A Great Junking Day

I got to the Estate Sale about 11:00 yesterday. Sometimes I just go to big sales late to avoid the crazy rush. The fact that I am so not a morning person has a bit to do it it too. I still always find good stuff, but I do often wonder what I missed. This was an older house, the same people had lived in it for 65 years. It was stuffed to the gills with all old, all vintage things. Everything was organized, everything was clean and everything was priced - reasonably I might add. When we were in the back family room, I looked out the back window and saw the back yard was absolutely heaped with old boxes and junk. Junk! I love Junk! I would have loved to gotten out there and done some digging, but I didn't ask if it was fair game or not. (It didn't look like it.)

There were things in the front yard, in the carport, things on the small porch and throughout the entire house. It was only a five room house, so it was pretty tight corners with all the people milling about inside. The living room had one table full of items and a built-in bookshelf with things on it. The kitchen was still decorated and set up like it could be used to prepare dinner, but everything had a price tag neatly applied to it. The most awesome part about the kitchen was that the cabinets were all painted pink! I tried to take a picture but it was so small that I couldn't get a decent photo.

I spotted this tiny black, what I thought was an, evening bag on a table in the front yard. I opened the bag and saw that it was a ladies shaver.

The shaver is gold and fits into the black purse as the carrying case. Gee, shaving your legs used to be an elegant affair, didn't it? This little jewel was only 50¢.

The first bedroom had miscellaneous items and a few Christmas items here and there. I opened the drawer to a dresser that was already partly opened and found these:

Two Japan Christmas birds priced 25¢ on their backs. Slightly tacky, yet awesomely cool. Just enough to make me wonder what other Christmas goodies I missed!

The next room was linen heaven. Piles of linens on the floor, the dresser and on the bed. There were a couple ladies pawing through them when I walked in the room. I did a quick scan and didn't notice any tablecloths, so I went on to the next room (but I went back and looked at every single linen in there, trust me).

The next room was either a family room or the Master bedroom, I really couldn't tell. It had a fireplace and a walk-in closet, but there wasn't any furniture to really be able to tell for certain. I went into the closet and found a cool old cane carved out of a stick - complete with knotholes (50¢), a small red Pyrex custard cup (25¢), two FireKing Custard cups with pink flowers (25¢ each) and this fantastic piece of pink pottery (50¢) that was corroded with an icky residue, but I got it all cleaned up once I got it home.

In the corner of the room, under some books there was a box that said "Towels" on it. Well, I decided to look in the box, 'cause you just never know, right? The entire box was filled to the brim with old sheet music. Old, old sheet music, some as old as 1904! I asked a lady working the sale how much and she said $5.00 for the box. I knew there was a ton of good old sheet music, so I didn't even bother going through it until I got home. When I did go through it,there are over 125 peices of music including some really cool old Black Americana ones:

Back to the Linen room where I found a few goodies hidden under some old basic blankets and sheets. The best hidden treasure is this sweet old quilted floursack apron:
I love all the old fabrics and the rickrack details. It was 50¢. Another lady saw me dig it out and said, "Oooooh" when I picked it up.
I also found this cherry stamped tablecloth for 75¢, a linen bird themed dish towel for 25¢, an anthromorphic fruit towel for 25¢, one of my coveted crocheted watermelon potholders (I've been on a bit of a dryspell for finding watermelon potholders - I thought maybe I had bought them all!) and a felt watermelon potholder for 25¢ - a new kind of watermelon potholder. Oh my! Let's see, is that everything? Oh yes, the wooden clogs were $1.00. I've always wanted a pair of wooden shoes, but I always see them one at a time.

This set of canisters labeled "Gossypion, Pulvis and Crinale"intrigued me at 75¢. After a bit of googling, I have learned that they are old Dentistry apothocary jars. Gossypion is a form of cotton, one is a medicine made from cinnamon and the other is made from red algea. And, now you know. And now you may be slightly grossed out, as I am.
This flowery wicker purse ($1.00) was hidden behind some coats in that big closet. I have about 12 old purses that I am getting ready to list, so this one will be added to the pile. In my hurried shopping, I often hand things to The Bean to carry. He always does it without complaint. When we were paying, I turned to look at him to see if he had anything and he was just standing there holding this wicker purse like a good sport. Poor boy!

After we left the Estate Sale we were headed home and I passed by a sale at a house off the road and it was absolutely packed to the street with stuff. *Screeeech* When we got out of the car, the lady handed each of us a bag and said, "If it fits in the bag - it's $1.00 a bag." I won't bore you with everything I bought, but I packed three bags to the gills, plus got a cool old basket and a neat child's lamp for a total of $7.00. That includes this cool Junk Project:

This old window frame already had the old chalkboard inserts and corkboard inserts. I had been wanting to make a project like this, but what's better than making a junk project? Finding one already made. And for only $2.00!

This old Brownie camera was priced $8.00, but fit in one of my $1.00 bags with lots of other treasures!

This old wall mount can opener, the old metal burger pres, the tiny blue metal measuring cup and old small milk bottle were part of one of my $1.00 bags too. The old Calumet pie tin (25¢)and Searchlight Cookbook ($1.00) came from the Estate Sale (but looked better in this photo!). The Searchlihgt Cookbook is from 1937 and printed in Topeka, KS (My birthplace). My Mom had an old Searchlight Cookbook when I was a kid. Everything we ever made from it was dee-licious!

I spotted this old white shelf packed with books and videos sitting next to the garage. It was white and chippy and very, very me. I asked, if it was for sale. "Yes", she said. But, she never offered a price, so I asked, "How much?" $5.00 she said. I was on the phone to The Breadman to get his pickup truck driving self over there Pront-O. "I just bought a shelf and I need help getting it home," I said. "I'll be right there", he said. (I don't talk about him much because he's not often around for our adventures, but he's pretty good about me hauling junk home and even occassionally hauling junk home for me.

Today we pried off the old backing that was in poor condition and cleaned it all up. There was quite a bit of grime and some old paint rings that you can see in the photo, but it's all clean now. Well, as clean as I need it to be. I like a little grime. This week I am going to have a piece of beadboard cut to fit the back. I think that will really make it look nicer and more new chippy, not just old junky chippy. That makes sense to me, does it make sense to you? Besides, once I cram it full of vintage tablecloths and pottery, no one will notice a little bit of grime.

Love the chippiness. The stain and drippy marks are long gone. Just the cool chippiness remains. The neighbor kids came and watched me clean it up. They wanted to know where I got it. I told them excitedly that I had paid $5.00 for it at a yard sale. They looked at me with pity in their eyes like I got robbed.

Coming up next: I was bestowed three different awards this weekend by fellow bloggers this weekend! Three at once! Thanks ladies, I'll do my part for these awards tomorrow.