Vintage Christmas on a Budget

I know it's slightly (okay, you caught me...VERY) early for Christmas. Don't be mad! After Halloween ends for some reason I'm always in a crazy rush to get our Christmas stuff out. I promise I'll wait at least until after remembrance day.

Christmas has always been a huge thing in my family. Tonnes of parties and many trees to decorate. Every year we would unpack so many decorations, and every year it would be a total thrill to unveil all these wonderful shiny things you only see for a month or so, before they go back into a box once more. 

I seem to have accumulated my own large mass of decorations as well. After living on our own for only four years or so, we have bumped up to seven or eight bins already! I really don't want to get much further than that to be honest. Most of the things we now have are hand-me-downs or family treasures I could never part with. Last year I bought the silver tree of my dreams and every year I make at least one christmas tree craft to add to the collection. Other than that I'm trying to slow it down to a halt.

I definitely didn't start out with everything I have. When I had my first apartment, all I had was a $10 garage sale tree and a package of ornaments I bought at Sears. I wanted to do this post for anyone who is just starting out. Maybe you're in a new apartment on your own for the first time or maybe you just bought your first house. Also for anyone who's on a budget this year. Are you doing the smart thing and pinching your pennies? Absolutely anyone can enjoy a vintage inspired holiday if you know where to look and how to be a little inventive. 

Step One.

If you don't have the cash to shell out for an actual christmas tree, get a small bottle brush tree. It's fairly easy to find vintage ones, but nowadays it's even easier to find them in stores. It seems like every company is recreating this looks right now. You can even go to a craft store and buy what you'll need to make your own! So whatever your budget allows, go get yourself a mini tree or two.

click for trees

Step Two.

Buying fabric is one of the easiest ways to get festive quickly. You can make tablecloths, throw pillows, a tree skirt (if you have a tree already), anything! You can even cut a doughnut shape out of cardboard and wrap holiday inspired fabric around it for a quick Christmas wreath. I am in love with this new fabric pattern, because it's atomic era inspired and it's versatile enough to work into your home after the holidays. You can use it all year round if you want to!

buy fabric here

Step Three.

Get a few vintage ornaments. It's so easy to keep your eye out at garage sales for these during the summer. It may feel very weird to buy Christmas stuff at this time, but this is generally when people are ready to get rid of these types of things. And for great prices too. You might walk away with a set of old Shiny Brite ornaments for 50 cents! Even if you only have a couple, mix them into your existing ornaments and it'll still give them a good vintage effect. And again, if you don't have a tree, don't worry. Put them in a nice bowl on your coffee table or hang them from string from the curtain rod on your windows.

Get Decorating

Step Four.

Christmas dinnerware can be pricey, so what do you use for holiday get-togethers or parties you might be hosting? Just use what you have and mix in a few pieces here and there. Investing in some cute Christmas glasses might be a better way to go. This small vintage set of four is a good way to start. They'll be much cheaper and easy to mix in with plain glasses and white dishes. Here's where you could make napkins from the fabric above to set at your table too. (Make sure you wash the fabric beforehand, to prevent the red from bleeding at the party if something spills!) I picked these cute glasses because the back and pink details are not typical of what you might find. If you get pink or black Christmas glasses, you may still be able to use them year round. Gold is also another colour you can use all the time, and it's really easy to find! 

Get 'em here

Step Five.

If you have some casserole dishes that have red or green details, use 'em! Even this red and pink floral one can fit into a holiday theme. Even though this would typically be a spring or summer-type pattern, with your table set up, the actual pattern won't matter so much, as the colour palette will. Trust me, it'll blend in just fine! And if you don't have any parties to host, you can use your casserole dish as that "bowl" to put your ornaments in!

click for casserole dishes

I hope this gave you some ideas for this year. I'm sure most of this stuff you can find laying around your home already. Or maybe you can make something similar. I know there are tonnes of crafty people out there!

I'm going to do another blog post on dream Christmas items very soon. Oh yes. Holiday decorations that are just too out of our reach financially. We can all admire them from afar together. 

See ya again soon!

Marissa xo

phone call.

Retro phones are the best aren't they? Rotary, wall mounted. Any shape, any colour.

This is one thing I don't have yet. Maybe someday. 

I'd love a bright pastel telephone tucked away in a cozy corner. Just for fun.

One can dream...

In the meantime I'll just look at all the wonderful retro phone eye candy on Etsy!

one//two//three//four//five//six//seven//eight//nine

P.S. The other day we booked our honeymoon flight to London and Paris! It's a year away but I'm already floating in excitement. Any suggestions on places to go and things to see? I'm starting my list already! Maybe there's some European vintage waiting for me somewhere...

Thanks for following along and have an awesome rest of the day!

Marissa xo

dolled up.

I have come to the realization that I am drawn specifically to black and white clothing, usually with bib collars or a "tuxedo" style. I really prefer more masculine inspired looks paired with feminine accessories and makeup. As most ladies, collars alone get me almost every time. Almost. 

In the last year I have adopted a couple of my favourite closet staple pieces.

Three are dresses, two are tops. Three are vintage, two are not. Say hello to a couple top notch stunners I am proud to call mine!

These are two of my acquired finds and both are from Etsy. On the left is my 60s velvet tuxedo jumper that I've had since last April. I bought it for myself as an early birthday present from DutchessVintage, to wear on my birthday and take on our Chicago trip. It's probably my favourite vintage outfit I own. On the right is my newest vintage clothing purchase (other than for the shop of course!), a beautiful LucyInDesguise dress that has sort of a 60s folk style mixed in. I haven't even had a chance to wear it yet, other than a quick try-on, but it's in my closet waiting to make its debut.

And in case you're wondering, the dress in the photo above is an asos petite collar swing dress. The most effortless thing in my closet that instantly makes me look like I tried to put myself together. In reality, it feels like being draped in the softest, comfiest blanket.

Does anyone else get pulled in by these styles? Or do you have another wardrobe weakness?

Marissa

shop sales.

It's like project city over at my house lately. We're still chipping away at the finishing touches in our basement. I never dreamed putting things away and getting organized would take this long, but I'm thankful for the progress being made.

Even our bedroom is undergoing a few changes. A couple weeks ago we hosted a garage sale at my house and my grandma contributed a couple mystery boxes that I was unaware of until the garage sale was actually going on! It was a super close call, because my most treasured set of items of hers were in one of the boxes!! A Four Seasons wall hanging set from Coppercraft Guild. I know it seems pretty silly that they would be so important and memorable to me, but I always remember wanting them from a very, very young age. Needless to say they are now mine and awaiting their turn to be hung up in our bedroom like they were in hers all those years.

Today I received a FREE extra long 60s Walnut dresser with a mirror for our bedroom. My dad originally bought a full set for his cabin, but couldn't fit this particular one in any of the rooms. So I guess I lucked out! This thing is the absolute coolest and I'm glad because I agreed to take it based only on knowing the wood type and seeing the headboard from the set. I was pretty confident I knew what the shape would be and I was spot on. She needs a light scrub and some oil to restore the shiny finish in places, so onto the list that goes. Pictures to come obviously!

Because I've been so focussed on home things and haven't posted anything new lately (in the shop and on the blog) I decided to have some simultaneous sales going on in both shops. Maybe you've seen them already, but if you haven't...

This lady is $10 plus shipping now!!

For CharmingShopVintage:

Items that I've had in the shop for a while are marked down to $10 or $15.

Such a great deal for people looking for cheap gifts or things they want but would usually pay so much more for!! There is some pretty incredible stuff up for grabs! Check it out!

For CharmingShopLove:

I am trying to get my older art prints moving on to new homes, so I can start selling some new ones!

All prints are buy one get one free! (Or better known as BOGO.)

I am going to be starting a new collection of vintage inspired holiday confetti as well as smaller original artworks based on the prints I already sell. There will be some pyrex inspired ones so stay tuned for that.

As always I combine shipping for multiple items or for purchase from both shops. Don't hesitate to ask, because I'm always close by to help!;)



We'll be having our little wedding next summer and we've decided on an incredible (but expensive) honeymoon spot. So come on and contribute to our wedding fund! haha Oh dear...


Alright, I'm off to the basement to get started on the new shop area!
Hope you're having a great week!


Marissa xo

Some September Loot.

I have been busy preparing for a full winter of vintage selling. These are some of my finds from September. To keep and to sell. There's always a fine line...I'm not always so good at deciding...

Let's get my keep pile out of the way first. Right at the tail end of September I found these shoes. Like so many Value Village frequenters, I get overly excited around Halloween. Months before, they start holding back their coolest, most retro outfits to put out as Halloween costumes. I try to snatch up as many cute ones as I can! 

These intensely sparkly shoes were in the Halloween section this year and I'm pretty certain they're keepers. They fit my tiny fit, but they're a little snug. I'd say they're a narrow 5 and a half.  I might try stretching them out with bags of water. Has anyone actually tried this before? I haven't. I don't want to wreck these beauties! In person it looks like it has glitter or sequins all over, but it's actually just metallic thread. I love them and really hope our relationship works out!

I try not to get too attached to things, but I don't think I can let these go. The pattern is called Flair. Such a sweet name for the best plate set ever! There are eight dinner plates, eight bread plates and one small bowl. Normally I would like a larger set, but seeing as how I don't think I'll be finding anything quite like these again, they'll be mine for now. 

About six weeks ago, my house got broken into and I was pretty upset about it. Luckily the thief didn't get very much. The only thing they took was my purse, and I didn't have too many things in there at the time. I always carry small vintage purses that don't hold a lot, but the one that was stolen was my moms when she was my age. If anything, there was a little sentimental value and the inconvenience of having to cancel all my credit cards and renew my information. Luckily my purse was recovered in the end, along with some personal things the thief obviously didn't think much of. (Everything was found in a garbage can down the street. Gross.) 

Anyway the point of this story is that I was feeling down about having someone violate my home and break into my personal space. So I treated myself to an Etsy purchase that I had been eyeing for a while. A set of these amazing Hazel Atlas glasses from the Etsy shop Midge and Manny's. The seller is very sweet and I received them in perfect condition, wrapped with great care. Sometimes you just need to splurge on something, and this was it for me. (Please ignore my horrible front door partition wall that clearly needs to be painted soon!)

 This set was a nice find last month. I'm a big fan of gravel or textured wall art. I have two melted plastic still life sets already - one in orange and another in blue. These kitschy guys can go off to a new home where they can be fully appreciated for how cool they really are. I'm pretty excited about the incredible bold colour and visual movement of the images. 

Hellooo cute wall clock!! I'm a huge sucker for retro fonts, and the numbers on this Timex clock are pretty retro indeed! I'm willing to part with this beauty and for the right price. It does have a significantly large crack on the front. So sad. Expect a discount! 

*** 

To my Winnipeg people, we're hosting a three household garage sale at my home this weekend. Please email me at charming_shop@hotmail.com if you'd like details. (I'm sorry, I don't want to display my address here!) Direct any and all questions to me and I'll get back to you right away! 

We've been planning this garage sale for a whole year, storing these things in boxes and bins. I have no idea what's what. We wanted to do it earlier in the summer, but we ran out of time. Now we just want to get it done before it gets too cold out. Now there's construction on our street too, so unfortunately space is going to be very limited. A back lane party it is! We would wait until next year, except the amount of stuff is too out of control to store over winter. 

I was also originally planning on doing a pop-up of my vintage shop, CharmingShopVintage, at the sale, but because of the amount of stuff, I decided not to for this time. There's always next year. So come on out. We've been organizing and pricing for two days and I just want to get rid of everything! 

Make offers and take some things off my hands!

We hope to see you there!

Marissa xo

diy plant holder.

I haven't felt very inspired to do any DIY projects lately, but the other day during one of my Value Village trips I found some little bowls that were begging to be turned into some sort of crafty goodness. 

There were four of them for $2.99 and for that price I thought they were worth picking up. They're those kitschy kind of dishes that would've originally had a handle, but they had been removed leaving a hole on either side of each. I automatically thought of hanging them as planters at different heights, for myself or for gifts. And anyway, the pattern on them was way too cute to pass up! Im always looking for ways to add colour and interest in my home, especially in the planter variety.

I've only finished one so far, with the cord being about 30 cm long and it took about 10 to 15 minutes altogether. Super quick!

For this cord I used basic natural coloured hemp string. I cut two long strands for each side. Four in total. I took both strings together and threaded them through one hole. Then tied a tight knot at the exact centre. Next I did a simple braid, but with four strands. (To make it easier I just grouped two strings together and braided them like a three-strand braid. Nothing fancy.) Tie a knot on the end when you've reached your desired length. Repeat these steps on the other side and try to get both as even as possible. You don't want a lopsided hanging planter. No way! 

I'm sure you can think of a cooler way to finish it off when tying it together, but I just tied the top together in two knots to join them and cut off the ends, letting it look rough and unfinished. Hemp string has that unfinished look to it anyway. I think for my next one I will try ribbon in alternating black and white and do a more polished look. I may even do all of them in different colours and styles.

This is a reminder to anyone with seemingly broken dishes. You may be able to repurpose them and give them an interesting new life! What do you have laying around?

Marissa xo

Drying Flowers.

 This summer I got these sweet little weed-like flowers at the St. Norbert Farmers Market. I actually don't know what they're called, so if anyone does, please tell me! I loved the simple aesthetic of them and I knew they would look very pretty when dried. I usually hate keeping flowers, because they wilt and die so fast. I prefer having actual plants, but even then I'm not really good at keeping them healthy, let alone alive! 

I thought if I could keep these in a vase for a while and let them dry up, they'd be with me for a long time with little trouble. I had them in an English porcelain vase my dad got me this summer at a garage sale, mixed in with some roses. The combination of deep red and periwinkle blue was so beautiful. The roses died recently, so I decided it was time to start preserving the them now. 

This weekend I got this vase from 1949 at a garage sale for $1. I love the unique asymmetrical shape, so these unconventional flowers fit in nicely. These flowers are kind of like a dandelion once they've gone to seed, but a lot thicker. They're very similar to a thistle, especially when it comes to it's sharp thorns!

Once when I was younger, my grandmother's neighbour told me if you want to keep weed-like flowers, you have to spray them with an aerosol hairspray. This keeps the seeds in place for years, so they don't fall off as they dry up. It acts as a light adhesive. She had giant seeded dandelions in a vase in her cabin and I remember being so interested in them. Of course I tried this and it worked so well! As I was preparing them, some sections were falling off. I had to leave out one whole bulb, because too many had come off. As soon as I sprayed them, they stayed in place. We'll see what the lasting power is like I guess, but I'm hoping for the best!

It felt like a waste to throw out the pretty bits left over from the broken bulb, so I put them in a small retro Ironstone bowl. I plan on adding a few drops of essential oils to give it some fragrance. And voila! Instant potpourri.

I think I got my moneys worth from these babies. As usual Farmers market flowers can be pricey, but I'm not sorry I splurged on these. They're too pretty and I think I'll be able to hang onto them for a while. Going into Fall now, most of my garden has given up, so I'll just take pleasure in how amazing these will look through the rest of the year.

Marissa xo

Happy Birthday CharmingShopVintage.

I really can't believe I've had my vintage shop on Etsy for one year this month. It's been a real ride, but mostly it has been a tonne of fun!

I have sold some really interesting things this year, like a rare Lefton Poodle cookie jar, an awesome retro terrarium and a couple 60s dinnerware sets, among other things. 

I know I'll be doing this for a very long time. I enjoy it and I love connecting with people and answering their questions. It makes me so excited when someone is so thrilled they have found what they needed and I get to send it to them. 

You'll be seeing CharmingShopVintage for another year. And another. And another!

To celebrate our one year anniversary at CharmingShopVintage, I'm offering a sale in the shop!

*With the purchase of 1 item receive 10% off

*With the purchase of 2 items receive 20% off

*With the purchase of 3 items receive 25% off
(some conditions apply.)

As always, I can ship worldwide and combine shipping where possible! Please contact me through Etsy for the best deal on your purchases!

Marissa

September.

Oh hey there. It's the first Wednesday in September! Yeah, when did that happen? I was pretty sure I still had time to get to the beach this year, but I think my time is nearly up! We're already getting into Fall mode and I'm working too much now to get away. I mean I'll get out there eventually, but it may be to just sit inside the cabin, curled up with a good book in front of the fire. 

Today is a good day. It's my Dad's Birthday and we'll be going out to celebrate tonight. He's honestly the best dad a girl could ask for. He's always there to help us no matter what. I can't even tell you how many times he's rescued my sister and I out of our binds. But I suppose that's what dads do! 

My dad took this picture of us sleeping outside at his house last week, so I guess the answer is I owe him a great birthday at least for being a poor guest! 

As I have mentioned before, I have really taken my thrifting mode to the next level this summer. I have begun collecting more wisely, now knowing what I need and what my shop message is. It's been nearly a year with my vintage shop now and I'm feeling more comfortable with my decisions as an online shop owner. I think my customers have really done that for me with their very generous and positive comments. 

(If you're reading this and you've purchased something from CharmingShopVintage and/or have written a comment, I thank you. You choose what shops you deal with, and you decided whether or not to take time out of your day to write a comment or review. You don't know how often you make my day and make me feel like I'm on the right track. I'm inspired by you to keep on going!) 

In the end all I really wanted to say is I'm fully stocked for the winter seasons ahead. I can't wait to start listing everything I have. In fact, these are some of the items that will be listed very soon!

Status update on my basement? The carpet goes in Friday. I'm sad that we'll be covering up the original flooring, but in the end it was too damaged to salvage. Sometimes that's just the way. I know you're probably sooo bored about hearing about this already. So I'm sorry! I'm just way too excited to get some space back. Living amongst boxes is making me loopy.

I wish I had more to share right now. Things have been slow and not terribly exciting. 

I'm really looking forward to making the Fall season count, because Summer certainly got away from me this year. I hope everyone is doing well. Have a great day!

Marissa xo

Cat calls.

Mid century stylized cats are the best kind of cats. 

Nine photos. Nine lives.

 I promise that was a total coincidence!

one - novelty cat print dress

two - pair of cat figurines

three - pastel cats on a black dress

four - chalkware siamese with jewel eyes

five - lefton "miss priss" dish

six - holt howard salt and pepper shakers

seven - glittery cat eye glasses

eight - retro striped sunglasses

nine - framed vintage prints

Yesterday we took our dog for a walk and spotted a sweet orange tabby in a parking lot. We both took turns going to see him, while the other stayed back with Leah, so as to not scare the timid thing. We have lots of wandering cats in our neighbourhood, but this one was so sweet. It rubbed it's face all over my hands and wanted a good scratch. I think he sparked my cat fever for this post today. If I could've brought him home, I probably would have. 

It's a rainy Sunday in the city and I have to do a second coat of paint downstairs. 

Everyone stay dry and enjoy a quiet day!

Marissa xo

Painting days.

We have started painting our basement and it looks phenomenal. I've had some swatches ready to go for a while now, because it's never too early to start paint plans. I think that having that little piece of colour is what inspired me to hang in there for the last two months. The state of things has been messy and unkempt, but we are so close to the finish line. Getting the first coat up was just what we needed to start seeing the finish line.

The style of the basement was always going to be mid century, but with a bit of a modern feel for my fiancé. He likes an older antique style mixed with brand new pieces, so it was important to incorporate more classic colours. For paint we chose "Barely Brown" and "Midnight in N.Y." by Behr. The former is a little creamy grey, that should appear pretty close to white. I'm truly looking forward to lightening up that space. Anything will really. It was a light, dusty salmon colour before. Midnight in N.Y. is our accent colour. It's a stunning and dramatic chalkboard-esque colour. Maybe a bit darker. We had a difficult time with this, because I had my heart set on a deep teal colour, until I remembered I have a royal blue couch. Those two colours were never going to sit well together. So back to the drawing board.

I'm not going to lie, there were a lot of compromises with this basement. We both have such different styles. It's going to serve so many different purposes - music room/recording studio/library/party room/relaxing area. You name it. Getting the style just right was so important. In the end I'm trying to envision the future and get a good space going for when we have a family, and then ultimately for when we're ready to move on and sell the house to some lucky new owners. 

Anyway, I think we have a good thing going. We have a nice new carpet purchased and ready to go, and this week I'll be spray painting our mantle. We also have some shelving to install for the library wall. It's a step by step process, but it's nearly there. And once it's done, the shop can get so much more attention. I'm so ready to get going. I'm nearly stocked up for a whole winters worth of listing.

I just wanted to share our colour palette choices today, and to let you know things won't be so scatterbrained so very soon. So feast your eyes on this!:

This turned out super Hallowe'en-y, but I assure you it's not! Computers always adjust colours in such weird ways. The wall is less pink toned and the darker accent has a dark blueish tint.

I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I wanted to do something a little elegant. We're pretty whimsical upstairs, so why not step in and get a little more traditional where we can. Besides, the laundry room is going to be a bright shade of orange called "Cheese Puff". That's crazy enough!

Can't wait to show more before and afters!




Marissa xo

Fall Faves

I go through some different fazes that seem to change every time the weather turns. My clothes change, my hair, my beauty routine and my home especially. We are nearing September. It'll be here in a matter of days. I'm already gathering up ideas on how I want this Fall to pan out. Here's a little wish list of things I've put together for the seasons fast approaching.

multi plant stand//Vampira Liquid Lipstick//Lise Watier serum//Syroco Wall Hanging//BAIT heels//faux mantle//mod hat//tiered Ikea candles//skater dress

I recently found a similar plant stand to the stand on the far left for fifty cents, but without planters. This fall I've made it my goal to fill it with some nice matching pots. As for the fireplaces, as I said already I'm super excited to have mine. Soon enough I will, but I've been planning how to decorate it. Our vintage electric fireplace insert, firewood or candles? All are good. I have this set of Syroco wall hangings except this specific one. I'm thinking I should try to hunt it down one of these days. I've included it here because the nature theme and deep orange colour really make me feel like Autumn is on it's way. For fashion, I've really been into bold graphic looks with a simple colour palette. It's a total coincidence that I chose red, navy and white for this whole thing, but I guess it works! Clearly that's what I'm into right now. haha! Beauty wise, I like a deeper blood red lipstick for Fall with bare eyes. My skin gets a little dehydrated this time of year, so serums are a must! This Lise Watier one is ridiculously good.

I'm looking forward to the crisper air.

The rain we've been having here is sure putting me in the mood to stay cozy.

Keep warm!

Marissa xo

Basement Inspiration

Most of my online silence this summer has been due to some major changes in our home. We have a very sweet but tiny mid century house built in 1950, that we bought hoping to restore it back to its full potential. Being that it's summer and all, we decided it was high time to get started on a major problem - our basement.

In our area, a lot of houses don't have basements. Or if they do, they're just concrete holes in the ground below the house. We were lucky to get a finished basement, that needed some extreme TLC.

It's permanently dirty from years of wear and neglect, cold and way too dark. Besides when we first moved in we had to have some plumbing done and a bunch of wall was ripped open and exposed. Even some ceiling tiles had fallen down. And the old linoleum tile flooring was missing so many tiles too. I'm sure it was fabulous back in the 50s, but not so much anymore.

Like all reno projects, the job is slow and tedious. There's always some unforeseen issue to resolve. But in the end all the waiting around for the finishing point will be worth it. In excited to have insulation in the walls for the first time ever, and some good wiring so that I'm not afraid to use the outlets. I feel like in always waiting for things to burst into flames! Old houses are both fun and dangerous. You've got to be ready for anything.

Right now we are almost ready to paint, but we sure went through some rough stages. When you tear out all the walls down to the concrete and start from scratch, there's a lot to be done. I can only begin to dream up our new layout and how our furniture (now in storage) will look down there. I'm truly excited to get my 60s blue velvet couch back! It's one of my very favourite possessions. I feel like I'll end up designing the room around it.

In theme with all my basement plans I wanted to share some photos that will serve as inspiration for me while I decide how to paint, (I'm leaning towards a soft grey, clean white and deep midnight blue for accents.) how to set my faux fireplace mantle into the wall and what else we need to make the space great. All that good stuff! Enjoy!

 One of our top focal points on our wish list for this basement was a large bookshelf. This one is perfect and I'm liking the warmth in this photo anyway. So into the inspiration folder it goes!

 This room is very clearly a living room, but the colour scheme is very similar to what we're looking for. The cozy setup is perfect for having friends over for a visit or reading on the couch. 

As you can see we're definitely going for a mix of modern and mid century. It needs to match the rest of the house, while still being a room that my Fiancé will enjoy playing guitar and putting his enormous collection of books in. I thought he would love to have a slanted magazine rack attached to the bookshelves to display some of his more collectible books. This room seems lovely.

Again, these are living rooms, but apparently everyone thinks a basement needs to look like a dark cave. I'm looking forward to bring lightness and cute bursts of colour into the space like these perfectly styled places: One and two.

My blue velvet couch looks in a little better shape than this sweet girl, but fitting mine into my basement and designing a colour scheme around it is top on my priority list.

This mantle was decorated by a very creative fellow Winnipegger, Erin from Ohsolovely. I can only hope to decorate my new mantle as nice as this one! There is no doubt this needs to be included in my inspiration photos. 

 It's nice to know blue velvet couches can look pretty against a variety of colours. I'm so ready to start decorating!

I can't wait for all the messy work to be done, so I can start moving stuff around. For now I can only dream up potential layouts and paint colours. 

Marissa xo

I Love...Vintage Barware!

We're not big drinkers, but I always knew I wanted to host great little parties at our house right from the start. With our home slowly piecing together, and the discovery of a vintage bar cart early this summer for $7, I figured we should put together a corner for our barware. Something that's easy to pretty up when entertaining, but simple enough to leave up all the time. I thought we should definite start keeping our eye out for retro glasses and serving dishes to give our fancy new cart the recognition it deserves. It's a conversation piece worth having, and I can't wait to have guests crowded around, picking out their drink of choice! Here are some amazing vintage pieces I would love to have in my small but blooming collection. Do you have any of these?

(From top left to bottom right:)

1- These aren't vintage but check out this amazing pink starburst glass from Bombshell Bar Goods. 

2- Federal Glass Amoeba Boomerang wine glasses are always the most fun and classic of the mid century bar patterns! 

3- A set of four atomic, space-age looking glasses are a definite must have for an outstanding Mad Men themed look.

4- This a set of two orange glasses with a very unique design that I'm quite drawn to.

5- I love a good set of gold frosted glasses with their original carrier. 

6- The Pillow Talk Set (also not vintage) from Bombshell Bar Goods is the perfect gift for newlyweds. I'm digging the amazing retro font!

7- These spectacular pink, black and gold Hazel Atlas glasses are tough to find, but oh my, look at that fabulous pattern!

8- I'm all for a good tantalus. Especially one as decorative as this. Great fonts displaying each liquor name is a bonus too!

9- This set of travel flasks makes me so happy. Complete with it's own perfect carrying case, it feels like this mini collection should be on the set of a Wes Anderson film. 

There are so many styles out there. Even modern day companies are trying to compete for your attention by bringing out vintage inspired collections, a lot of which are oh so adorable. I always tend to lean towards vintage, because I know they're well made and the history side of it always gets me. However, I'm not above buying something new if it's worth it! 

So let's get this bar cart filled!

Marissa xo

Personal and Shop Finds for August

I can't believe we're more than halfway through August already. When did that even happen?! To break the blues of summer ending faster than we all want, I thought I would recap my top discoveries for this month. so let's do two of mine, and two for the shop!

I came upon this lovely small set of dishes at Value Village a week ago and I'm thrilled about it. I don't really stick to a type or maker when it comes to kitchen items. The only rule is it needs to be turquoise. I'm always on the hunt, but I know everyone else is too. Turquoise has become a very popular colour and tracking it down has become a matter of luck. I'm still in complete shock that this pattern belongs to me!

This letter organizer was a very sweet find at an Estate sale this Saturday. It was the very first thing I spotted and I nabbed it right away. It had a large sticker overtop of the entire "memos"section and a modern pencil holder stuck to the side with adhesive. I got both things off without any trouble. There is some light damage, and obviously needs a good scrub, (I only hung it up for this photo.) but this is exactly the thing we need to get organized and it's aqua! I have always wanted one of these, and had previously considered buying one off Etsy. Now I've got one and the temptation is gone. I can only imagine what they had sold the day before on Friday, because I sure felt like I had taken all the best things, or I should say what I thought were the best. What treasures did I miss? 

This cat salt and pepper shaker is creepy and cute all at once. Found at another Estate Sale, it was part of a shaker collection of the woman's mother that was high in the hundreds. I always love dipping into old salt and pepper shaker collections. You can always tell a lot about the person depending on how crazy their collection is. This one was wonderfully kitschy, and I walked away with three separate pairs for the shop. You'll see the other two sweeties very soon! All three need a good cleaning to be rid of their dust before they're ready for listing. 

Whether we like it or not, Christmas is approaching. For businesses big and small it's always important to get a leg up and be prepared for early holiday shoppers. Whether it be decorations or gifts. I'm pretty bad at getting my gifts organized early, but my decoration planning and buying happens at the first sign of Fall. I get way too excited to put out my family's things now that they've been passed down to me. I suppose it's a childhood nostalgia thing for me. Anyway, the point of this is that I discovered a giant box retro candles that will surely get us all in the mood for winter festivities. I've already glanced through them all to give them a once-over, but I'm pretty excited to take them all out to see what I've got! There a few newer ones at the top, but underneath them are the really cool guys. I know I saw a pretty adorable deer and a perfectly chubby snowman! Around Christmas I also like throwing a cute vintage ornament into my packaged orders for my customers. Maybe this year I'll have a few spare candles! We'll see!

Obviously there's still a little time left for summer garage sales and back-to-school thrifting. Can I find anything cool in the last 14 days of August? I hope so! 

Marissa xo

Summer Happenings

This summer has been crazy. Totally not excuse for falling away from posting, but we have been undergoing many changes. Small ones and big ones. I don't know why, but I always feel like our lives specifically are in a constant whirlwind of change. Do you ever feel like that too? I always get the impression our lives shuffle around faster than other peoples, but in retrospect, I'm sure that's not true. It just feels that way.

Our basement, all cleaned up before the walls came down. 

We have been tackling many things this season. We wanted to get an early start on organizing for our annual garage sale, while clearing our basement out for renovations anyway. Might as well kill two bird with one stone, right? In the midst of this, my mom suddenly decided to sell her home and that came sooner than any of us thought! I'm so happy she did though, because her new place is gorgeous, and I would happily move in there! 

We adopted a very cute Yorkshire Terrier, Shih Tzu cross named Leah. She was in desperate need of a home and we couldn't say no. She's just over a year old and has a lot attitude and energy. She's calmed down a lot since we've had her here, and she's taken a real liking to our cat Royal. She's fitting into our little family perfectly. And what's best is she seems at ease with my vintage hunting. She doesn't touch a thing. My favourite kind of pup!

This year, my dad bought a cabin too, so we have been trying to spend as much time as possible at the lake. I grew up going to the lake all summer, so being able to revisit that side of my life is a dream. Besides that, we're even thinking of the cabin for our wedding next summer! I think it'll become a very special place.

Thrifting and garage-saling has become a little hard to do lately. I try to hunt down the best of the best, but you have to sort through a million things before you find something worthwhile! It seems like I'm always working on the best days for pursuing. Luckily, on the days I have been able to get out there, I have unearthed some pretty insane things. I've definitely found some things I never thought I would touch or hold with my own hands, like two turquoise fibreglass shaded lamps with perfect atomic-style bases, a set of 3 teak wood lamps (Just got back from that hunt and my heart is still racing! I get too excited, honestly!) a fabulous Georges Briard Bar Cart and much much more. I always tend to go for the larger more furniture based items and that's bad!! I was jokingly telling my family that I would have to open up a brick and mortar or mobile shop to start making more space for my findings. Seems like a good future goal to me though! 

I used to post recipes on here, but I haven't in the longest time. One of my favourite past times is cooking. I can bake pretty good as well, but I never get too crafty or serious about it. In the last little while I've given up on being adventurous foodwise, so the recipes have stopped. I have a very sensitive stomach and I'm still fighting to get that under control. It leaves my cooking pretty uninspired and I am often confused about my dietary restrictions. After too many medically prescribed nutritional plans, I have found my own way to something that seems to be working! After 10 years of being a vegetarian, I have returned to eating meat. 

I know it's not a huge deal, but it sure was a big change for me. As someone who chose that and was on and off vegetarian for most of my life, I didn't know how to approach all these new things to incorporate into my food. I chose to be vegetarian base on many things, but in the end I realized eating meat along with cutting out certain foods like carb-based things was the right choice. I would choose to be healthy and thriving over just being "right" in my own opinion. Sometimes you don't have the luxury to choose things and for me, that's one of them. I can live with that. All I can say is, once I get my health back on track, maybe I can start a new set of recipes. I love to cook and create, so why not. I'm kind of looking forward to some normalcy there.

This is an incredible soup I've made twice from the blog Love&Lemons and I don't think I will ever stop making it. You can do so many variations of it and I like to leave mine a little chunky. It's kind of the best thing ever. 

Okay that's all for now! I went to the Farmers market and a tonne of garage sales today. I'm going to take a break and reflect on all my goodies. 

See ya later!

Marissa xo

What's Old is New

I have recently noticed vintage has taken up a lot of my life, I think mainly because when we started redoing our basement, I had to bring up all my collections and shop items into the living room. Its kind of terrifying to see it all in one place. Yikes. 

So while I've been sitting here, working on stuff amongst the towers of boxes and loose items, (Yes, the living room is currently the only place I can work as well...) I have found myself getting more flexible in what I want to put into the shop. Here are some favourites that went up this week. I have no doubts about finding any of these things new homes, because if I could, I would keep 'em in a heartbeat!  

 These two kitties are cuter than cute! I found them completely speckled black with caked on dirt. They've endured a couple of washes and are now scouting for a new place to live. Every time I look at them I have second thoughts. Should I keep them?

NO.

 This was one of my more exciting finds this year. Mainly because suitcases such as these ones are part of my most treasured childhood memories. We used to have a bunch with paisley prints to hold our toys. They carried our vintage Barbie clothes. The ones my grandmas had made for my Mom and Aunt when they were young from the most retro prints you could ever see, and the ones that came along with those vintage Barbies kept in a separate case. All my Barbies ever wore was vintage. Even at that age I was entranced in another time.

The reason why I love these suitcases specifically is that they're pretty plain. I'm sure that sounds weird, but because of they're simple colour palette, they can easily be unisex for little girls or boys! Or if you're just in need of a cute little set for light travelling, like camping, you might consider this set for yourself. That was my initial thought upon finding them.

 This was a difficult decision, but I don't feel too much attachment to them. Please, someone buy them before I grow to love them! This set of two light green fibreglass shades is pure magic. I already own two different starburst shaded lamps myself. One table lamp and one floor lamp. Upon discovering these, I had instantly claimed them as mine, but reconsidered quickly. I have too many, so I'm letting some other lamp-lovers out there have a chance to own something cool and unusual. 

I thought these sweet girls would be our bedside table lamps forever, but I have recently replaced them. Making excuses to fit them into other areas of our home is just not working! It is highly unusual to find pink lamps of this age, especially with oval-shaped shades and as a pair. They're in excellent (almost like new) condition, but I think mostly because I purchased them from the original owners. I know someone out there will scoop them up and put them on display proudly in their home, just like I did before a couple turquoise two-tiered lamps stole the show and took their place. 

I'm trying to practice a bit more willpower. I actually have amazing willpower already when it comes to "things" and donating and giving items away. Plus my family hosts at least one garage sale every year! I have grown up with them as a tradition and actually look forward to the "junk" cleanse. In recent months I've been hanging onto way too much though. I've been pretty relaxed about my personal rules, and my Fiancé doesn't help. He's probably a bigger collector of random things than I am! Not specifically vintage, but he has a real appreciation for 50s and 60s styles. Especially fonts and cool era-specific designs. It's easy to ignore if you leave it for storage in the basement you don't use. Now that our basement is almost usable I guess I have to face facts and start purging some things. I think I'm okay with that now.

Have a great Friday!

Marissa xo