Fallen Angels - Wee Sized Spun Cotton Head Ornaments

How cute are these old vintage spun cotton angels? They are so tiny, they could be used as finger puppets.  They are each missing one foil wing.

They have the cutest gold wire halos and beaded dresses.

Made in Japan.

They will be on my Christmas tree this year. They are so quaint and in such a pretty shade of purple of pink. I wonder if I could somehow fashion a replacement wing so they won't feel so lopsided?

Vintage Christmas Decorations for a Song

One of my favourite things to find at this time of year is vintage Christmas decorations, especially from the 60's. I much prefer old flocked Santas and wooden ornaments compared to the newer ornaments.

But remember, Christmas also means sending out cards to friends and family. Here we have an adorable tin metal file box for storing a Christmas card list.

And here comes a primitive looking chenille stem Santa carrying his tree home. Love his big red boots!

I just found these toadstool metal picks yesterday in a bag of Christmas bits and bobs at Value Village. Adorable and it's hard to tell from the photo, but hey are completely made out of metal!

One of my most favourite Christmas decorations is this old ESD Japan ceramic Santa candle hugger. He was 25 cents at a rummage sale a few years ago and is in amazing condition.

All one big happy family.

Handmade for the Holidays

Well, as stated in my first post, I also enjoy crafting in addition to finding vintage items. I keep tins and tins of vintage sewing buttons that I find bagged at the thrift store for me to play with.

One of my favourite things to make with vintage buttons are magnets. There is such a variety of button shapes, colours and the magnets can be bought very cheaply.

I found these cute owl buttons not at the thrift, but at the art supply store, which sells besides art supplies, lots of scrapbooking tools such as punches, paper, stickers, embellishments etc.

I cut the shanks off the back with a sharp pair of scissors, which was fairly easy, as the plastic was fairly soft. I them glued them to some buttons from my stash using E6000 glue, which is great for adhereing just about anything.

The owls are adorable! The magnets are available in my etsy shop!

An Array of Christmas Pins and Brooches

Yesterday I went to Value Village's half price sale, and came home with several signed Christmas pins!
There were trees, reindeer, candy canes, sleds and of course Santas.

This silver tone reindeer pin with holly leaves is my favourite. The rhinestones holly berries are missing, but look at the big blue rhinestone eye! It is signed ART on the back.

These are a few of the other ones that I also brought home:

Festive, no? 

A Gerry's sailboat pin, and a "J" initial pin for myself, signed Mamselle.

So hopefully I will be able to get some more costume jewelry for my stash, which is never ending. I end up using a lot of the jewelry or supplies I find, to make into crafts. My next post will show one of my crafting ideas.

A Holt Howard Hunting We will Go

I very rarely any HH pieces while out thrifting, so I was very happy to be able to find not just one, but two gorgeous vintage HH while at two separate church rummage sales.

The first piece I found was a vintage HH "Noel" planter in great shape, at the tail end of a church basement sale. I love the 3-D large letters against the bright red and gold. It was just sitting on the table waiting for me...glad no one had noticed it all day! There was no price sticker on it, so I inquired with one of the ladies about the price.

I very calmly handed over the $2 she asked for.....Whew!

The second piece of Holt Howard was also found just as I was about  to leave. I can't believe I walked right by it!

My heart  beat faster as I picked up a vintage-looking carafe with a dandy red rooster painted on the side. Could it be?....Yes! After some research, I found out this is from HH's "Au Coq" line. The price? Also $2. Fantastic! Made my weekend!

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Tonight I went to Value Village's 50% off sale after work, where I found tons and tons of vintage Christmas pins. There were vintage JJ and Gerry's signed pins, can't believe they were still there after work...makes me wonder what was there during the time I was at work! 
I have a love / hate relationship with the store, as some of their prices have put me off lately. But, today at the store, each pin cost less than a cup of coffee...heck, even half a cup of coffee! I will be putting some of them in my etsy shop. Posting pics tomorrow!

pomkats