What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Week in Junk 4/30/12

(I still haven't found the camera cord, but I bought a new adapter for the Memory Card so I am ready to go again.  Whew!)

  The Week in Junk - it was a BIG WEEK!  In my last post I said I was junked out and going to take a break.  Well, you know me.....that lasted all of three days before I stopped at a sale and bought these:
Four folding rulers.  I have been wanting to try some crafts with them, which involve cutting them into pieces, but haven't had the nerve to cut up one of my good old vintage ones.  So, maybe I will give it a try with a new one.  I am so weird.
There is a lady in town that has a sale a few times a year.  Her prices are kinda pricey for a yard sale, but I always go because she usually has interesting things.  I am still kicking myself for not buying an old metal doll crib last year for $15.00.  It was adorable!  I got this adorable very vintage baby quilt for $5.00.  I think baby quilts are one of my favorite collections.  (Yeah, sure - I have a favorite collection!)
I got these things at a Boy Scout Fundraiser - They said $3.50, but I gave them $5.00.  A funny old sock monkey, small hand carved wooden animals, a cutlery box, some frames for repurposing, a Longaberger basket (which was too dirty to save and I trashed it already), a vintage Science School book and a few other smalls.  
I am not a fabric person - not in the very least - BUT, these little bits of fabric were just too darn cute to leave behind.  And, believe it or not, I've already used some of them in a little makeover!
I also got this never used vintage Checkerboard Cake pan set.  I think we might try to make The Breadman's birthday cake next week in it.  

The day I dug in all that stuff in the shop that was free, there was another lady in there digging with me.  She said that she had been there the day before and since 8:30 that morning digging.  She would cram her SUV full, take it all home, then come back for more.  Over and over again.  Fast forward to Thursday morning when I stopped at a yard sale up the street from my house.  As Iooked at the hings, I thought, this looks like stuff I should like - craft supplies, holiday stuff, older stuff.  It looked like things I should like, but they were just off a bit.  That's when I looked up to see who was having the sale - it was the lady that was loading up at the freebie sale.  She drug it all home, priced it and had a yard sale with it all within four days.  Now, that is organized.  I overheard her telling another lady how she had spent hours in an hold barn digging for these treasures and how hot she was and how hard she had worked.  So, I thought I would blow some wind up her skirt and I said, "I was right here beside you digging along!"  She looked at me and said, "Oh, you were, weren't you?"
Believe it or not, I did buy a few things from her.  Looks like she beat me to a couple of goodies!  Check out that HUGE Glitter.  I mean, it is a big bottle, but the actual glitter is HUGE!  Not to mention the sweet chalkware bluebird, the four tubes of old glitter and those bells.  I would have gleaned them if I saw them first.  I do have a small problem with her just taking everything she got her hands on and reselling it.  I mean, it's really fine, but I couldn't do it.  Most of what I took I am keeping or I will use to make things which I might end up selling - like my Kitschmas Wreaths.  I'm not judging her - I just don't think I would have taken everything only to resell it ALL a couple of days later. 


So, that's a lot of junk already.  But, here goes the FREEBIES I gleaned from the Digger Sale.  Luckily, most everything is small!
Vintage chalk box, vintage glitter, sweet baby bib and the Spun head Angel are my favorites.
Is "Toter" a word?
Lots of vintage craft supplies.  

 Vintage pipe cleaners still in their original package.
A straw flower maker and lots of Swistraw for making those flowers.
Chenille bees and butterflies, millinery flowers and fruit.
A dancing anthromorphic carrot pin.  I think I shall wear him every day from now on.  He will be the official Junking mascot of monkeybox.  
In the depths of junk, I found this old name tag from the lady that owned all these things.  I have a little bulletin board in my office with reminders of the people that once owned the things I treasure.  Elwanda's name tag will go there to remind me of her and her love of all things crafty and all things vintage.

I bought a huge tote (or is that TOTER?) of rickrack, lace and ribbon.
I ended up with miles of loose rickrack.
And 175 new packages of rickrack.  I also have about as much in items that I don't want.  I will be offering that up in my next post if anyone is interested in it.  There is a ton!

So, what did you find and how did I do?









Friday, April 27, 2012

The Waiting Game

I took good clear bright outside pictures yesterday of all m y JUNK that I scored at the big sale and at some other sales.  I used my real camera instead of the iphone camera.  They look great!  But, I cannot find the *#@*^&% camera cord ANYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!   What the ??????  The Memory Card is a Micro Mini and measures about 1/2" square and I cannot stick that in my computer.  Dang it. Dang it. Dang it.

I'll keep looking if you promise to come back another day!  In the meantime - I can see a yard sale sign out my very own window!!!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Some of the Junk

I know you are all waiting for lots and lots of photos of all of the junk I got in the last post.  To tell you the truth...I am kind of on JUNK overload right now.  I was thinking the other day about Ll the things that I touch in one day - laundry - sorting, washing, drying, folding, putting away, dishes - washing, drying, putting up, getting out, putting food on them, picking up the house, picking things to price for the booth - pricing them, putting them in the car, taking them in the booth, putting them out, straightening the other things, working in the entire flea market - straightening other booths, grocery shopping - picking up the item, putting it in the cart, putting it on the register, putting it in the cart, putting in the car, bringing it in the house, putting it all away.  Some days I think, I cannot touch one. more. thing.  I had a blast going to that big sale and having the pick of a whole shop full of freebies certainly got my attention for four hours.  But, then I had to bring it home, sort it out, clean it up, take photos, put away the keepers, take things to the booth, take things to Goodwill, throw some things away - it's all very time consuming.  For now, I am on junk overload and have no plans to go junking in the near future.  (Having said that and really, really meaning it - I already read Craigslist and found two Estate Sales this weekend.  I think I might need an intervention.)

I have all the "Keepers" with the exception of the vintage Christmas in a basket waiting to take decent photos.  Here are some really fast photos I took of some of the other things. 

An old canister - kind of rusty on top, but I loved those polka dots - it was full of bolts and nails and stuff and I wish I had been smart enough to dump it out because I schleped that thing all over the house and up and sown the hill.  The Betty Crocker Cooky Book will be fun to look through.  A Vicki Valentine Comic - described as "wholesome comic books" - there are paper dolls in it.  A hand carved wooden dog.  I like folk art things like that.  the small divided dish is a thrift find from last week - I think it is from a toy dish set and the PURPLE pottery is a Salvation Army find that THRILLED me - I have never found PURPLE pottery!  It looks great with my other pastel pottery pieces.

More tiny metal tins.  Now, that is a real sickness with me.  I have tons of these things, but I CANNOT leave them if I see them.  Maybe I should sell these.  But, I can't see that happening.  Also in the dish drainer - a complete box of 24 quilted jelly jar glasses.  Not sure if I should sell them in the booth or try to find lids for them and use them as storage.  Also, a cup that says FATHER on it - my sad attempt at making a "Father's Day" display  in the booth.

I was honest to Pete walking out the door of the shop from gleaning freebies when I turned around to make one last sweep with my eyes when I spotted this Shiny Brite box way up high all by itself. I'm pretty sure I did a Michael Jordan move and jumped over a lady and snagged it off the top shelf.  It was way higher than I can reach, but somehow I got it.  It assumed it was just an empty box, but Nooooooooo!  It has ornaments in it - PINK ornaments!  These are big ornaments - about as big as a softball. The box is nice and deep and in great shape.  After one more look around and I was honest to Pete leaving this time, the lady I jumped over walked away and there was another box of Shiny Brites laying where she had been.  That one had indents and red, white and blue's in it.  Sigh.  

Here is a sad photo of the giant tub of Christmas things.  Part of an Evergleam pompom tree - this one is blue.  Lots of ornaments, angel toppers, plasticky goodness, kitschy stuff - you get the idea.  Lots of smalls for making Kitschmas Wreaths this year.

One more shot - see that huge tree topper in the middle?  I felt what I thought was a spider tickling my head when I was freebie hunting.  I reached up to smack it away and it was that topper hanging from the ceiling.  
It is truly heinous in it's tackiness.  It is Victorian  and I mean truly Victorian from back then.  It has glass beads, glass picks and that giant German glass glitter encrusted ball.  Not sure if I should leave it as is and sell it or part it out and keep it.  
This big tub was full of all sorts of crafty items.  I am still sorting it out.  Lots of glass beads, fun plastic crap, old wooden beads, etc.  

The best of the vintage Christmas going to my collection.  Six sweet felt stockings marked JAPAN on the back, fantastic garland with mercury beads and foil balls, a skiing Santa candy container, light reflectors, indented ornies, vintage PINK garland, and vintage AQUA garland and a few clip on vintage birds.  I spotted those four little knee huggers peeking out from some grass outside the shop.  I got really, really excited and no one else seemed to care.  It was finding a ten dollar bill in the grass!  Why weren't they excited????
Here's the big McCoy vase I got for $1.00.  It fit right in with my pottery and looks great.

I promise to take better photos of the really good stuff.  I've been busy lately, not feeling my best, tending to a sick (and cranky) husband, not sleeping well and on junk overload.  But I intend to start feeling better, sleeping great and getting back on the photo taking wagon!

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Week in Junk 4/23

Usually on Sundays I take out all the junk I have bought over the past week and take photos of it for the Week in Junk post.  That didn't happen this Sunday because I saw an ad on Craigslist:  We are opening up the house and shop and selling everything. Furniture, curio cabinets, arts & craft supplies, tons of fabric and sewing supplies, tools, safe, office equipment, kitchen supplies, and collectibles. Sunday starting at 8 am. Don't miss this one! Moving after 36 years and there is a lot of stuff. The sale was only about five miles from me, so I decided to make a very quick run to it before I came back home and cleaned house and helped the boys mow the yard.  That quick run turned into four hours of digging in JUNK!  

I started at the house where each room was packed with little stuff - miniatures, craft supplies, books, sewing supplies, holiday stuff - just stuff, stuff, stuff.  Nothing was priced and that always leaves me wondering.  Cheap or expensive or who knows?  There was another lady shopping and she told me that she had been there yesterday and earlier today too.  I asked her how the prices were and she said, "Good.  Just gather it up and it will be one price -like $5.00 for a huge box full."  Okay, that made me feel better.  I was glad to have talked to her, although I wish I wouldn't have seen the literally hundreds of new in the package vintage miniatures she had under her arm in a big box.  

The lady that had lived in the house was a crafter and she had several flea market booths and she specialized in smalls.  Oh-Uh.  That's me in a nutshell!  As I looked around, I noticed that everything was in Ziplocs bags.  In the things I brought home, I threw away over 100 Ziploc bags.  I was looking in each Ziploc bag to see if it was worth buying, but then I decided if I saw one thing that I liked, the whole bag went in my box.  Actually, not a box, but a huge Rubbermaid tub that I quickly filled up.  I got hundreds of new vintage packages of RicRac.  More RicRac than I can ever use.  Ricrack in every color of the rainbow.  Miles of it.  I sorted out the lave and trims that I don't want and they will go to Goodwill.  

As I was paying for my first round, they told me that there was a big shop building down the hill and everything in it was FREE.  I suppose you can see my short legs running to the car to drive down to the shop, can't you?  When I heard "shop" I assumed it was going to be tools and man stuff.  Wrong!  It was all her crafts and holiday things.  It was a mess, people had been digging and throwing htings like crazy.  Things had been stored in there for 36 years so there was all sorts of things from old to new.  There had been mice at one point so there were nests of shredded paper and I saw one of the gnarliest spiders I have EVER seen - HUGE!  Having said all that, you would think that I ran away.  But, Nooooooooo.  Mice and spiders do not scare me when it comes to FREE vintage goodies!  I was selective in what I took, but I took a lot!  I found tons of vintage Christmas including Shiny Brites in big boxes that I have never seen, blue aluminum Evergleam branches, Mercury glass and aluminum ball garland, tree toppers, angels and so, so much more.  I have one big cardboard box over-brimming with vintage Christmas.  


I haven't had time to take any photos except these few quickies:


This McCoy vase is beautiful.  It is about 18" tall and weighs a ton.  I know it is an very expensive vase.  Sadly, this one has a chunk out of the lip on the back.  But, you can't see it from this side, so for $1.00 - it was good enough for me.  I won't tell, if you won't tell.

It is the real McCoy!  For a buck!

This pretty piece of art pottery was in my hands when a man spotted it and took it out of my hands.  It was funny, I could tell he liked it, but he wasn't trying to take it.  He just wanted to touch it.  I can relate.  He even took it outside into the sun to try and make out the makers mark.  When he brought it in, he told me to "hold on to that one."  I paid $1.00.

I paid $3.00 for all of these books including a Betty Crocker Cooky Book.  I love reading price guides - not that I believe the prices, but I learn a lot about things that way.  I'm looking forward to the Kitchen Collectibles and Roseville Pottery books.

Here is one very blurry iphone shot of a box of miscellaneous - Christmas, sewing, beads, old jewelry, vintage glitter, and lots of other things. 

Better photos will come - eventually!  I got to the sale at noon and it is 11:00 now and I have been dealing with all if it pretty much all that time.  I am sort of SICK of it all right now.  But, tomorrow is a NEW DAY!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Teaser

I just got home from a TRUE digger Estate sale.  I DUG for FOUR hours.  I am filthy.  I am dirty.  I filled the car half full with things I bought for $18.00.  I filled the other half up with things from the Arts and crafts Holiday stuffed shop that was open and FREE.  FREE, I tell you.  FREE.  Mind you - it was a MESS and there had been mice at one point which means it has two bad things going against it.  But, it was FREE so what is a little mouse nest and dirt and one big asses Spider compared to FREE?????  Every time I KNEW I had found all the good stuff, I looked UP and found a box full of vintage SHINY BRITES in the old box or something else awesome.  Holy Moley.

I am off to empty out the car.  What the hell am I going to do with all this stuff?????

It was one of the best days I have had in a long time.  I don't mean the junk.  This time it was the journey.

More later!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

I Don't Have A Clue

I was going through some old pictures the other day and I came across this one.  


The Bean, a cute baby Bean, involved in some sort of role playing game - giant mixing bowl on his head - perhaps a helmet and a yardstick that was probably a sword.  But, what's that behind him?  The Breadman wearing a giant mixing bowl helmet!  He looks rather confused, doesn't he?  

I have no idea what they were doing or how either of them came to have my mixing bowls on their heads.  But, I am SO happy that I happened to capture it on film.  What a couple of goofs!

Do you have a favorite funny photo?

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Oh, Baby

I discovered another accidental collection in my stash today - Vintage Baby Books.  The type that a good Mama filled out for every day that the baby did something for the first time.  As of last week, I actually only had two, but then I spotted two more in Beth's Shop and had to order them.  (Honestly I visit Beth's shop several times each day to see what she has in stock.  She sells the BEST goodies at the best prices.  I am addicted!)

These books have the most adorable graphics in them.  
This one is for Baby's First Bath.  
It took me forever to finally give The Bean his first bath.  He was on an Apnea monitor and I didn't really know how to disconnect it to put him in the tub.  I think he was nearly three weeks old before he had his first real in the tub bath.  But, I gave him had to toe wash downs every day.  No stinky Bean, I swear!
Here the Baby looks out to find his Zodiac Sign.  

I am a Leo, The Bean is a Sagittarius.  Our birthdays are 22 days apart.
Baby's First Playmates

The Bean never went to Daycare, so he was friends with our neighbor kids.  The little boy next door was born 16 days after him, so they were very close in age.  That little boy would just show up at my door, in his diaper.  He knew how to sneak out the backdoor, unlock the gate and come to my house.  Thank goodness he came to my house and not anywhere else!  I would call his Mother and tell her that I had him.  I knew he was getting a bit to comfortable at my house the day he walked into the kitchen and said, "Shara....make me some pancakes."  He was only three years old!  I said, "Go home and have YOUR mom make you pancakes!"
Baby's Arrival - The King of the House.  
Before The Bean was born, we had one spoiled cat that was the King of the House.  The Bean quickly took over that position.

Baby's Favorite Playthings
The Bean had a stuffed Pooh that he carried around with him.  A little girl up the street gave it to him on his first birthday, but he never cared for it, so it just sat on the dresser in his room.  One day that next summer, I was going through a catalog and that very Pooh doll was in the catalog.  The Bean was looking at the catalog with me and when he saw Pooh, he said, "Want!"  I said, "You already have one - on your dresser." He ran to get it and I swear, he never put it down.  I think he was so excited to get instant gratification that he was beyond happy.  That Pooh is still in his room and sometimes I kiss his nose so he doesn't feel left out.  
Baby's First Visitor's
When The Bean was born and I was still in the hospital, The Breadman's ENTIRE extended family came to my room, lined up chairs facing me and just SAT THERE looking at me.  For hours, I think.  They never visited us before, they never talked to me, yet here they came with me all tired and cranky and needing Sitz Bath's and decent food and just STARED at me.  Finally, about 9:00 at night, I broke into uncontrollable tears and ran into the bathroom.  *Ding* The Breadman figured it out and sent them HOME.  They always had a mark against them after that for being completely daft.  

Baby's First Birthday
The Bean was SO sick on his First Birthday.  So, so sick.  He was up all night, throwing up, high fever, no sleep, no food.  He was just miserable.  I had been up with him all night too so I was completely out of it.  Add that into a ton of people, party decorations and presents to load and carry to the park and nearly 100 degrees and The Bean and I were out of it.  Thank goodness someone took pictures, or I would have no memories of the day.

I am going to try very hard not to add to this collection, but if I do find another one and the price is right....well, I am pretty sure it will be joining my other Baby Books.  They are cute, sweet and as you can see - they make this Mom nostalgic for her once was little boy.  

Monday, April 16, 2012

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?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

We WON! We WON! Or did we........????

I have a little obsession with scratch-off lottery tickets.  We never had the lottery until about two years ago, but I used to love and pick up a few in Missouri and Kansas when we traveled.  Now that we finally have a lottery in Arkansas, I like playing the scratch-off tickets from time to time.  Generally, I take ten dollars of my Flea market money and buy some tickets.  Last week I bout $10.00 worth of tickets and had this one in the mix.

That's one HUNDRED bucks, baby!  $90.00 profit - not bad!

The numbers have to add up to either 7, 11 or 21. I won on all six sections.

So, today I decided to buy $10.00 more with part of my winnings.  I brought them home and let The Bean scratch off a few.  It's illegal, but if no one sees, what the heck.  :)  He scratched off one and said 2 + 8 +1  "That's 11" he said. "Well, scratch it off, what did you win?" I asked
He scratched it off and was very, very quiet.  He just sat there holding it.  Finally he handed it to me.  

$21,000.00

We looked at each other, counting on our fingers to make sure that 2 + 8 + 1 = 11.

Homeschoooling at it's best.

2 + 8 + 1 = 11

It does!  It does!

We were in disbelief.  It couldn't be.  Then........we believed it.  We won!  We won!  In my mind I was on the phone calling my Mom, calling my Dad, calling The Breadman.  Woo-hoo!  Twenty One GRAND, Baby!

As I  cleaned up the scratch off silver stuff on the rest of the card so we could go get our TWENTY ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS, I scratched off a "2".

2 + 8 + 12 = We didn't win twenty one grand.

Poor kid got all embarrassed thinking I was mad at him.  Or disappointed.  Heck, we only "thought" we had struck it rich for about thirty seconds.  

But, they sure were thirty SWEET seconds!

*Sigh.*

**We did "win" $15.00, so I guess we'll try it again.**

((Fingers crossed))

Monday, April 09, 2012

Week in Junk 4/9

I had a junk free week since my Dad was in the hospital.  We spent most of the day with him each day, then back home for dinner and sleep, so no time for junking.  Saturday morning, I was ready to walk out the door at 10:00 to head his way when he called to say that they might be letting him out, so I should take my time getting there since it wouldn't be anytime soon.  I took that as a sign from the Junkin' Gods that I should  hits some sales in that time.  Surely an extra two hours found from nowhere on a Saturday morning would mean lots and lots of GOOD JUNK.  Wrong.  I knew it was Easter weekend, but there were several signs up and even more on Craigslist.  I checked my IGarageSale app (love that app) and knew which way to head.  All in all I hit seven sales and bought about the same amount of items.  I was getting discouraged that I hadn't found anything good, when I realized I was pretty close to the Super Cheap Thrift so I would run that way and score some cool cheap goodies.  Wrong.  "CLOSED FOR EASTER" the sign on the door said.  Sigh.  I found a couple other sales in town, then headed back to pick up The Bean and go see my Dad.  (Five hours after we got there, they let him go home).

What I bought, but I don't know why:


Giant macrame Santa head.  We had one of these when I was a kid, but this one will go to the booth.  
It was 25¢.

Nice red traincase.  It has a dent on the top, but I am working on popping that out.  I have good luck with these at the booth at $20.00.  It was 50¢.
A little wiggly parts Santa.  I wore these when I was a kid, so I will keep it.  It was 25¢.

Two teeny tiny egg cups marked 2-6-1932 on the bottom.  They are really too tiny to be used for eggs.  I will keep them in my Easter things.  Freebie from a sweet older lady.
An old metal doughnut cutter. 
I picked the cutter and the little insert out of a plastic shoebox of odds and ends.  When I sent to pay, they lady told, me, "oh, that whole BOX is only 50¢"  I said, "Well, can I buy this cutter for 50¢ and you can still sell the rest?"  "Oh MY, REALLY?" she said?  Like I was all generous.  I just didn't want to haul any crap home.  So, she charged me 50¢, then threw in the tiny egg cups.  
Set of six old Reader's Digest Reading Skills books for kids.  At this particular sale the lady running it accosted me as soon as I stepped out of the car - "What sort of things are you looking for?" she asked.  I told her I just liked to look at everything.  "EVERYTHING?" she said all surprised.  "You are going to look at EVERYTHING?"  Uh, not anymore, I thought.  I spotted the books and the little Santa pin and got out of  there.  It was sort of weird.  The books were 25¢ each.
This old wooden Salad Bowl isn't in the s best shape, but I grabbed it for only 50¢.  At this sale, I asked how much books were - "Oh, make an offer" he said.  So, I just set them down and walked away.  I don't make offers, and come on, books are always a quarter or fifty cents and not make an offer or dicker on the price.  I picked up the bowl and he looked at me for awile then said 50¢.  So, I she about the red suitcase and it was 50¢.  I should have gone back to the books, but I just gave up.  *Sigh.  I use these old wooden bowls to hold things at the booth, but people keep buying them!  So, maybe no one will want this one since it isn't perfect.
A Boyds Bear. I don't know why I buy them.  But, if they are cheap and have the tags, I can't seem to leave them behind.  I've watched too many QVC shows selling those darn bears for $80.00 each, I guess.  I have a big box of them, but I have started taking them out to the booth and selling them.  I'm not a teddy bear kind of gal, but I think they are sweet nonetheless.

(It is possible, that after reading this post, I may have been a bit cranky with some of these people.  Not TO them, but AT them).


So, whaddya find this weekend?

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