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.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Thrifty Birthday Weekend

Friday was my Dad's birthday.
He was given the day off from work, so Mom found an estate sale with lots of tools. He called a friend, and they all set off for an adventure in the country. I had school, so I missed the fun.

It was a very interesting sale, and just right for my Dad. The estate had belonged to a man who was big on self-sufficiency/survivalism. He had guns, BDUs (camouflage uniforms) , cases of MREs (military food), buckets and boxes of long-term storage foodstuffs, and lots of tools. He also had books on politics, history, religion, survival, medicine, guerrilla warfare, military tactics; even a copy of the unibomber manifesto. On the way home, they found a couple of other sales, too. Here's some of what Dad came home with:

An electric belt sander, an air-powered orbital sander, a scroll saw, a brace and bit, a stud finder, a bag of giant hooks, 2 brass faucets (for making rain barrels), 4 big casters (for making a rotating compost bin), cowboy boots, a Spec-Op handbook ('cause he's a guy), and 2 big C clamps, because he only had 12, and you can never have too many C-clamps. (You know, like Pyrex) He said he already has enough BDUs and MREs.

He also got some DVDs - Westerns and War, of course (ok, plus one for Mom)


And some books



Apparently the guy was very concerned about hiding his guns and valuables. Hmmm... I wonder if the people handling the estate read this book and found all his stuff.

They also came home with this for the garden.

What? You don't use plastic forks in your garden? Well, neither do we, but Mom plans to. You see, we have a lot of cats that roam our neighborhood. And they all think that our empty garden beds make purrfect (Yes, I went there) places to plant their poops. Cat poop, along with the poo from other meat-eating animals, is bad for the garden (unlike chicken manure). We cover large areas with chicken wire until the seedlings come up, and that helps to deter them, but there are always small spots of bare soil.

Mom read online that if you take dead branches and stick them in your garden, they make it difficult for a cat to find a soft place to plant her bottom. But we don't have an endless supply of small dead branches. So next spring, before the new crops come up, our garden will have rows and rows of plastic forks standing guard against marauding cats and their poops. I can't wait to see it.

Mom got something too. A couple months ago she found this cool Paula Dean glass bacon press at a garage sale for $1.
She was rather excited until she got home and realized that it wouldn't fit into the round dutch oven she uses to cook bacon. But as you can see, it does fit into the square electric frying pan she found.She also plans on using it to make rosettes this Christmas.

I got presents too:

A couple of CDs,


a1976 Batman Pepsi glass (surprisingly popular on ebay), a Pyrex opal white divided dish, a copper souvenir ashtray from Missouri, and a copper-colored aluminum volcano mold.


Then on Saturday, I got out our 1957 PINK! Sunbeam Mixmaster that I found at Goodwill for $25,

(It was even prettier before the tape monkeys at GW got to it and the tape pulled the paint off. Grrrr!!)

and my vintage ovenex pans


and baked this Devil's Food Cake for Dad.


Doesn't it look yummy displayed on my new cake plate?

Then the fun continued on Sunday. After church, I rushed over to the mall because Dad had received a card in the mail to redeem for a birthday gift from one of the stores.

He very generously let me keep it.


I also did a little thrifting myself this week.


Another Relpo baby planter!


14 comments:

  1. I love the pink! sunbeam mixer. We had one while I was growing up & I eventually killed it with oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix.
    Ours had come with some accessories that you will need to locate. The opening at the top of the mixer near the handle is for a juicer. It is a milk white bowl with a porcelin white reamer, there is a round metal sieve to trap the seeds & that drains down the tube that is set off kilter to center. We juiced tons of oranges, tangerines [YUMM], lemons & limes over the decades.
    It also had a blender attachement that had a long metal drive shaft that you fitted a tall glass blender container to. It made wonderful Margaritas from all the limes & Harvey Wallbangers from the OJ & thagerine juice. It was super for crushed ice too.
    Good luck finding those extra parts. You will love the juicer.

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  2. What is it with Goodwill and the tape. Someone must donate a bunch of tape to them or something. Love the mixer though even with the paint issues!

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  3. Soooo many great treasures...love that "COOL" pink mixer (sorry about the tape). Thanks for coming to my NIFTY THRIFTY TUESDAYS party.

    Blessings,
    Linda

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  4. Ratty Hugs, I would love a juicer. I've seen the bowls around, but not the other parts. When I was searching ebay to figure out what year my mixer was made, I saw all sorts of attachments, but I don't know which parts fit my mixer, and they want as much for the juicer parts as I pd for the mixer, so I guess ebay's out, but I'll still keep looking.

    Pam, the worst thing about the GW tape situation is the number of pieces of Pyrex and glassware that I have seen ruined because they put the tape over the gold leaf designs.

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  5. OMGosh that mixer is to die for! tape monkeys... bwahahaha... I laughed out loud at that one!

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  6. Don't you just hate when they put tape on things? Another one of my pet peeves is writing or taping the price on the covers of magazines. The pink mixer is awesome, though. I love the Batman glass, too!

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  7. Love your dad's finds. The automobile books look fascinating and that 'secret hiding places' book has got to be, by turns, horrifying and hysterical! Oh, and your Sunbeam! Wonderful buy. So sad when GW prices things that way though. I've had similar things happen. Wonder if there's a foolproof way of removing stickers that is sure to not damage the item(s).

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  8. OK, the Big Book of Secret Hiding Places nearly made me spit my coffee onto my computer screen. YOIKS. that was one ...mmmm... interesting fellow who collected all that estate stuff.

    Nice of your dad to give you the gift certificate. It might have been worrisome if he had wanted to keep it for himself.

    Fun blog! Came here from Bloggeritaville.
    Cass

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  9. Now that sounded like a man's man sale for manly men! Glad your dad found some treasures. Oh, please take a pic of your garden of forks next year! I hope it deters the cats from doing their biz up in your bidness. When we moved to this house, the former owners were in the habit of dumping the litter box (they used clay) in the flower garden along the north side of the house. Which I discovered while digging it up (close and personal) the next spring. Anyway, the plants somehow survived and thrived, but it wasn't fun to work in until it all broke down and got turned under.

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  10. loving this post! so much eye candy. how cute is your family for picking up those treats. LOVE the mixer.

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  11. Wow you Dad found so much guy stuff. How cool for him. I love the items you found but am drooling over the Pink Sunbeam mixer!! (GW tape is the worst!!)

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  12. Nope you are not your average 20 year old...I think I told you that early on. Your family is a real treasure to have. You seem to all have fun together. I love the junk stuff, that is now your treasures your Dad found...cute cute cute. Thanks for joining me.

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  13. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post! Your family got some great finds. My favorite has got to be the mixer, though -- how cool is that?

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  14. I didn't know about the forks, but thank goodness you told me, because I am tired of the neighbor's cat crappin' right by my front door!! Thanks Betty!

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