Weekend Junk Finds: Now my junk is called "inventory"

Hello, friends! I'm back from a last-minute vacation to squeeze in a visit to our families in Utah before Maren started school today. Now that I'm home, I'm in full-on Market Mode! I've been ordering supplies and making lists, and I finally registered for my sales tax license. I'm definitely feeling the time crunch before the first market on September 29, and I'm determined to work on either crafting or business stuff each day.

Because I'll be selling a mixture of handcrafted and vintage items, now when I go thrift shopping I have the justification that I'm "looking for inventory" ~wink-wink~ Actually, I really did find some goodies this past week and I think I'm even going to sell as much as I plan to keep!

This was my first buy of the weekend, and I have to admit I'm having some buyer's remorse over it. I bought it thinking that I could use it in my booth because one type of item I'm planning to sell is greeting cards. However, this sucker is HEAVY and takes up a lot of room and I really hadn't planned to make that many cards. I only paid $15 so I'm seriously considering throwing it on Craigslist to see if I can't get my money back or even a little bit more.

Did you know that Friday August 17th was National Thrift Shop Day? I know--pretty much every day is Thrift Shop Day as far as I'm concerned. But I did unintentionally celebrate on Friday when I took advantage of the last chance for daytime babysitters before the teenagers go back to school today. I ventured into the nearest Goodwill, which I usually avoid because for the past eight years it has been a dirty, messy disaster. On Friday I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they've rearranged the store and cleaned off the shelves and it looks 100% better! There are a lot fewer items on the shelves than before, but instead of making it feel sparse it made it easier to actually see the merchandise.

Merchandise like these two old heavy quadruple-plate silver pieces. I think they'll be perfect for my booth! I'm planning to have a Halloween/white/black/orange/fall color theme, with a few shots of aqua thrown in to liven things up. I'm not going to polish these because I think they have the perfect aged look.

I'm absolutely positive that if I put this old silver plate loving cup in my booth, it would sell. Without a doubt. Except for the fact that I've fallen in love with it and now I can't bear to part with it! Whoops.

This vintage green faux alligator cosmetic case does not fit my color scheme, but it's so neat I couldn't leave it behind.

Just look how cute the inside is, with the peach lining and the aged mirror. I think it will sell for sure, if not in my booth then on Etsy afterwards.

 

I've never seen this particular Pyrex pattern but these funky coffee cups were in the right color scheme, so in the booth they'll go. I also picked up this little aqua planter. I love the combination of orange and aqua and even though it isn't a traditional fall color, it's a trendy color and I think a few pops of aqua here and there in my booth will look nice.

I've also been on the hunt for a few larger pieces to sell. I found these at an estate sale Friday morning. They'll both get a coat of paint--not sure what colors yet, but one of them is going to end up aqua because I have a bunch of aqua paint. They'll be good display space and hopefully be eye-catching for shoppers.

And one last find from the estate sale--a box of vintage ornaments and a vintage "BEANO" game. Now, until Friday the only Beano I was acquainted with was this kind, so I learned something new when I found out that BEANO is an alternative to Bingo. Strange, but the cards are cute! The box had another set of red and blue Bingo cards and markers crammed inside as well, so I suppose we can play BEANO or BINGO, depending on how much fiber we need in our diets that particular day.

Tonight I took some time to start making boxes of "inventory" from the storage shelves in my basement; stuff that I've thrifted with resale in mind that fits my color scheme. I've already got three boxes full but will need much more to stock two 10' x 10' booths. Time to hit the stores for more "inventory" shopping! I'm linking up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

Birthday Giveaway winner and Weekend Junk Finds

I'm a little behind on posting my Birthday Giveaway winner--trying to jam-pack as much into the last bits of summer as we can and getting ready to go out of town for a week has me dragging!

I did this drawing the old-fashioned way to make sure I didn't miss anybody. Of course I had to use my Teardrop bowl. ;)

 Had a little mermaid draw a name and...

1 Buddha's Mom, you are the winner!

I don't see an email in your profile so please contact me at themerrymagpie@gmail.com so I can get your address!

Thank you ALL for your kind birthday wishes and for Liking my new Facebook page! You all know how to make a girl feel good on her birthday. :)

The junking has been sparse around here lately. Too much other stuff to do! I did find a few fun things:

Love this pair of vintage vases. I'm not sure what exactly they're supposed to be with all of the loops, but I liked the shapes and having a pair is nice. These will be for sale later this fall.

Vintage McCoy pink-striped baking dish. I've seen bowls in this pattern on other blogs but this is the first time I've ever seen a piece in the wild. I think it might be some kind of shallow baking dish? I bought this item with my local consignment store in mind. They take vintage/antique items as well clothing and other home decor pieces, so I'm trying to keep an eye out for items I can flip there. Their prices aren't very high and I only get 50%, so I have to be able to find the item for very little money to make any profit. I think yard sales would probably be the best buying venue--paying thrift store markup takes too big of a chunk out of profits. But I think this could be an interesting sales venue for items that are too heavy/fragile/bulky to ship.

I LOVE the colors of this crocheted afghan! Not something I normally buy, but I follow an Etsy shop that regularly lists and sells pretty afghans so when I saw this one I thought I might give it a try for fall. The colors are great and I like the dark brown stitching in between the stripes--reminds me a bit of stained glass leading. I think this has the perfect amount of balance between 'Granny' and 'Chic'!

Did you find any great junk this past week? What are you doing to enjoy the end of your summer?

Junk I didn't buy

Scenes from a(n Antique) Mall:

These darling Hazel Atlas glasses and caddy were at a booth in my local antique mall. The glasses were in really fantastic condition, but can you guess the price?

No, go higher.

Higher still.

Did you guess $90? Dingdingdingding! Yikes.Wonder if they'll ever sell at that hefty price? And that booth never runs sales as far as I can tell, so it's not like they marked them up so they can be 'discounted' at some point. Too rich for my blood!

Remember my awesome Royal Haeger Colorado ashtray? I found one of its buddies. Looking fine, Mr. Lincoln! I kind of wish I had a whole wall of these, even though I know they only made a handful of states.

This is a sad, sad story, made even more tragic by the fact that I KNOW BETTER. These cute little school chairs were marked down to $16 each. I very seriously debated buying a pair of them to replace a couple of my kids' little wooden chairs that are literally falling apart. I walked around the antique mall for a while thinking about it, but ultimately left without them. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

The next day I came to my senses and realized that was a really great price and what I should have done was asked if the seller would give them to me for $14 or $15 each if I bought them all. Then I would keep two and sell the rest for a profit at my (hopeful) booth at a vintage/craft fair later this fall.

You know what happens next in the story, right? I went back the next day and they were GONE.

And I wept.

Okay, not really, but I still get a slightly sick feeling whenever I think of those chairs. I know from previous painful experiences that the Cardinal Rule of Junking is BUY IT WHEN YOU SEE IT and what did I do? Ignored it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

More school chairs. They're haunting me! Actually, these were smaller than the other set so I wouldn't have considered buying them. But look at that darling desk/table that goes with them! Wouldn't that be darling in a playroom?

Now, everybody repeat after me: Buy It When You See It.....Buy It When You See It...Buy It When You See It....

Weekend Junk Finds: Christmas in July

I heard it, calling me from the thrift store. And since The Mister came home early for a change, I had the opportunity to heed the call. Look what it was:

 

I have long coveted the vintage costume jewelry trees I've seen on other blogs. I've come across a few at antique stores, but who wants to pay antique store prices? Not me, when I know that if I'm patient and listen closely, I might be able to find my very own tree for a few bucks at my favorite thrift store!

 

I know these things are probably the height of tackiness, but man, I LOVE them! This one is a pretty and well-made version. The base tree shape is made of silver mercury glass beads, and then the jewelry is glued on top. There's a spot on the lower left where a jewel is missing but I have plenty of pieces that I can use to fill in. Hardest thing about that will be deciding which one!

 Other vintage Christmas that was waiting for me that night: a cute puzzle and a LGB.

And rounding out the thrift store haul is a cute book about rainbows and three pewter goblets that will be perfect for my Harry Potter-themed Halloween party.

And there was even FREE junk! A friend and I went out shopping on Saturday and just happened to walk by a bookstore that was closing. At that particular time, everything remaining in the store was FREE for the taking! There were thousands of old magazines and some huge wooden bookshelves, but what interested us was the dozens and dozens of old wooden fruit crates that the store owner had used as magazine shelving. Some were nailed/screwed together so we had to leave them, but otherwise we loaded up with as many as we could carry! On my way out the door, I spied this little chrome stool and snagged it as well. The vinyl and foam on top are destroyed and there is rust on the chrome legs, but I think I may be able to clean it up and recover the seat. If not--well, it was free so it won't hurt me to trash it!

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

Weekend Junk Finds: Fire-King SCORE!

I happened to be driving home from the gym last weekend and noticed a yard sale sign pointing towards a sale in my neighborhood--right across the street from Maren's school, actually. Now, normally I don't make it a point to stop at the sales in my neighborhood because I live deep in the 'burbs. Most sales in my neighborhood are filled with baby gear and inexpensive decor and furniture pieces. I'm not judging; heck, it's the same kind of stuff that's in my own house, which is precisely why I'm not looking to buy any more of it!

Occasionally, I hit a little pocket of vintage in the midst of suburbia and this particular Saturday I got lucky enough to do it again, and in spectacular fashion!

When I hopped out of the car, this was the first thing I saw on the table and I about started to hyperventilate:

Vintage Fire-King. Vintage Turquoise Blue Fire-King. Vintage Turquoise Blue Fire-King SWEDISH MODERN NESTING BOWLS!! They weren't marked--a yard sale technique that normally makes me just walk away without asking or buying--but in this case, I was more than happy to ask a price, especially when the seller said, "Well, the middle bowl is pretty chipped up, so how about a dollar for all three?" At which point I stifled a giddy shriek and tried to play it cool as I pulled a dollar bill out of my wallet.

According to my glassware identification book, Anchor Hocking made Fire-King Turquoise Blue dinnerware from 1957 to 1958. There were two types of mixing bowls that went with the dishes--a Splash Proof set (the same shape used in the popular dot and tulip sets) and this unusual teardrop-shaped set, which is also known as Swedish Modern. Originally there were four bowls to this set: 1 pint, 1 quart, 2 quart and 3 quart. I believe I am missing the 1 quart bowl, and the 2 quart is pretty severely chipped on the spout and the back. The other two bowls are in great shape and for that price, I don't even care that it's not perfect!

 

On the same table as the bowls was this cute set of vintage glasses and caddy. Price? Also $1. The glasses have a somewhat random rural theme of images of chickens, trees, brick schoolhouses(?) and windmills. There are four of this set and I'll try to find another set of glasses to fill the other four spots in the caddy. Additionally there are two glasses on which the gold printing is nearly gone. I think maybe I can get rid of it completely with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, leaving two solid-colored glasses.

 

And the last vintage thing on the table was this vintage pink Glasbake mixing bowl, which the sellers threw in for free. I hesitated to take it because it was covered in gray marks, but I put it in the back of the car anyway. I'm so glad I did because I was able to get all of the gray marks off using a bit of Bon Ami powder on a damp rag and now the bowl looks great! I also used Bon Ami to remove the big gray mark on the pink Lu-Ray platter I showed last week:

I'm so glad that I stopped at that yard sale, which just serves to remind me that there are vintage treasures to be had even in suburbia, I just have to get out there and look! Did you find anything good this weekend?

Today I'm linking up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds and Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

Crafting with Feedsack squares and Covered Buttons

So, remember these?

A few hours spent on the couch with a seam ripper and then a date with a steam iron turned them into these:

Oh, the possibilities! I knew just where to start--I pulled out my stash of thrifted covered button blanks and started playing:

Making covered buttons is completely addicting! The instant gratification factor for this craft is pretty high. Even Maren helped me make some buttons, to which we added hair elastics to make pretties for her and her dollies.

I have several covered button crafts in my Craft Ideas & Instructions Pinboard: this bracelet, these cute paperclip bookmarks, and these adorable little thumbtacks. I already have bracelet blanks, ring blanks, hairpin blanks and thumbtacks--now I just need more covered button blanks! Time to do some Etsy shopping!

Weekend Junk Finds: Small town thrifting edition

I mentioned in last week's Junk Finds post that I was visiting my grandparents and hoping to get in some small-town thrifting while I was there, and I did manage to do a bit! I've said it before, but thrifting in this little town can be frustrating. There is one little thrift store (and two stores in the nearest town 17 miles away) but it has an attached 'boutique'. They skim off any of the decent donations or anything that looks remotely 'old' and then put a ridiculous price on it and throw it in the boutique. The other branch of this store in the nearest town is even worse--they don't have a boutique, but they regularly put ridiculous prices on things, especially when you consider these are tiny, poor, rural towns where the only 'big' place to shop in the whole valley is the ONE Wal-Mart store. Oh, and they did recently get a Dollar Tree and a Family Dollar, which are pretty big developments if that gives you any idea of the retail options. So charging $9.75 for a set of 5 mugs at the thrift store, just because they look 'old' (they were Glasbake, nothing special) is pretty obnoxious in my opinion.

At the same time, I did manage to find four items in the store which combined cost me $1.05.

Apparently the people in the store who pull 'old' things for the boutique aren't always on their game.

This beautiful old transferware platter is crazed and yellowed and has a few chips here and there, which only adds to the shabby perfection. It was 10¢.

This tiny little dish (a fingertip bowl?) is similarly brown and crazed. It was 20¢.

And you know I'm always thrilled when I can find any Lu-Ray, especially when it is PINK! and a PLATTER! and marked 50¢!

The fourth item didn't make it into the pictures, but it was a little bottle filled with loose pink and green mercury glass beads. That one was 25¢.

I also found some crafting materials:

Not exactly what you would normally classify as supplies, but if you've seen the July/August issue of Country Living magazine, you might guess what I'm planning to make! If you don't have a copy of the magazine handy, you can see a peek here.

By the way, after my last pity-party post about the Fourth of July, I had not one but two wonderful invitations extended to me and my family from dear friends. We ended up having a really fantastic day and even got to see fireworks! The Mister started a new training course yesterday morning that goes straight until the 27th with no weekends off, so unfortunately he's not going to get a break from the relentless work schedule we've been dealing with since June 11th. This was not exactly the summer vacation we were hoping for, but I guess we'll just have to make the best of it, right?

Weekend Junk Finds: Blogging from the road

We're on a little road trip to visit my grandparents in Southern Colorado this weekend so I'm blogging from a phone and a strange computer.

This week's junk finds are from a variety of sources.

 

The vintage Christmas tablecloth was from a local garage sale, the orange prize ribbon (destined to be altered for Halloween) was from an estate sale in a $2.1 million home, and the earrings and metal animal buttons were also from local garage sales.

 

These sweet homemade pillowcases were from a local estate sale. They're so pretty and fresh for summer!

Last week I had the opportunity to go estate sale shopping with a good friend. We shared a babysitter at my house and set out shopping. I think it might have been her first time at an estate sale but I doubt it will be the last!

 

 I only bought a few things, but they were fun. A red yardstick, an old bottle of brightly colored nonpareils, a red, white and blue tape measure (perfect for 4th of July!), three pair of sparkly earrings for my craft stash, and a really fantastic pair of embroidered pillowcases with owls. They're really nicely stitched and I'm tempted to keep them because they're just so darling, but they don't match my colors so they're headed to the Etsy shop.

This last group of items was from a local consignment store that I just discovered.

 

I took in a jacket to be consigned but didn't expect them to have so many cute decor items, many of them vintage! I picked up the cool red and white pop bottle and yet another soda crate because apparently I'm starting my own bottling company. I also found the old photo of the little boy talking on the telephone--you may have to click on the picture to enlarge so you can see it better, because it's just charming! After I came home, I collected a box full of stuff and took it back to be consigned. On that trip I found a vintage 10-oz. milk bottle (a completely weird size--it's bigger than a half pint). 

This consignment store gives a 50/50 split on items sold which is a better deal than most of the other local stores, but their prices aren't high to begin with so 50% isn't going to make you rich. However, for items I was just going to donate anyway, it might be the easy way to make some money. I'll be eager to see if I make anything from this last box-full that I took in. Heck, if they keep getting in cute vintage stuff like that soda crate, I'll just take my sales in store credit and be perfectly happy!

Today I'm hoping to do a little small-town thrifting and maybe I'll have something to share with you next Monday!

Weekend Junk Finds: Feedsack Quilt Blocks

A few weeks ago I stopped in at a local Goodwill. This particular store is on the small side and it's hit-or-miss, with the emphasis on MISS. I've made a few good finds there but they're infrequent so I don't stop in often. This particular day I needed a thrift fix and happened to be in the neighborhood. While inside I found a bag of what looked like fabric scraps. The fabric was tightly folded together and the bag was stapled shut so I couldn't even manipulate it around to get a better look, but I thought that maybe I glimpsed some vintage fabric. It was price $5.99 which is pretty high for a bunch of random fabric scraps, but I had a feeling about it so I bought it anyway.

When I got it home and finally unfolded everything, this is what I found:

Quilt squares! Quilt squares made of feedsacks, to be specific!

There are more than 20 squares, each in a simple 9-block pattern.

I'm guessing it was a scrap quilt and the maker was a pretty inexperienced sewer. The stitching isn't great and many of the squares have rather...creative patterns. You can see that they don't all match and the colors are kind of wacky.

I don't think the craftsmanship is good enough to warrant trying to put it together as an actual quilt, so I'm going to have to figure out something else to do with the squares. There are some brownish (rust?) stains on some of the blocks so before I do anything, I need to see if I can get those out. I imagine if I felt really ambitious, I could take apart some of the weirder squares and see if I can't put together the pieces in a more visually appealing way. I'm not sure I'm that ambitious. We'll see.

Tune in tomorrow for the continuation of my post about the 1940s Ball!

I'm linking this post with Thrift Share Monday over at Apron Thrift Girl.

Weekend Junk Finds: Father's Day edition

A few weeks ago, my dad was in town for a few days so we decided to do a little bit of one of our favorite shared pastimes--junking! There was an ad on EstateSales.net for a promising looking sale not too far away, so I ran over to put us on the sign-up sheet and hired a baby sitter for Porter.

That might have been my dad's first experience with an estate sale, aside from my Gram's estate auction last year, and it was definitely his first experience with the mad rush that is the opening of an estate sale!

We'd seen some vintage Pyrex in the preview photos and went straight to the kitchen. We were the first to reach it and my dad was able to scoop up some really great pieces at great prices! On the way into the kitchen, I spotted an item that may just be up there on my Top Ten finds, EVER:

This antique coffee jar is simply gorgeous! The glass is embossed with a diamond pattern that's so pretty. It would have been great on it's own, but it even has the original metal lid, which is in great condition as well!

It was right on the table as we walked in the door and the price was pretty amazing considering that it's in perfect condition with the lid, so I'm pretty shocked that none of the 33 people who got in the door before me didn't snap it up first!

The jar was my best find, but there were a few other goodies as well. The milk glass sugar bowl is the twin of one I bought a few months ago. I love it so much but I can't decide whether to keep one and sell one, or sell them as a pair. The silver metal trophy is in German and marked 1951.

Always love a good vintage tablecloth in summery colors! And with this addition, my vintage tablecloth drawer is now officially overflowing. Must address that soon. By finding a new drawer, not by getting rid of tablecloths, of course.

This little odd collection is two pairs of fab cat-eye sunglasses (coming soon to the Etsy shop), a pair of crystal earrings and a vintage LGB from our thrifting trip the day previous, and an odd lid. In the preview photos for the sale, I thought I recognized a blue Lu-Ray creamer. When I actually found it at the sale, it was the exact shape as my other Lu-Ray creamers, but it was unmarked and the glaze was different--it was blue with tiny speckles of brown. Elsewhere in the house, I found this orphaned lid. I recognized the knob shape as Lu-Ray immediately, but it was that same blue/brown glaze. However, I happen to have two Lu-Ray sugar bowls without lids, so I thought I could just buy this one for $1 and marry the two and be happy with it, even though they're not a perfect match. When I got home however, I found that this lid is larger than my Lu-Ray sugar bowl, so it won't fit! I'm sure it had to have been made by Taylor Smith Taylor, the manufacturer of Lu-Ray, using their molds, but I don't know about the finish. Maybe my fellow Lu-Ray lover Jillian can shed some light on this?

The last thing I bought was this big box o' Christmas junk for $10. It was hard to see what was inside but I figured even if I could find 10 good things worth $1, I'd be okay, and just peeking in I could see a pinecone elf and some mercury glass beads.

When I came home and dumped it all out, I found a startling amount of ugly plastic greenery and a few neat things.

I definitely found more than 10 good things, though not all of them I would have paid $1 for. Verdict on this box? Eh. Not a total bust, but not the bonanza I was hoping for.

Even though my junk finds were great (THAT JAR!! swoon), the best part of the sale was sharing the fun with my Dad! He's a treasure hunter at heart just like me, and knows the thrill of finding a hidden gem. It was fun to shop with him and then also to meet up later and share our finds. I wish we lived closer together so that we could shop together more often!

Did you find any good junk this weekend? Have you ever gone junking with your parents?