Happy Serendipity Thrifting Day!

I had a planned vacation day off from work last Friday and was fortunate to find an estate sale listing vintage buttons. It was truly a stroke of serendipity and it even got better!

While searching for the buttons I came across the most awesome stash of more Pyrex bowls. Not just any Pyrex bowls but a Green Dot Pyrex bowl, two yellow Rainbow Stripe bowls and one blue Rainbow Stripe bowl. You might remember my estate sale horror story of another buyer grabbing two Pyrex Dot bowls from me last year. The bowl that the seller took away from me was a Green Dot Pyrex bowl just like this one.

Wasn't it just last week that I said that I needed to stop buying so much Pyrex? This was an example of true serendipity though. Another buyer was standing near these and just walked away uninterested so I casually swooped in and happily bought them.

Tim Holtz and Pyrex in One Week!

This has been an awesome week which included a mini-workshop with Tim Holtz. He had us playing with all of his different surface materials to see how they perform. My absolute favorite was the Shiny Foil Transfer Sheets, the Distress Specialty Stamping Paper and Clearly for Art {moldable plastic film}.

He explained the surfaces and then let us play. We weren't supposed to create a final project but I ended up composing this quick piece using the Sizzix Layered Bee die and Texture Fade. Behind the large bee is a stamped butterfly using the gold transfer foil. The horizontal band is a piece of thin wood. The center of the background is embossed vellum. All of this is mounted on corrugated paper.

But wait! There's more fun to this week!

Counting My Blessings, Enjoying My Life

I needed a little time to stop and count my blessings. I realized that I am blessed with so much right now and sometimes I need to slow down and enjoy my life.

A week ago I went to the Carson Rubber Stamp Convention. It is about a 45 minute drive via the freeway so I kind of take it for granted that I can always attend it when it comes to town.

But what I am truly blessed with is that I had the opportunity to spend some time with Tim Holtz. Back in August, Tim sent me a box full of goodies to play with. Oh the joy! But then I began to stress about what I could possibly do to thank him for his thoughtfulness and generosity.

An Amazing Week!

It has been an amazing week with lots of high points and one low point. And looking back, the low point wasn't really all that bad but it did shake my faith in the honesty of people.

My week started last Friday. I had the day off from work so we went to an estate sale. I have been doing a lot of freelance lately so this was my first opportunity to go thrifting in a while. I witnessed lying, cheating and stealing and that was the conduct of the estate sale company!

I was on the hunt for a set of these Pyrex Dot bowls.

A Good Thrifting Day and A Very Busy New Year

We haven't had a chance to go thifting in quite a while. I missed the thrill of the hunt. I totally forgot about how rude some people can be but I didn't let that spoil my day.

My favorite find was this old, wooden step ladder. What a perfectly distressed way to display things. It is such a great size to display books or other collections.

I found these sweet little cards with some cute pictures and funny rhymes. This little cat has a piece of string tied to its "tail. And another card has a small paper doll.

We found a pair of Tipp City milk glass rooster spice jars and an old glass rolling pin.

I love researching about old milk bottles. We found three old bottles and I have been able to determine the approximate date when the bottles were made and in some cases, the city where they were made. These are from the 1930s and 40s. The brown bottle is even earlier.

I found more Pyrex bowls. I sold all of my Pyrex so I am slowly gathering more again.

I couldn't resist a few more Shiny Brite ornaments.

I found some quilt fabric that was of vintage Valentine cards and project yardage to make a cute cherry pattern apron.

I am working hard to get most of these items into my Stuff to Treasure store.

It has been an extremely busy start to the new year. Since the first day of January, I have been doing the following: I decluttered and prepped my entire home to be tented for termites, I lived in my RV parked outside of my home for three days while I attended the Craft and Hobby trade show twice, attended a dinner with Tim Holtz, then moved back into my home and cleaned and washed everything. One day later, my son had his first race event so I was back in the RV for a few more days, came home to find a notice that all of the garage driveways were going to be resurfaced the next day so we had to find parking for all of our vehicles. That was 21 days ago and they still haven't resurfaced our driveway. Meanwhile we got a parking ticket on the RV. And work has been exceptionally busy because my dear friend and co-worker was in a serious {but not life-threatening} car accident and I am covering her work load while she mends. And at the same time I have been given the exciting opportunity to do two things that I absolutely love; create a branding campaign and design my own craft dies. And on top of all of this I am doing a ton of freelance design. Yes, it has certainly been an extremely busy start to a new year!

Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting. Like I said, I am working to get new items into my store. Thanks for your patience.

More Pyrex and Vintage Christmas... Oh Happy Heart!

I admit that my heart skips a beat when I see Pyrex or old Christmas ornaments at a garage sale. And my heart sings with joy when the prices are reasonable. Today I have a really happy heart!

I had three favorite finds today. The first was a good stash of vintage Pyrex. The sellers laughed at how happy I was when I saw the Pyrex.

More favorite finds...

A Little Thrifting Therapy

Work has been extremely crazy lately and I've been putting in some overtime so I asked if I could take a little "thrifting therapy" time off. Happily I went to an estate sale on Friday morning! I was in line  two and a half hours before the sale opened. Luckily some friends pulled up right behind me so we sat and chatted which made the wait time fly by.

I can't say that these are my favorite finds this week but they are the most colorful. I researched a little about the Dream Pets by B.Dakin. The red reindeer on the left appears to be a Dream Pet but it looks older than anything I've seen online. It has glitter on the antlers, two yellow nostrils and just a small sewn-in label marked "Made in Japan". I can't find any information on the Mod wooden girl figure in the center. She is definitely from the 60s but I haven't found any manufacturer's information. Anyone know any information about these types of wooden figures? The item on the right is a vintage Walco Indian Bead Loom.

I found a lot of treasures buried in the garage at this sale. I found this old reversible, folding sleeve ironing board in a red and cream fabric carrying bag.

Also found this instant collection of natural bristle brushes. I think they are all horse hair.

And tucked away between two tall cabinets in the garage, I found an old painted set of shutters. Since it was only one set, there were other shoppers off hunting for the matching set once they say this one. The enamelware bin in front came from another estate sale today. I like the heavy feel of old enamelware plus they are a great storage solution.

We found a box of old Christmas ornaments including several odd spun cotton head figures. On the plastic deer in back there are two delicate butterflies with net wings.

The last sale today also had several nice glass and ceramic pieces. The milk glass hands in front are Westmoreland Glass. I learned a little more about this company today. In back is another small Pyrex refrigerator dish and a pretty ceramic hat pin stand with several nice hat pins.

I had a lot of fun at these sales. But my biggest bragging rights is that this was the first time that I drove my big, big truck on the freeway. Nothing and no one was going to stop me from getting a little well-deserved thrifting therapy time. Fearless!

Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting. As always, I will try to get most of these items into my Stuff to Treasure store as soon as possible.

Exploring New Thrifting Grounds

Dear Handyman had to pick up some supplies on Saturday. Since we were going to be in a different part of town I found some sales in that area and we explored some new thrifting grounds.

My favorite find was this beautiful vintage tablecloth. I love the pink hibiscus flowers and green leaves.

I also found this large chenille bedspread. I don't know how old it is but it is in great condition.

Found this mid-century milk glass vase with metallic gold and turquoise design.

And I always love finding Pyrex so I scooped up these yellow and orange stacking bowls.

This vintage croquet set was something on my Thrift Wish List but I'm not quite sure why. I have some ideas on how I would like to repurpose them so we'll have to see how this turns out.

Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting. I will be adding some of these items to my Stuff to Treasure store.

This is linked to:
Nifty, Thrifty Things and Sir Thriftalot

Another Thrifting Wish List Find

I have a mental Wish List of things I would love to find while out thrifting. One item I can cross off my Wish List is a vintage Cosco Step Stool in really great condition... Score!

Finding Pyrex is always nice. I found some Americana Cinderella bowls, an orange bowl and a Town and Country covered casserole. Plus I picked up a few extra Pyrex clear lids.

Aren't these vintage aprons just awesome! The one in the middle is made from three large hankies. I will take detailed photos later.

And any day of thrifting where I find lovely, faded vintage Christmas ornaments is always a happy day.

I didn't take photos of the power tools, giant toolbox filled with tools and iPhone/radio speakers that Dear Handyman found. Some treasures are cool but just not very pretty. But all of these made him very happy which makes me happy.

Hope everyone had a happy day of thrifting!

An Accidental Staycation

We had plans to go to the Craft and Hobby Association Show in Las Vegas this week and enjoy a little mini-vacation at the same time. Through a series of events {Dear Handyman's work suddenly became very busy and I had some important business to take care of} we had to cancel our trip. I ended up on an accidental staycation.

On Thursday and Friday, I had some really good estate sales planned. Unfortunately the company that ran the Thursday sale had a pre-sale on Wednesday just for "select buyers". So the really good stuff was already gone. And the company that ran the Friday sale only allowed the first 10 people in line to begin with and they bought everything that I had wanted at this sale. So it was a rather disappointing two sales but I did find some nice treasures.

My favorite find were these vintage Barbie and Ken booklets. One is marked 1961. These used to come with each Barbie outfit.

I also found this sweet Pyrex Butterfly pattern casserole dish.

Remember those colorful rotating floodlights that lit up the metallic Christmas trees? Well I found a  floodlight by the same company, Penetray, and it is still in the original box.

I found this bird feeder but I need to clean it up a bit.

I also found was a metal tray from Maxwell House Coffee. I like the shape and the red color. Also another small square hanger.

The last piece is this wood and metal hat stand. It slides on to the edge of a table so that a hat can be displayed. There is also a hook on the bottom possibly to hold a purse.

So my accidental staycation was filled with lazy Summer days of crafting and hectic days of thrifting. I got a lot done and I feel so much more relaxed.

I will keep adding new things to my Stuff to Treasure store so please check it out. I just added lots of  vintage burlap bags with great graphics perfect for crafting.

Hope everyone has a great weekend of thrifting.

Thrifting on a Budget

Maybe "thrifting on a budget" is a bit redundant but I need to keep reminding myself of this fact. Imagine you're holding something in your hand that you may never, ever have the opportunity to purchase again and there is a crush of buyers hovering all around you... what to do??? Buy it now and justify it later? Walk away and always think of it as the one that got away? I have no answer to this one except that I'm trying to thrift on a budget.

My favorite find today is this Pyrex, yellow Polka Dot bowl. Summer sunshine on a bowl!

And how could I resist more vintage Christmas ornaments with these awesome old tree toppers?

Also found a few old Smalls. I love old silk and velvet flowers.

Found a couple of old soda bottles from a man who had dug these out of a drained lake bed. The are old and dirty but I thought the Dad's Rootbeer bottle would be great for a Father's Day display and the KIST bottle could be used for a Valentine's display.

Vintage Poppin' Fresh salt and pepper shakers.

This is a heavy, metal flower frog in the shape of a turtle.

And today's mystery find is a handful of curved 24" wooden rulers. I think they were used in dress making to measure from the waist through the curve of the hips. I just couldn't resist a handful of wooden curved rulers.

So I stayed on budget and had a grand day of treasure hunting.

Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting. I'll be putting some of these items in my Stuff to Treasure store so please check it out.

Spring's First Thrift

It was a glorious first thrift of Spring! My intent was to slow my roll and just check out a couple of sales without spending too much money. And looking back at everything that I found, I spent less than I usually would for this quantity of items.

My absolute favorite find was this wire canning basket with large blue Mason Jars. Because the jars did not have lids they were only $.25 each. The one jar with a lid was from a previous thrifting adventure. And somewhere I have a box of new old stock zinc lids to complete these jars. I saw the wire basket that was used to raise and lower six jars into boiling water in the canning process and I just scooped up the entire lot. Can't you see this as a table centerpiece filled with flowers in each jar!

We also found a lot of pottery pieces today.

The planter in back is by Hull Pottery. The floral frog in front is an old Japanese ceramic piece.
We also found this cool Midcentury Modern Hoenig California pottery piece below. This is a great retro piece in the classic colors of the 60s {think avocado, tomato and mustard}.

Found more Pyrex with lids.

Love finding nice cake stands.

Anyone remember Davy Crockett? Found some milk glass mugs and a bowl.

Found a little plastic Halloween figure to add to my stash and a Thermos in Autumn colors.

Buried under a thick layer of sawdust were these old wooden card catalog drawers. It needs some cleaning but can be a great storage piece.

We found a bunch of other treasures but I wanted to post just the highlights. I have fallen behind in getting items into my Stuff to Treasure store so please bear with me. But in my defense I have been doing a lot of freelance design work lately and even trying to get some crafting projects completed.
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My sister's birthday is next week. I found something awesome for her. If you're reading this and you're my sister then STOP right now because this is a Spoiler Alert!

My sister is a letter writer. Think "snail mail". She collects beautiful old pens and crafts unique envelopes. Last month was National Letter Writing Month and she sent me several unique letters displaying her beautiful calligraphy. So imagine my delight when I found this 100 year old, glass pen and ink holder. There is a date of 1911 on the bottom of the glass. The ink bottle is separate and I don't think I can ship the liquid ink to her anyway. But I thought this pen and ink holder was so perfect for her. The seller was sooooo thrilled that I knew what it was and that it was going to someone who would truly appreciate it.

What an awesome day! I love Spring! Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting.

This is linked to:
From My Front Porch to Yours, Hey What's For Dinner Mom?, It's a Very Cherry World, Savvy Southern Style, Stylish Once Again, The Colorado Lady and The Thrifty Groove