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.