The Week in Thrifting: May 11-17, Part 2

As I said in Part 1, the second rummage sale we went to was a HUGE affair.  I wish I had gotten pictures of the venue and the number of people who were there.  Apparently the church hosting the sale (only about a 5 minute drive from the house we have lived in for several years) has this same sale every year and we hadn't heard about it!

The church itself is on a huge compound-like piece of property with a school, a meeting hall, the actual church, a large metal barn and the parsonage.  The sale was being held in the large barn and the grounds outside it.  They had so much stuff they must take donations all year and store things just for this sale!  There were couches and dressers and bedside tables; a dozen hanging lamps, entertainment centers, and TVs.  There were refrigerators, washing machines, tables, chairs and even more furniture.  It was incredible and their prices were great!

They had sections each for toys, housewares, books, valuable/collectible items, sewing and crafts, outdoors and fishing, office, and probably a few more areas I'm not remembering.  We actually went there two days in a row and bought some things for full price and some for half price.

 

I found a 6 Qt West Bend Lazy Day Slow Cooker for $2.50.  I know it's 40 years old, because my parents got one for a wedding present.  It's missing it's cord, but if you are a regular reader, you may remember that my Dad found one back in February.  I've just started looking for monkeypod items, and this bowl was 75c.  The Pyrex restaurant mug was 25c.

They had a large box full of Corelle dinnerware in the Spring Blossom pattern, which I collect.  Someone else was going through the box and took most of it, but she discarded the only thing I wanted: the salt and pepper shakers.  Score!  They are a little scuffed, but I have been looking for them for years, so am thrilled to have them for 50c.

This very nice set of Pyrex bowls in the Homestead pattern was marked $25.00.  That's a very reasonable price, but it's not a pattern I like.  When they were still there the next day, Mom couldn't resist the $12.50 price.  They will probably be given to someone as a wedding present.

 

They had a special room for the jewelry. silver plate and art glass.  They had about 30 pieces of silver flatware, and I wanted to buy them all, but wasn't sure about the price, so I only bought two forks for $1 each.  I am, of course, regretting that decision.  After I got home I found out that was a great price, so I hope they have some again next year.  The Beatrix Potter buttons were $1.00.

 

I bought the jewelry on the 2nd day for $4.75.

 

I especially like this Boulder High School graduation charm.

 

We found two board games.

 

The white crocheted baby blanket was $1.00.
I will stitch some colorful flowers on it and give it to one of my friends who is expecting.

 

This flower-filled calendar tea towel was only 50c.

I hope I can get the stains out.

 

This souvenir bandana was also 50c.

My Dad surprised me by buying a sewing machine.  I don't mean he bought me one as a surprise.  I mean I was surprised that he bought one for himself!  He wanted a heavy-duty one for sewing leather, canvas and denim.  They had a number of machines for sale, and he picked out a Singer Fashion Mate 237 for $35.00..

I don't have a picture of his, but here's a picture of one from an old ebay sale.  It was made in Italy in the 1960s and is an excellent machine.  He went back on the last day and got a table that fit his new machine for $10.00.

I also got another Rolykit, some knitting supplies, flashcards, two Beatrix Potter tins for craft storage and some lovely bookplates, all for $6.00.

When we went back on the last day we picked up quite a few things for 25c-50c each:  a framed cross stitch piece for someone with a blue room (not us), a steel jell-o mold for a friend, and a Singer buttonholer, because Dad likes the box...

 

...a bunch of magazines and booklets for crafting...

and a stack of books for cutting...

 

a couple of hymnals...

...a Newberry award winning children's book.
(This is the one that famously beat out Charlotte's Web in 1953 and has been largely forgotten since.)

This book will likely end up as cards and/or envelopes.

I love the cover art for this book and think it will make a great journal.

 

This is an interesting book for the graphics alone.  Here's the paper jacket... 

the cover...

and the facing pages.  I especially like these.

The book is signed by the author, a local man who wrote a number of books about the history of the Pacific Northwest.

I don't know anything about this book, other than it appears to be a children's book from the U.K.  But for 25c I liked the book jacket art.

We also picked up a set of encyclopedias for crafting and some Tupperware lids from the free box.  It was a very productive sale.

On the way home, we stopped at another yard sale.  The people holding it had a booth at one of the local antique malls and were liquidating some of their stock, so I spent a few dollars.  

The Archie comic is for a friend who collects them.  The Osterizer blender recipe book is from 1953.  The Sewing book has some fun illustrations and may prove useful to me, and the chalkware fish from 1969 has a few chips, but I love her.

Isn't she darling?  I've been wanting chalkware fish and mermaids for several years now and she's a great first find.

Look how cute her original companion was!
(Picture courtesy of PassionateKitsch on Etsy)

But the best thing we found at the second sale was a working treadle sewing machine for $35.00.  The day before we found it I had been reading about turning a treadle sewing machine into a spinning wheel, and wondering where I could get an affordable machine.

This is the Indian Head Spinning Wheel.
 Now I can have one of my own.
Imagine my delight and surprise when the unplanned sale that we just saw a sign for turned up something I didn't expect to be able to find in my price range for a long time.

The treadle table and machine went into the garage for storage before I could take photos of it but it is a National SMCO table and machine that moves freely, no rust visible on the base or machine and it appeared to have all of the original accessories and even an instruction manual when I perused the drawers of the table.

It's taken a while to make this post but these two sales have some of my favorite things I've thrifted so far this year.  Has anyone else ever had such a serendipitous find as that treadle table? What do you think is the best find here?

Thank you all for reading.

I'm linking up to these parties.  Please stop by and join the fun:
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Vintage Bliss Tuesdays

Of Jiffy-Lube and Pink Aluminum

Since starting back to school, I haven't had much time for thrifting or garage sales. It's been mostly go to class, go to work, homework, sleep, rinse, repeat.

But last Thursday, as I was returning from work, I saw a sign from the heavens. Well, ok, it was a sign on the Jiffy-Lube marquee. But seriously, when do you see an estate sale advertised at the Jiffy-Lube? It was meant to be. The sale was to begin Friday morning, early, before my 1st class. A quick call to Mom to mapquest the route and time from the college and I figured I could make it there and back before school.

I didn't find a lot of things, but it was definitely worth the trip. First, there was the red dinette table for $20. When my brother heard about my yellow one, he asked Mom to look for one for him. It's very faded, and the chrome needs a good cleaning, but it's really solid, so I hope he likes it.


Then there are the books for a friend of mine whose family is very involved in Scouting: a 1968 Boy Scout Handbook and a 1948 Lion Cub book, 25c each. They threw in the first aid book for free. The Pyrex butter dish and coffee cup were 85c. And that aqua gadget is a Popeil Chop-O-Matic for 75c.


This pretty peacock couch scarf was free. I really like peacocks and this one's gorgeous. Here's hoping I can get the stain out.

This was the most surprising find: ~23 pair of vintage knitting needles for $8 (35c/pr). It wasn't surprising that I found them; I've seen them before at estate sales. I just had no idea how much they cost new.


You see, I don't knit. Mom doesn't knit. But my sister knits.

Apparently so does Dad. Or at least he learned how. It seems the cool thing for boys to do in 3rd grade in small town North Dakota in 1959 was to use sharpened pencils and cotton string to make an oh-so-hip washcloth. And the boys in my school thought learning to play the recorder was lame. Ha!

Anyway, my sister knits. So when I saw the knitting needles, I called Mom, and she said to buy all they had as she was sure we could find $8 worth in the lot. When my sister came over to have a look at them, she was thrilled. Almost every size... circular ones... double pointed ones... whatever the heck that all means... It turns out it would have cost more than $80 to buy all of them new!

I just liked them because they were pretty pink and blue and gold colored aluminum. And Mom thought they might make nice vegetable markers in the garden. Needless to say, my sister took them all away.

There's one more thing in that first picture that I haven't mentioned. It was in the free pile. And it's my favorite thing. Can you tell what it is?


This is what it looks like on the inside.


It's a West Bend pink aluminum grease can. And it matches my canister set! It really WAS meant to be!

Or it did match when they were all new, before the black coloring flaked off the lids. I intend to clean them up and paint the lids black. It appears someone has already done that to the grease can.


Sorry, blogspot rotated my picture and I'm not savvy enough to fix it.


We first saw these canisters at an estate sale back in August, but they wanted $10 for them and that was double what we wanted to pay.

Then, a few weeks later, they advertised another sale - $5 /box.
So I hurried over, and there they were, waiting for me. I figured anything else I put in my box was free.

Here are some of the "free" things I got. A Polaroid Colorpack II Camera - I've wanted a polaroid camera since I was six years old. This one appears to work, but the film is expensive so I haven't tried it out yet. Joke cocktail napkins, a baby ben clock, some vintage maps for the 1962 world's fair, a number of sewing notions, transfer patterns, etc.

Not shown are vintage linens and aprons, a staple gun, drinking glasses, a pair of military issue 1950s "birth control" (ask Drew Carey) safety glasses, and two dozen assorted melamine dishes that went to the nursery at the church for the kids to play with.


I did keep this divided bowl, creamer, and sugar. I don't think you can tell from the picture, but it's tan with tiny speckles of red.

That melmac was actually put to use by the Associate Pastor's six-year-old daughter. She made this lovely tablescape at which the younger children ate their goldfish crackers.

When I asked her what the blue thing in the center was, she gave me a patronizing look and announced it was the "decoration." Obviously, she has skills I didn't have when I was six.

I'm linking this post to:
Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday
Thrifty Thursdays at Bloggeritaville
Garage Salen Party at DebbieDoos

The Adventures of Scorpion Girl and Lizard Lady

Most Estate Sales do half price on Sunday when I'm usually at church so I don't often make it. You're not supposed to skip church for garage sales even if you went to another church's rummage sale the day before. That doesn't count. I know 'cause I looked it up.

We usually go Garage Sailing one day a weekend and this last weekend we went out Friday. We did really well so Mom didn't want to go out on Saturday. I couldn't resist checking Craigslist anyway. I found a listing for an Estate Sale advertising $5.00 a bag on Saturday. I immediately ran to my mother's room and threw open the door:

Me: MOM!
Mom: Whaaat? I'm asleep. (groggily)
Me: There's an Estate Sale for you.
Mom: I'm not up. I'm asleep.
Me: It's half price.
Mom: I don't care. I'm asleep. We went yesterday. I'm out of money.
Me: $5.00 a bag after 2:00. We can find $5.00 somewhere can't we?
Mom: Crap. Now I have to get up.

So we went out to this estate sale in the country (well... there were cows) and not only was it $5.00 a bag it was $10.00 a box and furniture was $1.00. They had tables and tables of glassware and pottery. I immediately grabbed the biggest box I could find and started filling it.

The owner of the estate had apparently been some kind of dealer and had left behind boxes of things that hadn't sold. I don't know that what we got was terribly valuable but it was certainly fun to fill the box and worth $10.00.


This is the entire contents of the box. My mad packing skills came in very handy for this. I don't even know how I got it all in there.

These are the things I find most fun:


Blue spice canisters, a box of Wahoo Bark, and a bottle of Sozodont. Sozodont was an early oral hygiene product. It was invented in 1859 and was popular before dentists started to realize that it was too alkaline and was actually destroying teeth.



This little lady is a bookend made by Ucagco in Japan. I know nothing else about her except that she is adorable.


The plate and the pink coaster are for our little corner of Hawaii. Which will soon be guarded by Scorpion Girl and Lizard Lady! Look for their new movie coming in Spring 2011: "The Adventures of Scorpion Girl and Lizard Lady in the Country! (Well... there were cows.)"


Pretty pink and aqua Melmac dinnerware and a Fostoria brand plastic gravy boat. Not the same company as the glass works as far as I know.


This little West Bend canister is similar to a four piece set that I couldn't afford a few days ago. I love how cute and pink it is and the tea canisters are always my favorites; they're just the right size.


We aren't sure what the dish with the grapes is but we like it. The funky looking brown planter is probably the ugliest piece of McCoy ever made, but it IS McCoy.

Here's the pretty glassware. The teacup and the plate underneath it are a lovely daffodil yellow. That shade is hard to find.

We just couldn't turn down furniture for $1.00. We bought a dining table and two coffee tables.
All of them are in Mid-Century Modern style.

The dining table has a formica top, cool wrought iron legs and gold tone accents. My mother says her parents had one similar to it when she was growing up. It's probably in the laundry room at Gramma's today.

Note to self: Snoop in Gramma's laundry room.


Aren't the lines in this table just great? We love it. The other was different but disappeared to my brother's house before I could take a picture.

While we were waiting for my father to come for the furniture, the people running the sale kept trying to give us things as it was all going to Goodwill anyway. We also came home with a big box of kitchen utensils, knives, and a knife block for my brother and these:


Can you hear the angelic choir? It's the Brave Little Toaster (chrome and bakelite) AND an orange vinyl ice bucket! We still haven't tested the toaster but I don't care. Yes, I DO like the most random things.

As we were driving home from the sale I noticed that my mother was unusually quiet.

Me: So are you glad you got out of bed for this?
Mom: nothing
Me: Mom? Mom?
Mom: I'm asleep.

THE END


I'm linking this post to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charms
Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality
Garage Salen Party @ Debbiedoos