Collecting: Vintage Japanese Stackable Coffee Mugs

  Over Christmas Break, I worked at my hometown's Habitat ReStore as a volunteer.  While I was there, I saw AMAZING things come through that I wish I could have bought and taken home with me!  There were a few things, however, that I was able to grab after a few days of shelf life.  I love everything I have now lying around my apartment, but what are my favorites?

These!

I love these little guys SO much!  I saw them come through, watched nervously to make sure no one bought them, and when the time was right... I went for the prowl!  And I love them!

Something about them, I noticed, when I checked the brand that's usually at the bottom is that all it says is "Japan."  Nothing else.  And it's etched in.  So I started searching around the web, hoping that I'd find some answers (I wanted more and didn't know where to get them) and discovered that they were made in the 1960's and 1970's as part of a stylish household trend.  They are 'stackable' mugs:

And they can apparently be found in mostly antique stores everywhere as well as random thrift stores.  These here, I got for $.25 each!  And other people I have been able to find on the web have said they've found theirs for similar prices.

I love these little mugs so much and I have started searching around to find more to add to my collection!  They come in all sorts of colors (blue, orange, brown, green, red, black, brown) and all different designs (flowers, patterns, sun, circles, zigzags, squares).  I will never pay a ridiculous amount for them (i.e. $3 for 2) I'd say no more than $.50 - that'll make the hunt more fun!  I'm pumped and I can't wait to find more!

Rusted Rustic Beauty

Since I've gotten a computer of my own again, I have been unloading months of picture taking into my photo files!  Some pictures that I never realized I still had were taken last summer while I was doing yard work with my family.  Not to sound like I'm bragging, but I was amazed at how well I did with the pictures I took!  One of my favorites right now is this one:

It's currently the background on my desktop.  I'm always wary of putting good personal art on the internet.  I write short-stories that aren't too shabby, I write Bible studies, I take lots of pictures, I refurbish and paint furniture, I do a lot of things that if I were to put them online, someone might copy it and claim it as their own - I know people who are like that and I know people who have had this happen to them.  But I decided to share this with the world.

The house I grew up in was built circa 1830 and a lot of antique furniture is still inside as well as other memorabilia.  We still have brick fire places, stone hearths, brick chimneys, lightning rods (a million of them!) and other buildings on the property.  We have the outdoor kitchen still on the lot (before we had fire codes, the kitchen was kept separate from the house in case of something setting on fire), we have a smoke house where they used to smoke the meats, we have two huge barns (one for the horses and cattle, one for the buggies when they came around), there's a blacksmith shop (it's covered in greens, but everything inside is still in tact), there's even a chicken coupe.  My family used to own a huge chunk of land in South Carolina, but were land-brokers and sold much of it.  Now, the street that my family's house is on is made up of family members - some close in relation, some distant.  This bench is most definitely from the 20th century, but as for the age... I would put it somewhere between the 1960s and the 1980s.  Either way, this rusted rustic beauty has never been more photogenic :)