Earlier this week the potential for a hurricane was in our forecast, so I certainly wasn’t planning on going to any yard sales. But as luck would have it, the storm missed our area entirely and all we got was a touch of rain. Saturday morning was clear, cool and sunny with garage sale signs all over the place! So I hopped in the car and hit the road.

The first stop of the day was a lakefront hut where I bought a set of vintage French enamelware from an elderly lady who said “this is the good stuff!” and smiled. It’s Caravelle “Sizzling Serve” and the pieces were just $1 each! Love the beautiful colors, and it’s in near mint condition. Insert a big huge swoon here.

I also found a pretty green pressed glass container there for fifty cents.

A close up of the lovely pattern on the lid.

The next stop was a small outdoor flea market. It didn’t look profoundly promising from the parking lot, but once inside I spotted some vendors selling antique ephemera, housewares and of course, costume jewelry.

At one booth I scomped up this unique, old school Napier elephant for a buck.

And this weird necklace that I’ll probably dismantle for the nifty beads.

I also bought a very strange looking pin for 50 cents. It’s probably hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like fine green wire wrapped around something that I can’t quite identify. Then there are tiny pearl seed beads woven all around it. Some of the seed beads are loose, and it looks like it’s not the first time. There is an area where it seems someone tried to glue them back on. The end pieces are tarnished gold filigree pieces. I’ve never come across anything quite like this before, have you?

I rolled to a Parish sale next, which was held in a century old church on a painfully narrow street. Outside there was a table of houseplants. Apparently the minister is a gardener who happens to like begonias! How nifty. I snapped up this lovely specimen.

And this sort of wilted one. The soil had dried out from the heat of the day, but it perked right back up a few hours after watering.

Once inside I found a small souvenir cable car from San Francisco. It’s marked Powell Hyde on both sides.

Some jaunty wooden folks.

And a cutesy plastic Christmas ornament.

As well as a nice little planter.

And a “macrame elegance” how-to booklet.

An old knitting mag.

And a booklet on how to make horrible, horrible hats. Note the chick sporting the pom poms on her curlers. Yikes.

Who wants to have fun with felt? I do, I do!

And that my friends, was Saturday morning.

On Sunday I rolled to a sale in a nice neighborhood where all of the houses looked sort of the same yet slightly different. There were lots of nice things at that sale, mostly antiques and assorted military books, toys and collectibles. I spotted Charles and Diana collectible wedding dolls on one table and couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only were they in damn near perfect condition, but they still had their original Nisbet tags on! I don’t collect dolls but thought they were super neato and something in my head said to buy them. Do not leave the dolls at the sale unattended. Just ten dollars later, they were mine, all mine!

But the story doesn’t end there. It gets even better! The seller said ” I think I have the box they came in, hold on.”

He disappeared into the house and came back a moment later with the packaging.

Which was in excellent shape and contained the certificate of authenticity and handwritten signatures, including that of Peggy Nisbet, the very woman whose company created these Charles and Diana wedding dolls back in 1981. Apparently only 4,000 were ever made and they were produced in the UK.

The crazy thing is, the seller flat out told me that they were probably worth at least a hundred dollars but that he just didn’t have the time or inclination to bother trying to sell them on Craigslist or Ebay.

Huh. Well, okie dok, I can’t complain.

Before leaving I also bought a display case. A piece of the top had broken off but it looked easy enough to glue back on. I liked the “bones” of it and because of the damage it was super cheap. My plan is to fix and paint it. Maybe turn it into a jewelery display case for some necklaces? Or a shrine of sorts? No clue. Time will tell.

Before going home I decided to check out a tiny roadside antique shop that I’d driven by a million times but had never stopped at.

It was mighty dusty and cluttered with years worth of stuff, most of which was piled into huge, uneven heaps. There were carboard boxes on the floor and on tables, and tons of ceramic items still wrapped in newspaper. Oddly enough, everything seemed to be very pricey or crazy cheap.

I found a couple of 1930s-50s knitting magazines, including this one.

And an Enesco “prayer lady” creamer that I totally forgot to take a picture of. Oops! Maybe I’ll snap a shot for next time so you can see.

Anyway.

At some point the “prayer lady” had lost her head and had it glued back on. It’s slightly noticeable though, and as a result, she was only a dollar.

And last but not least, on my way home I saw signs for a yard sale and decided what the heck, let’s see what they’ve got. And don’t you know, most of the stuff was totally craptastic and overpriced, but I did obtain this lovely old blackboard for fifty cents. I think it’ll be good for a craft project of some sort. Are we seeing a trend here? How many things have I bought recently to revamp and done nothing with? Methinks it’s time to get on the ball and actually do some crafting this week…

P.S. - Linking to “Thrift Share Monday” on Apron Girl and “Thrifty Treasures” on Southern Hospitality. It’s my first online link wing ding. Woo and a bit of hoo!

Friday afternoon Leah and I stopped at a yard sale in a nearby town.

Nothing really caught my eye other than than a huge, clear Rubbermaid tub filled with fabric. The contents looked nice enough, but mostly I was interested in the container. I asked the newspaper reading, 60-something couple how much. They said five bucks. Fair enough and that’s still way cheaper than buying a new one at Target. Plus maybe I could use the 1980s country floral fabric for something or other.

That evening I was sorting the light and dark fabrics from the bin so they could be washed. Hidden at the very bottom of the container was a jewelery box drawer!

As you can see it was loaded with costume jewelry from yesteryear. All of it was pretty junky in nature, lots of plastic pearls, cheap shell necklaces and a few marginally acceptable, yet tarnished pins. Just as I was about to throw it all out I spotted a gold ring underneath some of the rubble.

It was a woman’s high school class ring from 1966! The ring was stamped 14k and there were three initials engraved on the inside. It was also a really, really small ring that clearly belonged to someone with teeny, tiny fingers. Suddenly I remembered how slight the lady at the yard sale was, and how she was about the right age to have graduated from high school that year. Perhaps it was hers? It probably was. Since their sale was continuing into Saturday, I decided to bring it back. Maybe she would be super excited to see it again, especially since it’s something that she hasn’t thought about in years and doesn’t even realize is missing. I was giddy about returning it to the rightful owner, and hopeful that it did belong to her and that she’d be happy with the reunion.

Fast forward to Saturday morning.

I pulled into their driveway and greeted the couple. Incredibly they are still reading newspapers. I wonder if they ever went inside last night. Even their cat seems glued to the same spot on the lawn it was in yesterday. After explaining how I found the drawer amongst the fabric, and let them know that I wanted to bring it back because perhaps the ring was something sentimental, the husband started gushing about how nice it was of me to do, that there are still good people in this world, blah blah etc. I’m touched by his warmth and kindness, but mostly I’m curious to see her reaction. After all, it is in fact her ring. She quietly muttered “thanks” and gave a little smile but did not seem profoundly enthralled to see her long lost jewelery.

Hmm.

Oh well.

I bid them farewell and slid along on my merry way, eager to continue my quest for yard sale treasures.

Stop number one is a tag sale at a farm. I found a 1972 embroidery sampler of A to Z flowers for $1. There are a few very minor stains that I think will come out in the wash.

And some cloisonne beads for a quarter.

After that I toddled on over to an estate sale across town. It was in a really ritzy neighborhood and there was a crazy long driveway leading to the enormous, well groomed and beautifully landscaped house. And to my surprise and amazement, there were actually three men directing traffic into the sale and showing people were to park. They even had those bright orange, hand-held lights that those folks who wave in airplanes use! What the heck? This was a first!

The entire sale was held outdoors, the contents sprawled across the large front lawn.

Closer inspection revealed that everything was craft supplies, craft books, and fabric.

Did I mention the fabric?

Piles and piles of brand new fabric yardage, vintage fabric, vintage aprons, fabric lots and die cut fabric. Did I mention how reasonable the prices were? How huge the sale was? How neat, well organized and clearly marked all of the items were? It was my fantastically nerdy, personal vision of yard sale and crafting nirvana. Was this really happening? Was I truly on some strangers front lawn ogling the calicoes and glue guns with reckless abandon?

*Swoon!*

I started off at the $1 table, where bags of assorted new and vintage fabric lots were being sold in Ziploc bags. Scomped up quite a few. Some of the goodies-in-a-bag.

There was also a table where you could fill a Ziploc bag with whatever fabric scraps you wanted for a quarter. Clearly my favorite part of the day, and there were so many amazing old patterns. Like this uber cute daschund fabric from yesteryear.

I filled several bags before moseying on down to the higher priced spreads where I found a pack of 80 pastel die cut bears. Here is a sampling of the teddies.

And an 80 pack of die cut hearts made from 1930s reproduction fabrics. A wee sampling.

Some hand sewn flower petals for applique projects, most of which were made from actual 1930s and 40s fabrics.

I even obtained some nice feedsack fabric.

And several strips.

As well as blocks of never completed quilts.

Pink fabric.

Blue.

And more blue.

Brown.

Yellow.

Black and white.

Various fabrics in assorted colors.

More…

More!

Amazingly enough, this is only a small sampling of my finds! I went home with almost nine pounds worth of vintage and vintage reproduction fabrics. I spent $30 at the sale, which is on the higher end for my tag sale adventures, and let me tell you, it was some of the best money I’ve ever spent.

And as irony would have it, I emptied out the Rubbermaid bin from the first sale and it’s just the right size to hold all the amazing fabric from the estate sale.

Inspired by all of the thrifting scores from Friday, I decided to hit up a handful of sales along the coastline this weekend. The scenery was beautiful and the cottages were darling but the yard sale pickins, well, let’s just say that they were mighty slim.

However, I did manage to find a really cute vintage Christmas play book.

All of the pages in the book pop out and you can build a cardstock house, complete with a happy family.

And of course, reindeer for the roof.

The only other thing I snapped up were these two pans for making baked donuts. They were still in their original packaging and I’m particularly excited about the mini donut pan since it’ll be perfect for making wee round ring shaped cookies.