I'm busy crafting (still working on the Craft ADD piles from the weekend), so I don't have anything to post today except a picture of buttons.

Mmm....vintage buttons. Thrifted vintage buttons. Cheap thrifted vintage buttons, to be exact. My favorites are the pink ones on the card, but I do love that pile of yummy white shell buttons up in the corner. Which would you rather have: a pile of vintage buttons, or a pile of M&Ms? I think it's pretty obvious what my answer is.

Estate sale finds and cute shoes

Whew. Thanks for your commiserating comments on my last post. Let me say that I've been to plenty of estate sales, but I guess I've had the good fortune that they are usually far more fun than the two I experienced this week. I've found a particular local estate sale company who I really like--their prices are super, their sales well-organized and well-advertised, and the vibe is fun and not super-competitive and grabby. I guess I've been spoiled by them! I think maybe I'll just stick to their sales from now on.

Photographic evidence that you don't always have to be the first person in the door to find goodies at an estate sale:

The Hires crate was from a sale put on by my favorite company. It was $3 and I dragged it out of the garage well into the afternoon of the first day. For my three bucks I also got dozens of spider egg sacs (shiver) and enough dirt that it left a rectangular dirty spot on both the floor of my trunk and the ground (gag). But I love the orange lettering (which you can barely see)--I think it will be perfect for Halloween! The Red Cross Paris map, Swiss postcards, and ornaments were from another sale. The bag of turquoise glass bead garland was from the thrift (seriously! You'd better believe I searched every single rack to see if I could find any more) and I love the old Pyrex labware bottle, which I also found at a thrift. That will be fun for Halloween too.

After I hit "Publish" on my rant yesterday, I cooled down a bit and then lifted my spirits in one of the surest ways I know: cute shoes!

Cheap cute shoes, because I do have a parking ticket to pay, after all. These are from Payless, where there's a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale going right now, plus I had a 20% off coupon as well so they were even a better deal. They're so cute they almost make me wish it was Fall. Almost. Not quite.

What are your plans for the weekend? Mine include cleaning up the messes I've left on every horizontal surface in the house. My Craft & Decorating ADD has reared its ugly head this week and my poor house is littered with half-finished projects. My dad is coming to visit for a few days and it would be nice if we could actually use the kitchen table for eating. Crazy, I know.

PS--I took the plunge and bought myself a domain name! I don't think it should be any different if you're seeing this through a reader, but if you want to visit my blog you can use either the old address http://frauleinh.blogspot.com or my new domain, http://themerrymagpievintage.com. Next up--trying to figure out how to add pages to my blog.

When estate sales go bad: a long vent

Two days of craptastic estate sales, which would not normally be cause to make me so cranky but I think those coupled with the wind and heat today, the mess in my house, the baby who is being too needy and the DOG HAIR EVERYWHERE are just combining into a big black cloud over my head.

Yesterday's craptastic estate sale: I signed up to receive emails from estatesales.net and got this notification for a rare Wednesday sale. Go ahead and read the ad and see if you're not drooling like I was. It's okay, I'll wait.

Back? Drooling? Thought you would be. I got a babysitter for Porter (because I knew I'd need two hands at this sale) and arranged for Maren to go home after school with a friend in case I was late. Drove WAY downtown, parked several blocks away, and got there just minutes before the scheduled 2:00 pm opening to find probably 50 or more people already waiting. There was a sign-up list, but it was cut off at 1:45 and the porch was so packed I couldn't have gotten to it anyway. They started letting people in off the list, 10 or so at a time. I finally got in, and the place was a madhouse. Teeny-tiny house, probably built in the 1930s or 40s, no A/C, and PACKED TO THE GILLS with neat old stuff, just like the ad promised. Except that all that stuff had already been snatched up by the people in front of me so I had the pleasure of watching everybody walk around with goodies, while I tried to find anything that might have been overlooked. I found a few things (emphasis on few) and finally went to stand in line. The line was all through the house. One room had a window A/C unit so it was cool in that room, at least.

I waited in line to pay for at least 30 minutes. Only one woman was taking money and apparently she was having long conversations with everybody or something because it took forever. The prices were no bargain, and I didn't even have anything that great, so I'm not sure why I didn't just drop it all and leave. Maybe I felt like I was already so committed that I might as well stay. The woman behind me in line had three huge boxes of GOOD loot. Amazing stuff, the stuff I would have grabbed if she hadn't gotten to it first. The prices were high to me but she is a dealer and so I'm sure she'll mark it up a whole bunch. Glad that at least she was behind me in line instead of in front of me, because I'm sure she had several hundred dollars' worth of merch in those boxes, and I heard her say as I left that she'd left her money in the car. What?

I finally got out of there, ran to my car and cranked the A/C and drove through horrid traffic home to pick up Maren. And the more I've thought about that sale, the more I have realized how NOT FUN it was. Junking should be fun for me, and that wasn't it. I hated seeing everyone get to all the good stuff before I did. That may sound petty, but it's true. There was just not a good vibe in that sale at all. It felt competitive and greedy and ugly and stressful. There were people switching price tags and people being crabby to each other in line and it was just bad, bad, bad.

I had hopes that today's sale would be better. It was closer, and I could take Porter and save the expense of paying another sitter. The ad sounded promising (a pink fridge? yes please!) and I drove over after dropping Maren at school. Whoever writes their ads has a promising career in fiction-writing, at least. There was no vintage clothing--that to me implies a certain amount of coolness. Yesterday's sale had vintage clothing. Cool vintage clothing that I'd wear today if it fit me. Today's sale had the ugliest stuff your grandma has in her closet that she's never thrown away for the past 30 years. There was a ton of fabric, and a cool pink kitchen, but the basement was horridly stinky. I stayed down there for longer than I should have--it was the kind of sale where you think there should have been something neat, if you just kept looking, but sadly there just wasn't. And now I have that stink in my nose and I think I may have to go wash my hair and change my clothes to get rid of it.

I paid for my meager finds, only to go to my car and find A PARKING TICKET. Way to add insult to injury. Apparently the City and County of Denver is making up their budget shortfall by writing parking tickets to people who have the temerity to park 6" further than the curb than the law allows. This was in a residential neighborhood, mind you--with nice wide streets and hardly anybody around. Do you have parking cops in your neighborhood, whipping out their yardsticks and counting infractions in inches? Because the City and County of Denver certainly does. And woe be unto anyone from the surrounding suburbs, who isn't versed in the parking regulations of every single municipality in this huge metro area in which they might find themselves. Because now, today's junk just cost me an extra $25.

So yeah, it isn't always vintage Christmas goodies and old tablecloths. Sometimes it just sucks.

Apology

I owe you all an apology.

I'm sorry.

You see, if you went out junking last weekend but you weren't able to find anything good, it's totally my fault. I was hogging all the Junk Mojo. Thursday, Friday and Saturday were some kind of non-stop junk bonanza for me, what with estate sales, garage sales and thrift store shopping. It was heady, it was junky, it was heaven. And also, it was a wee bit on the greedy side so this weekend I'm staying home and bequeathing all of my Junk Mojo to the rest of you!

The spoils from last weekend:

You've already seen the two quilts, but they're so pretty let's just have a look at all of that feedsack goodness one more time:

At an estate sale I found another folding ruler, bringing my in-house total to eight. I also picked up a silver cheese server thingy for another project to be shared later, once I actually get around to it. The vintage linens were from a church sale: a printed runner and cloth napkin (which would probably make a darling throw pillow) and a tea tablecloth & matching napkins with pagodas worked in the teeny tiniest of cross stitches.

From the Christmas files, a pile of pink lovelies from a garage sale that looked like nothing special from the curb, reminding me that it's almost always worth a quick look. Also, a pair of quilted satin vanity boxes, headed for etsy.

From the thrift, a set of six darling salad plates in blue with red strips and gold rims, just a few weeks too late but perfect for next year's Fourth of July table. Also, three tiny gold-striped glasses and a handful of colorful vintage plastic clothespins marked Denmark.

A matching Vera tea towel & apron set, a Pyrex bowl and a Fire King bowl that match, and an unused set of NOMA bubble lights.

Not pictured is a vintage glass light fixture and an awesome 5' x 8' space-themed area rug for Porter's room that will be perfect once I get it cleaned.

May the Junk Mojo be with you!

Quilt brag #2

Today's quilt is nowhere near as beautiful as the one I shared yesterday, but it's still made of feedsacks and was cheap, so I think it's pretty cool.

 It's not fancy--a simple nine-patch quilt and the stitching and piecing is kinda rough. The lack of precision says to me that it was made by either a child or someone who didn't sew much.

Heck, that's probably what my first attempt at a quilt would look like.

 It's definitely made of feedsacks. You can still see the blue writing on a few of the white rectangle pieces (look in the center above)

And here's a square that still has a part of the paper label attached

And on several squares (like the green one above) you can see the holes where the feedsack was originally stitched up the side.

There are some pieced squares that appear to be intended for a bow tie quilt

And there are plenty of yummy old prints like these

And these

And these cuties.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this quilt top. It's going to need a good cleaning because there are a lot of dirty spots and even some masking tape residue. I don't think it's in good enough condition that I want to pay to have it finished (doing it myself is totally out of the question) but it's kind of useless on it's own. If I can get it clean, I'm actually thinking that I could take apart the quilt top and make some pretty darn cute pillows with the squares.

If you found this quilt top, what would you do with it?

Quilt brag #1

So yeah, I'm totally going to brag in this post. I FOUND A QUILT!!! A vintage wedding ring quilt with the most gorgeous feedsack prints all over it. It's in really great condition. And it was $20. And I love it and I might just marry it.

Wanna see the object of my affection?

And how about some close-up shots of all that feedsack-y goodness?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I realize the story would be even better if I'd found it wadded up in a garbage bag for $2 or something ridiculous, but for me this is as good as it gets. On Friday morning I went to an Estate Sale (that was more like a garage sale) that was run by a family and the lady was pulling the quilt out of it's zippered bag when I walked up. I asked how much it was and she hemmed and hawed and finally asked, "How does $20 sound?" I couldn't dig in my pocket fast enough! I only had $17 on me but she was sweet and agreed to hold it for me while I loaded both kids back into the car and raced to a gas station with an ATM, got kids out of the car to go in, got cash, kids back into the car, back to the sale, and kids back out of the car again. (Do you see why I prefer to get a babysitter when I go junking? Yeesh.)

So twenty buckaroos for this beautiful quilt is a serious SCORE for me. A quilt like this would easily be priced at 4x that in an antique shop, plus I got the added rush of finding it! I've already asked The Quilt Whisperer for cleaning advice for the tiny bit of yellowing I see. And guess what else? I found another feedsack quilt on Saturday! It's actually a quilt top, and I'll show it to you tomorrow. Right now I need to go pet my new quilt some more.

Estate sale goodies

My estate sale luck has been holding out! I didn't get to go to last week's sale (too far away) but here is what I found the week before:

More vintage Christmas. Surprised to find these still there on the second day of the sale! Love how the pink & aqua Shiny Brites look together, don't you?

Here you can see that darling pink snowman wrapping paper closer. I've totally hit the jackpot on vintage Christmas wrap this summer. Now what will I do with it all?

I know what I'll do with this paper--it will be headed to my etsy shop later this year. It's in perfect condition, nice and heavy,

as will this paper. It's so neat--vibrant green-blue with magenta writing and magenta glitter. The paper is nice and heavy and there is a lot of it. It would look so cool under my silver aluminum tree, but it will end up in my shop too.

More holiday goodies--a foil Easter egg, patriotic paper napkins that I used that weekend for my Fourth of July dinner, a cute New Year's tiara with vintage aqua crepe trim, and a package of unopened New Year's plates (shop-bound as well).

A cloth napkin printed with sweet purple violets, a really cool sewing applique medallion (that became part of my Fourth of July decor), a box of birthday candles, a roll of fun striped ribbon, and five--count 'em--FIVE vintage folding yardsticks!! I just about squealed when I found these in the garage. I know I can't keep them all but so far I haven't been able to choose which ones to sell and which I just can't part with.

There's another estate sale this weekend and it's in my neck of the woods, so maybe I'll have more good junk to show next week!

Estate sale booty: vintage Christmas

One of my favorite things to find at estate sales is vintage Christmas stuff. In fact, I think it's my #1 favorite thing to find, and the past few weeks of estate sales have yielded some goodies!

At the last sale I snapped up this old tulle tablecloth for $2. I have another one like this that I found at a thrift a few years ago. They were handmade of tulle and adorned with sequined appliques, and made to go over a solid-colored base tablecloth of felt.

This one has really pretty jewels and sequins. The big tree is in the middle and there are smaller appliques of bells around the edges, and there's a scalloped green felt border.

I think this one is much larger than my table so it will probably end up on etsy later this year.

Another prize is this handmade felt tree skirt. I've always loved these, but don't find them often while thrifting. This is probably the most elaborate example I've seen yet.

It's gorgeous! An incredible amount of handwork went into sewing all of the beads, jewels and sequins on each ornament.

Each ornament is tied at the top with velvet ribbon and adorned with a pair of glass ornament balls. A few of them are broken, but I think I have some in my stash that I can use as replacements.

Isn't the pink one pretty? Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of damage to this tree skirt. Can you see the big brown blotchy stain up there at the top?

There's one other large stain, near the yellow ornament. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do to get the stains out of the felt. I'm afraid to really wash it in the machine because of the delicate sequins, beads and other trims. Perhaps I could try a gentle soak in the bathtub with some Woolite? Or should I just leave it alone and make sure to use wrapped presents to cover up the stains? I'd love any advice or suggestions! Normally I wouldn't buy something that was irreparably stained but this tree skirt was so elaborate and the price so reasonable I couldn't pass it by!

Stuff I've dragged home: Estate sale edition

Estate sales are one of my favorite places to shop, but I rarely get to visit them: they're usually too far away and held on Friday mornings when I have both kids. Recently I've been able to go to three sales, which for me is some kind of record. I found a new favorite estate sale company that advertises on Facebook, so I always know when and where their next sale is. They usually run sales Thurs-Sat and two of their recent sales have been relatively close by, so I've been able to drop Maren off at school at 8:10 am on Thursday morning and then hop over to the sale when it opens.

Another reason I love this company is their prices! I've been to estate sales that seem to be confused that the shabby old house they're selling in is actually some kind of high-rent antique store, and price accordingly. The ladies at my new favorite company price things very reasonably, which makes the 50% off on Saturdays even better! Here are some of the things I've scored at their estate sales recently:

Vintage Beistle Halloween die cuts. LOVE! I never ever find vintage Halloween, so these were exciting. The die cuts are embossed and the colors are nice and bright.

Two old newspapers from July 1969, chronicling the return to earth of the Apollo 11 astronauts. I bought these to put in Porter's vintage space-themed bedroom. I need to figure out a good way to frame them and hang them on the wall--any suggestions?

A couple of old blank books that the homeowner began to use as a household expense register, dated 1955. A great 1944 book called "It's Fun to Make a Hat" that is headed for etsy, a roll of pink floral foil, and an ornate frame that I thought I could spray paint a fun color.

A pair of McCoy flowerpots in a gorgeous green. These were in an ugly planter that was still attached to the wall. I found them Saturday morning when everything was 50% off and I'm shocked that they were still there on day 3 of the sale! Maybe they were waiting for me. I left the ugly planter attached to the wall. Yet another set of Jell-o molds--I told you I was incapable of leaving them behind--a cute toadstool light switch cover, a deck of vintage Disney & circus cards, a Mrs. Santa planter with spaghetti trim (someone had already gotten to Santa..why on earth did they split up the pair? Grr) and what is sure to be the centerpiece of my July Fourth decorating this year, a pitcher with the image of every U.S. President. Well, every president up to LBJ, since the pitcher is marked 1965.

Sadly, my too-brief estate saling days are coming to a swift end. To my disappointment, Maren was assigned to the afternoon kindergarten class for next year. Our elementary school operates on a year-round schedule, so "next year" starts on July 6, if you can believe it! That means that I'll have both kids every weekday morning, and going to an estate sale with both my kids in tow is about as much fun as having bamboo splinters shoved under my fingernails. I could go on Saturdays, but as The Mister is gone a minimum of two weekends per month for work and training for a triathlon the other weekends, my kid-free Saturday mornings are few and far between as well. Perhaps I should look into hiring a sitter for a standing date every Thursday morning this summer while the middle/high schoolers are still on summer vacation. It'll be pricey, but it might be worth it in Mommy sanity time!

Good junk: cloches, Valentines, chenille, and more

I think this blog has distilled down into two categories: Stuff I've Made and Stuff I've Dragged Home. I may start titling as such.

Today's entry falls into the Stuff I've Dragged Home category:

Darling little cloche from the thrift store. Can't believe it's not chipped or otherwise marred, but it's in perfect condition. Love the swirls. It's about 8" tall.

This loot came from an estate sale that I happened upon when I went to a graduation party for my cousin. It was a few streets away and it was Saturday afternoon so everything was 50% off.

I picked up this fabulous blue chenille bedspread at the estate sale too. I love it but it might end up in my etsy shop. Maren has the only twin bed in the house and although the colors are perfect for her room, vintage chenille bedspreads and daybeds and 5-year-olds aren't the best combination.

 This vintage Christmas stuff came from an estate sale I went to last weekend. I was actually there just a few minutes after it opened, which was just in time to see a man walk past me with a box of vintage NOMA bubble lights and a big box of aluminum reflectors. Gah! I hate knowing what I'm missing! But I did find a small box full of these goodies. See those little teardrop-shaped ornaments in the middle? They're the most perfect shade of aqua and they're gloriously shabby. Sigh.

The frame made of rulers came from a brand-new Goodwill that just opened (yay!), the Campfire girls candy box from the same estate sale as the chenille bedspread (I think it will go out with my 4th of July decor) and the old box of pen nibs (headed to etsy) and Jell-o molds came from the same sale as the vintage Christmas stuff. I am physically unable to leave behind those little Jell-o molds. Can't do it.

Good junk, eh? I went back to the Jell-o mold sale on 50% off day and scored more good stuff. Photos to come next week!

Makeover: front room chairs

I found this pillow at the thrift store a few weeks ago and I think it was actually sitting there, waiting for me.

It's the perfect shape and size to sit on the brown chair in my front room. It's a really nice quality pillow, too--down insert, zippered cover with cut velvet in a damask design, and it just happens to be the exact color of my walls. Love!

The other chairs in my front room are getting a makeover too:

I'm finally getting around to recovering the seats with fabric I bought months ago, originally intended for the cushions of my kitchen chairs. When I got my new table two weeks ago, I planned to put out the chairs for a charity pickup (the table literally fell apart so it's unfortunately headed to the dump). However, the cushions were in such bad shape that the charity wouldn't have taken them like that, so I recovered them before I set them out on my curb. They looked 1000% better and I was kicking myself all day for not doing it earlier, when I could actually have enjoyed them. Sheesh.

I have lots of red fabric leftover so I decided to give my small chairs a face lift as well. I bought these chairs from Goodwill for $15 each a couple of years ago. The fabric covers are darling and in excellent condition, but the colors (a fantastic 1970s mix of avocado green, orange and bright pink) match precisely nothing in my house, so I finally decided they should go. Except I didn't really get rid of them--I just put the new red fabric over the top, so in case I get a sudden wild hair to redo my house in olive green and orange, I'll have just the chairs to match.

Unfortunately, this recovering job is a bit more involved than the kitchen chairs, so it's taking a lot longer. When I originally purchased the chairs, I took them all completely apart and reglued each joint. I must not have done a really great job, however, because they're wobbly again, and when you sit down on one it creaks like total collapse is imminent. While I've got the seats off, I'm going to reglue all of the loose joints and get them back into good shape so my guests aren't scared to sit on them. In the end, I'll have nice sturdy chairs with cute new cushions that finally match my room. Not a bad payoff for a few hours' work!