The One Where I Move To Miami

It's no secret that I love the Golden Girls.  My only regret is that I didn't find those sassy ladies sooner in life.  I consider their work ground breaking.  A show about women over 50 living vibrant, meaningful lives? Yeah. Ground breaking.  Even for today.  

They confront real issues that women face: menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, harassment, sexism, divorce, artificial insemination, and more!  Can you imagine someone writing a script wherein the stars of the show, five women ranging in age from 55-80, talk candidly about their first period?  Or the first time they had sex?  Without being zany or getting interrupted by a man who had more important things for them to do? No. You can't. And that's something more than tragic.

Plus, they live in Florida.  I mean, come on. To quote the show "Miami, Miami, you've got style - blue skies, sunshine, white sand by the mile!"

Sophia is my favorite.  A tiny little Italian fireball who would spit in your eye just as fast as ask you to dinner. Suspicious and streetwise, that lady has everyone's number.  One of the details I love the most is that she carries her purse everywhere.  When she gets a midnight snack in her own home, she's got her purse on her arm. I begin to wonder what's in the bag that is so important.  I always assumed it was a hand gun. 

I've been on the lookout for a Sophia-like purse for a while now.  Last week the Estate Sale gods smiled on me. I scored this plastic wicker number for $1.50!  I can't wait to take it to the beach or wear it with a vintage sarong dress! 

I also scored this barkcloth curtain panel for $2 at the thrift. It's for a long window, short in height.  I do not have such a window. And I do not care.  I will make it work. It's the stuff of dreams with it's tropical foliage and pink flowers!

The funky plastic stack of oranges is a bottle.  One of the leaves on top is a lid that flips open.  So weird.  So tacky.  So cool.  It's really trying to insist that I paint an Orange Bird face on it, but I'm not sure that I will.  It would also make a sensational lamp base.

Can you even take how gorgeous this gold glitter purse is? Friggin' amazing. And if you zoom in a bit you can see the black and gold earrings and matching necklace pendant that I scored.  Palm trees and flamingos, people!  The orange plastic girl face is a hand mirror. Can you see that her hair is the handle?  So sweet!

See how well equipped I am for the Florida life? It would feel like a dream living so close to so many beaches.  The Snug Bungalow residents love a beach.

We are also slowly starting to refurbish our second floor.  It's a tiny place with short ceilings. Right now I'm tearing out all the old, disgusting carpet. (carpet is the worst) We will paint and put down new flooring and move our bedroom upstairs.  I have tropical plans for that room and have been gathering things to help make it so for a few years, a bit at a time.

One of the real draws of refurbishing our second floor into an area that we'll actually use, is being able to decorate that space for holidays!

With things like this! I'm planning to use this new "vintage style" box to hold one of my table top trees.  I'll put bits and bobs in the box to fill it in around the tree, of course.

The ceramic Easter egg is painted so nicely.  Looks real and delicious!

It's now time for:

New In My Etsy Shop!

(Click on a photo to be taken to the listing in my Etsy shop.)

Vintage Ideal Rubber Face Baby Doll

Truthfully, these things terrify me.  I feel like most toys from this time period were based on some kind of a dare. Hideous faces pulled into contorted expressions of sadness or joy or...pure evil.  Rubber faces and fuzzy bodies! What the hell kind of sadistic toy manufacturers did they have in the 50s anyway?  But there are many people who love and collect these guys.  These are the kinds of people who have a hard time defining the line between creepy and cute.  You know who you are.

Vintage My Little Pony Baby Bottles

I vividly remember the Christmas when I received my first Baby Pony.  Baby Moon Dancer. She came in a large box, filled with accessories!  There was a necklace, a ducky pull-toy, a rocker, and a bottle!

Vintage Rainbow Brite Doll

This girl is a ray of sunshine! (which hits water droplets and refracts...) She's here to spread color to the whole world. Yarn hair always confused me a little bit as a kid, I mean, we'd all seen how awesome Barbie/My Little Pony hair was...right??  I mean, even Cabbage Patch kids got in to it after a while with Cornsilk and all that.  But, Rainbow Brite is really rocking the yarn look.  And the puffy space dress.

Until next time, happy hunting!

Fall Decorations 2016

Going to weekly estate sales is not good for the space issues we have in this house.  Tiny house.  One closet.  Many collections. You do the math.  Or don't, actually.  Math is terrible and there are a lot of better ways to spend your time.  Like looking at vintage fall and Halloween decorations, for instance.

Like that segue?

I like to collect all manner of vintage holiday paraphernalia. For fall I really love a black cat, skeleton, bat, crow, and vintage mask.  I'm not huge on monsters, gore, or horror.  Gotta keep it cute.  I also have a love affair with black glitter.

I absolutely love to find a vintage plastic Halloween mask.  But, in all my days of hunting,  I've only ever come across a handful.  They are in short supply around here. One day when I was browsing Etsy, like ya do, I saw an amazing idea.  Someone had made a very fun garland with printed out photos of vintage masks.  I copied that idea like a total turd. Then I hung my string of masks on a fun Halloween candy garland I already had.  The wimpiest craft ever, but I like the results. You can buy the one I saw on Etsy here, for a very reasonable price.

This baker's rack is from the Kmart Martha Stewart line, way back when. It shockingly belonged to the hubs before we lived together. All that wire rack is amazing for display options! 

I keep seeing drink stations on Instagram, and this is my little version.  I haven't moved the coffee maker, though.  It's ugly and would ruin the cute vibe I've got going on. The adult beverages are stored underneath, and this is where we do the mixing. A bar cart of sorts.  

Shelfie! This is where I display some of my black cat items. I don't mind mixing old and new. We've got some vintage, some Michael's, and some Target up there. I'm very excited about my fall leaf tin serving trays. I've recently seen that they come in green, yellow, and cream!  I'm coming for you, trays!  Be warned!  I got the hand carved wooden skull mask at One World Goods, a store much beloved to me.  They always have a nice variety of masks.

This is my dining room display. It gets a bit more full and a bit ...taller...? every year. Up to the heavens! 

This is what's behind door number 1. Some old, some new, and a lot of bright orange.  It does look pretty great with the jadeite. But then, let's be honest, what doesn't??

Door number 2.

And door number 3.

Close up of the jadeite cake plate and the surrounding merriment. The trees are Dept. 56 and were a steal!  I'd love to find more.  I've got my tiny Magpie Ethel skele-dude back there.  What a cutie!

I love smalls! This is my shadowbox done up for fall / Halloween.  Tiny things make me so happy!

The monster wreath I made from an idea I found on Pinterest. Learn to make one here.

This shelf lives in my bedroom. It's waaaay up near the ceiling.  I tried to fill it in a bit more this year.  It gets all the leftover bits that aren't fitting anywhere else in the house. The skellys on the right are called Boo Baby, and Boo Baby's Baby Boo Baby.  We are very normal up in the Snug Bungalow.

If you follow me on Instagram (@thesnugbungalow) you know that this is my garbage shelf. It's overcome it's meager roots and is all done up in fall finery.  Lots of lovely dvds showcasing a host of fall colors and themes. The collections of my husband and I married into one lovely display.

This is my fireplace mantel.  I do it up very similarly ever year.  Hey, when you find something that works, there is no shame in sticking with it! Especially when you are putting out this many decorations.  Easy is good. This is where the crows hang out.  It looks very sparkly and mysterious by night.

I like to tuck in natural bits like the orange paper lantern plants and real bird's nests.

I love the tiny autumn corsage on the left.  It's the only one I've ever seen.

This is my Haunted Mansion setup.  It used to be my graveyard, but with the additions of the actual Haunted Mansion tombstones I got at Disney World and the amazing halloween puzzle, it's straight up Haunted Mansion now.  I just found these and these and will be sure to print them off and make them up to complete the scene!

Thanks for taking a tour of my Halloween house!

Until next time, happy haunting!

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Honeycomb, Honeycomb, Me Want Honeycomb

Over the last year I've developed an obsession.  I'm not too proud to admit it.  I can't get enough of vintage paper honeycomb.  It sort of coincides with my vintage Hallmark obsession.  The designs back then were just so awesome!  So fun!  I feel like they have a real whimsicality that hasn't been fully captured since then.

On Friday I went to the second day of an estate sale.  It was a digger.  Tons and tons of crap, everywhere.  And by "crap" I obviously mean treasure. Plus, it's all 50% off. This is the kind of sale that you bring your Indiana Jones hat (and whip) to.  You are going treasure hunting, and things may get a bit hairy.  

I'd seen the photos online and decided on some items I'd scoop up if they were still there on the second day.  Not too much stuff, but enough to get me to drive across town.  Plus, I could tell it was a digger.  And the promise of "you never know" is quite a lure.

I arrived early and was surprised that numbers were being given out.  Numbers are nearly unheard of on the second day of a sale!  

Somebody call Short Round. We're going in.

My number was called during the "first wave". I looked for the items I'd seen in the photos first.  No luck.  But I was still pretty excited because this place was packed.  Floor to ceiling. Underfoot. On every surface.  Stuff.  I cannot imagine what it had looked like in there on the first day.  Whoa.

As I strolled through the dining room, trying to take it all in, a tiny bit of Christmas caught my eye.  And by "tiny bit" I mean, a box full of Christmas corsages.

They were all individually priced, but I scooped up the entire box.  Half price, right??

Some delightful chenille snowmen.

Some lovely flowers, including purple!  That one will get displayed in my dressing room when our upstairs revamp gets completed.

A huge flocked poinsettia that should remind you of The Grinch, a very large nest of sparkle with Santa sitting pretty, and a gorgeous sugared bell with mercury glass beads.  That one might be my favorite.

So, I'm starting to sweat with delighted anxiety as I stroll up the stairs.  One of the bedrooms is bursting with yarn, and sewing patterns, and vintage fabric, and magazines.  I start pawing through the boxes and spotted a large paper envelope, the word "Hallmark" emblazoned at the top.  I yanked that sucker out so fast!  And then saw it wasn't alone!

FOUR vintage honeycomb centerpieces! Three Hallmark and one American Greetings.

And a honeycomb grab back for good measure!

The whole time I was having this panic attack/euphoria another shopper at the sale was chatting me up.  She was wearing Mystery Machine colors (lime green and orange) and wearing a straw hat with matching flowers. She complimented my outfit and from then on I have no idea what it was she said.  Or, what I said back.  My mind was having a honeycomb breakdown and I can't be held accountable for the things I say when I'm finding honeycomb.

Let me present to you...

The Vintage Hallmark Honeycomb Creation Party Centerpiece: Fruit Basket.  Please note, that the basket is also honeycomb. (!!) The large strawberry on the right and the orange in the back are not original to the set, although I'm super happy to have found them in the package and will keep them with their fruity kin.

Behold: The Hallmark Plans-A-Party New Year Decoration: Father Time. I can't get over this guy.  His Gandolf beard, his golden sickle, and best of all, his tiny pocket watch! 

Next we have the Hallmark Plans-A-Party Decoration: (That's all that was on the package, so I'm making this part of the name up all by my onesies.) 

50's Record Kids! (I'm super creative.)

Can you even, with these two?? All of the sets were complete!  It's so fantastic!

And last but not least, I give you the American Greetings Valentine Novelty: 

Taffy The Dragon!

People.  People. She even has her original matching place cards that have never been opened.  You can see them to the extreme right, there.  I couldn't figure out a great angle to take a picture so that you could see the full effect of all her marvelous details.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  The 60s was a weird time. A lot of drugs were done, a lot of stuff was made.

Here are the items I kept from the honeycomb grab bag.  Check out that tiny little pumpkin!  So wee!  A pink Easter egg and another huge pumpkin.  That makes three huge pumpkins, in case you are counting.  I don't have room for any huge pumpkins.  But, we're making it work.

I also nabbed this amazing vintage cat mask.  The original price is on the back along with a tag reading "Made In Italy".  So purrrfect.  Yep.  I said that.

A few Christmas cuties that were sitting on a random table in the basement.  Never again, cuties! You are a part of a vast and growing collection now! No Christmas left behind!

The middle thing is a vintage compact with glitter.  One of my favorite phrases.

And lastly, I unearthed this bunch of millinery beauties. I know that the things in the vase are supposed to go in the middle of a flower, but I love them on their own.  The black and white ones are now living happily in my Halloween display, looking for all the world like antenna eyeballs. The velvet leaves are also being put to work in my fall display.

When I was finally ready to check out I happened to be in line right next to Mystery Machine lady.  She was intrigued by my purchases and wanted to know If I "just liked stuff".  Oh lady, let me tell you.  She said "How old are you?  Well, I'm 65, just think of all the things you'll have by the time you are my age!"  A terrifying and delightful thought!

If you need a vintage hit, check out my Etsy shop, here.

Until next time, happy hunting!