Thrifty Acres: Vintage Kitchen Part One

Hello! Eight months after receiving water damage, our kitchen, dining room and upstairs bathroom have been renovated. Since the walls of the kitchen were redone (wallpaper removed and paint put on in its place), it was a good time to do a bit of redecorating in that room. Changing things around and adding vintage goodies I'd bought this year added to the new look. 

Come along for a little tour:

Window over the kitchen sink. The window had previously been framed by a blah lace curtain left behind by the previous owner. I swapped the curtain for two vintage embroidered scarves. They'd been stitched up by either a grandmother or great-aunt of my husband. 

Just for fun - at the top corners of the window I hung up handmade doll dresses; I'd purchased them earlier this fall at an estate sale. 

A Nabisco Mr. Salty doll, the namesake of a now-defunct (I think) pretzel brand. He was a gift in the early 80's from a relative.

Close-ups of my new "curtains". There are sayings stitched on either side of the designs, but since the words were worked in white, they don't show up very well. "God Bless Our Home" was stitched alongside the house design, while the cute couple with the umbrella are framed with "Whatever The Weather We'll Be Happy Together". I don't know when the scarves were embroidered, but it's safe to say it was decades ago. 

Small items on the windowsill. Peppy, Salty and the boy/girl egg cups are made of wood, and both sets came from a church rummage sale in Douglas, WY. The small pottery piece next to Salty holds marbles and bits of broken dishes - all dug up from our backyard; most of it likely vintage. The small glass bottle holds two flowers, the last of the blooms from my yard this year.

Vintage holder for letters/memos/misc., hung by the refrigerator. Purchased for a quarter at an antique store's summer clearance near Calumet, MI. I removed the various coupon offers, gardening info and other papers that I had stashed in the racks so I could show off the rooster designs. This is quite a handy piece. 

This holder has three hooks on the bottom, likely for keys. I hung up this vintage tea towel from the hooks instead. It was found in my mother-in-law's things after she had died. That was the first time I'd seen it, so I don't know who had stitched it up (My MIL wasn't into embroidery; crocheting was her thing). The Dutch girl look is fitting for the town in which we live. 

One last stop on my kitchen tour for today, and it also has a Dutch theme:

I bought the above plaque at a thrift store. It has a recipe for "Saucijzenbroojes" (I have no idea how that word is pronounced), aka "Pigs in the Blanket". Various recipes of this Dutch food abound, but they all seem to involve sausage and a rich biscuit-like dough. I made them once, using a recipe given to me by an older lady I used to know. The "pigs" took some time to make, and were a bit on the heavy side, but were still pretty good. Around here, they can be purchased, frozen, at grocery stores, and I know of at least one local church that makes them to sell at fundraisers. 

And that's it for part one of my vintage kitchen tour - part two to come with the next blog post. Hope you enjoyed what you saw today!