Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage Pink Shiny Brites and more

 I happened to be coming back from the grocery store with Porter one Friday morning when I saw an Estate Sale sign in a neighborhood not far from my house. I was leery because I live in a new area, so it was unlikely to be a 50-year accumulation sale with tons of vintage goodies. I've been lured into a few "estate sales" in my area, which turned out to be sales of newish furniture in houses that were most likely being foreclosed upon. I almost didn't stop, but I could see that the house was right off the main road so I could likely be in and out quickly.

When inside, I realized that indeed it was full of vintage goodies, even though it was a house no more than about 10 years old and the woman running it was not much older than I. Truthfully, it was a glorified indoor garage sale, but with goodies like this and low prices, I wasn't about to complain!

I love this vintage metal wastebasket! The colors are so bright and happy. This is a small can, much more practical than the big DecoWare cherry trash can I bought a few weeks ago. I haven't decided if I'll keep this one to use or sell it alongside the cherry can.

Vintage Christmas ornaments--PINK vintage Shiny Brite Christmas ornaments, to be exact! I think I paid $2 per box for these.

And more vintage ornaments, which are sitting in an old wooden soda crate that someone painted pale pink. I'm not opposed to pink (obviously!) but I love the graphics on old soda crates so much that I wish this one had been left alone! I can't decide if I should leave it pink and just distress it a bit, or just paint over it in another color altogether--since it's already painted, I have nothing to lose! Sitting on the crate are three vintage pink rose cloth napkins.

When I first walked in, I snatched up the Shiny Brites right away. I hadn't been prepared to go junking so I only had a little cash with me. The other thing that immediately caught my eye was a huge basket full of blue glass canning jars with zinc lids. There must have been close to 20, and they were marked $5 each. I had to cut my shopping time short because I was 1) out of money and 2) Porter was behaving like a bull in a china shop, so I left to go home and hand him off to Quin and get more cash and head back. I thought maybe if I offered to buy all of the jars that I could get them for a lower price but by the time I got back just an hour later, they were gone and the basket was too, so somebody else bought the whole kit and caboodle just like I had planned to do. Cardinal rule of thrift shopping: if you see something you like, buy it right away or risk being disappointed later! Rats.

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

Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage Christmas

These fun goodies were actually from the same estate sale as last week's finds, but I saved them to show on their own because vintage Christmas goodies should never have to share the spotlight. :D

Everything that I bought was thrown into couple of box lots so I couldn't see exactly what I had until I got home and pulled it all out. I was definitely pleasantly surprised! I love the big snowman--he's a cardboard candy container but he seems to be covered with a layer of wax. I'm not sure if that was intentional or accidental, but either way, he's charming! His snowman compadres are of the pinecone and styrofoam ball variety. There were several Styrofoam crafts among the items that I bought. The green trees were attached to their bases with toothpicks and decorated with tiny mercury glass balls whose wires had been poked into the trees.

Here we have a giant version of the green Styrofoam tree, and a smaller version that has no ornaments, only a dusting of tarnished German glass glitter snow on the branches. In the other part of the forest is a stand of bottlebrush trees, a pair of foil angels with shocking hairdos, and another pinecone snowman sporting a strange blue paint job and resting on more Styrofoam.

Pink vintage Christmas gets its own picture. :) This guy is made from a spun cotton head, a fuzzy chenille stem body with a pipe cleaner candy cane and a pair of pink glass ornaments, all anchored into --you guessed it--more Styrofoam.

And last, the best kind of Christmas flotsam: spun head angels, tiny pink-tinged reindeer, sugar bells, pipe cleaner snowmen and a tiny skier, a bunch of small-sized mercury glass picks, and a pair of fantastic corsages made from foil leaves, mercury glass beads and shiny candy canes.

This weekend I went downtown to a beautiful historic mansion to visit a craft fair. I bought only a few things, but the place was hopping and it was nice to see that buying handmade hasn't gone out of style! Did you find any treasures this weekend?

I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

Weekend Junk Finds

I went to an estate sale on Thursday afternoon, which was only possible due to the fact that all of the middle & high school kids were out of school so I could get a baby-sitter for mine, who were also out of school. I thought perhaps a Thursday afternoon sale might be a bit less busy than a Friday morning opening sale. I was so very laughably WRONG about that!

The sale was in a typically small old house and it was probably the most crowded sale I've yet to encounter. I got there about 10 minutes after opening and there was no line--they just let everyone in. It was nice to not have to wait out in the snow but golly, this was one house where it might have been in everyone's best interest to only let a certain number go in at a time. There were places in the house that were literally shoulder-to-shoulder, and I think the Fire Marshal would have shut us down if he'd seen. It was so dark and crowded so it was really challenging to shop. I found a few things but they need ironing before I can photograph, so I'll have to share those another week.

This week's finds were from another estate sale from a few weeks back.

When will I stop buying old canning jars? Apparently the answer to that is never. I am going to have to get a grip on that little obsession. Also a cute Shawnee yellow flowerpot, which although I have two other yellow vintage flowerpots, I do not feel one bit guilty for buying.

Another cute little flowerpot, this one unmarked. Love the little polka dots! The time book is unused and has a great graphic on the front. The teeny orange notebook has calendars for 1951 & 1952.

Because I'm Mad for Plaid, I couldn't pass up these little jelly jars with plaid lids. They came filled with flower seeds, and I think when it gets a bit warmer, I'm going to go dump them outside and cross my fingers. Maybe I'll be surprised!

This fun little assortment of junk was inside a box that I plucked from the back of a high shelf. In addition to the fun colorful dice, there is a tiny Future Farmers of America pin, a US Navy Honorable Discharge button, a cool heavy metal tag advertising Monarch Ranges, a 1947 lucky wheat penny horseshoe keychain from Ernie's Club Cafe, and what I think is the neatest treasure: two Indian head pennies from 1905 & 1906.

And last, two old metal refrigerator baskets and a very cool Decoware cherry-painted wastebasket. As much as I love it, I think it's destined to be sold. It's an odd size--too small for use in a kitchen, but too large for use anywhere else. It would be cute to use for storing rolls of wrapping paper or vintage wallpaper, but I don't have any that needs storing right now. I'm hoping to sell at a craft/vintage show in October so I think I'll hang onto this until then, as bulky as it is.

Did you find any goodies this weekend? I'm linking to Thrift Share Monday over at Apron Thrift Girl!

Collecting: Ovenex Starburst pans

Yesterday I showed you a vintage Ovenex starburst pan that I bought at an antique store--the latest addition to my little collection.

I first saw an Ovenex starburst pan in the pages of either Country Home (RIP) or Country Living magazine, in the form of a muffin tin. I thought it was so pretty and vowed to find one just like it, even though I had no idea of a maker.

In my thrifting, I somehow managed to find just that--a muffin tin! I found that it was marked Ovenex, a popular company that made baking pans that I believe is still in business under the Ecko name. That led me to do a little more research and I found that this type of pan is commonly called sunburst or starburst.

Since then, I've been able to expand my collection. I try to only buy pieces when they are nice and shiny and not rusty. That fluted pan from yesterday was an exception--it has some rust but is still mostly shiny.

In all, I have found the following pieces: two heart-shaped cake pans, a fluted pan, a fluted pan with a hole in the middle, a muffin tin, two different size loaf pans, a pie tin with a fluted edge, two regular round cake pans and two round cake pans with a release arm. The two fluted pans are my favorites!

I'd love to find an extra-long loaf pan like Sarah has, or a big cookie sheet like this one currently for sale on eBay. Wouldn't that look neat hanging on a wall as a magnet board?

If you are a reseller, these pans do sell, especially the larger or more unusual sizes (check out this completed auction!) and especially if they are in good condition (shiny, no rust) because as far as I know, there isn't a good way to clean them. Ovenex also made bakeware in another pattern that looks like a waffleweave, but I don't think it's as desirable as the starburst pans unless it's really shiny and like new.

Weekend junk finds

I must make a confession: these junk finds aren't from this past weekend. They're not from any weekend in the past month, actually. I still have some junk finds saved up from my insomnia-induced blogging break so I wanted to share those since I didn't get out junking this weekend.

These finds are from a variety of sources. The cute scalloped Ovenex pan was from an antique mall, but it was such a good price that it came home with me. I have a small collection of these Ovenex starburst pans that I plan to show you later. The darling vintage Hazel Atlas nut chopper with the red wood ball handle was from a thrift store. For Valentine's Day I filled it with festive candy corn and it looked so cute on my windowsill!

Last, the old green Coke bottle was from another antique mall. It was only $1 so I grabbed it, because they're usually priced much higher than that. I love the pale green color and I have it on my desk holding some cute little flags. One think I noticed when I was moving it around to take photos--that bottle is heavy.

I found this lovely vintage tablecloth at the thrift store in nearly perfect condition....until I washed it with something red. {smacks forehead} Can you believe that? I've been doing laundry for how many years?--definitely long enough to know better than to make that mistake! And the sick thing is, that was the second time I dyed something pink in the wash in about a month, so I should have been extra cautious. In my defense, I washed the items in cold water so I didn't think there would be a problem. The white cloth now has a very pale pinkish hue, not enough to make it ugly, but enough to remind me that I won't make that mistake again!

And last an assortment of vintage earrings to replenish my crafting stash. I think my all-time favorites are anything with those pretty aurora borealis crystals like the ones in the middle. I love them, so much that I have a hard time parting with them and actually using them in my creating.

Speaking of hoarding, I realized this week why I still haven't watched the last 3 episodes of "Downton Abbey" that have been patiently waiting on my DVR: I'm afraid to watch them because I know that when they're over, there won't be anymore for another year! Yes, friends, I'm hoarding "Downton Abbey."

Did you get out junking this weekend? Did you find any treasures? Have you ever hoarded a book or movie or am I just a total lunatic?

I'm linking to Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl!

Weekend thrift finds: jars, jewelry, and Fire King

Back near the beginning of my bout with insomnia, I had a Friday where Porter was gone and Maren was at school all day--so I was ALONE for 6.5 hours! I had hoped to go visit some estate sales since I finally had a Friday morning free--and wouldn't you know it, there weren't any! Sheesh. I had to make do at the thrift stores and then topped off my day with a massage. I hadn't slept much the night before so I felt pretty much like a zombie and couldn't enjoy my free day as much as I would have liked. Mostly, I just felt so lonely! Hard to believe, since I spend many days hauling a kicking-and-screaming toddler around and wishing I had Mary Poppins so I could just go buy groceries BY MYSELF. Here I finally had the chance to do it and I was a basket case.

Well, at least I found some good junk to make up for my emotional state.

I am physically unable to pass up blue glass canning jars. Even when they look as, um....fancy...as these did when I found them. As soon as I got home I ripped off all the icky lace and fake pearls and flowers. It took some scrubbing and a liberal application of Un-du, but I was finally able to remove all of the old glue and now I have four more jars to add to my collection. I was especially glad to find two of the small pint jars, since those are so much harder to find around here.

The large gold anchor pendant is perfect for feeding my nautical fashion obsession, which is awakening to plenty of lovely navy-and white-striped Spring fashions after Winter hibernation. I've been looking for an anchor necklace for months with no luck! I don't love the shiny gold, so I'm going to see if I can't tone that down a bit. The cat brooch was cute, though I don't know if it's truly vintage. I do know the fantastic owl head is, though! I love his big blue sparkly eyes.

These aren't vintage, but they're close enough for me! They're Christopher Radko Shiny Brites and they're just as pretty as the old ones. These were actually on 75%-off post-Christmas clearance at TJ Maxx.

And the big find of the day--a Fire King tulip grease jar and salt & pepper set! I was beyond excited to find these. I think they'd just been put out, and when one of the employees saw me taking them out of the glass case and putting them in my basket she stopped and remarked that she'd been thinking about buying them herself. The prices were not super cheap, but based on what they're going for on eBay, I still got a heck of a deal. The only bummer--the paint on the tulips was in pretty near mint condition to begin with. However, some nitwit put the price stickers right over the tulips on the S&P set and used cheap packing tape to tape the lid on the jar. Even though the stickers and tape peeled off very easily, they still managed to take off a few tiny flakes of paint on the flowers all over. Not mint anymore. :( Oh well! I won't be selling them anytime soon so I suppose it doesn't matter and they still look great to me, minty or not.

Did you find anything good this weekend? I'm linking to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Tuesday!

Weekend Junk finds: vintage Christmas, milk bottles and rhinestones

In the week after Christmas, I got to go antique shopping with my girlfriends, something I've always wanted to do! We went to a huge antique mall across town that is in an old grocery store space, so it's ridiculously huge. By the time you get halfway through, your eyes start to glaze over a bit, but it's a great place to go if you're looking for something specific--with so many vendors, you're bound to find it.

Because it was after Christmas, most vendors had sales in their booths and I was definitely motivated to help them unload their wares. ;) I was of course on the lookout for vintage Christmas:

And found these great old boxes with the items still in them. Someday I'd love to have a great Christmas packaging display like Shara has, but I've got a long way to go! I also bought a great box of vintage ornaments for $1.50 (hooray for 75% off!) but I didn't get a photo of those before I put them away.

One thing I was looking for on that trip and successfully found were milk bottles:

Because I'm starting a dairy. ;) Okay, no, but I have something in mind for them! I'd been looking on Etsy and eBay but since they're glass and heavy, shipping was always a killer. These were all discounted and less than $8 each, which I think was a great deal. The one in the middle I actually found on a different antiquing trip later that week, and it was only $2! Couldn't leave it behind for that price.

I hit the thrifts hard the week before Christmas when they put all of the Christmas decor on sale, but I didn't come up with much. I didn't have any BIG vintage Christmas thrift scores this year like I have for the previous two, so that was a bit disappointing. On one trip, I did find this gorgeous brooch:

It wasn't on sale and the full price was definitely more than I'd like to pay, so I woke up early on Christmas Eve morning and went back to the store because everything was 50% off that day. Well, almost everything, except--you guessed it--the brooch! Phooey! But I had been thinking about it constantly for two days (and dragged myself out of bed at 7:00 on Christmas Eve morning) and so I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas gift. It's absolutely gorgeous! You can't tell from the photo, but it's easily as big across as the palm of my hand. The stones are clear and beautiful and it sparkles like crazy! It's not marked but I can tell it is a nice quality piece. I paid more for it than I have for any of my other pretties, with the exception of Viola's jewels, but I think it was worth it.

The upshot is that while I was at the store buying my brooch, I found FIVE of the "It's A Wonderful Life" village houses that Melissa mentioned just a few days prior on 320 Sycamore. I would totally have passed them by if I hadn't read that post, but thanks to Melissa I knew to scoop them up (at 50% off, no less!) and now they're tucked away until I put them on eBay next Christmas. I think when I sell those next year I'll make enough to call my pretty brooch a true gift!

And just so that you don't think all I ever drag home is silly vintage stuff:

proof in the form of three Henckels knives that cost me an average of $1 each. They probably retailed for $30-45 apiece. A quick trip through my knife sharpener, and they are as good as new! My main chef's knife is a Henckels so finding these was a true score to me.

What's on your junking wish list for 2012?

Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage Christmas

Now, to be honest--I didn't find this stuff this past weekend. Another weekend, yes, but this weekend I was too busy for junking! Saturday night I had some friends come over to craft and enjoy brownie & peppermint ice cream sundaes, which meant that I spent the entire day finally getting the tree and the rest of the house decorated. It took literally hours and started to feel like work rather than pleasure at about Hour 4, but the upside is that my house looks beautiful and at least I got it all done in one day! Usually, I have the mess and Christmas boxes strewn about for half a week while I decide, a little at a time, where everything will go. This year I had a deadline, so it forced me to make quicker decisions and just get it done!

I do love opening up my boxes and reacquainting myself with all of my pretties, and adding each year's thrifted finds to the mix. I've been hitting the thrifts regularly, searching for treasures! Here are a few things I've found this year:

Lots of pretty, bright ornaments in primary colors.

Lovely pale pinks and aquas too, as well as a vintage green swirly plate.

A bagful of random Christmas stuff that turned out to be much better than it looked on first glance! There's a plastic Shiny Brite nativity, a handful of sugared bells, a few spun heads, a tiny Christmas stocking, a hard plastic angel, and a few yards of really neat colored aluminum garland, which is now residing on my Christmas tree!

Handmade jeweled ornaments, the second such set that I've found. The base is satin ball ornaments, and then somebody used straight pins to affix ribbon, sequins, and pieces of broken costume jewelry to the balls. I found a set like this last year as well, so it must have been a common craft. I'm generally in the "more is better" camp when it comes to vintage Christmas, but even these are over the line for me. So thirty minutes later I had this:

 A nice little pile of vintage sequins, pearls and jewels to repurpose in my crafting. It did give me pause to wonder what crafts I've made that will show up in a thrift store in 30 years, that someone might buy and take apart to use for scraps!

Did you do anything fun and festive this weekend?

PS--I'm linking up with Thrift Share Monday over at Apron Thrift Girl!

Weekend Junk Finds: vintage hankies, Christmas ornaments, and buttons

Hello, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We shared Thanksgiving dinner with some friends, which was wonderful--good food and great company! Then on Sunday, I cooked a turkey and all of the fixins' because to me, part of the fun of Thanksgiving is having yummy leftovers! I'm still washing dishes (love my vintage Pyrex, hate not being able to put it in the dishwasher) so I didn't get a post up for yesterday, but I wanted to share my latest junky finds.

A few weeks ago there was a rare estate sale not far from my home. I live way out on the south east side of town, and it seems like most estate sales are held in the opposite parts of the metro area--the older, more established areas, which makes sense. It's bad enough that I have to usually drag a kid or two with me, and driving 45 minutes to get there in the first place just makes it worse! So when there's a sale on this side of town, I'm there! This one was in an older home and although it was run by a professional estate sale company, the prices were really, really low! I found some fun things to buy and I know if I hadn't been trying to keep a certain 2-year-old from trying to break the antique toy trains, I could have bought more. Here's what I managed to stash in my bag before The Toddler Tornado went on his rampage:

This cool old astronaut pillow is perfect for Porter's vintage space and robot-themed bedroom! I believe it was $2. I also found two unused boxes of skinny red-bordered Dennison labels, a roll of old tickets in the perfect shade of pale aqua blue, and a pint blue glass canning jar, which is destined to become one of these just as soon as I find another zinc lid for it!

I cannot get enough of old felt and sequin Christmas decorations! This is a really fabulous example. What you can't tell from the photo is that it's about 3 feet tall! Rudolph is missing a red gem for his nose, but I can fix that up right quick.

More vintage Christmas: aqua blue Shiny Brites, and a pile of perfectly aged feather tree ornaments. I also found a pile of old velvet ribbons. Vintage velvet ribbons are so much nicer than their new counterparts!

There were quite a few cute vintage hankies at this sale, marked $1 each. I wish now that I had picked up more, but I had limited cash on me and a few items were unpriced so I wasn't sure how much I had to spend, and I played it safe.

Several of them were souvenir hankies. I chose this one because of our recent trip to Washington D.C. I love the bright apple green color!

Isn't this one charming? I love the airplane and the ship! It goes perfectly with my recent nautical obsession.

I've also found a couple of big bags of vintage buttons recently. For me, part of what I'm buying when I purchase the buttons is the total enjoyment of the time I get to spend sorting out the buttons.

After sorting these two bags, I was left with a good pile of mother of pearl and shell buttons, the charming baby card above, and lots of other fun little treasures.

What about you--did you have the chance to get out and find any junk this weekend in between cooking turkey and scouring the Black Friday ads?

Weekend Junk Finds

Today I'm still in Phoenix, but I have some new junk goodies to share!

One trip to Goodwill to look for vintage Christmas goodies netted this cool vintage hard plastic lighted Santa.

He's on a Styrofoam base covered with some really pitiful-looking fake greenery and apples. At first I thought I'd just rip him off the base, but now I believe he needs some Shiny Brite and sugar bell magic, don't you think? With my trusty glue gun, I'll have him spruced up in no time!

A great old souvenir plate from the Harold Warp Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska (which is apparently still there), and a Lu-Ray butter dish missing its lid. It must have jettisoned by a dealer, because it still had the remnants of an antique store price label. Even lidless, I'm happy to find any Lu-Ray I can get my hands on!

Vintage ornaments in all sizes and shapes, with a mini glass tree topper to round out the collection.

This cute little oak chair was $6.99. Ever since the Great Desk Chair Debacle this summer, I've been on the hunt for a new chair. This one was cheap and in great shape so I grabbed it. I had originally wanted a chair to paint a glossy red, but I think I'm going to leave the oak finish rather than chance messing it up with paint. Again. I do need to recover the seat cushion but that's a 30-minute fix. The hardest part will be deciding which fabric to use!

This find had the ladies at the cash register oohing and aahing! It just so happens to be a close relative of the pink Therm-a-Jug I picked up at the Horseshoe Market earlier this summer.

The lids and spouts are different, but they're both darling! The white one is in very good shape--often I find vintage jugs like these with huge dents in the metal sides. With the addition of this new jug to the pink one and the red plaid one I thrifted a few years back,

it looks like I have a new (unwieldy and space-hogging) collection on my hands!

Did you find any good junk this weekend?

SPARK Giveaway winner and Weekend Junk Finds

First, I forgot to choose the winner for the SPARK 3 Giveaway last week.

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 3 

Which means the winner is LYNN! Lynn, please email me with your address (you can use the link over on the left) so I can send you some goodies! 


After a long thrifting drought, things finally seem to be picking up around here! The thrift stores have followed the retail stores in putting out their Christmas wares in the days after Halloween, so I've ratcheted up my thrift store visiting hoping to score some of my favorite vintage Christmas goodies! I've already had some small success, which will hopefully set the tone for Christmas goods to come. :)

This doesn't look like much in the photo, but in real life it's a perfectly aged, worn antique ironstone plate. It's small, but it's pretty! This one will be headed to my Etsy shop.

This find was one of those examples of the need to see past the present and find the potential at the thrift store. This old Ball jar has been fitted with a socket kit to turn it into a lamp. When I found it, it was filled with dried beans and topped with an ugly late 80s-era blue lamp shade. I re-donated the lamp shade literally as soon as the cashier rang it into the register--popped that sucker off and walked it right over to the big donation bin, and then dumped out the petrified beans once I got home and was left with this! Just think of all of the fun things I could put into the jar--mother of pearl buttons would be beautiful, and there's always Shara's fabulous lamp filled with vintage Christmas ornaments. What would you put in the lamp?

Vintage Shiny Brites never fail to make me happy! This batch had some pink, some of the pretty ombre variety, and even a pink indent and a green one with stenciled stars. More, please!

And the last find, which was plucked off a to-be-shelved cart. I'm absolutely crazy for the cheery decals on both sides, the red painted rim, and the perfectly crazed glaze. It looks the right size and shape for a flowerpot, but the stamp on the bottom states that it's "Oven-proof Bak-Serv". I can't imagine what you'd bake in such a tiny pot. I certainly won't be using it for cooking!


Did you find anything good this weekend? Have your thrift stores started putting out the Christmas goodies?