Thrifting in December

Welcome, Friends, I’m so happy you decided to join me for this first thrifting adventure in December. The closer it gets to Christmas the more holiday items appear in Thrift Stores. I found a few interesting things to share with you today.

First is a group of glass ornaments in an old-fashioned design. They came in a group together and were priced at $1.80 for all the ornaments you see above. They are very sweet and colorful. Sometimes I’ll attach a small ornament like this to a Christmas present or use it as a favor in a Christmas tablescape.

You can see how I used them here to decorate a little tree on the hearth. The tree sits on an antique “Fire Dog”. A Wood duck is nesting close by.

Next are these really lovely light blue placemats from Bloomingdale’s. There were 6 of them for $3 and I was more than happy to pay that price. They are embroidered with vines and when you hold them up to the light you can see through them. I already have the china that will go perfectly with these mats.

I’m a big fan of Nordic cake pans and all the fun designs you can find. This is a Stadium cake pan that represents a soccer or football stadium. Can’t wait to try it. They work well as long as you spray and lightly flour the pan before pouring in the batter.

I found a selection of Christmas linens for 90 cents each. I don’t think they had been used before but I still put them through the washing machine prior to using. The Paula Deen dish towel still has the original tag. Love the “Meowy Catmas” towel.

The white, embroidered runner is quite nice and beautifully rendered with the cutouts and design. It is wider than a normal runner and looks great on the table. You can see it on the dining room table in the pictures above.

However, one of the best finds was the Spode china pictured above. I had this feeling that we should visit a Salvation Army on the way to running an errand so we popped in. We found a couple of things and then I returned to the back of the store as we were in line to check out. They had just brought out another Christmas cart and the Spode was right there. It all went into my basket and you won’t believe the prices. Each piece was 44 cents with the exception of the pasta bowls which were 90 cents each and the serving tray which was $2.70. There are 2 pasta bowls, 1 serving tray, 4 salad/dessert plates, 4 regular bowls, and 4 individual small pieces. The total came to under $10 for all the pieces together. I was doing my Happy Dance out of the store.

I also found some lovely crystal stems.

This very wide embroidered ribbon was another find earlier in the week. There are a few more individual finds that I’ll show you next. The ribbon is really beautiful and made by RAZ so probably very expensive when initially purchased. Not so much when found at a Thrift Store.

Found this beautiful Fitz & Floyd ornament which now hangs on my Woodland tree. It’s nice when you can find them in the original box.

This ornament is a “Christopher Radko”, “Santas Around the World” depicting Santas from different countries including USA, England, Germany and several others. Santa’s sleigh is on top of the world on this ornament. Christmas was half off at this Thrift Store so the ornament was just a couple of dollars.

Also found this really sweet wind up Christmas box. It plays music and the teddy bear and bugler move up and down as the puppet master pulls the strings. It’s really darling.

My Hubby found this great set of stainless with gold accents. The forks are unique and I had not seen them before. They are by a Japanese maker, “Yamazaki”, cache gold, accent flatware. The regular forks and the dessert forks are both created in the above design.

The flatware came in a complete set for eight. Each place setting consists of five pieces and a hostess set completes the flatware. It’s really beautiful.

Now to share a little Christmas story. I was contacted a few days ago by a reader who was looking for a particular advent calendar for her fiancé. The calendar was one he had used each Christmas as a child to count down the days and had Santa coming down the chimney a little more each day. The advent calendar had gone to one of his other brothers and he really missed the calendar. I had featured it on a Blog a few years ago and she found it there.

She asked if I would be willing to sell the calendar to her and, after hearing her story, I was delighted to help her fulfill her fiancé’s Christmas wish. She sent me a picture of her fiancé holding the calendar already in the process of counting down the days. The smile on his face was priceless.

I do keep a list of people who contact me about items. I’m not always done with the item but will contact them first when it’s time to sell. If you see something on a blog that you’d like to own, please contact me and let me know.

Wishing you all Happy Thrifting on your next outing.