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Posted on June 13, 2023February 16, 2024 by Wanda — 3 Comments

A Personal Review and Comparison of Temu Silk Flowers

Have you been wondering if you should try Temu’s cheap silk flowers? Wondering how they compare to what you can find locally? Are their prices too good to be true? Well, I took the plunge. Threw caution to the wind and ordered some. Here is my review and comparison of the Temu silk flowers I bought.

But first, for the purpose of this post, let’s set aside any controversy or conspiracy theories about Temu (and, for that matter, Hobby Lobby, to which some of the flowers are compared). Okay? If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’re at least willing to give them a try. I’m neither endorsing nor trashing Temu, although a couple of the links to the flowers are affiliate links. Still, please no comments bashing the company itself. You can bash the items you bought, but we’ll leave the political type controversy alone. Thank you.

I ordered from the app, but chose the items by shopping on my laptop. I liked the larger screen for decision making. But there was some kind of promotion, isn’t there always? Maybe it was $25 off a $50 purchase, for using the app. It only took about 8 days for the order to get here which surprised me. I was prepared for 2 weeks.

This post has a lot of pictures. I hope they load fast for you. The screenshots of the partial order pages do have links to the actual items I ordered. Two are affiliate links. The rest are just regular ol’ links.

Let’s start with lamb’s ear picks. I couldln’t find this particular item on the site today.

They were a paler green than I was expecting. The quality was….. enh. Not horrible, not great. I’d give them a 5 out of 10. They were the only flowers of everything I ordered that were packed in a box.

They weren’t of great quality, but usable. See the piece on the right in the picture above? It was off one of the stems and when I tried to stick it back on, it was too loose to stay. I can still use a dab of glue, so not exactly a deal breaker. Also, on the picture below, you can see the stems weren’t wrapped well.

Comparing Temu’s lamb’s ear pick to the Hobby Lobby lamb’s ear pick, Hobby Lobby is the clear winner.

Next up is just some filler ferns.

(These are no longer available.) They’re small and the ad shows that pretty clearly, but they’re decent. A couple of fronds were unattached. I’d rate them a 7 out of 10. They look nice when several of them are in a vase or in a corner of a shelf, and of course, they’d be nice amongst other flowers. I didn’t have any others on hand to compare to.

Moving on to a flower bunch.

Again, I didn’t have any others to compare to. This bunch was fairly small, but nicely full. It is pretty, the colors are nice. It has some plastic fillers along with the silk flowers, but the plastic is not ugly. The only things silk are the flowers and the large green leaves.

Here it is in a 7″ tall vase. I kinda think I’ll keep it in there.

I’m not unhappy with this. It gets an 8 out of 10.

While we’re doing flower bunches, let’s take a look at these.

The ad, at that time, called them hydrangeas. 20 heads of them. Huh? They look a whole lot more like carnations or asters than hydrangeas. But I could see that in the ad photo, so I knew what I was getting.

The color I chose is in the same color family as the previous bunch/bush, but the flowers are smaller and it has a LOT more plastic fillers. You really need more than one to make a decent looking bouquet – which the ad photo did quite well. And maybe those plastic buds/thingies need cutting out.

Here it is in that same 7″ vase, but with two bunches together. Still not so very full. Rating? 6 out of 10.

Let’s do lavender now. These are plasticky and shed. Badly. I give them a 1 out of 10.

They compare closely to some I got at WalMart, only smaller. Much, much, much smaller.

And now, the main reason I ordered any flowers at all. Hydrangeas.

They’re so expensive at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. I was hoping to find an inexpensive substitute. I’m not at all unhappy with these. The colors are very pretty and they’re probably more lifesize. At least compared to the ones on my bushes.

They came flattened out in a package, but were easy to just smush down with the palm of my hand to fluff them out.

Let’s see how they compare to Dollar Tree (which is what I was expecting) and Hobby Lobby:

I’d give the hydrangeas a 9 out of 10.

So, would I order again? Mayyyyybe. There are several reasons I might not.

One, I’m impatient. I’m not a big online buyer. I want things yesterday, even if it takes me 3 weeks to get in my car and go get something, I want it when I want it. So there’s that.
Another, I will always prefer to find something at a yard or estate sale if at all possible. There are a myriad of reasons for that
And… well…. I deleted the app. Juuuuust in case…. you know…. the conspiracy theories have a grain of truth in them. I mean, I don’t want them knowing I check my Etsy shop 10 times a day or that I scroll through Facebook, but rarely comment or that I look to see what other online resellers are selling or that I’m trying to figure out what to do with my patio or living room or kitchen, or that I’m desperate to figure out how to make a pair of pants that fit, or that I look on realtor.com for my dream home in my price range every single day….. You know. They don’t need to know all that! Ha!

I hope this has helped you make a decision to try or not Temu’s silk flowers.

A New Look For the Vintage Booth

We’re redecorating the booth and sharing in hopes that you might get some vintage booth display ideas! We’re trying to sort of niche down to a certain, admittedly girly, aesthetic. My daughter is stepping up more, putting more in the booth, and, in truth, she’s saying, “This is what we need to do” and I’m absolutely fine with that! Sooooo appreciative! I have never been all that great with merchandising the booth and frankly, after 25 years, I’m tired and have no new ideas. She has a great eye for display. Check out her beautiful Instagram feed @erins_vintagetreasures

Here’s what it currently looks like. (Actually, at the time of this writing, just a few days after we rearranged, a lot of things have sold, so it doesn’t exactly look this way anymore.)

Booth at Angel's Antique Mall in Opelika, Alabama

The little bench sold the day after we took it in. Also sold within the week was the basket hanging on the wall, the metal angel wings, the wicker vase on the table and the architectural piece behind the table.

Sold within the week in the above picture was that precious, little girl picture. And a few days later, the courting couple print.

Can you tell that’s a yellow Poppy sprinkler sitting on the box? It sold in about two weeks as well as an old hand rake that you absolutely cannot see here.

Erin painted and distressed the blue box and applied the molded flowers on the front as well as the coffee table it’s sitting on.

Things sold within the week in this picture are the crock on the floor that I sold too cheaply and really wish I’d kept because I liked it, and the cup hook thing inside the metal planter.

Ah! Here’s a better picture of the sprinkler! Still can’t see the rake, though.

I’ll try to get back the first of next month with a “What Sold” report.

Here’s a quick video of the whole booth. Sorry, not sorry, that it’s not a talkie. I was going to narrate and quickly gave up. And it’s only about 3 minutes long.

Hover below to Pin-it!

Posted on May 12, 2023December 5, 2023 by Wanda — 1 Comment

Lamp Part and Pieces Upcycle

Today on the blog: Upcycling lamp parts in a way you might not have thought of.

You know how we find ugly or broken lamps or even just pieces of lamps at the yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores? Well, thrift stores probably throw out the badly broken ones, but sometimes pieces will show up. I’m always watching for these things, but it’s been a minute since I’ve actually upcycled one.

A few months ago I found these little cherubic guys at a sale. Ignore the work space, please and thank you!

I had no idea what their original use was. I thought it was a candle holder and that was what I intended to use it for. Recently, a friend in a Facebook group I’m a member of shared a floor lamp and there were these little guys at the base, holding a tall porcelain lamp! Mystery solved.

When I got home with them, I saw the broken spot, the hole at the base. I don’t know if it’s my old eyes, excitement – or desperation – to find something or just plain ol’ carelessness, but I miss things like this all the time. Do you?

Hmmmm….. What to do? Oh! I’ll use air dry clay to “repair” the hole and paint the whole thing!

But after I went to the trouble of repairing it, I had an epiphany. I realized that the top opening, the spot I thought would hold a candle, was too big for a candle. Remember, it was originally holding a porcelain lamp base/thingy. I really liked the antiqued look of the metal and didn’t much want to paint it and….. hey! I know! It needs reindeer moss! The moss could cover the repair – it could have covered the hole if I’d thought of it earlier and saved me that trouble. But what could they be holding if not a candle? Why, a ball of moss, of course! I found a small, styrofoam sphere in my stash, covered the parts that would be visible with reindeer moss, shoved it down into their hands, sat it on a bed of moss, and called it done.

But it still needed something – okay, okay. I knew I’d do this all along, but the picture above shows most clearly how the moss was attached – so I added a cloche and then called it done. (Why is it that the pictures like the one in the workspace and the one without the cloche are the better pictures, but the one that kinda counts, the one that should be Pinterest, Instagram and blog worthy is never a good/better picture?)

The cloche is from one of those cheap, plastic anniversary clocks, that have a glass dome, that we can sometimes find for a couple of bucks. I toss the clocks and keep the domes. I have several in my arsenal. I have kept the clock faces, but have never used them, so I don’t anymore.

As a side note, the iron base it’s sitting on is also a lamp part. It’s part of a hanging kerosene lamp. And sometime in my yard sale shopping, I happened to find a round piece of glass that fit perfectly. Friends, you have to hit the sales every weekend and go to every one as early as possible!

It’s all part of this vignette at the moment. The chest was from one of my favorite dealers at Angel’s Antique Mall in Opelika, Alabama, who is, devestatingly to me and many others I’m sure, closing her booth. Everything else is from yard and estate sales over the years. The candlesticks, I learned recently, are a Southern Living product. They and the cloche are the youngest things in the vignette. I might, but probably don’t, have as much as $250 total invested in everything here and that includes the $200 chest and the pictures that go on up the wall that you can’t see here.

So go out and keep an open mind with those parts and pieces if you don’t already!

You might want to check out some of my other fun lamp base transformations:
Curbside find – Floor lamp base turned pedestal
Don’t pass up those lamp bases! – Some Lamp Base Crafts

Reindeer Moss on Amazon (Affiliate link. It costs you nothing more and I’ll get a tiny stipend for my work. If you choose to use it, thanks!)

Pin it…..

Determine the Age Of Your Vintage Item By Country Of Origin

How often do we wonder just when our vintage item was made? If you’re a reseller, especially if you have an Etsy shop, eBay too, these days, it pays to know an approximate age. So, I worked up a little chart that gives approximate time frames. I mean, I’m constantly having to double check, so I needed it, too. This does not include all possible countries of origin, but has the primary ones that imported to the United States in the last 100 years or so.

It’s not meant to be definitive and is not all inclusive. There’s some give and take and overlapping years, but this is what I’ve learned from my research and I wanted to share it with you. I did not delve into mid century modern items and mid century styles, many from Denmark, nor did I get into the Italian Florentine and other items from Italy. There are, of course, a myriad of countries that we could drill down to. I’ll say again that this is just a basic guide to the more common items we see most often. Click on the photo below for a free PDF printable.

In a nutshell: