Tag: thriftshop finds

Home Decor, Thrift Shop Finds

Share Your Style #402

French Ethereal

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style, dear friends! I’m sorry I didn’t get this up for you yesterday but I’ve been carpet cleaning and washing everything that is fabric based. We had our lovely guest here the weekend before Labor Day, and…

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

Apparently we have a closet smoker in the family… 🙁 Not happy! Anyway, we are having to steam walls, ceilings, and I just think how I hope I don’t have to repaint over what I have just painted this past year, plus the previous years. I don’t have the strength (or time!).

Anyway, this is why I haven’t been very prompt the past couple of weeks (and when we picked up the new truck). But the house is getting better. 🙂 Might be getting new carpeting sooner rather than later. Will keep you updated!

Now let’s get this party started!

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Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

An Early Fall Buffet with a Move to the Living Room ~ one of my first fall posts of the season! Yeah!!

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week we have Shopping an Estate Sale from Lynne at Thrifting Wonderland. Great finds! I know you will love checking out what all Lynne found.
tie dye kimono, Fireside Collective kimono, maxi skirt as a dress, thrifted style, DIY, rope sandals, boho style, festival style, Shelbee on the Edge
Shelbee from Shelbee on the Edge is back and she has The Coolest Outfit to share with us all! You’ll find her blogpost here: Weekend Fun at Stony Fork Music Festival & Spread the Kindness Linkup. Sounds like fun! (pardon the pun) 😉 Perfect for an end-of-summer trip!

Shelbee also hosts a monthly Life Imitates Art post linkup and you’ll find her Holly Hobby one here: SIA Gallery of Style ~ “Blue Girl” by Holly Hobbie. More great outfits and beautiful art!

old barn
Debra from Gma’s Photo shares a love of old barns and abandoned buildings with us this time ~
Old Barn. Love this week’s huge variety of posts!!!
Pumpkin cold foam coffee
Newcomer Nicolle from Our Tiny Nest shares this delicious recipe for all you coffee drinkers (tea for me, but Mr. E loved coffee!) ~ How to Make Pumpkin Cold Foam Coffee. Looks wonderful! Welcome Nicolle!!! 🙂
Debbie from Debbie-Dabble Blog shares a fun Late Summer/Early Fall Apples & Sunflower Kitchen, Final Part 2023. Really fun! Sooooo ready for fall…
Fall candle in a glass hurricane with acorns. This hurrican vase is sitting inside of a wooden lantern with faux fall stems.
Our final entry for this week is from Wendy at WM Design House who brings us this natural tablescape in her post ~ 10 Simple Fall Decorating Ideas with Hurricane Glasses. Love all of it!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Happy almost fall, y’all!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Thrift Shop Finds

My French Sweethearts Thriftshop Find…

French Ethereal

This past Friday I went out for the first time in a month to test the limits of what I can do before wearing out since coming down with the virus. While I was out, I decided to stop by my favorite North Texas thriftshop ~ Twice as Nice! I found two beautiful pieces on this trip so today I thought I’d share this gorgeous French couple sitting down for a little tête-a-tête…











I was soooo excited after walking through all the clothing racks and checking out the craft supply area to turn into the kitchen accessories and housewares area and find this diamond… 










As a “senior” I didn’t even pay the $5.00 shown on the tag! Out the door, this gem of a porcelain figurine was $4.11… It is in nearly perfect condition. While waiting in checkout line, I inspected the man and the woman’s fingers and toes and they are all perfect. The noses are perfect and really, if there is anything wrong, it would be where this piece may have been glued down to a shelf or something underneath. You can just see on each leg along the feet some brown stuff. 





I haven’t tried to scrub off any of it yet, haven’t even cleaned it!, I just came home giddy to photograph it to share with you… 





I am super excited to find out what company made this piece and how old it may be! You can see the firing number here on the bottom but otherwise I didn’t find any other maker’s marks.










Here I’ve grouped this couple with the Taiwanese Federal style man and woman which were my husbands (of course still his, but also mine! 😉 ) before we married. I thought how fun it’d be to bring them all together as a family!










One vignette leads to another…





Here I pulled out the French soup plate found at a thriftshop several years ago now. I thought it gave a nice wallpaper effect. Then I added in a black spaniel I found while thrifting with my sister-in-law in England in 2005. I paid Ł1.00 for him. 🙂










The styles of dress are similar but I have noticed that the new porcelain couple are maybe bone china?? They have a hollow sound that the other couple does not have. I love them all and am completely happy to add them to my small collection of figurines!!!










Time for tea, anyone???





I love how delicate this Parisian couple looks! Their clothing has a lovely late 1700’s look to it. Soft peach and lavender with gold and floral highlights add to the beauty of this little $4.00 find…





What lovelies have you found lately??




















Will be sharing with





Hearth and Soul ~ April J. Harris





Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home





Friday at the Fire Station ~ A Fireman’s Wife















Bisous, mes amies,

		


			
		
	






	
	

		Uncategorized
A Quick Peek ~ My First Craigslist Find!
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			








Just a quick post today ~ sharing a first look at the beautiful tea/library table I found on Craigslist this past week…


















A picture I posted on my Instagram feed, lol! {Couldn’t wait!} 😉








A bit nervous to answer a Craigslist add but boldly I braved the rainy weather and nerves and came away with this lovely library/tea table for what I thought was a good price.





I had just read Courtney’s post over at French Country Cottage about staying safe when contracting business with people you have never met through the internet, specifically Craigslist, so I felt pretty good about going to see this table.














This French Provincial table is a married piece with a  carved walnut base and stretcher {which I totally love!} and an oak top. Whomever remade the tabletop did a nice job distressing it and routering the edges to make it look as close as it would have to the original walnut top piece.  










This photograph taken last winter at our California storage units. You can see the French commode I picked up in San Juan Capistrano in 1991 with my deaf brother (we were visiting the mission there) is sandwiched between the cedar trunk my father refinished when he and my mother were first married (original finish still) and a 1990’s era rolltop desk.





Maybe the original walnut top was falling apart or badly damaged ~ I know my French commode, which I use as my bedroom dresser, needs re-gluing every so often. I did the drawers a few years ago when we were still in California.





I am happy that the base to this tea table/library table was saved and a new top fashioned! This is too lovely a piece to throw out…











In any case, I am excited about this sweet table and it will be one of the first pieces of furniture in our new house!





Do come back tomorrow for a “Spot of Tea Alfresco” as I share more of this beautiful Craigslist tea table with you all for Valentine’s Day… ;)’





*Share Your Style will be up later today, too, so please stop back by to see what’s new and share your latest posts! Thanks! 





And if you haven’t stopped by 10 on the 10th I hope you will!








Sharing with


Wonderful Wednesday ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girls!


Vintage Charm ~ Our Hopeful Home


Keep In Touch ~ Let’s Add Sprinkles


Party in Your PJ’s ~ Apple Street Cottage


Style Showcase ~ Shabbyfufu


Homestyle Gathering ~ My Wee Abode















Hugs to you,



		


			
		
	






	
	

		Uncategorized
Thriftshop Finds ~ 10 on the 10th
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			
















Bienvenue à  this month’s 10 on the10th for $10 or less!  10 wonderful Thrift shop Finds + Upcycles will be shared in today’s blog hop {plus maybe a few more}. Here you’ll find some great new ideas to use in your own home for Valentine’s and beyond. Plus, who doesn’t love a good thrift shop outing??! 😉











Last month we shared Valentine’s ideas as part of 10 on the 10th, and you can find those linked here. 









 If you are coming over from any of the others participating today ~ thanks so much for stopping by today! I also wish to thank our wonderful hostess Katie from Let’s Add Sprinkles for hosting February’s 10 on the 10th party!  This party promises to be wonderful and I am excited to see what everyone has found in their thrifting adventures… 





Come check out what I’ve found lately…
































Most everything here is a thrift shop or antique store find.
The Instant Ancestors can be found at Joann Fabrics.		










I was fortunate to have found  this brass heart dish this past month and knew it would be perfect to share for Valentine’s Day!





I thought maybe it was an ashtray in its former life but it has no lingering smell so perhaps it was always meant to be a wall decoration and hung by it’s little raffia cord. 











The only special thing I have done to this little heart was to wash it in soapy water and dry it right away ~ that’s it. This little thrift shop find was just $2 bucks!


I may eventually pull out some brass cleaner and give it a light scrub but for now I am enjoying it with its wonderful patina.










So today I thought I’d show you how I changed up the picture frame vignette I shared last month by taking the grapevine heart wreath away and replacing it with just these two hanging hearts. The look is much simpler now and really brings out the gold of the picture frame and the aged patina of the two hearts.





Plus I love the added bling from the lower heart locket… Don’t you?





The small heart locket I found at our local Buc-Ees, which is a small chain of an enormous 100-pump gas station plus snack food/bbq place and a shopping mecca for all kinds of kitchen goods, t-shirts and fun things for kids.





When I first stopped at a Buc-Ees with my family almost three years ago now, we were awed by all the gas pumps ~ no waiting in line! Plus finding cute kitchen towels and leather purses and also Rae Dunn-style dishware to carry home was a bonus.














But enough about gas stations and back to fun thrift shop adventures!





I also found this lovely silverplate chafing dish along with a beautiful cut-glass bowl on another recent thrift shop outing. I am loving this chafing dish for displaying one of my vintage rose Theodore Haviland Limoges plates which has fully bloomed realistic pink roses strewn all over it. The latter was a piece I found while antiquing one day.





Lovely with the dried roses set on top of it…











These pieces are all part of a larger story shared this week using Valentine’s fabrics and that post can be found here.  I made new table linens which were used for a Valentine’s tablescape photo session and will be used again to share the day with Mr. Ethereal, too.


😉








Next up is Susan of Homeroad as she shares her special thrift shop finds…





Here are the links to everyone participating in today’s blog hop 10 on the 10th Thriftshop Challenge. Come back by to pick up where you’ve left off when you need to ~ the links will be here for you.





Do sign up for our posts and leave sweet comments if you would? With G+ going away, signing up on my sidebar will help you to continue finding me, thank you. I appreciate you, sweet friend!


:X





*Check out my Pinterest 10 on the 10th board too for even more fun inspiration!





























Enjoy the tour!





		


			
		
	






	
	

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$10 Thriftshop Challenge ~ A Couple of New Pieces
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			








Today is  another $10 thriftshop challenge day here at French Ethereal and as you probably already know I love heading out and seeing what’s out there at the thrift stores!












This week  I found this lovely cut glass bowl with beautiful deep carvings and a lovely serrated and  scalloped edge for a mere $4.00. I think I may have shared this story before but it’s worth sharing again.





My great-grandmother Julia Foley collected lots of cut-glass back in the early 1900’s ~ during the time when Americans were taxed on how many things they owned {or on certain things they owned, I’m not entirely sure on this point).





Julia ended up having to sell all but four of her cut-glass pieces to pay the taxes. She kept one for each of her children to have later on. A bigger bowl similar to this one was handed down to my grandmother Helen, who handed it down to my mother Ginny sometime in the late1960’s or early 1970’s.













It always held blown and dyed eggs during Easter and pinecones or colorful glass ornaments at Christmas each year. It was just part of my memories of home as far back as I can remember.














Love the swirls and little star cuts in this glass bowl!










 Mom then handed it down to me back during one of my visits to their last home in Connecticut in the mid-1990’s sometime. I have loved it ever since and I think both of them will look lovely this next Christmas holding colorful vintage ornaments,


don’t you?


😉














Trying out different plates and bowls while at Twice As Nice thriftstore.










The second piece I found was really the first found ~ this lovely silverplate chafing dish made by Raimond Silver Manufacturing Company  The company began manufacturing silverplate wares in the early 1960’s and later was “acquired by W. and S. Blackington, Co.” in 1966.













The Raimond hallmark is plainly seen on this leg. This pretty chafing dish is in mint condition with no scratches and little tarnishing on it. I believe it may have a lacquer coating on it to protect the finish.





This silver dish cost only $6.00 and I thought the two pieces were good bargains!  I plan to use the two together and separately.  My first thought was to use this silver chafing dish in our new master bathroom to hold towels rolled up between the two lavatory bowls…











Until then… these two thriftshop finds will grace our Prairie Home and decorate our window quite nicely!









Joining a merry band of goodies looking beautiful


for Valentine’s…











Day or night.


🙂













What fun thriftshop finds have come home


with you lately?











Sharing with


Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage


Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondock’s Blog


My New Cowgirl Boots and Link Up on the Edge ~ 


Shelbee on the Edge


Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow The Yellow Brick Cottage

















Happy weekend,



		


			
		
	






	
	

		Uncategorized
Your 12 Favorite Posts of 2017
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			








I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.


~ Charles Dickens ~ 








I’m not big into making New Year’s Resolutions however


I do like to think of how I’d like to be in the coming year.


What type of person I’d like to be.


What I’d like to accomplish over the next year.


Today I’m sharing 12 of your favorite posts from 2017.


A little recap, if you will, as we move into 2018 and


think upon those things we’d like


to do better!


😉









Jumping right into your favorite posts




from 2017




let’s begin with:
















1. The Texas Pie Company


A great little place to go have a piece of your favorite


pie and a warm mug of tea or coffee


down in Kyle, Texas.


Yum!


{a great way to begin this year’s recap!}






















2. $10 Thriftshop Challenge ~ Chalkware and Silver


I love heading out to browse local thriftstores wherever


we live or if I’m visiting somewhere.


This trip was a fun outing checking out the thrifts


right here in my own backyard!


How about you?


Is touring around and wandering thriftshops one of


your favorite things to do?














3. Inspirational Designers ~ Earl Spencer


On my trip to the Design Bloggers Conference this year


everyday shared a keynote speaker and listening to


Earl Charles Spencer was one of the highlights


of this year’s trip for me.


Do check out this post as I shared a lot about his talk


on his family’s ancestral home, Althorp.














4. Spring Gardens and Happy Memories




A little ditty sharing how I began gardening


what flowers I’ve planted in my gardens


over the years and especially


my love for all things roses…

















5. The Beast{s} of WM Farm


Was the second of my series of fairy tale stories


sharing the beautiful and soft alpacas here at


Wagon Master RV Park and Alpaca Farm


at shearing time.


This is yearling baby girl Skidboot ~ such a cutie!














6. Crafts to Make ~ A Shabby Chic Glamper


One of your favorite craft projects that I worked on


in 2017 was this little camper glamper!


This was a really fun project and after finding that little


cutie at one of the craft stores I just knew it had to


come home with me.


😉














7. Summer Outdoor Blog Hop Party


This was a fun blog hop with friends sharing their gardens


their tablestylings and all things summer.


I shared our gardens here in Texas.


Loving how green it is here in summer!
















8. Sweet Inspiring Gardens Nearby


I’m known for my decorating, tea parties and gardens


mostly and this post is no exception.


In most every season I am outside shooting photographs


of gardens and beautiful blooms wherever I go.


This post shares my neighbors’ gardens and the


richness there is wherever one lives


is often found…


in the garden.


🙂

featured at
Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home














9. Vintage English Candy Boxes


This beautiful candy box with Queen Elizabeth’s


portrait on it just had to come home with me


this summer to pair up with my other.


This post shares finding it.



featured at
Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home














10. Drop-Cloth Slipcover Reveal


More sewing instructions and sharing the last part of


this series on sewing chair slipcovers and how I solved


a slight problem.


Plus a little tea party!








This is a good instructional series if you are looking


to make some of your own and never have sewn


covers for furniture before.


Oh, and toss out your regular sewing pins!


Quilter’s pins are the only ones I use for


sewing nowadays.




All three posts are linked within for you.















11. Favorite Showrooms at High Point Market


Oh, my!  What a trip of a lifetime to be able to see


sooo many gorgeous showrooms of fabulous furnishings


for one’s home!


I went gaga for the incredible French furniture and lighting


at Eloquence, Ave Home and French Heritage.


I will be sharing more about these wonderful


stores in future posts.


Look for those this winter.














12. Setting an Elegant Thanksgiving Table


It was a hard decision between this post and the


post I wrote sharing a Nordic Christmas Tablesetting


and home tour as both were really well liked


so I’ve included both here for you.


🙂





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Setting an elegant table is certainly one of my


absolute favorite things to do.


I love having company come over and sharing


a beautifully set table display with my best crystal wine glasses


a set or two of rosy china and my best silver tableware


is a way of sharing my heart with them…


and with you.


🙂





Sharing today with


Share Your Style ~ The Red Painted Cottage


Thursday Favorite Things ~ Katherine’s Corner


Tablescape Thursday ~ Between Naps on the Porch


Merry Christmas and What to Do Weekends ~ Shoestring Elegance


Friday at the Fire Station ~ A Fireman’s Wife


Friday Features ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl


Friendship Friday ~ Create with Joy


Top Projects of 2017 ~ Southern Hospitality





All link parties are linked above for your enjoyment!

Two posts were featured!










Thank you for being a big part of French Ethereal.


I truly appreciate your taking time to stop by


each and every time.


Your visits, comments, and what you share


are a huge blessing to me.





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Thank you!





		


			
		
	






	
	

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Thriftshop Fall Finds Redo ~ Painted Silverplate Trays for Today’s Home
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			










Several years ago when we were still in our 


former home in California I began


collecting silver trays.


I have several small ones and other larger ones of various sizes


some with handles and others without


that I have shared in different displays over the years.





Last week I found four silver serving trays down


at an upscale thriftshop called


Twice As Nice


in Denton, Texas…


















Having fun playing with the focus and light! 😉






Twice As Nice is a beautiful thriftshop carrying gently used


shoes and sandals, Brighton belts and housewares.


But my favorite thing to find when I go is


finding these older silverplate serving trays.





Silverplate trays are nice as they can serve many purposes:


from holding the mail to their original purpose of holding 


crackers and cheeses and for serving drinks at parties when they


were first made in the 1940’s through the1980’s.





Similar trays can be found in specialty engraving shops


inside shopping malls and larger department stores


as well as online.


Fun when they aren’t always available when we


need them!


😉





I like to use serving trays to hold tabletop displays


on a coffee table or in the center of my dining room table


seasonally with candles or Christmas trees on top.














These are the products I used this time to paint three trays white.









Back several years ago, my friend Kathy would pick up


silverplate trays at thriftshops whenever she could


find them and then she would spray paint them


white and use them as chargers.


I copied this idea and have a set of six


currently in storage.





She found some really lovely ones with stylized flowers


pressed into their metal edges and I always loved that look.


Happily I found one this past week and knew it would


look lovely redone in white!


🙂














Loving the swirls and tiny flowers pressed into the edges of this silverplate tray!








Here’s a quick tutorial if you’ve never painted


metal trays before…




Painting silverplate trays





I have cheated and skipped this part before, but then the paint


peels off, so… If you’d like your trays to remain painted


here’s how you do it:





*Use a piece of 4-ought steel wool and lightly sand the fronts and backs of each tray. 


This will make the paint stick better to the metal and


help prevent its peeling and flaking off later on.





*Cover your table outside or use an old tall cardboard box and follow instructions on the can of spray paint.


Shake can as needed and spray off of the silverplate trays


first to check for lumps in the paint.





*Spray the bottoms first and try not to over spray the edges


too much to prevent dripping onto the fronts.





*Paint in short even strokes ~ I painted on an afternoon when


it was over 90 degrees F outside so I was able to paint


over edges several times overlapping paint strokes


easily without drips.




*Move around after about 30 minutes preventing sticking.


Once dry, flip over and place supports underneath.


{I used gravel rocks under each tray’s back ~ worked great and the irregular surface


really prevented the semi-dry paint from sticking to the rocks.}


Paint the fronts as before using short bursts of paint.





*Paint a second coat on the fronts after the first fully dries.


Mine I had to paint again the next mid-morning.





*Sand back the dried paint with some 220-grit sandpaper


to reveal some metal ~ highlights and picks out the tray’s details.


🙂





*Finish with acrylic sealer in desired finish of


matte or a gloss finish.













Loving the way these painted


trays turned out!


🙂





Here’s a Pinterest pin-worthy pin to share:












Later this week I’ll be sharing these trays in a
festive fall tablesetting along with that
brass feathered cutie also found
while out thrift-shopping… 

Sharing with
The Hearth and Soul ~ April J. Harris
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage
Create Bake Grow Gather ~ Shabby Art Boutique

  


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Happy Fall, ya’ll!


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		Uncategorized
$10 Antique Store Challenge ~ Sweet S&P Shakers
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			






This summer was such a whirlwind of activity!


With taking our daughter and all of her worldly possessions 


to her new home and to a new job in Texas,


then turning our car~compass northward and


heading up to our 


son and daughter~in~love’s wedding…


Anyway, I never got to share all of the places that we visited,


the quirky cool things that we saw 


{TEXAS itself was HOT being that it was summertime but it is COOL 


as it has some really neat BIG THINGS there!}





I have more fun places and ideas


to share with you


and


these cute salt and peppers


are a little part…













As we were almost but not quite


to my son’s new


home state of South Dakota


{after the long haul driving out of Oklahoma, through Kansas, into Nebraska,


and into Iowa ~ after the previous day’s driving up through the top of Texas}


when we made a pitstop at a little area just before


Sioux City, Iowa.


We still had an hour’s driving time before reaching Sioux City,


so it was a nice to stop for awhile.






I had a bit of free time to visit 


this antique shop that I mentioned
I would get around to writing up in my last post
$10 Antique Store Challenge ~ Sweet Salt & Pepper Shakers




Finders Keepers


Antique Mall & Coffee Shoppe


2085 Crossroads Drive, I-29 & Hwy #2, Exit #10


Percival, Iowa 51648


fkantiques@yahoo.com


FindersKeepersMall.com





 Finders Keepers is right off the highway


there in Percival, Iowa.


I’ll have an article written up


for you hopefully by tomorrow sharing all that I found 


for you!




While looking around though seeing what


Finders Keepers had and snapping a few photos


that I could share with you…


I found these little 


doggie salt and peppers


and thought they looked an awful lot like


our Yoda.


What do you think?? You be the judge!


🙂















Here’s Yoda happy and playful during a recent walkabout.


































Here’s the photograph I was thinking these


little doggies looked somewhat


like, far right:








Well, there’s the one {ok, two!} things


I purchased that weren’t t-shirts


or


a gift for someone else 


from our two~week trip this summer!





Happy Saturday!








Sharing with
Wordless Wednesday ~ Create with Joy



		


			
		
	






	
	

		Uncategorized
The $10 Thriftshop Challenge
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			

















For my birthday, I gave myself 
a personal challenge…


This week while we are out of town on vacation.


Could I spend only $10???









Last year I had fun thriftshopping with my nephew.
That’s when I found the French-style
pier mirror…












last year’s birthday present found in a second-hand store






This year Corey was working on Tuesday
so I headed out by myself.
I went to two Goodwill stores while waiting for our dog
which was getting a teeth cleaning and grooming
at the local Banfield veterinary office.


It’s always fun browsing for and finding some great china
and glassware ~ even though my partner-in-thrifting


wasn’t there!








Our son and our future daughter-in-love are looking for
sea glass to decorate with and possibly lavender bottles
to use on their wedding tables this coming summer
at their wedding reception.













Cinderella centerpiece ~ Goodwill, Citrus Heights, CA










At the second Goodwill, I found this sweet
wire piece that Cinderella would be happy to have
on her table as a birthday centerpiece
or for her Fairytale wedding…
















Hobby Lobby glass!






I had found these lovely glass vases at
Hobby Lobby over the weekend while out with
my mother-in-law picking up craft supplies
for a project she was working on.



After many texts and photos back and forth
turns out these weren’t quite what
our son’s fiancee was looking for colorwise
but… she liked the shapes!
(Turns out her mother was out looking for
wedding craft ideas this weekend, too!)











scored these vintage and antique lavender glass bottles at a Goodwill
and a secondhand store called Timeless Treasures		






So… We’ve begun looking for clear, lavender and sea foam
canning jars, old medicine and liquor bottles which can then
be reused as sweet little vases.




When I find them, it will be a snap to send them
off to our son so that the happy couple can decide what
they like and would want to use.








For now, they will feature
in my little blog…
😉



Sharing with:
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage




Blessings to you,



		


			
		
	






	
	

		Uncategorized
Thrifting in the New Year
	


	

							

			 French Ethereal		
		
		

			








Happy New Year to you!

My husband and I have been visiting with family
just for a few days
over the New Year’s holiday.
The day after driving up Highway 99,
I invited my nephew to go thriftshopping.
Turns out it’s something he likes 
to do!




We visited several thrift stores throughout the suburbs of Sacramento. He found books and record LP’s to enjoy,


and I found a bunch of fun silver-plate and solid silver


goodies! But that’s another post!


😉





As we were out and about, we came across a consignment shop called Sunrise Consignment Center and we turned into the driveway…
















The antique mirror that I was considering. Most likely manufactured by the same company as the one we have over our family room fireplace.










This is a really nice consignment store


with lovely period and reproduction pieces!








My husband found an antique miner’s or jeweler’s scale, possibly for weighing gold, today when we went back to look at the shop.





This area is where the California Gold Rush of 1849 


began of course so it’s nice to see that you can still find


a “little gold” and antiques around from California’s earlier days! 











Some other things at this shop were nice decorator pillows and furniture that is higher-end, clocks, vintage violins, and garden patio sets. My nephew also found 


an vintage Coca~Cola dispensing machine he would like to have had. I found several hutches and armoires,


buffets and French coffee tables, and several


French-style gilded mirrors!













My birthday is in a few days so I talked with my husband later in the afternoon about the two mirrors.




It’s not always in the budget to purchase such a lovely piece, but it’s also often true that lovely pieces aren’t always to be found, or for a good price.





So…

















He asked me to draw up where
this mirror would go.





I thought it would be lovely




up on the wall of our staircase.




He was afraid it was too big.

















I created the “mirror” then cut it out to fit on the wall ~ I had forgotten that! Lol!









He needed to see it. Would I draw it for him?
Of course!
🙂





The first sketchings are above, top.



The second drawings are more to scale with measurements given over the phone of the landing’s wall by our daughter, who was at home that day from work, are below that.



Thank you, Amy!!!
:X!
















Our mantel mirror at home over the fireplace ~ it used to be in the dining room.  The five antique rose-strewn bowls arched over the white mirror there are set to go around this mirror.









Ultimately, it was the larger pier mirror
I hoped would come home with us.
Both were beautiful and the other one
would be lovely inside our maison.

It came down to already having one so similar.


Will share this mirror again when it’s mounted
in its new home.
🙂





Sharing with:


Centerpiece Wednesday @
thestylesisters.blogspot.com
*still when I was just learning about link parties… ;)*



So glad to be sharing with you!
I hope you have a
great year this year! 








Happy New Year to you!