Not Quite Thrifty, but Lots of Fun!

We just finished up a 1 1/2 week sale at the antique mall -- each dealer gets to choose his discount amount, anywhere from 10% to 50%,  It's both a good and a bad thing to be a floor walker during the sale -- you get to see LOTS of things you want to buy.  Each time I worked I found another treasure or two, including several things that I'd been watching for weeks and hoping would still be there by sale time.

Here's what I bought -- some destined for Etsy and some just for ME!  Can you guess what I'm keeping?

Yet ANOTHER book about the Queen's coronation (I'd been watching this one a while)  It's titled 'Great Events of the Royal Year 1953' has shots of all sorts of interesting things; it's like a 1953 time capsule

Sporting Events

The Royals' version of Brad & Angelina -- celebs to be watched...

Queen Alexandra's Gift Book -- she was Queen Elizabeth II's great-grandmother. 
This book is filled with 'photographs from my camera'

It was given to a little girl as a reward for 'regular & punctual attendance' -- lucky her!

Apparently, Queen Alexandra took these pictures with her little camera herself -- I know, it's nerdy (but cool!)

 Now to the more universally interesting things that I bought ---

A sweet turquoise & white cream & sugar -- I have no idea who made them (do you?)

This 1950s-1960s lunch box -- I just LOVE it!

It belonged to Elizabeth -- I like that a lot because that was my mother's name.   I wish I knew who this Elizabeth was!  I'm going to leave the labels on, for sure

A little 'Japan' figurine and bird salt & peppers.  They have noise makers in them like Holt Howard cats but, as usual, they no longer work.  Aren't they cute?

 I'd been watching this little silhouette advertising wall hanging for weeks and was always worried that it would be gone.  It was given as a gift by a gas station.  I just think it's one of the sweetest things I've seen in a long time!  It's tiny --  only 5" across.

 This was my BIG splurge (I justified it by saying it was for the house) -- a coral red chair from the 1940s or 50s.  As soon as I saw the square button, I was hooked.

It looks fantastic in the living room!

A Better Homes & Gardens Sewing Book from the 1960s

So, even though it didn't come from a thrift store or an estate sale, it was all a pretty good bargain -- and so much fun! 

Now I've got to go check out the weekend's sales.  My niece is coming for a girl's weekend and we're hoping to find some good ones!  Happy thrift shopping to you, too!

Fun Friday Sales

Last week I finally had a day off to do some thrift shopping. After a summer of garage sales (great bargains, but LOTS of frogs to kiss in order to find a prince), I was really hoping to go to an estate sale or two. As luck would have it, there were 5 in a 10 block area in a town about 45 minutes away, so I set out early Friday morning.

I found lots of great stuff! None of the sales looked particularly exciting from the pictures, but you just never know if the dealers' idea of a treasure is the same as your own -- often they only shoot the high-end stuff and the diamonds-in-the-rough are hidden away. Here's what the kitchen looked like when I finally got MOST of it inside...

Most everything I found will either go in the booth or on Etsy, though I'm planning to keep a few. Here are some of the things that I got:

The pickle jars are really old and the recipe box is just full of old recipes

This is a great black organza half apron with rosebud fabric over it!

I'm keeping this very fun reversible plastic tablecloth -- Christmas on one side and Happy Birthday on the other

A sweet framed twins picture and lots of babies' and children's hangers

Lots of old Little Golden Books

Aren't these pearled & beaded collars beautiful? I don't know if women wore them on blouses or as a choker.

I never can resist old ornaments!

This great aluminum cart was down in the laundry room covered with stuff! It folds down, which is the only way I got it in my little car

I got a new (old) granny cart (the one on the left.). I think I'll sell the one I was using before -- on the right

Tomorrow I'm going to Greenmead Flea Market -- a great little treasure at a local historical village. I'm really excited, since there were wonderful things to be found there in the spring. Unfortunately, my usual shopping buddy, Bargain Hunter, can't go at the same time I can go, so I'm shopping solo. Hopefully, I'll soon be sharing my treasures from Greenmead!

The End of a LONG Week!

I started working four days again at my day job this week, as I finished my other job at the antique mall, so I worked 6 days straight.  Friday and Saturday at the mall were REALLY busy -- we just started a mall-wide sale and the place was packed!  Then today was Dealer Day (when we get to work on our booths from 10-12 before the mall opens) and I was there until about 2:30 rearranging, rehanging picures and making everything fit.  I have one special project to finish tomorrow for my work and then, FINALLY, I'll be able to (hopefully) go back to a normal four-day-a-week routine.

The hoosier cabinet made it into the booth, but was only there a week.  Sorry about the picture quality, but I took it on my phone.

The cabinet went out the door early Friday morning -- Woo Hoo!  I was excited that it sold, but sad to see it go.  I really liked it and had spent hours working on it.  The hardest part about having a booth is saying goodbye to all that great stuff. 

Now that the long week is almost over, I can start thinking about getting out next weekend to shop.  I just kept imagining the last yard sales of the season and all of those great bargains that were out there and I wasn't able to get any of them!  I'm also looking forward to catching up on a few projects and seeing what I've missed on everyone's blogs -- have you all had great thrift buying adventures as summer comes to a close?

A Tale of Two Resale Shops

I've been working LOTS of days in a row (and will be working LOTS more), so no thrift shopping for me (boo hoo)!

But, we have a new resale shop in town and today was their first day open, so I stopped by on my way home from work.  There was almost no merchandise and the owner said it take several weeks to build up an inventory.  She was very nice and friendly and they've made great improvements to the interior of the shop (which had been a resale shop before).  I was really happy with the whole thing -- UNTIL she gave me the consigners' guidelines (which I didn't even ask for, by the way).  My Goodness -- such rules!

They must be the fanciest resale shop ever!  There are 3 pages of *basically* what they WON'T take:  no collectibles, nothing in dated colors (like peach), nothing with country hearts on it, no pictures that aren't professionally matted & framed, no pictures with a sawtooth hanger instead of a picture wire,  no glasses of an uneven number, no dishes that aren't complete place settings, no lamps that aren't in pairs with matching shades and (here's the best one) NOTHING that they can't sell for at least $8!  Can you believe it?

They have another, very successful shop in another local town and I've shopped there, but never noticed that it was particularly more wonderful than any other resale shop I've been in.  I may stop in the new one to shop from time to time, but I'll certainly never be a consigner -- all those rules just for a 50/50 split!  I couldn't help contrasting it to another local resale shop (where I DO take my stuff for a 45/55 split) and the owner is so nice and agreeable.  She always has things she can't or won't take, but she's so kind when she tells people and it's never a long series of NO, NO, NO.  She also makes lots of donations to local non-profits and promotes their events in her monthly newsletter -- she's really invested in the community.

Thank you, new resale shop -- I'll stay where I am!

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho -- It's Back to Work I Go!

For the past year & a few months, I've been working from home on our church's website (which is just a portion of what I did when I worked in the office there). Originally I reduced my hours in the office so that I could help Mr. Kitschy Vintage with his business, but then he didn't really need me. I've loved being home and setting my own schedule and I haven't been bored for even one day! There are always so many projects and so little time.

However, all that ends on Monday. The church has offered me my old job back and I start working 4 days a week again. It's going to really be a transition! For the next two weeks, I'm finishing out my cashier job at the antique mall, as well, so next week it's 6 days straight for me (I'm tired just thinking about it).

I hope I'll be able to continue to make the booth work with a day job -- that's something I haven't had to juggle before now. Lots of other people do it, though (including my friend Bargain Hunter), so I know it can be done. It will just mean more late nights cleaning, repairing, painting and pricing things to go into the booth -- and more late nights blogging, too! It's a good thing I'm a night owl and not a morning person!

A Beat-up Turquoise Challenge

Well, it's 'Would You Buy It Wednesday...oops -- make that Thursday'! Here's a little treasure I not only picked up at a sale, but actually paid them $1 for! It's a wind-up clock that doesn't work, with a music box that's missing its on-off knob, in a case that cracked and filthy. My dad used to always say "A fool and his money are soon parted" and I suppose that's true, but...
The sad little clock has SO MUCH going for it!
It's turquoise (which I can never resist)
It's broken (I love to take things apart and try to fix them)
It's cute and little -- only 6" long -- and will look great in my craft room

Would you have bought it? Probably not! Even if I get it fixed, it will still be missing the door over the clock and the case will still be cracked.

I'll let you know when I get it to run!

I'm linking to Junker Newbie's 'Would You Buy It Wednesday' -- go on over and see what other 'treasures' people have found. While you're there, add your own link.

Thrift Shopping in the Land of 10,000 Lakes

Mr. Kitschy Vintage & I went on a road trip last week to visit two dear friends who've recently moved to Minnesota (more on that trip later). When my friend Kally was back here in Michigan, she went to a family-run estate sale with me and she caught the thrifting bug! So we checked out estatesales.net for Minnesota and off we went.

Kally got the entire thrifting and junking experience, complete with high prices, grimy merchandise and stinky houses. She was most excited to go to the first one on our list because they had a Danish Modern rocker she really liked in the picture. We got there early and were #14 & 15. When we got inside, the rocker was already sold -- but it had been priced at $695! A DM china cabinet with horizontally rolling doors was priced at $1900 (not yet sold). We didn't buy much there, though I did get a cute little feedsack quilt block stuffed dog (which I also paid too much for) and a homemade white terry cloth cat.I have no idea why I bought the fake-fur bear along with them. What was I thinking?

The next sale was much more reasonably priced but oh, so stinky! The basement had so much mold or mildew that we literally held our noses shut and held our breath while we looked as fast as we could. There was no way to breathe down there. The rest of the house smelled 'sour' but bearable. We went to several garage sales after that and had lots of fun wheeling and dealing. At the end of the day, here's what I found:

A set of 1970s Rubbermaid bowls with see-through lids -- so retro!

3 lime green Pyrex casserolesA Franciscan Sycamore divided dish and a plastic faux-cut glass tray (these are REALLY handy in the sewing room)Lots of little odds and ends -- see the pink rhinestone crown pin in the front?A beat-up cutter quilt with very pretty squares. There's a funny story about this quilt -- I took it to the checkout, opened it up and began searching for the price sticker. I told the lady there was a $10 tag on it somewhere. She said, "I believe you, but they couldn't have looked at when they priced it! How about $5 for it?" So I got it for $5 -- great deal!I hope you had some fun shopping last week! I have to catch up on all of my favorite blogs to see what finds there were...