Junk Update #3 (Bag Day)

Bag day is my favorite! I'm really glad that we went to the sale on the first day this year because bag day wasn't as good as it has been in previous years. BJ had a music festival up north so I asked my mom and sister to come up. We were late for being early to the sale so who knows what good stuff we missed putting into our bags. I have found a handmade blanket on bag day every year I've been to this sale. I also found a cut-and-sew cat pillow, a vintage Christmas tree skirt, NIB vintage tinsel garland with super cute graphics, a 3D white cat stocking, souvenir Illinois drink tray, vintage beaded purse, and a beat up Santa head mug.

After that, the thrift finds started picking up slowly. The chipmunk salt and pepper set was overpriced at Arc's, but BJ liked it too much not to add it to his shaker collection. He also found the kangaroo set which was more reasonably priced. I picked up a made in Japan pumpkin dish, a creepy jewel-eyed bear made from a thick vintage plastic, a Corelle cradle, and a mug tree from Arc's another day. We went to Goodwill near our apartment afterward and found the Please Get Well dog planter and another Avon decanter. On  another trip to another Goodwill, I almost didn't even pick up the little scarecrow pumpkin planter because I thought it looked newer. It was made in Japan!

The same trip to Goodwill as the pumpkin planter, we found a grab bag of vintage shakers. The singing cat is my favorite! We decided to visit the GW next to us after we left the other one and it was a great decision. We found a set of pink gooseberry cinderella bowls, minus the 442. I was able to upgrade my 443!

Friday night at Arc's we I found a complete set of nesting dolls, a weird pink cat planter with three holes, a square mason jar with a raised cross hatch pattern, a poodle bank, and an unmarked milk glass bowl with a raised floral design. We made a trip to Goodwill later that night and I found a Toastmaster hair and nail dryer. It looks like it used to have a wall mount. I love the atomic design of it! Saturday we went thrifting after going to garage sales. I found a jadeite colored ice cream scooper that I don't think is food safe, but for .79 I wasn't going to leave it behind. I also picked up a recipe box and BJ found a cute rooster shaker. We went to the GW next to us and I found a Saltines tin and a huge plastic Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy) bank. I love it, but I just don't know if I should keep it. BJ found a Fenton silvercrest cake stand. It is really pretty and it's in the I-don't-know pile. I don't even like cake and Fenton has been our biggest seller at the shop, but it's so pretty!

I'll say it again. I love bag sales! The first sale that we went to on Saturday was in Northeast. We walked up not even knowing it was a bag sale, I just knew they had vintage shakers. They had a tented area in the backyard that I looked at before going into the garage. First I saw the Mid Century designed wolf with martini shaker and told myself I didn't need him and I picked up the little flocked Santa because those are my favorite and I'm always looking for them. Then I saw the Santa and Mrs. Claus shakers. I have no idea why it wasn't the first thing I saw, but I turned my head away from the Christmas smalls and saw a real aluminum tree. At first I thought, "my luck, it's just a cheap new tinsel tree," but then I touched it and it was solid! It was marked $30, but then I heard the seller inside the garage telling BJ about the bag sale and I knew that this had to fit into a bag and come live with me. So I took all my strength and pulled it together. I casually walked into the garage and looked at shakers with BJ. I'm regretting some of the ones we didn't put in our bag, but I was really thinking about that tree. We completed our sweep through the garage and I told BJ that he had to come out to the holiday tent and talk me out of some Halloween. Well, it turned out that he loved the wolf and one of the sellers was out there and told us she had a Dracula over on top of the grill that matched. He is really tall! He's got water and sun damage and didn't fit in the bag, but the graphics are way too cool to break up the pair. The tree fit. I made it fit. It's only a table top tree, so I'm still on the hunt for a 6 ft pom pom that rotates. I'm just really stoked that I finally have an aluminum tree. It is definitely my favorite find!

A close second is the creepy monkey with chenille limbs. I found him, the Scotch tape tin and dispenser, the boot shine tin, and vintage tooled leather wallet at a garage sale in Nokomis. I picked up the boot shine and wallet for my mom because she likes cowboy stuff. She didn't seem impressed when I sent her a picture of them...

Actually, the monkey is probably third. This bakelite bangle that BJ got me for $1 is my second favorite find of the day! A dollar! I couldn't get the smell from rubbing it, but he told me he thought he could smell it. I thought it was worth a shot either way. It passed the hot water test. It is probably my favorite bangle that I own. We found it at a private estate sale in North Minneapolis that I took a chance on because the ad said it had tons of glassware. Well, there was no glassware, but there were bangles! The seller told me it had been her mother's favorite bracelet that she wore all the time. I'll take over for her! 

I bought some bakelite bits and a some lucite leaves from different eBay sellers to make my own version of a cherry brooch since I won't be able to afford a real one anytime soon. I found just what I was looking for to use as the stems on clearance in the kids section at Joanns. I finally got a chance to put them all together on Sunday morning. It may not be authentic, but I love it. It was nice to get back into creating again.

  There was an estate sale by the company I hate (they do almost all of them...) that had a Krispy Can with the crackers made to look like flowers. I obviously didn't want to be in line for the sale. We got there an hour after it started and there was still a line!!! Not only that, but it was a shoes off sale, I hate that. I knew I was running the risk of it not being there or it being crazy expensive, but we waited in line anyway. The can wasn't there. All the Pyrex they had was high eBay prices per individual dish. The house was really small and there were too many people. The lady collected fancy glass that I'm just not into and it was all obviously overpriced. She also loved Clark Gable. When I saw the framed Honky Tonk poster, I grabbed it! It was done by Jacques Kapralik. I hope I can find the ones he did for Woman of the Year and Best Foot Forward. They're so crafty and creative! We didn't run into a ticket person so we just got into the cashier line because there were too many people everywhere. It was just one item so I didn't think it was a big deal. We paid cash and got a paid stamp on the receipt she gave us. The door guy (there was a door guy...) rudely barked at me, "ticket ma'am!" and put his arm out to block me from leaving the steps to get my shoes. (P.S. It had been raining that morning. Are wet, dirty socks better than shoes? No worries, I'll just stand here in a puddle while you go on your power trip...)  He didn't ask anyone else to show their receipts while we were waiting in line. Oh my lanta! You think I'm stealing a single $3 item from a sale where I have to find and put on my shoes in front of a long line of people waiting to get past me and that would really hurt your 40% bottom line from this sale! Not really. And "ma'am" makes me feel old. Why can't I stop going to their sales?!

After that we went to a vintage shop that is closing. The whole store was 40% off everything under $40. Not much of what was left interested me, but I did pick up two rubberized dish racks.

Sunday is the Minneapolis Pyrex swap. I don't know if I'll find much of anything to trade since I'm mostly looking for hard to find pieces and the same pink and turquoise everyone else wants, but hopefully I can sell some of my shop hoard so I can feel better about sales for the month!