Floral Fantasies

 My younger cousin was staying with us for the month, and she was curious about this estate sale thing that I am always talking about.  Well, we decided to take her to two of them that were fairly close to each other.  She was not impressed :P  It turns out that "picking" in not her thing.  No problem though, I love her to death anyways ;)

The first one wasn't really to my liking, some really cute things, but pricey! The second was pretty great though!  I spent $8 and got some pretty nifty goodies!  

First up is my absolute favorite!  I have another one in a similar shape (but slightly smaller)  in black with an embroidered design on it, and it's one of my favorite vintage bags.  I saw this one and I'm pretty sure my eyes popped out for a second or two ;)

 Vintage velvet flower and woven bag $3

 Velvet 3-dimensional flowers?  Yes, please!!   There's so many pretty colors on her, and she was in great condition after a little bit of a wiping with an antibacterial wipe.  There's a vinyl lining on the inside, so washing was super easy!

 Sorry for so many pictures, but I can't help the love!  I'm still trying to date this bag better, I find handbags really hard to date.  To me, this bag says 50s or 60s with the shapes and details, it makes me think of elaborate vintage hats.  However, my grandmother told me that she remembers making these in the early 70s.  You would buy a kit and make them, the details on the front were up to you.  She particularly remembers initial ones with the initials of the maker embroidered on the front. Being made by somebody, this bag does not have a brand name inside, and I think that makes it all the more interesting!

Next up was a few vintage jewelry pieces!  I love unique little pieces of costume jewelry, although I'm terrible at remembering to wear them!

I collect vintage animal pins, it didn't first start out as an intentional collection, but I started noticing a trend with them, and decided to go with it.  This little seahorse was just fabulous, and I couldn't let him get away!  He's unmarked, but he has a lot of character!

Seahorse pin/brooch  $1

Okay, it's not another animal, but I loved this pin too!  It's quite large but made out of a light metal with a cute little faux pearl center, also unmarked.  It's so wonderfully feminine and sweet, I figured it would look great on a dress or even a coat!

White metal flower pin with pearl center $1

And the next two items are necklaces with stone pendants!  I love the look of raw or natural looking stones in jewelry.

 Pretty and simple and small! Maybe Cat's Eye?  $1

 I'm pretty sure I showed off a gold version of a necklace very similar to this one on a blog post a while back.  I really loved it and couldn't resist a silver version as well! $1

I also bought a picnic basket for $1, but I don't have pictures of it. I've been looking for one for awhile, and although it's not the perfect picnic basket of my dreams, it's quite cute regardless! I recently used it in a photo-shoot, so I'll have some images of it soon  :)  And my last item was a handmade triangle scarf made out of an adorable vintage Alice in Wonderland fabric.  You might not know it, but I love Alice in Wonderland!  It's my absolute favorite thing to collect, and my family all knows it! The seller gave it to me for free with the rest of my goods, which was super nice!

So, what else did I see on this trip? A group of owls on a branch that looked like they were all fluff with beady little eyes.  Possibly the cutest, creepiest things ever!  I wish I had snagged a picture of them to share!  Also several fur coats as well as a really creepy fur scarf with the animals heads attached.  Eww!  It almost gave me a heart-attack when I saw them!  I know they were completely normal at one point in time, but they give me the creeps!

The $3 Splurge

My grandma and I were driving down the road, and headed to the seafood market, when we spied a little yard sale!  Of course, we couldn't just not go (that would be plain silly!), so we stopped and gave a good look around.  Some newer stuff, but mostly older stuff, hurray!  I got a fun little bunch of five items for a total of $3, while my grandma got two metal fold-up chairs for $3 each.  I held back a bit since a lot of the items were household things, something I love, but not something I use for photo-shoots. 

This particular items has me baffled, it's a decorative metal plate.

 Why is a metal plate confusing?

 Because it's made by Delft!  Delftware, as its commonly referred to, was a company that made tin-glazed pottery from the 15th century to present day.  This is certainly not pottery, so what exactly is it and why was it made?  It certainly has a Delft pattern.  The only thing I could find that was similar was a child's plate and cup set made out of tin, but this just isn't child size!

 Basically, I bought it because it said it was made in Holland, I knew next-to-nothing about Delft when purchasing it.  ;) I love researching things like this though!






And the next purchase:

A pyrex cup with the gold butterfly pattern!  She told me she had a larger set of these somewhere and that she would call me if she found them, sadly she never called. Probably lost my number!

The next two items are what I got super excited about though!   I've been planning a shoot with a model with a summery glam fashion mermaid sort of theme (slightly confusing, right?)  Anyways, these two items are THE PERFECT fashion mermaid accessories, I felt like such a lucky girl!    I just did the photo-shoot last Friday and they looked great on camera too!

 Don't the metal plates on this vintage belt look just like fish/mermaid scales?  Too perfect, seriously.  I wanted the shoot to be shiny and glittery like a mermaid's tale, looks like I'll get my wish! 

 The seller told me that her mom used to wear it when she was a little girl, but looking online at similar ones, it doesn't look like it could be much older than 70s, which is fine by me!

 You almost wouldn't expect the webbed back with that glam front, but that is indeed the case!

The other item? Even more perfect!  A vintage metal shell purse!  

Also glitzy and shiny just like I wanted!

It's branded Le-Ann, and it's got a great snake rope chain on it!

 The seller didn't mention the age of this one, but she had the belt and this one paired up on the table together.  I figured that they were probably about the same age.  This one is actually most likely 80s though.  In any case, a shell shaped purse, way too perfect!

And the last item from my $3 score, a vintage doily! 

 What the heck am I going to use this for?  Shadow photography fun!  And then, I might use it for it's intended purpose. ;)  

 The pattern on this was just so gorgeous, I can't wait to try it out!

So, that was my quick $3 score at a local yard sale!

Any more information on any of these items?  I never mind a point in the right direction!