The Week in Junk 4/16

Not a lot of junk to report again this week.  I got up Saturday morning and headed out to a neighborhood sale and a few yard sales, only to find both of them closed down.  There was rain in the forecast and it was cloudy and windy, but it was not raining so WHERE WAS THE JUNK???  I drove through my small town and onto the next tiny town, but never did find a single yard sale.  I guess I am just anxious for yard sale season to kick in - it has been so warm here for so long that it feels like the heat of the summer will be here soon and there won't have been any sales at all.  I need JUNK!  Oh, I have plenty of junk here at the house to keep my booths full for a very long time.  But, you just never know when you might find that one special thing on your WISHLIST or that one magical thing for a quarter that resells for $300.00.  So, the quest continues.  I did make a couple stops at a few thrifts this week.  You gotta find JUNK where you can!

I always SWEAR that I will not bring home any books.  You can see what good that did me this week.

There's a big new vintage scrapbook in the back - I always sell these in the booth.  The Forest book is for us, the Iris book is for resell, the 23 1/2 hours book has really great old illustrations in it.  The front inside has the army man going on leave and the inside of the back cover has a bunch of dead bodies on it.  I guess something happened on those 23 1/2 hours leave!  That's another big old Dictionary on the bottom - I sell these pretty regularly too.  

A couple more books.  I am having a good run on these old Big Golden Books lately.  The Baby farm Animals has the cutest illustrations in it.  (No dead bodies in that one!)  I will put them on the shelf with the others I have been picking up lately.  I thought the milk glass vase would be pretty with summer Zinnias in it. I swore I would never buy Milk glass.  But, now I have three vases in that shape.  Uh-Oh.  You know what it means when you have three of something......a collection!  Love that little spool of old ribbon.  I will probably put it with my Patriotic decor since it is red, white and blue.  I thought the hand-cut linoleum stamp was sweet.  I remember making one of those in High School Art and it was H-A-R-D.  And, mine was super simple.  

I've been needing a rack like this for the booth, so I was happy to find one for 50¢.  The three vintage conch belt kits were 25¢ each - I'll throw them in the booth.  I think they are kind of kitcshy neat.  The salt and pepper grinder are Cole and Mason from England, but I can't seem to find any other painted ones on-line.  I think they came that way, so I will keep on looking.  

It's hard to tell in this photo, but these are three very large terribly tacky pink plastic roses.  I love them!  I must find more terribly tacky plastic flowers!  I plucked them out of a big box of Dollar Store bouquets and Hobby Lobby sunflowers much to the dismay of the lady watching me.  I think she felt sorry for me for picking out those terribly tacky pink plastic roses and not those giant fake sunflowers.  isn't it funny how different we can all feel about something?  

Now for the two items I bought to keep.  Other than the books. of course.  And the milk glass vase. And the ribbon. And the roses.  Oye vey.

I spotted this old FULL sign at Goodwill.  I thought, "Well, that's weird."  Who would want a sign that said FULL?  Then I looked on the other side.....

Vacancy!  It's a Vacancy/Full sign from a campground or maybe an old motel.  It's hand-carved and hand-painted and it's old.  I think it's quite kitschy and campy and even though I haven't found just the right spot for it, I think I will keep it.  For now, anyway.

Saturday after finding a whole lot of nothing, I stopped into my least favorite thrift in desperation.  As I went down the aisles searching each area for certain things I walked down into the basket area. I spotted this fabulous old oak splint basket siting right in the middle of a massive pile of crappy made in China baskets.  I grabbed it and saw it was marked $12.00 - which let me know that they actually realized it was a good old basket.  Luckily, according to the color of the tag, it was 50% off and that was right up my alley.  It is really big - like you could carry a watermelon in it.  I really can't explain how I feel when I rescue a good old handmade basket like this.  I feel honored to have found it and to own it.  Back when this was made, baskets were crucial to every day living - bringing in the eggs, vegetables, groceries, laundry, kindling, etc.  Someone had to cut those splints and then make that basket so they could go gather the vegetables that they planted.  I especially love it when you can tell they have been used and there have been repairs made to the bottom or the handles.  This one is in really nice condition.  I'm proud to own it!

So, enough of my nattering - what did you find this week?  Any good junk?