Weekend junk finds

The neighbor girls that are Maren's best friends have a mom who loves yard sales and thrift stores just as much as I do. She brought them home some Build-a-Bear clothes last weekend, and oh, was Maren envious! She asked me if we could go yard-saleing to look for clothes for her bears too--Uh, no need to ask me twice! Unfortunately we had to take Little Brother with us so our saleing time was limited, and even more unfortunately for Maren, we never did find any Build-a-Bear clothes (apparently those are a hot commodity at yard sales!), though we did pick up a darling handmade red hooded cape for her Felicity doll. Even though Maren didn't find what she was looking for, I scored big at two sales!

The first sale was a normal garage sale not far from my house, held by an older lady who is a committed crafter. From the looks of her sale, there's not a craft out there that she hasn't tried at one time or another over the past 50 years.

From her I bought all of these fun vintage cake decorations, including the uniformed bride and groom in the middle.

She had everything--boxes and boxes of fabric, ribbon, trim, vintage Christmas doo-dads, millinery flowers. I bought a ton at her sale and now I wish I had bought more!

The other sale was an estate sale I'd been trying to get to for two days but was thwarted by a sleeping child and a set of bad directions. I finally rolled in at noon on Saturday, half-price day, and knew immediately that this was the type of sale I wish I'd been to on opening day.

The prices were yard-sale-cheap, even before the 50% discount. My shopping abilities were seriously hampered because I had to keep track of a very cranky toddler, but I grabbed and stuffed where I could.

$1 Jadeite? It has a flaw but since it's for my own collection and not to be sold, I don't mind one bit. I found a pint Hazel Atlas canning jar that may end up turned into one of these.

There was also a big box of vintage wrapping paper with some really great Christmas, wedding and baby shower prints that will be fun to go through in more depth. (My vintage Christmas wrapping paper collection is getting totally out of hand; that might be a good project for this summer.)

A nice little haul for only two sales! Now that the big kids are finally out of school, I'm planning to hire a babysitter each Friday morning so that I can go estate and yard-saleing without the kids. Maren and I may still head out on Saturday mornings in search of Build-a-Bear clothes, which sounds like fun to me!

Good Junk: feedsack quilt squares

On Monday I popped into Goodwill looking for...well, I'm not sure what I was looking for, but while I was there I spied a bag full of old feedsack quilt squares in the locked glass case. This particular Goodwill is usually pretty lousy, although I have found a few treasures now and again. I've seen antique quilts in the glass case on more than one occasion, but they're always marked at some ridiculous amount for a thrift store ($70+) and have been in poor condition. The price on the quilt squares was also too high, so I didn't even ask to look at them.

Yesterday afternoon we were on the way to get Porter's hair cut and I knew that the 50% off color tag at that Goodwill changes on Thursdays, so I thought we'd do a quick stop and see if, just by some lucky chance, the color of tag on the quilt squares was the color on sale. It was and I was surprised to see that the quilt squares were still in the case, so I wasted no time in snapping them up!

I finally had a chance last night to go through them and I'm so happy I bought them! They definitely qualify for the title of Good Junk:

There are 61 squares total. Nine of them have been sewn together in a line, and some of the other squares must have been sewn together at some point because they have pressed seam allowances and needle holes down two sides. Most of the squares (50 to be exact) have nine little feedsack strips at the top of the pink wedge.

One square has 10 strips, one has 14, and the remaining squares have 15 strips.

I have no idea why there is a difference, unless the quilter started out doing the 15-strip squares and decided it was just taking WAY too long and dropped six strips for a total of nine.

The squares themselves are made of what looks like unbleached muslin.

Some of the muslin has yellowish spots on it, and I don't know if that is damage or just part of the unbleached-ness.

The feedsack fabrics are just darling and I know it must have been an awful lot of work to piece all those tiny strips together. Here is a sampling of some of the squares:

I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do with these squares. I don't sew so it's way beyond my abilities to make them into a quilt myself. I know that there are quilters out there that will take old squares like these and make them into a quilt for you, but I imagine that's a pretty expensive service due to the time involved. The sewing is not as precise (notice how most of the wedges are different sizes?) so I'm not sure it would be worth the great expense. They're too small to be made into pillows, and there are too many to frame and put on the wall. Any suggestions?

I figure each square cost me just over 25¢, which was some consolation after Porter's disaster of a haircut. He has portraits scheduled for tomorrow morning and his hair ended up way shorter than I wanted it to be, and I could just cry about it! I don't know what possessed me to get his hair cut right before pictures, but it really was looking shaggy and needed a trim--just not that much of a trim! He's not bald by any means, but all of his long curls are gone and I'm just sick about it. Maybe I'll feel better if I go look at my new quilt squares again.

Hello from the Turkish bazaar and future projects

In the past five days, I've purchased no fewer than FIVE 5'x7' rugs (whew, that's a lot of fives!). My front room is starting to look like a Turkish bazaar. Yesterday alone I purchased three of the rugs, two from my new favorite store--Lowe's! I bought a clearanced jute boucle rug for $10--seriously! Regular price was $60. Actually, I got it for $9 because of the 10% discount they generously give to military folks. It has actually crossed my mind that maybe I should go back and get the other two $9 rugs and throw them up on Craigslist and see if I can't make a little profit.

The other rug from Lowe's is for the newly-painted aqua room, and was on clearance for $78 (I also bought a clearance floor lamp for $23--see why Lowe's is my new fave?).

I'm going to return the HomeGoods rug I asked you about in the last post. Design- and color-wise, it's actually my favorite, but even with a rug pad I'm just worried that it won't ever lay nice and flat and will drive me crazy forever. So it's headed back to HomeGoods, along with the other jute rug I purchased for the front room, as is the $50 outdoor rug I bought at Target yesterday morning, also purchased for the front room. Whew!

I finally finished the painting yesterday, exactly one week after I started. That'll teach me to be impatient! I am still proud that I did it myself and love how it turned out, and have several more painting projects in mind for the summer. One of them is this cute dresser,

which I bought at a yard sale on Saturday morning. I like the scalloped piece on the back and the turned front legs (which I think would be made even cuter by the addition of some vintage-style casters). It's not the finest piece of furniture, but I think it will work once it's been repainted and had fun new knobs added. I have it in mind to replace this dresser

which I still love, but have finally come to grips with the fact that it is simply too small for the space. I'm not going to get rid of Short Stack here--it needs a trip to rehab and then it will find another place in my house. I need to scrape off the existing (lead, I'm sure) paint, fix the drawers, and rip off the too-large and warped top and replace it with something nice and solid. I think I'll paint the dresser a creamy white and stain the top dark, a la Miss Mustard Seed.

I also purchased a can of bright red paint to paint my little wooden desk chair, another yard sale find that I don't seem to have a picture of. I bought it from a guy who said he meant to refinish it but never got around to it. For several years I've been fine with the shabby white paint that has hints of blue peeking through, but on one of my many trips to Home Depot last week, was seized with the desire to paint it a pretty red to match the remade vintage curtains from my office re-do:

I'm anxious to get started on all of these projects! Now all I need is for the stupid weather to cooperate so I can get going before I lose my painting mojo.

So THAT'S what was yelling so loud

I could hear something calling me from the thrift store, so I was obedient.

Glad I listened! I only bought two things, but they were worth the drive:

A bag of seven (!) strands of various-sized vintage gold mercury glass beads (this from a thrift that only recently started putting out Christmas items year-round)

A vintage Cactus Cloth printed California souvenir tablecloth, unused and sporting the original paper tag.

 Sometimes it pays to listen!

In which thrifting patience pays off

I mentioned yesterday that this weekend I finally thrifted an item for which I have been searching for five years. Are you curious what it is?

Blue ice skates! I do love to skate, but they're not for me (in fact, I haven't even looked at the size). I've been looking for a pair of these blue leather skates with the gray fur trim ever since this magazine came out back in 2006.

This was a special issue from back in the days of Country Home magazine, may it rest in peace. (sob!) One of the first few pages featured this image

and once I saw it, I was on the hunt! Several pair have come up for auction on eBay and I even bid on a few, but the prices always went over my limit because the shipping costs were always so high. I knew if i was patient I would come across a pair sooner or later. It took almost five years, but my patience paid off and I found not one, but TWO pair of these skates at an estate sale on Saturday! I literally squealed out loud when I found them in the basement and the other shoppers looked at me funny. I can't wait to decorate with them this winter.

I found some other goodies as well. There were three estate sales being held within blocks of one another, an extremely rare occurrence around here. In addition to the skates I bought some pretty china saucers (I have a project planned for these), a vintage plastic tree topper (wreath fodder), a pair of earrings and a packet of darling little woven flag picks. These were fun finds, but if I hadn't found anything other than those blue skates, I still would have been thrilled! Have you had an experience where thrifting patience paid off?

Remade vintage curtain valances

I mentioned yesterday that I'm in the process of decorating my office. I can't really call it REdecorating, since it wasn't decorated to begin with! In fact, it was the only room in the entire house that still sported the original builder's paint. This is significant because the previous owner was very much into decorative painting, and when we moved in, there were all manner of murals and faux finishes adorning every single wall of this house. I have to wonder if perhaps the husband told the wife that she could have free reign over the rest of the house, as long as she left his office alone!

I got the harebrained brilliant idea to paint the room the day before the carpet was to be delivered--we had to pull out all the furniture anyway, and we didn't have to worry about getting paint on the carpet so it seemed like an ideal opportunity! My long-suffering husband went along with me and although painting in the semi-darkness at 10 pm on a Sunday night is not his idea of a good time, I think he'd agree that it looks much better now. We used the only nearly-full can of paint I had, which just happened to be the ever-popular Sherwin-Williams Rice Grain.

Now that we have new paint and new carpet, I've been inspired to actually decorate the room and make it look pleasant, instead of the stuffed-to-the-gills catchall room it had been previously. The large window in the room provides lots of light but it was bare, so I wanted to add a curtain valance just to soften the edges and add some color. I purchased the curtain rod on clearance and with a coupon from Bed, Bath & Beyond, and I knew exactly what curtains I wanted to use:

I bought this set of four vintage curtain panels back in 2007 at a thrift store. I absolutely adore the red, yellow and gray print of windmills, tulips and little Dutch girls! I've never used them because they were too long to be used as valances but too short for any of the windows in my house, so I've kept them tucked away in a dresser for nearly four years.

For my office window, I started out thinking I could just shorten each panel and call it good, but the more I looked at them I realized that I was going to have to completely start over. Whoever sewed them originally did a really poor job, and that's coming from someone who can barely sew a straight line! The seams were all in different places, the lining was sewn differently in each panel, the selvage edges were (unnecessarily) hemmed--it was bad. Armed with my trusty seam ripper, I laboriously removed all of the original stitching until I was basically left with raw fabric once again.

Stitching up the valances was unfortunately not as easy as I had expected, and I have a bit more compassion for the original seamstress now that I've fought with the fabric myself! The side edges of the fabric are selvage but when you fold them to meet, the fabric is not even and the pattern doesn't line up. That created significant difficulties in measuring and sewing to keep the pattern straight and trying to make all four panels uniform.

Even though they're not perfect, I like them--I'm happy that they finally get to see the light of day after four years! They liven up the office and add softness and color around the window, so I'm going to call this project a success--just don't measure the hems. :)

March Tension Tamer challenge update & thrift store jewelry

Way back on February 21, I posted that I was going to set a challenge for myself for the month of March to tackle my out-of-control piles of stuff to be sold on Etsy & eBay. My challenge was taken from Peter Walsh's book Lighten up, and was to last from February 21 until March 31. My goal was to spend that time listing like crazy on Etsy/eBay/Craigslist and whatever hadn't been listed by March 31 had to be donated.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I didn't do so hot! I did have some obstacles during the month of March: I spent 11 days out of town plus a day on either side of that for prep/cleanup. Two additional weeks after that, Maren was out of school for her break, meaning that during those days I got zero hours of kid-free work time. Also, we decided to repaint and recarpet our office and family room, which meant we had to spend several days moving every single item out of those rooms and then back in, and the office is where the computer lives so it's where I do all listing, shipping, etc. And then we had Maren's birthday party to plan and execute as well. I'm just full of excuses, aren't I? But truly, I don't feel that I had a fair amount of time to work on my listings. I did get some things listed and sold and that felt great, but I know that I could have done more if I'd had more time to devote.

Because of that, I've decided to extend my challenge a bit longer. I'm still in the process of redoing the office, where all of my inventory had been 'stored' in big plastic tubs sitting in the middle of the floor. When we pulled everything out so we could do the paint/carpet, it was so refreshing to have all the junk *gone* that I've been loath to bring it all back in. Having a new, pretty space definitely motivates me to keep things cleaner, and the way for me to keep things clean is to sell my stuff!

Another part of my challenge was that I would not bring in any new inventory during that time--which meant NO junking! I adhered to that rule until March 26, when Maren's birthday party was over and I needed to relax a bit. I hit the thrift and found a few fun sparkly things:

The cute vintage poodle brooch has green sparkly eyes, and he's for sale in my Etsy shop. Also for sale in the shop is the cool vintage Chicago souvenir brooch--the round bit is really a tiny perfume bottle! I'd keep it but I've never been to Chicago, so it holds no sentiment for me and it has to find a new home. My other finds are a big sparkly aurora borealis brooch, a tiny vintage bunny pin with sparkly red eyes, a homemade pin made with antique buttons, and an antique bullion piece that has been made into a brooch. Not a bad haul to end my thrift store diet and get me back on the wagon for a little while more!

More Christmas crafting: vintage-style hanging glass bead ornaments

Still working on the post- (or pre-, depending how you look at it) Christmas crafting. This project was easy, I just didn't ever have the time to sit down and actually do it before Christmas!

Earlier this summer I bought this vintage Christmas wreath-thingy (I really don't know what to call it) at an estate sale. It's made of glass beads and the top is shaped into a wreath, with four long dangles hanging down, and each long dangle has a small glass ornament at the bottom.

When I purchased it, two of the green ornaments were broken, but I was sure that I had something in my stash that I could use to replace them. While I was doing the repairs, I realized how simple the construction was and thought maybe I'd try to make one myself.

The supplies were minimal: glass beads in two sizes, feather-tree size ornaments for the dangles, two foil leaves and a piece of ribbon. I didn't have any vintage foil leaves in the right shape, but I did have some very similar silver holly leaves made by a scrapbooking company called Prima. I used Zip Dry glue to adhere a length of thin floral wire to the back of each one.

A word about the mercury glass beads: finding strands of these is one of my top 10, possibly even top 5 thrills while junking. I LOVE them! I've found about a dozen strands over the past few years, but here's the thing--I've never really done anything with them. They don't display well on aluminum Christmas trees, and I plum forgot to put any on my green tree this year. I could put them in a big jar like beautiful glass bead spaghetti, but I just don't have a place for that and they get tangled really easily. When I decided to attempt to make this ornament, that was the push I needed to finally DO something with them. I cut apart the strands, removed all of the broken bits and now I have a jar full of glass beads that I can actually use. Sometimes the thought of using my vintage (and therefore difficult to replace) treasures is scary, but I have never regretted it when I actually do!

The construction of the ornament is simple. I don't have photos of all the steps because it was late at night and I made it up as I went along. The colors of my ornaments were constrained by the fact that I only have a few of the larger size strands of beads needed to make the wreath: red, turquoise and royal blue. My first attempt was the royal blue. Using the green ornament as my size guide, I cut a piece of wire roughly the same size as wreath and strung on blue beads, then twisted the ends to secure.

Next, I made the little bead clusters that sit in front of the leaves. I can make a tutorial for these if anyone is interested--leave a comment and let me know! I didn't have any small blue beads for this part so I improvised and used red. Then I twisted the tails of the clusters and the wires of the leaves together. One thing I wish I'd done differently is make the wreath portion bigger. The blue beads were smaller than the green beads, but the leaves I used were larger than the originals, so I think the proportion is a bit off.

The original dangles were strung on heavy thread or string, so I used three strands of embroidery floss to make mine. I again used the original as a size guide and strung the same number of beads. When I got to the bottom, I looped through the wire of the ornament, then went back through the beads again and out the top to make each dangle. When I had all four completed, I pulled the threads through a large silver bead and tied the threads in a knot. Here again I think the proportion is just a bit off: the silver beads I used were just slightly larger than the originals, and using the same number as the original resulted in longer strands. I used two red balls to bring in the color from the clusters, but I don't know if I like how it looks and I may remove those in favor of more blue.

To put it all together, I tied the threads around the bottom of the wreath (where the wires were twisted), cut the threads close to the knot and applied a drop of glue to keep the knot from coming loose. Next I twisted the wire from the leaves/clusters around the same place. Then I made a small bow, twisted a piece of wire around the middle and attached another glass bead, then twisted the ends around the same place as the leaves. It's not as clean on the back as I'd like, but honestly the original is a bit messy in that area as well.

I liked the next ones I made better, because I figured out my proportion problems so I think they look more balanced. I made the red one with gold dangles because of the gold leaves.

My favorite is definitely the turquoise one! I wish the holly leaves were smaller, but I worked with what I had and I made the bow out of wider ribbon to try to balance them.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these--perhaps they'll end up in my etsy shop next year. I also think it would be interesting to make a smaller version, better sized to be an actual Christmas tree ornament, using some of my really tiny feather tree ornaments at the bottom of the dangles. I'm not sure what I'd use for the leaves, but I have 10 months to figure something out!

Crafty stuff: Glittery vintage cookie cutter ornaments

One type of item I see frequently at thrift stores, estate sales and antique malls is aluminum cookie cutters.

 

Every housewife at some point in the 1940s-70s must have had some in her kitchen, so they're usually easy to find and inexpensive. I've picked up quite a few, but stopped myself from bringing home more when I realized that other than putting them all in a big jar, I couldn't think of anything else I could actually do with them.

I did make these Christmas cookie cutter garlands a few years ago, using a combination of new reproduction cutters and vintage cutters from my collection. To make the garlands you need to use cutters with two holes in the front so they can be strung on the ribbon.

Most of the cutters in my collection are the ordinary type without the wooden handle and the accompanying pair of holes, therefore unsuitable for garland-making so they've still been sitting in their jar, patiently waiting to be turned into something fun.

Enter the Christmas issue of Inspired Ideas! If you're not yet familiar with Inspired Ideas, it's a wonderful online magazine put together by the fabulous and charming Amy Powers. In my opinion, the 2010 Christmas issue is the best yet! There are 170+ pages of yummy eye-candy and crafting and decorating inspiration, all for free! The feature about cookie cutters that caught my eye is on pages 157-159, by Heidi Woodruff, who has an appropriately-named blog called Everyday Cookies. Heidi used doll-sized vintage aluminum cookie cutters to make cute charms, but the suggestion that got my wheels turning was to cover cookie cutters in glitter and make them into Christmas tree ornaments.

Since I needed more ornaments for the Jolly Green Giant tree anyway, this was the perfect solution! And it was simple enough that Maren could help, so it would also fulfill the requirement of keeping her busy while she's been on her school break. (12 days and counting...)

I used Heidi's instructions from the magazine article, so I won't give a tutorial here. I chose the Christmas-themed cutters from my collection and used a Cropadile to make holes in the tops for hanging. I had originally intended to use coarse silver German glass glitter. Maren used pink and red glass glitter on her two ornaments (the pink flower and red heart) and the coverage wasn't great, so for mine I switched to Martha Stewart glitter. I tried the tree and a heart in Tourmaline, a lovely aqua color, but by far my favorite was the Antique Silver. It looked like the original color of the aluminum cutters, but sparklier! For glue I used a bottle of Martha Stewart Glittering Glue that I had in my stash. The bottle lid had an attached brush that was very handy for painting the glue all over the cookie cutters.

Once they were dry, I used Heidi's method for making beaded hangers. I used long head pins from my jewelry making supplies and glass beads cut from vintage beaded Christmas garlands.

The glittery ornaments are incredibly sparkly in real life and look so pretty on my tree! I was sad that I ran out of Christmas-themed cutters before I could make more. I've scoured the thrifts looking for bags of cookie cutters, but haven't been able to find any (figures--the rest of the year they're plentiful, but I need them for a project and they disappear.) I saw tons at the antique mall last weekend, but didn't want to pay antique-booth markup when I know how much they cost at the thrift stores! I'll have to keep my eye out this coming year and stash away a few to make more ornaments next Christmas.

Photo swiped from Rebecca at Thrifty Goodness

I knew that I wanted to make these for our yearly Goodness Girl ornament swap, but as I was out of Christmas-themed cutters, I used hearts instead. For these ornaments I punched a hole in the bottom of the heart as well as the top, and used more glass garland beads and a piece of a chandelier crystal to make a little dangle. I've yet to find anything that didn't benefit from even more sparkle. :) I packaged them in little muslin bags stamped with the year.

I've always wanted to have a "kitchen" tree, and I think these would be darling on one, hung from a piece of polka-dot ribbon. Thanks to Heidi Woodruff for the cute cookie cutter inspiration, and be sure to check out Inspired Ideas if you haven't already!

Good Junk: Gurley Santas

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a copy of No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids by leaving a comment on this post! Giveaway closes Friday, December 10 at noon!
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My favorite time of the year at the thrifts! I haven't found anything stellar yet this year (although this trio of Gurley Santas is pretty darn cute), but that is partly because I can't go as often as years past. I'm still holding out hope for a late-season thrift bonanza like last year. There's still time! I've been good this year, Santa, I promise!

And speaking of Good Junk, I've been working my little fingers to the bone to get vintage Christmas treasures added to my etsy shop, The Merry Magpie--go check it out! I've already listed a bunch and just when I think I'm just about done, I find another box of stuff squirreled away to list. I think I'm going to set a limit for myself and if it's not listed by this Sunday, it will have to wait until next year. I've got other things to do--like figuring out a tree skirt and tree topper for the Jolly Green Giant. And decorating the rest of the house. And buying presents. And basically, everything else--I'm a little behind this year.

Good Junk: Silver Ice Bucket saga

I found the cutest set of faux vintage flashcards at a scrapbook store recently:

They're by a company called October Afternoon and they were from a line called "The Thrift Shop" that has all sorts of other paper crafting stuff that is just perfect for lovers of both papercrafting and old stuff like me. You can't buy directly from OA's website but you could search for an online scrapbook shop that sells the line.

The cards are punched on one side and come with rings and matching chipboard covers so you could actually turn them into an album--wouldn't they be darling with some photos of your very favorite finds? I especially like the one that says "Good Junk" so I thought I'd make that into a feature on my blog, rather than saving my finds for Thrift Thursday--because sometimes, they're too good to wait until then!

Today's Good Junk is fresh--I just bought it yesterday and I could hardly wait until it was light this morning so I could take photos and tell you my story.

On Wednesday afternoon I took the kids to my favorite thrift store to look for components for my Halloween costume. I've been staying away from the thrifts and estate sales lately because I'm trying to save my spending money for my upcoming trip to London, but since I was already in the store I had to take a look around, right? ;)

I didn't find much but just before we walked out the door something caught my eye. It was an ice bucket, black with tarnish but even though it was behind the counter on a shelf I could make out engraving: somethingsomethingsomething...1950. ~gulp!~ I had the cashier get it for me so I could have a look and read the engraving more clearly:

And I knew then that spending freeze be darned, it would be going home with me! Except for one problem: it wasn't priced, and this thrift has a policy that they won't sell an item if it isn't priced (too many nogoodniks trying to cheat and get lower prices, apparently.) It was obvious that I didn't remove the price because the item had been behind the counter, but even the manager wouldn't help me because the pricers were already gone for the day. What? Noooo!

The clerk said that she'd put the bucket in the back room with the other unpriced items so that the pricers would see it first thing in the morning when they came in at 8:00. Then she advised me to be there when the store opened at 10:00, but she couldn't guarantee that they'd be sure to put it back behind the counter again rather than out on one of the normal shelves.

I drove home, defeated, and plotting what I would do in the morning. Thursday at that thrift store is a day that VIP members can get 25% off, so there are always people waiting to go in when the store opens. I couldn't stand the thought of watching someone get there steps ahead of me and get MY ice bucket, so I made sure that we left the house early so that we could be first in the door. I even briefed Maren on the plan so she'd stay with me and not slow us down by going for a shopping cart first. I was ready to go, but when we arrived a few minutes before 10:00, people were already going in the door

We hurried into the store and went around to where the ice bucket had been the day before, but there was a conspicuously empty spot on the shelf where it should have been. My heart just sank, because I thought someone must have gotten in the door right before me and had snapped it up and worse yet, I'd see them walking around the store with MY ice bucket in their arms (I've had this experience at an estate sale more than once. It stinks.) I asked the clerk if she knew anything about the bucket, and she directed me to her supervisor. I repeated my story, and the supervisor pushed me off to another employee to go ask the pricers in the back room if they had seen it. The pricers said they hadn't seen the bucket that morning, and she apologized and said she didn't know where it could be.

I decided that as a last-ditch effort, I'd walk around the store and look for it on the regular shelves, and told Maren what to look out for so she could help. This thrift is in a space once occupied by a supermarket, so it's HUGE. There are probably 12 long aisles that are jam-packed--and that's just the kitchen and home decor-type items. The ice bucket could have been put down anywhere; it wouldn't necessarily be with the kitchen stuff. And I was still in competition with all of the rest of the shoppers in the store--it was a bit like a junking video game, now that I think about it. New for the XBox and Wii: THRIFT STORE SHOPPER! Navigate the aisles full of people looking for treasures. Obstacles are carts from the employees putting out new merchandise, slow shoppers, a 5-year-old who has to look at everything and a baby who refuses to stay buckled in the cart! Hurry to gather up your vintage goodies before other shoppers snatch them up or before the time limit is up, which is signified by your 5-year-old complaining loudly and your baby screaming!

We looked quickly through all the items but came up empty-handed. I was so disappointed and wished that I'd never even seen the darn thing in the first place and then, but lo--what did I see on a bottom shelf in the kitchen section? It was MY BELOVED BUCKET! I grabbed it up and Maren and I did the Snoopy Dance right there in the middle of the aisle. Our antics were summarily cut short when I realized that the bucket still had not been priced, which meant there was a possibility that the manager would invoke the No-Price-No-Sale rule and refuse to sell it to me AGAIN. And I almost cried.

Thankfully, when I went up to the counter to rehash my story a third time, one of the pricers took pity on me and tossed off a number so I could at least buy the darned thing. I paid for it and was out the door before I could lose it again! I came home and set to work polishing the bucket and the items that were inside: a pair of silver tongs, four tiny silver cups and what I assume is the bottom of a silver cocktail shaker, also engraved.

It took two aluminum foil-baking soda-salt baths to loosen the tarnish and plenty of Wright's Silver Cream and elbow grease to do the rest, but now my pieces are nice and shiny and beautiful again! The silver plate on the cocktail shaker is pitting and it's missing its lid, but I think it will make a darling vase, don't you? I'm assuming the ice bucket once had a lid too, but I don't mind one bit that it's gone because I love the engraving so much.

So that's the Silver Ice Bucket saga. Good junk, indeed.

Estate sale finds

Don't have much to share today, I'm afraid, other than a few more items I picked up at the bad vibe estate sale.

I love this blue and red floral fabric--it reminds me of aprons and printed tablecloths. The number card is aged to that perfect shade of creamy beige. The squares are all perforated and must have been used for pricing or store signs or something. I like it just the way it is--no intentions to tear it all apart here.

For someone who doesn't sew, I'm turning into quite the little fabric hoarder lately. This was from a shirt box full of old fabric scraps. Once I saw the little bunny prints I knew it was worth the $2 price. Don't know what I'll do with it, but it's darn cute.

We're headed to Utah to visit family for a while as Maren will be off-track (she goes to year-round school, and starting Monday has a three-week break). We have some fun things planned so maybe I can blog a bit while I'm gone. Hope you all have a lovely long weekend!