freshvintage

Toby, Thomas & Tiny Teddy

A few thift store finds from Tuesday:


Fisher Price Tiny Teddy Pull Toy:
This one was made in 1962. It still makes a great sound, but some of the paper is coming off.

Brio Wooden Pull Train
I almost had to pry this from the hands of the thrift store worker.  The red tops on the train cars come off, and they all have silly painted faces. I can't find any information about this train on ebay or other websites. Has anyone ever seen this before?

Two Toby mugs:
I have a feeling that these aren't worth much, but I grabbed them anyway since they were only a few dollars.

Lost

I left my house extra early on Saturday morning, hoping to arrive at an estate sale just before it opened at 8am. It was only 10 minutes from my house, but I ended up getting lost (I've only lived here 6 months, so cut me a break). I had checked the address on Google Maps on Friday night, but I stupidly forgot to print out the map (and the 2 glasses of wine didn't help me memorize the location). I ended up calling Chris and he looked up the address while we were on the phone.

I walked into the sale at 8:15, and saw a stash of great stuff in one corner, including a stack of chenille bedspreads, an old beveled mirror and a huge rustic drying rack. I walked over to the pile and immediately got the look of death from a woman who yelled "That's my stuff!"  My first thought: If only I hadn't gotten lost...that bitch's stuff would all be mine! 

I did find a few things for a total of $9:

• 2 folding camp stools that I will re-cover with new fabric
• Folding knitting tote (filled with random sewing stuff)
• Oval sewing box with tray that has a matching pin cushion
• Bingo game from 1959
• Aqua-colored cardboard candy box
• Super-cheesy "Happy Anniversary" candy dish

Five Vintage Finds to Buy Now

I'm no psychic, but I have a feeling that these five vintage finds will only go up in value. I'm not talking six-figures-Antiques-Roadshow-type of money, but I'll bet that you will at least double your money in 3-5 years.  If you've been a regular reader of my blog, these items might look familiar. They would be perfect for starting a new collection on the cheap, or for dealers who plan to resell their vintage finds. Some of these may be bold predictions, but I'm standing by them!

1. Floraline Pottery
Keep an eye out for solid-color matte planters marked Floraline. The majority are green or white, but if you are lucky, you'll find the occasional pink or aqua. These were made by McCoy in the 1940s and 1960s, primarily for the florist trade. You can usually find them for less than a dollar. There are a few larger styles that demand $25+, but those are harder to find.
Search for Floraline on ebay now.

2. State/Town Souvenir Plates
Find these at yard sales and thrift stores for a buck or two. Start a collection of all of the states you've visited (a great collection for children, too). Look for these three types: retro-style center graphics, pink or aqua rims with gold accents, and blue/white or red/white transferware.
Search for souvenir state plates on ebay now.

3. Pink Luggage
Look for train cases, round hat boxes and large hard-sided suitcases. Those with floral lining fabric are even more appealing. These brands are the most prevalent: Samsonite, Travel Master and Royal Traveller.
Search for pink luggage on ebay now.

4. Sports & Gaming Equipment
Think shabby, rustic & wooden: golf clubs, baseball bats, bowling pins, fishing rods, lacrosse sticks & oars. The decorating possibilities are endless for a family room, game room or a little boy's room.
Search for vintage golf clubs, lacrosse sticks and bowling pins on ebay now.

5. Aprons
Vintage aprons have rapidly been going up in price during the last few years, and will continue to rise, partly due to the release of this excellent reference book, and the many articles that have been published in home decor magazines. Despite the increasing cost, aprons are still a great value, especially those that have hand-embroidery or printed floral designs. I purchased these two aprons for $6 each at an antiques store. The orange/brown apron is reversible and still has its original tag.
Search for vintage aprons on ebay now.

 

What do you think? Do you have a secret stash of vintage finds that you think will skyrocket in value someday?

Buttons

As promised, here are a few pictures of the buttons that I won during my night of drunken ebay bidding. Like most things that you buy when you are drunk, I had a touch of buyer's remorse when I opened the boxes.

Most of the buttons are small, nondescript black and white shirt buttons or just big ugly coat buttons. I enlisted my son, Finn, to help me pick out all of the colored buttons. We filled eight of these little red containers with all of our favorites.  I love the glass buttons and mother-of-pearl buckle at the bottom of the picture. 

The red containers were from the dollar spot at Target (but they aren't selling them anymore). They have strong magnets on the back, and came with a metal strip that mounts on the wall. Instead of using the strip, I put the containers on the side of this metal storage cabinet.

I bought the cabinet for $3 at a yard sale last summer. It is a great place to hide my fabric, patterns, ribbons and anything else I can stuff in there. The bottom was rusty, so I covered it with fringe from an old chenille bedspread. On top of the cabinet, I have even more fabric in a pair of vintage locker baskets.

If I ever clean the rest of my "studio" (more commonly known as the guest room), I'll share some more pictures.   

And the winner is...

Deb from debdamboise.blogspot.com! Congratulations, Deb!  And thanks to everyone for sharing your collections. That was fun!

And to everyone who didn't win...if this blog lasts another 25 posts, I'll give away another bag! 

Comment and Win!

This is my 25th post! I bet that everyone in my family thought this blog would only last 6 or 7 posts. And then I would just move on to something new. Like that time that I was obsessed with opening a drive-thru coffee shack.

Anyway, in honor of my long and illustrious blogging career, I'd like to have a little giveaway. Leave a comment and I will randomly pick a winner from all of those who commented. But, I'm going to make you work for it. You can't just leave a comment and tell me how smart and funny and pretty I am, and that reading my blog has made you a better person. You have to tell me what you collect. Everyone collects something, whether it is pottery or fabric or shot glasses (Doug).

I'll go first. One of my collections is white pottery.  I prefer matte finishes, but if a piece is cheap enough, I'll buy it regardless of finish.  I completely stole the idea of collecting white pottery from my sister-in-law, Sari, who has a really nice collection. I bought her a few pieces for Christmas and birthdays over the last few years.  And then I said "screw her!", and decided to start buying them for myself, because I love the way they look when they are grouped together. A couple of them were gifts from my in-laws, but I bought most of them for less than $10. Here are a few of them in my kitchen:

So, what do you collect? I don't care if you are a lurker, a frequent commenter or a new visitor - just don't forget to include your name & email address on the comment form so I can contact you if you win. On Saturday, February 17th, I'll pick a name. The lucky winner will win one of my new bucket tote bags! I made it with Heather Bailey's freshcut fabric, funky old buttons and vintage woven rick-rack on the handles.

If you feel like sharing the city & country where you live, I would love to know that, too. Since I started this blog in November, my statistics on Google Analytics tell me that I've had visitors from 27 countries, including Iran, New Zealand, Romania and Malaysia! 

Market Tote

One button down...only 1,546 more to go.  I used a lavender button and my favorite freshcut fabrics for this BIG market tote bag.  I'm keeping this one for myself, but I'll be making more market totes with other freshcut fabrics, and my new obsession, Erin Michael's Uptown fabrics.

I Dig Doug

Doug is my sister Erin's husband. They both went to Ursinus College, but they didn't get together until they had both graduated. Doug was an obnoxious frat boy. When Erin was a freshman, she knew him as that guy who would throw boloney at her friends in the cafeteria. When Erin was a sophomore, she invited me to Ursinus to see David Spade perform in their gym. This was during his funny Saturday Night Live years and we were big fans at the time. Doug and his "brothers" had been partying at a farm all day (I still don't know why) and were shouting cow calls during the whole show. "Yamma Yamma Yamma!"  If I knew that day that Erin would eventually marry one of those cow-calling assholes, I would have asked my parents to force her to study abroad in Myanmar.

But, it all worked out. They fell in love five years later and got married. Doug's classmates and faculty from Ursinus are still dumbfounded that he is now a nanotechnology scientist at a pharmaceutical company. But he hasn't changed a bit.  Remember my mom's yard sale that I talked about a few months ago?  Doug decided to dress up in some of the clothes that my mom was selling.  Here he is, looking so dapper in too-tight ladies' blue polyester pleated pants, a t-shirt that proudly states "Color Me Grandma", and holding a Las Vegas oven mitt:

That get-up just beckons "come hither", huh?

In honor of the recovering frat boy's birthday, I was commissioned by my sister to create a special bag for holding his prized liquor (Wild Turkey 101). I made a bag and shoddily embroidered this loving sentiment on it:

It all comes back to booze on this blog, doesn't it?

Fun & Games

I went to a tag sale today at lunchtime.  This one was a little different than most sales.  Some of the bigger items had "bid" tags on them, as well as a price.  If you wanted to pay the price, you could buy the item right then. If you wanted to pay less, then you would write your bid, the item number & your phone number on a piece of paper and put it in a box. At the end of the day, they will see what items are left and check if there are any bids. Whoever has the highest bid for the item wins it.  Do you have sales like that in your area? 

I ended up buying a couple of things that didn't have "bid" tags on them, like this BIG picnic basket, tin dart board and this game called Keyword Crossword (which is essentially Scrabble). I only bought the game because of all of the letters. I don't know what I'll use them for, but it wasn't a bad deal at eighty cents!

I also stopped at a thrift store yesterday and picked up these two Lu-Ray Pastels platters:

When I saw them in the store, they reminded me of Fiestaware.  When I got home, I googled Lu-Ray and found a great article about the company on the Country Living website.  It turns out that Lu-Ray Pastels were created as an alternative to the brighter colors of Fiestaware. These platters were probably from the late forties or early fifties. Only $2.50 for both.

Weekly Recap

Here's a quick look at some of my finds for this week:

I bought the suitcase, white planter and the Pyrex dishes at my favorite thift store, Nana's Attic.  The green Haeger planter was from Powerhouse Antiques in Collegeville, PA. I love the bright green color. Powerhouse is one of those annoying antique malls that is only open on Sundays. The booth owners have to be present in order to sell their stuff. It seems like every time you pick up an item, the owner gives you a complete history of it and all its possible uses and then tells you that they can give you a great deal on it. It gets really old by the third booth.

I also found this at this pale pink wooden hat/band box with decals at Powerhouse. It is pretty big - 14" high by 15" in diameter.

My best find of the week (or maybe the year) is this old quilt. I nearly died when I saw the price was only four dollars! The woman at Nana's Attic said that she had just put it out a few minutes before I got there. The backing is a pretty aqua and white fabric and the binding is hand-sewn.