It's been a very long while. Life is finally starting to come back together. All the ish hit the fan at the same time back in January and it took a couple months to sort through it. Everything turned out so much better than I could have ever hoped, but then I'm a worst case scenario kinda gal so that may be true of any outcome. Outside of crappy personal life events, thrifts have been kind of dry. If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that I've found some nice stuff despite the drought. I'll start from the day everything went to hell.
I found an ad for an antique store a ways away that had a picture of a Saxony Pyrex and I hoped against hope that it would not only still be there, but crazier still, in my price range. We took the trip out there in the afternoon, so I was surprised to see it on the shelf, and shocked at the low price! This is not a piece that was on my must have at all costs list so I never thought it would become part of my collection. Skip ahead a while, the owner of our shop had a massive collection of butterprint that he picked up as a lot from someone and I told BJ to buy the 475 for my birthday. Literally the next day is was gone!!! UGH! I died inside. It turns out he bought TWO of each set and offered to trade me for it! So, I completed my 470 BP set. This is the current configuration.
Back to the Saxony day. We went to a killer estate sale that we got everything we went for minus the color wheel we need for our aluminum tree. We even went home with some unexpected pinup prints and a pair of bakelite laminate earrings that I'm seriously considering piercing my ears to wear. These yellows are currently being featured in my spring display. I so wish that we could have gone back for my pinups on day two like we'd planned, but life had other plans for us.
We've only been to two estate sales since, both on the same day in NE Minneapolis. The first we planned on, but on our own time because it was a pink shirt sale, bleh. I left with only a cat dangler (left a witch, still regretting) and these adorable red chalkware birds. The next sale we saw signs for and thought we'd drop in. Total garbage. They had a red 501 with butter in it and someone was carrying an economy box of tampons... The ONLY good thing at this sale was this box of putz houses. I paid for it, but I think it was worth the box and all the sweet extras the owners stored with it. Plus most of them are intact which is a miracle.
Out of all the MLK Day sales, Goodwill was the kindest to us. I found a vintage picnic basket with bakelite flatware inside for 2.50 and a hand crocheted daisy shawl for 1.50. Our fancy picnic basket broke while carrying it back to the car after a movie in the park last year. I have another vintage one that has a checkerboard on the lid, so I guess now we have a collection. I think I might try to make an insulated bag for inside because that's what the fancy one has only it's attached. We'll see how ambitious I am... I can finally get to my sewing machine so now I just need a pattern or rough idea and some fabric!
One of the things that I got BJ for Christmas was a newspaper from 1964 that had Tony Oliva on the cover and an interview inside on his rookie year. He got Twinsfest tickets from his aunts and Mr. Oliva was scheduled to sign there! His biggest fan was in line behind us and when she saw what we'd brought to sign, she said under her breath, "Oh, I NEED that." Haha! As you can see from the picture it was an item that truly put a smile on his face. He picked it up and had to show the player signing next to him. I love that we were able to surprise him and give him a little highlight to remember the good ole' days. He said, "Oh, this was when I was still innocent!" It was a really fun experience.
My birthday weekend started off awful, as per usual. But we were able to pick up the pieces and make something pretty okay out of it. I had wanted to spend the whole day thrifting and antiquing, but it turned into just the afternoon. We started out in North St. Paul because we wanted to go to places that weren't our everyday spots. We left with the cat planter (which is a bobble head!), the deer, and the cute little weiner dog that is the baby of the caddy I found a while back. I need to get a shot of them both together. The next shop had the wood and bakelite flower brooch (30% off to boot!) and the bakelite book. It has clearly been chewed on by a dog, but the pages are fine and it was cheap, so I'll take that over cover price any day! After that, we headed to St. Paul where I finally found a turquoise handiholder to call my own and a pair of vintage shorts. We stopped off at the Goodwill there and walked out with a spring blossom loaf pan, but paid far more than either of us has wanted to. Please stop charging so much, thrift stores! We ended the day by visiting our shop, where I found a yellow daisy 471.
My mom came up to visit me on my actual birthday bearing vintage gifts. I was so ecstatic to get a turquoise 024! I left the one at the shop with the saxony behind because it was slightly dishwashered and they wanted good money for it. This was basically thrifted from an antique store! The cat is a wine decanter and I think he looks like Gigi from Kiki's Delivery Service, so I love him even more!
I found a brooch very similar to this at the antique shop where I got the wood and bakelite flower, but left it behind. I sent a picture of it to one of my friends on Instagram and she somehow found me one for sale even cheaper! I think it will match the nesting doll dress from Tatyana quite well. I really hope that I can get one from the store. They weren't in yet this weekend, so I'll have to keep stalking it on a regular basis.
That brings us to current day. There was a flea market today at an American Legion in the western suburbs and I finally got a good Pyrex haul! While it isn't diamonds, and eyes, and starbursts, oh my!, it was cheap and stuff I wanted. The 080 is so cute! I am not only two 501s away from a full spring blossom fridgie set and a 444 away from a full black and white gooseberry set. That one I may not want to hold my breath for, but stranger things have happened.
I've been trying to really focus on making myself better emotionally and physically. I'm hoping for a small getaway before the overwhelming spring seasons takes hold of my life. I also want to finally get started on the book I've been saying I'm going to write since high school. In addition to all that, I'd like to try to make this more of a regular thing because it is a nice thing to do, even if I'm the only one who reads it! Now, off to bed with my babies.
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