Gifts

My sweet Aunt Dorothy from Kansas (not that Dorothy!) was coming through town last weekend and met up with my Dad for lunch.  I had to help my Mom that morning, so I wasn't able to see her.  As it turned out, she had been doing some downsizing since a move and had been making up a box of things she thought I might like.  I met my Dad on Wednesday and he handed me a huge UHaul moving box.  Oh my goodness!  I waited until I got home to start unloading it so I could take my time.  I will say this.  My Aunt Dorothy knows me very well!

The box was chock full of things suited perfectly for me.  An Easter tablecloth with bunnies on it.  Vintage children's books, vintage recipe booklets, satin lingerie boxes and lots more fun things.  A German Christmas Candle Pyramid and lots, lots more.

Two sets of metal candle chimes (we love these things), lots of replacement candles for the chimes, a vintage angel tree topper (on the right) and a vintage angel with a pull cord that plays music.  

Lots and LOTS of mini ornaments - needlepoint ones and lots of sweet little snowmen, some mercury beads and other fun vintage things.  

A light up hurricane lamp with poinsettias.  (Pardon the tacky photo background.)

And, the holy grail of all things vintage and all things Christmas.    

Shiny Brites!  

 Complete sets!

 Santa heads!

Made in Poland ornaments!

Original boxes!

(One box, she says she even saved from atop a trash can on trash night!)

Thank-you Aunt Dorothy!  You know me well and I loved every bit of it.  

It's not the first time she has gifted me treasures either.  :)

The Weekend in Junk

I didn't go to any yard sales this weekend, but I did manage to hit Goodwill twice.  Friday and Saturday I worked on some crafts and preparations for the Barn Sale.  It is only eight weeks away, which sounds like a long time.  But, it will go WHOOSH, I just know it.

When I was shopping at Goodwill today, I found this beautiful gingham apron.  But, there wasn't a price on it.  There was a colored tag, but no price tag attached.  I saw a lady working on the floor and asked her if she knew what the price would be.  "Oh, that's $2.00.  Just tell to holler at the lady in the green shirt if they don't believe you."  

When I went to check out, there was a Fisher Price Clock sitting on the counter.  Remember that - it was sitting on the counter when I saw it. I asked if it was for sale. and she told me that someone must have decided they didn't want it.  I said, "Then I'll take it."  "Oh, this is an OLD toy and worth a lot of money she said. It wasn't an old one, it was a new reproduction that FP released back when Toy Story 3 came out.  But, still, I knew I could make a couple bucks profit if the price was right.  That's when she noticed there wasn't a price on it.  "OH, I can't sell you anything that doesn't have a price on it.  That is against the rules!" And she stuck it under the counter.  I kind of felt like she was insinuating that I had taken the price off, but I clearly had never even touched the thing!  

I handed her the apron and said, "Well, this doesn't have a price on it, but the nice lady in the green shirt said it is $2.00 and to holler at her if you need to make sure."  The lady looked at me over her glasses (I hate that, it seems so disapproving) and said, "Oh, really?  Well, they are usually $4.00.  She is NOT a manager and should NOT be giving out prices to anyone."  *(Sigh.  This trip is going great so far, huh?)

But, then she said, "Since she told you $2.00, I will let you have it for that."  Uh, thanks?

The last item I had was this box of candles.  She said, "Oh, my, these are worth a FORTUNE!"  (They aren't.)  Then she said, "You must be a re-seller."  It was at that minute, I heard a low grumble, a big sigh and a deep puff of air come out of The Breadman.  I didn't even realize he was standing there.  I am pretty sure he was about to pole vault over the counter and beat that lady with those candles.  She looked at him and said, "I'm sorry.  I was in the resale business for a very long time and these just look like the sort of things I would have bought."   Then she quickly finished up my order and had me on my way.  

Finally she was done and I paid and we got out of there.  I know from this point on that I will never get in her line if I can help it.  I have a thing about being called a re-seller.  Yes, I do buy to resell.  But, I am always, always, always on the hunt for things for me and for my collections.  Case in point, the gingham apron will go in my gingham apron collection and the Halloween candles will go in my Halloween collection.  

Finds from my last trip include this old book which is really a box.  It will make a good display item for the booth or the BS.  

A Deluxe Scrabble Game with the elusive red tiles.  I kept the tiles and will sell the revolving board in the booth.  Those giant curtain hooks will go in my stash.  I have some ideas to make mini art out of them, but it's still stuck in my thunker.  ;)

A pattern making activity set for the booth - it's not old, but it looks vintage, so that is good enough for me.  

And, my very favorite find of the week.  And maybe the month.

Flash cards.  Hundreds and hundreds of them.  Maybe over a thousand.  All sorts of fun words.  They aren't old, but I still think they would be fun in displays or framed in groups.  I'm going to use my corner rounder to make the corners round (Duh) and that will help them look a bit more vintage, I think.  I already have COLLECT in my junk themed cabinet.  (Not really sure if BLADDERWORT will be a hot seller).

One and Done

Wednesday we went on a treasure hunt at Target.  I saw online that the Summer items were scanning at 90% off.  Target is always fun when there are 90% off items to be found.  The most fun are the "hidden" that scan at 90% off, but aren't marked as summer items.  Case in point this particular time when we found two big packages of Styrofoam plates for 32¢, a package of blue "Solo" cups for 32¢ and a beverage dispenser for 79¢. On  a walk down an outer lane, I spotted some giant tubs on a shelf.  I said to The Breadman, "Those are going to be 59¢!"  He looked at me like I was crazy, but he took one and scanned it.  He came back and said, "How did you know?  Do you want it?" To which I replied, "I want all SIX of them!"  

He loaded them into the cart and then said, "Why exactly do we need six giant plastic tubs?"  I said, "Because they are 59¢, that's why!"  I figure we will figure out what to do with them later.  :)  I paid $5.19 for the plates, the cups, the dispenser and all six tubs.  Treasure hunting is fun!

After Target we stopped into the big thrift in town.  After buying things for 32¢ and 59¢, the thrift seemed like it was really, really expensive!  But, I re-acclimated and found some deals there too.

I found this sweet vintage-inspired chalk and velvet Easter bunny.  I will doctor him up  bit.

1964 Scrabble Junior game - for the booth.

 A Hog-opoly game board.  This should sell to a University student pretty quickly.  

An alabaster watermelon slice.  I have a collection of about twelve of these that started with on my Mom and Dad brought me home from Acapulco when I was a kid.  I do not have a watermelon themed house or kitchen,in case you were wondering.  But, I do have these alabaster watermelon slices, the watermelon potholders and my collection of stickers off actual watermelons. 

This die cast See's Candy truck was sitting on a shelf in the toy department.  I watched The Bean, The Breadman and three customer pick it up and sit it back down.  I heard two of them say what a shame it was that it was ruined.  When I went to look at it I saw that in giant capital Magic Marker letters someone had written JENNY JOHN and JASON on the top of the trailer.  It looked pretty bad, but I thought for 99¢ I could take a stab at cleaning it up.  It took some elbow grease and two magic Erasers, but it is all gone.  Not a trace of Magic Marker.  I'm always surprised when people don't realize that you can fix things.  It should go to the booth, but it might have to lice with m candy box collection for a bit.

Now, for the last item of the day.

I bought something that I have never bought before and I never really thought I would buy.  

PYREX.

I bought PYREX. 

 I know a lot of people LOVE Pyrex.  There are websites about it, blogs about it and people that collect it.  I can think of five people that read this blog that collect it and LOVE it.  But, it just doesn't do much for me.

 That is, until I saw this piece of  lovely red Pyrex ovenware sitting on the shelf.  It is the one piece that I has seen on blogs that appealed to me.

It's in really nice condition - the red is bright and not chippy or peeling at all.  I bought it for the booth.  

But, I'm kind of digging it.  

Before one of you comments, Now you are going to start collecting Pyrex.  Nope.  Not going to happen. This is the one piece that I have coveted.  One and done, as they say.

Did you find any deals, hidden or otherwise this week?

Summertime Hazel

It's summer.  I hate summer.  The only good thing about Summer is getting to put Hazel in her swimsuit.

The fun thing about dressing Hazel, besides looking for cute and mostly vintage items, is that I can dress her up like I would NEVER dress myself.  Zebra stripes?  Uh, no thank you.  A swimsuit?  Fuggitaboutit.

Because of her molded hair, I can't put hats on her.  It just occurred to me that I could put a yarn doodle on her head.

I'm sort of partial to yarn doodles.

I used to rock the yarn doodle.

Uh. sorry.  Back to Hazel.

 Vintage cat eye glasses and one of my favorite flower brooches.  

Mary Jane socks are just the right thing to keep her on her feet.  When she wears shoes, she sometimes tumbles over unexpectedly, often causing one, two or three cats and sometimes a few humans, a total heart attack.  Socks are certainly better.

That zebra swimsuit came from The Dollar Tree.  I know!  It's cute, right?

Rocking the yarn doodle.  

Like Mother, like daughter.  

Or something along those lines.

Super Cheap Thrift

I haven't mentioned the SCT in awhile, mostly because I haven't been there in about a month.  It's only open Tuesday and Thursday for three hours and Saturday for four hours.  I don't like to use gas just to go there, but if I am headed that way, I try to go when it is open.  The SCT is actually called Life Ministries.  I have had people write to tell me that they can't find the Super Cheap Thrift anywhere.  I just call it that to keep it a secret!

The SCT recently rearranged the entire store.  Actually, now that I think about it - nearly every thrift I go to on a regular basis has completely rearranged their stores int eh past few months.  I like knowing where things are so I can go in on my "route" as I call it.  If I am going down the aisle where the knick knacks are, I have in my mind to look for pottery, vintage figurines, etc.  But, when I go down that aisle and it is all hampers and ironing supplies, my thrifting mojo gets out of whack.

Back to the SCT - they did rearrange, but I have a handle on where everything is now.  The worst thing they did was pretty much stop selling any kind of toys due to the new laws regarding unsafe toys.  I used to come across vintage Fisher Price and old die cast cars a lot, but no more.  They do still have a lot of board games and, for some reason, they are all 10¢ now, so have found a few Scrabble games which always make me happy.

Oh, they did another bad thing!  They made a VINTAGE section.  Ack.  It's not very big, but it's chock full of vintage aprons, linens, handmade doll clothes and vintage baby clothes right now.  The same vintage tea towel I used to get for 25¢ is now $5.00.  Double Ack!

Today I made a run to the SCT just because I hand't been in such a long time.

This poker chip caddy complete with poker chips was in the original box.  It was in the 10¢ board game section.  Heck, almost anything is worth a dime!  I will put it in the booth after I add a couple decks of cards to it.

I really try to sell vintage items, vintage inspired items or handmade items.  My only real exception is Razorback stuff - I prefer to sell the vintage stuff.  But, if I see something I can afford, I will stick it in the booth.  Money talks! This Razorback Growth Chart was new in the box and only $1.00.  I will price it $10.00 and that will pay for my purchases and my gas for today.  

I originally picked this up for the frame alone, but the needlepoint ballerina is kind of growing on me.  It's for the booth,  If it doesn't sell as is, I will just sell the frame.  

Four small frames to paint and repurpose for the booth.

Crummy photo, huh?  I think this is a big silver trivet - it has a blue velvet backing on it.  It's about a foot tall or so.  I'm going to polish it up and use it as a fancy magnet board for the magnets I am making out of old puzzle pieces for the Barn Sale.  

A tiny little cut glass jar with lid.  I don't know why I bought it or what I will do with it, but it was 10¢, so I will figure that out later.  

Department 56 Snow Village Legion Hall.  I always do pretty well with Dept. 56 on ebay.  I haven't looked this one up yet, but if it isn't worth selling, I will put it in with my Patriotic decorations.  I bet you can't guess how much I paid for it!  (That sort of takes away some of the value of course).

A gum drop tree.  Because I already have two gumdrop trees and I have never, ever used them, so of course, I NEED another one.  Now I have three gum drop trees.  Hey!  That is one gum drop tree per family member in my house.  'Cause we all need our own individual gum drop trees, right?

A big old glass candy jar.  This is my third big one, and I have two smaller ones.  I want to put things in them at the barn sale, sort of like a candy store, and sell things by the scoop or individually.  But, I haven't really thought of anything to sell that way.  I think buttons would be cute, and I have a crap load of buttons, but I really can't see myself selling any of them.  I might need that one yellow button shaped like a lemon or that one big black glass buttons one day, so I better keep all eleventy thousand of them.  Suggestions welcome!

Here's the one thing I found for me to keep.

Because I am a grown woman and I need a vintage baby quilt, of course.  

Love the little duck.  And, may I point out that she is wearing GINGHAM?

And, Humpty Dumpty?  Cute! Why, is that a GINGHAM wall he is sitting upon? Yes, yes, I think it is!

I don't collect full size quilts because they are pricey and I just do not have room to store them.  But, goodness, I love a sweet vintage baby quilt.  From time to time, I go through my collection and cull out my least favorites and take them to the booth.  They usually sell right away.  This one will most likely stick around here for awhile.  It's adorable.

Yesterday I stopped at a yard sale on my way home from reworking the booth.  It was at the  house where the man had given me a handful of old fishing lure tins for free when I commented that they were different.  When I stopped yesterday, someone had pulled all those old tins out, put them in a basket and priced them $2.00 each with a FIRM beside that and an ANTIQUE below.  He must have told someone what he had done!

I picked up this cat, which I thought might pass as mid century, but probably not.  He, along with the ten cent stained glass cat, will go to the booth.

I spotted these four old hanging baskets on the ground under a table.  They were 50¢ each and I knew just what to do with one of them.  

I went straight home and put all those old baseballs in it.  I think this would look great on a porch.  It's actually on my porch right now, but it will be going to the Barn Sale.  We put our set of Bocce Balls in another one of the baskets and put them on our patio table.  Now we can play Bocce anytime!

And, lastly - a Goodwill find.  A Levi Ragdoll.  I had a set of the smaller boy and girl when I was little.  (Okay, your right, I still have mine.)  This one will go to the booth or ebay, whichever is the best fit.  

I've done a lot of junk blogging lately, but I am jonsing for a journey soon.  I don't have any in mind, but I an ready for a little diversion and fun!  And, the good lord willing and the creeks don't rise - a little junk thrown in too!