Living Room Christmas Decor 2013

Each year I liked to make things look a little different for Christmas. For example, one room is decorated in what I'd call "earthy" decorations, and this room is where my vintage decor goes. First off, a photo of part of the tree with vintage ornaments. A few are family pieces, and the rest I have slowly collected. I like Shiny Brites but I also have many from Poland and West Germany

Kind of looks like a hodgepodge but oh well. I've contemplated getting a white tree so it's easier to see the ornaments. 

And of course, what room would be complete without the ceramic light-up Christmas tree? It doesn't go with my mom's decor for Christmas so I have it now. 

1960's light up Santa  on the bookcase and a little basket my grandma made in the 1950's or 60's out of Christmas cards. Apparently it was a popular craft at the time.

I also added a pine cone swag over the window, but it's hard to see in the photo below. This year I also used a folding coat rack to display special WWII ornaments, and I did the string of Christmas cards across the room. I've never done it before, but I like how it looks and will probably do it again in the future. Very festive.

Merry Christmas

Cameron Blue Tulip and Franciscan Metropolitan Tea Things

A while back I decided I wanted to start having "tea". Usually I just made tea in a mug, but I figured it would be nice to use a real teapot and fancy teacups. I have found some interesting pots and cups here and there at thrift stores. What I wanted to share today were a few cute finds in robin's egg blue. They aren't a matched set, but I don't think you need to have all pieces from the same set.

The pot below is either Cameron Blue Tulip or Cronin Blue Tulip (debated). It is a mid-century piece and what a darling teapot it is! I liked how it looked Danish, and the design was so cute and contemporary, I initially wondered if it was new. The only clue I had was that the unglazed clay on the base looked old and somewhat worn, and that it looked it like it had sat in a garage (was dusty). I got it at Goodwill in pristine condition, for only $3.99. The Goodwill is notorious for being overpriced, but as I always say, they slip up sometimes and price things reasonably!

The other two pieces (creamer and sugar) are Franciscan Ware Metropolitan, circa 1940. These are new finds I picked up at the hospice for $3 apiece. I thought that was reasonable enough. I see Franciscan from time to time, mostly the rose or apple patterns, sometimes Coronado, but I have never seen these!

I had a hard time finding others online as comparisons, and very little info was available. One seller had matching plates and cups in this blue, and one person had the matching tea pot in blue, and there were a few sold listings on Ebay. They also had a line called Tiempo which seem to be the same molds, but different colors (and it seems Tiempo was made a few years later). Are these really rare? To my understanding, production was limited to a few years, and of course, they are early pieces.
But of course, I got them because I just loved the shape and colors!

Dumpster Diving for Royal Doulton

Okay, so I haven't exactly taken up dumpster diving, but at the same time, it's amazing what people throw away. I've found so many things on the curb or in dumpsters by chance, and I don't go out looking specifically. Well, a while back I had to go dump some paper in the dumpster at work. The dumpster had been emptied the night before. When I looked in, I saw a bunch of small furniture in the bottom and stacked on top was a DVD rack and on top of that was a plastic storage bin. Inside that storage bin was an entire set of Royal Doulton china.

The china looks like it was never used. It wasn't scratched, the silver leaf was perfect. I pulled the storage container out and there was 11 place settings which each included a dinner plate, salad plate, bread plate, cup, and a saucer. Too bad there aren't any bowls! Here is a photo below:

Like I said, this china was in a plastic container and the dumpster was empty except for the furniture. It was not sitting in a pile of rubbish or swimming around in stinky banana peels. 

I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to donate a bunch of stuff (we used to accept donations) and were told "No, we don't do that anymore" so they just dumped it in our dumpster. So now I have a whole set of very expensive English china. Hyacinth Bucket would be proud (er..of the fact that it's Royal Doulton, not at the fact it was found in a bin).

Considering new Royal Doulton goes for $80+ per place setting, and Replacements.com wants a ton for them, I'd say this was a great find. Of course, I will be sterilizing on the hot setting of the dishwasher to be safe, but it's amazing what people throw away. My question to anyone reading is what kinds of things have you found in the garbage?

A Few More WWII Ornaments

I think I may have come across two more WWII era ornaments and I'm always excited to find them. I find that era fascinating in so many ways. I got these two red ornaments in a bag at Goodwill I can tell the toppers were replaced as the size isn't quite right for the stem of the bulb. The ornaments are unsilvered and have the pastel tone stripes that a lot of the WWII ornaments had. They are too cute!

So I think they are WWII, they certainly appear to be right in style and I've seen identical ones online said to be WWII. In the same bag I found some other interesting ornaments. Unfortunately, they are kind of...."well loved". I'd prefer that they were in better condition, but I bought the bag mainly for the two striped ones anyway. I found what seems to be a very old ornament. It had no topper or hanger so I added one, and the coloring is flaking off. I just really love the bumpy shape. I found similar ones from the 1920's and 1930's, so that is my guess on the era. I also found (in the same bag) an unsilvered pink ornament with a sprig of tinsel inside.

Unfortunately the tinsel one is really flaky, but I'll hang in on the tree anyway. I might come across some in better shape someday. Some people say that the tinsel bulbs are WWII, but others are skeptical, reasoning that it would't make sense to add an aluminum sprig to an ornament when you were trying to save all metals for the war effort. I think they are just kind of unique and interesting.

1960's Empire Plastic Light Up Santa

I found another vintage Christmas decoration I thought I would share. I was looking in the bins at Goodwill and saw this small light up santa. Usually I'd pass these by because I'm not really a fan of Santa decor and I'm not a fan of tacky yard displays. But this santa caught my eye and I'm not sure why. I think I just liked the size and something about the way it looked. Then I saw it had an original light in the back and noticed it was marked 1966, made in the USA. I then tested the light and wow, it still worked!

How it looks plugged in

At only 99 cents, I figured I'd buy it. It's fairly small and not really a huge centerpiece so I think it looks good with my other older Christmas decor. I'm not sure when lighted decor like this first became popular, but my guess would be the 1950's and 60's, so it's a little piece of Christmas history. Looks like they've gotten a lot bigger as time goes by. People have gone from little light up pieces like this to giant inflatable snowglobes!

Santa from the front

Santa with the original cord

What was really funny is when I brought it home and my mom got excited because it was the same light up santa she had growing up! She said she figured my Grandma still had it. Turns out she does, but the light went missing years ago. The tradition lives on with this one!

P.S. I think my mom wants to steal this santa!

WWII Era Christmas Ornaments and Ideas

Old ornaments are fun. I started collecting ornaments around age 11 or 12, though it wasn't on purpose (that's how it always happens it seems!). I was living abroad and we went to a warehouse that was clearing out Christmas items. I found a small fake Christmas tree for $7 (I have always liked a good deal). I ended up using the family ornaments which included a plastic candy chain, garlands, and some older ornaments (a few were Shiny Brites that belonged to my Grandma).
Years later I started buying more ornaments because I really liked the old ones. Originally I was buying new ornaments that looked old, made in Poland. I didn't find many older ornaments, but I eventually started finding them here and there at garage sales and thrift shops but it took some hunting.

I ended up finding a pretty good source. A local hospice I found saves up their Christmas stuff and they have a big sale in December. They had a ton of vintage ornaments for 10 cents apiece. No, really, 10 cents! I ended up with quite a few that year. They had their annual sale a few weeks ago, and I found two bags of old ornaments! The bags were $1.00 apiece! When I got home and inspected them I found these two.

Two matching WWII unsilvered ornaments!

I was so excited because these are the first true WWII ornaments I've found and I've had an eye out for them for quite a while now. During the 1940's, the silvering was needed for the war effort. The bulbs were left without the silver coloring. The tops would have originally been cardboard, but these have obviously been replaced. I'd imagine it would be easy for the paper to rip or rot away over the years so I'm not surprised. But the history behind these is so interesting! I also have one more that is unsilvered, but it has mica on it (the green and white striped one in the photo). Supposedly the sparkly mica is post-war, but oddly enough, I have seen unsilvered ornaments with mica and WWII paper caps. My guess is that maybe it is WWII or just after the war. It's fun to think about how many Christmases these ornaments have seen. 

I really want to display some of the ornaments I like best and they seem to get lost in the tree. I was looking around at what I had and then realized I could use a mug rack as a display!

I figured an accordion mug rack was the perfect way to display them so I could see them. It also keeps ornaments safe from being knocked over by animals getting in the tree or unfortunate the-tree-fell-over accidents. I think it displays them really well too, because you can see each one clearly. It's almost like a little art piece. I've also been trying to come up with some other ways of displaying them. A bare tree branch with some flocking might also be cute. 

Work in Progress

Hello There

It was time for a blog. After bothering people with the things that I find all the time, I decided I'd just post them on a blog for other people to see or enjoy. I called the blog Finds of the Century because I like Mid-Century (among other styles) and always hope to find pieces. 

Work in Progress

My goal is to find good pieces I really like. So I've slowly been finding things. It's been years in the making because for one, I am cheap, and secondly, I am very picky about what I want. Sure, I could have a great room if I went to some vintage showroom and paid $2000 for a coffee table, but NO THANK YOU. I grew up thrifty and I grew up shopping garage sales and thrift stores. These factors make it hard to find things I want, coupled with the fact the style I like is also currently very "hip" with people and everyone circles like hawks around anything old. 

I'll keep hunting!