Turquoise & Black Retro Treasure

There weren't many good sales yesterday, so my friend and I just went to two likely ones (VERY overpriced) and then went to some thrift stores and resale shops.

At one of the resale shops, I got this treasure (goes perfectly with the bowl I got 2 weeks ago)! Even though it's a casserole, it's much to pretty to hide away in a cabinet -- I'll have to figure out where to display it. Do any of you know who might have made this?

Blog Follower Sale on Etsy!

I'm having a sale at my Etsy shop just for blog followers! If you're currently following my blog or if you become a new follower, you get 10% off your entire purchase. Just convo me before you pay and let me know you've left comments here and that you're following the blog. I'll give you the coupon code for checkout your 10% savings. Look for future Etsy specials and blog giveaways just for followers, too.

Thanks for your support!

Warm Weather Sales

Last week we had lovely February weather in the 40s -- nice enough to get all of us here in Michigan 'thinking spring' (weren't we silly . . . we got 10" of snow on Sunday)!

The sales I went to were crowded, but standing in line outside wasn't bad because of the great weather! Even though the prices were pretty high, I managed to get some good things:

Three tablecloths

Lots of dishtowels, including 2 English souvenir maps (I won't be getting rid of those!)

A collection of great glass & some melmac from the 60s & 70s!

Some cool housewares & glass -- my favorites are the rolling pin with the unusual handles and the cherry pitter top on the canning jar. I've never seen one of these before!

An cherry decorated china platter and a German trinket dish with a ballerina on top who has a dresden lace tutu (too too fun)!

A LOT of pyrex! I blogged about it over at the Pyrex Collective. You can see it all by clicking the picture below:

Do you know this pattern?

I picked up these 5 glasses at a sale last week and I just love them. They're slimmer and taller than a regular tumbler and have the neatest turquoise & metallic gold starbursts or flowers. There's no maker's mark on them . Do any of you know this pattern?

A Giveaway at Junque Magnet

Doesn't everyone love a giveaway? There's a 100th post blogoversary giveaway going on over at Junque Magnet. Hop over there and enter and check out her great altered treasures while you're at it.

The Green Chair Project

I finished the green chair this weekend.

Do you remember how it looked when I got it out of the barn? The seat was a total loss, unless I wanted to paint it and make it two-tone. I opted to upholster it instead.

1. I cleaned it and scraped away the peeling paint2. I cut a template for the seat.3. I cut a disk out of heavy corrugated cardboard. I decided to use that rather than thin plywood because the seat has an indentation in the middle and I wanted the cover to be flexible to get the best 'purchase' from the gluing.

4. I padded the seat with several layers of quilt batting and ended it with a cover of batting.
5. I wrapped the batting and barkcloth) around the cardboard, trimming the corners and tucking it for a flat surface.

6. After using fabric glue between the layers of edges on the underside (cardboard/batting/barkcloth), I stapled it with an open stapler. I found that a staple gun was too powerful & the staples too long, but the open stapler worked fine because the layers were relatively thin.

7. I used Liquid Nails to attach the seat to the chair and clamped it until it was dry & set.

I think it turned out pretty well! A nice booster chair for a retro kitchen or a display piece for any room.

Nice Words from Mitzi!

My booth-partner, Bargain Hunter, has struck up an acquaintance with seller (and very creative blogger), Mitzi of Mitzi's Collectibles. She stopped by our booth the other day and took a few pictures -- and she's written some very nice things about us! Thanks, Mitzi!

You can read the post and also see some very cool magnetic wallpaper butterflies she's made. She's a guest blogger on Mod Podge Rocks and shows how to make them. You'll want to be sure to check that out.

On a personal note, I don't know how much I'll get to blog this weekend -- my sister (and her husband, too) is coming to visit! We haven't gotten to hang out together since back in the fall, so I 'm really looking forward to lots of talk and lots of laughs (and, of course, a little antique shopping). I'll try to find time to post the pictures of the finished chair, though.

Weren't we beauties?
(Ha! She doesn't know I've posted this picture...)

Don't forget to visit Mitzi!

We're Havin' a Heat Wave

It's over 40 degrees here in Michigan today! Everyone's outside without gloves or hats (or coats, for that matter) and we're thinking Spring. When I went out to visit the girls and gather eggs, several of the hens were out taking 'dust baths'. If chickens could smile, they'd all be grinning!

The nice weather has me energized to tackle a project and I think I'm going to work on this metal chair today. I'll post pictures when it's done.

BIG Sale - Day Two

I revisited the big sale at the VFW Hall on Saturday. Since I got there 1 hour before it closed, the dealer was really dealing! Unlike an estate sale in a private home, he had to haul everything out of the hall at the end of the day. I was surprised at the amount of stuff still there and knew that I'd be able to find something. I ended up with some relatively good stuff, the majority of which cost only $1 per item.

The 'prize' (and that's a relative term) of the day was this green cabinet! I'd seen it in the promo pictures and had wanted it, had seen it at the sale and couldn't afford it -- but by the end of the last day (at 1/2 price) it was a deal! I bargained with the dealer and got it for $5 below half price and I was happy! Sure, it has rust and scratches, but I just love the art deco print on the front and will work on cleaning it up (I love a challenge). It was the deal of the day!

Leo the cat likes it , too!I also got an handmade yard art of a girl with an umbrella (already in the booth) , a handmade red shelfRed Wing vase, a Hall Pert blue Flower Parade shaker, a red, white & blue tumbler and a CN Tower mixed drink glass from TorontoA flowered tin and a green pottery canister from GermanyI took a risk on some damp and really STINKY aprons I found in the back room and got the whole lot for $1, figuring that the smell would come out. My friend Bargain Hunter always finishes her de-staining by hanging linens in the sun, so I tried that today. Little did I know that the snow out there was over a foot deep! I felt just like a pioneer trudging out to the clothesline in my big black boots and hanging my aprons out in the cold!

It worked, though -- the aprons are just lovely now. It's amazing what a little Biz and sunlight can do!

A Great (BIG) Sale

I wanted to tell you about the sale that Bargain Hunter and I went to today. It had so much stuff that the dealer rented the local VFW hall for it. The 'good stuff' filled the main hall and the 'picker junk' filled the big (unheated!) storage room behind it. There were so many people there and the tables were so close together that it was almost impossible to move around.

The prices weren't the highest I'd seen at a sale, but they weren't low, either. I got some things to keep and some things to sell, but no real bargains.

Lies van Willes (children's illustrator) print, which I'm keepingA blue patterned tablecloth, a cut of vintage fabric and a really green & pink flowered tablecloth with a BIG hole (this will be a project later)

It looks like I'm getting ready for St. Patrick's day, but really the lady whose estate it was just really liked green

A rooster apron (keep) and a full apron with embroidered butterfliesA pink swing that may have been intended for toddlers, but I'd sell as a doll swing. It's really cute, but not very sturdyThe little golden book A Child's Garden of Verses that combines two of my favorites: Robert Louis Stevenson & Eloise Wilkin (the illustrator)
The box of iron-on transfers that I posted about earlier todayAfter that sale, we went to the dealer's antique shop and I got this great turquoise bowl. Merry Christmas to me -- thanks, Aunt Gene!We stopped back at another sale we'd both gone to yesterday and I picked up one more thing -- a 1950s high chair that converts to a toddler's seat & table

I might go back to the big sale again tomorrow, when everything will be 1/2 price, just to see what's left (maybe there will finally be some bargains)!

A Treasure Trove of Transfers

Bargain Hunter and I went to a big sale today. I'll say more about that in my next post, but right now I'm so excited about one of the things that I bought that I just can't wait to share it!

I always look for the paper ephemera and sewing supplies. On a crowded table in the back room, I found this box of patterns, which combined both interests. The dealer sold it to me as a box lot at a great price & I was pretty pleased.

Then I got it home and had a chance to really look at it . . . well, I'm way beyond 'pretty pleased'! It's an entire shoebox of old iron on transfers & patterns (1950s, probably, but maybe a little earlier, looking at the graphics) . Each sheet has directions for using them and is full of lots of different patterns -- not just one per page.For example, on the one above there are several different projects, including a rooster, a flower border, a ladies' stole, household designs and suggestions for placing them.Here are the days of the week -- for decorating dish towelsLots of them have children's patterns, like this whale . . . . . . and this kitty and duck and the bib pattern, too Even the ones that were previously cut (and there are just a few of those) are still great -- like this cleaning kitty . . . . . . and this birthday birdie There are so many sheets with so many designs and so many things to do with them! It looks like they can be ironed on 2 or 3 times before they fade out, so I think I'll keep some to use. I might have copies made (and mirror them) so I don't lose the patterns.

I was planning to sell them on Etsy (and still will) but I have absolutely no idea how to showcase them or tell all the great patterns on each one. I'll have to go through them all and decide which ones I want to keep and which I want to give away, too. I can think of a few sewing sisters -- Crit & Kally, this means you -- I'll want to give some to. It looks like there's some 'playtime' in my future!

More on today's sale in my next post (after I've looked these over more).

Sunny Sales!

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Michigan today -- too bad it didn't get above 19 degrees!

When I left the house this morning, it was still dark and was only 1 degree with a wind chill of -11. Lovely. Once the sun came up, though, it made even the cold weather seem better.

I found some great stuff today. The first sale was good -- not many people there and, surprisingly, everything I had seen in the pictures that I wanted to get was still there.

I got a collection of burlap & melmac dinnerware (I just can't resist this). Did everyone's parents or grandparents have these?An Androck diamond and star sifter, swanky swig tumbler and a clothespin bag (another thing I can never resist). The nut chopper & Oven Serve custard cup came from the last sale of the day. The next two sales were frogs -- one was in a really large, new house and nothing there was over 3 or 4 years old. The other was an antique dealer who was going out of business. She hadn't reduced a single one of her prices. They were not only not estate sale prices, they were just plain high. Period.

As often happens, though, my 'throw in' sale was the best. I'd gotten it off of craigslist and it was relatively close (in the next town over). I just decided to go because I had spent so little time at the others. It was an absolute prince!

I got 4 Christmas tins

A manual typewriter & caseA Jeannette platter, ruffled candy dish and a Trenton Pottery planter A white Haeger vaseAn old, unused photo album, 2 books and some vintage Christmas cardsA pedestal strainer, 2 Acme graters, a mixed-drink spoon with (I think) a Bakelite knob and a glass rolling pin! I've been looking for one of those ever since my friend Bargain Hunter showed them to me. All in all, in spite of the frogs, it was a very successful day with lots of fun purchases that cost (and this is the best part) NOT lots of money!