The Schedule That Flew Out the Window

Usually my thrifting week is pretty predictable. Okay, completely predictable: I go out on Friday morning with friends to wherever Craigslist sends us to see what we can find. Occasionally KK and I will make a mid-week jaunt to the Goodwill Bins. I start glancing at Craigslist usually on Wednesday, because there’s now a feature where you can delete ads you don’t want to see again. I discard the ones from out of town or any area we probably won’t be visiting, as well as the ones that advertise themselves as “clearing out the man cave” or “tools, camping and baby items.”

But this week! My whole routine was upended. There was an estate sale that started on Wednesday afternoon near my house, so I went. Oh. My. Goodness. It was the estate of a woman who was a dealer in vintage textiles, and she had an unbelievable amount of antique clothing, quilts, and linens of all description. As well as all the other stuff she had collected. Among which were two mangles (those ironing machines for flat things like sheets) which explains why all the linens were heavily starched and pressed. Boxes and piles of towels and napkins and tablecloths and you name it. And a whole bunch of dealers there on the first day; I overheard three women exulting over all the hardanger pieces they were finding to resell.

I bought only two items that day, for a buck each. A sweet embroidered tea towel with bluebirds (BTW, those rust spots came out completely with an oxy soak!),

and what was probably intended as a pillow top.  It was made with a punch needle and possibly rayon thread, which creates an interesting texture, kind of like a miniature rug.

Love the colors, and when I got it home I realized it works really well with this fabric. I think the punch needle square will be the back of a kimono style jacket.

Millie likes it too.

Knowing that KK likes vintage linens, I took her over there on Thursday. I was confident that there would still be much to find, and that I would see things that had been buried the day before. True on both counts! Lots fewer people too, so we were able to take our time and enjoy sifting through. We both found a few things. My most practical score was this hanger thingie for drying hand wash.

I'm always a sucker for dog items. I guess these are coasters and a holder for them.

I really love the slightly grumpy expressions on the dogs!

Couldn’t resist three vintage lucite or maybe celluloid buttons.

And when I ran across this never-used heavy linen towel with my initial on it, I knew it had to be mine.

So now we come to Friday. Usually KK and Judy and I start out bright an early, but this week Judy was out of town, and KK had a meeting to attend mid-morning. And another friend needed to pick something up from me and could only do it Friday morning. So after she came by, I put together a short list of sales, and when KK’s meeting was over she picked me up and we made it to a few of them. I picked up a large pot for the garden and a pair of fleece gloves for this winter, as well as a couple of really beautiful scarves. The pink one is soft, soft lambswool from Nordstrom,

and the rayon & silk one is supple, gleaming velvet.

Wish my photography could capture the beautiful dark green color.

On Saturday I needed to show my face at the annual plant sale that my garden club puts on, so of course I mapped out a few sales to stop by along the way to the venue. I could hardly believe it when the first thing that caught my eye was this cute set of watering can lights. 

At the same stop I selected a small original watercolor

of a courtyard in Spain.

And although I resisted buying any plants at the garden club sale (too much planning to do in the new yard before I really invest in plants) I did pick up a potted bamboo at my last stop. Though it's not large now, this type gets about 15’ tall, and bamboo is expensive…and this was six bucks.

So, four days in a row of going to sales. I'm exhausted! But I wouldn’t have missed the fun or the good finds. And the icing on the cake was that I overheard a bit of conversation that has to go in my eavesdropping hall of fame: two women sitting in their garage minding a sale, and I heard one say to the other, “So, did you get all the snakes fed before you came over?”

Shine a Light

So. What I've been doing for the past few months is getting a divorce. Should be final in the next few weeks. It was not an easy decision, but it was by my choice, and I have no regrets.

Okay, enough of that. Suffice to say, major life changes have been going on.

Including moving to a new house! I started relocating in May; Zoë, Fannie, Millie and I have been here since the middle of that month. Because we were selling our other house and some of the furniture was needed for staging, moving has been a drawn-out process.  But everything is here now, and I've been nesting like crazy, enjoying rediscovering many of my thrifting finds as I unpack and find places for them. Though when one downsizes by two-thirds, one cannot keep everything. I'll tell you about the moving sale later.

This week’s big excitement involved three particular bargains and my friend Lonna’s significant other, Dick. Extremely good-natured Dick, because when anyone mentions needing to get something fixed around the house Lonna is very likely to say, “Oh, Dick’ll do it.” And Dick did!

Anyone remember this vintage light fixture that I scored for fifty cents a while back? (It came from the same sale where I found the “astronaut” cat carrier for Millie.)  

Dick installed it in my half bath, over an estate sale mirror. (Took out the 90s medicine cabinet with the faux stained glass. Who needs a whole medicine cabinet in the half bath?) I painted the base and end caps with copper metallic spray paint, and I love it.

Out in the hallway, we took down the sort of early-American style ceiling fixture, and Dick put up the vintage light I found at the funeral home’s estate sale. 

Talk about a piece of history in the house! You know that everyone who crosses my threshold will have to listen to that story.

The building it came from had very cool midcentury metal cladding on the exterior. 

I really hated to see it go; it was unique…and the new Starbucks that went into that spot decidedly is not.

But the best upgrade to the house so far is in the foyer, where this thing used to live.

I wanted to replace it with the vintage Italian chandelier I was given a few weeks ago – the one exactly like this one for sale for $1850. The wiring had been cut off short when it was taken down. I paid about $50 to get it rewired, and turned it over to Dick to hang. 

I love it, it's just magnificent. Well worth that $1800 I didn’t spend!

It's wonderful to have beautiful things to live with, especially when they don’t cost an arm and a leg. But even better are the friends I have both here and elsewhere. I'm sending lots of gratitude to them all – with an extra dollop for Dick!

Unusual

We often joke about "the item of the day" when we're out garaging - something we see for sale everywhere through a morning. This week we kept finding odds and ends of greeting cards with envelopes in baggies. Guess I'm not the only one who mostly sends ecards now. Or probably most people send greetings via Facebook, which I don't use. Anyway, even old ladies (like me!) are now getting rid of their birthday and thank-you cards. (I still keep an appropriate stash for sympathy cards, though. Call me old fashioned, but there are some things you just should not get in your email and a sympathy card is one of them.)

But occasionally we find something that none of us has ever seen on a driveway before. Something like...

...a cute harness so you can take your pet rat for a walk!

So I'm wondering: will we ever see another? Or will we start seeing them all the time, like they've always been around and we just didn't notice?

What's the most unusual thing you've ever spotted for sale?

If the Shoe Fits…

The last instruction I gave myself as I dressed on Friday morning was, “Remember, you do NOT need any more shoes. You have plenty.” I purposefully wore shoes that tie, since they are harder to take off to try on some bargain on a driveway. (And also because we were going to the annual Salem Art Fair after garaging, so I’d be walking quite a bit.)

I am sure it is no surprise that at the very first sale, just down the street from my house, I found some shoes.

They weren’t my only find of the day. There were also bunnies. Practical bunnies – a soap dispenser bunny and a vintage Debbie Dean bunny mug.

 At the same sale I was smitten by these adorable salt & pepper shakers. 

Don’t know why, but for only a buck I had to have them. Maybe it's their small size, not quite as tall as the bunny mug. Anyway, it was love at first sight. I have no regrets.

Another sale yielded a fifty cent piece of heavy cotton fabric in a large scale paisley. About 2 yards long by 2 feet wide.  Good for something, one of these days. 

And another fifty cents bought this hand painted House of Hatten “December Sky Spirit” ornament, ostensibly from Pueblo mythology. I can always use a benign spirit about the house.

But the shoes…yes, they were the big splurge. Sort of. Because I found not just one pair, or two, or…okay, I bought FIVE pairs of shoes!

Two pairs of Danskos, one still in the box, both look like they were worn maybe once. They retail for around $125 a pair. And two pairs of Keens, same excellent condition, same original price range. And a pair of short boots, which were probably originally around a hundred bucks. So about $600 worth of quality footwear, all in my size.

For a total of five bucks. That’s right, they were a dollar a pair.

Admit it. You would have bought them all too!

The Thing with Feathers

I've been thinking about hope, and all kinds of things that are inherently hopeful. Like planting things, especially seeds but really anything you stick in the ground so that it can grow. Don’t you think planting a tree is one of the most hopeful things a person can do? My grandfather planted this one about 70 years ago. 

Yes, that little house is where I spent my first six years. The small window on the back is by a stairway where I would sit and watch trains go over a trestle a few blocks away.

I splurged a bit on Friday on another piece of hope. A bicycle! I think bikes definitely fall into the hopeful category. Will you really take those rides that you are imagining?

I haven’t owned a bike for several years but recently decided I should get one again. Bikes were such a symbol of freedom when we were growing up. We would jump on our bikes and be gone for hours, and no one fretted as long as we were home by dinnertime. When I test-drove this one I was a little wobbly at first, but riding a bike is truly one of those skills you learn for a lifetime.

I love this one. It's definitely an old lady bike! It's designed so that you can put your feet on the ground when you stop, and the seat is way more comfy than the hard leather one on my old ten speed. 

And it has a wicker basket – perfect. I can hardly wait to ride it to the library, but I have to get a lock first. Something we didn’t worry about as kids!

Of course thrifting itself is an act of hope. We happened upon a large neighborhood sale on Friday and had a blast roaming the streets and finding bargains. Besides the bike, I came home with a pair of Ecco shoes for a dollar (that brand seems to retail around $150) 

and a cute pair of socks to go with them. 

Fifty cents purchased a never-been-opened switchplate cover. 

The seller told me she had bought it when her grandson was born, and he’s now ten years old, so she figures this is never going to be put up in his room! Now it's finally fulfilling its destiny in my kitchen.

I was really surprised to find this beaded dragonfly coin purse for fifty cents. It's just like one I found last August and made into a necklace.

The most exciting thing I found was actually free. I can't believe some dealer didn’t spot it. A Sixties Lightolier chandelier designed by Gaetano Sciolari. 

The lady told me when they took it down (why?? It’s gorgeous!!) the wire got cut a bit short, but hey, wire can be spliced or replaced. From the layer of dirt on the light bulbs I'd say this has been sitting around in a garage for years getting in the way…waiting for me!

There are a few of these for sale on antiques sites and Etsy, with prices ranging from $1420 to $1850.  Zowie! I can hardly wait to get it installed, 

replacing this puppy, which I'm sure any number of people would like…but I don’t.

This is probably the best free thing I've ever picked up at a sale. I hope the sales you find are just as good to you!

The Future is Now

I bought a dining table at the Goodwill Bins today.

For a dollar.

I always think when I get a particularly good deal that this one might just be the all-time most amazing score. And then another comes along and tops it. But a decent dining table for a dollar – has to be a record at least in the furniture department.

Have you been to a Goodwill ‘outlet’ – AKA The Bins? It's the last stop for all the leftovers from all the local Goodwill stores, giving them one last chance to avoid the landfill or being baled and shipped overseas or whatever they do with the mountains of stuff that no one wants. There is always good stuff that has drifted downstream unnoticed, until someone plucks it out of a bin. you pay by the pound for most things, so if your finds are lightweight you can really make out.

Fortunately the furniture does not go by weight. It gets a few days at five bucks, and then is marked down to a dollar. My table isn’t fancy 

and getting it home was a bit of an adventure; convertible with the top down to the rescue. 

Probably someday I'll find a better one, but till then this will do just fine.

And it wasn’t even the best deal of the day. I found two sweaters of the same brand in the same bin. Eskandar, made in Scotland 

and sold in places like Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. 

My guess is this pair of sweaters was donated by someone who received them as a gift from a wealthy granny and never wore them. The crew at the Goodwill didn’t recognize the brand name and so they got sent straight to the bins; this is not the time of year that sweaters are in much demand. But my rummaging hands know good fibers when I feel them. One sweater is the softest merino imaginable, the other is cashmere. I looked up the brand when I got home. Similar merino sweaters are about $1500, and cashmeres are over $2000. My price was about $3-4 each.

I wish that rich granny would give up buying unappreciated sweaters and simply adopt me. 

Meanwhile, I will certainly appreciate the sweaters!

Last week we saw something that was a first for me.

A 3-D printer, available at a garage sale. 

I wonder if they’ve been showing up on driveways for a while now, or if I might have spotted the very first one in the world.

No way to know. But a thrifter can dream!