Fun and Games

I have been so busy that a large amount of the "Estate Sale of the Century" finds have been sitting just waiting for me to take the time to open, admire and share.

I think it says something that I haven't gotten around to going through all the packages that I purchased, but more about that later. On the plus side, it should help me from doing more shopping since I can just dig in to this bag of treasures when I feel the need.

Yeah, like that happened.

I just had to stop at another estate sale this Thursday. Hit the mother-lode of "Made in Japan" vintage chenille package ties and vintage velvet ribbons. I try to kid myself that I do not have a problem by hiding them in the stash of items from the last sale. So if it seems that I post time and time again about the incredible finds of this sale, I might be lying. But I digress.

Every crafter, scrapper and altering artist knows that we have a thing and I mean a thing, for games. Vintage game pieces, bingo cards, and the like just seem to send us in a frenzy. I don't play bingo, Scrabble or checkers, but I'll' be damned if I can't find a way to stick a game piece on any random layout, card or tag and trust me, I am not alone.

So, of course, when I saw they had a table full of toys and such, I was there throwing things in my bag almost sight unseen.


There was a bag of about 40 mixed vintage wood checkers for $1.50. In addition, I grabbed two more complete boxes of 24 for $1.00 each. What I will do with 70+ checkers is not really the point, so don't ask me about it again.




Okay, this find really made my heart skip a beat. A while back, my awesome pal Pete had sent me a link to an Etsy seller that had some of these cards for sale. My exact comment to her was "Why can't I ever find these?" Low and behold, three weeks later, here they were! Now they weren't black like the cards we saw, but I grabbed them up for $2. I wasn't sure what I would do with them since the red didn't really jive with the Halloween vibe I was going for, but once again, it was Pete to the rescue.....Vintage Inspired Gothic Valentines. How cool is that? Almost as cool as having a friend with inspiration to spare.

What is it about Bingo that we love so much? Again, I have cards on layouts, tags and all sort of altered items, and don't get me wrong they look awesome. I can't resist them, but why? I don't play Bingo. The only person I know that plays Bingo is my Ex and as much as I would love to do a layout about him only leaving the house to go gambling at the Bingo parlor with his Mommy and his Aunties, I think it might be seen as mean....... Okay, back on topic, now. I found this complete vintage Bingo set including cards, markers and all for $2.


Get a load of this awesome set of dominoes. Do you see the lovely dotted texture on the marker side? How about the incredible detailed engraving on the back. The fact that they are tagged Japan..... *sigh*.........and all for the price of a candy bar.



Finally, I found this huge bag of vintage letters. I am assuming they were from some game. Maybe a spelling or school game? I thought they would be great to spell out a page title or one of those altered and inspirational sayings like this.........

Or maybe this.........

Estate Sale of the Century

Last Friday, I hit my personal estate sale lottery. It was just the most amazing sale. A break out in cold sweat, oh my word I must have everything in this house, heart pounding, frenzy of an estate sale.

I know, I need help.

I know I do.

But really, you had to be there.

I walked out with about 5 bags stuffed full of all of my favorite vintage finds and more. I just have to share with someone, so its going to have to be here. It will take numerous posts and I hope you stick with me and share my excitement. If not, I hope you realize I *know* that I have issues and this is one of them. Besides, my only other option is to share with Jon and I fear that will lead to an episode of "Hoarders" in my near future.

On to the good stuff!!

This was in the garage. On the floor. Tossed aside. I picked it up because I am nosy and pick up everything not nailed down. Then I started a little bit of hyperventilating. That is not an exaggeration. It was about 110 degrees in the garage, so can I blame it on that?

I saw a glimpse of something special in the bag, but didn't want to let on and perhaps jack up the price. See how I am slick like that? So all nonchalant, I asked for the price. He said, "Is a dollar too much?" I said I had a dollar handy and I was good to go! When I got home, look at the treasure I found..............

This was the $1 bag as I found it.

This is a peek in the bag, a glimpse of what I first saw.

Once I sorted it all out, this is what I found.....*sigh*

There were about 3 dozen of these pink, sugary, glittery bells. I have never seen them this small before, just about about 1/4 inch tall. Made in Japan and with perfectly tarnished mercury glass beads in the center of each.

There were some small spun cotton birds, dainty and covered with clear glass glitter.

The majority of the bag were these vintage flowers. They are perfectly aged in a way that tea dying just can not achieve and so delicately made out of amazing crepe paper.

Look at the subtle hint of the original pale pink in each of the buds.

A handful of aged mercury glass beads.

Aren't these just the most adorable acorn tops?

Okay, this one is just weird. Strange angel face. I don't know if he would bless me or not and that is the most un-fluffy cloud I have ever seen, plastic or not.

An orchestra of pink angels. Look at the way the gold on the wings has achieved the perfect patina. The worn gold with a tinge of aqua and green. These normally wouldn't be my style, but I admit, I don't see myself giving these up any time soon.

Here are the lovely angels in chartreuse.

And again in baby blue.

The complete Heavenly band.

I can't tell you how happy these kinds of finds make me. It is such a silly thing, but it just seems like such a score. I know its not important in the grand scheme of things. Its just stuff. Stuff. Stuff that will probably end up in a bag in my garage 20+ years down the road from now. Stuff that will make my son wonder why did she keep all this crap? Make him say "I knew she was crazy for craft supplies and Christmas decorations but damn, this is kind of just ridiculous." "Let's just put a $1 price tag on all of it and hope it sells."

I know that stuff won't make you truly happy in the end.

But for now, it does.

And I am okay with that for the most part.

Besides, its officially my stuff now. Mine. While I have it, I am going to love it, enjoy it and maybe even eventually share it.