One Year Blogger-versary, Great Junkin' Finds This year!

 Happy One Year Blogger-versary to me! Thank you all who have followed along and have provided so much encouragement and inspiration through your amazing blogs. It has been an absolute joy to blog and it has been such a creative outlet for me. I enjoy my blog time and I have loved getting to know all of you. I am looking forward to the upcoming year! 

 

  As I am getting ready to change out my decor for fall, I want to take one last look around the living room at my favorite vintage trinkets and vignettes. All year long I have been adding my new junk finds in with my old collections. Soon I will be changing out my mantel, shelves, and overall decor for fall and Halloween. I normally rotate my displays seasonally, but I really love what I have out right now and I am not ready to part with it. So instead of packing everything away this year, I am going take out the misc. books from my old bookcase in the foyer and use it to display my everyday favorites.

If you've been following my blog for a while you may recognize some of these goodies from older posts or different vignettes I have highlighted in the past. I love the old bicycle especially. My favorite little dolly is taking a ride now, but when I switch out my mantle for Halloween, a bony skeleton will take her spot.

 

  

 

I just found the fireplace bellows last week. A couple of days later I bought the new Flea Market Style and a similar one is shown in the article "Make A White Turn." Gorgeous article by the way!

 

Junkaholics hoard. But, its good junk, don't ya think? So much fun stuff in this picture! My husband and I love old luggage and decorate with it throughout the house. This picture is an example of how I am still partial to adding warmth to our home by using different wood tones and leather even though I am so in love with whites and creams in abundance, and I plan to go lighter and whiter with some redecorating soon. I can never get rid of what I already love though, so I just mix it all up!

 

I loved filling the small luggage train case with dear things...

 

 

 

 ...like this picture of my beautiful grandmother Chloe, when she was 16.

She is still gorgeous at age 83.  I found the old needles this weekend and decided to add them to the display since she can sew like a dream and has done alterations to make a living in her senior years. Just a little ode to her.

 

...and my handsome Grandfather Johnson as a young man, just getting ready to go overseas for WWII. Love his heart, he endured much post traumatic stress from the war, and now at age 86 he is suffering with Alzheimers. He doesn't remember me most days, but he was always a sweet, handsome grandfather that I will always remember as he was before, and I still love dearly!

 

 

 

I loved the framed mannequin so much in my booth that I decided to do the same at home with my antique dress form. I was originally going to paint the frame white but decided against it since it was such a unique shabby peachy-pink.

 Salvage rosettes painted and distressed, along with some of my old bottles are displayed on the window ledge. I like how the light comes through the bottles. I have gone against my long-held belief that window ledge decorating is cluttered and tacky in the living room because we leave our windows unadorned to highlight their character and let light in. Nevertheless, what I have on them now seems to work without looking cluttered. It actually looks vintage cottage the more I think about it. Wait, this is a vintage cottage. That's why it works!

 

Moving on around the living room, there is a lot more cool junk too see. Like these old buckles in a platter. I know, only we junkers would be thrilled about belt buckles on a platter, but that's the fun and creativity of it right? I know I am not alone in thinking this is a great display of cool junk! I bought a big basket of belt and watch buckles at the flea market for $1 and had no idea what I was going to do with them but I just liked them. I ended up using some of them on my embellished bottles, and I put the rest in this silverplate platter to enjoy.

 

 

Here are the little watch buckles in a jar. I love the lamp finial I used as a topper, and the chippy  porch post salvage piece too.

Below is the rest of the lamp. I just love it, it looks great on the little robin's egg blue side table. I got the lamp at a yard sale for $3.00. We really needed a lamp in the living room too, but I couldn't bring myself to buy a new one. It didn't have a shade and I was going to make a burlap one, but I found the Frenchy shade at Wal-Mart and it was the look I was planning to try to create. It irked me to use something "new" but it was only $10 and was perfect for our decor. The only problem was that the finial wouldn't work with that style of lampshade. I thought the finial was too pretty not to be seen so I used it on that little bottle with the buckles and its too cute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at these great vintage matches that my husband found in an old machinist box at an estate sale.

The matchbox with the sailboats is my favorite. I love the little cigarette holder too.

 

 

These rusty fountain pens were also in the machinist box. Love triple prize finds!

 

 

 

 And there are tons of old books tucked here and there around the house. I bought this electrician's book years ago at a yard sale for .25. I never pass up old books!

 

Here is a cool German one too.

 

 

More little vintage beauties of all kinds displayed on the picnic basket I just picked up at the flea market for $3.

 

An antique clothes brush doll, vintage change purse, old cabinet cards, mini transferware plates, twine, lace, doilies, silverplate creamer, wooden spindles, antlers,vintage books, and a little chalk-painted salvage drawer somehow come together to tell a story about life long ago.

 

 

 

Right now the dining table has everyday joys: Lace, hydrangeas, tarnished silverplate, stacks of antique ironstone and transferware, all junking finds. I love surrounding myself with all this vintage beauty, and my family loves and appreciates it too which makes it even better.

 

 

 So many treasures, so much fun junking and blogging, and now pinning as well.  I feel that my eye has gotten sharper and my vintage and decorating appetite seems insatiable since meeting all of you and gaining such inspiration from your blogs. Who knows what treasures the next year will bring? We are getting ready for yet another renovation, but it will make room for new junk and change is coming,...
Can't wait... let the junking continue!

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http://www.cozylittlehouse.com/2012/09/tweak-it-tuesday-91812/
http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/tuesdays-treasures-103/
http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com/2012/09/under-100-linky-party_19.html
http://romantichome.blogspot.com/
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