Friday, October 5, 2012

Fall Friday Finds

I was just lamenting that I hadn't been to any good sales lately -- none of the kind where you do the happy dance all the way to the car.  I still haven't, but today's sales were a little better!

Fall has come to Michigan.  The trees are all turning and leaves are falling.  It was chilly and damp when I left this morning to go to some late-season garage sales in a nearby town.  One had been listed on Craigslist and the seller had used words like 'destashing', 'mid-century' and 'anthropomorphic condiment dishes', so I knew I had to go.

She lived in a condo and her garage was barely wide enough for a car, but she had tables with 2 aisleways set up in there.  It was a tight fit for the 5 or 6 people who where there when I was.  Still, I got some good buys -- mainly old photos from the 1930s and 1950s.  The anthropomorphic condiment dishes?  Well, I was hoping they were Holt Howard, but they weren't.  They were just big vegetable & fruit heads and were $25 each -- not what I wanted.
An Argus camera with full flash equipment & original box, plus more photos . 
These are from the early 1950s and included Christmas and kiddie football pics.
A photo album with pictures from the 1930s -- mostly from a trip to the Catskills
Her condo development was supposed to be having a community garage sale, but I only found 2 other sellers.  At one of them I bought an old fiberglass & metal mail bin.  It has 'North Campus Library Annex' painted on it and, since we have several universities around here, I wondered if the old man I bought it from had stolen it.  I was afraid to ask him its history, though, because he was very crabby and a little scary.
After the condo complex, I went to a couple more sales in a couple more towns (it seems nothing in our part of Michigan is really close together) and ended up filling the car!

One thing I was happy to find was a tall unit of 4 shutters (door-height) hinged together.  I've been looking for shutters like this for over a year, because they're great for creating an instant wall in the booth.  You can also turn them slats-facing-up and hang things on them with S hooks.  These are perfect because they're painted a soft green that will look good with my booth walls.  One of them is broken, but I don't care about that.  I might even repair it...
All in all, it was a good shopping day, even if I didn't do the happy dance.

Here are some of my fun finds:
An old sled
A fifties stepped end table & a shabby red chair
Driving-range sized baskets
A framed cutwork & embroidered 'Welcome' motto
A silhouette jar and some sweet 1920s button on cards

A pyrex casserole, Moon & Stars compote and a Stetson 'Scots Clan' cream & sugar (sweet!) 
STRANGE BUY OF THE DAY:
This  little golf bag holder with plastic golf club drink stirrers. 
BEST BUY OF THE DAY:
A McCoy large jardiniere.  It has a small (and short) hairline crack at the top. Other than that it's perfect!
SECOND BEST BUY OF THE DAY:
A wooden box with etched mirror and a bakelite knob
FAVORITE BUY OF THE DAY:
A pair of mid-century wall pockets with elves.  Honestly, who would want to hang these on their walls and put plants in them?
 I hope you had a fun junking week!  I'll have to check all your blogs to see what you found.

2 comments:

Perfectly Printed said...

Not a bad week at all!! Love the shutters!!

chris

PoetessWug said...

Good finds!...And don't you just love old photos?! :-) I have some old, old, crochet books. I love looking at the things people crocheted to wear all those years ago!

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