Cluster Trees

For years, my friend kept telling me about these trees her mother made from ball ornaments and she kept saying she wanted to make one.  Finally, I said to her, just do it!  While out antique shopping, we were lucky enough to come across a vendor that had a huge box of ornaments for only $5.00 so she knew it was the right time to do it.

 

I just could not image what she was talking about and couldn't picture what she was going to do.  A few days after we got back from shopping, she sent me a photo of her ornament tree and I was immediately in love with it! 

 

This year, while at my house, we got out a box of ornaments I had and she made one for me!  I'm totally in love with it.  I made a tiny version from antique mercury glass balls and now need to find more to make her one.

 

 

One day, I came across a web site that had scanned Sears catalogs from way back when.  While going through a Wish Book from the early 60's, I found out these used to come in kits and are called Cluster Trees.

 

I never saw a kit before but recently, there were two on eBay, both by Shiny Brite! 

 

The first one sold for $40.00 plus shipping:

 

The second one is a BIN for $229.00!!!!!

 

 

Will be on the look out for these at the flea markets this year!!

 

Karen

Christmas Decorating

I decided to go with handmade and trees this year.  I got lucky and found this old, vintage pom pom tinsel tree on eBay for a good price and just couldn't resist it.  It's the highlight of my decorations!

I couldn't believe my luck when I got my ornaments out to fill my bowl and realized I have these tiny glass mercury balls that went perfectly on my tree!

I hung the tree above my cabinet.

Top shelf is my vintage cheese container with Shiny Brite and Germany ornaments.  The wooden reindeer and trees on the next shelf, I made so long ago, they are vintage now!  The 3 Santas with a tree and the snowman are stitched on perforated paper.

The reindeer have twigs I found outside, another stitched tree on perforated paper and two of my book folding trees.

Sitting by the cabinet is a plastic canvas Santa door stop that was given to me ages ago.

My handmade wreaths from ornaments, the center one being my favorite:

I made this one with Shiny Brite ornaments and vintage decorations.  The twine you see between the wreaths is to clip Christmas cards on!

The dish on the left holds the clips for cards and another one of my folding book trees.  The candle has a bracelet made from plastic beads and says Noel on it.  I found the van at a thrift shop and tied a bottle brush tree to it.

This is pathetic.  LOL!  I've always wanted a decoration tree and I started back in Oct. stitching up ornaments, finally got the tree and just hate how they look on it.  I guess I should have done all uniform size ornaments.  Why do other peoples stuff always look so much better than when I try to do the same thing?

On the other hand, this is one I'm most proud of.  I stitched this up back in 1991.  

I had to relocate the hanging book folding to my paint by number wall so I could keep it out.  I don't have much room to decorate, so have to make due with what I have.

And part of my forest had to be moved too.

Christmas photos

A friend of mine went along with me on my last vintage shopping spree.  She was looking for inexpensive balls to make a tree.  She found a huge box of ornaments for only $5.00 and then some old vintage Shiny Brites for a good price.

  She said they used to make these trees as kids and I've never seen one before so I was anxious to see one.  Today, she sent me photos!  She said they take a simple dowel and drill a hole in another piece of wood to use as a base and insert the dowel into the hole.  Then, just start sliding ornaments onto the dowel and here is the end result.

And, she got her Shiny Brites into a pretty dish:

Instant display!!  WTG, Jean, they look great!

Day Two of Vintage

This was by far the best time to go to the outdoor flea markets!  It was the last weekend for them and dealers don't want to pack things up so I was getting anywhere from 50% to 75% off!

I got 2 opalescent pieces for myself for only $2.00 each!!!!

What is this?  A cordial?  I know a votive candle would fit perfectly inside it.

This is a beautiful bowl!  I'd say it's a vegetable bowl size, it's that large.

Love the open feet on it!

 Pretty depression glass dish.

It's handpainted.

Found a boatload of Christmas ornaments!

I think I'm going to fill a bowl with these for the holidays.

You really didn't think I'd come home without at least one of these, did you?

Paint by number tray and two small pictures.  Yes, I did show some restraint this time and passed on some!

I love picking something like this up on my first stop and then filling it up with breakable smalls along the way!

More to come tomorrow!

Day 4 of thrifting, antiquing and flea markets

While on these adventures of mine, I start out each day thinking to myself, what will I look for today?  Today was an outdoor and indoor flea market so I thought, CHRISTMAS!  That's what I'll shop for today!

I didn't really think I'd find much, I am a price watcher.  Not priced right, I am more than willing to walk away.  Not even halfway down the first row, I came across a table filled with Christmas items.  In order to find out if it's worth rooting through everything, I find something and ask about the price, right price and I'll root, not the right price, keep walking.  Well, her price was right and she tells me she wants to get rid of this stuff.  Music to my ears.

I started out with the ball ornaments and she says to me, feel free to mix and match, take things out of one box and put them in another one until you have a full box of what you want.  Okie dokie then!  She's watching me and says, now that I see what you are looking for, I'll go through this huge box under the table and look for more you might want!

Now I've gone through all the ball ornaments and I have one full box and two partial boxes, where am I on cost?  She gives me a price that I almost fell over and she says, hey, I'd rather see them in YOUR car than mine!

 I'm going to keep going!  She had the set of angels, some small boxes of tiny ornaments, some tinsel bells and tinsel plus a large Poland ornament.  I asked her what she wanted for the Poland ornament and she tells me she has no idea, name my price. At this point, I ask if I could bundle a few items.  I picked out the angels, ornament and tinsel.  OMG, she gave me such a good price, I then moved to the tinsel bells and three small boxes of the mini ornaments.  This is what I walked away with:

You can see, it's filled to the top and it's a large shopping bag!

Still not giving too much away!  Let's get a closer look.

I love the two on the left, these will be perfect for my wreath!

Two of the mini ornaments, perfect for filling in the wreath and bowl.

Partial box of mini ornaments.

Crazy lot of tinsel bells.  One has a paper tag that says Japan on it.

These are larger ornaments and part of the boxed deal she gave me.  The top 6 are Shiny Brites and 4 of them say Merry Christmas on one side and Seasons Greetings on the other side.  (This is a close up of the box above)

Last one is Made in USA, which I love. (above)

(Above)  I love the first one, great graphics!  These are Shiny Brites.

Above is a close up of  a few of the Shiny Brites.

I even love the boxes, look, Uncle Sam meets Santa Claus!

One side of the Poland ornament.

Loved the trees on the Poland ornament.

And finally, the angels I talked about earlier.  Red one has candles, white one has a bottle brush tree, green one has a present and the pink one is missing what ever she is supposed to have in her hands.  Plastic faces and marked Japan on the bottoms.

That's everything I got from the first table I stopped.  I went to another table and this caught my eye.  It was in a baggie with another more modern ornament.  

It's glass with tinsel inside it!  The lady says to me, just take them.  What?  Just take them, you are the first person to show it any interest.  I can't do that, I replied, she took them from my hand and put them in my shopping bag!  On the other side of the fence, she had some of the tiniest little glass ornaments in another zip lock but I felt those were priced too high, when I asked her if she could do better, she takes $1.00 off and points out she did just give me something.  LOLOL!  I stuck to my guns and said I'd think about it.  GET THIS.  I walked the rest of the flea market and went back for the tiny ornaments.  In the time I was gone, she marked the bag UP!  Well, she told me I could have them for the lower price so I bought them.

Again, great fillers!

I was looking at these two boxes and the seller walked over and made me an offer I couldn't refuse, I didn't even look at them too closely but you'll see what I couldn't resist:

Look what was tucked in the lower right corner:

Another glass one with tinsel in it!

Now, I'm finished outside.  I swear some people tried hard to make me miserable, but I refused.  LOLOL!  First, I found 3 boxes of ornaments and one box said 3 for $30.00.  That's not bad but I really only wanted the one box.  Seller, no where to be found.  I make a mental note of the booth and keep walking.

I found a wonderful paint by number of a clown, but it had a hole in it.  For the right price, I'm still willing to buy it.  No price on it.  Seller comes over and tells me $20.  HUH?  I said, it's a paint by number and has a hole in it.  He didn't believe me that it was a PBN and tells me it's a watercolor.  Some times I don't bother with people like that but he annoyed me.  So, I showed him the lines that prove it's a PBN and he walked away.  LOLOL!

I find more ornaments and the man was totally outrageous on the prices so I thanked him and am about to walk away when he says he has something he wants to show me.  Okay.  He pulls a box out of a case and it's 3 glass pigs ornaments from Russia.  They are fairly new but somewhat cute.  He gives me a price, no thank you but I appreciate you showing them to me.  He lowers the price, now I say, let me think about it.  As I turn to walk away, he lowers the price again, sigh.  Okay, fine, I'll take them.

I'm guessing these are probably from the 80's.  They need some research.

Close up:

Now, I'm finished with the inside so let me go back to the booth with the boxes that said 3 for $30.00.  I really didn't want all the boxes, but wanted to see if she'd take $10 for the one box.  Or do better on all 3.  I find the booth and luckily, the seller has returned.  I ask her what the best she could do on them.  She picks up one box and says $25.00 for this one, $20.00 for this one and at this point, I stop her and say, why does this box say $30.00 for all three?  Her reply to me was, I have no idea why I put that on there.  Well, okay then, good luck selling those!  LOLOL!  

Now, here's the challenge for you!  I was very careful NOT to give you any prices, your challenge is to take a guess at what I spent.  :o)  There's nothing in it for you but it will give me an idea how I did on the prices!  Isn't that reward enough for you?

Keep in mind, some of the photos are duplicate photos or close up photos of items.  Put your thinking caps on and let me know!