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.

In the Midnight Hour

I posted last about the tag swap on Two Peas in a Bucket. I signed up for two spots and following is the tag that I completed for my Vintage Halloween group.

I was immediately drawn to this image of the woman in the Victorian bat costume. I think the fact that she was also a "lady"made me feel like it tied in to the first group as well. I went round and round with ideas but none of them seemed to work out, including a lid on the coffin or "lining" the coffin somehow with fabric. This one came together at the very last minute, of course, and was nothing like I had originally imagined. All in all, though, I really like the final result.

Here are the pictures of the finished project along with a listing of the techniques and embellishments used.

1. Hand cut coffin shape from textured Bazzill paper;
2. Hand cut and dry emboss wood grain texture on purple metallic paper;
3. Hand cut, piece and layer lady image; ink costume; glitter shoes; attach with pop dots;
4. Add vintage bat rhinestone from one of my favorite Etsy sellers as belt;
5. Die cut, dry emboss, ink and glitter clock base on gold textured paper;
6. Add Mother of Pearl button for clock face;
7. Modge Podge vintage moon image to vintage bingo marker and add to clock face;
8. Glue Moss bottom of tag;
9. Cut piece of velvet embossed tulle;
10. Tie bottom with beaded trim; add gold painted devil cocktail floater as charm;
11. Deconstruct paper flowers; ink leaves; glue to material embellishment;
12. Die cut; hand distress and ink fence to hold tag information;
13. Take headstone image, add information in PSE; print on cardstock; cut and ink.

This has been a great swap and I have tried to stretch a bit and promised myself I would try at least 1 new technique every tag. This one was the dry embossing and I really do like the subtle extra that it adds.

Now, a slight break until I start the groups coming due in the next 30 days!

Vintage Tag

When I first decided that I wanted to start doing paper crafts, I found this web site and was immediately hooked. I haunted the gallery for years, but never really posted or participated.

Then one day there was drama. Swapping drama! It hit the "Hot Topics" and well, people were getting pretty heated. What was this? I mean I had seen grown women arguing over politics, shopping carts and the endless Stay-at-Home Mom versus Working-Mom debate, but this was different. They were going at it over paper crafts!

I admit, I found it pretty awesome; and the way I feel about my crafty supplies, I totally got it!

Anyways, that was my introduction to swapping. I started small, with a St. Patrick's day ATC and a Rainbow inspired tag. A very nice hostess named Alaina let a newbie join her swap and once I started, I haven't been able to stop.

Look ~ my first ever ATC and Swap

I am still learning some hard lessons about myself, time management and forced creativity, but all in all I'm so glad I found this outlet.

One of the latest swaps is a vintage inspired tag swap. Every month, there are two categories, with the requirements being that you use vintage inspired images along with 5 - 7 techniques or embellishments.

The first group due is "Vintage Lady" and I chose a Geisha as my inspiration.


The first thing I do is go through my stash for things that might work with my current theme. I am still not sure why I feel the need to do this as I tend to get overwhelmed with too many choices, but I do. Then, to add to the mix, I shop (and shop, and shop some more) for that "perfect" thing that will make this swap better than any other. In the end, I just seem to end up with a lot, and I mean A LOT, of extras. I swear, I could complete about 20 vintage / Asian inspired swaps and still not use everything I have.



For some reason, I was determined to make these Hors d' oeuvres picks that I found at World Market in to a frame for my image. After purchasing 2 styles of toothpicks, 2 different packages of chop sticks, bamboo beads and bamboo paper, the picks won out! It was more work than I ever imagined. But once I got it started and figured it out, I glued them together and then bound all the corners with gold embroidery floss as an accent.



I decided I had to use my vintage dragon dominoes. I drilled a small hole in the bottom of each one and added wire wrapped beads and a coin charm. The tag shape was taken from my Tim Holtz Sizzix die. I love this shape, but unfortunately it was not the right size for the tag. I enlarged it in my copier machine and hand cut the tags from a light chipboard. Covered both sides with Basic Gray paper and inked the edges with black gold.



I assembled them using some vintage kimono fabric I had picked up at an estate sale, ribbon, vintage buttons and skeleton leaves.



I have recently fell in love with Perfect Pearls and added some in a deep blue to spruce up the image, which I printed on some vintage manila paper. I added a small flower to her hair, distressed and inked the edges in gold, and she was ready to go.


On the back, I used some die cuts and a vintage Nippon Stamp to create a holder for my swapping information. I transferred a vintage post card image in to Photoshop and added my details before printing it out on more vintage manila paper.

I struggled a bit with this one. We had a LOT of time to get them done, so of course I kept thinking my creative mojo would kick in and put them off until the very end. But thankfully Priority Mail will save me and they should arrive to my lovely hostess on time.

Off to package them up and finish up the Halloween group before 10 am tomorrow.........

I Love a Good Junk Drawer

I have become addicted, addicted I tell you, to estate sales.

It started simply enough. I joined a swap on one of my favorite crafty sites and instead of swapping paper goods as usual, it was a vintage / thrift store swap. How clever! Buy items for each letter of the alphabet and mail them off to your partner. For instance, J is for mini Jell-o mold; A for a chenille angel ornament, etc. It was a scavenger hunt and boy was I game!

Here are a few of the groups that I sent......

M is for Millinery.
K is for Keys.

P is for Poker Chips.

O is for "Over the Garden" Pamphlet.


Of course, I ended up spending MUCH more than the $1-$2 per letter. I was going to those "Antique Malls" we have here in Texas because I didn't know any better. I hadn't much thought of it before, just assumed that there was some special and secret source for their inventory. A source that would never be available to me. Even though I was paying retail prices, it seemed worth it because I could never find or inherit these lovely old things. Don't get me wrong, I still love them to death, but,

.........Cue the clouds parting, the chorus singing..............

EstateSales.Net

Mecca, Nirvana, the Holy Grail for thrifty, vintage loving girls and boys.

I check this site daily, sometimes more than once, just to see what is going on. As the sale days approach, I check it again and again. And usually, just to be safe, one more time. You know, just in case.

Where to go?
What to buy?
Where are the hidden treasures?

As much as I admire the antique furniture, the lovely depression glass and the vintage clothes, my favorite finds are often the strange little bits of life that you find tucked away here and there. I find that the best estate sales seem to have one person working there that is of like mind. They go through and put together little bags of this and that and I can't seem to resist.

For a few dollars or less, you get small treasures and special trinkets which seem to beg me to question them.

Why was this saved?
Where did they find it?
How many homes has it had and how many years has this been hidden away?
What memories does it invoke?

I can assign whatever value I want and I tend toward the fanciful. It seems appropriate.

Here is one of my recent favorites.........

Small set of carved wooden feet, the black metal poodle, a ship in a bottle, vintage ink, a wooden rubber duck, a tiny windmill......... aren't they all just lovely?

For some reason, it reminds me of being a child, collecting shiny bits and hiding them away. A wooden letter in a pants pocket, a mailing label secretly taken from someone's desk, a metal lighthouse that Grandpa gave, taken to school in a backpack.

I guess I like the thought that they carry their own secrets, an unknown history and that maybe I am now a part of it. I like to think that some day, some where, after my time has come and gone, another person puts down a dollar and carries them on down the road to their next adventure.

Happy First Post

I guess I started a blog for the same reason everyone starts a blog. Sending thoughts and pictures out in to the wide blue yonder in hopes of a connection? Posterity? A fancy way to talk to myself?

I'm going with "c." Like they say, the answer is always "c."

So here I am...........now what?