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!

I am linking this post to:
Thrift Share Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays
Thrifty Thursday
Garage Salen Party
Come join the parties

B is for Baby Planter

I'm joining ABC Wednesday today.

Last winter, beginning around Thanksgiving, my mother and I started researching and looking for green depression glassware to grow her collection (she hadn't gotten anything new since 1995). In her search to find out more about a particular piece she owns she stumbled upon The Thriftshop Romantic blog and, in doing so, discovered the Thrifting Blogoverse.

Along the way, she discovered the joys of baby planters, specifically what Jenn (@ Thriftshop Romantic) calls "lambie whammies"; basically any planter with a lamb on it. My mother then hoped and longed for a lamb planter of her very own and, as you should well know, once you've seen something online, it shows up wherever you're looking.

I soon found this cute little lamb at our local Goodwill and we brought her home.

Little did we know that the lamb would spawn our obsession with looking for baby planters. Since we found the lamb in February we have acquired 9 baby planters. One that we just found, and haven't photographed, is a pink bassinet from Napco with a music box attached to it.

Every time we go to Goodwill or to any estate or garage sales, the first things I look for are Pyrex and Baby planters. I often find more planters than we buy because we're too cheap for most Goodwill prices and we have limited space so we hold out for the cutest ones.

Like this one!

This planter is the cutest I have ever seen. I almost missed it. I was about to leave Goodwill when I spotted it on the top shelf in the back. It is the most expensive planter we own at a whopping $5.99.

In trying to date our planters we found that the stylized R on the bottom of this sailboat stands for Rubens Originals.

Rubens Originals is particularly famous for head vases, but they manufactured many other kinds of planters. Planters were available for all occasions and could be bought at your local florist's shop.

Baby planters were especially popular and were widely produced by many companies (NAPCO, RELPO, INARCO, etc) and marked on the bottom with stickers or stamps. Some were sold in ceramic shops so that people could paint their own. You can tell commercially-painted planters from ceramic shop planters by looking at the base. Even if the planter has no maker's mark, if the bottom is unglazed it was likely commercially produced. If the bottom is glazed (with small unglazed sections from a tripod), it was probably painted at the ceramic shop.

In the 1980s cute and funny planters went out of fashion in favor of glass, baskets, etc. Baby planters can still be had today but they don't have the colors, the charm, or the stylings of vintage planters.

I have one that is not a baby planter per se but still gets to live with the cute ones. All I know about it is that it says Made In Japan on the bottom and is darn cute. If you have any information on this Wood Sprite, please let me know!

And I noticed this on the bottom of our lamb planter when I took them outside to photograph them for you all.

This indicates that, contrary to what my mother believed (based on the intensity of the pink) it IS old and is a Rubens Original. Our collection is supposed to end up in the bathroom eventually. Now all we need is a shelf to put them on...

I'm linking this to:

ABC Wednesday

Thrifty Thursdays at Bloggeritaville

Treasures and Trinkets Thursday at My Cottage Charm

A Few of My Favorite Things Saturday at Bargain Hunting With Laurie

Roses Of Inspiration