I spent this past weekend deep in the boondocks. My mom recently moved from the small town I grew up in to an even smaller town even farther away from where I currently live. It was only 15 or so minutes more of a drive, but man it felt like forever! This town has no access to landline telephones, thus no cable or cable internet. If they want internet, they have to pay per usage with satellite! Verizon is the cell tower down there and I don't have Verizon so I was without internet and phone from Wednesday night through Sunday afternoon, except when we made the trek to Redwood. My sister had this crazy idea of having a garage sale in this little town that has a population that I'm sure is under 100. It was the annual Polka Fest, and the last one forever apparently. The garage sale was not a success. I didn't even break $10, but I did find a lot of good junk.
On Thursday afternoon we went "to town" to the Redwood Museum thrift shop. I found all of the items on the bottom shelf there.
I got all of these cake decorations for $1 and the little bluebirds were only $2 for the pair! I also found a single Hazel Atlas red topped shaker, a NOS evenflo suction bowl holder, a Japan dog shaker, and two Glasbake fruit dishes that match one I got at Goodwill a couple weeks ago.
On Saturday, my mom wanted to go to Habitat for Humanity ReStore for look for things to improve her new house. BJ and I also wanted to take advantage of small town values and go junking. So we headed to Marshall to start off our thrifty adventure. We couldn't find the store right away, we actually drove right past it because we were distracted by what looked like the preparation for a parade. We timed the mistake perfectly to have to sit and watch a parade of motorcycles that I believe had some military connection. When that was finally over, we discovered that had we been looking right instead of left, we could have already been where we were going! I found the Federal mug and the set of purple cows for under $3 total! After that we drove to the better of the thrift stores in town only to be yelled at that they were closed. Excuse me for living in a city where thrift stores don't close at noon on Saturdays! We set off towards home the long way in order to visit more places.
It was all sorts of festive in Southwest Minnesota. Marshall was having Crazy Days, Seaforth- Polka Fest, and Walnut Grove had the Laura Ingalls Wilder festival. I always intend on bringing BJ to the reenactment there, but never remember it in time to go. We didn't partake in any prairie life activities, but the shops in Walnut Grove had sales- 20% off storewide and I found some real treasures! I've been really good about not "needing" everything I like, so at first I didn't find anything that had to go into my shopping bag. Then I found a box of Shiny Brites with cardboard toppers. I've never seen them in person, so they had to come home with me! Then I spotted the black Holt Howard Santa tumbler. I didn't even see the other one until my mom pointed it out to me! I was so excited to finally find these at a decent price after not buying them last year from Pink Flamingo. Vintage holiday gets me every time. I found a black cat articulated die-cut that is unfortunately missing a leg, but he has three more so he'll be alright. There was a display of costume jewelry and I'm always looking for the bakelite bangle among the plastics. I told BJ to take the one I thought might be a contender off the rack and do a friction test while I perused the rest of the holiday stuff. It hardly took anything to get the smell and it was only $2 after discount!!! I LOVE cheap bakelite!
I also found this 3D Santa stocking. It was our first time visiting this antique store and I'm sure we'll be back.
We went to Lamberton to visit our old honey hole that has since dried up. I found a bag of vintage pipe cleaner bees, a bag of big Christmas bulbs, and a Cabbage Patch pincher doll in the clearance section in the basement. I also found a butterscotch bakelite bangle (not a steal of a deal like the previous one) and an ice cream cone planter upstairs. I can't wait to put pink mums in the cone! There was a butterprint 443 for $20 at the antique store. We walked to the thrift store next door and got a 441-443 for $20 total! That place is really hit or miss with Pyrex prices so that's all we got from that store.
We came home on Sunday and decided to see what there was to see at our local thrift haunts. We came home with this awesome red metal shelf for only $2.49, another butterprint 501 for $1.09, and the omnomnom looking guy I think is missing a hat. Then we found some Pyrex we didn't buy at the Goodwill, a butterfly gold sugar and creamer set, and a really cute tumbler I have no idea where I'll put.
Last week before I left, we found this really cool decanter. It says on the bottom that Federal law prohibits resale or reuse of this bottle. It made me want to buy it more. I'm going to put orange colored water in it so it is candy corn colored. I'm really excited to see Halloween starting to hit the stores! Gordmans just opened at Southdale so I don't have to drive all the way out to Burnsville to look anymore! I'm really holding back on the new holiday purchases unless I know I'll love it for life because I have run out of room here, but it is still fun to look!
Since the studio has cleared out a little after getting rid of all the garage sale junk, I'm hoping to start making stuff again soon. I've got my cut and sew pillows, a bag, and a table cloth on my list. Oh, and I got my package from Brighter Bakelite this weekend! It is phenomenal!
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