A tisket, a tasket, a couple of thrifted baskets

A couple of thrifted metal picnic baskets, to be precise! I'll tell you, the next best thing to thrifting something fab is when someone you love thrifts something fab for you! My dear mom found these vintage metal picnic baskets in a FREE trash pile a couple of weeks ago and sent them up to me.
You see, we've been looking for baskets like these for years now, ever since we saw a MSL article about collecting them. Obviously everyone else saw that article and had the same idea, and we haven't had any sightings other than a few overpriced baskets at antique malls. That's why it was doubly thrilling that my mom actually found not one, but two, and they were FREE!

They appear to have been stored in someone's damp garage or shed for years, because they both have a fair amount of rust on the exteriors. The tartan basket is in worse shape than the yellow one, and the entire lid is pitted with rust. I used a product called Naval Jelly--it's a rust remover used on boats--but I couldn't get the rust to budge. I have one more product to try (rubbing compound) but since the Naval Jelly didn't work I'm not getting my hopes up. I did get the yellow one cleaned up and it's in good enough shape that I can still use it here in the house, but I think the tartan one looks just darling with a big fall mum poking out. I just need a couple of pumpkins to complete the vignette and I think it really livens up my otherwise boring front porch.

Thanks, Mom! I love them. :)

Thrift Thursday

There's a little town that I pass through whenever I drive down to visit my grandparents. It's a tiny place, one of those old towns where the highway is also main street. The town used to be dumpy and dirty but in the past two or three years things have really improved. There's money coming in from somewhere and now the downtown features a few cafes, a day spa, a yarn store and several antique stores--a big leap for this wide spot in the road! We rarely stop to shop, as it seems we're always in a hurry to get to grandma's or back home, but every time we pass through I stare longingly out the window at the the antique stores. One in particular has always looked intriguing--the tiny storefront windows are filled with a jumble of dusty merchandise, perfect for a digger like me--but it is always closed. I mean ALWAYS, no matter what time of year or what day of the week you pass through town.

Except.

Except for the last time I came through town in August, on my way home from our family reunion at The Barn. I'd already had a particularly fruitful thrifting weekend and my car was stuffed to the gills with junque, including my grandma's old dress form riding shotgun in the front seat. I had Maren and the dog in the back and we were making good time, but when I drove past the store and realized that -gasp- it was OPEN, I had to stop! I parked in the shade of a big old tree and cracked all the windows for Bronco, but still knew I could only be inside for a few minutes--the length of time I felt comfortable leaving him in the car and how long it would take before Maren was doing her best "Bull in a China Shop" impression. It didn't take long; the minute I walked in the door to the tiny shop I spotted this:

Of course I was immediately drawn to its chippy, mirrored, pink fabulousness! Hard to tell from my blurry photo but it is an old metal medicine cabinet that someone once painted pink. It has its original glass knob and the mirror is all streaky with age. The inside has some really interesting shelves and I just know it's the kind of thing I'd see in a magazine photo, all cleaned up with some really great vintage pearls hanging off the knob and stuffed full of glitter and other trinkets.

So what did I do? Why, I talked myself out of buying it, of course. As much as I loved it, I couldn't imagine where in this house I could possibly put it. Only my daughter's room and the guest bedroom have any pink, and it's heavy so I'd have to anchor it to a stud, which would make hanging it a pain. No, I was just not going to buy it. I had all kinds of other goodies in the car already, and I was going to exercise some restraint for once and by the time I got back to Denver it would be a happy memory. I collected Maren, we said goodbye to the nice old gent running the shop, and I went out to the car to change Maren's hideous stinky diaper.

In the time it took to fix Maren (who was precariously balanced on the driver's seat in a feat of acrobatic diaper changing), I got to thinking about one of my favorite quotes from designer Betsey Johnson: "If you love it and it's beautiful, it goes with anything else that you love and is beautiful."

So you guessed it--I talked myself back into buying it! Man, I am a pushover! I ran the 5 steps back into the shop, threw my money at the man and grabbed my prize. I had just enough room on the seat under the dress form to wedge it in for the ride home. I've never regretted it since, but I can guarantee you that I would have regretted not buying it! It needs a good scrubbing, inside and out. The interior is dirty from being used as a medicine cabinet for who knows how many years. When I first opened it in the shop, I found an old dirty Q-tip (skeeve factor 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. yack.) so I'm going to be donning the ol' rubber gloves and hitting it with a good amount of bleach for my own peace of mind. You just wait--it's going to be a beauty, and I even have the perfect thrift store pearls to hang from the glass knob. Still have NO idea where I'll put it, but I know I'll find a place, because I love it!

Thrifting on the road

I didn't go yardsaleing on Saturday morning, something I'll probably regret in cold January when I'm stuck paying inflated thrift store prices to get my junk fix. I did get to do a good amount of junkin' when I went to visit my grandparents a couple of weeks ago and have goodies to show you.

The three blue Ball jars were from an estate sale that we ran into while we were on the way out of town. My mom and I made a spur of the moment decision (involving a U-turn) and I'm glad we did, as we found good stuff. Usually estate sales are overpriced but the small jars were only $2.00 and the large one was $4.00, which I think is a bargain. The estate sale was interesting--the man worked for Kellogg's and had all kinds of cool memorabilia and promotional stuff, most of it priced pretty reasonably. I bet I could have bought some good stuff for resale if I'd had more time & money & knowledge (or a wi-fi connection!) The cherry teacup is a Mary Engelbreit piece and matches a honey pot & set of candlesticks I sold last year. I think it's an unusual pattern because I almost never see it, and I had a buyer email and ask if I had any more to sell. That was purchased at a brand-new church-run thrift store in the town just one over from the one where my grandparents live, so I will definitely be going back. Prices in there were high but it was their first week being open so maybe they'll get a better idea of what's reasonable in the future. The clear glass Ball jar was $1.00 and came from the thrift in my grandparents' town.

With the exception of the Girl Scout cookie cutter (which came from the same estate as the blue glass jars), everything else in this photo came from one estate (but two different sales). This one was an estate sale we happened onto when coming home from the pool Maren was just about in full meltdown-mode so I couldn't shop long. The old-lady beaded necklaces are great! I've already worn the pink one with a brown top. The dog broke one of the vintage ornaments. :( The vintage silk hankie is printed with an image of the Oakland Bay Bridge and will go in my guest room. Not sure what the crocheted thing is--a potholder, maybe? I forgot I was holding it until I got in the car! And I keep buying those darn painted-handle utensils, even though I already have about 3 of this particular tool (an egg beater?) and no good way to display them. Somebody stop me! I just can't leave them behind.


The two vintage felt pennants were from the same estate sale, and will also go in the guest room. I also bought a great big vintage Ball glass jar but that went to my mom as a birthday gift. Wish there had been more! This sale was held in an old shed/barn and it was the kind of place you have to dig. There was neat stuff and great old furniture, but everything was very dirty and would have needed a lot of work. I was there just an hour before they closed the sale on a Monday afternoon but I wish I'd known about it earlier--they said the place had been packed to the rafters on the Friday before. It makes me slightly ill to think of the treasures that must have been in there, since the leftovers were still pretty darn good. The calendar with the cute black terriers was from the same estate sale as the blue jars. The top part is embossed cardboard and it's really quite charming. Not particularly old--the calendar is for 1973--but a really sweet piece of ephemera nonetheless.

The Avon Outlook is a booklet sent to Avon ladies and is dated 1943. It's a hoot! I should scan some pages to show you. It's all about encouraging sales and such and I find the pictures highly entertaining. The Girl Scout catalog is from 1949 and is really fun to look through. There was an official Girl Scout Apron and it's just darling! Another one I where I need to scan and post someday.






And last, another pile of ephemera I bought in a bag at the barn estate sale. Lots of vintage Valentines for my collection (my fave is the one on the right with the astronaut), some neat old flash cards with scalloped edges, and a few random old playing cards with fun pictures. There was a bunch of other random stuff in the bag, including school pictures and report cards for a boy that my mom went to high school with! She took those and is planning on sending them back to him. Yeah, it's a small town. :)

One other thing is a very old carved wood frame from the barn but it's really dirty and it's pretty darn shabby. It has potential but it's going to need some work. I love small town junking! The prices are usually low and you don't have as much competition from other pickers. Good stuff!

Thrift Thursday

Last Saturday Maren and I packed up and headed out early to hit the yard sales before it got too darn hot. Our first stop was a church sale I'd seen advertised earlier in the week as starting at 8:00 am. We got there at 8:30 and they were still unloading boxes and furniture off of trucks and nothing was put out on tables--just piles and piles of boxes. Argh! Normally pawing through boxes doesn't bother me but that takes a lot of time and attention, something I don't have when Maren is in tow. I poked through a few boxes but got frustrated and made to leave, but not before Maren latched onto a little hard-shell Hello Kitty rolling suitcase. She dragged that thing the whole time we were there and I knew if I made her put it back she would throw a fit of epic proportions, and I really didn't want to start out my yard sale day on that note. Although I usually have a policy of NO NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS, sometimes it's worth $1 and a little bend in the rules for some peace and quiet!

We only hit a few more sales after that, but I found enough goodies to feel like I'd had a productive day. All of the things pictured came from one sale. It was an older couple and they were selling off some of his mother's Christmas things. Yay for me! There was an old box of Shiny Brites with great graphics but it had a huge tear down the front so I passed it up. I bought the three German pressed paper bowls at the top for 50¢ each (there are two of the flowered design). The stuff at left came from the 25¢ box: an old box of ornament hangers, a sparkly bottlebrush tree, a bag with the three birdies and the plastic Made in Japan reindeer, the Hallmark ornament, and the MIJ Santa on Stork ornament.

Also from the depths of the 50¢ box were this vintage box of candles and crepe paper napkins (unused and in perfect condition, will probably end up on eBay this fall) and the antique flower frog. I've been looking for a flower frog like this forever, since I've seen them used to great effect as photo and card holders. This one is crescent-shaped and it must be made of lead or something because it weighs a ton! My only other buys were a Pyrex pie plate for my pie giveaway prize and a blue glass Ball jar with a zinc lid. The jar is an ugly 1976 repro so it will get tossed but the lid fits perfectly on a good blue lid-less jar that I already had. I didn't buy much but I love everything that I found, so in this case quality definitely won out over quantity!

Thrift Thursday

I didn't actually thrift the items in this picture: they were thrifted for me. I love getting thrifted gifts! My mom found some of these goodies in the small town in Southern Colorado where my grandparents live. We've only had the opportunity to go yardsaling there a couple of times but it has always netted us good stuff! On the left is a very cool vintage coloring book about all of the different states. I love the way the mom is dressed! At the top right is a flag-shaped Jello mold from the only thrift store in town, and on the bottom are an old aluminum heart mold and a huge American flag-printed silk scarf, perfect for my patriotic decor.

Mom also found these goodies at a garage sale. On the left is a very old Loto game (it looks to be the same thing as bingo) and it has the neatest old game boards and wooden number tiles! They'll be great for an art project. The Loto box is falling apart so it was stored in a neat old vintage Christmas card box--bonus! The other item is a vintage jigsaw puzzle of the United States, with a map to show you where everything goes. It was packaged in a vintage box that held ladies' stockings.


When I was visiting in Utah a few weeks ago I went to an amazing yard sale. It was held by a woman who goes to my mom's church who was moving out of her home and needed to both downsize and make some extra money. She has some MS and some other health problems so some of the people from my mom's church helped her clean out her house to get ready for the sale. My mom tipped me off that there might be some neat things, but that I would have to dig, which is fine with me. That usually means there are treasures to be had.

Folks, this was one amazing yard sale. I have never been to a yard or estate sale for a single person where there was this much stuff. In fact, I'm not quite sure that the owner doesn't have a bit of a compulsive shopping thing going on, combined with obsessive hoarding. Whoa. When my dad told me they had filled 24 long folding tables with stuff for the sale and that was only scratching the surface, I knew it would have to be seen to be believed. Nearly everything was in multiples...2...3...12...20. Stacks and stacks of identical picture frames, still in their plastic with the prices on. Multiples of ceramic figures. Probably 20 hanging light fixtures and enough lamps to light up a mansion. Enormous piles of brand-new throw pillows. Boxes and boxes and boxes of unopened Christmas decorations. Most of the stuff still had tags from T.J. Maxx, Ross, and Big Lots. Unfortunately for me, there wasn't much vintage stuff, which is what I was really looking for.

I managed to spend $10 on the old Martha Stewart book, a box of reproduction vintage Christmas ornaments for my dad's tree, a sparkly rhinestone flag pin, a pewter trinket box engraved with an M (for Miss Maren's room) and 3 strands of vintage glass Christmas garland. I did see a huge Annalee Mrs. Santa but it was in pretty rough shape and it was so large it would have been a pain to ship, so I passed it up. One thing I missed that I'm still kicking myself for was an old photo of a little boy on a horse. It was in a large oval frame and had convex glass and the lady in front of me bought it for $5! Ack. Maybe that's my karma payback for the aluminum mold-snatching incident! The other thing in the photo is a set of vintage painted turkey salt and pepper shakers from another yard sale, along with an item for my Summer Fun swap partner.

Harry Potter countdown: T minus 2 days! Not that I'm counting or anything...

Harry Potter #7 review and thrift finds

I'm back with a movie review. I think a better title might have been "Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix: The Highlights" because that's what it felt like! I know it must have been a screenwriter's nightmare to try to condense an 800-page book about fantasy and magic into a two-hour movie that needed to be done on a budget. All the most vital plot points made it into the movie, but it felt a bit rushed and choppy--I wonder if you haven't read the book if you'd really understand what was going on! I think the Harry Potter movies are better viewed as companions to the books, not replacements for them.

At any rate, the new theater was an interesting experience. The theaters were small by normal standards but the chairs were big and comfy and they all had either a counter or a table in front. The servers took our orders and we got our food right as the movie was starting. The servers came and went during the movie but it wasn't really that distracting. What was distracting was the giant green line that kept showing up down the middle of the screen! For a movie that is less than a week old, I definitely expect the print to be in better shape than that! I complained to a server who said she'd talk to the manager. She really must have followed through, because not long after that the manager came through with free movie tickets for everyone to compensate for the poor screen quality. That was definitely the right thing for them to do!

We had one minor disaster--when we left, Maren and the babysitter were outside in the backyard. I opened the sliding glass door to say goodbye and then as I shut it I must have locked it out of habit! We left on our merry way and had just sat down in our seats at the theater when my neighbor called to tell us what was happening. The babysitter had gone over to their house when she found the doors locked and luckily her 8-year-old son was home. They have one of our spare keys for just such an occasion but since the new Maren-proof sliding lock at the top of the front door was engaged, they couldn't get in! The garage keypad doesn't work right now because it needs to be reprogrammed, so the neighbor called his mom, and she in turn called us. Luckily, the theater is only about 10 minutes away and so I rushed home and opened the door for them. Also luckily we had been really early to the theater so I was back before the movie even started. I was so embarrassed, and it does give me the impetus to get that garage keypad reprogrammed NOW!

I promised yard sale goodies, but I think I'll post them tomorrow so I can tell you more about the yard sale where I found them. What I do have for you are a couple of thrifted items from a while ago and some stuff that my mom found for me.

First is a set of vintage curtain valances with the most charming print! They are covered with tulips, windmills and little Dutch girls, all in red and yellow and gray. There are four panels and for valances they are quite long. I think they're handmade because the stitching is a little wonky on one of them but they are lined and the fabric is in really great shape. They are SO cute and I love them so much I want to string a ribbon through the casing and wear them as a skirt! If I really wanted to hang them I'd have to cut a bunch off the bottom and re-hem and I'm just not brave enough to do that right now.

This is a really sweet vintage cardigan. It is cream-colored wool and is lined so that it won't be scratchy. It is covered front and back with these beautiful embroidered roses in pink and yellow and it has pearl buttons all up the front. There is a tiny moth hole and some of the buttons need to be resewn but I thought it would be fun to wear this winter. I need some funky jewelry and boots or something so I don't look like too much of an old lady, though! I may have to get some fashion advice from Miss Jungle Dream Pagoda! She always knows what to do. :)

And one last photo for today, of the old windows I bought a few weekends ago. They're still sitting in the garage, all dirty and covered with spiderwebs, so I need to get them out and hose them off. If you look close you can see all the old chippy paint and the cool hardware up on the top. My grand plan is to hang these by chains from the ceiling but I'm going to need some engineering help to make it work so it may be a little while before that happens. I've got plenty to keep me busy in the meantime!

Final cake & weekend thrifty scores

Here it is: the final cake for my Course I cake decorating class. I fully intended to practice my roses all week before class...pretty obvious that I didn't, right? LOL I had frosting consistency issues once again, which is why my roses are all ruffled and cracked along the edges instead of nice and smooth like they should be. I have no idea what I did wrong as I followed the frosting recipe exactly, but what I do know is that I will never be using that nasty Crisco recipe ever again; it's real buttercream or nothing from now on. I went through an entire large can of Crisco to make the frosting for my three class cakes. If that doesn't give you the dry heaves, then I don't know what will. ick. Course II makes all different flowers with royal icing and I'd like to do that one someday too. For now I'll just keep practicing the roses.

I had a great day yardsaling on Saturday. I hit good sales early so it didn't take me long to spend my $20 limit. I only went to three big church sales and one regular garage sale but I found great stuff! The first church sale netted me three old Martha mags and three old Cooking Light mags for a dime apiece. I've wanted A Patriot's Handbook ever since it came out when I worked at the bookstore but even with my 30% discount it was still too expensive. This one was a buck! The other two books were 50¢ each: an old Things to Make and Do book and a children's cowboy novel, both from the 1950s. The cowboy book is for a friend who's doing her son's nursery in a vintage cowboy theme. The orange envelope is a souvenir copy of the Declaration of Independence (for my 4th of July decor) and it was a quarter.

These were from church sales as well. The star-shaped brooch was 50¢ and is the start of a stash of pretties to take to Silver Bella. The blue flowers are a pair vintage clip earrings and were $3.oo: those will go in the Silver Bella pile as well (incidentally, I tried them on and they are huge as earrings. They almost cover up my entire ear!) The little vintage Christmas figures were a dime each. The Mexican silver bead necklace is sterling and was a steal for $1.00--I polished it up and added the labradorite and garnet pendant. It's all sitting on a very vintage piece of Tupperware--it's marked 1954! It's a great big container, the kind that are perfect for holding cookies or rolls or caramel popcorn.


These sconces were also from a church sale, $5.00 for the pair. Okay, now I will admit that in their current state they are 100% tacky. However, I think that if I gave them a coat of white or cream spray paint and added pretty candles then they'd go from tres tacky to shabby chic! If nothing else, I could strip off all the chandelier crystals to use elsewhere and I'd still come out ahead. On closer inspection, I realized that the crystals hanging on the sconces are actually made of plastic but unless you look close and find the seam, you'd never know. In addition, the box held several real glass crystals and a bag of four glass crystal chains that I can use elsewhere.

This very fabulous vintage mold came from the only yard sale of the day. I hate to admit it but I might have earned myself some bad future yardsale karma with this little gem. I spotted it on the table and grabbed it, just as I heard two ladies just over my shoulder say "and that too" pointing at the pan. Literally, this all happened at the exact same time and I heard them kind of gasp and laugh when I picked it up right from under their noses. So I just pretended that I didn't hear them and walked over and paid for it immediately! Bad, I know! I look for this pattern everywhere (I have a muffin tin and a heart cake pan in the same style and am dying to find more) and this one was only 50¢. Someday I'll be paying for that bad karma, I'm sure.

At this same house I bought three old windows, but I don't have a photo yet. They were the amazing price of $3.00 each (old windows at the salvage store start at about $20) and the lady who sold them to me said they came from the garage of a 100-year-old house downtown that was being torn down. They're not paned, just one solid piece of glass and a frame around the edge but they do have the original hardware and old chippy white paint. I had to giggle as I found myself carefully choosing the windows that showed the most wear! Usually I'm trying to find the best specimens, not the junkiest. They need a good washing: I'm all for shabby but dead bugs, dirt and spiderwebs are taking things a bit too far. I'll photograph them then when they're all clean. They were my big score for the day!

If you want to see more bloggers' junk scores for the weekend, check out Sarah, Lucy and Andy--they all found great stuff!

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!

Apron love

At Friday's church sale I nearly scored a Triple Crown (vintage Pyrex, apron and tablecloth). I found the vintage Pyrex (pink with white daisies), apron and lost out when it came to the vintage tablecloth. I did however find a printed vintage dishtowel (at the top of the photo) so maybe instead of a Triple Crown I got more like a Two-and-a-Half Crown? Two-and-a-Quarter?

Anyway, back to the apron. As I was walking down the aisle toward the linens at the sale I passed a woman who was also pushing a stroller. I glimpsed a blue and white gingham chicken scratch apron draped over the handle and inwardly groaned. Now, I don't normally pick up chicken scratch aprons (although I think they'd make an awesome collection) but I hated knowing that someone had beaten me to it! It all worked out though because I found a much cuter apron buried in the piles of linens on the table. I don't think it's vintage, but it's so well-made that I couldn't pass it up! It's a sewing apron and all across the bottom are these hand-embroidered images on pockets (click to make it bigger):

Darling, right? You would have bought it too, I know. The apron also has long bias tape ties sewn to the waistband, which I think is for tying onto the handle of your scissors before you tuck them into the pocket. Cute and clever!

I also picked up a few other aprons a couple of weeks ago at a garage sale. It was being held partly by an older woman and she said the aprons belonged to either her or her mother. They were all starched to within an inch of their lives and folded neatly. She was asking between 50¢ and $1 for most of them which is a total steal but I only bought a few, as I'm trying to be more selective as my collection grows. Here is my poorly-executed attempt at a photomerge so you can see all three at once:

On the left is a fab vintage Christmas apron. There are even pockets cut into the shape of the ornaments at the bottom. The one in the middle has nice appliqué work (the flowers in the middle all have French knot centers as well) and I love how it looks like a wrap skirt! On the right is a detail from the last apron. It is a bib apron in pale yellow trimmed with orange rickrack and it has these gorgeous pansies embroidered all over. Such a lot of beautiful work that I had to bring it home with me!

Now all I need is a beautiful antique dress form to show off my aprons. My birthday IS coming up, you know..... :)

Eyebrows, rainbows and yo-yos

"They're only eyebrows, right? Eyebrows grow back....eventually. Everybody loves the Mona Lisa, and SHE doesn't have any eyebrows."

Those are the thoughts ran through my head repeatedly last night as I was laying on a table, being pecked to death by a persistent bird with a razor-like beak. All right, not so much a bird as an aesthetician with a pair of really sharp tweezers, but it did feel like I was the victim of an an angry woodpecker attack. I can't believe I actually paid someone good money to do that to me! Normally I just pluck my eyebrows on my own but I've been wanting them to have a more pronounced arch and I thought it might be better to have a professional do that for me, lest I slip and poke out my eye or pluck all my eyebrows off or something. I will grudgingly admit that I do like the arch better now, although I have considerably fewer eyebrows than I did yesterday at this time. I think I'll be maintaining them myself from now on, though. I'm just not willing to go through that again. Labor and childbirth--yes; eyebrow tweezing--no. Right-o.

I had my second cake decorating class yesterday, and made my first fancy cake. Our first technique was learning to use the star tip to make stars and other squiggles. Wilton makes a tip that actually has 3 stars in one, which saves you time but takes a little maneuvering to get the stars close together without any space showing. That's definitely something I need to work on but I think with a little practice it shouldn't be too difficult. We also experimented with writing tips and making Swiss dots, which were more difficult. I purposely made a boring yellow boxed cake because I knew the frosting would be yucky, and I didn't want to waste good cake on mediocre frosting. We each had a piece when I came home yesterday and now the rest is going straight into the trash. Wasting cake pains my sweet-loving soul, but I'd rather use my calories on something that doesn't taste like cardboard. On tap for next week: scary clowns and drop flowers. Whee!


On Friday morning I packed up Maren and went downtown for a church rummage sale I'd seen advertised. It was run by little old church ladies and had a darn good amount of stuff at very reasonable prices. Now I see why the folks on Yardsalequeen rave about church sales all the time! I picked up a bag full of stuff most of which is for resale. After the church sale I drove around the area to hit a few more yard sales and found these in a bag for $1. These are circles of fabric that are already cut for making yo-yos. I've wanted to learn to make yo-yos for a while, and now the hardest part has been done for me! Cute fabrics, maybe vintage? Not sure, but there are probably a couple of hundred all together, enough for me to decide that making yo-yos is a tedious waste of time after all, LOL. There was also a baggie full of old yo-yos but they have what I can delicately call a "condition problem," meaning: they are full of dead bug carcasses. ICK. The skeeve factor is pretty high but I might be able to get over it and clean them very, very thoroughly. We'll see.

And I'll leave you with a photo from the 15 minutes we were at the pool yesterday, before the rain and lightening forced us out! See you tomorow!

Been Junkin'

As I said in my previous post, I had a good day yard-saling on Saturday, a welcome change from the crummy weekend before. Here is a photo of a few of my finds; I took it on my back porch and the raindrops were beginning to fall as I snapped this photo so it was the first and the last. Today has been completely rainy as well so I haven't had a chance to photograph anything else. Maybe tomorrow.


In this photo, we have: vintage suitcase, $1.00. It's small, maybe for a child? Great shabby condition. At the same house I found the small blue book, a 1909 edition of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, also $1.00. I also purchased seven back issues of Country Living and a BHG (because I don't have nearly enough magazines cluttering up my house right now {rolls eyes}), bringing my total at that sale to $3.00. The blue glass Ball jar was 50¢ and was found at the same house as the two vintage swimming caps (the weird white item in the center), which were 25¢ each. I bought those for resale, since I figure you can't go too wrong for a quarter. If they don't sell maybe I'll wear them myself! Imagine, if you will, Sideshow Bob stuffing his hair into an old-lady swim cap. On second thought, perhaps I'll just send them to Goodwill.

The vintage muffin tin was 25¢ and is destined to be painted and then stuck into my closet until I need another swap giftie. The vintage glass light fixture was a gamble at $1.00. I had hoped to replace the boring glass ball fixture over my kitchen sink, but alas, the vintage fixture's mouth is too large for the existing fixture. Bummer!

I also hit the FREE boxes after the sales in my neighborhood were over Saturday evening. I ain't too proud to scrounge, nosirree! My appalling lack of dignity netted me an old saucepot to use for melting wax when pouring candles, a new-looking melamine plate and bowl for Maren to use, a pair of Guess shorts and a pair of Levi's shorts, both in child's 6, white Ralph Lauren polo in 3T, Teletubbie Happy Meal Toy (for the resident Tubbies fan) and a stuffed Barney (which will go to the resident Barney fan, if it survives its trip through the washing machine on HOT), and a Fire King tea cup that may end up in a swap package. Tomorrow is trash day so I may just take a little early-morning drive around the neighborhood to see if I missed anything big!

Got Junk?

Sunday is the last day to sign up for Shara's Junk Swap! I know we've all got a lot of junk in our houses, but isn't someone else's junk always more interesting than your own? LOL I will admit it, I am a pack rat; I just hate throwing away something I know is perfectly usable, even if I don't actually have a use for it. So this swap is perfect for me! I have lots of craft junk too, so I'll be taking this opportunity to send some of it on to a new owner who can hopefully use it. So--come and sign up! Sign up by May 20 and mail by May 29. This one's a quickie.

I'm happy to report that this morning's garage saleing adventure was a fruitful one and I found some fun stuff! I'll post tomorrow when I have some photos.

Hope your weekend is going well!

Thrift Thursday

I stopped at a thrift the other day that I haven't visited in a while. The quality and quantity of merchandise has really declined lately, and it seems like the prices have increased, so it got moved off the regular thrift rotation. Despite all of that, I found some fun things, so I may have to reinstate it!

The item on the cake plate is a vintage wedding headpiece, and no, it is not hot pink in real life! That's just my camera being screwy again. It's actually white, with the prettiest velvet ribbon and vintage rhinestones, and it was only 99¢! The cake plate is my favorite item. It's small but I love the scalloped edge and I think I am actually physically incapable of passing up cake plates. It was $3.99. The stuff in the front is a whole bunch of vintage seam binding and lace. I bought two mixed bags of sewing stuff for 99¢ each so I could get the seam binding, and I also ended up with a bunch of single-fold bias tape. The last item in the photo is a vintage Rhode Island souvenir glass. Now, I've never been anywhere near Rhode Island but I collect vintage travel souvenirs and display them in my guest room. I've been looking for glasses like this but this is the first I've ever found! It was a heck of a deal at 69¢.

Not pictured are a darling vintage apron that was $1.99 and a couple of *secret* items for the upcoming Sweet Goodness swap. The apron is blue print, outlined in a lighter blue bias tape. It is a bib apron, which is harder to find but perfect because I have to wear a full apron when I'm cooking. I tend to be messy and those half aprons just don't do it for me. Now I finally have a vintage apron that I can actually wear! I'll try to take a photo later, maybe when I'm wearing it. I love the style!

I have big yardsaling plans for the weekend! Tomorrow and Saturday are my subdivision's community yardsale days, so I'll be hitting the folks in my neighborhood to check out their junk. What's even better is that Saturday evening, lots of people put out the big stuff that doesn't sell with FREE signs, so I'll probably have to take an evening cruise around the 'hood to check out the pickins'. LOL Garbage day next week will be worth a look too. I know a couple of other local subdivisions are doing their sales this weekend as well, so there should be plenty of sales to choose from. Let's hope the junk is better than last week!

Thrift Thursday

Last weekend when my mom was here I was able to escape for some unaccompanied thrifting. I was looking for something for the Pink & Green swap but didn't have any luck in that department. I did, however, totally score in finding some goodies for me!

This particular thrift almost never has anything worthwhile in their linens department but that day I hit the jackpot. I'll probably never find anything good there again but I don't even care! For as long as I've been thrifting I've been looking for old chenille bedspreads but with no luck...until now!

I found this awesome hot pink chenille fringed bedspread and even better, the white one with all the colored chenille! I grabbed them up without even looking at the price tags. The pink one was marked 'Queen' but I knew that was probably wrong as queen-size beds are a fairly recent innovation. I hoped it might be a double so that I could put it on my queen-size guest bed. When I got it home I realized that it's more likely a twin that would hang to the floor on all sides. I put it on my guest bed anyway and I think it's really cute. I don't care if it's too short. The white one may end up in Miss Maren's room when she gets moved to a big-girl bed.

I also found these pretty wool blankets. I especially love the pink plaid over on right! The solid pink one isn't in great shape; it's a little misshapen and has some moth holes but I thought if nothing else it would be good crafting fodder. These will go in my guest room and again in Miss Maren's big-girl bed room when she moves.

I suspect that these bedspreads and blankets all came in to the thrift together. They're just too similar and like I said, this thrift never has anything good in the linen department. It would just be too coincidental for them all to suddenly show up from different sources. There were a couple of other wool blankets that I suspect were from the same source but they weren't nearly as pretty and each had a piece sewed on to the bottom of the blanket, ostensibly to lengthen it. They looked a little weird so I passed them up. Anyway, everything else is now washed and folded and looking very charming indeed up in my guest room!

Think Pink

You may recall Maren's affinity for pink high heels, as seen here. Her Grammie Bunnie saw those photos and decided she needed some shoes closer to her size and managed to find these little pink lovelies! They're still a little big for Maren but that doesn't slow her down one bit. The 5-year-old in me secretly squealed when I saw these; if I'd had shoes like this when I was little, my poor mom would have had a tough time getting them off of me. Ever. Winter snows be damned, these would most certainly have been my every-day shoes. The fabric underneath is a vintage hankie, found this past weekend for about $.50.


Also found this weekend was this adorable dress for Maren. It's from Lord & Taylor and it's in great condition, with smocking and little pink roses across the front. A perfect spring/summer dress for church. And the shoes are a perfect match! Serendipity! :)

I can see!

Thank you all so very much for your well wishes and prayers for my Lasik surgery. You are all so sweet and I appreciated them very much!

My surgery went fine and my eyes are doing great! I won't lie to you--that surgery was pretty uncomfortable. I will say that I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was really scared and therefore very tense, and things are always more uncomfortable when your body is stiff as a board and you're gritting your teeth so hard your jaw hurts! I was given an Ativan to help relax me but for whatever reason, I didn't get it until about 5-7 minutes before I went into surgery, so it didn't exactly have time to kick in. After my surgery I went home and slept for about 3.5 hours (guess the pill finally worked) and after that I felt much better, and since then I've been just fine.

I'm not seeing 20/20 yet but there is still some swelling so hopefully when that goes down my vision will sharpen up. I look a little freaky right now because I have what look like big red blood clots in my eyes from where the suction device caused my blood vessels to break. Coupled with the fact that I'm not allowed to wear eye makeup for a week, I'm no beauty queen. I've been curling my eyelashes but I'm not sure it's really fooling anybody!

While my parents were here this weekend, I went on an enthusiastic thrifting spree. I hadn't been thrifting for several weeks and it was fun to shop with my dad, who shares my love of the thrill of the hunt, as it were. I bought lots of fun stuff but I'll spread it out over my posts this week. Here are just a few finds to get started. I especially love the little glass jar in the front left. It's shape matches some neat old Hazel Atlas jars I found a while ago but it isn't marked. I also love the yellow Hazel Atlas Platonite sugar bowl at the front right. I think it would be cute with some bright flowers poking out of the top. More thrift finds to come!

Thrift scores, Monday

I promised yesterday that I would have some thrifty goodness (if I may borrow a term from the lovely Rebecca) to share today, and I'm keeping my word!

Ornate old heavy frame, $2.99. Don't have a use in mind for this right now but I know an idea will come. It's pretty! You can also see a vintage Christmas tablecloth ($2.99) peeking through from behind the frame. Box of vintage bell ornaments, $.89. Love when I can find them still in the box! Box of vintage turquoise ornaments, $1.39. I'm going with a turquoise/pink decorating scheme this year and although I already have a ton of ornaments in those colors, for some reason I felt the need to buy more. The two little round things ($.29) are old and have Santa on the front and are marked Hallmark on the back, but I have no idea what they are! They came in a box with a bunch of other things that I can't identify. They'll be good for an art project of some kind.

This was a big score for me! Hard to tell from the photo, but all of the garlands are the old glass bead variety that are hard to find. This is actually the first time I've come across any in all my thrifting. They were in a big bag with a bunch of other plastic beaded garlands ($3.99 for all) so I had to look close but I'm glad I did! There are a few broken beads here and there that I might just try to remove completely so I don't slice myself but mostly they're in great condition! There are 2 strands of the turquoise, 1 of the blue, 1 of the silver and 2 of the silver with colored balls. The glass ball ornaments are all vintage Shiny Brites that I picked out of a larger bag.

And last, my best find of the day! It's a huge glass garden cloche and a plate that it sits on, $8.99. The plate feels like it is made out of slate and it's very heavy. The cloche itself is huge (16" tall and quite wide) and it's in perfect shape. I've been wanting a cloche for a long time now but knew that the shipping would be killer because they're huge, heavy and fragile. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the shelf! I'm not sure where I'll put it--it's so big that I really don't have an ideal place. I'm definitely thinking that I need to make some of Sarah's bottlebrush trees to go inside with some glittery fake snow and I don't know what else. I'm so excited to make an arrangement!

Today I stopped by the thrift store on base on my way to the commissary. It's tiny, but the prices are usually super cheap. Today I grabbed a 2001 December MSL mag for a dime and 2 Muppet Show DVDs for $3.00. Not bad! They do consignments so one of these times I'm going to find out how it works and I think that might be a good source for some of my eBay rejects. They'd just end up going back to the thrift anyway, so if I can get even a few bucks out of them (to turn right back around and spend in the store!) it would be nice. One of these days!