Weekend Junk Finds

After a week stuck inside with a sick Maren, I dragged the kids 40 minutes' drive for an estate sale. I was obviously truly desperate, as taking them to an estate sale is generally just shooting myself in the foot, but The Mister had to work, I couldn't leave a sick kid with a babysitter, and I needed to GET OUT and look at some junk! The ad for this estate sale said the owner was a borderline hoarder, and I'd have to agree. There was more fabric in that house than in some fabric stores--no kidding! I was there on the 3rd day of the sale and it didn't look like it had even been touched, though it was priced to move. To give you an idea, they were going to have a second sale the following weekend of the upstairs of the house and two storage units, because they hadn't had time to even touch those while dealing with the main floor & basement.

I didn't buy any fabric because it was crowded, I had my kids, and the light was terrible in the basement. I did go into the dish room--a tiny basement room that was filled with stacks and stacks of old china, including one of my favorites: LuRay pastels. Since I got there the third day all of the really great stuff was gone already, but I managed to pick up a half dozen of these plates: 4 Sharon pink, 2 Persian Cream yellow, and a Surf Green bread plate.

I also found this vintage Christmas tablecloth wadded up on the floor in the basement room. I wish I could have gone back this weekend to see what treasures were upstairs and in the storage units at that house!

These were from the thrift store. A pretty, shabby Homer Laughlin bowl (headed to Etsy eventually),

A pair of plates with a mod leaf border decoration perfect for autumn (love the turquoise, yellow and gray!),

and some fun vintage books to use in decorating. I liked the bold black and red covers of the music books. The children's book originally had a pair of scissors attached to the cover in that funny-shaped red spot, and inside are several gummed pages of stickers that were meant to be cut out and stuck throughout the book. All of the gummed pages are still intact, so I'll have to keep an eye out for a little old pair of scissors to fit on the cover!

Meager findings this time, but I just haven't had the chance to get out much. I'm positively itching to get my hands on some vintage Christmas goodies and am anxious for my local thrift stores to start putting out their holiday merchandise!

Did you find any treasures this weekend?

Halloween platters 2011

I mentioned in Monday's Junk Finds post that I did something fun and Halloweeny with the Fire King peach lustre bowl that I bought at the thrift store.

Fire King peach lustre spider bowl

And here it is! I knew when I saw it that the orange color would be perfect for Halloween crafting. I spookified it with a big black spider. Although I'm always on the lookout for Fire King dishes, I've never collected peach lustre because it didn't fit in with my color scheme. Now I see how perfect it is for Halloween decorating, so I might just give it a second look!

Trick or Treat antique plate

The mark on this amazing ironstone plate gives it a manufacture date from sometime between 1867 and 1878! It has some really great crazing and staining that definitely adds to the distressed, spooky look.

Yellow moon with bats platter

When I found this vintage yellow platter, I realized it looked just like a big golden full moon, so of course I had to add some bats flying across. I love how it turned out!

Happy Halloween large oval Coronet platter

I think this is my favorite of this year's Halloween plates. This gorgeous platter is from the Coronet line by Homer Laughlin, which was produced in the mid-1930s. The Coronet line had all of the same forms, but there were dozens and dozens of different versions based on the way the design was painted. This platter is unpainted, and it was the absolute perfect size for the Happy Halloween image! It's huge and heavy and a great statement piece. I absolutely love it.

Orange crow or raven platter

This platter is not necessarily vintage, but the terra cotta orange color made it perfect for Halloween, and the big crow was just the right size for it! I added a red jewel for his eye, just for fun.

These three plates are from my 2010 collection and are still available:

Spider silhouette plate

Spooky spider plate

Pair of spiders square plate

All of these are available right now in my Etsy shop!

Weekend junk finds

You know, I didn't mean to skip blogging last week, but it just kept on getting pushed further and further down the to-do list that I finally gave up. I've been working hard every day and falling in bed exhausted every night, and it hasn't helped that Porter has had a lousy week in the sleeping-through-the-night department. I'm hoping this week will be better, although I still have plenty to do.
 

I've been doing some fun Halloween crafting and hope to get it done soon so that I can 1) clean it off my kitchen counters before it gets ruined by someone spilling a glass of juice on it and 2) have something to show you all! In the meantime, I have a few photos to share of some things I've thrifted recently.

This Fire King peach lustre bowl and aqua cake plate came from a thrift store I visited in Utah back in August. I did something fun and Halloweeny with the bowl that I'll share later this week. I bought the cake plate intending to resell it, but I love it too much! I just used it tonight, in fact, for another fun craft I'll share later.

This trio of glasses also came from the thrift in Utah, a chain called Deseret Industries. DI stores seem to get picked over really quickly but their prices are generally lower than any of the thrifts here in Colorado so if you're lucky enough to be there at just the right time you can find some inexpensive treasures. I was tickled to find these CatStudio geography glasses for $1 apiece, especially since I'd just seen some for full price a few weeks earlier at the gift shop of the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington D.C.

I found this milk glass sugar bowl last week at the thrift store. I've seen plenty of orphaned creamers in my thrifting, but never one like this. I love that it looks like a little trophy! I bought this one with a Christmas craft project in mind but I like it so much that I might just leave it unadorned.

I bought this tablecloth at a garage sale I screeched into while we were on the way to Maren's soccer game last weekend. We were out in a very rural area so I hoped maybe the garage sale was being held at a fabulous old farmhouse where they were selling all of the old stuff I love for pennies. Well, not exactly--but I did get the vintage tablecloth for $3! It was actually on a table under the items for sale, but when I asked the owner if she'd sell it, she remarked that her grandmother had given her a stack of tablecloths and she'd take $2 for it. ~ack!~ I asked if she was interested in selling the others, but she declined, and I actually felt guilty that she was selling me her grandma's tablecloth for 2 bucks, so I gave her an extra dollar. She probably thought I was a nutcase to be giving her more than she asked for.

This delicious old green stoneware bowl came from the thrift store just a few days ago. It's unmarked, but I can tell it has some good age by the amount of wear inside. It does have a crack running down one side but I plan to keep this for my own use and enjoyment, and it's barely visible so I don't mind. Plus it cost me the grand total of 75¢ so if it breaks one of these days, I'll be sad but not out much money!

This last item I bought from Etsy, but it fits in with the rest of the good old junk in this post. With the change in the seasons, I'm moving from my nautical obsession into a plaid obsession. I saw this darling little vintage Ohio Art plaid lunch tin and snapped it right up! It also came with a tall vintage plaid Thermos (a collection I'm doing my very best to try to avoid starting because I know I'll fall hard and fall fast and WHERE am I going to display a bunch of Thermoses?) It reminds me of the larger printed metal picnic baskets, but it's a much smaller version, and little things are automatically cute, right?

Did you find any good junk this weekend? I'm linking up with Thrift Share Monday over at Apron Thrift Girl!

Weekend junk finds: vintage Christmas and PINK goodness!

The Mister had to work this past weekend so I scheduled a babysitter so that I could squeeze in some junking before we left town again. Maren begged to go with me, and against my better judgment I acquiesced and let her come too. I truly enjoy her company, but estate sale shopping in an old and extremely crowded house and then a craft fair in the HOT sun is probably not most 6-year-olds' idea of a good time, and you can imagine the whining that ensued. I'd love to cultivate in her an interest in old things and the art of treasure hunting, but perhaps I'll stick to yard sales and thrift stores with her for the time being.

That being said, I did still find some treasures in our travels.

The contents of this box were from the doozy of an estate sale we attended. It was very conveniently located on the way to our chief destination, and since it was Saturday morning everything was 50% off. This estate sale company prices things very fairly to begin with, so at 50% off you can find really great, cheaper-than-the-thrift store deals! The 2-quart Ball jar was $1.50, for example. It had the original zinc lid but it was completely corroded through and had to be tossed. I also found four old yardsticks for my stash. (that reminds me--I made a yardstick project! I need to photograph and post that one when I get back home next week.)

After the estate sale, we headed over to our main destination, the Summer Horseshoe Market. I attended the Spring Market back in May and loved it so much that I couldn't wait to go back! This time there were even more vendors and wonderful things to look at. Because the market is held in a parking lot, it was HOT--too hot for my 6-year-old shopping partner, which prompted lots of complaints and asking when we were going to go home. We cooled down in the misting tent (smart addition to the market!) and ate a gourmet ice cream sandwich, but we just couldn't stay as long as I would have otherwise.

I did find a few things to bring home:

The popcorn sacks will be perfect for Porter's upcoming vintage circus-themed birthday party, and the keys will go in my jewelry-making box. But this was the item that stole my heart:

I spotted this vintage pink Therm-a-Jug in the Pink Attic Cat booth, which just so happened to be the first one we entered as it's right at the Market entrance. I had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket but didn't want to spend it all five steps into the Market, so I decided to wait and if it was still available on our way out, I'd buy it. Well, we all know the Cardinal Rule of Junk Shopping: Buy It When You See It! I just knew that I'd be SO disappointed if I saw someone walking around with MY pink jug, so we headed back to Pink Attic Cat and to my relief, it was still there! It's in beautiful condition and it even works. Even though I only made one 'big' purchase at the market, I couldn't be more pleased with my treasure!

Did you do any junking over the weekend?

My first trip to the Goodwill Outlet

The other day I had my first trip to the Goodwill Outlet. It's been open for quite a while now and it's not very far away--in fact, it's just a few minutes away from a few other thrifts I visit occasionally. It's on the other side of the freeway, so I've always forgotten that it's there or worried that it would be hard to manage when I have the kids with me, which is 90% of the time.

Yesterday we were close by and the kids were in a good mood, so I decided to stop and have a look around, expecting to just pop in, get the lay of the land, and then leave. We ended up staying for quite a while and I actually managed to find some treasures!

For the uninitiated, this is how it works: there are a number of large, wheeled bins lined up on the floor. The bins are shallow, more like tables, and they are heaped high with STUFF. (you can see a photo to give you an idea over at Apron Thrift Girl). There is no rhyme or reason to what is in each bin, except for books and fabric items (clothing/linens are grouped together), which have their own bins. You dig through and if you find anything to buy, your items are weighed and priced by the pound. Every so often, workers come out and take the bins to the back and bring new ones out.

The fascinating thing was that there are people who literally camp out there ALL DAY, sitting on the various pieces of furniture they have for sale. When I walked in, I saw groups of carts scattered all over the store, covered with sheets and couldn't figure out what they were for. I soon realized that they were peoples' 'claims'. When the workers came out to remove the bins and bring the new ones, these people lined up all along the sides and once all the bins were in place, they were given the go-ahead and all hell broke loose as they started tossing through the bins. There wasn't room for their carts next to them, so they all had laundry baskets and trash cans and plastic bins that they threw their finds into, which they then transferred to their sheet-covered shopping carts. Then at the end of the day, they push their carts onto the scales and settle up.

I saw a few people that appeared to be grabbing brass and copper and anything they could sell for scrap. I'm not sure what the others were looking for, but I'm guessing that what they bought was intended for resale in some venue. At first it seemed sort of, well, undignified, the way people were looting through the bins. But the more I think about it, it seems like if you are a picker, it's the easy way to go--the stuff is brought out to you, you don't have to go anywhere to look for it! Heck, they even have a vending machine in the store, so I imagine that this routine goes on in all of the other Goodwill Outlets as well.

Lucky for me, it didn't appear that anyone else was looking for vintage or antique items! Here is my loot:

A vintage strawberry tablecloth and some vintage Christmas. I took the green and gold tinsel off an ugly blow mold candle, and miraculously the ornaments and the tree topper somehow escaped being smashed to smithereens in the bins.

A cool old crate that once held 25 lbs. of prunes. (insert poop joke here)

An awesome vintage old lady purse that's encrusted with seashells. I can't decide whether to keep or sell, but I'm leaning toward keep because the kitsch factor is so high! It has a cute floral lining and it's in really great shape.

A vintage Little Lu-Lu punch board game. I've never seen one before and I don't know what I'll do with it, but the graphics are cool. I'm guessing this is the kind of thing you might have found at a bar? There are hundreds of tiny foil-covered holes and you would have paid a nickel to punch into one and see if there was a colored ticket with the correct numbers to win you some money. Only a few of the holes have been punched, but whatever tool was used to punch/pull out the tickets is missing. I might have to research this one some more. The board itself is an inch thick, so it's nice and heavy.

I also found a big piece of fake greenery for my tiki party decor, but it didn't make it into the photos. The last thing I found was this Thomas the Tank Engine Playhut, which retails on Amazon for $39.95! I was really surprised that this didn't get grabbed in the initial rush, especially since I spotted another large Thomas toy in somebody's "claim" basket. Porter is crazy for Thomas, and this is a great outside toy for the summer.

For all of my loot I paid just over $9.00! I listed the strawberry tablecloth on Etsy yesterday afternoon and it sold immediately, covering my costs so the rest of it was basically FREE! I'll definitely be going back to the Outlet in the future--it definitely satisfied my need to hunt for treasure. However, next time, I'll either bring gloves or handi-wipes because I felt all kinds of grimy when I got out of there.

Have you ever been to the Goodwill Outlet? Have any tips for the next time I go?

Vintage flower pots and garden shelf

I didn't get around to planting a garden this year. After the massive disappointments of the previous few years, I just decided it wasn't worth the effort or the money just so that I can produce yet another Epic Gardening Fail. Some may call me defeatist, I call myself a realist. I've finally realized that my tiny yard just doesn't have a good, easy place to have a garden--and I need it to be easy. I just don't have the patience to deal with keeping anything else alive.

I do have one little spot of green growing things but mostly it's just an excuse to display more of my vintage and thrifted treasures.

I bought this darling little yellow wire flower pot rack last summer from a vintage store that was going out of business. I already had a few pots, but since last year have found enough pots to fill it up. The pots are from various sources. Here's a map to show what they are and where I found them:

I love all of the bright colors! They match well with the welcome mat The Mister picked out a few years ago. I will fully admit that it took me until about two weeks ago to actually buy plants to put in the pots! At least the empty pots still looked cute on my doorstep.

We've had terrible rainstorms over the past week and about two days after I took this photo, we had a thunderstorm so powerful that the rain water actually forced half of the dirt out of the pots! It was accompanied by hail that beat the flowers all to heck, so all that was left was a bunch of stems in half-empty pots. I've refilled the dirt and hopefully the blooms will return!

Weekend junk finds: vintage Christmas and linens

The Mister had to work this weekend, so I actually hired a babysitter on Saturday morning for four hours just for the pleasure of going somewhere BY MYSELF. Of course, my first order of business was a little junking, and I found a family-run estate sale not too far away. It was really good--great prices and good vintage junk. Here's what I brought home:

A monkeypod wood tray from Hawaii for my upcoming Tiki party, a pair of salt and pepper shakers destined for Etsy, and a piece of off-white Haeger pottery.

A pretty tablecloth & napkin set in bright green and orange, still in original wrappings! Those are headed for Etsy as well.

Embroidered vintage linens (I never fail to be delighted at anthropomorphic veggies!)

Printed vintage linens

And vintage Christmas! Here we have a large Santa candle (not sure he's a Gurley, he may be one of the other brands whose name I can't remember now), a fancy plastic tree-topper, tinsel, a very old jointed naked baby doll, two very old teddy bears, and a pair of papier mache containers (the little girl next to Santa and the snowman) that I think are much older than the rest of the stuff.

I bought a huge box of old outdoor lights just to glean those fabulous swirly bulbs. I tossed all the cords--vintage electric stuff makes me nervous! The front reindeer on the silver Santa in back needs a bit of glue and it will be good as new. Lots of teeny-tiny Shiny Brites and a handful of vintage ornaments rounded out the lot.

I did drive across town to hit another estate sale but it was a bust, especially since I'd just found all of this great stuff for cheap! Today, I'm linking up with Selena's Thrift Share Monday. Go see what other good junk bloggers found this weekend!

Weekend junk finds: Jadeite, rhinestones, vintage tablecloths

I didn't get much of a chance to go out junking this weekend because The Mister was busy and honestly, I just wasn't up to hauling the kids in and out of the car at every single garage sale. Maren has turned into quite the little garage sale shopper and she's good company, but Porter is, well...not as good company. ;) So I waited until Saturday afternoon when The Mister was home and set out for the thrift stores instead, as both Goodwill and ARC were having 50% off sales.

I did find a few fun things to bring home. There was a Jadeite mug which I'm 99% sure is a repro, but it will look just great in my collection and for 75¢, I'm not a stickler for authenticity! I also found two pair of earrings for the Box of Happy, and a pair of fun sparkly rhinestone pins for my collection including one that's a peacock with a red aurora borealis body. The goodies are sitting on a first for me--a 25¢ vintage tablecloth! That one was found a church yard sale. It's soaking in OxiClean right now but even if the few spots don't come out, I don't think I mind much for a quarter.

A bit later that day at the ARC store, I found a vintage Wilendur tablecloth in a pattern I'd never seen before. After looking at my tablecloth books, I now know the pattern is called Penn-Dutch and it was produced in a variety of color combinations--the one I found was turquoise, orange, yellow and green. Unfortunately, the condition was pretty bad, and even though it would have only cost $3.00, that felt like an outrageous sum after paying a quarter for a vintage tablecloth an hour before! I left it behind.

I know I've seen  Vintage Textile Soak advertised on blogs and in magazines--have any of you used it? Is it really better than OxiClean or Biz? I've been able to get most stains out with a good soak in OxiClean, but there are a few that are stubborn--I'm looking at the cutest aqua floral cloth right now with some yellowish stains that just won't come out. I'd love any feedback that you have about VTS.

What did you find this weekend?

Weekend junk finds and New stuff in my shop

This weekend's junk finds serve as another reminder that good, old junk can still be found in the suburbs! Sometimes I get so hung up on the old houses=old junk theory that I bypass my local sales, thinking they'll just be full of baby clothes and old VHS tapes (because frequently, they are!).

This jewelry was found at a sale within walking distance of my house! The sale didn't look like much from the street, but when I got up close I found a card table absolutely covered in little bags of jewelry that had belonged to the seller's aunt, a woman who ran a folk dance troupe somehow connected with the UN. I was able to find goodies to replenish my Box of Happy:

Which was running low in a few colors. I'll be keeping the bright red beaded necklace, and I'll have to perform some repair work on the pretty blue moonglow Lucite necklace at the bottom of the photo.

That morning I found another interesting sale not far from my house. When we got there, I thought I heard the sellers mention that everything on the driveway was FREE--and there was a ton of stuff! I picked out a few things--a vintage Christmas corsage, a few tiny pieces of vintage pottery--and approached the seller to pay, only to be told again that it was all FREE. When I asked why, she said that the previous day there had been a terrific thunderstorm while they'd been running the sale. They'd had to run for cover to the garage, leaving all of the merchandise out in the driveway to be rained upon, and the lightening was so severe that they were afraid to go out and get it all. Thus, much of the stuff got wet and they felt like they couldn't charge any money for it.

There were a few boxes of damp books, but most of the stuff displayed on the tables was perfectly fine! There were more things I would like to have taken (a few vintage items, a few useful items) but it honestly made me so uncomfortable to take it without paying that I just couldn't do it! It was weird. (I did take the corsage and the pottery--I think my total for those items would have been about $1 so I didn't feel too bad, and come on--who could leave behind a vintage Christmas corsage?)

I've been working hard to refill my sad, neglected Etsy shop with some fun items--go check it out! Here's a sampling of what you'll find:

Weekend junk finds

I managed a quick bit of junking this weekend. I only had Friday to go out because I was expecting company on Saturday morning. Many of the subdivisions around us are having their neighborhood sales every weekend this month, so I didn't have to drive far to find anything!

I found this great wrought iron plant stand for $2.50. We're in the middle (the very messy middle) of refinishing our deck and making it a place we actually want to be, and part of that plan is adding plants! I picked up two tropical palms on sale at the grocery store the day before and was thrilled to find that one fit perfectly in the plant stand! It may get a coat of spray paint somewhere along the way.

 This cool mirror is huge--around 5' long. It's tricky to photograph a great big mirror, so it looks a bit weird in my photo. It was $5 and the seller said she'd always hoped to do something neat with it. It is older, but I'm not sure how old. I think the frame needs a coat of paint and then I might try to do some distressing on the mirror glass itself with muriatic acid and then back it with fabric, a technique from Mandi at Vintage Revivals that I've been dying to try! If it works, I may hang this above the large open entry way you can see in the photo of the plant stand above. I need something interesting to fill up that space and a great big mirror might just be it!

A few more smalls for planting flowers: two old tins (or I could do this with them) and an old crock, of which I already have a slightly larger version.

Two more planting possibilities: an old cheese box and a sewing machine drawer. The drawer has had it's knob removed and the previous owner installed a couple of sawtooth hangers so it can be hung on the wall.

Peek-a-boo! Did you find any good junk this weekend? I'm in Southern Colorado right now; in just a few hours is my grandmother's estate auction. I'll have more to say about that when I get back home!