Magpie Ethel

Estate Sale Sunday...Spurred Into Action

I was having a quite Sunday morning drinking my coffee and reading the morning newspaper. I decided to check my email and saw this comment left on my blog from a local friend.

Hi Laurie, not sure if you made it to the red sign estate sale over in beaverton but they had a TON of craft supplies. I thought of you while walking through! If you have time tomorrow, you will want to go-lots of googly eyes, some bunny heads, a santa head for your outside display (it is in the garage on the back wall), and other craft supplies. Sunday is 50% off, so might be worth the drive?

I saw the words Santa and bunny heads and my course of action for the morning changed. I jumped in the shower and got dressed and made it to the sale with 5 minutes to spare.

I was rewarded with BOTH the Santa and bunny heads...and at half price!  I think Santa is rolling his eyes at my morning adventure.  There was a whole room of craft supplies.

I found a neat folding screen with plastic reindeer with Santa and sleigh.

The reindeer are cute and I like how they are each named.

I got a grab bag of old paper items and there were a ton of Dennison style old sticker books. I also got a pack of Dennison fourth leaf foil clovers, some bird stickers and some cupids.

Tiny wood birds for crafting.

I got googly eyes. I have tons of googly eyes..but these were COLORED googly eyes.  They are harder to find in the world of googly eyes. (File that fact away in your head.)

A wide variety of vintage wrapping paper.

Here are the bunny heads I was hunting for. I also found some wood doll heads and some spun heads. Jingle bells on original old cards.

Old tin baking molds, vintage sugar bells and a tons of old plastic top hats.
Happy to give up that leisurely morning for a good estate sale. Thanks again Katy, for leaving me that comment.

Happy Day.

Estate Sale Rainy Saturday.

I hit three sales today.  The first one I hit I got there early and stood in line.  It started to drizzle.

I found this old style rain bonnet like my grandmother used to wear at the sale.  I wish I had it earlier in line. It even has yellow polka dots.  It is a nice visor style rain cap. Does anyone still wear these? Could I start a new trend?

The first sale I hit was great and I found lots of fun stuff. The other two were pretty mediocre.

Poker chips in pink and gray.  I don't see these colors often. A herd of reindeer prance in the background. I got lucky in the holiday world. I think I was the first person in that room.  Christmas reflectors, lots on tiny ornaments, a lone bottle-brush tree, a couple of boxes of ornaments, spun heads, plastic Santas and a lone elf.

A trio of blow up Santas in the original packaging.

And a fourth Santa who was not in the packaging.  He needed to be blown up right away. You may remember I have a collection of them.

I rarely find round playing cards so this was a fun find.  I also found a sweet little ceramic poodle and a pair of sparkly earrings.

Wood bookends that reminded me of the Irmi style. Springtime Gurley candles. The woven pattern in the background is a big tin picnic basket (you can see it better in the third photo).
I have never seen these gumdrop trees with the pink bases. They are only about 5 inches tall but similar to the larger gumdrop trees (so assuming that is what they are). They cleaned up after a good wash and those dark ends are no more. I passed these two boxes with floating lites by on my first round through the house.  On my second pass I opened them up and they are little lilli pads with a silvery flower.  There are wicks and you float them in oil/water and they light...an enchanting glow for hours. A bunch of mod daisy design plastic cups. A bunch of plastic cups from the Best Western chain of motels.  Someone must have stayed often at the Best Western hotel or stolen them off the maid's cart!
And last but not least a door chime. The graphics on the box made me toss it in my basket. It still works. 
On the package insert it lists the different songs available with each chime.  My door chime plays "Strangers in the night". What a great variety of songs to accompany that opening and closing of a door.

Great day.  The rain never did let up (still raining now) but I decided not to embrace wearing that rain bonnet...I just don't think I can rock that look.  I folded it back up and put it in the packaging.


Happy day.

 

 

 

 

A Busy Easter Etsy Bunny

I love holidays and crafting for them.  Easter is a favorite.

One of the things I like about my Etsy shop is the variety of things that I make.  Everything has a vintage component to it so you never know what each holiday season will bring...it depends on what I have found each year. There is always something new. It never gets boring.

Spun head figures will always be a stand by.

Doll shoes I have collected during the year will be put to good use. Do you know how hard it is to get webbed feet into shoes?
Lots of Easter treats.

Bunnies, chicks, lambs and ducks.

Hopping to Etsy on Tuesday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m. (pacific time).

Hoppy Day.

St. Patty's Day Decorations

After the Valentine decorations went down the St. Patty's day decor went up. I always seem to go straight from one holiday to the next at my house.

Coffee table with ceramic St. Patty's day pipes vases. I made the crepe paper flowers during our winter snow storm.

Fireplace mantle with vintage greeting cards and spun cotton figures. The larger dome features the spun head couple in that top photo.

The other smaller dome features the little crepe paper fellow I found earlier this year.  I displayed him with a couple of clay pipes.

The top of my china hutch is a land of leprechauns.

An assortment of die cut cardboard leprechauns.

A cute little freckled leprechaun came my way from Kim (thank you..he fits right in). A trio of darling pipe cleaner leprechauns.
St. Patrick's day is not the easiest holiday to collect for..items are few and far between in estate sale land.  I feel lucky to find what I have..green treasure at the end of the rainbow.

Happy day!

 

Collection Challenge #196 - Vintage Barrettes

I picked up some vintage barrettes at an estate sale the other day. I always grab them when I find them as the colors, shapes and tiny size make them easy to use in crafting.

Lots of variations with a simple bow design. I love the two on the right with the little cutout scallop edge.

Some larger bows.

Tiny little darling barrettes. 

Sometimes they come in sweet shapes.

Sometimes they have a little bling.


I love the faux tortoiseshell look. The one with flowers is especially charming.

Pretty in pink And then in vintage green. These are older barrettes.
Halloween orange. Valentine hearts A favorite.
Makes me want to wear barrettes in my hair every once in awhile!

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a note and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of _____." The collections keep on coming...

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage Weekend Finds

Estate sale land was pretty non-existent this weekend.  Luckily I filled that void with some other excursions.  Amy and I spent both Sat and Sunday together and hit the EXPO show, a few antique shops and a flea market. 

This was my favorite find of the WHOLE weekend. It is an old pressed cardboard pink bunny head. It is about 2 foot tall.  One ear has a condition issue, but I am just going to add a posy to cover that scar.

A few other Easter finds. One of the flocked bunnies is missing a pink googly eye, but luckily I have a stash of vintage eye balls.

Lots of other small finds as well.

Vintage tiny wristwatches, red doll shoes, netting butterflies and some vintage deer. I was pretty excited to find a couple of pairs of vintage doll eyeglasses!  I also found an assortment of tally cards.

It is always a good day when I find Christmas reflectors. It is a bonus when they are the tiny reflectors for crafting. I also found a couple of vintage deer and some old Christmas stickers.

Playing cards with cute dog images and a little ceramic dog to match. A dancing ballerina whistle.  You blow in the end of the whistle and the ballerina twirls about.  The pink bunny on it is an Easter display bonus. A vintage jigsaw puzzle featuring bears in overalls could not be passed by.

I missed my usual estate sales, but was fun to hang out with Amy and still come home with some goodies.  A good weekend. A very good weekend with a good friend.