Today's Junk Finds - Favorite Thrifty Hang Out

I was so excited to take a little adventure today. I visited my local GW and my absolute FAVORITE thrift store and found some treasures - of course! At the thrift store, I found some great vintage silver plated items - A beauty of a tea pot ($2.50), sugar and creamer (.50/pair), serving tray ($1), and a casserole holder (.50) minus the glass casserole. I'll use the casserole holder for chimes and possibly the tea pot as well. Or, the tea pot may become part of a Christmas display (yes - I said CHRISTMAS not holiday - please don't call the politically correct police). Some old wooden coasters (.50) will get shabbied up a bit with paint, set of 4 brandy glasses ($1.50) will become cloches, some china pieces for mosaics that I'll start on soon, some other glass pieces (about .50 each), a grapevine type swag ($2.50 for about 16') will become little nests in cloches and wine glasses, among a few other things. I love the 2 pink sheers ($4.00) and I'll use them in my craft booth near my Shabby Chic junk at upcoming fall shows. Grand total for this haul was only $22.00! I LOVE it all.

Deer in the Garden

This little cutie spends time frolicking in the river and then spends time frolicking in the flower gardens eating off the tops of my flowers! Yesterday I stood in my kitchen making a pie while one of her babies watched me without my knowing. When I looked up, we met eyes and when I went to get my camera, the baby was gone. I went out to move the sprinkler in one of my flower beds awhile later and we startled each other again. The little stinker was eating flower tops again!

Tricked-Out Silverplated Pink Compote

This is an older project, but thought I'd post it anyway. I used an old silverplated compote, shabbied it up with a bit of pink paint, & distressed the edges for more Shabby Chic appeal. I then wove a length of mint green ribbon through the filigree openings, added an old pink glass broach & some glass prisms for some BLING.

Junk Haul from Last Week

Here are a few of the things I got last week, including an old clock with hands but no movement pieces on the back, a wire wall basket, an old wooden perpetual calendar, a vintage wood 3-shelf deally backed by a mirror, lots of glass pieces for totems, an old candy tin with sewing notions and my favorite & a keeper - an old metal stool similar to what you might find in a laboratory. The seat was shiny chrome with a couple of rusty glass rings. I sprayed poly on the seat to preserve the rust - YES - to preserve the rust! There's plenty to keep me a little busy with this stuff!

FREE WINDOWS

I cannot wait to start some painting projects with them. I took them all to my junk storage rental to let them dry off for a few days. I'll make some into chalkboard/corkboard message centers and also paint some Americana Flags on the single paned ones. Then I'll cart them off to some of the shops I sell in and save the rest for the fall Arts & Crafts shows that I'll be in. Woohoo!

FREE WINDOWS

Yesterday I hit the jackpot on free old wood framed windows. I posted a "wanted" on Craiglist and had only one reply. A guy had remodeled his house and put new windows in. Long story short, I got 14 free windows for future projects. Six windows had 3 panes and six had single panes. It took two hours today, a hose, 4 buckets of Murphy's Oil Soap, Comet, a Magic Eraser and a scrub brush to get the filth off them.

Take the Time to Help Someone Get to Where They are Going...

Yesterday morning I went out to get some paint at the hardware store. When I came out, an elderly lady (picture white hair, frail, maybe 85 years old) was just pulling into the spot next to me when I started backing out. She kind of waved me over to her car so I turned my engine off and walked over to her window. She asked me how to get to a road that was about 15 miles away. She actually had tears in her eyes when she told me that she was a little confused and wasn't sure how to get there. This frail, petite lady was dressed to the nines and looked like she was a very prim and proper little gal.

I asked her if she wanted to take the highway or the back-roads. Again, with tears in her eyes, she replied that she couldn't take the highway. (Now, this was not on my agenda, I had flowers to plant and pieces to paint). I told her that I would be driving south for a mile or so and where I turned right - she should turn left and stay on that road for about 15 miles and it would take her right to the road that she wanted to go to. I thought she was going to cry right there! Finally, I said, I'll drive to the very road that she wanted to go to and she could follow me. With big tears in her eyes, she couldn't thank me enough for taking the time to go out of my way to get her there. We traveled along, me leading, her following, until we got about a mile away from the road that she wanted to get to. She evidently started recognizing the streets and we were passing and found the road that would lead her to her destination, and turned off.

I'm sure you know the feeling that I got - she thought that I was doing her a favor, when instead, she was doing me a favor. Someday I may be wearing her shoes. a bit confused, and need someone else to take the time out of their busy day to help me get to where I'm going.

While I was out where I didn't have plans to be yesterday, I hit a few garage sales that netted me some pretty nifty things - so the trip was certainly meant to be!

JunkerMidge T-Shirt Giveaway!!

My friend JunkerMidge is giving away a free I heart Junk T-Shirt so be sure to check out her cool blog for your chance to win!!

http://refunctionjunktion.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-first-giveaway-hope-it-fits-you-to.html

Contents of $2 box! Lots of mugs and dishes and a couple of pieces of Spode Christmas Tree! Also a vintage Thermos with a red cup lid and a cork stopper that I've never seen before.

30 Hay Wagon Estate Sale Today!

I ventured off the couch after being sick all week and at the urging of lots of my junking buddies at the Junk Revolution, I headed to an Estate sale where the load everything up on haywagons and park them all over the front yard, side yard and back yard. Their barn was also full of antique furniture and goodies.

This was most of my haul for the day.

Large picture frame $1

Small picture frame 50¢

White frame 50¢

Mesh wire book stand $1

Small square table $1

Wood doll bed $1

Tweed sewing machine case 50¢

Samsonite aqua train case with sewing notions $2

Box of Therm-o-ware + other junk $4

Box of junk $2 which contained 2 pieces of Spode Christmas Tree among other goodies

Turquoise rimmed enamelware double boiler $6

5 or 6 pieces of silverplate $2

Green vintage cash box $1

Vintage electric alarm clock 50¢

Box of hinges and knobs 25¢

2 vintage drawing compasses 50¢ each

3 burlap looking tabbed valances 25¢ each

Ceiling medallion 10¢

various other goodies about $2

Well, this blogging stuff hasn't gone the way I had hope it would. It seems like one thing after another has kept me away. Right after our trip to Alaska, I had eye surgery that kept my vision fluctuating for a couple of weeks. Then, I've not been working on a single project since before we left for Alaska so there's nothing new in that category. Saturday night I came down with a bad case of the flu or food poisoning that has really kicked my butt. I've been in bed or on the couch since 3:00 am Sunday morning and I'm getting sick and tired of being sick and tired darn it!

I don't have any new projects so I'll try to post some garage sale finds from a couple of weeks ago...coming soon.