A Relaxing Thrifting Day

We decided on a stress-free, relaxing day and just happened to stumble on an estate sale in progress.

I only found three items that I liked.

My favorite find is this 1966 Holiday by Thermos bottle. I think this will look amazing for a vintage Christmas display.

I also found three graduation tassels from 1982. Hmmm... don't know what I will do with these yet.

And I found these Halloween cupcake picks. Just another little Halloween decoration idea.

The temperature is in the 80s and it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving at all. Slowly trying to convince myself to start decorating for Christmas when the Liquid Amber trees haven't even changed colors yet. One month until Christmas Eve!

Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting!

This is linked to:
Common Ground and It's a Very Cherry Christmas

Christmas and Campy Thrift Finds

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a safe "Black Friday".

We avoided the retailers and went to one of the few garage sales held this day after Thanksgiving. It was fun and not very crowded. And the odd thing is that most of the things I bought seemed to fit a theme of either Christmas or Campy.

My favorite find was this kitschy costume jewelry tree probably from the 70s. I remember my mother making one of these. I love the crown-shaped jewelry pieces and the little toys on the bottom. I am going to replace the lights and then put it in my store.

We also found lots of pink Shiny Brite ornaments and ornament picks.

The Campy items were either U.S. military {canteens} or Boy Scout items {backpack} with the exception of this great wooden fishing tackle box and some original old luggage labels from the Yellowstone Park Hotel.

We also found two pins from either the YMCA or from a group called the Christian Citizenship Boys Work Programs.

There is definitely a theme here; Christmas, Campy and Red.

I am going to try and get many of these items into my Stuff to Treasure store this weekend. Oh, and there is still another day of thrifting! Yay!

So Much to be Thankful For!

The good news is: I hit my 500 Follower milestone and had a giveaway.
The bad news is: This milestone came right before a major holiday so blog traffic seems slow.
But the really good news is: We have a Winner!

Using the Random.org Number Generator, the Winner is ...

#2, Gayle from The Middle Sister.

Congratulations Gayle! I will be contacting you so I can send out your prize.

A big, warm thank you to everyone who participated.

I also wanted to do a follow-up to a previous post. Recently I found a rubber stamp holder and mentioned how I had been wanting one for some time. Thanks to a comment by SummerSews, I decided to share two ideas to purpose and repurpose this stand.

My first idea is the most obvious. I collect date stamps so my plan was to use the holder to display my small collection.

Very practical but extremely obvious.

My second, more unique idea is to use it as a floral centerpiece.

About a month ago I found a box of new science test tubes at an estate sale. Often, when Dear Handyman asks me what I plan to do with something, I never have an answer. This was one of those times. But with a little patience I usually find a purpose for the thrifted treasures. Here is my unique floral centerpiece idea using a test tube in each clip and placing flowers in each one. Unfortunately I only had one geranium but you can get the idea. And it is quite obvious that this pairing of the two found objects was meant to be since the holder has 12 clips and the test tubes came in a box of 12.

Thank you again to all of my Followers and a special thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway.

Another Happy Find From My Thrifting Wish List

We started off the day at a Living Estate Sale {I learned my lesson last week but in my defense, I didn't know this was a Living Estate Sale until the homeowner walked past us.} Basically it was a garage sale that was held inside the house. There was nothing of interest to me so we moved on.

We then went to an awesome sale outside of our normal area. It was an old house where the homeowner had saved everything, especially clothes. I don't buy vintage clothes but a few people had some heated words over the clothes rack so it must have been some nice stuff.

My favorite find was this flea market shopping cart which has been something on my Thrifting Wish List since I started thrifting. It is old and worn but absolutely perfect. It is definitely going with me on my next flea market trip. Happy me!

My other favorite find is this tiered red utility cart. Love the red and cream color. Love the practicality. Love the condition. Another Happy find.

We also found several burlap bags. I haven't decided what I will do with these but I like the graphics.

This was kind of weird but I think it would look great to display vintage hats. It is a large wig case with a full-size mannequin head and mullet-style wig. The hair style reminds me of the Brady Bunch. I liked the extreme makeup on the mannequin. It reminds me of a retro 60s, Barbie style.

I also found a few small items. I always like bottlebrush trees, vintage Christmas items and cute, embroidered linens.

Maybe I need to put my Thrifting Wish List in writing. What is on your Thrifting Wish List?

Please don't forget to enter my 500 Follower GIVEAWAY drawing here. There are only a few more days before it closes and I would love for more people to enter.

Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting.

This is linked to:
Hey, What's for Dinner Mom? and Sir Thrift a Lot

A Little Selling and A Little Buying

Although I spent my Saturday morning selling some of my treasures at the Vintage Holiday Warehouse Sale, I was still able to get some thrifting done on Friday and buy a couple of treasures. I took the day off from work and headed out to an early morning Living Estate Sale. I discovered that a "living estate sale" means that the living owner has commissioned an estate sale company to liquidate their assets. This also means that the living owner still has an emotional tie to all of the items and thus influences what they believe the items are worth. What it all came down to was that everything {including the rusty, broken wrenches and balls of twine} were still considered valuable to the owner so the prices were rather high. Luckily I was able to find two pieces that I really liked.

I love this yellow egg basket. A little dirty, a little rusty but you can still see the beautiful yellow color and it is large. It will look awesome once it is cleaned up a bit.

The second item is something that I've been looking for and am happy that I found. It is a rubber stamp holder but a real old vintage one that has two tiers. Also a bit rusty and dirty but just perfect to me.

So those are the only two items I found this week. Not a great haul but I consider it a "happy haul".

And on another happy note; I just hit 500 Followers! I am having a GIVEAWAY of some crafting goodies as well as some vintage treasures. Please click here to get the details and to enter the giveaway.

Hope everyone had a great thrifting weekend.


This is linked to:
504 Main, A Little Knick Knack, Brambleberry Cottage, Coastal Charm, The Colorado Lady and The Shabby Nest

A Very Thankful GIVEAWAY

How appropriate to reach an exciting milestone of 500 Followers right before Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for and this is just a great excuse to celebrate.

First I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of the Veterans for their services both past and present. My father was a Veteran and I am very proud of him. Go For Broke dad!

And with Thanksgiving just around the corner I also spent the day creating a Thanksgiving centerpiece using a cream colored pumpkin and the large Sizzix Flower 3-D die and two flourish dies.

I love the shades of creams and tans.

Now for the GIVEAWAY announcement. I am giving away lots of crafting goodies as well as some of my vintage treasures.

Here is a list of goodies that you can win:
Little Yellow Bicycle large tote bag
Various Repro Travel Stickers
LaBlanche Stamp {French theme}
DCWV Scrapbook Kit in a Stack
Making Memories Apron
3 Sizzix/Alterations Textured Impressions {Tim Holtz's designs}
Various vintage buttons

So if you're a Crafter or a Thrifter there is something for you in this selection of goodies.

Everyone has up to two changes to enter this GIVEAWAY. If you are a new visitor then please leave one comment on this post to enter. And if you become a Follower then leave a second comment letting me know and this will be your second chance to win.

If you already are a Follower then leave two separate comments (one stating that you are already a Follower and a second comment to enter). This way everyone will have two chances to win if they are a Follower.

I will have this giveaway open for one week, ending Monday, November 19 at 7:00pm Pacific time. At that time I will randomly select a winner. Good luck and thank you to all of my Followers.

Good Luck!

NOTE: This  GIVEAWAY is now closed. Thank you to everyone who has participated. A winner will be announced shortly.

I am honored to be featured at:

Sumos Sweet Stuff

Bless My Nest

This is linked to:
504 Main, Be Different, Act Normal, Beyond the Picket Fence, Bowdabra Blog, Chic on a Shoestring, Common Ground, DIY Home Sweet Home, Finding Fabulous, French Country Cottage, Homemaker on a Dime, I {heart} Naptime, Keeping it Simple, Lovely Crafty Home, Making the World Cuter, Marvelously Messy, My Romantic Home, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Project Inspire, Savvy Southern Style, Sew Can Do, Sew Much Ado, Simply Designing, Six Sisters' Stuff, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Southern Institute, The Thrifty Home, Trendy Treehouse, Truly Lovely, Twin Dragonfly Designs and Vintage Wannabee

Vintage Holiday Warehouse Sale - Update

What a great first brick & mortar experience to sell my vintage treasures and meet the buyers in person. I've had some really wonderful emails from online buyers where they would tell me stories of how they had been looking for something for years and were so happy to find it in my store. But when you sell in person there is often a giant smile and a little story of how they plan to use something that they are buying.

My favorite description was one woman who bought my vintage safety deposit box and planned to use it to display her Washi tape collection. Now why didn't I think of that? And another woman bought some crystal glass to give to her mother because, as a child, she had broken so much of her mother's crystal and wanted to replace the pieces. I love these stories.

Anyway, the sale was a great experience and a special thank you to Danni of Oh, Hello Friend for being such a generous host. We had a great time and can't wait for the next warehouse sale.

Here are a few pix from the sale. I learned a lot about display ideas from the other vendors. My next set up will be different but this was a great first experience.

Vintage Holiday Warehouse Sale Preview

I am so excited about the Vintage Holiday Warehouse Sale hosted by Danni of Oh, Hello Friend blog. Sale Details: Saturday, November 10 at 113 West Santa Fe, Fullerton, CA from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm. More details, including parking information can be found here. So if you happen to be in the Los Angeles/Orange County area this Saturday, please stop by and say hello.

I thought I would share some pictures of the treasures I plan to have available at the sale. I keep finding more pieces so these photos don't show everything. Most items are currently for sale in my store so if you see something you like and can't make it to the warehouse sale, please purchase it before this Friday.

So if you are looking for that unique holiday gift or something to add to your collection there will be lots of Stuff to Treasure available this Saturday.

False Advertising and a Little Luck

We started off with an estate sale ad that sounded so interesting, "lots of vintage, sale starts Saturday 7 am". So imagine my excitement when we got to the location at 6:30 and they were already open. Now imagine my disappointment when the seller said "Oh, we had a pre-sale yesterday and most of the vintage items were sold." Nowhere in the ad did it mention a pre-sale. That was a waste of gasoline.

We walked away empty-handed from a couple more sales until we finally found an estate sale with some interesting items.

My favorite find is this Fiesta pitcher in Seamist. This color matches so many of my other kitschy kitchen items that I will have at the sale next weekend.

We also found this glass rolling pin. It was designed to be filled with ice water so it kept the dough cool and less sticky while it was rolled out.

I found this Penguin Hot/Cold Server hidden away on a top shelf. This is a very nice one with Bakelite handles.

I also found was a small tin filled with buttons. The best part was finding a beautiful Czech Glass button when I first opened the lid.

The last item I found was a bit of good luck. The seller had a large pile of new old-stock Tupperware because his mother had been a sales associate back in the 80s. To my great joy I found an unused lid to match my old 80s Tupperware container. My original lid had finally cracked beyond recognition earlier this year but I refused to throw out the bottom. I felt a bit like a Hoarder keeping the bottom without the lid. But now this is just another example of how Thrifting can make things useful again and save money.

I hope everyone had a great day thrifting. And if you are in the Los Angeles/Orange County area next Saturday, November 10, please stop by the Vintage Holiday Warehouse Sale in Fullerton, CA. The information is here if you would like to R.s.v.p. but it isn't required so you can just stop by and say hello. I plan to have a lot of my vintage treasures available plus a few surprises.