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.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Estate Sale Friday

Last Friday, my mother and I went to two estate sales in our area and got quite a haul.

The first sale was hosted by the same family with the Bag of Used Soap from the week before, but they had more things out. We did quite well there, finding a few kitchen wares, some fun things, and lots of books and craft magazines (which we got for essentially free).

The Home Improvement books and Craft Magazines are a hoot and have the best pictures! The Kitchens and Bathrooms are the most fun; they come in the best colors.


There's Vixen the Reindeer Apron again! And isn't the tablecloth envelope just so cool? It's made so that you can fold up your fancy tableclothes in it when you put them away and they won't get all damaged.
The Troll Doll is a Dam troll from 1988 with his original tags on him. He's wearing a uniform with a shirt from Cellwood Machinery.


The second sale was the estate of an Army Officer and his wife who was an Army Nurse during WWII. In one of the rooms they had this charming portrait of the couple; too bad it was damaged.
Their house was wonderfully decorated with lots of things from the Philipines and Japan (she was in Japan in the war) and was quite fun to look through. They also had some kind of weird things like this "chewbacca scale" which I suppose was intended to keep your feet warm on cold mornings.
We found a few things we could use including a Gemco pump action Ketchup and Mustard set (more picnic ware) for $1.00 and a Butterfly Gold Pyrex Lasagna Pan for $3.00.

I even found a rhinestone necklace finally. I always see the prettiest rhinestone necklaces at estate sales but my neck is too big for them usually. This one fits just right and was only $6.00. I love it and will wear it the next time I take Betty (the mink) out for a night on the town.


We usually go to estate sales on Sundays when everything is half price and so when we went to this one on Friday we were pleased to see things priced as we would want them to be. We also usually miss out on the good things like jewelry and apparently bags of soap.

Maybe they're more common than we thought.

We didn't buy too many things last Friday but at the second sale we bought things that we can actually guarantee will get used.

What's your favorite thing to look for at estate sales? I always look in Kitchens first for Pyrex and other Kitchenware.

Please visit these parties to which I am linking this post:

Thrifty Thursday @ Tales from Bloggeritaville
Garage Salen Party @ debbiedoos

4 comments:

  1. I look in the kitchen section too first....you had some really cute things though this week. That vixen apron was a hoot. Thanks for joining in on the party. Have a great weekend. Debbie

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  2. My 19 year old daughter is hot and cold with vintage. Last fall I got her an old mink stole from St. Vinny's and she wore it to a formal dance. She didn't like the pink carry on I bought the other day. But last night she took a vintage velvet bag out to a club. I'll have to tell her you named your mink, how fun.
    Susanne.

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  3. I love estate sales especially the kitchen section. It's remarkable what people have in their houses.

    ReplyDelete

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