted and split everything up.  We are always talking about finding a large amount of these adorable vintage heads, but I didn't imagine that we would actually be so lucky!  I can't wait to make things with these cuties, but for now, they look pretty darn sweet sitting in my craft room!

Recent Vintage Finds

A lot of my finds recently have been Christmas gifts, so I can't really share them here.  I feel like the thrift shops have been a bit picked over lately and sometimes the antique store prices are just too high for a cheapskate like me, but I've managed to find some goodies.  It has been extra exciting to start seeing Christmas items out in the shops, so hopefully I'll have some new decorations this year!

You're probably wondering what the hell this crazy thing is supposed to be, aren't you?  Well clearly it's a pretty onion lady!  It's also something I just couldn't leave behind!  I actually have two similar decorations for Easter, so she fits in well.

I think it's pretty well known by now that I have a weakness for old toys.  I especially love old rubber toys.  I think these little guys were supposed to be $1.50 each, but the girl at the register gave them all to me for that price.  They're hanging out in some recent Pyrex finds from the same thrift shop.

 I've had my eye on one of these Fisher Price irons for awhile, but they're usually a little higher than I like to pay.  This one is a bit sad and missing most of the decals, so it was cheap, but it still plays music when you roll it along.

 Again, I'm a sucker for old toys!  I do seem to have a serious fondness for musical ones.  Oscar and Ben seem to have inherited that same fondness, because this sees a lot of action in our house!

 I actually found this cake carrier awhile ago and it was the second one I saw that day.  The first one was $12, but I found this identical one at another shop for $3!

So I know I said I am a cheapskate, but sometimes I will pay a little extra for something I really want.  I love these Dansk pots, so when I saw this one at an antique store, I knew it was coming home with me if it was reasonably priced.  Everything in the booth was on sale, so I think I ended up paying about $30.  That means it cost more than the combined price of everything else in this post, but it's so worth it.  Can't you just smell the soups cooking in this lovely pot all winter long?!

Collections ~ Vintage Toys

Collections ~ Salt & Pepper Shakers

So the funny thing about me having a salt & pepper shaker collection is that I don't even use either one!  Every one of my shakers is empty and the salt and pepper are banished to the spice cupboard in their boring old containers.  It's a cute collection, though, and one that is small enough to always find room for!

Bookworm

We are a house full of book lovers and it's no secret that vintage children's books are among my favorite things to collect and read to my boys.  I actually have pretty much all of the books from my childhood and quite a few that belonged to my mom or other family members.  I tend to look for cute ones anytime I go to a thrift or antique shop and am especially partial to Rand McNally Elf books.  They're typically pretty adorable from cover to cover and I seem to have a lot of luck finding them for less than $3, which is usually my price limit!  You can see a pretty good list of some of the Junior Elf books here and here is some of my collection-

I'm a sucker for a good story!

While shopping in Lititz the other weekend, we stopped in a shop that was full of so many beautiful vintage items.  Among those beautiful items were about half a dozen lovely handmade quilts.  I wanted them all!  It seemed like each one I saw was more beautiful than the last and they were all so different, but so well made.  Finally, in one of the last rooms of the shop, I found the prettiest one.  I knew I had to have it!  The shop owner told me the story behind the quilts as I was paying, which made me perfectly certain that I had made the right decision.  The quilts all belonged to an elderly woman and were made by her grandmother, who apparently made her a quilt each year for some length of time.  The woman stored all the quilts, hoping to pass them on to her children.  She was never able to have any children, though, so she had started to sell them off.  The shop owner was lucky enough to purchase quite a few of them.  How sad is that story?!  It seriously made me want to buy them all and I may have sent texts to a few friends and family members encouraging them to come buy the rest!  I loved the quilt before hearing the story, but that makes it all the more precious to me and I will certainly pass it along to my children!

A Place For Everything

I've been spending time finding homes for things in my dining room.  That means making room for lots of knick knacks and dishes and hanging things that have sat forgotten for way too long!  I've had the little cart for a long time and it's been tucked away in our basement.  A lot of my finds recently have been kitchenware, so I brought the cart upstairs, gave it a good scrub, and stocked it full of some of my favorite pieces.  All of my little birds are hung in one place and my dog collection has settled in on the shelf.  I think this is my favorite little corner now!

Collections ~ Glassware

One can never have too many drinking glasses, right?  We don't get a lot of company these days and pretty much never throw any outrageous dinner parties, but we are so prepared if we ever change our minds!  I love vintage patterned glass and bar ware and have been collecting it since Donnie and I moved into our own place.  The silver polka dot glasses below are my very favorite, because they were an anniversary gift from one set of great grandparents to another.  Because of that sentimental connection, I rarely let anyone drink from them.  The dust settled in the bottom makes that pretty clear!  Now that I've outed myself as a less than super housekeeper, I should shut up and just get to my collection.  This isn't everything, but here are some of my favorites!