127 yard sale

For the last 3 years my husband and I have been making the trip to visit the 127 World's longest yard sale. Most of our trip is just getting to it! But we've found enough on our (too) short treks up and down the way, that we've braved the heat and rain to find some of our favorite things. And this year was no different.

First up, this awesome Lustro ware paper dispenser is something that dreams are made of. Lol! I've admired it for years online, but never seen it in person before. That is, until I bought it for 10 dollars! Yippee!

I hadn't realized how much red Lustro ware I'd accumulated until I set it on a shelf with the small salt and pepper set I'd managed to forget I owned. I also have the four piece canister set and a rolltop bread box. Red would probably not have been my first choice, but everything I've found so far has been yardsale prices or cheaply from antique stores, so I'm certainly not going to complain.

Jadeite! None of these were screamin' deals, but they were far enough below retail I felt pretty happy to purchase. The St. Denis mugs have been one of my jadeite grails for a long while. I don't know why I picked out that style, I just like the shape, but I'd never seen any for sale in person. The breakfast set, lotus pieces, and probably Charm have all been the jadeite styles I've admired most, but never seen. Glad to add these to my small collection!

Pretty in pink! The pink Daisy open baker brings me one step closer to having all the regular pink Daisy pieces. Just need the largest Space Saver casserole. And the pink Hazel Atlas Ripple was a sweet deal from a kindly older couple who sold these me these 9 piece for 15 dollars, which I thought was a great deal.

Two more pieces of Pyrex I didn't own. The Garden Medley has been on my wish list for ages. And the hearts casserole is a piece I've seen a few times before, but never for less than 20 bucks, so I'd passed on it. These two pieces were from the same dealer, 10 dollar each, so I finally decided to buy.

The red Friendship bowl is not the greatest shape, but I have a somewhat rough decorated Friendship lid to put on it, so it's getting reunited. This was bundled with my Lustro ware paper dispenser. The other pieces, the yellow shaker was thrown in free from a bundle deal my husband made, and the possibly bakelite utensils were a dollar for the 5 pieces.

I know absolutely nothing about bakelite. It's a collector favorite where I live, so it's always a blue fortune when it turns up, so there just usually isn't a deal to be found. I picked up a bakelite book cheap a while back, so I have some research to do.

I'm also curious if this bracelet is bakelite. Each of these pieces were sold seperately, 50 cents each. One of the santas is in rough shape, but I had to get him. Vintage Christmas is another expensive area I've managed to stay mostly away from, except for Shiny Brites, but I feel a Santa mug collection starting up. Lol!

My husband said that his favorite memory of me this yardsale is that I spotted these glasses before we even got pulled into the place, and in his words, I just said "BOOMERANGS"  and my seat belt undone and was out of the car before he even got parked.

50 cents each. When I got a closer look, they had that dull 'sick glass' look to them inside. When I washed them up, most of that came off with soap and water, but they could use a vinegar soak inside to clean up the rest. The pink is getting added to my pink Ripple collection, and the green is an X factor. I'd seen pics online of these in green, yellow, and white, and I wasn't sure what I'd do if the other colors turned up for me. I thought they'd make good go-alongs for the small collection of Lu Ray pastels I have. For now, the lone green is in with my lonely two turquoise. I also discovered these two are slighly smaller than my others, so I there are at least 3 sizes of these. Only my pink/white combo ones are actually marked Hazel Atlas, otherwise I'd still be unsure who made this pattern.

And a couple more Pyrex pieces. The blue New Holland promo is the larger of the two. Second piece I bought this trip with Hearts in the decoration. The Daisy casserole was 4 dollars. Cheap and cheerful!

Another jadeite mug! But this time it was 50 cents. Cheapest Jadeite I've ever bought. Makes up for the one I bought this trip that was 5 dollars and had a crack in it I didn't see when I bought it.

I think the pink clock can be cleaned up a little more. It was 15 dollars, more than I wanted to spend, so my husband bought it for me. He's my sweetheart.

The turquoise Ripple plate is faded, but still sweet. It wasn't priced, so the dealer just threw it in free when I bought this Friendship casserole for 10 dollars. I had 3 decorated Friendship lids my husband bought at a yardsale many, many moons ago that had just been waiting for lidless Friendship pieces to reunite them with. So I've only got one more now. It'd be lovely if I got the decorated piece next time, so I'd have a complete duplicate set.

A Cosco stool for 10 dollars. It is marked with a sticker underneath. It is original yellow, but has been touched up at some point. I had the idea to paint it, but I may just clean it up and see if I can remove some of the hasty overspray from the previous touchup.

And finally, here's most of my husband's finds. He also bought some toys, a vending machine and some gifts that he's already stashed away that I didn't get pictures of. I think his biggest thrills this trip has been scoring the Star Trek lunch box for 5 dollars and finally seeing Little Blue books for sale.

It had stuck in his mind to hunt for Little Blue books since seeing them mentioned in a Louis L'Amour biography. I can't do the history justice, but from what I understand, these little books were sold for 5 or 10 cents and were some of the very first paperbacks available.

He picked these up from all from one dealer who, for us, had the best items and best prices of the whole sale. It's funny how just one booth can make the whole trip worthwhile!

***

Just some thoughts in general about the yard sale. We've just been going for the last 3 years, each year a little earlier on. Friday and Saturday seem the busiest days with the worst traffic by far, but had the least stuff worth buying, so the early bird does seem to get the worm.

Each year seems to have themes. This year I saw Mantiques everywhere. An abundance of tools, advertising, garage and mancave stuff.

Last year was all about chalk paint. Chalk paint everywhere and mostly everything painted turquoise! But this year, hardly a painted piece to be seen. Original finish wood seems to back in fashion again, which I'm not at all sorry to see.

Last year, I hardly saw a piece of Jadeite. This year it was more abundant. But last year, I saw tons of Depression glass, this year hardly a piece. I was told, repeatedly, and I mean - REPEATEDLY, by helpful dealers that the only glass they seem to be able to sell these days is Pyrex, which is just going up and up.

I just smile and nod and act dumb mostly. Since I've been collecting Pyrex for the last 6 years, it's discouraging to be told by dealers who seem to only have jumped on the Pyrex bandwagon in the last little while, how this or how that my thing I collect is. I can tell most of them are trying to be helpful, but it's helpful in that same clueless way it is when dealers tell you about stuff they sold the day before you came in.

And on the Pyrex front, there is a dealer that specializes in it at least every hour or two's worth of travel down the road. And they are all insufferable. Of all the resellers, it's the dealer/collector who is usually asking the highest prices of all.

You can't look at a single piece in their Pyrex booth/prison without hearing some speech about what it is, how high demand/popular it is, and/or how many dozens of that exact piece they have at home in their personal collections.

At some point maybe they loved Pyrex. But not anymore. Now they just lord over it. They turn it into Beanie Babies. They become a part of the problem. They help create unsustainably high prices that exclude regular collectors and cater only to the truly obsessed (who seem to be made out of money).

No thanks.

And I'm not thrilled to share the title "Pyrex Collector" with them either. Because I suspect, in ten years time, this brand of "Pyrex Collector" will have long since cashed out of their collections and moved on to some other inflated thing they can get in on the ground floor of, when I'll still be here, Lord willing, just trying to decide which pretty dish I'm going to use to bake today's dinner in.


***

Anyways, I had lots of fun. Got a sunburn (despite much sunscreen), and feel like a need a week's vacation to recover from a single scorching hot day. I mean, I really feel like my eyeballs got bleached, I got so much sun. Whoever picked the first week of August for this thing must have really liked 100 degree temps!

And crazy as it is, I can't wait for next year!

Hope you're having a blast so far this Summer!

Happy Thrifting!

127 yard sale - Everything else

Major 'grail' status achieved! These green Hocking canisters were one of the items I was most wanting and looking for on the yard sale. Neither had lids when I bought them, the ones in the picture are from my lid stash. I actually think the one on the right is the right lid. I'm not sure about the other, I'm thinking Jeannette for some reason?

When I picked them up to ask about a price, the guy said "I'll give them both to you for 10". I couldn't buy them fast enough!

Now I probably shouldn't have bought this mixer, but it's in beautiful shape, I got it for a good price, and I have its pink sibling. Am I collecting stand mixers? Yipes. It even came with booklet, which I've totally misplaced at the moment. I haven't even plugged it in yet. Hope it works as good as it looks :-)

And everything else here was what I'd consider a true yard sale price. Mostly 50 cents or less, and a few dollar items.

Yellow Riviera platter, two Carnival saucers to go with my matching teacups, a couple of vintage Fiesta bread & butter plates.

Sweet milk glass pieces.

Paid 5 dollars for this Chein moon globe, which I knocked over before I could even buy it. The guy said it had been happening all day. Poor globe! Bought it anyway. I'll just pretend they're craters. Lol.

Stanley Home Products Cookies canister ( needs re-lettered ) and Country Calico tins

And a little bit of canister love. Less than a dollar bought me my first  (unmarked) Stanley Home Products Cookies canister  (and a big wave and thank you to Farm Girl Pink for solving the mystery of where these canisters came from. Read all about it here.)

This in my first cookie canister. And the first time I've seen anything in a solid white colorway. There is but the tiny-tiniest little hint of silver pant on the lettering, so I'm going to use the same silver pen I bought at Hobby Lobby to do some restorative work.

This was a final stop at some antique stores on our way back home. Can you guess which of these set is NOT Lustro ware? If you said turquoise, you are correct! They are marked Sterilite but boy they sure do look identical!

And a final thing. A real Would You? or Wouldn't You?

Would you pay 5 dollars for a set of desireable dishes if after going through them you realize that every single one of them is chipped in a major way or cracked? Would you be sad, say your goodbyes and walk away? Or would you be trying to figure out ways to re-use or re-purpose? Or would you be content just to use a/o display them as-is?

Well, I bought them anyway.

Franciscan Starburst. Every one of them chipped. Moderate to bad chips/cracks. And not a lot of minor damage pieces.  As of right now, I really don't know what I'm doing with them. I'm thinking I may just try to display the ones with chips on the underneath, which are still perfectly useable, and think about repurposing the plates with damage on the face/surface. Thoughts, anyone?

That's most all the loot from our yardsale adventures. As usually, I feel like I'm missing out on posting half of what we find due to the absence of my husbands part of the goodies. (He's a toy, vinyl record, games, books guy). And he actually found a fair amount of stuff this year, for once. So we were both pretty lucky.

Hope you're finding great Summertime treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

Community Sale

This is the craziest, most wonderful single day haul I think I've ever found.

My husband and I go to this community sale every year, and typically find a few things that make it worth checking out every year. But there's a paid admission preview we'd never gone to. (In addition to buying a ticket, there's still usually quite a wait in line and a bit of madness ensuing.)

But we weren't sure what we were missing out on by not buying the early bird tickets. But boy oh boy did I get my answer this time.

New record for lowest price paid for vintage Fiesta relish tray pieces. I had a spare insert, so in a single stroke, I now have two complete trays!

I love how I can look back and piece together the story of how I've completed 2 trays in 3 years time. If you're interested, here's the links to each one.  First, the cobalt center. Then a month later, 4 sides to go with it. Then a green side. Then, about a year later, an anniversary splurge - a base for my inserts. )

Two dollars! I'm keeping this particular set because I know I'll be sentimental about them, but gave my other set to Mom, who loves pink Pyrex but will absolutely not step foot in an antique store. I've bought her pink pieces when I've found them for good prices, but I'd never lucked into the big 475 for song. I'm betting these guys are going to be used for family dinners and even holidays now!

Gigantic unmarked Fiesta platter for two dollars, small turquoise Butterprint for 3.

I didn't even look at the pattern. My brain just said "Pyrex bowl set for 6 dollars" put it in the buggy! Addiction!

There's a surprise set for my mama that's in the first pic, but not exactly visible. I think she'll love it. I also bought an entire set of Taylor, Smith, and Taylor LuRay pastels. Here they are, cleaned up!

So happy we went! Well worth the price of admission. My husband found lots of goodies, too, which is not such a common occurrance. By the end we had a grocery cart filled to the brim and threatening to spill over. It was magical. LOL!

Hope you are finding fabulous sales filled with dreamy goodness!

Happy Thrifting!
 

Favorite finds from 2014

Recently I've seen several folks do a recap of their favorite finds of 2014 which I thought was a great idea! So I spent a little while looking over my photos and deciding what my standout favorites were.

First off, I found my first Cathrineholm. The skillet was an unmarked Goodwill find and the bowl is an unmarked square pattern that isn't as frequently seen as the popular Lotus design. I would be thrilled to find more pieces in the wild for good prices!

I thrifted these sweet little McKee Glasbake custard cups for 99 cents total. I love polka dots!

I also found a vintage holy grail - a custard McKee dots dish! In the same antique store I found the Snowflake Blue dish to finish my round casseroles (470's) and got a fantastic deal on some pink fridgies!

On the Fire King front, I bought the blue band and pink band bowls to complete my Stripes set.

I also thrifted my favorite Fire King mug ever - a 99 cent reStore purchase.

These original ads were antique store purchases, but were inexpensive - I spent 3 times what I paid for them to frame them, lol!

I didn't realize when I thrifted this vintage Lisa Frank lunch bag just how much I'd use it and love it. It's held drinks and snacks for my husband and I on many a yard sale day/antique trek. It also seems like Lisa Frank is on a major resurgance lately. I saw so many different knickknacky Lisa Frank items at the Dollar General around Christmas this year, I requested them for my stocking stuffers.







And speaking of yard sales, this is one of my very favorite finds of the year. And it definitely wins for best yard sale score.







I wish I had the slightest idea who made these canisters. They are unmarked. Chances are good they were sold nested with only a sticker on them or a cardboard holder/box.



The turquoise set was a junk store find earlier in the year. Each set was 5 bucks! I really want to know who made these and what color combinations exist!




And on the Pyrex front, I thrifted a new cabinet (that I still haven't painted!) to store some of my favorite pieces. I've toyed around with the idea for years of taking a turquoise Pyrex mixing bowl with me to have color matched at the store, and this year I think I'm really going to do it. It might make me rethink what pieces I have on display, but that's okay with me. What I'd really like to do is turquoise on the outsides and as the drawer color, but white shelves and insides with white framing the whole piece. I'd also like to measure the backs of the shelves and have some kind of thin wood that could be painted or framed with fabric. I'd start off with black & white chevrons, but I'd also like to try just a solid lime green as well.








 I found my second turquoise bowl set in the wild, and I shamelessly snapped them up.








I also very recently added my first piece of turquoise bakeware.

I also scored my very first Pyrex in the original box!










And added a couple of great Horizon Blue pieces to my collection. I love those decorated opal lids so much!

Added two Friendship pieces I'd never seen in the wild before.
















Also recently added these unusual labware pieces to my collection. Butterfly Gold looks really neat in blue!







Finally, to round out the year, I added a couple of Christmas items that were high on my wishlist. First I found several working strands of bubble lights at a yard sale for 10 bucks, then I added 7 more boxes via thrift stores!

I also bought my favorite favorite favorite box of Shiny Brites I've ever seen for sale. I paid the price for them, but I'm totally okay with that. Love 'em!

So I think this is the longest post ever! I'm sure I've forgotten things, and failed to post some good stuff. Maybe sometime I will catch up with the rest of the world, get a smartphone and do that ole instagram thing all the kool kats and hep chicks are talking about.

I've not really gotten out so far this year. Went thrifting once. Found a lady head vase for my mom and few Pyrex mugs, but that's it so far. Hopefully we'll hit the town by Valentine's Day and find some new treasures.

Looking forward to finding all sorts of neat treasures in 2015!

Happy Thrifting!

Yard sale & thrift finds

My favorite find in a long time!

I had no idea these canisters came in pink! Hubba Hubba! I held my breath when I saw them, worried they'd be expensive. But they were 5 bucks - same price as I paid for my turquoise set a while back. I've been lucky finding these sets so reasonably priced. Love 'em!
 

I bought all this from a lady who told me her cabinets were full of this pattern and she was ready to let it go. I asked her how much she wanted for all of it and she said 25 dollars. And I said "Sold!" I'll split these with my mom. I didn't mean to collect this pattern for myself at all, but I wouldn't be surprised if I had about as much as she does by now! Ooops :-) I was amazed that every single piece had a lid, and other than some dust and grime that washed away, they're all in great condition, just a single buggered up lid.

And my very first Gurley candles! These were 50 cents each at the thrift. And just in time for Halloween!

I found lots more goodies yard sale-ing, thrifting, and antique store shopping, lately - I've just been really slack in posting them. And of course I'm hoping to find more this weekend!

Hope you're finding nifty treats and treasures!

Happy Thrifting!