And the Winner is . . .

Congratulations to "Mrs. Tiff" -- your name was randomly chosen by of course, 'Randomiser' and you've won this cute little Marble Magnet Tin!  This was in honor of my reaching 100 followers . . . looks like it will soon be time for another giveaway!  Thanks to all who participated!

 

"New" & "Found" Old Treasures

We were in Mount Vernon, Iowa this weekend to see our son graduate from Cornell College.  There are some adorable antique shops there and to commemorate the occasion, I felt I needed to make some small purchases!  I found these beautiful carved, wood furniture coasters in a basket . . . they were only $1.50 each! They are three different sizes and have a perfect indentation in the middle for maybe a tea light?  

I've been looking for some pretty, vintage teaspoons to use at my Victorian tea parties.  They had boxes of these for $2.00 each so I picked out twelve.  When I went to pay, the lady insisted I take them all for $20.00 since my son was graduating.  Several of them are stamped with dates as far back as 1887.

I love old books and for $2.00 I couldn't pass up this 1901 elementary school textbook.  There were also baskets of vintage gloves so I grabbed a pair for $2.00 also to use when decorating for my teas.

My post is titled "New" and "Found" Old Treasures because we've been doing some cleaning and organizing today and my husband found this old mailbox someone had given our son (a former neighbor I think??).  My son (the one who just graduated from college!) used to keep all of his 'treasures' in it!  It is one heavy piece of metal and quite unique.  It opens on top and also has this 'front door' that opens.  Not sure what I'll do with it but I certainly couldn't get rid of it!

Finally, we came across an envelope of old family photos my cousin had sent me.  The large one is my parent's wedding photo -- mom's dress was absolutely stunning! Layers of netting, then tiny accordian-pleated stiff fabric, then satin on top of that and finally beaded lace!  I'm going to begin a family portrait wall and get these beautiful pieces framed.  For now I put a bunch of the small photos in this glass vase (I saw SOMEONE in blogland do this with an apothecary jar but for the life of me I can't find it NOW so if it's YOU -- let me know so I can give you credit for the idea!)  I may do some glass etching on the vase this week too.  

Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day and I'll leave you with some photos I took this weekend in the Mount Vernon Cemetery which was completely decorated with hundreds of large and small American flags -- it was a beautiful site at sunset! 

Personalized Pyrex

I wanted to do something a little special for my future daughter-in-law (hope she doesn’t check out my blog before her shower!) so I decided to get the Pyrex on her gift registry and etch her soon-to-be married name on each piece.

 

I used ArmourEtch cream that I got at Hobby Lobby (by the way, it was $8.99 for this little jar there but the same jar was $12.99 at JoAnn’s!), some cheapo contact paper from the dollar store (clear is best but they didn’t have any so I got one with the faintest pattern I could find), an old paint brush, x-acto knife and a light table (you could tape everything to a window to do the tracing also) and a sharpie, rubbing alcohol and an old rag.

 

I printed out our name in a font I liked and taped that upside down on the light table. 

Then I taped the contact paper with the DESIGN FACING UP TOWARDS ME, tracing the name using the sharpie.  This was probably the hardest part for me as I’m pretty sure this involves some kind of mathematical and/or logical thought, neither of which are in my arsenal.  Even after I did the first one right, I did two more wrong!  Ugg!

 

With an x-acto knife I cut out the letters, being sure to save the inside circles for the “a” and “b”. Use rubbing alcohol to clean the glass well and then apply the contact paper.  Be sure not to touch the glass with your fingers because the oils from your hands will repel the cream.  I just used the alcohol rag to press all the edges down.

 

Apply the cream with the paintbrush and wait.  The bottle said 1-5 minutes.  After about 5 minutes, I washed the glass and contact paper under cold water and dried.  I can tell you that at first it looks like nothing happened until you remove the contact paper and see that the glass is indeed frosted/etched.

You can by special stencils to cut out your images but they’re not cheap and the contact paper worked just fine.  Only downside is it’s not reusable so you have to cut out a new one for each item you’re etching.  These were hard to photograph -- the etching is actually very 'solid' although the pics look otherwise. 

I boxed them all back up and added a card on the top of the box that reads:  "Each of your serving dishes has been personalized and etched with:  "Zaubi".  

I figure if she doesn't like them, I can use them -- haha!