Outta Here!

Super early on Sunday morning (and I'm talking before sunrise), my little trooper Maddie and I headed out of town to a flea market that we had only visited once before.  Their early bird entrance hours are way earlier than my regular flea market but since I know how quickly things get picked over, I wasn't taking any chances.  I gave Maddie the opportunity to stay home but she really wanted to go.  So with her bag packed the night before (snacks, iPad, and blanket....priorities), we were out the door.

This flea market is held indoors but it may have well been outside.  The manager of the building forgot to turn the heat on.  It was FREEZING.  We weren't layered up like we usually are for our local flea so poor Maddie's teeth were chattering and I bought a coffee just so she could hold onto something warm.  Just so you don't think I was torturing my child, I did trade her my North Face down jacket for her hoodie. 

The last time I was at this particular flea market, there was a seller in the very front room who had tons of smalls and linens.  I remember that I bought a bunch of stuff from him for super cheap.  He said he was really wanting to just get rid of this stuff so he could quit coming to the flea.  Well guess what?  Two years later, he was still there.

 
I bought two pie birds for my collection.  Maddie convinced me that I didn't already have the blue one.  She was wrong.  But what could I expect?  It was still dark outside!

Love the colors on this apron.

The Morning Glory design on this tablecloth matches my tins and breadbox.

After we made our first pass through the front room, we headed into the main part of the market.  I spotted this at the farthest point of the room and just about broke into a full sprint to get to it

Do you guys know how long I have searched for one of these for?  I was willing to pay any price for it but luckily I bundled with some other stuff and the guy gave me a deal.  Three times I set it down while looking at other things and each time, someone picked it up.  I finally put it in my car.  I wasn't taking any chances!

I bought these two Hazel Atlas child's mugs from him too.

The Cookie Jar was also something that I have had on my list for a while.  The 4 cup measuring cup is by Anchor Hocking.  I can always use another measuring cup and I love the shape of this one.

I bought the Swanky Swig on the off chance that I didn't already have it.  Well I didn't!  The tape tin is for my collection that I bring out at Christmas and Maddie picked up another plastic pig bank for her collection. 

I bought this dish towel and tablecloth from the sweetest little old man who insisted he wrap them both in tissue paper for me because they were "really old".

This is my second chenille baby blanket.  The weather really needs to warm up around here so I can wash it and hang it outside to dry.

 

Not one to pass up anything donkey related, even if it is a little goofy.

It has been forever since I have found any matchbox holders for my collection.  These two were in a $3 grab bag along with this old box of matches.

With the mass quantities of vintage valentines out this time of year, I only allow myself to buy singles of the ones I collect, donkeys and cowboys. 

I bought this cute framed valentine collage from woman who told me they were hers when she was younger.  Who gets rid of things like that?!  She also had another cowboy themed card for me.

How cute are the graphics on these old lightbulb boxes? 

 
I bought a box of old cards for a buck hoping for something cute. 

Always happy to find vintage Easter. 

 



Last but not least, some Halloween picks to add to my jar next Halloween.

I think it is safe to say that I got my vintage fix for a while but don't think for a second I am going to take a break!  Our local flea is this weekend but this haul will be pretty hard to top. 

Linking up with SYC Thursday & Junkin' Joe.

Until next time...

Erica

First Estate Sale Of The Year & A Few Thrift Finds

Yay!  On Friday morning I headed to my first estate sale of the year.  It wasn't the best sale in terms of vintage but my unlucky streak has been broken!  It was given by a couple of very nice antique store owners who buy out estates then rent a space close to their store to sell the goods. You may have remembered me mentioning them last Fall.  They were the ones giving the sale where I got my Saxony/Tree of life casserole for $5.  If you want, you can relive my excitement here.  I almost always go to their sales and am happy to say that the dealers around must be deterred by the fact that the sales are being given by dealers too.  I never have any of the regular competition when I am at these sales.

Most of you know that I have tons of these old soda crates.  I have several Pepsi ones but none with this type of script.  I have a certain price that I am willing to pay for these and will always buy one if it is in good condition and within that range.  I love old cookbooks too.  Especially ones with a county fair or somewhat similar theme.

Not too much in regards to kitchen stuff except for the dish towel, drinking glass, and two white Fire King bowls.  The large white bowl is one of the Colonial ones and I would love to find the two smaller ones that go with the set, especially at the 50 cents I got this one for!

There was a large box peeking out from underneath one of the tables and this was on top of it.  The whole box was full of Christmas stuff, some old and some new.  I am in love with this Christmas card box.  No cards but it did have some other fun stuff in it.

This old Santa cutout has the handwritten date of December 25th, 1923 on the back.  There was also about 15 of these unassembled little boxes.  I put one together so you could all see it.  Here is one side

And here is the other side.  The instruction say to add a hook and hang it on your tree.  Does anybody know anything about these?

I was also able to find two boxes of ornaments. 

The ornaments aren't in the best condition but I love the box and do you see the little spun head Santa?  Totally worth the buck I paid for the box.

I got these for a dollar too which I think is pretty great because the original price was $1.19.

Not a ton but better than nothing, right?  I also did a little bit of thrifting last week.  Still pretty slim pickin's out there but I am keeping my fingers crossed that changes soon.

This set of Early American was purchased out of sheer desperation.  I can't tell you how many times I've passed up these same exact bowls at various thrifts and estate/garage sales.  In my defense though, these are in mint condition and the three combined cost me 8 bucks.  I packed them away with my 4th of July stuff.  I figured they can be my patriotic bowls.  Now I just need to find the 442.

I took the photo of this before I cleaned it up and now it's in pristine condition.  This makes 4 lime pie plated that I have thrifted now.  They don't take up a lot of room so I just keep adding them to my stack.

I haven't found any vintage pillowcases in a while so I was happy to add these two to my collection.  They were $1.99 each but the checker at Goodwill thought that was ridiculous so she charged me 99 cents each.  At least some of the Goodwill employees recognize price gouging when they see it.

Now onto my absolute favorite find of the week.  I actually took my time and Goodwill the other day and walked down every single aisle.  Well look what I found in with the sports equipment.  True, it is a bowling bag but wouldn't it make an even better purse or small overnight bag?  It is in wonderful condition with the exception of one of the handles just about ready to detach.  I found someone to repair it so soon it will be good as new. Have you seen the prices of tooled leather?  I will take the $7.99 I paid for this beauty any day.

Things are slowly but surely picking up around here so no complaints from me!  Hope you all have been having some good luck too!

Linking up with Sir Thrift-A-Lot, We Call it Junkin', The Nifty Thrifty, and Nifty Thrifty Tuesday.

Until next time...

~Erica

Heading Home

Good morning, everyone!

This morning I'm recovering from having 13 teenage boys over for dinner last night.  Every season, one of Alex's coaches has the team over for dinner a couple of times. Well, Alex decided to invite everyone over to our house for one of those dinners.  He is super proud of the barbecue that Brian and I and put together so I guess he wanted to share it.  Thankfully I have two leaves for my dining room table so we were able to cram all of the boys in one spot.  I have a teenager so I am well aware of how much they eat but add 12 more to the mix?  3 racks of ribs, a 14 pound pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni salad, smoked macaroni & cheese, coleslaw, cheesecake, red velvet cake, and 3 gallons of sweet tea GONE!  It's a lot of work but Brian and I really do love it.  Brian loves to hear about how awesome his food is and I just love to see all the kids together.  Alex is a Senior this year so times like these are few and far between.  Oh and the best part of it?  Not one single one of my vintage treasures was harmed in the chaos.  

Speaking of vintage treasures...as you guys know, Brian and I were in Seattle last weekend.  Well, first thing Saturday morning, we high tailed it out of town.  Not because we wanted to but because we figured we should to the mass amount of people rolling into town for the football game.  I wanted to stay but Brian was ready to get away from all the people and chaos.  So we compromised.  I told him I would leave early but he had to make some junk stops along the way.  Deal.

 
At the Visiting Nurses Thrift Shoppe in Centralia, I found this.  It's an art deco enamelware piece made by Fiesta.  Does anybody have any info on whether or not it is old or new?  It's turquoise so me buying it was a no brainer, vintage or not. 

We stopped at this little antique store that actually ended up being inside someones house but you would never know it until the lady inside told you.  She had the whole bottom floor set up with all the goods and the stairs cordoned off because that was the part of the house that she lived in.  Kind of weird but she was a super sweet lady.  The only issue was that she was very obviously a smoker.  Her voice sounded like the lady on that commercial who has to stick the thing in the hole in her throat to talk and the whole house had the stifling smell of cigarettes.  But she had such great stuff that I held my breath and soldiered on.

 

 

A few weeks ago, I found a tin exactly like this at the flea market. I wanted it SO bad but the seller would not go a penny below her $18 asking price. The worst part was that she had left the 25 cent garage sale sticker on it.  I was super excited to find another one at this antique store.  The lady told me she collected them over the years and finally decided to sell them all around Christmas.  She said she started out with about 70 and this one along with 5 others was all she had left.  She was asking $25 for it.  Why are these dang things so spendy?  But when I told her my sad story about the flea market, she dropped the price to $15.  Okay, still a lot to pay for a tin but I really wanted it and besides, Brian was paying!

 

 

She had so much stuff that I love to collect.  No a single piece of Pyrex though but I made up for it with everything else I found.  Brian really like the Prickly Pear jelly glass.  He's from Arizona and his mom and grandma used to make it all the time.  I found a Swanky Swig that I didn't already have too.  The Christmas tin was on the front porch and I think it had been out there for a while.  I had to use WD40 to get the lid off.  The graphics still look really good though.  The lady told us that using something called Colorback which is a polish for classic cars does a really good job of restoring old tins too.  I need to find some. Oh, and did you all know that I started another new collection?  Old games.  The graphics always draw me in.

 

 

I bought this Tala Icing Set for the sweet graphics and the fact that the handle is pink!

 

 

She had stacks of linens.  Most of them were in really good condition but you can imagine the smell.  I wasn't about to let that stop me though.  That's what Oxy Clean is for.

 

 

 

I picked up a couple Mexican themed dish towels too.

 

 

Love the donkey on this one.

 

So not a ton of stuff but definitely enough to make me happy. I also found something for Hanna and told Brian it was for her birthday but I really don't think I will be able to wait until August to give it to her.  Maybe Valentines Day?  The best part was that the nice lady gave us 20% off of our whole purchase because she said we bought so much.

 

Hope you all have exciting plans to find some good junk this weekend and that you are all staying warm!  It was almost 60 degrees here yesterday which is definitely not normal for this time of year.  Maddie and I are headed out tomorrow to do some out of town thrifting and antiquing.  Anything to dull these winter blues!

 

Linking up with:

 

The Cottage Market for Junkin' Joe & How Sweet The Sound for Pink Saturday.

 

Until next time...

 

~Erica

 

This Week At The Flea...

Happy Monday, Everyone!

It's a no school day today and even though I crave routine, sometimes it's really nice to have an extra day just to catch up.  It's been a pretty frantic weekend around here.  As you know, on Friday Brian & I headed up to Seattle to see Justin Timberlake (yes, again). We got home on Saturday night then it was up early Sunday morning to head to the flea market.  So this morning, I have no place to rush off to so I can have that third cup of coffee and share with all of you what I found at the flea market yesterday.

I love going to the flea market when it's around a holiday.  I bought this huge bag of vintage valentine's for super cheap.  I have quite a collection of them already but these are the perfect size for the banner that I am hoping to make today.

These table runners have just the right colors for either Spring or Fall.

This tablecloth has no holes but a few stains so the seller sold it to me for cheap.  She told me she hadn't tried to clean it yet so I'm confident I can get it looking new again.

One seller had these two pieces of Fire King Jadeite marked $2 each, as is.  For the life of me, I couldn't find anything wrong with the bowl.  There was a yellow stain on the mug and while I was waiting for my change, Maddie whispered to me that she was able to scrape the yellow off.  Score!

I found lots of little kitchen things from one seller.  I am going to put a decal on the shaker.  The aluminum cup next to it is marked "Smoothie Shaker".  The sweet pink Humpty Dumpty cup will go in my box for my future niece or nephew.  **Disclaimer:  Hanna is NOT pregnant (yet) which I'm sure you all gathered since she is in Vegas.

I also bought these cute cake toppers for the future baby.  I hope to collect enough that I can put them in a cute jar to display.

I bought the Doctor Doolittle's Garden book for my Halloween display.  I actually found the Fiesta latte mug from Goodwill on my way home.  It's a rare occasion that I find Fiesta at the thrift.

There is a seller at the flea that mainly sells small Ziplock bags full of vintage trinkets.  He also has old tins full of dice, Monopoly game pieces, poker chips, etc..  I love buying stuff from him.  He is super nice and always gives a good deal if you buy more than one thing.  That is the way a flea market seller should be!

I got this sweet little guy from him too. It's my first pinecone gnome.

I know it looks like I got a lot but believe me, it took a lot of work to get it.  I always pay extra to get into the flea early but unfortunately, they let the sellers in at the same time.  So I spend a lot of time circling the market waiting for all of the goods to get unpacked. 

Here's a fun story...as I was leaving, I ran into one of my estate sale friends.  She just so happened to be with a fellow blogger, Evie from Evie's Haus!  It's so fun to meet other bloggers and be recognized.  Be sure to check out her blog.  She loves all of the same amazing vintage things that we do, especially Pyrex!

And speaking of Pyrex, check out what I bought on Society 6

I mean, what Pyrex lover doesn't need a Balloons iPhone case & coffee mug?

Fun weekend & fun finds!  Our seats at JT were AMAZING!  If you follow me on Instagram, I took a photo from our seats just before the concert started (Shara, are you conscious yet?).  Brian got some awesome videos that I am going to have Maddie upload onto You Tube.  They are that good.  3 solid hours of singing and dancing from my absolute favorite performer ever (or as Hanna calls him, my boyfriend).  I will post a link when the videos are up.

Linking up with:

Sir Thrift-A-Lot for Thriftasaurus
A Living Space of The Nifty Thrifty
We Call it Junkin' for History & Home
Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
The Cottage Market for Junkin' Joe

Have an awesome week!

~Erica

A Few More Shares from 2013

Happy Thursday!  Hanna here!  Erica and I are both getting ready for some very exciting weekends, but I want to share a few things I've had on the back burner first.  I guess I should say, as of January 16th, I have thrifted 0 new items in 2014.  Can you believe that?  To tell you the truth, I haven't been out looking as much as usual, but still, the number of times I've left GW empty handed is alarming.  I even went one day and had to turn around and come home because their power was out.  Not a good sign, right?

Well, before Christmas, actually on the same day as Crafty Wonderland, Erica, Maddie, and I took a stroll through Stars Antique Mall in Portland.  Almost immediately Erica spotted a highly coveted prize in a small booth that an older man was sprucing up.  Neither one of us had seen it in person before, so exciting!  What was it you ask?  The Fire King Tear Drop Mixing bowls!  He was asking A LOT for them, even after a discount, and they were delphite, not jadeite, so Erica decided to pass.  Lucky enough, while browsing in the book, we spotted something else that I'm sure we would have missed otherwise.

Well, I knew I was in the clear because Erica obviously already has this set.  I have the 444, but not the 441 and bracket, let alone the box!  I of course assumed it would be super expensive, considering the Pyrex Balloons Chip and Dip is not the easiest to find.  But, to my surprise he was asking $19.95!  This was definitely an instance where I didn't have to think twice.  As we gathered up the set, he said, "Make sure to take the box too!" I couldn't help but chuckle as I took my prize to the front of the store.  Let me tell you I about died when the woman checking me out tried to pick up the box by the torn handle, I'm pretty sure I screamed.  But as you can see, it has made it safely home just in time for Super Bowl Sunday.

I also forgot to share a few other little treasures Erica gifted me for Christmas. 

 So Erica picked me up a few vintage postcards that I've framed.  Oh, I don't think I've share my toy blocks I found a long time ago either.

 I obviously needed one with cats having a party.

But my most favorite is this one is,

Alice and the Cheshire Cat.  I love Alice in Wonderland, for multiple reasons.  There is a long, paranormal story surrounding Alice and Wonderland and our Dad passing, it made my husband a believer and many people I tell the story have converted also.  It is a nice reminder of him, plus anything whimsical makes me smile.

Lastly, a missing deer update:  I've searched high and low.   I even unpacked and repacked all of my Christmas decor.  There is some scared deer vase out there wondering why on earth I left it behind.  I can't wait to figure out what happened to it.  Let me tell you, it is driving both Erica and I crazy that I can't find it.

Well, if you are wondering where Erica and I are this weekend, I'm sure you will just need to check our Instagram accounts.  Erica is off to see her boyfriend, Justin Timberlake in Seattle, and I'm off to Las Vegas for a quick weekend of well behaved fun.

Maybe thrifting will turn around for me soon, in the mean time, I'm going to continue to search for that darn deer!

Always a Pleasure,
Hanna