a thrifting we will go

I headed out on Saturday with my two middle boys. Our plan was to visit 3 craft shows to see if I wanted to sign up to be a vendor next year. We only made it to two sales, at a Methodist Church and my city's senior center. Turns out, they were more flea market and less craft show. I got lots of good deals so it wasn't a waste of time. (At least that's what I'm telling myself, lol.)

First up, I feel stupid, but what are these flowers? Despite the date on the calendar, they were still abloom outside the senior center.


Most of the things I'm showing off today were from the senior center. They had 3 tents and two porches outside, plus five rooms inside filled with all sorts of goodies. I'm going to have to visit their regular thrift shop in the future. Such great deals!

More of my favorite green in an index card box and covered dish, plus a delicate blue bowl filled with tiny metal ornaments for my grandmother-in-law's tabletop aluminum tree. I now have a collection of metal rose-covered trays. All the trays and those air mail envelopes will probably go up on Etsy real soon.

The wallpaper was from last week's visit to Salvation Army for orange pumpkin fabrics. I want to use it on the insets of two wooden cabinets I have. They are now painted a bright white. I think I'll need to change that to go with the cream and green of the wallpaper. Might be too big of a project to add to our never-ending list of projects so it will probably become shelf liner.


At both sales, I bought a lot of books -- and the cowboy puzzle. The knitting book of men's sweater patterns will be going up on Etsy since I don't knit. The little books of presidents (and Ben Franklin) are full of fun facts. (Speaking of fun facts, I also bought a large tome for dh's office. It is a 1911 Standard Dictionary of Facts. Nice contrast to the high-tech world of a newspaper new media director, lol.)


I loooved the graphics of the Penn Dutch ABCs and the Country Living book joins many friends that already reside in my living room. The best deal of the day was the Bobby Flay book. Got is for a buck and when I got it home, saw that it is signed. That's going on eBay!!!!


Buttons, buttons everywhere. All these buttons were contained in 3 ziploc bags priced $1 each. They had dozens of bags but I resisted. (It bugged me that the woman before me was trying to negotiate down the price per bag -- it was a fundraiser for the seniors and she couldn't pay a buck each?)


The two pillowcases in the back left, the green sheet in the background and the pink sheet on the right are from my trip to SA. The pink one is newer but was 25¢, so how could I pass it up. The two floral fabrics on the upper right seem like homespun, the floral on the bottom left is Waverly and the white eyelet is a dust ruffle (a 50¢ bargain) and were all from the senior center.


As were all of these trims and notions. Most were contained in a bag for $2, along with everything in the next 3 photos. The senior ladies were discussing the cost of new fabric and I told them that's why I shop vintage!!!! (See why I want to go back to their thrift store?)

The white gloves were from a garage sale across the street from my house. The wife passed away a few months ago and the husband is now in the hospital. So sad.


I have a new love for these embroidered trims. Now to find a use for them....


Lots of little bits of ribbon. Gift wrapping? Ribbon roses?


And I've decided I can't have enough eyelet and other white trims. LOL


Joining two previous inhabitants is Ginny the Boyd Bear on the right. She moved here from the house across the street. My youngest decided she needed to lose the hat. Can't you picture them sitting in their Adirondack chairs overlooking the lake and enjoying the fall-colored mountains? That warrants a road trip with them. I can just see the looks on my boys' faces when I suggest it.

Lastly, I've become one of those flea market people. I found this cart at SA for $2.49. It will come in handy when I sell at craft shows too.


Now I need to find places for everything to go. My dining room studio is crowded as it is. Between getting ready for shows and moving everything upstairs from the basement so we can refinish down there, there's no room to walk much less craft. Send out a search party if you don't hear from me in a few days, lol.