Thrifting By Proxy

Do you ever Thrift By Proxy? That's when a friend is at an estate sale or a thrift store, sees something she thinks you will like and gives you a call. Just because you're not there doesn't mean you can't share the fun.

Like early this summer, when I was at a garage sale and called my Sean Connery obsessed friend Brent:

Me: Do you have twenty dollars?
Brent: No. Why?
Me: Oh, okay, never mind.
Brent: Wait, wait, why?
Me: I just found this framed picture of someone you might know. A man named Sean Connery. Ring any bells?
Brent: (incoherent excited babbling)
Me: He even signed it. I think it's from that movie "Hunt for Red October". Have you seen it? (I happen to know it's his favorite.) But since you don't have twenty dollars, I'll just leave it here.
Brent: No, no. I have twenty dollars. Buy it. Now.

Or the more usual calls to Mom on any Sunday, when I stop at Goodwill on my way home from church:

Me: Do you have five dollars?
Mom: Why?
Me: Pyrex
Mom: What kind?
Me: The five dollar kind.
Mom: (Thinking: $5... must be good) Is it still shiny?
Me: Pretty much. Some light metal marking.
Mom: What pattern?
Me: The kind that will cost you five dollars.
Mom: (giving up) Fine. Buy it. We can return it if I don't like it.

Or:

Me: I found you a present.
Mom: What kind of present?
Me: The goooood kind.
Mom: Is it Pyrex?
Me: Maaaaybe.

This is family code for "I ain't tellin'." When I was a kid, I would try to guess what was in the presents under the Christmas tree, and no matter what I guessed, Mom would never say "no." I could guess "a pile of dog poo" and she would say "maaaaybe".

Mom: (Playing along)Is it socks and underwear? That's what my parents always got me.
Me: I'm at Goodwill... do you really want socks and underwear from here?
Mom: No thank you. Did you use my money?
Me: Well, duh. Have you met me? Broke college student?
Mom: Okay, what did I buy myself?
Me: A surprise.
Mom: Oh, goody. It's such a surprise I didn't even know I was buying it.

Last Friday, Mom invited me to go to an estate sale with her, but I already had plans. My BOYFRIEND wants me to go with him to the premiere of the new Harry Potter movie next Friday, and I hadn't seen the last two movies yet. (I haven't read the books, either, please don't flame me.) So my BOYFRIEND was bringing the movies over for us to watch. (Btw, in case you haven't noticed, I have a boyfriend. And I am officially 12 years old.)

So Mom went alone, and in the middle of the movie, I received this call:

Mom: Are you busy?
Me: I can't talk. Bellatrix is at Snape's house.
Mom: Is $3.50 a good price for three Pyrex mixing bowls?
Me: (to the TV) NOOOO... don't touch her she's---- wait. Pyrex?
Mom: Spring Blossom Pyrex. [My pattern] Three piece set. Cinderella mixing bowls.
Me: How much again?
Mom: $3.50. Do you want it?
Me: Well, duh. Have you met me?

I have a very NICE boyfriend. He lets me interrupt Harry Potter for Pyrex. We support each other's obsessions. (Hey, at least neither of us is into Twilight.)

But that wasn't all Mom found.

She also got a green depression glass mixing bowl, something she's wanted for years. The yellow and green round casserole is the $5 Pyrex from Goodwill. The pattern is called Shenandoah, and my lousy picture doesn't do it justice. She paid $1 for another Tupperware cake keeper because it had this inside it.

This is a pie stacker, so that I can carry two pies in one cake carrier. (Pies are my favorite thing to bake.)
And... several free booklets, including:

The recipe book from the first Pillsbury Bake-Off (before they used that name) in 1949. Someone was offering this for $450 on ebay last week because it is supposedly rare. No takers. One did sell this week for $10, though. I just love the names of the winners... Mrs. Ralph E. Smofield... Mrs. Herbert Leslie Evans... Mrs. Casimir T. Subbie... I am NOT making these up... not the sort of names you hear these days.

This colorful little Coldspot manual is from Sears, Roebuck and Company. No date, but from the pictures, I'd say mid-fifties. That gold and silver chevron on the front is a close-up of the handle to the fridge. How cool is that? And can you see the adjustable watermelon shelf? I want one for my fridge. Plus, it boasts Recipes "that will make you an envied hostess," and they are surprisingly normal for mid-fifties recipes.

And then there was what she didn't buy. There was a wonderful wooden high chair for $40. We would love to have one, but can't afford that price.

Isn't that picture precious?

There were more estate sales on Saturday - the fun kind, that are run by the family, who can tell you about the house and the people who lived there, and who are more interested in clearing out the house than in making a lot of money.

The first one was run by a brother and sister who were clearing out their father's stuff. Dad found a bunch of stuff, like some pointy things, and some greasy things, and some rusty things, and a big bag of aluminum pieces that hold plastic pipes to form the skeleton of a pool cover that he's going to use to make a greenhouse... some day.

And we got:

Twelve Corelle plates for $3.

For as long as I can remember we've had one plate in this pattern. It is fairly beat up and faded and scratched but when I was about five years old it was my favorite plate. I had a little bit of a princess complex (and by little I mean a huge one) and had decided that it was the princess plate because it was the prettiest. It was my job to set the table and so, at dinner every night, I made sure that I got the princess plate. I remember one night my sister made the mistake of sitting at the chair with my plate in front of it. I promptly informed her that it was my seat. She, being unimpressed with my delusions of grandeur refused to move and I bit her arm. My mother then looked at me, sighed, and said "Betty... princesses don't bite." I released her arm and, as punishment, was not allowed to eat from my princess plate.

Mom had decided just two weeks ago that she wanted to start acquiring this pattern for our everyday dishes and Voila! they appear. She was ready to pay the usual Goodwill price of $1 each . I was at Goodwill last night and there was a whole stack of dinner plates, lunch plates, and bowls. They wanted $13 for FOUR plates. I don't know what they've been smoking at GW lately, but it must be some good stuff.

Nesting dolls - $3. This will be a Christmas present. Is it for you? Maaaaaybe.



Two Shiny Brite flocked ornaments for 50c. I've been looking all year and these are the first ones I've found.

And the big ticket items:

Three Puzz-3D puzzles for $5 each. These sell pretty well on ebay, and Mom wanted to give it a try, but there was no guarantee that all the pieces were there. The sellers were certain that they were intact, because their father had been meticulous about his puzzles, and they wouldn't budge on the price, so we took a chance. It turns out that two of them are intact, but there is a piece missing from the biggest one. Oh well, Mom wanted to try putting one together anyway. We'll have to see how the other two go on ebay. We've never sold anything on ebay before, so it should be interesting.

Do you know what these are?

Mom: (Rummaging in a box of toys): Look, they have Yogi Bear bowling pins!
Man running the sale: Because you know what they are, you can have them.
Mom: Thanks, I'll show them to the Grandkids. They're pretty chewed up; missing a few ears.
Man: Yep.
Mom: You must have had a dog.
Man: Nope.

At which point the man's sister busts out laughing and points to her brother, who just grins.

They also gave us these. Hai Karate sells pretty well on ebay, too, but I've never seen it in plastic bottles, and these seem less than half full, so I don't think they're valuable, but they are fun.

We hit two other estate sales and the Goodwill. We got some miscellaneous housewares and books for next to nothing, and these items.

A Pyrex juice carafe for $1, an Airedale dog with two pups for $2, and a pair of copper-dipped baby shoes for $5. Bronzed baby shoes were on our list of things to look for. I had no idea there were copper ones. I like these better, and there is one for each of us.

Well, that was my weekend of thrifting.

I'm joining these parties to share.
Click on the links and see what others have found.

Junkin Finds with Linda @ A La Carte
Thrift Share Monday

Just Like the Egyptians

Last Friday, my mother was awake at 3AM as she so often is (don't ask me why) and she decided to check Craigslist for estate sales. Lo and behold, there was the sale to end all sales: there was a picture with PYREX in it!!! The sale was scheduled to open an hour before my first class that day so Mom woke me up and told me about it, asking if I wanted to go with her. We took separate cars, and I went in first to sniff out the Pyrex. Mom was looking for some vintage cookbooks she had seen advertised.

That sale was packed; we could barely move around. The Pyrex turned out to be over-priced, and Mom couldn't find the cookbooks, but I managed to snag a few things before I had to leave for class. It was an effort just to get near enough to the check-out table to make a pile of things for Mom to pay for later. The line went through two rooms of the house, and several people did not take kindly to what they assumed was me cutting into the line. After a number of dirty looks, and one lecture, I managed to stash my finds and escape unharmed. Ah, the things we do for vintage. This is what I found:

A glasbake mixing bowl for sunbeam


An enameled refrigerator drawer, which someone just handed to me :)

A Westclox Travalarm - I just love the style. The cream colored part closes over the face like a roll-top desk. The alarm works, but unfortunately, it doesn't keep time. Dad's thinking about opening it up and seeing if he can fix it.


And a copper-colored jointed owl necklace. His name is Octavius Augustus.


The other necklace is my Benjamin Bunny scrabble tile I bought at my favorite Antique Mall this summer. When I was four, My mother cross stitched a little picture of Benjamin Bunny onto a blue corduroy jumper for me. (For those of you who understand counted cross stitch, it was 18 count and corduroy is too thick for such tiny stitches. She swore, "never again!") This was my favorite jumper and I didn't want my mother to wash it because I was afraid the picture would fade. In the interest of keeping it stain-free, the jumper wasn't allowed out of the house or near anything sticky. I still have it today.

This is what Mom found:

Tupper(ware) Silent Partner poker chips set, dominoes, some free Fisher Price wooden people, and this neat little tin.

The unused ribbon is inside, and it's for a Remington, which is the brand of typewriter I found back in July! I'm not sure it fits my model, but I like the tin so much, I'd have bought it empty.

Passports from 1947!


Aren't their pictures wonderful

This couple apparently spent a year in Paris, and made at least one trip to Geneva. There were also some other papers with the passports, including a driver's license and some French bread ration stamps.


This was tucked in one of the boxes. We hoped to find the camera, but no such luck.

It was fun to read, as it was intended for a child. Love the Brylcreem hairdo on that kid. I also found it interesting that a roll of film only had 8 pictures on it.

A "mystery for girls" from 1934. I wonder how it compares to Nancy Drew. And although you can't tell from my crappy picture, that's a copy of Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cook Book. We bought that by mistake, because Mom was holding it when I had to leave and it got in my pile of stuff. But it was only a buck, and it turns out to have been illustrated by a young Andrew Warhol. So if you're interested in teeny little pictures of measuring cups, mixing bowls, and a fish or two drawn by a famous artist, I have the book for you, lol.

There was one other item that Mom had seen in the pictures for the auction that was on our list:

Our neighbor had asked us to look for one for him, but I will also be using it for a project I'm working on that I will tell you about in a future post. We got all of that for $23.00.

Then Mom headed off to a few other sales.

She found this hardly used set of Tupperware canisters for $2. The largest one is missing it's lid, and the lid to the next biggest one shattered after she got it home. I read online somewhere that Tupperware can get dehydrated, and that if you have some in a cupboard not being used, it should be taken out every 3-4 months and soaked in water to keep it soft. I guess these had been in storage for a long time. Time for me to soak some Tupperware.

She also found a whole bunch of Pyrex compatables pieces in my favorite pattern, Spring Blossom. She was quite excited, until she realized they really were pieces. There was the underplate for the gravy boat, sugar bowls, but no lids, etc.

She bought them anyway, as they were part of a huge box of miscellaneous dishes, mostly Pyrex and Fire King that was only a few dollars. For the most part, they were not remarkable, but there were a few nice pieces, such as two very faded Amish Butterprint small refrigerator dishes, and four opal white 12-oz square bowls.

And then there is this interesting little tea cup. That's a marijuana leaf on there. And if you look closely, all the "flowers" are also marijuana leaves turned on their sides. Do you suppose that whoever originally bought this knew what it was? Or was someone having a little private joke with this design? This looks like the kind of tea cup that came with my grandmother's snack sets, but those belong to an era I don't usually associate with stoner decor. It has no markings and I couldn't find anything about it online.

Then Mom went to Value Village on Monday, and they had a stack of matching snack plates in the same pattern. They wanted $2.99 for each one, or she would have bought one just for fun. (She paid about 12c for the cup)

The last thing Mom found on Friday was something she's been thinking about getting ever since we moved into our house in 2007. We have a 26-inch TV that sits in a corner of the living room. It has never looked quite right there. It either needs to be in a big entertainment center or should be replaced with a bigger TV. Mom has had this idea that we should be able to get a 34" TV for very little money since there are so many people who are upgrading to flat-screen HDTV and will want to get rid of an old set. And we'll be fine with old technology for a long time. (Heck, it's not even vintage yet.)

So we've been watching Craigslist for free or cheap TVs, but most of them have been too big, too far away, or need work. But Friday, Mom found a guy who advertised a moving sale and had several 36" TVs for sale for $10-$15. Plus, he also mentioned a huge free pile (Mom loves a free pile.) The sale wasn't due to start until 2 pm, so Mom politely waited until 2:05 before she showed up. By that time, whatever free stuff there had been was gone. The poor seller, who was still setting up when Mom arrived, had been ambushed by early birds all morning long and hadn't been able to get much done. He spoke very kindly of them; said they were mostly elderly folks who were just driving by early to verify the address for when they planned on coming back at 2 pm. Yeah, right. Some people!

Fortunately, he still had 2 TVs left. So Mom got a 36" TV and a stand for $20. Score! She also got a large oak bookshelf that screamed 1986 for $15. Since they were too heavy for her to haul home, she arranged for Dad to get them with the pick-up on his way home from work.

Somehow, she assumed Dad would call a couple of strong friends to help get the TV out of the pick-up and into the house. But when he arrived she realized she was being elevated to "strong friend" status. Ha! Had he forgotten who she was? When they were first married 35 years ago she could fake "strong friend" status, but now? I suppose she should have been flattered that he thought she was as young and strong as when they first met, but somehow it wasn't making her feel all warm and fuzzy. (Thankfully, I wasn't home when he arrived.)

My father is a pretty resourceful guy, and he's got a lot of stuff around the house, so with the help of some plywood, some straps, a pair of car ramps, and a furniture dolly, they managed to wrestle the TV into the house... only to be stopped by their inability to grab that TV and lift it 18 inches up onto the TV stand.

Mom said, "We just have to think like the Egyptians did when they moved giant stones for the pyramids and lever it into place somehow." So Dad went out to the woodshed and came back with some pieces of cedar fence wood. He lifted one side of the TV up and Mom slid a board underneath. Then he lifted the other side up and she slid another board in on that side. Slowly and carefully, with much sweating and only a little swearing, Dad lifted the TV 18 inches. Then they used big furniture glides to slide it onto the TV stand.

Here it is on its tower of boards.

The TV works great. It's just in time for us to watch Shaun of the Dead on Halloween.

Mom and Dad say their favorite find this week was the TV. I'm torn between the enamel pan, which we've been looking for all summer, and the ribbon for my typewriter, which I didn't expect to find at all. What was your favorite find this week?

I'm linking up with
Thrift Share Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays
Thrifty Thursday
Junkin' Finds
Come join the parties

Free Roses

As it says in my information, I am a florist. That is to say that I am trained as one. I do not currently work in a shop but would love to work wedding flowers.

My parents bought our house three years ago. It's a small house but it's on a fair-sized lot. WE really haven't done much in the way of landscaping but my Dad is working on it slowly.

When we moved in there were three white rose bushes under my bedroom window. Now, as a Florist I know that white roses always come with more thorns and these are no exception! They are what I call "garden roses"; they open wide and full and don't have much of an individual stem to speak of, in comparison to your standard commercial varieties. They also don't have any scent. Or, well, one bush has a slight fragrance but nothing notable.

About two years ago, my father and I bought a rose called a "Mr Lincoln". This particular variety is a gorgeous deep red with a hint of fuschia and a strong, wonderful scent. Since that bush we have been looking into getting more that have fragrance but they all cost too much. (A floral hint: purple and lavender roses always smell good, there's something genetically linked to the blue in the color or something)

Early this summer there was an ad on the Craigslist FREE page for FREE roses. A man had dug about twelve bushes out of his front yard and wanted them hauled away. First come, first serve. Quickly, my mother and father and I were in the car, on our way. There was one other car driving up when we got there, and it became a mad scramble to find the ones with the best scent.

We got out with two bushes: one lavender that I wanted and one variegated peach/orange cream that my mom wanted. When we got them home, Dad had to prune them all the way back and plant them, hoping that there hadn't been too much damage done when they were dug up.

They've finally bloomed and they're beautiful. It's amazing what you can find on Craigslist for free.

"A Very Thrifty Picnic" and "Cooking With Vixen"

Tomorrow, July 31st, there is a huge "all church, all county" picnic in my area and a few of my friends and I are going together.

Before we could have our picnic I needed to acquire things like plates, silverware, cloth napkins, and other picnic essentials. Not being made of money AND being into everything vintage, I have been picking things up over the last week and I managed to get everything I needed and more.

No single item in this picture cost me more than $7 and much of it I already owned.


The silverware I got at the estate sale where we found A Bag Of Used Soap. It was $6.00 and all pieces are in what my mother calls the "twinkle star" pattern from various companies but much is Oneida. The drink cooler (named Wallace) is from the same sale and cost me $3.00. The Federal glass salt and pepper (pictured later) cost $1.00 for the pair.


The silverware caddy came from Goodwill for $3.00 And all the pyrex is from Goodwill as well. The most expensive item is the 4 qt Red Cinderella bowl for $7.00


The red and white checked tablecloth (above) I bought at Fred Meyer's on clearance at the end of May for around $2.00 and it's been waiting for a sunny day ever since.
The quilt (under the mixing bowls) I found at a garage sale for $1.00. The underside is red and white mattress ticking while the top has some great feedsack prints.
The plates I found in a garage sale's free pile.

I think they were once someone's fine wedding china but they were too chippy for their purposes; perfect for mine!

Also not pictured are some cloth napkins, a couple of white melmac plates, and a pair of gemco ketchup and mustard pump bottles (they look like hand soap bottles!) that I found today.

And I'm going to be using our new Town and Country Radio Flyer Wagon (it's supposed to be someone's birthday present but not 'til we fix it up) to cart a lot of these things, along with coolers full of food, from the car to the picnic site. We got it at Goodwill a couple of days ago for only $12.99. It needs some work, but it was a great steal (new it costs $114.00 on Amazon).


Today I made a wonderful new friend, Vixen, the reindeer apron. Here we are when we first met!


It's like we were made for each other! I just had to have her (I love aprons) and at $0.50 how could I refuse? She was just begging me to take her home! I went back today to the same sale at which I saw the Bag of Used Soap and found her along with a few other fun things. She and I had great fun baking today even though she tried to eat everything (it was right at mouth level and all).

As I am "the one who bakes" among my friends, my contributions in the way of edible things for tomorrow are pumpkin bread (which I baked in the butterfly gold pyrex that I scored for $3.00 today) and raspberry pie!



Vixen and I attempted to make Chocolate Chip cookies from a years-old mix but they didn't quite turn out.


My mother (being sweet) says that they look like Pralines while my father (like a ten year old boy) says that they look like fake barf puddles. Vixen was pleased that they turned out so flat because that way she gets to eat them even if she does have to fight my dad for them.

In all, my picnic items cost me (not including the pyrex that we already owned) $16.50. I am very pleased with the total cost and excited to use it all!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and happy thrifting! I'll post more next time about the sales we hit today.

I've linked this blog to:

Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm
Thrift Share Monday @ Apron Thrift Girl

That 70's House

A few Fridays ago I went with my mother (who else?) to an estate sale about twenty five miles from our house. The sale was a crafter's dream. The woman who lived in the house was into EVERYTHING crafty. She had done Christmas bazaars for years and there were supplies and completed projects including plastic canvas, cross stitch, miniatures, tatting, and more plus the instruction books to go with all of it. Most of the projects my mother remembers from the early 1980s.

We spent a good amount of time outside looking through the craft tables before venturing into the house. As we stepped across the threshold we were instantly transported back to 1971. From the macrame lampshades to the various colors of groovy carpeting and window treatments, the house was a psychedelic dream(or nightmare).

This "groovy" window was in the second bedroom and had matching corkboard wall-art.


My favorite thing about this was that those corkboards were SO special that they weren't even for sale.

This owner had been quite the decorater. Every room in that house had it's own theme. The master bedroom was all red with crimson shag carpeting and fuzzy curtains with pompoms on them. I apologize for not taking more pictures, it really was shocking. Picture this: the last bedroom had a bright blue and green quilted curtain set and green carpet to match. I half expected to see Pete, Linc, and Julie hanging out on the back porch (bonus points for getting the reference!).

(Thanks to wikipedia for the picture.)

As we snaked our way through the house we had to stop constantly to look carefully at the abundance of things they had. We spent a fair amount of time talking to family members about the house and we found out it was built in 1971 (and apparently stayed frozen in time). They even had a rec room entirely in earth tones complete with a giant mountain scene latch-hook rug (which was thankfully also not for sale) and shag carpeting resembling chocolate marble cake with a strawberry swirl.

At first we thought prices would be really cheap as many family members said that prices were negotiable. After spending more than an hour perusing the entire house we went up to pay only to find out that the woman taking money was not flexible with prices. They had had an estate sale expert come in and price things for the family and she was not interested in bargaining down. Most things were unmarked and because we couldn't total it ourselves we simply took the price she gave us and after the half off it came to around $23.00; more than we had intended to spend but not bad.
Here's what we got:
A red Cosco step-stool
A rolling laundry cart (for the clothesline)
Blue baby shoe planter (pictured on the previous post)
A couple of books
Some housewares
And an assortment of craft and fun type items.

Out of the free pile we also got a bag of large plastic eggs from Legg's pantyhose - AND there's a pair in one! Score!

All they needed to be even more 70's was one of these in the driveway:


I apologize for not having more pictures of That 70's House. I wasn't expecting to start a blog any time soon.

What's the most ridiculous thing you've seen at an estate sale? Let us know.

I'm linking this post to:
Debbiedoos' Garage Salen Partay (where I was featured for last week's post, Thanks, Debbie!)