Vintage wooden shoe forms, ballet shoes and baby shoes.

It was shoe week around here for some reason.  Usually, I don't look at old shoes much but, these sweet baby shoes might be just the ticket to hold an old an old bottle of flowers.

Two pairs of these cuties

These ballet shoes were found tucked on the floor of an antique store.  One pair has some stains that may not come out.  Dyeing them might be in order. 

The local flea market was low on vendors.

I thought the day was a wash until I discovered these beauties.

Dirty, dusty, and wonderful at the same time.

There was an entire crate of them.

I wish I had purchased more.

They are in need of serious cleaning.

I'm thinking of making sign holders out of them

What did you find this week?

Antique hand mirror and estate sale finds

Right next door to my office was an estate sale sign.  The amount of cars peaked my curiosity.
Here are some photos of a few things I found.

Some salt and pepper shakers, a little salt cellar and old silver plate. 

In the back is an old collapsing silver plated cup.  It doesn't hold

closed when collapsed but it is still fun to use for display.

An old wood box with inside sections.  The closure is broken

yet easily fixed.  I was thinking of removing the lid and making a little treasures 

display like many do with the old typography trays.

Any other suggestions out there?

A very old hand mirror with a face partly covered

It is some type of metal; not silver plate

You can see where I tried to start cleaning it.

 

Some damage to the glass

Very interesting workmanship.

Here's to you finding great treasures this weekend.

Sweet felted birds nests by Tapestries of Nature

I don't remember how I found Judith's blog Tapestries of Nature but,  these sweet little wool felted bird's nests caught my attention on her post Pillows and Spring stuff.   For some reason I was so taken by these little darlings I wrote a note asking about them.

Judith was very kind and did a custom listing in her Etsy shop

where she showcases her creations.

I purchased two.  One for me, and one for my mother.

All I did was nestle these little birds I had in the branches.

They add the sweetest little touch of Spring to the room.

Perfect for an Easter decoration.

I also have my eye on one of Judith's pillows when I figure out

a plan for our guest room.

You can find her Etsy shop by clicking  here

The fine but required print.  This is not a paid advertisement or endorsement.

Vintage lace, threads, buttons and wooden sewing spool finds

Vintage lace and threads seem to be what I am finding these days..

 Soft pink lace

I haven't completely unraveled the card this was on some areas have some discoloration.  It's still lovely.

Some of these buttons look like Bakelite.

Crochet thread in really nice shade of blue. The outside threads are dirty; inner threads look fine.

 Six wooden thread spools, small pieces of lace and wool darning threads.

Nine yards of scalloped lace; some discoloration.  It's quite delicate

More wood spools, old Watson's sewing needles made in England and piece of cork with a painted face pin cushion.

I have no idea what kind of thread the large golden ones are.  The white ball could be some sort of silk.   The small pink ones are on cardboard bobbins called a "Star Bobbin" style"L"with a patent number listed  made by the American Thread Co.  

Always, a favorite find.  An old oak sewing drawer.  This one has a nice design on one side.

Even with some discolored places this is my favorite lace find.  It has ribbon running through it.

 This Paris, France made embroidery thread box is very cool looking.  I think it would look really neat in a frame.  It's a great blue color which is hard to see because there is some waxed type paper covering it.

I'm going to try to list these in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested. I'm a bit overloaded too keep everything.

Happy Spring

It's really Spring in the Northeast!  This little lovely opened the day after the official start of Spring.

Vintage silverplated flatware garden markers

This old silverplate was an incompleted windchime project. 

Originally, I was going to stamp the flatware with our names or with whimisical and inspirational sayings.  Then I thought it would be really cute and different to add some more embellishment(s) but, never got around to it.

My freind asked what are you doing with this box of junk.  Well, if your not making windchimes with sayings why don't you make place card holders out of them?  Good idea, then I happened to see some done up as garden markers.  So here they are in all their cute tarnished, hammered, stamped, shabby glory.

I love the first spoon stamped with "basil"

This set below of soup and serving spoons is available in my Etsy shop

I have to take more photos of the other sets and share them with you.  I have so many ideas and uses for these things my head is spinning! 

I think these are really fun and hope you do too. 

Thanks for stopping by Dumpster Decorators

Vintage shoe and fur clip rhinestone finds

Vintage rhinestone pins pretty much capture my attention.  I have never seen a matching set of shoe clips and fur clips sometimes known as dress clips before. 

The seller thought these were from a military uniform. Some research

research revealed a matching set like this is a quite a find.  Lucky me!

This isn't quite vintage but I loved the openwork design.

The clasp is broken but, it still makes a nice decoration.

Vintage plastic clutch with lace between the layers still had remnants of it's original price tag.

What did you find this week?

No sew easiest cutest pin cushion pin display in 3 minutes

This is the easiest cutest little no sew pin cushion, pin display, mini hidden sewing kit ever.

It will take you three minutes.

Materials:

Shoulder pads from a jacket or dress you haven't worn in ions.

Small silverplated creamer, sugar bowl, or other opaque container.

Stack them on top of each other.

Take two sides and fold them to meet. 

Then do the other two to form a pouf.

Stuff it into your selected container. Hiding all the ugly stiches. 

You may have to play with this a bit to remove some folds so it sits nicely.

Ta da!

Now you have a really cute pin cushion.

You can even hide a mini sewing kit under the stuffing

along with all those buttons you keep meaning to sew back on.

Or my favorite using as a place to display vintage pins.

This really helps when I'm trying to find just the right one

for those re-fashioning and fabric flower projects.

Thanks for dropping in.

Welcome to Dumpster Decorators

If you like.....

Creating new things out of old things

DIY

Making stuff on small budgets

Tips and tricks

Gardening

To sum it up if your into DIY, junk, fleamarkets, gardening,

making stuff or re-creating items into something new

this may be a place for you.

Please see the "About Page" for our list in progess.

A goal is to also have a place for you to share your adventures and ideas.

The Dumpster Decorator's(tm) blog is well over a year old and has sat in unpublished mode without getting into the why's of what what wrong it's finally here in a place all it's own.

Thanks for stopping in.

Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.