This Week In Spooky Mail

I told you that I have spent a lot of time Halloween haunting online lately. Well, my haunting finally paid off in deliveries this week! AHHHH!!!! The first delivery was this Monster Bop print from Steph Buscema. I visited this in my cart for a very long time before pushing the buy button, but visiting its digital image just was no longer enough. This is so beyond words spooktacular! The little batties coming out of Drac's trumpet, Wolfman, it's all just to die for. This is a mashup of mid century and Halloween, which is the embodiment of all the things that make my heart scream. No brainer.

The next delivery was my Instagram haul! I felt like I was buying it all during this lady's sale, haha! I did have some self-restraint, though. I came across the picture she posted with the BOO pumpkin pail while haunting my usual halloween hashtags and immediately followed her and turned on post notifications so I wouldn't miss this sale. I was shaking with excitement until I got everything I came for. Mr. Boo is quite possibly the highlight of my pail collection. I will be getting out all of his brethren this week so they can all meet! The lighted one works and has a pumpkin, a cat, a skull, and witches. Duh, right? I've never seen the little oblong pail and I love to add new faces to my collection! The super old articulated cat has seen much better days, but I am the land of misfits, so I forgive most imperfections. His face is so classic Halloween that I needed to add him to my clowder of die-cut cats! I'm also really stoked on the green eyed guy.

I got home from work on Thursday to a pile of spooky mail! We ordered some really great vintage inspired Halloween stuff back in June and had been waiting on the pre-orders to arrive for everything to ship. I found this website through Witch House Design, who had an exclusive color way of the skeleton toy that I wanted sold through vintagehalloween.com. Obviously I had to shop around the site and found a bunch of fun things! The ghost bubbler and screaming cat paper lantern light string are Bethany Lowe Designs. I tried to find the bubbler last year with no luck, so I was really excited when I found it for pre-order! The cat lanterns were irresistible because, as we've established, we love vintage Halloween cats around here. The decals and festooning are Beistle. I have no idea what I'll put the decals on. I don't know why, but I thought they were window clings. They are repositionable, but I'm worried they'll lose their stick if I put them on the wall and expect to reuse them next year. We'll see, I guess. I also found a cute little skelly brooch! They sent a little vintage witch cake topper with the order. Once it was finally sent after the pre-orders came in, it arrived very quickly and everything was packaged thoughtfully. I'm not being sponsored by them or anything, just sharing my experience, which was great!

I got my Necromancy Cosmetica order the same day. It came all the way from Puerto Rico and arrived the same day as an order from Arizona and they were both shipped the same day. I was very impressed with the postal service! I was worried that it may arrive melted with the terribly hot and humid weather we've been having, but it was perfect. I'm not successful at makeup and don't try very often because I feel that I look ridiculous, but I just really wanted to try this lipstick the second I laid eyes on it on Instagram! It is cruelty free and vegan and made by hand by two lovely people running their own business. I think that's pretty kick ass! I decided on trying just one shade to start and I picked It's Wednesday, which is a dark gray. I really love it! I'm still learning to be confident and all that, so I'm a little self-conscious wearing such a bold and dark color. But you can't live your life trying to fit into other people's images, so if being a little spooky is who am I, so be it, right? I had to take a picture of it with my Wednesday Addams brooch from Baccurelli.  I need a Wednesday Addams dress to wear with my Wednesday Addams brooch and my It's Wednesday lipstick on a Wednesday. On Wednesday, we wear Wednesday. What can I say, I love a theme!

We spent the day today Halloween Haunting in Burnsville. It was majorly successful! I have to take pictures of my haul and tell you all about it. I also snapped some pictures of things I loved, but left behind. I had planned on watching Little Shop of Horrors and finishing up a new Halloween design tonight, but I'm terrible at doing what I plan on doing. Maybe I should start planning on doing things I don't plan on doing and not planning to do things I do plan to do and then I'll get things done. Whatever, you got this blog post out of my procrastination, so congratulations all two readers! I'm off daydream about Halloween decorations, Halloween food, Halloween clothes, Halloween music, Halloween movies, Halloween TV shows, Halloween toys, and... Oh yeah, Halloween! I'm gone!

Halloween Haunting

I found these zombie Don Featherstone flamingos at Goodwill, and they were 1/2 off!

Last time I wrote, I was in the  midst of a home invasion. They seem to happen at least every couple of months and are the worst reminder that this is not home, but simply a place where I'm allowed to stay in exchange for a lot of money. During that invasion, people from Excel Energy- not even the apartment employees- came into the apartment to change ALL the lightbulbs and change the shower head. Lightbulbs that we paid for, they took and replaced with their own lightbulbs. I had already changed most of the bulbs to energy efficient bulbs because WE PAY THE ELECTRIC BILL. It should truly be none of the landlord's business if we have energy efficient bulbs as we pay the entire bill. I had no idea they were going to go into every room, including the bedroom. I feel really violated that they not only invaded my personal space, but took bulbs we paid good money for without my permission. They also replaced a shower head that was already replaced a couple of years ago with an identical shower head. Super pointless. I'm sure I've mentioned this approximately 6 billion times, but I really hate this place so hard. 

It is the middle of summer, so what better time to ask everyone to take every single thing off their balconies so that they can stain them?! I have a ton of plants and have made the most of our outdoor living space and really didn't appreciate having to take a huge chunk of time out of two days to take everything down and then put it back. I was really sick when this happened, too, so the added required physical activity was most unappreciated. 

Due to the emotional toll these types of situations take on me, I retreat into isolation. I've been out of the loop for quite a while. During that time I've been mostly Halloween Haunting online. We finally made it out to a couple of Michael's that actually have some Halloween in store and made our first (mini) Halloween haul of 2016! They have really cool stuff this year, but $14 and $30 seems to be the magic number, so coupons are required. They had 50% off one regular priced item on Saturday only and luckily they didn't have the Halloween on sale yet. BJ and I made separate transactions so we could each use a coupon. We got a metal tea light holder haunted house and a faux mercury glass skull. I found a couple scrapbooking embellishment packs on clearance, too. Not anything mind blowing, but I'm happy that the greatest time of year has finally started!

We haven't really been hunting for junk too much lately, except for Thrifty Thursdays. I do have stuff that I haven't shared, but for the most part it's just smalls for the shop. We went to visit my mom a couple weekends ago and found a bunch of great stuff. I picked up a little plastic witch and an old trick or treat bag from Holiday. It's always a good day when I get to add to my vintage Halloween collection! 

I found the little devils and the Glasbake Lipton mug at the first antique store we visited. I'm thinking really hard on how to recreate their pitchforks and tails. Our usual haunt in that area is where I found the Halloween and the Holt Howard Santa shakers. The last time I saw this style of shaker at that same store, I left them behind and they sold right away, so I never had the chance to own them again. I had to decided between other Halloween and these, but decided on these since all the Halloween I've been visiting has been there for years. I picked up one bubble gum 024 and the Kim Chee at our shop. Had I known that I would find the same 024 for half the price at this antique store, I would not have purchased it, but its hard to leave behind pink when it is reasonably priced! My favorite lady at our shop saved the delphite 401 aside just for me, so I will treasure that always. She also had a bakelite 13 ball which I thought was so perfect for Halloween! I picked up the HH mini Santa mugs from our shop, too, because they are flawless and I'm obsessed.

The last stop on our junking adventure with my mom yielded me a box full of 4 strands of glass garland with a surprise spun head and a really swinging vintage bar! I don't have an awesome picture of the bar because I just suck at thinking of that in the moment. It is staying at my mom's house until we have space for it... in a house. It came in two mismatched pieces, but was dirt cheap and I just couldn't leave it behind! The top has a record player, 8 track player, and shelving for barware with striped red velvet. It reminds me of a mod illustration of a party where everyone has a martini in their hands. The bottom has speakers and a "fireplace" that has one of those stacks of half logs and a light with a spinning metal pinwheel to simulate flames. I love those things and have passed on a couple of them because I had no idea what I'd do with it, but now I've got the whole setup!

Another notable find from that trip is this Lefton bluebird sugar and creamer set. The sugar is missing it's head, but I got it for a grand total of $1! I am debating if I need to start yet another collection, or if I should declutter and let them go. I've been leaning more towards decluttering lately. 

This pail came from a garage/estate sale a while back. I had been watching an eBay listing of this same jack. This one was $1, so it was a huge win to find it in real life! The title of this post may be a little misleading as there is so much Christmas in it, sorry. 

Part of my online Halloween Haunting has included some clothing and accessories. I picked up this monster brooch from Friend Prices. It is really excellent and I am crossing my fingers that I can get one of his creature cuties when he does another release! This is not sponsored, I just really love this brooch. He included a great thank you card and a creature button. For clothing, check out Sourpuss Clothing. They have some great Halloween print dresses that they just released that will make your Halloween heart flutter.

I'll leave you with a shot of my pumpkins on a stick that are happily flourishing in my garden! I'm off to try to get some stuff crossed off my to-do list.

Long Lucky Day

This past Saturday, BJ and I woke up at 3:30 am to get in line at an estate sale. Can you believe that we were 2 and 3 in line?! The first person got there right before we did because he was still setting up his numbers as we drove up. Super disappointing! He told BJ that his wife was coming to take over later. I don't know if you remember the incident of us getting renumbered because we didn't park right next to the number giver, but this isn't quite fair in comparison to all of my other estate sale waiting experiences. The rules are clearly that you have to be there to have the number. I wanted to take the chance that maybe she wasn't there for the Pyrex. I hate sitting in the car and waiting. I never drink much of anything because there is no access to a bathroom and by the time real numbers are given, my lower back hurts so bad it feels like it's about to crack. This time I was able to sleep for a while, but I had nightmares that I missed the sale because I over slept and woke up right as they were past my number! Let me just tell you that this time all the pain was worth it!

I got everything I went for, which wasn't much. The reason I got there so very early was for the black 503. I never thought I'd own this because there are only a few pieces that I'm willing to pay up for out of desperation. It is in such great shape! I wish that the warmer and lid had been there, but sadly, no luck there. The Gooseberry is mint. My memory didn't serve me well because I already have one and it was pretty high priced due to it being a Pink Shirt sale. I went into the sale knowing the black 503 probably would be priced higher, but I was okay with that as long as it wasn't a three number price tag. Much much lower than that I'm happy to report! I also walked away with a turquoise Club pan with lid. It didn't make the picture because this was an instant Instagram share!

We went to visit my grandpa after we hit up another estate/garage sale that we found great stuff at during citywide. I picked up 2 vintage table cloths. The Christmas one is quite lovely, but the other seems to be a cutter, which I didn't notice until I got home. I also picked up a JFK conspiracy LIFE magazine and a vintage book about where babies come from! 

We stopped at a thrift store before heading back home and I found a small turquoise Club pot, no lid this time. I always seem to find Club everywhere when I find it! I passed on some really cute milk glass plates because they were $5 each. "Thrift" store. Ugh! Then we walked down to the antique store on the corner armed with the $20 my grandpa gave me. I was hoping that the Miss Priss set that had been there last time would still be there, but it wasn't I did find a NIB Duchess glass percolator that can make coffee or tea! It even has the tea ball. We drove all the way to the outer edge of the Twin Cities, which I frankly do not consider to be part of the Cities at all, for one I saw in a photo on Craigslist. It turned out to be $40 and I just didn't want to pay that much. The $20 bill did the trick on this one!

We went to the shop to pay rent and check the booth for cleanup on Sunday and BJ told me I had to come over and look at something. He hardly ever does this so I was intrigued. It was a Spirograph!!! And so cheap! I just couldn't leave it behind. I feel like such a jerk for having two of something I know a lot of people really want, so I may give it a new home after some time to think about it.

The occasional sales started yesterday. We stopped at one and I found my very first daisy cut bakelite! I'm so excited!!! Of course I'd be more excited if it was red, but I'll take it. I'm hoping that I find a match sometime in the future. I also picked up a cute little pink elephant because I can't leave them behind where they're cheap. 

We went to the Wedge to do a little grocery shopping after hitting up the shop on Sunday and I just happened to turn around and see a bunch of Quorn products that now said vegan!!! Quorn was my absolute favorite when I was vegetarian and was so sad to lose them when I made the switch. It is still just as good now that it's vegan. Everything is soon good! Try it even if you're not any kind of veg, you might be a convert. Also, I finally found Gardein pockets! ZOMG! It was such a great grocery haul! It was the last one at the co-op and they haven't been good about restocking things, so I hope this gets brought back. They did away with Tofutti pizza, which has made my life very sad. 

Also very sad is the disaster I walked into at work on Monday. I feel a lot like the picture above right now because there are a bunch of strangers in my apartment right now and they touched my Pyrex and it made noise and they're making a lot of clanging and banging noises and I JUST CAN'T!!! I'm off to try to go and live through this massive anxiety.

Memorial Day and the New Summer Display

Today I was able to wake up naturally and not have anything in particular to do. So I got a lot of snuggling in with my little Gooseberry. BJ and I started C25K after breakfast. I really want to love running, but I'm not there yet. My body is doing this really awesome thing where it converts all exercise into weight gain. I exercise as my job and have a 6 mile round trip, uphill both ways-not even exaggerating!- against the wind both ways because the wind ALWAYS changes direction by the end of my shift bike ride. Yet I have gained back the 2 pounds I lost this spring and maintained my doughy body that I accumulated during last season's work/exercise/bike routine. UGH! I'm so frustrated and it makes me crave donuts which will probably just turn me into a WALL-E type person. I'm going to try something new with the running and hope I can get back to where I was at the beginning of last season. 

After our first go at running, we went to visit our booth. Before we left I had told BJ that I wanted a Pyrex fix. Ask and you shall receive (except for not being fat I guess...) I found a Brittany blue Pyrex dish right when I walked in the store! I also found this exceptionally cute pink and black metal shelf for my someday house. One of the dealers who was working was quite jealous that he hadn't seen it first, so I'm glad I spotted it! The Pyrex was perfect for my summer display that I was planning on putting together. I've been meaning to switch it over from spring, but today was the first chance I had. I'm not sure what I'll do with all my pink Pyrex that got the axe from the display, but that will be left for another day.

Normally I don't like changing my displays because change gives me major anxiety. Even something as small and meaningless as this can tighten my chest and make me feel like I'm raging. I've been handling it better since changing over from Christmas. I was so done with Christmas by the time I managed to get that done that it was a welcomed change! This new display feels refreshing and fun. I really like that I was able to pull together new, old, thrifted, etc. The bug sprayer is pretty clean and I just couldn't resist the shiny graphics when I saw it at Goodwill. This is probably another bad vegan moment, but whatever. It's ghost spray now. The lips, little red headed girl, and Washington DC souvenir tumbler are all recent thrift scores. 

I picked up a Giant Barrel of Monkeys at the thrift store and didn't get a chance to open it to see if it was complete. It turns out that there were no monkeys, giant or otherwise. It was full of vintage cowboys and indians toys with a few random spacemen, a single Roman, and a single Viking. Some of them were really detailed and quite graphic. There was a Native who had a severed head and a cowboy with an arrow impaling his chest. I decided to keep three spacemen and the two little Revolutionary War figurines for this specific display.

I found this Yankee Doodle 45 (not what's inside the sleeve...) on some sale in the fall and have been waiting to display it! I found a picture of my most recently deceased grandfather  (I have 3 sets of grandparents. One grandpa is still alive. It's complicated.) this winter while cleaning out the jewelry box that had belonged to my grandmother. The picture in the floral frog is him in uniform. The illustration is his American Legion card that was also lost and found in the jewelry box.

This is the bottom shelf. I have so much Pyrex that I had to leave some of it on there, so I just left the stuff way in the back. I've been looking forward to making rainbows for this display. I still need a green and a blue 501 to complete my rainbow. I filled my diamonds carafe with a yellow hankie to look like lemonade. I was able to hang my new-to-me bowler's towel in the back.

I found the "bomb" this past Thrifty Thursday. When I saw it, I thought it was really silly and I knew I needed it for this display. Bombs bursting in air and all that. It's a dried gourd painted black with this stem as the fuse. Seventy-five cents well spent, I'd say!

I got a fortune from a fortune cookie a long while back that says, "May the rainbow always touch your shoulder." I had it in my spring display, too, but it is most fitting with this rainbow stack of 024s . Sorry about the dark pictures. I just know that I'm not going to have time to do this post until who knows when, so I'm getting it done in my last free moments before bed before my 6 day week starts again...

This is the top shelf. I haven't figured out a good way to light this one yet, so flash it is. Bleh. I created the red white and blue bouquet from Michaels. It's all 50% right now. I love the sparkler looking bits! The Ball jar it is in also has red white and blue lights from the dollar spot at Target.

Penny hasn't gotten to show off her new dress that I got her from an estate sale yet! It fittingly is red white and blue and is so cute! I made her a little wand of mercury glass beads that I got in a junk craft box for $1 from a garage sale during citywide. 

I found this little blue and white flower in a grab bag of Christmas ornaments at the thrift store. Sadness doesn't look so sure, but I think it looks great in my display!

I'm going to go catch up on this week's episode of Little Women: NY. I'm guessing that work is going to be crazy busy tomorrow and I don't know that I'm prepared, but Memorial means the official end of crazy flower season and the rest of the week will be a transition into mellow summer!

Belated Swap Meet Share

The prices on all the Pyrex were not great, but don't judge me. Sometimes you just have to buy things when you see them. I felt the space saver was worth the cost for the lid alone, considering lids go for higher than the dishes on evil bay! I bought a bunch of things from this dealer, so she gave me a better deal than sticker price. There were so many more things I wanted to buy, but I blew a wad of cash on this stuff and had to hold back.

I was able to complete my Friendship fridgie set with one final orange 501. There were two little red ramekins, but I opted for only one because it was pricey. It's so cute and tiny! 

I over paid on the jadeite canister. I'm really annoyed with myself for getting emotionally invested in it, and I think I'd be lucky to get my money back if I chose to sell it, but whatever. Can't hit it out of the park every time, right? The McCoy planters next to it are from the thrift store with thrift store prices! I found a cute little plastic cactus at another thrift store. I can't grow real ones for some reason. 

There was very little that I got for the shop from the swap meet. The only other thing I found for myself was a deer planter. I'll have to take an updated deer table picture. It's ridiculous how quickly these animals reproduce! I'll end the post with an honorable mention. We got to an estate sale really early and were 2 and 3 in line. The first person didn't look like Pyrex competition so we stayed. I was so disappointed that he went right for what I had come for. He was really nice and let me go home with the shiny snowflake open baker. Most people at these sales are total dicks, so it was very refreshing. He accused me of being an eBayer and I told him NO! I'm a collector! I'm not sure about where you're from, but the eBay sellers here are cutthroat assholes.  When we got home from the sale, we learned that Prince died. Then I called my mom and she told me that her adoptive father died. Everyone seems to be buying the farm lately. It's all very sad, but as is life. At least we can find little pockets of kindness buried under all the crap. The citywide purple love, dance parties, news takeover, and outpouring of love was so wonderfully overwhelming. The kind man at the sale and the way people were able to pull together it a time of sadness gives me hope for humanity. 

So much love <3

Citywide Junking

I thought citywide was good last year, but it was nothing compared to this year! So. Much. Good. Junk. I'm quite amazed that I've already got it all processed and ALL OF IT into the booth! I'm not sure how I made it work, but I did. If the cart sells, it may be a different story. The picture above is most of day one's haul.

We found the MCM cork lamp at a garage sale we look forward to every year. They always have a wide assortment of junk and this year had a bunch of stuff in the way of vintage. One of the ladies told us that someone had tried to offer $5 for the lamp when the sale first opened. They only had $8 on it and I thought that was an amazing deal! 

It was the year of the suitcase because over the course of 2 days, I found 3 at sales and then another at the thrift! I debated over keeping all of them and making a table of them stacked that can hold things inside each of them, but I think I need to wait until my someday house becomes a reality to start making any furniture. I kept a red Samsonite and a small blue one for myself. The one above has a very lovely lavender interior and it was very well cared for.

Our first two stops were estate sales, but they weren't advertised in the regular venues and were family run. Most everything was very reasonably priced. We picked up a Cosco cart, a few mugs, some Disney pennants and some dirty vintage gag gifts. I'd love to share my favorite find from this sale, but I fear for those who are easily offended or at work. 

This is one of my keeper items from the second estate sale. It has a knob to turn "on" and it lifts the shakers to that they can be pulled out.

Sorry this picture is a little blurry. We went to a sale next door to one I had planned on just because it was close. At a glance, we didn't think it would be our kind of crap, but boy were we wrong! Pottery galore! We picked up a McCoy urn planter, a TV lamp, and a McCoy pebble planter that matches a smaller one I found at the thrift store last month or so. We also scored a couple of turquoise tumblers that are for keeps which I'll show you in a bit.

I found a few crewels, pumpkin pails, a cake carrier with bakelite handle, hat box from Minneapolis, and a cool starburst garbage can. BJ found a squeaky dog that still squeaks and blinks! I'm undecided because I don't need to start collecting squeaky toys and if I keep it, I'll have 3 which is an official collection... BJ is already annoyed with my blow mold addiction. But these can be ornaments for my candy corn tree in my someday house!

Here are some of my favorite finds that will be for me. The cactus fabric is a skirt! It has ties on each side and it really full. The cuckoo clock doesn't seem to work, but it is a bigger version of one that my grandpa gave me and has deer and mushrooms, so I'm sold. Vintage Christmas was not great, but I did find Holt Howard candle holders for just $1! Score! I picked up a bunch of hankies that I don't think I can part with, two embroidered pillow fronts, and a pretty blue and green floral piece of fabric. The Mr and Mrs Claus shakers were pricier than I'd normally pay at a garage sale, but I could't leave them behind!

Day two of sales wasn't as plentiful, but had better junk. It was mostly a day for keepers what with pricing, but day one was a solid booth filler, so it evens out. I finally found a reasonably priced quilt and it is pink! There are several condition issues, but I'm hoping I'll be able to connect with someone who could fix it up. The first sale we hit on day two was a charity sale for Pet Haven. We felt overjoyed to find so much great stuff there and give a little extra to help the babies. That is where the crinoline, butterprint 501 (with mint lid!), ice cube tray, Federal bowl, two suitcases, and a bunch of other junk came from. It was a really great start to the day! After we had hit all the citywide sales, we went to one I found on craigslist. It was listed as a vintage sale and I knew the prices would probably be higher than usual. I picked this sale for the amazing tablecloths pictured on the ad, but didn't get any because they were expensive. The quilt on the other hand, I felt okay parting with $30! Also from there were the anthropomorphic and jadeite shakers, clown metal game and noise maker, a single panel barkcloth curtain, a pair of circus curtains, and a bowler's weeping towel.

I know it probably makes me a bad vegan, but I just love vintage circus imagery! I recently found a really cute framed picture that I'll have to share once I unearth it from my cart of curiosities. That elephant and lion! I need my someday house soon so that I can display all my vintage circus stuff together. I have a trunk I got free a couple years ago down at my mom's. It's all piling up! I recently heard that clowns originally had the big lips painted on to mimic black face because black people were considered buffoons. It hurts me so much that it's all so offensive, but I can't help myself. I certainly don't love the images for any of the hateful and cruel things they represent, it's just the whimsy that makes my heart melt. I actually hate the circus and clowns, and always have. I know it's weird and makes no sense. >_<

This towel is so silly. It says Minneapolis on it, too, which obviously endears me. If I can make it work, maybe this will go into my red white and blue display. Coming soon!

The last sale that we went to was also listed as a vintage sale. On the way there we heard a commercial for someplace that gets it's beef from a "boutique ranch." WTF is a boutique  ranch?! Is it a place where fancy cows go to fancy die? I call BS. There is no such thing has a humane slaughterhouse and growing cows for food isn't fancy. So I was going off about this stupid commercial and the use of the word boutique in general. I find it so annoying that life is so highly curated now. Boutique this, that and everything. And what do you know, we were going to a garage sale that called itself a boutique sale! I HATE THAT! I was worried that prices would be outrageous, but they weren't terrible. We picked up a couple Fenton pieces, a cute cow creamer, a votive holder that looks like jadeite, but I don't think it is because it is really thin and clear-ish on the bottom, and the pink elephant from a few pictures up. I fawned over this at the Gathering of Friends at Bachman's this spring, but it was $45. I got this one for $3! And I'm not sharing it, it's mine. 

I promised that I would take pictures of my finds from the swap meet, I did! Stay tuned!

Oh My Lanta, or I'm Too Tired to Be Alive

I  have been working six days a week at my seasonal gig. Apparently nobody wants to work at the store I'm at so there is not a lot of help even from the help we do have. So, I've been given 6 days of duty and many more hours than I had ever wanted. I guess I'm grateful for the income, but not for the unrelenting tiredness that accompanies it. We went back into the freezer this weekend and that meant pulling all carts under cover and taking down all the baskets and tomorrow I get to undo all of it- probably by myself... Ugh! So in these last spare moments of freedom, I'm going to attempt to do some kind of recap.

I know I'm lazy and share a lot of photos that I've already posted to Instagram, so if you follow me there, sorry for the repeats. I've had a couple of good Craigslist scores this spring. One of them was actually exceptional stuff, but pricier than I'd normally go. The picture above is my keep pile from that score and there was much much more that headed to the shop. I was able to upgrade my BP 444 and pink 502 while completing my pink fridgies with another 501. My 503 is in very sad condition, so I'm crossing my fingers for an upgrade on that one!

We went down to the Le Sueur swap meet again this year after originally deciding to skip it, but I'm so glad we didn't! I don't have pictures of the rest of the stuff we found, but this red prystal faceted bakelite bangle was one of the last things I found. At $1 it was certainly the best buy of the day and it moved to the head of the class in my collection! I'll have to do a post about my other finds when I have time to take pictures. Sadly, I got no deals on anything else, but they were items that have been wanting so I thought I should make it worth the trip.

I've been looking for a new desk for the longest time, but never find anything I like or want to spend money on. I had found another desk on Craigslist at the same time as this that I would have preferred as it is more of a desk than this, but this one was too perfect to let slip away. It was originally delivered to a residence mere blocks from where I grew up, which is a small town in the middle of nowhere that no one has heard of and people rarely move away from. The most recent owners bought it from a vintage shop in Hopkins, which is where my shop is! It was so meant to be. As much as I crave atomic Mid Century, I just can't help myself with this style. It is already the perfect color and it fits all of the crap I've wanted hidden away, plus has space to display cute things! You can see the red Pyrex ramekin, jadeite canister, and orange 501 I got at the swap meet (which completes my Friendship fridgies-503 also could use an upgrade in this set.)  I also fit in TWO McCoy planters that I found at a thrift store recently! I'll have to take better pictures. 

We hit an epic estate sale that was run by the daughter of the deceased. Those kind of sales can either be high end eBay prices, or so good you feel compelled to buy it all! And I did, except a desk that simply wouldn't fit into the full Jeep. It was a small house with not a lot left, but I found a lot of great stuff to fill my shop and my own overflowing menagerie of junk. I got a tote full of Christmas for $2. A quick peek inside gave me a glimpse of a flocked Santa, which we all know I can't leave behind. I figured for the tote itself and the Santa, it would be worth it, but it was better than I could have imagined! TWO strands of glass garland that are both in great shape, glass horn ornaments, a flocked goose, bird clips-albeit broken, and so much more! I picked up another vintage jelly tote for myself, two yellow metal stands for only 50 cents each (my first finds and my cue to stay), a pink elephant that I will not be sharing with my shop owner, bakelite bar tools, a 475 verde square flowers for 50 cents, and a bunch of smalls. I am using the strainer as a hanging basket for one of my fuchsia plants. I also got a giant lamp that we still haven't taken out of the car. There was a lone lamp shade that was the biggest I've ever seen in my life and I sure wish I could have seen the lamp that it went with because it must have been grand!

We paid for upstairs stuff before going down the basement because we had so much stuff! I got a great garbage can that I hope to use as an umbrella holder or something in my someday home. I also found a turquoise wooden handled weed picking tool and a hanging basket watering bottle that I hope works. The shelf is really what made the sale though! It was $3 and took a lot of work to get off the wall. The screw was rusted into the concrete block, but with a little work, we were able to pull it through the hole. As you can see there was already a second hole, so I'm not too worried about it. I'm so in love with this piece and I can't wait to see where it hangs in my someday home! For my sanity, I really hope it isn't too far off. 

BJ came around the corner with a shopping cart at the thrift store on Thursday. We normally don't use carts except for at the Co-op, and that day we both got one! I was thrilled to see that he found the rest of the Spring Blossom 470s that I needed to complete my set. While this pattern gets a bad rap for being so common and a somewhat unflattering shade of green, it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first dishes pattern than we decided on when we started upgrading to adult living together. So after we found the Big Bertha, I decided to take all my SB off the shop pile, and add back into my own collection. The measuring cup I found says that it is for general household and photographic use only. I bought it because I thought that was quite interesting that it gives photographic rights right on the product! 

We found a ton of really great bakelite this weekend! It was all very reasonably priced and I just couldn't leave the stunning colors and fun shapes behind! I found two red with black marbling spacers, a flying saucer, a bookend, a squircle, and one that looks just like a slice of pineapple! I also found a couple that match set some pieces I've purchased there before.

BJ and I have both taken off this coming weekend for some garage sale-ing so I'll finally have 3 days off in a row! I'm hoping that I can catch up on some things in the afternoons, so maybe I'll actually get around to taking those pictures I talked about! With that, I'm off to bed so I can wake up and rehang a million baskets.