Thrift Finds

Having fun, just getting out, running errands, and checking out the sales. Let it be known that we need nothing at this point, but it's so much fun checking out other's "stuff". 

These finds include some vintage mushroom kitchen items for the store, a unique solar tea jug that's vintage 1972, this is to replace the one that kept leaking, and the wooden rack is for foil, wax paper, plastic wrap and paper towels. The metal cutter is built in to the wood for cutting. My daughter is packing this for her soon to be home.

We picked the vintage Tupperware divided trays and cups for the store, a vintage set of measuring cups and spoons that are aqua for her vintage kitchen, a Pyrex refrigerator bowl and the sifter was a thrift gift from my daughter's co-worker. They ventured out on a lunch hour and I was thrilled to have a new one that is easy to use and believe me I use my sifters. We also found another Pyrex clear casserole cover for the collection.

She selected three vintage sheets, leaving quite a few behind, that she thought she could work with and the rose Fire King plate she picked up for her sister's collection.

Last for this past week is this wonderful Herb book. Oh my goodness the information that is in it totally amazed me. Everything you need to know is in this book including recipes for soaps, lotions, healing recipes, how to grow them, harvest, preserve, and to tell you the truth I could spend days with this book. We've been quite selective although we should not be out hunting at all, but the urge will never die and the fun will never leave, so we'll keep on going. Thank you for stopping by and visiting and I hope your finds are as fun as ours. Have a wonderful weekend. 

Findings.

Okay I will admit that I am slowing down with the thrift shopping, garage sales and flea markets. I know, they're just getting started. Not that I wouldn't go out every day, but I've been trying to do too much. I think I'm way too domestic. Baking bread, growing herbs, yard work, (yes even in an apartment/townhouse), keeping up with friends and family and some where in there trying to have a little personal sewing time. We have been finding plenty.

We found a vintage McCoy palm leaf and berry vase/planter. I think this would be lovely with a foliage plant and maybe a pink flamingo pick in it. Just saying. We never pass up composition books. Great for organization. The vintage popcorn bowls always sell as do the danish fish trivets.

This week we chose an old sewing machine drawer. We've done many home decorating crafts with these, but this one we'll leave to someone else. This is my favorite up cycled project using a sewing machine drawer. It is mounted on the wall of our townhouse.

We were fortunate enough to fine two NIP 18 inch pillow forms. The price was too good to be true and there wasn't any way they were staying behind.

Also not left behind was this "yummy" piece of hand printed in Sweden fabric. It has some small rust stains, but it is such a good size piece that it didn't make the choice to take it hard.

Other linens and fabric included a double Noah's Ark sheet, a twin size retro floral sheet and a beautiful piece of lilac print purple and green yard good.

This vintage pastel floral sheet is a keeper. It will go in the collection. The Vera scarf is a good find, but the hem is raveling and will probably be used in a sewing project and the patriotic fabric was purchased for a dear friend who is collecting her own stash. 

So, that's what's new this week. Thank you for stopping by and checking things out. I wish everyone a safe and wonderful week.

Linking to: We Call It Junkin

Wet and chilly day, but we still went thrift shopping.

Here on the southern shore of lake Ontario it's still a bit cool. As a matter of fact we had frost warnings overnight. We are still two to three weeks from outdoor planting, but the urge is there to do it early. I think we'll go shopping while we wait for warmth enough to garden. 

Our search this past weekend found a couple of vintage sheets. My daughter will never pass up any sheet that is aqua and green. Those are her colors. I personally love the bright yellow poppy sheet.

We found some Raggedy Anne and Andy fabric that was reclaimed from curtains. The vintage 1972 linen towel is destined to be a pillow. That was the year my daughter was born and this one was truly seventies. I also found a package of vintage "seconds" clothespins and some strawberry metal trays still in the package that were sold through F.W. Woolworth Co. 

We will never again leave behind wooden pant hangers. The last bunch we listed on the store and they sold within days. If you see them at the right price get them.

A last second find was this bright sun dress. The red on the sides are large pockets. First thought was to alter it into an apron, but we may just sell it as is. It has the elastic bodice and may have had straps, but they can be put back on without a lot of work.

We found a bundle of fabrics for $1 and there are quite a few pieces we will use. The two yellow glass pieces are part of a lazy Susan that were just to bright yellow to leave behind. Set around a cheese board filled with crackers and the party is ready. The tea candles we'll use while sitting out evenings this summer and the bag of candles we got for a project we have been working on. We could have had two bags, but one was marked $1.98 and the other was marked $4.98. Couldn't figure out why the difference in price, but I bet you can guess which one was left behind. 

Just a couple weeks ago I posted about mini muffin tins and how I wanted a couple. Yes I found them then, but this weekend at the flea market I found two more and they were two for 25 cents. Yes that's right and the can opener and Tupperware measuring spoons were also 25 cents. The bread pan was on the list of things I'm looking for. When I downsized I got rid of all my baking pans for sizes that fit in my toaster oven. Now I want to bake more bread and have to replace the pans. One down, one to go. Canning jars will always come home as long as they are less than $1. I use them with my food saver for storage along with my  canning. Not all our finds are for the stores. There are a lot of items we look for to furnish our home and take care of ourselves. It's the way to do it. We call it shopping green.

Linking to: We call it Junkin

What else was in that trunk?

Well as you saw in last weeks blog post that the trunk was quite full, but it didn't reveal the treasures. We haven't gone out thrifting this week because we've been busy cleaning sorting and listing our finds. We believe that the universe is leading us in a direction and we don't mind at all. Fabric is something we love and enjoy. Finding it opens doors to all sorts of sewing projects. We do keep some of the fabric we find, but lately we've been listing it on the stores to supplement our income. Last week we found so many differnt fabrics and here I am to share them with you.

This is two bundles of what is called PUL fabric. Short for polyurethane laminated fabric which is used for diaper making, snack bags, mittens and microwavable potato pouches along with many other waterproof projects.

These are bundles of cotton interlock fabric advertised for diaper making, more PUL fabric and baby flannel prints. So many fun prints and colors. Just fell in love with them.

This is everything from cotton yard goods, cuff ribbing, and cotton interlock.

To break things up a bit there were these two bright red fish shot glasses.

This is what we found for linens. Vintage sheets are just so much fun, but let me tell you that there is almost six yards of army green corduroy. This we will keep to blend with other fabrics for bags.

 There was dress fabric. This is a polyester crepe type fabric in an off white shade.

This black fabric is Posh fabric which is used for lingerie or slip dresses. All of this has been listed on poetcharms.etsy.com and the sales are starting to come in. This has been an awesome week, but I think the motivation came from the fun prints and different kinds of fabric. I would love to keep it all, but that's just not possible. I've had many creative moments this week, but just had to hope it gets loved by others. 

We always wanted to specialize in fabric.

Thrifting has been so wonderful so far this year. Yes we've found things to make our lives easier and better, but when we started thrifting it was to supplement our income reselling fabric. This is what we enjoy more than anything and we have been blessed lately with great fabric finds. Sure I like to find my unusual bottles and jars along with those vintage items and household items, but it's the fabric that keeps me hopping. It's changing almost as fast as technology and every day I learn more and more about fabric. When I raised my family I made most of their clothes, knitted and crochet their sweaters, hats and mittens and did what I had to, to make ends meet. I can't change time, but I can enjoy what young mothers have to work with today.

The bottles this week were five Ikea spice type jars. I'm looking forward to putting my flavored sugars in them for gifts or company. I also found some tall bottles that are perfect for vanilla extract. Also for gift giving. 

There was so much fabric last week. Here there are some stretch knits that will make fun tank dresses that are great for over bathing suits and of course sheets.

Did some one say pink elephants? These two pieces of yard goods are fun vintage elephant prints. Just love them. 

There was brown stretch knit skirting fabric, black posh and a great piece of camouflage fabric. 

This pair includes a great piece of corduroy and a couple of yards of Christmas table cloth fabric. I know it will never be a table cloth, but the sewing ideas are spinning in my head. 

I love the daisy fabric in this picture. We also found more vintage scarfs, an Ikea bud vase and some 1970s Precious Moments recipe post cards. 

The picture frame was an awesome bargain. This may be used to hold pictures of my three grandchildren or some thrifted piece of art work. There are three pieces of the lovely floral fabric, yards of the robot interlock diaper fabric along with a snoopy coffee mug and a vintage trivet. My daughter spray paints these trivets and hangs them on the walls around our apartment. I have to admit they do look good as wall art.

The beautiful pink fabric in this picture is a vintage panel. All one piece, but two different versions of the flower. The angel is for my daughters collection. She also puts little collections on shelves on the wall. I think she just hates white apartment walls. The clamp on light she bought for our picture taking. 

And then there was this. My daughter works at a large college and one of her students came by on Saturday and we did it, yes we did it. Took her around to some of our favorite hunting spots and this is what they came home with. Next weeks partial blog because I will only blog what is ours. 

Yes that's a tiger in the trunk. It's a vintage needle punch rug. It will be dry cleaned and this student will use it as a wall hanging. It is huge and the price $12. So much work went into this. Needle punch is not easy and your hands hurt after a short time working. 

Yes they filled the trunk, but most of this will have to wait until next weeks blog. It will have to be sorted out and photographed, but as you can see they had a great time. I on the other hand only spent $3.43 for a set of double pointed knitting needles to finish some hats, five packages of double fold bias tape and one canning jar. My bag was so small but I can't wait to do it again. 

Thrift shops popping up all over. Fun hunting.

It seems like everyone is opening a thrift shop in any little spot they can find these days. It's been great and adventurous for us. The pickings have been bright and colorful and even the quality has been good. We have been out twice in the last week and have had so much fun. I hope it continues. We've found items for the store and items for our personal use. What a world!

First the personal use things we found. Yes four new food saver vacuum seal canisters. All four for $12. If we had purchased new almost $50.

Canning jars are always going to find their way to my kitchen. Cannot believe I've been finding them when it seems like everyone is looking for them. Total $4.

We found two Wilhold sewing boxes full of stuff and junk including candles, picture hanging hardware, needles and thread along with stuff that went directly into the trash. I think this is the first red one we've found. We also found a wear-ever cookie gun with all the parts and couldn't resist. I think my daughter is going to keep this and use it. I had one and sold it thinking I'd never make cookies again and sure enough there's one back in our lives.

These bright colored vintage Shel-Co plastic coffee cups were a fun find. I think it's the colors that attracted us to them.

Four yellow Mikasa light and lively coffee mugs are next.

More Pyrex in the form of a cooking pot with cover.

A great collection of vintage and reproduction cookbooks and a plastic Jesus.

For linens and fabric items we found 3 yards of black corduroy, some vintage curtain panels, a vintage Vera scarf and a darling white cotton sun dress that I may take apart for the fabric if after researching proves it's not something I should sell as is. 

This was the first of the two trips we took and what fun we had. In between shopping trips was lots of baking. Yes, baking. I had half a gallon of milk sour on me and I decided to use it instead of pour it down the drain. I made several different things and found all of the recipes on Pinterest.

First there was spice cake with cream cheese icing. I made two and cut them in half freezing three pieces for later.

12 pint size jars of sour milk chocolate cake along with Valentines day cupcakes and one small cake from the batter left for eating this week.

And my favorites were the pomegranate scones. I had made scones before but not in cast iron and I just had to try this new to me pan. They were awesome. So you can see that this gal keeps quite busy. Next time those teenage grandsons come to visit there will be treats for them to eat. The second thrifting journey netted so much more and I'll be working on that post for next week. So much to do, but just living life to the fullest makes this gal very happy. Life is good.