I buy old people's junk

I said I'd be back on Wednesday with photos, and I lied. Sorry about that! Here are the promised photos of the junk I bought at 2 estate sales and a VFW garage sale last weekend.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but this stack of embroidery pattern transfers actually filled a plastic grocery sack: a huge amount of both the packaged Aunt Martha patterns and also pages and pages of hand-traced patterns. If you click on the photo to enlarge you can see my two favorites: the scottie dogs and the adorable little mermaids! Okay, I have got to learn to embroider so I can use these cuties! I bought a kit to get started, oh, about 2 summers ago and haven't touched it. Once I go through all the patterns and organize them back into their envelopes I'll probably keep some and sell the rest because there are many that just aren't my style. I was quoted $5 for the whole pile but I think the lady overcharged me when she rang me up. Oh well, I don't mind giving a couple more bucks to the VFW.

At that sale I also bought a gorgeous vintage linen pillowcase for 25¢. It has hand-crocheted lace along the bottom as is monogrammed with an M--perfect for a pillowcase dress for Miss Maren! I also picked up four little Gurley caroler candles, which I couldn't find when I was doing the photos. Seriously, I have no idea where they went. That is not a good commentary on the status of my eBay/yardsale junk pile.

On my way home from the grocery store on Saturday I saw a sign for an estate sale just a few blocks from my house. Of course I had to visit, even though I had frozen shrimp and frozen sausage in the car and it was about 90 degrees outside. It was pretty awesome. The seller was getting rid of her mother-in-law's things and she had them priced to move. Clothing was 25¢, books were 10¢--that's cheaper than any garage sale I've been to, let alone normal estate sale prices! I wish now that I had just loaded up the books and taken them to the used book store for credit. I'll remember that in the future.

The woman who owned these things had been a nurse in the Army and had served in Korea during the war, finally retiring as a Lt. Col. She had several nurses' capes for sale, so I bought one, which is the background of the picture here. I couldn't pass up the apron made of vintage hankies and the buckles on the bottom right are from a huge bag of old shoe clips. I went through and picked out a few that I wanted and the rest will get donated. The floral thing on the top--well, I'm not sure exactly what it is but I think it was 25¢. It is made on pink velvet ribbon and the pink & green things sort of look like old silk flowers, but not quite. It looks like maybe something you'd wear on your head? Anyway, it is pretty and foofy and shabby and that was enough for me!

The vintage Santa is about 12" tall, I couldn't pass up the crocheted bloomers potholder, and I bought several bags of vintage ribbons that need to be ironed. While the nurse was in Asia she had many of her clothes custom-made. I bought a couple of like-new day dresses hoping they'd fit me but the lady was a bit thicker in the waist than I am so they will get donated. I also bought 2 frilly vintage nighties (for display, not to wear) and the most gorgeous formal satin dress. There was a huge pile of vintage gloves but I didn't buy any--couldn't think what to do with them and I don't think they're huge sellers on eBay unless they're very unusual.




And finally, I bought three pairs of vintage shoes and a huge stack of unused stockings (total price for all: $1.00). You can't tell from the photo but these are actually platform shoes! The ones on the left are sort of suede-like and the ones on the right are faux croc or something reptilian. The ones on the left are from Saks Fifth Avenue and one of the shoes had a crumpled piece of newspaper stuffed in the toe. The date? March 3, 1950! This woman had some tiny feet, because both of these are size 6 1/2, aaa width. Yikes. The other pair are newer, but they are Neiman Marcus and once I get them cleaned up a little, all are going up for sale on eBay. The shoes are resting on the satin dress I mentioned before; it's the most beautiful seafoam green and I can tell it was made to order. Like the shoes, it's tiny. One of these days I'll steam it to get all the wrinkles out and try to get a better photo so you can see how elaborate it is. Oh, how I wish it fit me! It's just gorgeous. I also bought several old toys and stuffed animals that are destined for eBay. In all, I spent $6.50 at that sale and had so much stuff that the seller's kid had to help me carry it all to my car!

At the other estate sale I bought a vintage Spirograph game for $1 (resale), a Teletubbies coloring book for Maren ($1) a big bag full of assorted crapola for $2, and an old set of Wilton cake decorating tips in a little case ($1). There are a couple of church sales I'm hoping to hit tomorrow morning. Quin will be gone all weekend for work so I'll have Maren in tow. If you're headed out for some yard saling this weekend, I wish you good luck and Good Junk!