Some Groovy Finds for Thrift Share Monday

Marc and I rolled out of bed early on Saturday morning.  Our first sale wasn't supposed to start until 8, but I had a funny feeling about.  I told him, "Let's leave early...I think this sale might open before 8."  We ended up arriving around 7:30, and sure enough, the garage was open.  Only one dealer in sight, though, so I managed to scoop up some fun things.  Here's the haul (mostly from that first sale):

The sale was of a lady who LOVED dolls, and in fact all the bedrooms were filled with dolls of all shapes and sizes.  I only managed to pick a few that interested me, if you can really call them "dolls":

A set of foo dogs and two geisha girls

I found another cool stainless cake saver, and since I already have one, this one is for sellling.  I spotted some orange-themed things for my kitchen, including a cool orange-printed bottle and a really nice embroidered bowl of oranges:

I finally found a chip and dip bowl.  I found the top, smaller bowl and the gold clip on the dining table, and so I went hunting for the larger bowl, which I eventually found in the china cabinet.  I felt so victorious!

These little suitcases are in great shape and would great as a funky briefcase.  

Finally, my favorite purchase of the day was found by Marc.  This plant stand was sitting in the living room and I had even picked one of the "violet pots" up.  It wasn't until I saw Marc being so fascinated that I thought they might be worth getting:

There are four of these pots, and everything, including the violets, leaves, and terra cotta pots are knitted.  Including the "drip catchers":

After thinking about it a bit, I agreed that they were pretty cool.  

So we decided to take them, plant stand and all.

I love buying these kind of things at estate sales.  Just thinking about all the time and effort that went into making them makes me love these items all the more.  

It's Raining Pyrex!

Marc and I were visiting his dad and stepmom in Pompano Beach, FL this weekend, so I didn't get much thrifting in.  However, I alluded in my last post to a crazy Pyrex treasure trove I discovered at an estate sale two weekends ago.  The sale, in Livermore, CA, was advertised as "%90 Vintage" and turned out to be the estate sale of an antique dealer.  There was great stuff piled EVERYWHERE in this house!  I filled two boxes, mainly with Pyrex, including TWO sets of these beauties:

Pyrex primary color mixing bowls! 

They were first made in the 1940's and my grandmother had a set (Pyrex numbers 401, 402, 403, 404).  My dad asked me to be on the lookout for a replacement set for him (he had some unfortunate accidents with two of the inherited set).  I actually already gave him a set for Christmas.  These sets are uber-collectible, and they consistently go for between $50-$80 bucks on eBay.  And I found two sets of them!  One set is in in near-perfect condition, while the other one has obviously been loved a bit more.  I also picked up three of the 403 green bowls (for making sets in the future):

And the Pyrex craziness is still not done.  I also found another Butterfly Gold bowl (a white 402 one this time) to go with my bowls I found a few weekends ago:

I also found these lovely pastel cake pans (in near perfect condition):

And finally, my first ever refrigerator set, in the Verde color pattern (with the glass lids):

All in all, a pretty great haul!

Estate Sale Scores: Orange Kitchenware

In last week's post (about the buttons), I lamented "the orange Le Creuset pot that got away."  Well, this week I found another (almost as) cool vintage orange enamel paella pan with lid at another estate sale.  It will look great next to my orange sauce pots and my orange teakettle- all finds from the past two weeks! 

Very lightly used ORANGE paella pan with lid

So much better than a boring silver tea kettle, don't you think?

Estate Sale Scores- Weekend of January 16th

This has been a bit of a slow new year for sales.  I think I only found four this weekend, and one of them was actually a garage sale mascarading on Craigslist as an estate sale (grrr...).  However, I did get some cool stuff, so I thought I'd share.  The best find of the weekend was definitely at the first sale of Saturday morning.  8 am in "the boonies" (as Marc insisted) of Castro Valley, CA, it was me, Marc, and the now-familar cadre of local dealers.  We've taken to nicknaming them (more creatively than W's "Slim" or "Super-Slim"), but unfortunately "Elvis" was not in the building that morning.  Anyway, the family was doing this sale and they looked totally bewildered at all of us nut-jobs outside 15 minutes before opening time, and when they let us in it was a mad scramble to grab the good stuff.  Unfortunatley I missed a flame orange Le Creuset pot (it sold for TEN DOLLARS!!!), but I did manage to score a crafter's dream:  a treasure trove of vintage buttons.  My mom had a fun collection of them when I was young, and I loved going through and picking out my favorites (of course the gawdy rhinestones were top of my list then).  The buttons were in two boxes and I think in total I came away with 10 assorted-sized jars of them (all sorted by color, no less!).  I also picked up a cool sewing box (to store the buttons in, of course!), some miscellaneous thread and scissors, an aqua Fiestaware creamer, and a cool vintage starburst juice glass (sadly, there was only one- I looked!).  Grand total: $10.  Who needs that orange pot, anyway?

Nifty box...

but it's what's inside that counts, right?

I loved the fact they were sorted by color

The fourth from the left is full of gawdy rhinestone buttons!

Sets of buttons are tied up with string, like the pretty red rosette buttons.

You can never have too many colors of thread- it's great for when you have to repair something and you want to match colors, say, when you want to sew on a button?

There's my color again...and a glass with starbursts, no less!