Monday, April 22, 2013

Thrift Share Monday - April 22

One estate sale was literally squeezed in last week, just before I was scheduled to be at work.  It was raining and I got to the sale later than I had wanted, but the rain seemed to put a damper on attendance because the sale was dead.  Good thing though, because that meant I was able to run in and out in almost 15 minutes (that's really all the time I had to spare).

I did my run through and grabbed just a few items.

Some fab aluminum cups.


An awesome set of vintage canisters. There is some funky film, plastic stuff on them, but it's slowly coming off.



Then I spotted what I had seen posted for the sale online.  A gorgeous, sleek, vintage sewing machine.  Way, out of my league....they always are.



This was a four day estate sale, and I'm one hour in on day one. So I ask the host if prices would be lowered on the last day of the sale (usually they are, but this seemed to be a home ran estate sale so I just wanted to make sure).  She asked "Why?" so I tell her I'd be interested in the sewing machine if it was still available on Sunday.  She asked me how much I'd pay for it and stupidly I say half off, it was priced at $100.  Immediately she said "Ok, it's yours."  


DAMN!!!  What?  What just happened here?  Apparently this estate was not waiting around to make a higher priced sale.  Then I had to run to an ATM, in the rain, to pay for this unexpected purchase, and get to work.  (ummmm 8 minutes late.  Ay!)

I've wonder if she would have taken less, stupid me offered $50.  However, with estate sales I've learned some things; like they usually tend to be very strict on prices early into the sale; you don't want to offend with low offers because you never know how they would react, they could be like the Soup Nazi and say "No soup for you!", ban you from buying anything from them; or increase the price just like another estate sale I've been to did.  Nevertheless, I AM HAPPY!
 

This is a 1947 Singer Sewing Machine, thank you Singer for having the "Date your machine" on your website, and it sews like butter.


Once I figured out how to thread it, with some partial help from Youtube videos (I couldn't find the exact machine, but I got the gist of it) I was able to do some as-seen-on Youtube things like sewing through layers of denim.  OMG...it went through 8 layers of denim like nothing, with beautiful stitches on both sides.  The only way I can express how this makes me feel is this clip from "Pulp Fiction".


Vintage/thrifting is my "drug" of choice, and finding awesome things at great prices, like a working 1947 Singer Sewing machine for $50, gives me a rush, happy, euphoric feeling. 

Oh yeah, mom grabbed these oh-so-groovy orange plastic containers while she made a random sale stop.


That's all I got for you this week.  So does anything you have or do give you that rush, happy feeling?  Aside from love ones.  :-)







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Monday, April 15, 2013

Thrift Share Monday - April 15

Garage and estate sales are in full force, now that spring is here, and it "seems" like I'm stuck indoors at work during prime pickings.  "Ahhhhh let me out, let me out". 

Friday wasn't bad though, I went into work a bit later and was able to make it to an early morning, privately ran, estate sale.  I think I got my prime purchases this day, but they were however on the pricer side.

It was definitely a lamp stop, I got some really nice lamps here, and since they are "functional" and really cool this is how I justify paying more than I normally like to spend.  So here they are.

A yellow swing arm desk lamp.  It's really quite big, and oh so cool.


Then an item I've been eying for some time, but whenever I do see them they are already priced for retail.  A Panther planter, TV lamp, in lime green.



I usually see these panther lamps in black, but the lime green just seems so much more fun and less bachelor pad.  Right?

Last lamp is this double goose neck industrial-ish(?)  desk lamp.  It has some aging, patina discoloring, but I think that adds to it's character.



Well since we're on lamps, and these light up, check out these super cute vintage luminary nutcrackers my mom got at this sale.


I also got this super cute little outdoor metal table. It folds, and it was only $5.  I think that was a steal.  Maybe one day I'll get around to paining it.



Saturday was a busy day.  My daughter had a school event that started early in the morning and lasted throughout the afternoon, plus I still had to work in the morning.  However, I got creative and squeezed in some garage sales between drop off time, performance time, and work, then back to school for the main event.  Ay!

On Craigslist I saw that there was a garage sale close to her school, with the hyped up words of "Huge two home combined garage sale".  I tend to laugh at these type of ads now since they NEVER pan out to be what they claim, but with only 25 minutes to kill before performance time I took my chances.  I got to the sale early, as they were still unloading their horse trailer full of stuff.  I'll admit seeing a horse trailer being unloaded did make me a little excited, however, the substance of it wasn't mind blowing, but I did manage to grab a few items.

Like these antique telephone glass insulators.


I've seen these around, but when I do see them they are pricey.  However, priced at $12, bundled with three other items it was an awesome deal. 

One of the other items that were bundled with this purchase was this (who knows what I'll do with it) accordion pegged rack.


It's huge!!!  Fully stretched it's over 7 feet long, that's a lot of pegs.  Maybe when it sits around for a few years I'll end up using it as a trellis. 

Same sale, separate purchase, I bought another antique ironing board.



Yes, I said another.  I have one I bought last year, that I've done nothing with and it is folded up in my room constantly in my way, but I think they are so neat looking I just had to buy it.  It's was a bit more then what I paid my for my last one, but like I said in the other post I've seen these priced much higher, and the price was right. 

Oh, just a few more things to show.  The prior weekend I did make it to a Sunday estate sale that was on it's third day, with tons of stuff (like piles of stuff still...literally), but it had little to be desired.  However, mom did scrounge up some vintage embroidered table cloths for me,



and I got this wooden rolling cart.



Yup, I need another rolling cart like I need another hole in my head.  I have 6....ok maybe 7 waiting around to be listed/sold, but I just can't seem to walk away from a great priced cart/table.  Hi, my name is Cassandra, and I'm a cart-a-holic.  You can see some of my accumulated carts here, here, here, here, and here (the red one is still on my favorite list....which means I don't have the desire to sell it... yet).

Alright Spring, bring the sales on!

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Monday, April 1, 2013

Thrift Share Monday - April 1

Oh Ooohhh!  Believe it or not, sadly, I did absolutely no thrifting this last week.  No thrift stores, no estate sales, and no garage sales.  *Sigh*

That is really depressing.  So this kinda sorta means I have no thrifted finds to share.  Ack!  And I was doing so well with regular Thrift Share posts too.

However, I've realized that there are some thrifted things I haven't posted about.  They've been a bit neglected, and I'm long over due on a post featuring them all by themselves.

What are these neglected, thrifted things I'm talking about?  Well, vintage sheets... of course.  
 
My slightly organized mess.
It's been months since I've written a lone post on vintage sheets, with the rare mention of even finding any, but that doesn't mean I haven't found any. The occasional vintage sheet find has been exactly that, "occasional", and like many other times they might get missed on being mentioned in a Thrift Share post because they are in the garage waiting to be washed, are sitting in the wash, or lying in the dryer (for days). 

So here we go, my vintage sheet finds from the last several months. 
 






 I love it when you find coordinating sheets at different locations back to back like the one above and below.



 This lovely blue and green one is actually a twin, maybe full, thin bed spread, with white edge fringe, and it's AWESOME.  I'm still torn on if I'm gonna cut this one up or attempt to sell it as a whole.  There is some very small stains on it and it's fringe with one small tear (that I've seen so far).  So cutting up might be the most practical thing to do.



Don't think I'm gonna continue to hoard these lovelies all to myself.  It's been a long while since I've had Etsy listing for vintage sheet fat quarter bundles, therefore it's time to get some listings back up.  So without further ado you can now view my stash of available vintage sheets on Flickr and re-stock-up on vintage sheet goodness right from my Etsy shop

Happy April!






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