"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!