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, February 24, 2011

Estate Sale Finds

After a recent dry spell, we had several estate sales in one weekend. Here are a few of my favorite things we found.


My mother found this book in amongst a bunch of others stuffed into a closet. I hadn't gotten there yet when she found it or I'd have probably spotted it first. It's a portion of a correspondence course on home appliance repair ca. 1970.


The book is full of diagrams and instructions featuring common brands of household appliances such as this one for servicing and repairing a Mixmaster. The diagram they use shows a Model 10. My mixer is a Model 12 and still similar enough to use their diagrams for servicing.

After finding that, my father decided to go online and order the complete course. The NRI (National Radio Institute) doesn't exist anymore but we were able to order the full course for about $15.00. Now he has service and repair instructions for vintage toasters, coffee pots, washing machines, blenders, mixers, etc.


I love children's books and fairy tales so bedtime story books are always a favorite for me. This is a vintage copy of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories with the latest copyright of 1941. Arthur S. Maxwell was a spokesman for the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Britain, but in America he is well known for his volumes of Bedtime Stories and Bible Stories. His stories all teach a morality point related to scripture.

Interestingly enough, although there are a few drawings, most of his "illustrations" are photographs from recent events or copies of biblical paintings.



My mother loves vintage board games, especially with fun, bright graphics.

She found this one that she'd never even heard of. It's ca. 1970 and has the colors to show.


At one sale my mother found an entire shoebox full of stir-sticks. Vintage ones - we're guessing most are from the 1960s. They did their traveling mostly in Seattle and Tacoma Washington, with trips to Hawaii, Reno/Lake Tahoe, and Vegas. She knows I love barware so she felt compelled to bring them home.

These are some of my favorite ones for styling, color, etc.

My mother has always wanted a souvenir pillow cover. She loves the ones from Hawaii especially and never thought she'd be able to afford any. We refrain from purchasing many things on Ebay and the only time we've ever seen one at an estate sale it was far too expensive.

We found two of them at one sale and waited until half price day to buy them for $1.50 each, a little bit surprised that they didn't sell.



I love aluminum tumblers and am always looking for them. I found these for $0.50 each. Don't they look lovely with my pitcher?

Lots and lots of apothecary jars for storing lots and lots of things. We paid anywhere from nothing to $1.00 each for several, even more than are pictured.

This is the best deal we made all weekend: A Bogen 3001 Tripod for my camera! (Picture borrowed from ebay; ours is very similar) My mother has been looking for a tripod for months now and hasn't found a thrifted one that was any good (usually the legs won't lock properly). This tripod was only $12.00, but Mom wasn't sure it would work with our camera. The woman running the sale very generously told us that we could take it home for the day and try it out and, if it didn't work right with our camera, bring it back the next day.

We brought it home, it worked perfectly, and we did the research and found out that it's a very popular tripod, very high quality, made of aluminum and sells on Ebay for around $60.00. Needless to say, my mother is glad she didn't find a functioning plastic tripod sooner.

I hope you found as many wonderful sales as we did!

I'm linking up to these parties:



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Click on the links and join the fun.

11 comments:

  1. You had a great day at the sales and I loved seeing all your finds.

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  2. Wow is all I can say. Great finds for sure. I love all those swizzle sticks. I have a small collection that is mostly from my parents. You really got some good one's. Love those pillows for you Mom. A Bogen tripod for $12...SCORE! I could go on and on...really great finds. Thanks for joining JFF this week! hugs, Linda

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  3. Great finds...I am really lovin' those aluminum pitcher and glasses...what a deal too :)
    Big hugs,
    Queenie

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  4. I'm really lovin' that alum. tumblers and pitcher--great finds!

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  5. You found some pretty fantastic stuff! The stir-sticks are so fun! And whoa, what an awesome deal on that tripod :)

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  6. You made some great finds...love the old books and the aluminum tumbler set. But the best has to be that tripod!!!
    Sherry

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  7. You really scored big! Love it all especially those pillows and the book. Great deal on the tripod too.
    Thanks for the input on the blue egg plate, I'll be checking that out;-)

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  8. Hi, thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a lovely comment. Im loving all your fabulous finds! Those jars and stirers are amazing! Scarlett x

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  9. Where did your Dad order the full course of books from?

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  11. The best way to make sure that your finances are protected is to get repairs as soon as you can. Refrigerator Repair SubZero, Viking, GE Monogram, Liebherr, Samsung, LG in San Diego

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