When I am lucky enough to find vintage holiday decorations at the thrift shop or estate auction they are often damaged, so I do some makeshift repairs and tweaking to save them from the trash heap. Actually at the auction they have a "discard pile" where people put stuff that they won but do not want, usually because they bought a boxed lot containing multiple items and only wanted one or 2 things. At the end of the auction the discard pile goes into the dumpster, so trash-pickers like me, oh wait I mean astute and creative people of vision and foresight, rummage thru the pile and grab useful stuff. I take anything I can use or repair to keep, donate to the thrift or sell on ebay to support my friend's dog rescue group. Below are some vintage holiday items that I repaired and added some flourishes to.
Here are some pink bells with silver holly leaves, I had to flatten out the leaves and reinforce them with cardboard on the back. I removed some filthy pink ribbon and added vintage pink and grey striped paper curling ribbon and I added a silver cord hanger. This is now floating above the bar in my kitchen. Nuthin' says Xmas like pink and silver!!
Here are a trio of 1950s era decorations, I found the Santa candle holder (Japan) at the thrift yesterday. The aluminum tree topper, which needed to be flattened out, was embellished with a few light reflectors and a bulb to give the illusion that electricity is involved. This will go on my silver aluminum tree, which I will put up later today, The Santa music box had to have the base fixed then I added tinsel for extra panache. Made in Japan in the 50s it still works!
Below is a funky wreath made entirely of discarded items. I will be hanging it outside once the temps get above freezing today.
Lastly but not leastly, the new issue of Bachelor Pad Magazine is out, containing my latest masterwork!! Behold, get your copy at
www.BachelorPadMagazine.com.
