An Unexpected Journey

My morning started with a text message from my junking buddy, Bargain Hunter:  "Can you be dressed and meet me in an hour?"  When I asked where we were going, she just said, "Not telling...but you'll really like it!"

Never mind cleaning the bathrooms...or watering the garden...or working in the barn -- I was going on an adventure!

We'd talked a lot about how the sales always seemed better in the older neighborhoods around Detroit than they are by us and that we wanted to go to some garage sales there.  That's what we did today!  Bargain Hunter had four sales mapped out and ready to go.

The first sale was advertised as 'Pyrex and Vintage'.  I felt sure the Pyrex would be all gone, but it wasn't -- there was a lot there, plus some other good stuff.  I got a few things for my collection and a birthday gift for someone (I can't tell, in case she sees this post)

This Bluebirds casserole and Apple Tree carafe will look great in my kitchen!

Gold spattered Fire King baking dish in a white metal cradle

 Sale #2 was a real frog.  Advertised as 'vintage', but the oldest thing there was from the late 90s -- not my idea of old (I have kids older than most of the stuff at that sale)!

Next stop was an estate sale and it was a Prince (with a capital P)!  The basement was packed.  I got so much Christmas and fun kids' stuff there that I could hardly claim it fast enough.  I filled a plastic salad bowl with Christmas kitsch AND got a Santa & sleigh for just $4!

Santa & his sleigh have the original box.  The spaghetti Santa has blue rhinestone eyes (just a little creepy)

Gurley candles and Hong Kong nativities are always popular

Love this Japanese stocking face pose doll 

I also picked up 2 partial rolls of vintage Christmas wrap and a big roll of commercial Christmas paper.  I think I'll use it to wrap my Etsy orders this holiday season.   Today was the second day of the sale, so everything was 25% off, too!  The estate sale company was a new one to me, but one I'll watch for in the future --  the people running it were really nice and VERY organized (always a plus).

The chalkware puppy will have to stay here, I think...I've really become attached to him

Fun kids' books

I think the paper dolls go with the Betsy McCall set...they have mohair doll hair

Embroidered tea towels

Of course, there had to be a pennant there somewhere!

The last place we went to was another estate sale with lots of fishing stuff.  I got a few lures for my son and a Pyrex percolator.  Bargain Hunter found a live catch basket and an anchor for her son...the guys made out pretty well at that sale!

Cowboy and western glasses are so cool!

So a big thank you to Bargain Hunter and her spur-of-the-moment invitation!  This adventure was a happy end to a long week of work.  I'll be up for an unexpected journey any time.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thrift Shopping Therapy

As I said in my last post, it's been a really busy month.  We've had happy things -- a new grandson, lots of fun times with our granddaughter, lots of houseguests -- and there have been not-so-happy things -- lots of rain (and therefore, LOTS of mosquitoes), lots of yard work, and really slow summer sales.  People just don't buy much in antique malls in July because they're all busy outside or on vacation.  I don't blame them one bit!  Then there's the let-down when all the out of town family leaves and you know you won't see them again until Christmas (or later)...

So, I've just been crabby and down in the dumps.  What does a thrifter do when she's crabby?  Go shopping!

There was a mega-Pyrex estate sale today, but it was an hour away and began at 4:00.  My friend Bargain Hunter and I really thought about going -- they had over 300 pieces of Pyrex!  Look at all this Pyrex (and that's not all of it)!

We figured out, though, that if we weren't one of the first 10 or 20 people in we'd never get any good stuff and we'd use 4 gallons of gas just to get there and back.  We decided at the last minute meet up somewhere and just see what sales were nearby instead.

There wasn't much -- we kissed a few frogs (sales not worth the drive to get them), went to a disappointing local estate sale, an even more disappointing high-priced 'liquidation' sale run by the same company and finally ended up at a resale shop.

I bought one thing -- this fun little vinyl make-up bag or train case.  It's shiny black patent vinyl (like the Easter shoes I used to have when I was little) and has a clear vinyl layer that separates the stuff below from that above.  It was at it's lowest price at the resale shop and was a good deal.

When I restocked my booth at the antique mall today, I shopped a little and found these sweeties, too.  A 1940s never-been-used Hawaii tablecloth with four napkins in its original box!

Each napkin has a different island on it

Even the box is cool!

 I bought two of these turquoise and pink barkcloth panels for a bargain price because they're cutters.  See the big holes on either side (where the table shows through)?  I have a couple of benches to cover, though, that they'll be perfect for!

Even with the frogs and the disappointment of not going to the mega-Pyrex sale, Bargain Hunter and I vented a little and laughed a lot and both felt better for the trip.  Just goes to show that it's not what deals you find or what you buy that's important, it's the fun people you 'hunt' with!

Hope you find some good sales this weekend...as my dad used to say, "stay with the happy people"!

Thursday Sale Bonanza -- Lots of Lefton and Christmas Kitsch

I think it's a basic principle of business that you're supposed to spend less than you bring in.  That gets really hard when the weather warms up!  Just when the flea markets and yard sales are starting up again and there are lots of bargains to be found, people are busy outside and not spending as much time in antique malls and shopping online (and they're going to flea markets and yard sales)!

As I try to not-buy-as-much (as-if I could...), I avoid the looking at the temptation of the weekly emails from estatesales.net and gsalr.com.   I owe a big THANK YOU to my friend Bargain Hunter for giving me a heads-up on a really good sale last Thurday, loaded with Lefton figurines!  

It turned out to be the left-over accumulation of a former antiques dealer who'd passed away last year.  Most of it was her 'barn stuff' -- you know, the boxes of collected odds and ends that don't make it into the booth or to a sale (bits of china, linens, broken down pictures and frames).  There was an entire table of Lefton and made-in-Japan figurines, though, and I was the first one to it!

Look at all this SWEET Lefton!

Not Lefton, but sweet nonetheless

The caption on the cookie jar lid says it all...

It all needed a good cleaning (but who doesn't love playing with their thrifty finds?)

Besides the great kitsch, I also got a couple of quilt tops -- one had piping around the edge to finish it off, but no back fabric.  Rather strange!

Love this butterfly quilt top -- I'm thinking of bringing my quilting skills out of retirement to finish it

This is the bound block quilt

This plastic half apron appealed to my love of strange souvenirs.  It's from the Hiawatha rail line that goes from Chicago to Seattle.  I think it's from the 1960s

These were an odd (and luckily, inexpensive) impulse buy -- 2 legal document packets from 1927, dealing with a property dispute in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.  They'll probably be good for a scrapbooker to use.

Once I'd taken the bait and gone shopping, I looked for more sales close to home and found one just a couple of miles away (a rare occurrence)!   Since they opened the first sale 1/2 hour early, I was able to check out and race over to the second one and get there just as everyone was going in.  I made a beeline for the basement, hoping to get a green ceramic Christmas tree I'd seen in the picture.  I got it and that was just the tip of the iceberg!  I ended up with 2 box-flats of great vintage Christmas, plus some other odds and ends.

TWO ceramic Christmas trees + a Holt Howard Santa + a Royal light-up snowman!

The tall angels need to be rewired, but are really hard to find.  Napco and Enesco NOEL candle holder sets are always popular.  The little angel shelf sitters with lambs are so sweet -- even though one has a repaired wing, I couldn't pass them up

I think Santa's creepy -- much creepier at home than he had been at the sale.  He looks like the drunken love-child of  Joe Piscopo and Kris Kringle

Black transferware tray, Texasware-type bowl, West Bend penguin ice bucket and an Oven Serve bowl.

Dogs playing poker -- who could resist?

So, in the space of about an hour and a half, I had spent all my shopping money for 2 weeks!  Well worth it, though, don't you think?

This Friday and Saturday are theM-15 Heritage Yard Sale and also Davisburg Antiques.  I'm really looking forward to both of them, since they were great shopping ops last fall.  I'd better get some more shopping money out of the bank!

Bring on the Yard Sales!

Now that Easter's over, I'm ready for the yard sales to start popping up -- aren't you?  The weather has been so cold and rainy, though that there just haven't been many.  Last week there was only one local one -- ONE (not the best cure for cabin fever)!  There was the first church rummage sale of the year, though, so I headed out for that.

Here's what it looked like when I left for the rummage -- really foggy & chilly...

The pickings were slim, but I found a few little goodies.  Next I went to an estate sale that about 10 miles away and 2 miles down a wet dirt road -- what a waste of time.  It was WAY overpriced...most of the items were even higher than they would be at an antique mall.   I got there an hour after it started and the tables were full (no surprise there).  I did find a New York World's Fair souvenir glass and a really cool glass coffee table, though.

Very appropriate for a Catholic church rummage sale -- Jesus on the Mount of Olives

Not great finds from the rummage sale...plus the World's Fair glass from the estate sale

I think this coffee table is pretty cool -- it looks like it should be on a sun porch or with casual furniture, though.

Finally, I went to the only yard sale in town (and wished I'd gone there before the estate sale).  It was family run and the prices were all over the place, but the house had been decorated in the 60s and not updated since.  It turned out to be a day for wall decor, as I got several bits of 1960s plastic (Syroco-type) and some oh-so-lovely metal peacocks.  Not my taste, but I know that they'll sell.

Three seasons of a four-season Syroco set from the 70s

My big investment of the day (still not much)!  The frame is plastic, but these convex mirrors are always popular

Here are the beautiful peacocks!

Here are two things from the thrift last week that I forgot to share, and they were really sweet finds!

aluminum food tote

Red Regal aluminum cake carrier with a bakelite handle -- so cool!

It's been near 70 for the past two days and it feels (and looks) like spring!  Maybe the yard sales will be better this week -- I hope so!  I hope you have better sales where you live, too.

Find of the Week -- Wedell & Boers Carpenter's Case!

I took time out from painting and prepping to go to a family run estate sale that was on the way to the antique mall.  The sale was in a 100+ year old farmhouse on almost a hundred acres.  There wasn't much in the house that I wanted, so I went out to a little block building (about the size of a big garage) in the back.  It was the milking parlor and was full of old farm implements and tools I couldn't identify or begin to guess the purpose of.  I got an interesting heavy cast iron bowl that was the water bowl for the cow being milked (the elderly son of the even more elderly farmer told me this).

My greatest treasure, though, is this really shabby suitcase!  It's cloth over wood and has a drop-down side with a removeable tray.  It's really beat up and in poor condition, but so interesting.  It turns out that it's a carpenter's tool case made by Wedell & Boers in Detroit, probably sometime in the late 1910s or 1920s.  I'm going to vacuum it out, figure out how to clean it up without ruining it and get it into some kind of shape.

It's a fun bit of history, even though it will never be in great condition.  Do any of you know what these slats were for?  The leather belts snap over them to hold the contents in -- I'm guessing that they were for the carpenter's rulers, guages or metal files.

A Monday Sale -- Chenille, Quilts and Yo-Yos -- Oh My!

We went out of town last weekend for a family wedding -- always a fun thing -- and I returned last night to find an email from my friend Bargain Hunter telling me about a sale today.  We've shopped together for so long that we know exactly what the other one looks for.  So, when she tells me "I know you don't want to buy right now, but you have to look at this sale", I pay attention!

And, of course, I saw lots I liked and, of course, I went to the sale.  It was run by a great estate sale company -- really friendly and relaxed (as opposed to frazzled and crabby, as some of them are). Everything was priced, there were plenty of workers to answer questions and the prices were fair to both the sellers and the buyers, so it was a pleasure to shop.

I met one of Bargain Hunter's Facebook friends there, too (who, I found out also reads my blog).  That was a fun bonus...it's always nice to meet new vintage shoppers!

I came home with plenty of cool stuff -- mostly linens and kitchen stuff, but also a mix of good things for the booth and for etsy.

Here are the highlights...

A chenille doll bed cover, a blue chenille bathroom rug and the primary striped throw is a baby bed size -- perfect for snuggle time!

A french provincial musical jewelry box, a large quilted hatbox (it's hard to see it with the pillow inside of it) and a pillow made from a chenille bedspread

This photo doesn't do justice to the soft aqua blue of this quilt and the cool polka dotted accent fabric.  It's frayed and worn, but I think this sweetie has to stay with me (at least for a while)

I love this peachy lap quilt and yo-yo pillow

A set of Cory 'his and hers' individual carafes, a pretty iris tin and what looks like a Fiesta Go-Along vase, spooner or flower pot (Bargain Hunter will know if this is true).  The stripes are certainly Fiesta colors

It's hard to see what this is, but it's an old metal wall-mounted shaving mirror.  And an ice bag with original box

Brookpark Melmac Thanksgiving platter and Made in Japan turkey salt & peppers

Such a sweet painted and embroidered nursery picture and a Plaskool tray puzzle "Let Us Set the Table"

And of course, how could I pass up a pincushion, a bank or some postcard folders?

These yellow kitchen chairs are near-mint!  Look at the great detailing on the back

I know it's nerdy, but I was thrilled to see these while walking out to my car... They're garden mushrooms -- either pottery or chalkware or a combination of both.  The caps are on springs so they'll bob, I guess.   These will look perfect in my new, enlarged herb bed!

 I was thrilled with everything I got.  It's so seldom that I come home from a sale and don't have even one item I regret buying! I usually have buyer's remorse over some bit of 'junk' or another that I know I should have left there.  This time, though, everything was great.

Thanks again, Bargain Hunter, for the heads-up!