Rekindling my junking flame

Last week I managed to find a yard sale that restored my faith in garage saling in general. Lately I've lost the will to go junking--I think I'm just OD'd on sales that seem to be full of nothing but baby junk and old VHS tapes. I never seem to find the kind of good junk I see on blogs and message boards and I'm just discouraged. I really haven't been to many sales this season because I just can't muster up the motivation to go wade through piles of stained baby clothes and eleventy hundred copies of What to Expect When You're Expecting. I live smack in the middle of the suburbs so that's why I see a high concentration of baby crapola and toys at sales. I often blame my lack of successful junking on the fact that this area is so new and feel like I need to drive to older areas (older areas usually = more established residents which usually = older junk, the kind I like) to increase my chances of finding the good junk Problem is, I live on the edge of town and to get to the older area is really quite a bit of a drive. This particular sale was in what I would call a newer area of town, but it was held by an older woman, so it helped me remember that older people do not exclusively live in the older parts of town.
See, this is the good junk that I (almost) never find. The kind of stuff that I drool over on Laurie's and Barbara's and Shara's blogs on a weekly basis. Things like vintage glass bead picks with tinsel, and unused bunches of mercury glass ball picks.
Or stacks of vintage foil leaves in all colors and shapes, with the "Made in Japan" paper labels still attached.Or these really amazing twisted mercury glass floral picks, still in their original paper wrappings. (Look for those in my etsy shop this Christmas!)
It really must have been my lucky day, because I even scored at the thrift store. I found a small silver bowl (an engraved trophy from a 1965 tennis tournament), a great metal urn (that will likely be spray painted a fun color), and fun vintage jewelry including a string of big pearls. I even found an apron from this company! It's this style, but in different fabrics. Online they sell for almost $40 but mine was just over $2, and the empire cut is perfect to go over my big belly.

My junking flame was definitely rekindled last Thursday. Finding this sale proves to me that there is still good junk to be had, it's just a matter of being persistent and a little bit lucky!

Vintage tablecloth dress

One of the vendors at the Old Glory Country Fair that I wrote about yesterday was a woman who sews clothing out of vintage tablecloths, quilts, and other linens. Unfortunately she doesn't sell online so I can't link you to any of her work, but let me assure you--it was GORGEOUS! She had the cutest jackets for little girls made out of old quilts, as well as dresses made from vintage printed tablecloths. Unfortunately for me, her prices matched the quality of her work--those darling little jackets were $88 and the dresses were $38. Ouch.Lucky for me, I happened to find a nearly identical style of dress at a thrift store a few weeks ago!
And the price? One buckaroo, folks! I was happy to find it then, but after seeing what those dresses were selling for this weekend I'm positively thrilled! It's a size 2 so it is too short for Maren to wear as a dress, but I think with a little pair of shorts underneath it will be perfect for wearing this summer. Now, if only I can find one of those quilt jackets...

Tuesday thrift loot

I most certainly hope that all of you had better weather this weekend that we've experienced here! Temperatures in the low 60s with gloomy skies and frequent rain showers put the kibosh on doing much of anything outdoors. I've been trying to get the last of my garden in the ground but the darn rain won't stop long enough for me to get anything done! I don't fancy planting my green beans, potatoes and pumpkin in the mud but we're leaving tomorrow to go out of town for the next six days so I'm desperate to get things in the ground before we go.

I promised to share photos of my small-town thrifting loot from my trip to Southern Colorado last weekend.
Proof once again that I am physically unable to resist buying packets of vintage rickrack. I probably have enough of the stuff to stretch to the moon and back but I still can't pass it up, especially when I find fun striped and multicolored variations like these.
More thrifting Achilles' heels: vintage embroidery transfers (especially for wacky anthropomorphic fruits), vintage seam binding and vintage buttons.Large jars of buttons get me every time, even when they're not vintage. Just like big jars of candy, aren't they?Vintage Valentines (military-themed, to boot!), Strawberry Shortcake fabric (to be made into a new smock for Maren), a milk glass cold cream jar to be altered, and a spool of vintage gift ribbon.
These goodies actually came from an estate sale a few weekends ago. A chickie cupcake pick, old boxes of birthday candles and sewing pins, and vintage patterns.


In other news, sign-ups for the newest Sweet Goodness swap are now OPEN! Head over to the Sweet Goodness blog for more info!

Vintage strawberry pin love

Maren and I are off for a weekend in southern Colorado. I get to visit my grandparents and also my mom, who is there for the weekend as well! Hoping to sneak in a little small-town thrifting if I can. Before I go, I wanted to leave you with my new favorite vintage pin, picked up at the thrift yesterday.Don't those berries look just good enough to eat? I'm in love!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Estate sale loot

Nest update: There's another egg! That makes five total. Apparently Momma Bird is gunning to be my yard's version of Octomom. Really, it's getting crowded--I don't know how five little baby birdies are going to fit in that tiny nest!

The weather lately has not been conducive to the start of Garage Sale season. We've had lovely weather during the week and then by Friday afternoon it all falls apart. Last weekend I did happen to spot a sign for an Estate Sale on Friday morning not too far away so I packed up Maren and we went for a visit. Unfortunately, the previous owner was an older man, so there were none of the vintage craft supplies or lovely embroidered linens I always hope to find.

I did get lucky in the kitchen and found this great old jar for $1.The top is a bit vague as to the original contents, but I think it might have originally held applesauce. Take me home? Righty-o!

The woman running the sale also had a large amount of costume jewelry that was very reasonably priced--especially for an estate sale! I picked out a few treasures:I adore the wide rhinestone bracelet on the left. Now I just need somewhere fancy to wear it, as it might look a bit outre under the yellow rubber gloves I wear to do dishes and scrub toilets. Among my finds were two great old sparkly shoe clips, two bright enamel flowers in great condition, and a very old, very unusual bird pin (bottom center). It's made of metal but feels very light and the metal is soft. It's missing some stones but I think that just adds to the charm.

The weather this weekend is scheduled to be wet on Friday but hopefully it will clear up by Saturday morning. Mama needs her junk fix!

Oh, and I finally got sucked in and joined Facebook. I held out this long but the lure of sneaking peeks at old boyfriends finally got the better of me! I still don't know what I'm doing (I can barely manage a blog and an etsy shop, now I have one more thing to figure out) but if you want to be friends or whatever it's called, let me know!

I'm up to my elbows in pink, blue, feathers and jewels working on my Marie collage, so until I post again about Disneyland, here are some pretties to look at:I am in love with the old metal escutcheon plate--it's the perfect shade of chippy aqua blue! It needs cleaning so I'm trying to figure out how to do it gently without taking off the paint. The itty bitty flower frogs were a thrill to find; each is not quite as big around as a quarter! They are the smallest I've ever seen. I bought all I could find and I hope to offer some in my poor neglected etsy shop sometime very soon. And the vintage pink fabric measuring tape is a little treat I picked up at my favorite local shop, Patina. I've never found a pink one before and I'm smitten!

Back to the salt mines for me!

Three things for Tuesday

First things first: Shameless Mommy Brag photos of my beautiful little girl on Easter Sunday. It was rainy, gray and cold here but with her bright yellow bow, she was a ray of sunshine!
The photo with her arm raised is funny--we told her to stand still as a statue (hard to get no-flash photos of her that aren't totally blurry) and she immediately put her arm up and stood still. I didn't get it at the time but later realized that she was being a statue, all right--the Statue of Liberty, to be exact! What a funny kid she is.
Second: We're going to Disneyland in two days! Squeeeeeeeeeal! I had a Disneyland dream this morning and I'm starting to get butterflies in my stomach, both from excitement and anxiousness. I ended up ordering a new Maclaren Volo stroller from eBay and it's on the UPS truck for scheduled delivery today. I tried to buy a used one off Craigslist for $70 but wasn't fast enough; now I'm glad because this brand new one was also $70 and I got free shipping! Also, I got to choose the color: turquoise, of course! And now I know that if for some reason I don't like it, I can easily sell it on Craigslist and recoup my costs. I'll still be a little freaked about it getting stroller-napped while I'm enjoying the Jungle Cruise, but hopefully everything will be okay.
Third: Check out this awesome fabric I found at the thrift store last week! I don't normally look at the fabric since I don't sew, but I happened to see this and grabbed it fast. The colors are so perfect for my front room! I LOVE it and wish I could buy more, as I think it would make really fun curtains. Unfortunately, there's no name on the selvage. It's very thick, kind of like canvas. I don't suppose anyone out there recognizes it? The piece I have is long and narrow so I think it will become pillows for the brown leather chair I'm trying to find to go in that room. The red is the color of my walls, the aqua is my accent color and the brown will match the chair and the light fixtures and the other wood furniture in the room. I hadn't thought of using the apple green before but I really like how it looks with the other colors.

Now it's off to do laundry and start making my packing list so that we don't forget anything important. I'm also trying to get started on my Marie Antoinette collage before I go because the mailing date is only a few days after I get home next week. Time to get to work!

The Sad State of Thrift Stores

I don't know about your area, but around here the state of the thrift shops lately has been just pitiful! It used to be that I couldn't wait to go at least once a week (more if I could sneak it in) but after so many experiences lately of walking out empty-handed and disgusted, I just don't bother. It's disappointing, because it's a long time from October to May when the garage sale season starts up in earnest again, and I need my junk fix! Normally I've been able to count on my thrifts (there are four or five within a short distance, more if I want to drive a little) to get my fix but this year I've been coming up dry.

Yesterday I popped into a thrift in search of some plates for a project. The first thing I noticed is that it looked like a bomb had gone off in there--it was a pigsty! Normally that thrift is kept pretty clean so maybe they'd had a particularly busy Sunday or something because it was a disaster. Adding to the chaos were at least a dozen little kids running wild, crying, leaving toys all over the store, and generally behaving like a bunch of heathens while their mothers ignored them completely. I almost left, but did find one treasure that it was worth waiting in line to purchase:
A bag full of tubes of vintage sequins, rickrack (not pictured), glitter, and beads. I love the older sequins and these are great! The red beads in the front are mercury glass.
My favorite thing in the bag was this little glass bottle of glitter. It's marked "StarTwinkle" by Elizabeth Arden in great pink script. I did some googling but can't figure out what was originally in the bottle. I think the vintage gold glitter is a perfect replacement for whatever it might have been!

In this store yesterday I was looking at the children's clothing and found a plain white Hanes under-T, size 4T, marked $2.99. Seriously, can't you buy a package of three for about that much? It was hanging right next to a Hanna Andersson sweater that was also marked $2.99 (which is perfectly reasonable) so what kind of moron do they have doing the pricing?

I wonder if instead of donating, people are holding onto their stuff and hoping to sell it this summer at garage sales to make some money. If so, maybe that's a good thing--more garage sales, where prices are much lower than the thrifts anyway, right? How is the thrifting in your area? Have you noticed any change in inventory levels or prices?

Vintage black and white dress

Of all the places on the earth, the dinky farming town of Spanish Fork, Utah is the last place you'd expect to find a store full of really great vintage clothing, but that's what I found when we visited family there last Christmas! I love vintage clothing but I'll admit I don't buy much because it usually doesn't fit me. People were smaller 50-60 years ago and although I'm average size for an American woman now, I'm also 5'8" and unwilling to wear a girdle, so that takes me out of the running for much of the vintage clothing I find.I loved this 1950s-era black and white dress from the minute I saw it, but there was no tag so I couldn't immediately tell the size. A quick trip to the dressing room showed that, wonder of wonders--it FIT! And not only did it fit, but it was very flattering (and inexpensive!). I was so excited for spring to come so that I could wear it with some fun bright colored heels.
I love the fabric! What a fun print. (The photo is not upside down, the pattern runs both ways)
The black detail on the collar and bow is actually thick black velvet. LOVE the shape of the neckline.And then a few short weeks later, I found out I was pregnant! I knew there was no way this dress would fit for much longer--there would be no waiting for Springtime for this dress, so a few weeks ago I poured myself into it and wore it to church. Oh man, it was a tight squeeze! I could hardly breathe (that was a LONG three hours) and I'm surprised that I didn't pop the 50-year old stitches on the zipper. But I wore it, and now it has been retired to the closet until next Spring, when I will hopefully have my body back and be able to wear it again!

A stroller request and new (old) treasures!

Dear blog friends, I need your help. I'm in the market for a new umbrella-type stroller but I need it to have one particular feature: adjustable handles! The handles on our previous stroller were so short that it was inevitable that you'd end up with a backache after pushing it for even a short while. I know there are stroller manufacturers out there that offer height-adjustable handles and I've done some internet research but haven't been able to come to a consensus on which one is the best buy. I do know that Maclaren makes strollers with adjustable handles, but they're far more than I'd like to pay--my budget is about $60. Do any of you have any experience with a stroller like this that you loved or hated that you'd like to share? I'm hoping to purchase one *soon* for our Disneyland trip in a few weeks. I didn't think it would be this hard to find one, or I would have started looking months ago! I'd appreciate any input you may have.

Last weekend my favorite local store Patina had a birthday sale so naturally I had to go--this place never offers sales or discounts of any kind, so 25% off everything was a big deal! I picked up a few treasures, including these darlings:
I've been on the lookout for some old trophies for a while now with no luck--and I'm even willing to pay antique store prices--so finding these two little treats was exciting! I put them next to each other to see which one I liked better, then decided that they look so great together it would be a shame to split up the pair. They both came home with me! One is from 1957 and the other is 1955-56, and I believe they're both darts trophies from different British pubs.Here is a wide shot of the entire display atop my china cabinet. It has been like this since after Christmas and I like it so much that I hate to change it, even for Easter. Three whole months may be the longest I've ever gone without rearranging! My sweet little trophies add just the right touch of sparkle. :)

Girl Scout Goodness

I know that Girl Scout cookie season is pretty much over, but I still thought it would be fun to share some images from a 1949 Girl Scout catalog that I picked up at an estate sale last summer.
I'm amazed at just how much GS paraphernalia there was available in 1949! For example, the official GS bathrobe and bedroom slippers:Although you've gotta know that I'd give my eyeteeth to find one of those aprons at a thrift!

A whole range of GS wardrobe options. My favorite is the checked boy-style wool jacket on the right. Very evocative of the time period to me.

You can even make official trefoil-shaped GS cookies with this handy cookie cutter! I actually found a GS cookie cutter at the same estate sale that I bought this catalog, but it's a newer style. Still fun, though.I had to show this page because I once bought a charm bracelet exactly like the one in the picture! It was from one of the best garage sales I've ever encountered, run by a couple who were big time into buying at auctions and selling off all the stuff they didn't want for almost nothing. Really, the stuff of garage sale legend. Anyway, the charm on the bracelet is quite large and has "Be Prepared" engraved all over the front and back in many different languages. I ended up selling it on eBay but it didn't go for as much as I had hoped, so maybe I should have just kept it. Oh well. Maybe I'll come across another one, like Rebecca did!

Is anybody craving a Thin Mint, or is it just me? Good thing I have some still stashed in the fridge for just such an occasion!

Vintage kitchen puzzle Giveaway!

I love to cook. I also love vintage, so it's no surprise to me that one of the things I love most to collect is vintage kitchenalia! I prefer the bright happy colors of 1940s and 50s kitchen fashions--tomato red, cornflower blue, aqua and yellow make my heart sing every time.

I was tickled then, when I found this puzzle at a yard sale one summer:I love to look at the photo and identify all the things I have in my kitchen: the red Krispy Kan, bowls of beaded fruit, stacks of printed tablecloths and dishtowels, green wooden-handled utensils, a red plaid metal picnic basket. There are also a few things in the photo I'd love to add to my collection, like the little chicky egg cups and the scotty dog light switch cover.

I've done the puzzle and it's complete. It has 750 pieces but it's not too difficult to put together. If you love vintage kitchenware like I do and would like to win this puzzle, just leave a comment on this post between now and Friday at noon. I'll draw a winner this sometime this weekend!

Pret-a-Porter Poodle

A local thrift chain is having a 99¢ sweater sale this weekend so this morning while Maren was in preschool I stopped to have a look. My mom gifted me with a darling handbag made out of a felted sweater and I think it's easy enough that even my meager sewing skills can recreate it, so I was looking primarily for wool or cashmere sweaters. I was also looking for anything vintage or anything that I could harvest buttons from. Further down on the list was sweaters I could sell and last, sweaters I could wear.

I had no idea how few 100% wool sweaters are out there! Even the ones that felt like wool were often made with a blend of a synthetic fiber as well. I don't have much experience felting sweaters, so can anyone in blogland tell me--do they have to be 100% wool for them to felt properly, or will 80% wool/20% synthetic work? I bought a few that were wool blends and figured for 99¢ it was worth the gamble.
In the button category, I did find one that had these cute flower buttons. They were definitely worth 99¢!
I scored in the vintage category as well! I almost passed this one by because it wasn't wool but at the last second the vintage tag inside caught my eye. There was no size on the tag but it looked small, so I figured I would just resell it.Once I got it home, on a whim I decided to try it on and to my extreme surprise, it fits! Thank goodness for a nice stretchy knit. I can fasten the belt, as long as I don't plan on doing any breathing or moving while wearing the sweater so that's going to have to be fixed. It really is tiny--I could barely fasten it around my size 6 dress form for the photo.Here's a close-up of the poodle detail. The leash and mouth are made of red rattail satin cord, the knots feel like wool and the eye is a faceted metal bead. There are also vintage metal buttons to fasten the neck in back, although they look very tarnished so they may be replaced. I'm picturing this with a black pencil skirt, and maybe a pair of Laurie's fab glasses--what do you think?

Pink Poodles on Parade

Patience is a quality that doesn't come easy to me, but boy am I ever glad when it pays off!

There's a large antique mall that I visit every once in a while. One vendor was apparently getting out of the business and had everything reduced 50%. Antique store kryptonite, right? So of course I checked out the goods but the problem was that this vendor a) had only a huge locked glass case and was b) way in the back of a large store. The giant hassle of having to go hunt down an employee to open the case and then hover over me while I shopped kept me from ever purchasing anything. The vendor took several months to go out of business, and each time I would check the case just to see if there was anything new. One item in particular caught my eye each time but it was priced quite high, even with the discount, and eventually that vendor's lease ran out and his goods were gone.

Here's where the patience part comes in: last week I happened to be at a thrift that I rarely visit, due to it being a bit out of the way. Whoever does the pricing at this thrift knows what to look for in terms of vintage stuff--anything remotely interesting is immediately put in the locked glass case in the front of the store and priced far beyond what a reasonable person would pay even at an antique store. I always look but am usually turned off by the high prices. That day, though--that day I got lucky, because what should I find in the case but the EXACT object of my affection from the antique mall!
You can see why I love it, right? The perfect shade of pink, the jaunty hat and bow, the spaghetti fur, and best of all, the black cat-eye glasses with rhinestones! Pure 1950s perfection. She even has her original Napco foil label.I image that vendor just dumped the unsold merchandise from his booth at the thrift and took the tax write-off. It was priced higher than I like to pay at the thrift but still a fraction of the asking price at the antique mall. And I think that after all those months of admiring it, it was meant to be! Thrift seredipity, if you will.
Pinky the Poodle Planter joins Pinky the Poodle Pincushion, another thrifted treasure that has a place of honor on my desk. Pink Poodle Perfection!

Isn't it Ironic? and Tablecloth Tuesday

This is the envelope that came with my latest issue of Country Home on Saturday, one day after the magazine's sad demise was announced.The irony isn't lost on me. I'm really disappointed that yet another of the magazines I love is biting the dust. I've read that with the problems in the home-buying industry, ad revenue for so-called "shelter" magazines is way down, which is the reason that Country Home's publisher gave it the ax--not lack of subscribers.

I also find this ironic, because in a time when retail spending is down, it seems to me that people are more likely to look to sources that tell them how to reuse things they already have (or can get inexpensively) rather than telling them to go drop a bunch of coin on brand-new shiny stuff to fill up their McMansions. While Country Home isn't necessarily all about doing things on a budget and regularly features spreads of gorgeous homes full of expensive antiques and fabulous kitchens and reclaimed heart pine flooring, I do think it advocates decorating with vintage, thrifted and antique items or making over furniture that readers might already have.

It seems then that Country Home is exactly the kind of magazine that would be popular with home decorators on a budget and that advertisers would figure that out and buy ad space accordingly. I guess the problem there is that thrift and antique store don't have big advertising budgets like the fancy furniture and flooring companies do. Country Home and Mary Engelbreit Home Companion, RIP. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll pull a Victoria on us and return somewhere down the line, we can only hope. All I can say is that if someone tries to mess with my Country Living, I'll be on a rooftop with a rifle. Publishers, you've been warned.

So, on that slightly psychotic note, let me move on to the thrifting portion of my post. I stopped into a thrift with Maren the other day for the ostensible purpose of finding more Madame Alexander Wizard of Oz Happy Meal toys for her collection. We did score a pair of Cowardly Lions and a Pinocchio who'll have to stand in for the Tin Man until we find one, but Mommy found a few treasures as well.My first thrifted quilt! It's no gorgeous feed-sack beauty like the kind that seem to leap into Sarah's path, but red and white polka-dots are more my speed anyway.I don't think it's particularly old, but I like it. The backing fabric cracks me up because it doesn't match at all--that must have been a stash-busting maneuver by the quilt's maker. I do quite like the pink and green, even if it totally clashes with the red and blue on the front.

I also picked up this fun vintage barbecue-themed tablecloth. Love the bright colors! Thrifting bright vintage fabrics is perfect antidote for dreary January skies, isn't it?

January Flower Garden

Happy 2009! The Christmas decor is finally down--whew! It took me three whole days and halfway through day two I was really hoping that the Clean-Up Fairy might make an appearance and spare me the rest. I persevered, and was rewarded with an empty house and a storage room where I can once again see the floor. Normally in January I put up my "winter" decor--glittery snowflakes, a gorgeous Wendy Addison glittery Winter banner, etc. but for right now I'm just enjoying the emptiness.
When I was in Utah over Christmas I visited a favorite antique mall and did a bit of shopping. I've read of other bloggers who buy vintage hats just to take apart for the old millinery flowers but I've never found a hat that was inexpensive enough to make that worthwhile--until this trip, when I found THE HAT. I should have taken a 'before' photo, but imagine a small net cap (6.5" diameter) absolutely covered in every conceivable type of millinery flower. Now, I'll never be accused of being too subtle--I generally think a smidge over the top is just about right--but the woman who wore this cap must have looked ridiculous with such a concoction on her head! There's over the top and then there's whoa, and this hat defintely fell into the latter category.Lucky for me, I saw the swan under this ugly duckling of a chapeau! I bought it for the princely sum of $5 and just spent the last 3o minutes rescuing almost 40 millinery flower lovelies from the clutches of the most horrid glue I've yet to encounter. I have to wonder if this hat was a homemade affair, because I can't imagine any milliner worth her hatpins would abuse a bottle of glue and a pile of flowers in such a manner. After the first ripped flower I got wise and used my trusty heat gun to melt the glue so that I could pull the flowers apart from the hat and each other.
There's still quite a bit of that heinous glue stuck to the back of each flower but I'm optimistic that I can find ways to use them so the glue won't show. I'm love my little vintage flower garden and I'd like to thank the lady who, 50 years ago, put every flower she could get her hands on onto one hat. I'm much obliged to her!