Was good. Really good! There have been a few other sales that I didn’t go to. It’d be like one 60 miles away with nothing else going on, so I’ve stayed around home. But Saturday, the itch had just about done me in. I still didn’t want to drive over 100 miles round trip for one sale, so decided to go spend the day with Erin and go to all the thrift stores in her area. They’ve got some good ones. What they don’t normally have, is estate sales. My theory is that since they don’t have estate sales, people donate their estates to the thrifts. Of course that does not explain why our local thrift store is so crappy. We don’t have many estate sales here, either.
On the way, she called and said Chris had been out and saw a house with a sign in front of it. God Bless him! We’d have found it anyway, it was in our line of travels, but he told her about it. We do want to encourage that.
Small, unassuming house.
Looks prim and neat on the outside, doesn’t it? We got inside and, well, there wasn’t a lot of stuff, but the stuff it had was fun. The inside was definitely not as nice as the outside, though. The kitchen was tiny and icky, the other rooms tiny and in disrepair. Those homes always make my heart hurt a little to know someone actually lived there. I suppose it might have been vacant for awhile, but still… And this lady had been a home ec teacher.
Erin and I went in separate directions. I found the book room and left it before looking at the hundreds of books, thinking I’d go back. I forgot. Pooh. Erin, however, found the room with the vintage clothes. She got first pick and I took what she didn’t want.
Something happened to my brain. As I think back now, I wonder what I passed up. Why I didn’t just buy EVERYTHING? What was piled up on that bed? Might it have been good stuff and I was too sale-fuzzled to see it? It had been such a drought and to see all this fun, stuff… My kind of stuff! Are you sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting with baited breath to see what we bought? I know you are. LOL Now, keep in mind, we were 4 hours late, but here it is.
Oh, but first, here’s the trunk and back seat of the car loaded up.
There was an upstairs. One bedroom and an attic space upstairs. The bedroom had patterns and old fashion and sewing books. We think there were 5 boxes of patterns all from the 1940′s – the 1980′s. Erin actually spotted them first, but she didn’t have enough money to buy them all, so we split the price. But, God love her, she toted some of the boxes downstairs before one of the men there offered to help. When we got back to her house, we spilled them out and started sorting.
That’s not all the patterns. We estimate around 200 of them. What else did I get?
An intact, 1941, Art Deco calendar, pictures of what appears to be either a bridal party or something fancy, a fun, little, red plaid, file folder thingy, old box of colored pencils and two Vita Food, brewer’s yeast tins, one holding a small collection of old stamps. I didn’t know this until I opened it right before taking the picture to see what that was softly rattling inside. I though it was yeast. That was a nice surprise.
Most of the books are fashion and sewing related. One 1972, Spadea pattern catalog. The son said he’d sold some old Vogue catalogs on eBay. I’d have loved to have been the one to sell them, but I guess he should have first dibs. Hrmph. In this stack, you can even learn how to make your own shoes! There’s a book on draping design and one or two… or three… on flat design. One on making men’s suits. Some old weaving magazines from 1951 and 52. These will all start going up on auction tonight. I’ll be working hard on them today.
A bag for empty spools. How fun! (And already spoken for.)
One of the vintage dresses. I bought another and a nightgown, but they have stains and are still at home.
A bunch of old crepe paper roses. These are large, like about 4″ diameter!
And what am I keeping out the goodies? There’s always something. This time it’s this:
I can’t decide if the blue is some sort of plastic or if it’s enamel, but one of my spatulas broke and the other is lost. So now I have a cool, blue spatula!
~~~
All that brings me back to the give-away. I’m adding one of the crepe paper flowers to the Vintage Valentine Give-away.
I’m also adding this 1964 letter to a friend:
So now, the giveaway has those two things added to the vintage Valentines and the old, heart, chocolates box.
Remember any and all comments made on any post this month enters you into the give-away. Good luck!
i really want to win! i would die to have that crepe paper flower! i have had that shopping itch too! at the end of a shopping day half of me is thrilled about what i found and the other half is terrified about what i missed! sometimes i get sensory overload and can’t see a thing! oh the woes of shopping! you did good!
p.s. love the “empty spools” bag…are you putting that on ebay?
It looks like you girls had a alot of fun!
Thats some load of patterns!
Wow! you certainly hit the fun and unique jackpot. Thanks for your kind comments on my blog…it was a tough decision but I know it was the right one.
{{gypsy hugs}}
Beth
Be still my heart! That’s my kind of sale for sure. I would have been in heaven and only dear people like you can understand. I have been doing this for so many years and my poor better half still doesn’t get it but he does smile at the money I make. Love it all…especially the roses. I went to a similar sale last year at a very small unassuming home where the owners had died and the kids were cleaning up. I made a haul and my front porch looks wonderful with the old twisted wire plant stand on it that I bought for $2.00.
Wanda it was so nice to see you. You probably don’t remember me from Adam but your blog was one I visited when I first started blogging in ’07. I loved it because of the title: “excuse me while I buy this junk”.
I hope you will visit again real soon. xoxo Lynn
Wanda, are you selling the crepe paper flowers? I would love to have some. Please, please let me know. and thanks. xo
I really hate that I missed that sale! I saw the sign earlier in the week but thought we would be gone to a wrestling event. Turns out we did not go but I got the crud and spent the weekend medicated and in bed. You know I felt bad if I didn’t drag myself out of the bed for an estate sale!!! I’m glad you got some good stuff!
Ooh! You got lots of fun stuff!
Awww I wanna go with you gals ! You find the bestest stuff.
No one has tried to eat a glitter cake…yet … but someone did pick up an artificial apple out of a basket in the shop and put some nice big teeth marks in it LOL.
(())
Feel free to package me up some of those goodies!!! I love estate sales but don’t go often because I have little kiddos with me. Great finds…I am a little (lot) jealous.
WOW that’s a lot of patterns! I’m jealous you got to go to an estate sale
You really did score some great stuff too!! A whole bag of spools…too fun!
You sure scored!! Hope your luck stays with you for many sales to come!!!
Wanda, I think you must have the coolest blog ever. I have enjoyed my look around your place so much. I can’t believe I’ve never found you before.
You really hit the jackpot with this little house. My daughter is amazing at sniffing out all the great estate sales in Boise. I wish she would teach me her skill.
Thank you for your lovely comment.
Hugs
Oh, I love, love, love vintage valentines of all ages…but these look like they are from my childhood!
Another Wanda! And one who loves junk! Yay! Wish I had been with you at that sale
… I have to tell you, your pics of your chaos look like my house – do you think it has something to do with our name?? (I think I looked it up once – “shepherdess”??) Do we just “shepherd” our junk? LOL! Love those paper roses – would love to win your valentine giveaway!
What a great sale. You found lots of fun things. That spool bag is so cute. And the 40′s dress, great color. It’s so fun sorting through treasures, isn’t it? Love the valentines and crepe paper flowers. Very cute.
Have a good weekend,
Kitty
Oh my goodness…love all the things that you did end up buying. Those children’s Valentine’s are just the cutest!
Hugz,
Michele
Wow, great stuff.
Didn’t know you were on ebay. Cool!
Thanks for the visit to my shameless plug.
You are right we all have to do it sometimes.
Chat soon,
Rosemary
Oh my………now, that’s a HAUL! Good for you…..I wish I could come across a big collection of patterns like that. I saw a McCall’s pattern in the blogworld several days ago……..it was for ROSES! I so wish it were mine.
Warm blessings,
Spencer
Boy, do I ever wish I could find a sale like that!! Great finds!!
(And this giveaway sounds pretty cool, too!)
wow, that was a cool sale. I don’t think we have anything like that around here. here (in rural PA), it would be an auction at the house or the stuff would be hauled to some other site for an auction. I go to lots of those and write about them in my blog. very interesting!
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love Vintage clothing as those are beautiful and unique and can offer terrific value depending on the piece. Vintage clothes are also a cost-effective way to celebrate yesterday’s fashions while creating your own personal style.
Wanda, Just found your site, LOVE it!! What a great sale you found and scored at! Gotta love sales like that. I noticed in the picture of the books one titled “Summit” by Gilliland. I was wondering if it was about Summit County, Colorado? I happen to live in Colorado and my husband’s ancestors helped found a town called Frisco in Summit County. I am thinking this book was one written about it.