Eclectic Estate Finds

I had a great week of treasure hunting and found lots of beautiful things for my home, Etsy shop, and antique mall booth.  I usually have one or two things that stand out as a favorites, but this week I can't decide!  

First off, I found two items for some gallery walls I'm planning in my home.  I have quite a collection already, and really need to make some decisions about getting this stuff on the walls.  

I love this mid century gravel art - the pop of yellow is perfect for my living room.

This is my second Berggren plate, and I'll be keeping this one to decorate my kitchen.

Next, I found this fabulous collection of vintage fabrics that I'm so happy to add to my stash.  I love these 60s/70s prints and vintage corduroy.  

These would make cute tote bags, don't you think?

The rest of the items all came from one estate. These are just some of the items I came home with!

This beautiful bronze horse sculpture will be for sale.  These types of large sculptures look great in both modern and traditional decor schemes.

This is another item I will have for sale - a metal basket with cool mid century lines.

I picked up a nice selection of brooches.  Clockwise, from the top:  Extremely delicate antique filigree sterling ship, Sarah Coventry signed brooch, unsigned cat pin, and vintage Monet brooch.

I thought these mod pieces were pretty nifty.

Last but not least, some Christmas goodies.  

Thanks for stopping by!  

You can find me hanging out with the clever and creative folks at these fabulous places:  Thrift Share Monday, Mod Mix Monday, Make It Pretty Monday, Hey Mom What's For Dinner, Young Heart, Tuesdays Treasures, GFC Blog Hop, Creative Bloggers Party, Knick of Time, Penny Pinching Party, Well Crafted Wednesdays, Vintage Thingy Thursday, Time Travel Thursday, Transformation Thursday, Treasure Hunt Thursday, Catch as Catch Can, Thrifty Things Friday, Be Inspired Friday, Aloha Friday, Feathered Next Fridays, Frugalicious Fridays, Thriftasaurus, The Nifty Thrifty. 

I love hearing your feedback - comment verification is OFF!

Goodwill Outlet Adventure and other finds

I spent the weekend on a family trip to St. Louis this weekend, so I didn't get to any estate sales.  However, I noticed a Goodwill Outlet near my hotel, and since I don't have one near where I live, I took some time to check out this amazing store that so many design bloggers and vintage hunters talk about.  It was unbelievable, both in a good and bad way.  First of all, I'm not a huge thrift store shopper.  I really prefer estate sales, where you can preview items beforehand, and where you can see the environment the items come from.  If I'm looking for something specific like old frames or craft supplies, I will make an exception for Goodwill, which is usually very clean, organized, and is an excellent organization that gives back to the community. 

The Goodwill Outlet in St. Louis was a madhouse.  It was an enormous warehouse full of rows and rows of large bins full of junk.  Clothes were mixed in with housewares and there was little rhyme or reason to any of it.  I almost walked out until I saw some well-dressed ladies leaving with some fabulous mid century oil paintings, and decided to push through my squeamishness and see if I could find anything interesting for my booth.  Prices were calculated by the pound - books and glassware were 49 cents per pound, and the rest was 79 cents per pound.

I still need to clean the items I found before they come in from the garage, but here are a few things I found.  Here is where the unbelievable, in a good way, part comes in! The price for what you see here came out to less than $2!! 

Assorted vintage ceramics

Besides the outlet adventure, I did get to one of my favorite vintage shops this week.  I found this fabulous moon map poster, which looks great in my son's room.

I also found this great metal tray.  I'm thinking of painting it bright yellow to add a pop of color to the living room.

 

Well, thanks for stopping by!  I'm looking forward to seeing what people have been up to at the following places: Nifty Thrifty on a Living Space, Thriftasaurus Linkup on Sir Thrift A Lot, Apron Thrift Girl, Creative Bloggers, The Marketplace and The Cottage Market.

 



 

Patience pays - my new Expedit!

I love it when a little patience pays off!  I had been looking for a bookshelf last year, and couldn't find just the right vintage one, so I finally decided to break down and go to IKEA.  I liked the huge 72" square Expedit and was ready to shell out the $200 plus tax for it, but white was not in stock, so I left empty handed, planning to return when it was in stock.

In the meantime, I happened across this little number at an estate sale, and for $20, I figured it would make do until I got the one I wanted.  I thought I could even paint it white and be done with my search, but I never got around to it.  

Here is how it stood in my living room until this weekend.  It was a little small for my needs and started looking cluttered quickly.

On Saturday morning, I stopped at a sale near my house, not expecting much, and there was my Expedit, waiting for me, in like new condition!  It was priced at only $55, and since it was the second day of the sale, it was half off.  I paid $27.50 for it, which is less than half the cost of what our dinner cost that night at a sushi restaurant.  

I couldn't believe it was priced so low and had not been snapped up, but I'm convinced it was due to how enormous this thing was and how small the stairway was in the home.  However, it was extremely simple to dissassemble and we got it home easily.  Ok, my husband got it home easily.

Here is how it looks now:

 My plan is to add more books, and eventually get the IKEA basket inserts for the bottom row, to hold art and school supplies and other miscellaneous stuff.  Who knows, maybe with some patience, I'll run across them at the next sale!

I also found another item that has been on my watch list, a rolling shopping cart to take to the antiques market.  This was only $4.

I made a liner for it with some upholstery fabric and a vintage sheet - i just need to add some pockets for holding sunscreen and an umbrella:

Please excuse the messy workroom closet in the background.  

I can't wait to see all of you bloggers out there have been finding and or making this week!  Thanks for stopping by! 

Joining the Nifty Thrifty on a Living Space and

Thriftasaurus Linkup on Sir Thrift A Lot and

Apron Thrift Girl and 

The Cottage Market. 

January Slim Pickings

Estate sales are slowing down, the Kane County Flea Market won't be back until spring, and it's just too cold to spend time in the garage working on upcycling projects.  While I've slowed down quite a bit in my treasure hunting, I am still trying to get out there and see what I can find.  I saw a huge warehouse estate sale advertised in a small town about 35 miles from me and decided to check it out, being drawn in by the promise of vintage Pyrex and Ball jars.  It turned out to be at a 14K square foot auction house, and there were about 3 or 4 estates combined into one sale.  

For being so far outside the city and suburbs, I was really surprised to see how high the prices were.  I suppose that having moved the items to a warehouse, there was no urgency to clear them out like there usually is in a real estate sale.  They had hundreds of wonderful farmhouse type items, but with prices like $12-$20 for blue ball jars, for example, I might as well have spent the morning at an antique store in the suburbs, which would have been much more nicely curated.  Nevertheless, I snooped around until I found a few items, which happened to all be from the 1/2 price area.  

I thought these mid century salt and pepper shakers were nice.  I love the lines.

I think these were unused, but probably sat in a kitchen for many years. I cleaned up the stainless steel with the best cleaning product for that surface - good ol' white vinegar.  The rosewood has some kitchen grime on it, and I'm brainstorming ideas for how to clean that off.  I would love to hear any ideas.

I couldn't resist this iron salt and pepper shaker set.    

I've seen sets that consist of two tiny matching irons, but never an iron that fits together with a stand like this.  I love it. 

The base is for pepper, the iron is for salt.  So cute! 

Love these mid century bud vases.

 

They are actually not a matching set - the tall one is much better quality, but I think they look nice together. Both have test tubes that hold the water, with the tall one's tube marked as Pyrex.

Finally, I let my superhero-obsessed 5 year old pick out some comics.  These were in nicely sealed plastic, but for us they are meant to be enjoyed, so the plastic came off immediately!  

I should probably check to see if we picked any valuable ones, but there is something to be said for just using and enjoying things like this.

On the way home, I stopped by the Goodwill to look for old board games for a project that I'm working on.  Instead I spied this sweet ceramic piece.  I love cardinals, and I thought this was really charming.  There were no clues as to its age, and I suspected it was newer. It was only $1.99.  

After some digging online, I found that it was sold at Kirklands about five years ago.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Kirklands has such cute things!  It's selling for about twice the original price on Ebay.

As for the rest of January, I'm definitely going have to be more creative about how I spend my weekends.  I'm thinking this might be a good time to spend learning more about my camera and photo editing.  I bought Adobe Lightroom about 6 months ago and have yet to start using it, so I think now is the time to start.  

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Joining the Nifty Thrifty on a Living Space and

Thriftasaurus Linkup on Sir Thrift A Lot and

Apron Thrift Girl and 

The Cottage Market. 

Needlepoint purse and other happy finds

Happy New Year!  I closed out 2012 with some cute finds.  Without further ado, here we go. 

First off, I paid a bit more than I normally would for this purse, but I just loved it.  It is faux leather with a beautiful needlepoint design.  It is in great condition, and even though I want to keep it for myself, I just don't need any more bags.  Hopefully I'll find a happy owner for it, and until then, I will enjoy having it around.

I'm going to be listing this solid brass bowl.  It's so pretty!  

I'm wondering though, do you vintage dealers out there think I should try to clean the spots off the underside?  Do you think it would make any difference in getting a sale?  I tried to rub them off with a damp cloth, and that didn't work, so I think it will take some effort.  I don't know whether they would be considered really distracting or not.  A lot of people like old patina, but I'm not sure about spots.

I think this soup mug is so cute!  I love old souvenirs, and this road runner graphic was just too great to pass up.  I have it listed in the shop.

Another really cute mug - this one has a rainbow handle.  How cheery and bright! 

Well, here's to a New Year full of many wonderful discoveries, lots of new things to learn, and lots of vintage love.  Thanks for stopping by!

Joining the Nifty Thrifty on a Living Space and

Thriftasaurus Linkup on Sir Thrift A Lot and

Apron Thrift Girl and 

The Cottage Market.