{Thrift Shop Temptations} Someone Else's Creative Vision

Over the past couple of years, my daughter and I have seen one or two Mod Podged tabled at the Goodwill outlet. They're not even tempting. That's someone else's creative vision that doesn't match mine....and the person who had the vision must have changed their mind for it to wind up in the thrift store. 

This one was different. Not all of the images appeal to me, but if I was going to pick things to glue onto a bookshelf, a lot of these would work for me. 

Especially the Arizona Road Maps Tour Book. There are some book spines at the back of the lowest shelf that I didn't get in the picture, but they look just perfect, especially the way they're peeking out from other images.

There's a lot here that I don't recognize and a lot that I do.

My own reaction was that I could find an old piece of wooden furniture and make something like that someday. Maybe. Can't you just picture a shelf or cabinet with pictures cut out of old crafting books and magazines? Now that I think about it, I've got a couple of pieces of furniture that would make wonderful backgrounds for a project like that, along with stacks of old books and magazines. It's one of those projects that I could do, but probably won't.

The bookshelf from the thrift shop? That's at my house now  because my son shares the vision of whoever made it in the first place. And it really is a nice old piece of furniture under everything else.

Want to see the rest of our thrifting adventure? Just click below.

{Thrift Shop Temptations} Translucent Crashing Waves

This one was hard to resist. I love those little villages of resin houses and this is all one piece, with lots of little detailed houses and an inlet with the remains of a sunken boat....and just look at that translucent crashing wave the wraps around the side!

I talked myself out of it because it was expensive and heavy and I don't need a seaside village, no matter how many amazing little details it has.

Most of the clocks we see at the thrift store are new. I guess the one shaped like a clock radio must have been new-ish, because it was battery operated. But how much neater would it have been if it had been an actual radio instead of just telling the time? The gold and jeweled clock makes me wonder where it belonged originally. It's just so pretty and distinctive....

This little pillow we found in the bins was obviously once part of a very old quilt. I wonder what happened to the rest of it and what will happen to this bit and whether someone was dividing an heirloom into keepsakes. (In case you can't tell, I've got really mixed feelings about "cutter quilts.)

{Antique Shop Temptations} The Calendar Tea Towels

Maybe this explains why I so rarely find old linen tea towels at the local thrift shops and estate sales. It's a whole booth full of them, all prettily displayed...and priced for the antique mall. 

If I'd found one I couldn't live without I absolutely could have taken it home to make a pretty project bag, but I resisted the temptation.

Remember that little toy stove I didn't buy because it wasn't the one I couldn't live without? I have a feeling I'm getting closer to discovering what "the one" might look like. This adorable little thing is actually electric?! I'm so fascinated by that idea (not to mention a little bit terrified) Maybe what I want is a little stove like this one....

I get the feeling that there's a whole rabbit hole of vintage toy ovens just waiting for me to fall down it.

The only other thing that really called our to me was this...

I spent so many hours of my childhood tethered to the kitchen wall by a bright yellow phone just like that one. The color is off, but I'm guessing that's because it faded over the years.

I never fails to amaze me how you can completely forget something existed, then see one in an antique mall and instantly be flooded with memories.

{Thrift Shop Temptations} I Resisted the Hundred Year Old Fabric Ads...

Someone donated actual antiques to St. Vinnie's last week. There was an old Edison wax cylinder player (which I'm sure has a proper name that I don't know) and a gramophone and some pretty furniture. 

And lots of those huge hardback binders of fragile hundred year old newspapers...

I want beautiful fabrics at "great concession from regular prices!" I also want a huge binder of newspapers with ads like this one, but they were sooooo crumbly and I don't know where I'd store them or how I'd manage to physically read them.

One of my sons was trying on jeans which gave me plenty of time to carefully flip through a few pages and convince myself to be reasonable.

We also didn't buy this old soft sculpture piece. He looks creepy enough before you realize that his eyes follow you when you move.

I don't know who made him or how they pulled off that effect, but I'm impressed!

{Antique Shop Temptations} How to Know it's Time To Diet

This caught my eye at the antique mall. Does it bear any resemblance at all to your weekly grocery list? 

I need my list to be more specific than just "meat" or "spices." Or maybe the hope is to jar your memory just enough that you'll know to buy paprika....but why does pepper gets its own space? And how often do people buy wax paper? Maybe I'm showing my own age and it was more commonly used in mid century kitchens.

I do love the little thumb tacks that you're supposed to move into the right position.

This plaque confuses me even more. The references seem to come from a couple of different eras. And it's a souvenir from the Enchanted Forest?!

I know that touristy spots sell completely unrelated things in their gift shops, but this has to top the list!

{Thrift Shop Temptations} A Break from Christmas Shopping

I must not have been the only one who had the idea to take a break from Christmas shopping and duck into the thrift shops on Monday afternoon. They were more crowded than the mall. 

This piece of needlepoint was hanging in with a lot of old bedding and tablecloths. I'm not in love with the texture, which reminds me of the wrong side of a stockinette sweater, but I love the colors. Just look at the froth on the waves and the detail of the rocks!

I had to remind myself that I already have an old radio. Mine doesn't have that amazing Zenith logo....but it does have sentimental value. I didn't even check to see if green tags might be half off, because as much as I love this thing I couldn't justify bringing it home with me.

To see everything else I found, click on the video below --

{Estate Sale Temptation} Pearl and Earl in PINK!

You know how sometimes an idea makes it into the corner of your mind and just won't leave? That's what happened with the black and white applique plates I found back in February. A few months later I found the original pattern in an old craft pamphlet. 

And on Sunday I found another set of the plates.... 

They're way too pink for my taste, but it was the last hour of the last day of the sale and everything was super cheap. So they live with me now and if I find another inexpensive pair they're going to live with me, too.

This time it wasn't a game of "was there a stitcher here?" because there was needlework in just about every room. Someone did embroidery and latch hook and crochet and crewel....

There were also some amazing old craft books. I don't know why I needed one on sewing for the house during wartime, but I wasn't going to leave it behind.

For three bucks, I got the booklets and an old unused scrapbook and a whole stack of damaged embroidered linens that I'll make into something else.

And the plates.

Most of the house had brand new carpet but the kitchen and this downstairs room still had their original flooring. Just look at that carpet! I'm guessing it's from the same line as the stuff I grew up with, only less vivid. 

I've seen people saying that estate sales are over for the year, but I checked old blog posts to confirm that I go to them year round. Which makes sense -- houses have to be cleared out and sold and sometimes its not in the best of weather. Do you stop looking when it gets rainy and cold?

{Estate Sale Temptations} The Ship in the Kitchen

I kind of want a picture of a sailing ship in my own kitchen....

I don't know what it was about this house that we visited during an estate sale last weekend, but I absolutely loved it. The structural issues were obvious and I know it would be totally impractical to live in, but it felt welcoming and the massive kitchen was its absolute best feature.

I only took the one picture because it was crowded, but the whole house was like that. Lots and lots and lots of clutter, but the floor plan was kind of amazing. And I have to keep reminding myself that I had a yellow kitchen for almost ten years and hated it for the entire time...but maybe mine was the wrong shade of yellow?

Earlier in the week, I found this at one of the local thrift shops and convinced myself to leave it behind. 

I've been wanting a little metal stove like this forever and ever (to replace one I had as a kid) and this one was only five dollars. The inside was totally rusted out and the top was bent out of shape so I  convinced myself that there will be another one. Or maybe there won't.

I don't absolutely need a little metal stove....

{Estate Sale Temptations} This Time There Was a Stitcher!

Last week I wrote about the sometimes impossible parking at estate sales. I'm not exaggerating about conditions in my neck of the woods. Not even a little bit.

On Saturday, I saw this ad --

Gate won't open until 10:30 each day. About 20 Cars will fit on property, staff will help you park during busy times. If you park on road do so very carefully. We will have signs alerting of the estate sale ahead and that cars may be on the side of the road. It is steep so be careful. There is a lovely little store at the Junction of ----- that you can wait at until gate opens. Address will be posted here, online and on craigslist day of sale but just follow the signs from the junction of ------------. It will be well marked.

I can't think of anything tempting enough to make me deal with that, even if we took the truck and I wasn't driving by myself.

We did find another estate sale at an old farm and it was close enough to our regular route that I took my chances on the parking, which wasn't an issue at all.

They had all the oil lamps...

And vintage baby clothes still in the original boxes...

And two framed birthday poems. I wonder what will happen to those.

There had also been a stitcher in the house, which is what drew me there in the first place. I found lots of nicely embroidered linens in the bedroom and all of this in an attic room upstairs.

Want to see what came home with me? Click on the video below...


This post is linked to Vintage Charm.

{Estate Sale Temptations} Was There a Stitcher Here?

I'm going to have to start using Google Street View to scope out estate sales before making the drive. This was another one  that I couldn't have gotten into with the minivan. Earlier that day, we stopped at another sale and Hubby had trouble getting the pickup into even with four wheel drive engaged. It was a steep dusty driveway and we weren't the only ones challenged by it. 

This was a huge estate sale with outbuildings an an entire house. You can't tell from the picture, but that staircase was a deathtrap. 

The set of longstitch pictures gave me hope that there might be needlework stuff somewhere in the house.

I found another one in an upstairs bedroom. I do try for decent camera angles, but to get this one I would've had to climb onto the bed.

There was a sewing machine, but that was it. I wonder if these were gifts or if whoever stitched them quit the hobby a long time ago. Now and then I'll find a house with a lot of fantastic stitchery but no sign of floss or supplies.

They had my favorite Trixie Belden book in the same format I had as a little girl. Mine is around here somewhere so I didn't buy it.

I hope Dolly found a good home, but at that price I kind of doubt it.

Here's another table like the one I grew up with. I never see sets like this anymore. Whoever lived here kept their furniture for decades.

Do you have trouble with estate sale parking, or is it just me?

{Estate Sale Temptations} Expensive Collections

This one was billed as a "once in a lifetime sale you'll be telling your grand kids about." It was definitely impressive, but I've been to others that were more story-worthy. 

The deceased was a collector and he collected things I never knew were collectible. Like these antique notary stamps. 

They're seriously cool looking, but apparently also worth some serious money. And there were a lot of them. This is one of two big bookshelves.

I don't know what makes these ducks and swans special, but I'll assume that they are. Again, this is only half of what was there.

If I was seriously tempted by anything (other than the antique steam engine models) it was the ship's wheel. There was a ton of amazing nautical stuff.

And a box of Taco Bell Talking Chihuahuas, sill in their original bags. They were ridiculously out of place compared to everything else in the house.

Someday, I'm going to wind up with a pair of old wooden water skis. I started to learn on a pair like these and it was an experience.

The house was small and old and everything inside looked like it had been immaculately cared for over the years. Out in the barn, there were some works still in progress, like these old wall phones.

And there was a set of vintage Disney Book Club books. If I wasn't 99% sure that shelf belonged to the estate sale company, I'd be making up stories in my head about little ones reading them while their Grandpa worked on his projects.

It was a fun sale, and one I'm glad we visited, but I probably won't be talking about this one in years to come. We left empty-handed. I guess I prefer the sales where people haven't been quite so careful with their belongings.

{Thrift Shop Temptations} I Love the Graphics

I left this vintage cooky and donut press on the shelf and did not buy it for its wonderful vintage packaging. Mostly because I know I've bought other cookie presses over the years and never used one.

If I want to swoon over the illustrations, I've got a whole stack of vintage cookbooks to go through.

I also didn't buy myself a scary looking 1970s pressure cooker, despite the fact that it was harvest gold and had extremely entertaining pictures on the top. 

The boys and I could have had a lot of fun trying to figure out what those illustrations are supposed to actually be.  It wouldn't have been the first time I'd bought a vintage pressure cooker just because it looked cute, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise that this one was so badly scratched up.

I can appreciate that this box of hair pins survived the years with its contents intact without wanting to own it myself. If this sort of thing makes your heart flutter a bit, go follow Magpie Ethel over on Instagram. Her feed is full of amazing vintage goodies, lots of them in their original packaging. And her Someday Beachhouse is amazing.



Are you more tempted by old packaging designs than new ones, or is that just me?

{Estate Sale Temptations} No Lights or Prices

This one was an authentic barn sale with a barn full of random stuff and no artificial lighting to help potential buyers get a clear look at what was in the shadowy piles. I'm only partially complaining about that last bit. There's a flashlight on my phone and I would've used it if I really wanted a better look at something. 

Nothing was priced. I did see some colored dots, but there was no price chart to be found so they weren't helpful. For the most part, it was fun to look at but nothing I needed to live with long term.

I am absolutely sure I could come up with a legitimate use for the rusted out frame of an antique baby buggy. I'm also absolutely positive that whatever that use was, I'd be unable to explain it to my husband and get him to load a rusted out baby buggy frame into the back of the truck.

There was a cuckoo clock that I kind of wish we'd brought home. It's not quite as nice as the one I found at that auction a couple of years back but it had completely different carvings and would it be the worst thing ever to buy a possibly non-working cuckoo clock for ten dollars? Seriously -- for ten bucks I could have added a battery mechanism and made it working but not as awesome as it once was.

There was also an antique souvenir guidebook to Pompeii that's absolutely going to haunt me. It was in the barn, in a pile of those old Reader's Digest home maintenance books and I'm sure it was from the turn of the century if not earlier. I have no idea how much they would have wanted. It looked too old for me to afford, but it was also in a pile of junky books in the barn....

{Thrift Shop Temptations} There Was a Couch...

I can't find the originals posts to link to the pictures but there was a desk from an old schoolhouse at the  Salvation Army thrift shop for a hundred bucks, which was just ridiculous. A few weeks later there were the pieces of an even more battered old desk at an estate sale for ten bucks. I seriously thought about that one. 

And last week at the Goodwill Outlets, there was this...

For three dollars, in gorgeous condition with the groove for the pencil and hole for the inkwell. The ironwork wasn't fancy, but sitting right next to it and for ten dollars was this...

I had to work hard to convince myself that they wouldn't fit into the back of my daughter's car and  that if they did I had no place in my life to properly display them. But there was a fainting couch for twenty-five dollars that also wouldn't fit into the back of the Volkswagen and I drove back up with the truck the following morning to get it. If the three dollar desk had still been there, I would've given in to temptation.

There was also this, but it was thirty dollars and apparently someone had chopped the legs a few inches shorter....

When we went back up, the desks and the tea cart were gone, but they had this...

The cabinet was in absolutely fantastic condition and had all of its drawers and  the paint on the machine was good and it had its bobbin intact....for thirty-five dollars. I already have two treadle machines at home and the idea of wrestling that into the back of the truck with the couch was enough to keep me from doing something dumb.

The world is full of treadle machines and (apparently) old school desks. I'll have other opportunities and I don't feel bad for passing this one up. But it's still fun to take pictures to share with you.