First Estate Sale

I've attended a lot of auctions and gone to plenty of garage/yard sales, but I had never gone to an estate sale. I mean, the kind where you actually go into someone's house and everything is for sale. I found one advertised last week here in town, and decided to go check it out over my lunch hour.

At first, I was a little disappointed, because the dining room table was covered in all kinds of pretty glassware, but it was all more than I wanted to spend. Let's face it. I'm cheap. But then I thought, "Hey! I should go check out the kitchen!" And that's where the fun started! I just started gathering stuff up and taking it to the front table to wait for me!



I got a couple sapphire blue Fire King dishes, a salt and pepper shaker set (I realized later it had been repaired - a lot), a pretty china tray, an old red letter Pyrex liquid measuring cup, four vintage tablecloths, a cute travel alarm clock, a pretty blue plastic jewelry box, an aqua and cream pitcher and tumblers, and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff! It sounds a little creepy, but I found it pretty stinkin' awesome to walk through someone's house and know that it was all for sale!

I spent a lot of the weekend trying to get some old stains out of the vintage tablecloths, but I think I did a pretty good job! One was already perfect, one will be staying with me, because I discovered a lot of tiny holes in it, and the other two are in fine vintage shape, so I feel comfortable selling them. I can certainly see how easy it would be to get addicted to vintage linens! If I entertained more, I'd probably start collecting them myself!

(Just so you know, the two items pictured above are available in our Etsy shop! :)

I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

One Saturday - Two Auctions

This weekend, Roger and I each took a kid and set out to separate auctions. They were both indoors, but mine was air-conditioned! :) I took Sally with me. I made sure to dress her cute, so if she decided to act monstrous, maybe her cuteness would balance it out. In the end, she was pretty darn good and made lots of new friends! She was the belle of the auction, I would say!

Here's what I came home with:




There were about 30 lady's head vases at this auction. I fell in love with the white and red one, because red is my favorite color. I'll probably be keeping her. The blue one will be going into the shop very soon. She is not only a vase, but can actually hang on the wall, as her back is flat.



There were also a ton of cookie jars. Most of them were in this style but in different colors and patterns. I just loved the bright colors on these two. One may stay with me. Maybe.



The highchair was one of those things that was selling for so cheap, I just snatched it up. It wasn't until much later that I really noticed the decal was of a bear with a sewing machine!

I also bought another Singer treadle machine. I had no intention of bidding on that machine when I got to the auction. It wasn't until I realized it was going to sell for nothing that I knew it needed to come home with me. Roger keeps asking what we're going to do with it. Storage, for now. It's a nice clean machine. It just needs to age for a bit.

Roger's auction was much pricier and not as much fun. The auctioneer was terrible. Just a note to any auctioneers out there who are listening. Don't be a jerk. Don't be rude to your buyers. And don't use your employees to run up the bids. Now, I don't have a problem with auction employees bidding on items when it's now and then and something they truly want to buy. It's when they're bidding on every. single. thing. that it gets annoying. Roger said he managed to drop a few items on them, but wasn't even sure they cared. We'll be avoiding this guy's autions in the future.

So, what did he manage to buy?



These playing card tiles. We're not at all sure how they were used, but he knew I would like them. They might be ivory backed with bamboo, but we're not at all sure. Maybe bone? They don't seem to be bake-lite. I couldn't get any kind of scent when I rubbed them. I'd love to hear from anyone with an idea on these!



He bought a flat of salt dips, because the owner of our antique store had told us that he has a collector who comes in regularly looking for these.



And, these little miniatures. Most of them are about 1 - 1 1/2 inches tall. They're made of brass, and adorable! I've always liked miniatures.

He also brought home a few other treasures, and three gold rings that I need to take to the jeweler to sell for scrap today. He better hope those rings make up for going over budget! And, for a couple of things I like to call "Roger's Follies". That'll be a special feature later on this week!

Today, I'm linking up with Her Library Adventures! Check out the other great finds from last week!

Salt & Peppers

I'm not usually a salt and pepper kind of girl. I just don't get the appeal. They're cute and all, but why in the world would you need hundreds of sets? Then I saw the salt and peppers at this auction! There were a lot of the regular ones you see all the time, but then there were some that were so clever, that I just couldn't resist! I may have gone a little overboard with a few of these. Now, remember, these photos were taken immediately after the auction, so they were still a bit grungy.

How cute is the toaster? You push down the lever and the little slices of toast pop up! White toast for the salt and brown toast for the pepper!

And, why wouldn't you want this on your picnic table?

A mixer salt and pepper shaker! And the beaters are the actual shakers! You just pull them off and add some salt and pepper to your food! (Not a lot of salt and pepper, obviously, but hey! we should all be watching our sodium intake, right?)

This fruit basket was pretty much my favorite. I love that the pineapple and lemon (apple?) are the shakers and the entire top comes off to reveal the sugar bowl underneath!

This one is to use with your tv dinner! (har har) When you turn the knob to "on" the shakers pop up from the top.



This one has a story to go with it. The first night of the auction we bought a flat of miscellaneous and mismatched shakers. We found the little tiny white salt shaker in the box, but no matching pepper. When we went back to the auction the next day, we found this little wringer washer shaker set missing its salt shaker! I immediately realized that I had the missing salt at home. I made sure to keep an eye on this box, so I could bid on it or at least offer to mail the salt shaker to the winning bidder. I won the box for almost nothing and was able to reunite the salt and pepper. I think this one is going to stay with me. It's red, you know, and I love red things.

Curbside Pickin's

I work in the real estate industry, and yesterday, a realtor gave me a tip! She said she'd just left a property that had closed that morning and there was a bunch of stuff marked "free" sitting at the curb! So, after work, I took a little detour to check it out!

I managed to pull a handful of treasures out the pile - The green and brown pot has a Haeger sticker on it. It appears to have been used to hold pens and pencils, because there are a couple hard blobs of ink on the inside. There were the two milk glass pieces. (How do you tell if it's "real" milk glass?)

The pie plate is Pyrex, but when I got home I realized it has the word "microwave" on it, so it's not really vintage. Still, it's a nice pie plate, so I'll either add it to my own kitchen or pass it on to someone who actually makes pie.

There was a matching sugar bowl to go with the creamer, but it was chipped. I snagged the creamer because of the cute pink flower on it. It's marked "Pink-a-Dilly" and Franciscan.

The pinkish soup mug is Frankoma. I'm in love with its color. The white dishes are marked "Calif USA 259". They're part of a chip and dip set, it seems, but I'm missing the middle bowl. I may have to track down the bowl. From what I've seen on-line it comes in different colors.

What I'm not showing you is the stack of vintage fabric I dug out of the 3 or 4 HUGE boxes of fabrics sitting at the curb. I've got about half of them washed.

While I was "picking", the new owner of the property showed up. He's a regular customer of ours, so I sheepishly said, "Hello!" and told him the realtor had sent me. He laughed, "I caught you red-handed, didn't I?" He invited me into the house and showed me a couple desks he wants to get rid of, but I wasn't interested in taking home anything so big!

Anyway, this was a fun little surprise haul, and the price was definitely right!

Blue June's Retro Deco

We did it! (Actually, I did it.) Roger and I opened our Etsy store last night. I've got just a couple listings up at the moment, but more in my queue. I'll be putting up a few things every evening.

After weeks of debating and discussing and agonizing, we chose the name "Blue June's Retro Deco". Roger is working on the logo, but I wanted to start selling, so I decided not to wait for him! :)

We also have a Facebook page here. So, go "like" it!

BUSY!!

The weekend before this past one, Roger and I went to the biggest auction of the summer. Part of it was held on Friday evening and the second part on Saturday. The seller was a gentlemen who had planned to open an antique store with his wife a number of years ago. Unfortunately, she passed away unexpectedly, and he lost his interest in the business. So, this sale was pretty much all antique and vintage items. No random household junk. Just the good stuff!

We bought LOTS! This will give me enough blogging material for all week! (I was too busy last week to tell you about this, but that's okay, because we took this past weekend off and went to the zoo with the kids, instead!)

I've been trying to figure out what to show you and when! How to categorize it all! Today, I'm showing the stuff we're keeping. The stuff we bought for our own collections.



I saw this pretty little fairy in a box of stuff and fell in love! Look at her cute bobbed hair and colorful wings! The bottom is marked Germany. I was pretty sure I was going to have to fight for it, but it went for $5. I realized later why. The front has a big chip, but that's okay! I love her anyway!



The toy sewing machine on the right was my big purchase for the weekend. Roger was doing the bidding for me. I told him to go up to $50. He won the bid for $55. I love the art deco decals on this one! It will be a great addition to my collection. The beat up one on the left needs some TLC, but it will have a good home with us, anyway!



This will probably be the most expensive lamp I ever own. Roger saw it on Friday night and could hardly contain himself. He has been wanting a piece of trench art for his World War I collection, and this one surpassed his wildest dreams, I think. It is made out of a shell and carved with the word "Verdun". (Remember the Battle of Verdun? That was a big one, right?) It's really a nice piece! It didn't have a shade of any sort, but Roger added an authentic helmet to it when he got it home. It was pretty funny to watch him bid. He said his heart was about to jump out of his chest! And, I'm supposed to be the "emotional" bidder!



Roger's bachelor's degree is in Art, so our house is full of art. We always check out the pictures at auctions. Roger assures me that this pretty little picture is actually quite seductive and downright naughty! See the way she's lifting her dress and part of her breast is exposed? Those crazy Victorians! Roger says he'll hang it up high so the children won't be corrupted.



This is a very nice etching (so I'm told) of a fox hunt. Can you find the hiding fox?

So, that's it for today! I've got plenty more to show you though! And we've chosen a name for our new vintage business! More on that later!

I'll be linking this up to Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl!

How Does This Happen?

Never in my life have I spent $100 at a garage sale. Except in the last two weeks. We were actually planning on taking the weekend off. We had too many other things going on. But, we ended up in Newton on Saturday morning, and Roger said, "We should check out some garage sales!" We didn't even have the classifieds to go by; we just followed the signs.




I found the two biggest of these spools at one of our first stops. Roger picked up the other three at another sale a few weeks ago. I love these things! I always admire them at antique stores, but haven't been willing to shell out the money for them, because you can't have just one! These were a steal! (They probably won't be going up for sale. Well, maybe one or two of them will.)



I also found this little teapot. It's marked "Made in Italy for Creative Playthings Inc." I haven't done any research yet, but for a buck, I figured I'd take a chance!



These two boxes were marked at $5 each. I was admiring them, but Roger was running out of cash, so I was going to pass on them. The seller offered to give them to me for a buck - for both! SOLD!

Our final stop of the day was the big $100 sale! There were lots of great items. I was admiring the things on the table, while Roger was looking at bikes. We came home with three bikes.



I'm partial to the one with the banana seat and baskets.



This Hotpoint iron doesn't have it's cord, but I figure it will be used for display and not ironing, so that's okay!



I saw this adorable, completely unused baby book and had to grab it! The copyright is 1951, and the illustrations are fantastic!



I found Ken in a shoe box. He's dated 1968 and has a speaker on his back, so I think he used to talk, probably by a pull string which is also gone. I got home and found out that his head isn't very firmly attached either. BUT, he's got a great wardrobe! Some of the clothes have tears, but many of them are perfect. I'm going to try to clean them up. I especially love the ski poles and flippers.

We also picked up a few other things - wooden antique billy club, a candy/small toy Toys N Joy vending machine and a fun postcard.

This coming weekend we're heading to a HUGE antique auction. We've been looking forward to this for a while. We'll see if we can afford anything!

I'm linking this up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!