Tuesday, July 31, 2012

LuRay Pastels Dinnerware: Celebrating 20 Years


CELEBRATING
20
Years!
1992-2012

My vintage LuRay pastels
dinnerware collection.
It all started with a trip to a
Salvation Army in my college years.

I spotted a stack of pink dishes.
Thought they were great
But didn't buy them.

When I went back to get them
They were gone.
I wanted to know
More about vintage dishes.

At that point I was hooked
and had to know
what they were &
where to find them
I went to the library.
(There was no google,
no internet...gasp!)
I found a book which
had a section on LuRay dinnerware.


It wasn't until about four years later
that I found my first piece.
In the back of a dusty
antique shop's
garage...by the beach in NJ.


Then came all of the basic pieces.
Teacups, plates, soup and cereal bowls.

I've paid  some outrageous prices...
and found some awesome deals
along the way.


Since then I've been adding unusual or
vintage "Go Alongs" as we collectors
like to call them.

This set of drinking
glasses took a very long
time to find.

Not LuRay but they go
along great!


 I found this two
tiered tidbit tray in the same antique shop,
 but in their main shop along
the famous boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ.

I love it!
These are very hard to find.
The bamboo style handle is unusual.


Thanks to ebay I finished
my mixing bowl collection.
The yellow bowl was my first.
Back in the day (1998) when ebay
was new and amazing...
Remember those days?

I was so excited.
I kept exclaiming "I won! I won!"
Sigh.
I enjoy finding the pieces in
person now.
Much more exciting!
 
All of these pieces
are not LuRay but
I couldn't help but add them
to the collection.
As well as these
syrup or cream dispensers!
What can I say?

The thrill of the hunt.


And I've enjoyed
every minute
of the past 20 years!

I'd love to hear about
your LuRay collection
or
maybe Fiesta
or other vintage item
you love to collect.

Stop by and say hello!
 
Linking with Etsy Cottage Style
Entertaining party.
 
 

Saturday, July 28, 2012

New Arrivals: Celebrating the London Olympics!


This week to help kick off the
Olympics in London
we're celebrating with
a little bit of English!

Especially in this week's Mystery Sale!
Tea pots, cups, and some
good 'ol English books
are discounted to help
 get you in the mood
for the games in London.

Here are this week's new finds:


A beautiful pink and green
floral cheese server.


Love that color blue!
Larger than a normal sugar bowl
but smaller than a casserole.
Unique!

 Also unique this week:
An antique report card from 1886.
The front looks like a Christmas card.


Here is the back showing the grades
name of the school, student, and the teacher.
Plus the year.
A neat piece if you like to collect
ephemera.

The home of the Queen Mum herself!
Less than 2.00 a piece makes this
a great set to collect
as a "souvenir!"


A stack of three old school
style books.

 A sweet sweet Royal Doulton collectible...
made in ENGLAND!


Quite pricey in her time this "Last Waltz"
figurine from 1965 is dancing to a
new price now!


So cute!
Love the little bug
on her head.



Gorgeous beads!

For the rest of my finds
click here...

Enjoy your weekend
Linking to PINK SATURDAY
And yes, celebrating another
big event....
Beverly's birthday!




Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Before: Tackling a Lake House Kid's Room

One of our next projects at the
lake house will
be this kids room.




I'm blaming everything on the aqua colored walls.

I've started early by purchasing matching
quilt coverlets in Red, White, and Blue.

Just imagine bunk beds
painted in white.



The red striped pillows are going back.
I found another pair at Christmas Tree Shops
Much cuter.
Photo to arrive soon!


Dear Hubs found this lamp in his travels.
I think it is a keeper!

The little red table
it sits on is from my Dad's
cabin up in Maine.


We found this shelf at a yard sale for five dollars.
I sprayed it white.

I just loved the mirrored stars
and bought three of them.
I plan on doing a wall of them here.
But we haven't really gotten to this room yet
so I just hung one where
there was an existing nail to
see if I even liked them.

I do!

The challenge in here is going to be
the bunk beds.
An attic celing makes this a tough one.
I found a few ideas on Pinterest.



The other challenge is getting Bebe to
change her mind about this aqua color.
She loves it!
Remember, she is just three.
But she made me stop and
question my thought of painting it white!
Then I remembered
the awful cast it leaves in the room.
If not white, then what color then?

Stay tuned...
Although I have no idea when this
room will be tackled.

In the meantime I have
a few finds I'm going to list soon.

Enjoy your day!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Lake House ReDO: Befores & Afters Part I

I've never professed to be a decorator, a designer,
or anything related to a home improvement guru.
But what I do know is, when faced
with a problem, I just dig in
and make a decision.

The house was built in the fifties.
It seemed like the former owner's
motto was "just add whatever,
after all, it's just a lake house."
Outlet covers didn't match,
the rug was in a bad shape,
the last time the kitchen was
updated was the late seventies.
Below are a few "before and after" shots
of the lake house we recently acquired.

So far, I'm pretty happy with the results!

Here is the kitchen.
I can't believe I am showing the mess
in there for the "before" but hey,
it is what it is!
We were in a mad dash to get as much done
as possible in the first visit.


We decided to go with the same cabinets,
use paint to save money, and just
replace the old hardware.

It turned out that this was not the first time
these cabinets had been reused! There were
old holes behind the holes of the hardware!
So, hubby had to fill in all of the old holes
before replacing the drawers and doors
with the new hardware.


A new counter top and voila!
A completely new look
while keeping within our budget.


Then there was the knotty pine debate.
Should I keep it or get rid of it?
We decided to slice it in half.
Paint the bottom and add dry
wall to the top portion.
Turned it into wainscoting and
I decided not to look back.

So happy that many of you on the blog
and in person have told me "you did the right thing!"

The couch was a craigslist find!
Hardly ever used in someone's guest room.
The lady was happy to hear
we were going to use it
in our lake house. 

The chair with the blue denim cushion
was found at Salvation Army during
one of their "fifty percent off"
furniture days.
We replaced the old gold velour cushion
with the blue denim and it fits
just perfectly there.
I wish I had taken a picture of the before!

The lesson we learned there...
While the chair itelf was cheap
the fabric and materials needed
to make the cushions proved to be
very expensive! We could have
saved money on the fabric but didn't
A lesson for another time!

Hope you enjoyed a peek into our
"behind the scenes" of a lake
house redo, on a budget...

Until next time,

 

Friday, July 20, 2012

Vintage Beauties: French Scroll Frame, Victorian Shakers Plus My Watercolor Find!

Just simply put, I listed some
 vintage beauties last night.
Actually it took me three days to get this all done!
(I try and edit photos between watching
Bebe and everyday tasks)

(PLUS... the MYSTERY SALE
is up for this week!)
Now, back to our regularly scheduled
programming....this week's finds:


I couldn't purchase this antique
 French scroll frame fast enough.
A perfect fit for the shop!



 band or hair wrap.

Beautiful elongated rose celery dish.
This little bugger had me
heading back to the fleamarket
thinking I left it on a table
somewhere. I couldn't find it
when I arrived home.
That's how much I liked it!
(Turns out it was in the back
of my trunk)



I was also happy to list this
perfect sized vintage suitcase.
Petite and just the right dimensions
for stacking at the TOP
of your suitcase pile!
 A Royal Albert teacup and saucer
in the "Festival Series" Lyric shape.

A lovely petite pink roses
PLUS a set of vintage keys come
with this! 





A lovely "ruby red" rhinestone pin

 Antique book written for children


earrings are marked "STERLING"
Just lovely!

To see all of my new arrivals click here.
__________________________________________

And here is a peek at my newest exciting find!
A gorgeous rose watercolor.
Found in the antique mall where we
have a booth.

It was in need of TLC.
So, we took it out of the frame to purchase
a new matte board.
Behind the frame was a Boston Herald
Newspaper from 1886!


I loved it even more after this discovery.
Hopefully the frame and glass cleanup
plus a new matte board will bring this beauty
back to life!

This one might be a keeper for me...
what would you do?

Have a great weekend
and happy antiquing!

~Jillian

Linking to Pink Saturday...


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

"The Artist": A Movie Review By Jillian


It has been awhile since I did a movie review.
Mainly because I try to focus my blog on my antique shop and the adventures of finding antiques.

But over the weekend we rented The Artist and I just loved the style of it. Set in the late 1920's the costuming, makeup, props, and well, everything about it just put you right there with the flapper girls. It was even silent. Yes, SILENT. You had to read their expressions and the random words up on the screen to know what was going on. I thought my Dear Hubs was going to go crazy. But he actually hung in there for the whole thing. No sleeping this time, can you believe it?

When I went to IMDB to see what they wrote for a synopsis, I found this:

"A silent movie star meets a young dancer, but the arrival of talking pictures sends their careers in opposite directions."

It was about so much more than that!

It was about a man who was a larger than life celebrity (he even had a very large portrait of himself in his house) who was the king of silent films... but lost everything when his pride overcame his art. He could not see the value in switching over to talking movies. (Many silent film makers and stars did not do well in the transition to talkies...they either had terrible voices or didn't want to progress forward.)

He loses everything, his wife, his home, his riches, his fame... until a young dancer whom he had helped in the past comes back into his life.

I highly recommend it!

And for that I give it 4 popcorns! Check it out for yourself, you might like it. We found it in RED BOX Movies.

I'll be back soon with new listings and a peek at my new rose watercolor painting...and how I am trying to restore it back to "like new" condition!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Thrift Shop in the Woods: A Twig & A Tresor!

We were at our lake house on the last day of our mini vacation, eating out at a local restaurant, when we met a woman who lives in the area all year.

She was giving us some great ideas of what to see and do in "town."

And then she said "Then there's Twigs & Treasures. I'm a Twig!"

A twig and a treasure. Well, I certainly had no idea what that was but I absolutely know what a treasure is so my curiosity meter went up.

Turns out this cute little woodsy building is where everyone in the community drops off their unwanted stuff (this place is like Grand Central Station) and you can go looking around, fill up a box and donate whatever you'd like for your "purchases."

Of course, I went there as soon as possible the next time we went to the lake house.

I had a whole room to decorate and I was on a mission.

While it is not as good as my favorite flea or antique mall, it did have some treasures. Especially if you need to stock a kitchen or decorate a cottage.

After all, most of the items in the place came from other people's cottages in and around the lakes there.


I couldn't believe no one had picked up this sweet little collection of
Italian basket pottery. The roses get me every time.

I really needed a lamp for this bedroom and found this "touch turn on" style.
It had no shade so I asked and they said "oh, out in the tent are a bunch of
shades, go pick out one!" So, I did. Gotta love this place!

The beauty of this little thrift shop is that it raised enough money to give thirty thousand dollars back to the community...for things like ambulances and
scholarships.

I was amazed, thrilled, and motivated all at the same time!


I also spotted a set of oval needlepoint pieces for either
side of the window in this same room.
You can see one of them hanging there.

For another wall, I found this beautifully
done counted cross stitch piece:
What a lot of work went into this!

Thanks for checking out my new little
thrifty place to find
"lake house  decor"!

I can't wait to go back...

Although, up next, my awesome find
right in the antique mall where
we have our booth!