Nifty (and Thrifty!) Ways to Use a Butter Dish Lid

I couldn't pass up these two butter dishes at an estate sale this weekend. But I couldn't find the bottoms, either. Still, as pretty as they are, I started thinking of all kinds of ways to use the lids as storage in my paper room and in other areas of the house. (I always need storage options.)

If you are a paper crafter, use it to store old labels or washi tape. Washi tape fits perfect in a re-purposed butter dish lid!

If you are a hostess or a cook, use it to hold your favorite recipes and they are handy to reach for.

If you are a seamstress, rick rack packages fit perfectly in a butter dish lid!

Here are a few other ideas:

• fill with four or five cookies and wrap in cellophane, tie a bow, and give to a friend that needs them!
• place sugar packets in them for a tea party (thank you to our reader, Amy, for that one!)
• use it for a place to drop your keys or change on the counter
• and, if all else fails, put little pats of butter inside (If your family is as excited about yeast rolls as mine is during the holidays, they won't be noticing the bottom is missing.) 

I also think of using it as packaging and pretty Christmas hostess gifts and all kinds of trinkets you could hold in a small receptacle like these. 

Do you bring home things with missing pieces sometimes? Don't overlook them when you're out and about. I bet in a few seconds you can find something to put in it. Happy thrifting! 

P.s. I just updated the shop with some vintage Christmas cards and other fun things. I also have the loot from a math professor's estate coming up! 

Sunday (Monday) Sort: Vintage Vogue, Garfield, Birds, and French!

This past weekend couldn't have been a better one. Lots of family time, pretty lake in the background, a clean cabin, good food, and not a care (almost) in the world. I needed that! It's back to school and back to reality today, but that's ok...it's good. 

Tonight I spent some time sorting some recent finds from just thrifting. You never know what you're going to get when you walk in a thrift shop, do you? Some days it's chicken, and then next time it's feathers. That Vogue sewing book made my heart sing, though. It's dated 1970, but, hey, I'll take it.

I can't pass up a good book of any kind. I've been collecting these old art books for a friend of mine. I know where they are in her classroom just in case I get lonely for them.



Holiday Magazine is hard to find! I've been lucky a few times. Have you seen an issue? I've heard that it is making a comeback.



Hollie Hobby, Santa picks, and a tiki guy. What a mix. But, oh, so kitschy and cute!



A 1975 TV Guide is hilarious to read again. I also found this Coronet magazine. Never have seen that before. And the Very Personally Yours is a 1961 information pamphlet from Kotex. Haha!



Who can resist a little 1960s correspondence?



These 1940s bird flash cards are so, so cool. I'll have a hard time parting with them. Maybe I won't. :)



You know I won't leave Mr. Dennison behind, and these cute boxes will be great for paper ephemera packaging. And don't you love the typewriter ribbon tin with Saturn and stars? There were three. I should have gotten them all.



Holy High School! Care Bears book covers! I'll list them soon!




Well, of course, kitties!!



And kitties includes Garfield. Check the stationery. Oh, my pen pals will love it!



And, finally, these are so cool I might have to learn French. Wouldn't you want to?



Thanks, everyone, for stopping by. I'm really humbled by all the readers I've had that come to visit lately, and you are why I do this. I love sharing these finds with someone who loves them too. Have a good night and I'll see you soon!

Twenty Second Peek Inside My Vintage Paper Party Box!

I've never posted my own video on here that I remember, but thought you might like to see one of my FAVORITE boxes of paper. It will all be in the shop soon...after all...only 15 more Fridays until Christmas. You're welcome. :) Next time, I'll show you the wrapping.

Let's Pretend: Bring Back 1950s Bridge

"If you would like to be known for the parties you give, there is really no secret: just invite congenial people and entertain them graciously. It sounds easy and it is--when you know how." Betty Crocker's Party Book, 1960.

For a long time, I've been wanting to invite friends over to play bridge, if I only knew how! So let's pretend tonight that I do, and plan a bridge party from the 50s. Shall we?

source

Of course, it starts with the dress, right? Mill Street Vintage on Etsy is one of my favorite shops to dream about. This dress would be perfect for a gathering of ladies on a Sunday evening.

You can find this dress here.

And then you need pretty playing cards! I love these from A Backyard Creation on Etsy. 

And tallies, too! Especially cute kitty ones you can find in my shop! 

 Find them here.

What about food? Party Chicken Salad with Grapes sounds yummy and light. Here's the recipe.

Party Chicken Salad with Grapes

Toss Together 2 cups cut-up cold cooked chicken and 1 cup cut up celery, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Add 1/2 cup mayo and carefully fold in 1 cup halved green grapes. Arrange mounds of salad in lettuce cups or in tomato flower cups. 6 servings. (from Betty Crocker Party Book mentioned above)

You can serve it in these pretty Pyrex hostess bowls.

Punch is always good. Try this:

June Punch

4 c. sugar

4 c. water

2 c. strong black tea

6 cans frozen lemonade concentrate, undiluted

2 cans pineapple juice (5 cups)

2 c. cut up strawberries

1 gal. water

2 qt. dry ginger ale

Make syrup by boiling water and sugar for 10 minutes. Add tea and fruit juices. Chill 2 to 3 hours. Add remaining ingredients. Pour over ice in punch bowl or ice in cups. 60-70 servings (whew! I'd cute this recipe in half. From Betty Crocker's Party Book mentioned above.)

Top it all off with these cupcakes from Kevin and Amanda (P.S. If you haven't cooked from their web site before, do it. Yum. Everything.)

source

Then a hostess gift is needed for sure if you are going as a guest. How about a unique little cookbook or some pretty napkins tied with a bow? 

Play and laugh with your friends and call it a night a few hours later. Drive off in your 1957 Chevy and then head home to your husband, who, in all his glory, has the kids in bed and a nice cocktail ready for you when you come in the door. What a night! Want to come to my bridge party? For real? Let's do it!

Pretty Wrappings for Old Papers and Vintage Gifts

I came home with a pretty stack of ladies' handkerchiefs, starched and folded and ironed into neat little squares. I threw them in the wash with bath towels and spent a bit opening and pressing them again, letting my mind wander as to what to do with them. There are so many tiny details on these pretty linens that they should be shared and not tucked away.

Sew Somerset  is one of my favorite magazines to read, because it combines paper and fabric, and being a reborn seamstress lately, I love them both so much. I have many friends who do, too, and I began thinking of ways to package paper gifts with these pretty little hankies.  Here are a few ideas.

Place your ephemera or paper in a clear sleeve with a cardboard insert so that it remains somewhat rigid. Wrap the sleeve like you would a gift, using a handkerchief as your "paper." Tie a silky bow of vintage seam binding around your gift and create a simple shipping tag to label it. Any friend would adore something as pretty as this!

I left the pretty edges of this one out; they are too sweet to cover up.

Place your gift in a paper roll such as from paper towels or bath tissue. Wrap the hankie around the roll and secure both ends with silky ribbon, yarn, or small bits of baker's twine. You could add a tag and use a vintage Dennison seal to embellish (I just listed some in my shop!) Wouldn't this be pretty packaging for tea bags and a silver spoon?

What other ideas do you have to use hankies for wrapping? They are always in abundance at estate sales, so don't pass them up next time you stop.

Speaking of, we will have hankies and lots more vintage for any style at our Miss Henny Penny booth at Loot Vintage Market at Texas Motor Speedway, September 26-28. We'd love for you to stop by and say hello if you are in the DFW metroplex area!

Kickin' It Old School: Finding Report Cards and School Ephemera from the 1920s and Beyond

Hello hello! No excuses...but I'm here. :) It seems that since we only have about two weeks of summer before the teachers head back to school, that I find more and more vintage school supplies at estate sales. Plus, I'm planning to be The Teacher From the Black Lagoon 1950s, so I've been busy researching and reading old Better Homes and Gardens and etiquette books and collecting vintage clothing for ME to wear to school.  Wait til you see my OOTD posts. I'm so excited!

I've also started a new little business with my sweet friend, Katie, from school.  We now have a shop: Miss Henny Penny, where we hunt down the vintage and bring it to you.  There are exciting things happening with that right now...we are working on parties of the yesteryear...you tell us the decade or theme...we bring the goods.

(teacher's hall pass for my room! yay!)

If you are in the DFW area, we will also have a booth at the Loot Vintage Market in September at Texas Motor Speedway!  WOOHOO!  We are super excited about that one, and don't you worry...Feed the Birdies will be there, too, with some swell papers. No way am I giving this up, or this little space. It will always be near and dear.

(I'll fight somebody if they try to take my Ticonderoga pencils. P.S. Didn't Mrs. Payne look nice in her school photos? She had two...what's up with that?)

It's a good thing I took pictures of these when I did. My cat threw up on them today and ruined the lot. Hmph.

Don't you wish report cards still looked like these? "George is a lovely student but..." He could use careful study habits to raise these grades, too.  What is he thinking? Uh Oh. Not a strong S.

I loved finding these old camp "reports" and the student's American Red Cross swimming card. I wonder what her bathing suit looked like? Very modest, I'm sure.

Then there was this school yearbook that I grabbed at the last second off a book shelf at an estate sale.  It is from 1922 and I really can't tell if it is college or high school.  I really believe it is college.  Here is Grace's picture; she must have cut out her beau. I wonder what that story was.

When I opened the yearbook I squealed like I had found money. It wasn't money. It was her report cards. From 1922-23, you guys. What a neat piece of ephemera. Look at her classes and her grades, and notice she took multiple levels at the same time (junior, senior).

Domestic Art and Domestic Science. Love.
Here is her senior class roster, although she was but a lowly sophomore when this yearbook was printed. Don't you love all of these names?

Here she is. Second row. Far right. From Hope, AR. And I guess that Zeb was her beau. Is that who she cut out of the picture? Oh, I bet it was. He must have really broken her heart that summer. 

They look much older than high school sophomores; I bet this is a college. It's also an agricultural college.

I still have so much to share. Lots of neat textbooks and elementary findings with really funny drawings. It's amazing what an abandoned box in a garage will allot you. Don't forget to dig! 

My Vintage Mead Data Planner PLUS The Trapper Keeper is Back!

I bet you had one, and if you didn't, you sure did want one. Have you seen the articles around the interwebs about the Trapper Keeper coming back? I'm going to try really hard not to get in a scrimmage over one when they hit the shelves. My goodness, what teacher wouldn't want one?

But, about a month ago, guess what I found in a tiny white closet sitting on a shelf? An unused Mead notebook (Data Planner), and heavens to Betsy if it didn't have a cat on it.  I was giddy, squealed at my daughter a bit, scooped it up and hugged it tight until I got to the checkout. Sorry, this one won't make it to the shop. Sure, it's not a Trapper Keeper, but it reminded me so much of the one I DID have when I was a kid. And it snaps. And has cool folders inside.

Did you know that some schools banned the Trapper Keeper with the Velcro (when they transitioned from snap closure) because teachers didn't like the noise? They went right back to the snap.

A little bit of history about the notebook I found, the Data Planner: it is older than the Trapper Keeper and came out about 5 or 6 years before.  It included a calendar, pencil pouch, and schedule planner, and gray file folder pockets, and then has a clip on the back inside for a legal pad.  It's pretty neat.. AND mine HAS A CAT ON IT. I know how I'm organizing my classes this year. I bet the kids try to talk me out of it.

(Did you know that Mead made the Big Chief Tablet, too? It's right on the front, but I never noticed.)

Well, rumor has it that Target will carry the new Trapper Keeper when it comes out this month. That means any day now.  I'll race ya.

P.S. I've been on a new adventure these last few weeks.  I have an announcement to make in a couple days! Summer is good. :)

Why You Should Read Vintage Magazines

Better Homes and Gardens is my top pick when it comes to buying vintage magazine issues. These three are 1956-58 and I pulled them out of a neat stack tied up with nylons in an old shed. They aren't in the best shape, but there are still lots of things to learn from them! Here's why you should buy...and read...old magazines. 

1. Design ideas. Even if you aren't a mid-century lover, you'll be inspired by tips and arrangements for your home.

2. The articles are very informative, especially if you purchase from estate sales like we do, and need to find out about details like dates, replacement parts, manufacturers, etc. (And then there are articles that are just plain FUNNY.)

3. Old magazines are a super cool history lesson. 

4. And you can see somebody must have cut some things from this issue for a school project, maybe?

5. The recipes. I've found Aunt Audrey's Puff Pastry and a pineapple salad recipe we've searched for, for a long time.

6. The ads and illustrations. Be they ever so sexist, they're still worth the giggles and the surprised look on your face! 

7. You can dream of owning a pink GE kitchen, for $35 per month. 

8. Christmas decor and gift ideas just got a little more nostalgic. 

9. The cars. I want a Nomad. 

10. And, last but not least, take the plans and patterns and create that decade, year, or childhood memory all over again. 

I buy most of my magazines at estate sales, of course, but you can also find them at antique malls, Etsy, or EBay. Others to look for are Family Circle and McCall's. Follow me on Instagram, @feedthebirdies, for my Tonight's Reading posts to see what issues I've read or will read. It's a fun little hobby!