Weekend Junk finds: vintage Christmas, milk bottles and rhinestones

In the week after Christmas, I got to go antique shopping with my girlfriends, something I've always wanted to do! We went to a huge antique mall across town that is in an old grocery store space, so it's ridiculously huge. By the time you get halfway through, your eyes start to glaze over a bit, but it's a great place to go if you're looking for something specific--with so many vendors, you're bound to find it.

Because it was after Christmas, most vendors had sales in their booths and I was definitely motivated to help them unload their wares. ;) I was of course on the lookout for vintage Christmas:

And found these great old boxes with the items still in them. Someday I'd love to have a great Christmas packaging display like Shara has, but I've got a long way to go! I also bought a great box of vintage ornaments for $1.50 (hooray for 75% off!) but I didn't get a photo of those before I put them away.

One thing I was looking for on that trip and successfully found were milk bottles:

Because I'm starting a dairy. ;) Okay, no, but I have something in mind for them! I'd been looking on Etsy and eBay but since they're glass and heavy, shipping was always a killer. These were all discounted and less than $8 each, which I think was a great deal. The one in the middle I actually found on a different antiquing trip later that week, and it was only $2! Couldn't leave it behind for that price.

I hit the thrifts hard the week before Christmas when they put all of the Christmas decor on sale, but I didn't come up with much. I didn't have any BIG vintage Christmas thrift scores this year like I have for the previous two, so that was a bit disappointing. On one trip, I did find this gorgeous brooch:

It wasn't on sale and the full price was definitely more than I'd like to pay, so I woke up early on Christmas Eve morning and went back to the store because everything was 50% off that day. Well, almost everything, except--you guessed it--the brooch! Phooey! But I had been thinking about it constantly for two days (and dragged myself out of bed at 7:00 on Christmas Eve morning) and so I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas gift. It's absolutely gorgeous! You can't tell from the photo, but it's easily as big across as the palm of my hand. The stones are clear and beautiful and it sparkles like crazy! It's not marked but I can tell it is a nice quality piece. I paid more for it than I have for any of my other pretties, with the exception of Viola's jewels, but I think it was worth it.

The upshot is that while I was at the store buying my brooch, I found FIVE of the "It's A Wonderful Life" village houses that Melissa mentioned just a few days prior on 320 Sycamore. I would totally have passed them by if I hadn't read that post, but thanks to Melissa I knew to scoop them up (at 50% off, no less!) and now they're tucked away until I put them on eBay next Christmas. I think when I sell those next year I'll make enough to call my pretty brooch a true gift!

And just so that you don't think all I ever drag home is silly vintage stuff:

proof in the form of three Henckels knives that cost me an average of $1 each. They probably retailed for $30-45 apiece. A quick trip through my knife sharpener, and they are as good as new! My main chef's knife is a Henckels so finding these was a true score to me.

What's on your junking wish list for 2012?