Magpie Ethel

Estate Sale Friday/Saturday. Better Than I Thought.

I hit a mediocre sale on Friday and swung by one of my favorite antique shops.  I found a couple of things.  My favorite find from my little antique shop was this old shuttle loop set. It can be played indoors and is similar to badminton.  I don't think the set has ever been used.

It is from the Breck's bulb company which I guess also sold useful gifts. Dated 1956.

I bought it because of this great wire ring stand that you put together.  It was intended to have the shuttle fly back and forth through it, but I think it will work well for display.  I really don't want my kids playing shuttle loop in my house.

Saturday I woke up and got into line at an estate sale and hour before it opened. I was number 2 to get in the door. I didn't have super high hopes, but the sale was much better than I thought it would be.

Some vintage floral sheeting, old floral napkins, a floral towel and a fun floral pillow. FLORAL!

I was the first person in the Christmas area. I an always happy to find vintage gift tags. I did not even spot the Putz house until my second round through this area.

Was funny to find a chalkware chick after I found a bunch of them last week. The egg cup I do not have and the snowman will be crafted with. I also found some holiday hankies including one for St. Patty's Day. (a holiday I don't often find them for)

Western Germany angels and pinecone spun head elves.

One of my favorite finds was this old shelf edging. I did not realize how many patterns there were until I got home and opened the baggies.

I also scored on some vintage wrapping paper. Some of it I believe is older from the 1940s.

One of the most unusual patterns I found was this old Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

It still has the original price tag for 10 cents from Meier and Frank.

A good weekend in estate sale land!  Hope you got lucky too!

Coastal Road Trip

My good junking buddy Amy and I took a quick little coastal junking road trip earlier this week. We left early Tuesday a.m. and headed to the northern Oregon coast. We spent the day hitting antique shops, thrifts and any spot that looked like it had potential.

Amy dragged me to spots like this. She had been here before.  Hobo Junction in Long Beach, Washington with the nicest fellow running it.  There is a path to the front door past all those floats!

This playground bobble horse enticed me. I would love one of these in my yard...but I have no spot for one.

We ate clam chowder. We ate ice cream. I made Amy climb the Astoria Column.  She had never been there before and the 164 steps to the top reward one with a magnificent view.

We both found fun stuff. We spent the night in Seaside, Oregon and woke up the next morning to junk our way home along the Columbia River. It was a beautiful sunny day on the coast and junking was fun.

Treasures from our trip.  No rhyme nor reason to what I came home with. The two pink shutters will become a project.

I found two of these old bunny racks.  I have one that I display with my Easter goodies that I found this past year.  I found these in TWO different shops in the same city.

I also found this cowboy style rack which I had not seen before.

A tin dollhouse complete with candy striped awnings.

With all those charming details inside.

My spun head radar was on when I found this bag of heads in Astoria at an antique mall. A putz style house (that needs to be flipped), an old ironing board (for my shows), a lone salt cat shaker, a Christmas list box and a couple of rolls of old wallpaper border.
I love the graphics on the old wallpaper border rolls.  These were found in Long View at a darling shop called Elizabeth Hue Mercantile.

I also found two chippy metal stands and a turquoise cake container. Another road trip junking adventure!  Short but sweet and with its rewards. Hurry for summer trips like this!

 

Collection Challenge #211- Vintage Sand Buckets

I have the beach on my mind for two reasons. One, I found a sand bucket this weekend at an estate sale.

Two, Amy and I are hitting the road once again and doing a quick overnight junking trip to the Oregon coast.  It seemed fitting to share my sand bucket collection today.

I have a few sand buckets and pick them up if the price is right. I am not concerned about condition as these buckets have usually seen some play time.

Flip side of above bucket. This happy little bucket is by the Chein company which made a huge variety of vintage toys.

This one was found at an estate sale in the garage full of nails and screws. I had to convince the fellow to dump the contents as I just wanted the bucket.

Super cute flip side.
ABC sand bucket.
I have a couple of sand buckets that originally were containers for food.  This tin turned bucket held toffees.
This worn tin originally held peanut butter and has Wizard of Oz graphics. Why don't peanut butter companies still do things like this?

I love to dig in the sand when I am at the beach.

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ____".  You never know what I will dig up in my stash.

Send some good junking vibes to Amy and I as we hit the coast in search of treasures.  Hoping for a good bowl of clam chowder too. Happy Day.

A VERY GOOD Estate Sale and Garage Sale Weekend

I had a crazy weekend.  I hit one church sale on Friday a.m. and found a couple of things.  Saturday I had my garage sale which was awesome and exhausting. I started setting up at 6 a.m. in my driveway. The first early birds came about 6:30.  It was a constant flow of customers from about 8 a.m. to 4. We closed up at 5. I purged quite a bit.

I did manage to take a ten minute run down to a neighbor's house (my Mom manned the driveway while I was gone as well as being there all day with me).  I was told the neighbor had some vintage Christmas for me and I was off and running.

It was really good vintage Christmas.  The little ceramic Santa in the train was found at the church sale Friday.

4 strands of glass garland including two strands with tiny mercury glass bells. Fun bird ornaments I have not seen before with spun tails.

I thought these were all pinecone ornaments until I turned one around and it had the Santa face.

This vintage Christmas run down the street was a great afternoon pick me up! Love the daisy ornament and the one with the bug. Ben showed up with a car load of college stuff about 9:30 p.m. I helped him unload and then collapsed into bed.  I knew I had to get up early as I really wanted to hit an estate sale Sunday morning that I had missed on Saturday because of my sale. I was up and waiting in line for the sale to open by 8:30.  Half price day and I was rewarded well!

A wonderful collection of vintage chalkware Easter plus some of the waxy Easter grass that I hoard.

I had red, white and blue on the brain once again.
I could not pass by an old stork made of straw. A Rudolph book, vintage tiny Santa mugs and some various doodads.

The baby book on the rhythm method was just too funny to pass up.  It will head to Etsy.  The tin coffee can has good forest/deer graphics and will be headed to Kate's off campus college house next year. A couple of the plastic nativity scenes and a crescent moon Gurley candle. The winking majorette dog book was just too darling to pass up.
This sweet little girl will be tucked away in my studio until next Valentine's Day.  The flower design in the background is on a vintage sand pail I found.
This is my favorite find. I am so attracted to the unusual and quirky. This vintage bucket style hard plastic bib with the cute bunny graphic...so thrilled with this silly thing. It will be perfect to incorporate into my Easter world.
Such a fun weekend.  Weary and tired today, but a good sense of accomplishment as well.  Hope you had a good weekend too.


Happy Day!

 

 

Purging and Rotating Piles

Lordy! My house is a mess!  My living room is full of vintage goodies to sell at our neighborhood garage sale this weekend.  FULL.  (I did do my Fourth of July decorating prior to piling all this stuff in here).

Kate came home from college and brought the contents of a dorm room.  Those boxes and bins are sitting in her room.  She is off again as a Camp Counselor for the summer at Camp Orkila in the San Juan Islands in Washington. (The fact that she is gone also means I can store some stuff in there)

Ben has brought one load home from his college house where he lived this past summer. He will be up again this weekend with a truck load.  I hope most of this stuff fits in his room.

I don't live in a big house!

I am determined to purge the living room on Saturday.  Our neighborhood will have its 29th annual garage sale.  About 100 houses usually participate and it has crowds all day that are ready to shop.  The weather forecast looks great and I am ready to load up my driveway and purge.

If you live in the Portland area come by and say howdy.  Eastmoreland neighborhood sale (near Reed College). Saturday from 8 -5. Wish me luck!

Post Office Pins and Needles

I occasionally buy stuff on Ebay or Etsy. There was an item the other day that I wanted on Ebay.  I REALLY wanted it.  REALLY WANTED IT.  When I was the high bidder I was giddy.  I could not wait for the package to arrive.

I purchased the item at the end of May and it was scheduled to arrive on June 5th.  It didn't arrive.  It still wasn't here when I got home from Farm Chicks on the 8th.

I checked the tracking number that was provided by the seller.  My package left North Carolina on 5/31.  It went through N.C. On 6/5 it was in Federal Way, WA which is fairly close to me in Portland, Oregon.  I then tracked the package as it went BACK to Philadelphia, then Jersey City. I started stalking my mailman.  Finally on 6/13 the tracking number showed that it was back in Federal Way, WA.  FINALLY on 6/16 it showed up on my doorstep.

I have never been so happy to see a box on my step.

Here is what I was so happy to win on Ebay.

They are little rubber eggs with darling graphics. This set was extra awesome as it came with the original box. I have found some of these eggs before..once at Round Top and once at an estate sale.  It was interesting to see how they were marketed.

For crib, play room, tub and beach.
The little rubber eggs are almost like balloons.  Some are a little more deflated than others. Some of them have a little rattle when you shake them.  The graphics are adorable.


This is the first batch of these style of eggs that I found.  These were from Round Top, Texas.  I like that they are different designs than the slowpoke eggs that showed up.

Happy I could finally stop stalking the postman.

Happy day!

 

Second Wind

I mentioned in an earlier post that Ben graduated last Saturday from college. It was a very long day. I was up at 5:15 a.m. and we left the house at 7.  We had an hour and a half drive (each way) to Corvallis. We spent pretty much the whole day in graduation mode...ceremony, picnic lunch with family (which I planned and was in charge of) and just hanging out.  We got home about 6:30 and I was a tired gal.

About 8 as I was contemplating pajamas and bed, the phone rang.

It was a girlfriend getting ready for a garage sale. She was sorting her mother's things and had a bunch of vintage Christmas if I wanted to come take a look.  A quick burst of energy coursed through my weary bones...I was out the door in a matter of minutes.

Vintage Christmas will give anyone a second wind!

A huge assortment of nice old ornaments and some bubble lights.
A vintage Santa, old holiday plates and tin Christmas light reflectors.
A flock of vintage bird clips with spun glass tails. I think the smiling ornament is Raggedy Ann.
Kitschy ornaments.

Teeny ornaments

In addition to some boxes of tiny ornaments I found this swell mica snowman and this spun cotton angel sealed in a glass dome.

A Putz style church in original box  and some flocked trees.
My favorite find were these old Santa letters. They were intended to send to a child as if they were from Santa.

So glad I got some energy to go shop. I also found a dresser and a desk for Kate's next year house in college. Crossed that off my summer shopping list.

I then came home and collapsed in bed...visions of sugarplums danced in my head.

Collection Challenge #210- Vintage Recipes Boxes

I did a post on my Christmas list boxes way back when with challenge #26. I like these little tin boxes that hold 3 x 5 cards.  The Christmas list boxes are a fun little category of them. More traditionally we see them in the form of recipe boxes.

I pick them up at estate sales if the price is right. Their graphics are darling.

This is one of the recipe boxes I use in my kitchen. It is extra long. It is also the perfect green for my kitchen.

It has this great little engraving on the front that reads "The American Home Menu Maker".

I have a second recipe box that I use that I love as well. Once again the green color is a winner in my kitchen.

This one is nice as it has a little shelf to hold your recipe card.

They live stacked on one another in my kitchen.

It is always interesting to see the different dividers inside the recipe boxes. Funny with the dividers for Fritters and the other for Biscuits...I wouldn't think those would be their own categories. 

These are the recipe cards I use. They came from my neighbor. I love the little rhyme at the bottom.  "A truer friend there cannot be than one who shares her recipes".  If you ever get an old recipe box keep an eye out for the darling graphics on some of the old cards.

One of the most unusual recipe boxes I have ever found is this one.
It dates to the 1930s and is full of promotional cards/recipes sponsored by a local department store and newspaper. It was part of their weekly cooking school program.

Dated 1935, this is a menu for the Busy Day Dinner.

What shall I make for dinner tonight?

If you have an idea for a future collection challenge, leave me a "comment and finish the sentence "Show me your collection of ___." Always cooking up a new challenge each week.
Happy Day!

 

Estate Sale Friday and Graduation

I had a tiny window on Friday to hit estate sales. I hit two. The first one I hit was a family run sale and they opened up early with only a couple of us there.  I always ask when I walk in a sale where the Christmas is.  The woman answered me that there was room of Christmas upstairs that was really full. As I walked (bounded) up the stairs I had visions of a room of great vintage Christmas...and me the only one there!  Sadly, her very full room was for the most part mediocre modern stuff.  I got a couple of things, but luckily the second sale was better!

Some old baking cups (for crafting) a couple of boxes of teardrop shaped ornaments and a fun recipe box. I seemed to have the Midas touch with all the gold colored holiday tidbits.
Gold leaves with original price tags attached.

I seem to have found a smidgen of pink.  I love these teeny pale pink light bulbs.
On Thursday a friend came by and gifted me with a vintage Santa. The Friday estate sale had me finding his twin.  I also found a fun tree topper.
One of my favorite things was this box with old holiday rubber stamps.  I think they are fairly old. (I think they would stamp better if I had a new stamp pad...mine is a bit dried out)

A good couple of sales.

I did not hit any sales on Saturday.  I had a special event that was MUCH more important than estate sale land.  Ben graduated from college!

Such a proud mom today.

It WAS a HAPPY DAY!

 

Farm Chicks. What Came Home With Me

I found some fun stuff at the Farm Chicks show this year.  I never go to a show expecting to come home with a full car of stuff. I am spoiled by estate sales and their prices.  A show is a vacation for me...the stuff I find are my souvenirs of that event.

I found a swim cap for my collection...for my "someday" beach house.  It is cute as it has a bow on the top.

And of course I found other stuff.

The F L A G letters have already become part of my Fourth of July display this year.
I cleared out one vendor when I bought 18 kewpie dolls. They will be crafted with.

A vintage plastic deer and two pink ceramic deer.

This is the same type of snowman head that I found in Round Top last year.  There are two of them...one inside the other.
A bag of pink honeycomb umbrellas and a church pamphlet container (I liked the graphics...Coming Soon!  I am not of the Penecostal Evangal faith).
A big red, white and blue welcome sign.  It is already part of my Fourth of July display. The old horn is weathered and I am not exactly sure where it will end up.

A chippy red and white can opener that I thought would be a fun flag holder.  I really had patriotic red, white and blue on my mind as I shopped. The plastic bird is red on one side and blue on the other. The bugle call book will find a home with my Fourth of July stuff as well.  The cricket box I just thought was quirky and would be fun to work into some sort of display.
Silly purchase, but this waxed dixie cup is a bait container with fun graphics.
I love the cover on this old record.  Hoping to hang it on the wall of my "someday" beach house.
There were 7 yards of this fun trim that came home with me. I know I will find some project for it.

A few puzzle pieces.

Last but not least this great Stanley Tools safety sign.
It is two sided and I have the perfect spot to hang it in my family room.  It will be outside of Tom's workshop.

Fun shopping and quirky finds.  I sure enjoy the Farm Chicks show. I just never know what will come home with me.