Why 'My Mink Betty'?

Why 'My Mink Betty'?
I'm not your common, everyday twenty-something year old and when I graduated from High School I got an equally uncommon gift. My parents found for me a beautiful 1940's mink stole at a garage sale. It had belonged to the woman's Great Aunt Betty who had married late in life to a man with money and had only allowed him to buy her this one luxury. The unusually styled stole has the name, Betty L. Jones, embroidered in the satin lining so that's what I call her. They never had children of their own and the mink was passed to Aunt Betty's niece and on to her daughter. Until it got to me, no one since Aunt Betty had worn it. Now Betty the mink and I go to the theater together on special occasions and I hope that someday I can take her to the Symphony or the Ballet. Although Betty hadn't been worn or loved for many years she was waiting for someone to love her again as are most other things I look for when thrifting.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

A Bag of Used Soap

My mother and I went to a garage sale at a beautiful house with some pretty slim pickings and an estate sale at a less impressive house with a lot of stuff. Here are some pictures; sorry I didn't have anything more fun for you.

The garage sale was at a beautiful house built in 1898.







And the award for the most racist honey advertisement of all time goes to....




Her house was beautiful and she was very nice. We found some lovely picture-plate books on Victorian houses and a few small things.


The estate sale was at a modest mid-century home with too many things to look at. The couple there was moving into their RV and selling EVERYTHING from their house. They had all the essentials: clothing, dishes, books, toiletries, oil funnels, tools, furniture... but the milk crates were not for sale.

Here's most of what we actually bought:








We got a few more things than that including a yellow paint-splattered Cosco step stool for one dollar which I hope to be able to clean up. Did you see the wire-metal grocery cart? We got TWO of those! All the silverware, as well as a not-pictured drink cooler, is for a church picnic I have coming up (and it's even Oneida).

And the strangest thing I saw (I regret not having a picture of it) was a ziploc bag with around 14 bars of opened, and possibly used, soap. I am just dying to see the inside of their house because I can only imagine that they had twelve bathrooms and one bedroom.

In all, it was a pretty great day for estate sales.

I'm linking this post to:
Debbie-Doos' Garage Salen Party
Frugal Fridays @ The Shabby Nest
It's so very thrifty @ It's So Very Cheri
Frugal Finds @ It's a Blog Party

Photobucket



It's a Blog Party

6 comments:

  1. You found some great vintage items.

    I have a story for you about used bars of soap; When I was little, every year for Christmas my grandmother would give me (and my 5 sisters) a terry cloth mitten, filled with her slivers of used soap. She only used lavender scented soap and saved them all year to make the mittens. To this day when I smell lavender, I am taken back to her frugal and thoughtful gift.

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  2. Do you remember the Friends tv show reference to sharing soap?
    (think about what you wash first and I wash last) Soap is self cleaning.

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  3. WOW...what an awesome house! I like going to sales like that...the honey sign was cute though..I got a chuckle:) Looks like you racked up some good stuff though! I love that you joined the party, I see you are new to blog land...welcome!!~ It is great fun, so inspiring and you meet so many like minds...see you again soon. Debbie

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  4. So what are you going to use the soap for? The costco step stool sounds neat. I'd love to run across one of them for $1.00. Great finds!

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  5. You got some great items!
    Thanks for linking up!
    ~Liz

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  6. Thanks everyone for reading and commenting!

    @Pam:I bought a lot of used things but not the soap. Sorry to disappoint.

    @Debbie: Thanks :]

    @Liz: No problem and thanks!

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