This Week’s Vintage Finds #8: Wait Until You See What I Bought!!

I’m still so excited, I can hardly type! I am typically not a huge estate sale fan. I find they tend to be overpriced. I’d much rather shop at garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. But when there’s slim pickins, I’ll hit an estate sale. Well, this week-end, I hit six. Four were fantastic, two were so-so, but still enjoyable. I bought so much, I’m going to write about it in three installments. So let’s get started, shall we?

There’s a story behind the hat boxes. My daughter loves costumes; she loves acting and singing–she is very dramatic. If you don’t believe me, check out this photo of her in costume at the Saratoga Victorian Stroll this year! Anyway, she asked for a top hat for Christmas and a couple of days later, she asked for a hat box to store it in.

I immediately wondered where in the heck I was going to find a hat box on such short notice. And didn’t I find the perfect one at this estate sale! The bottom box, in silver, was designed to contain a top hat. I can’t wait to give it to her. The apple green one is vintage Macy’s and the top one is from Muhlfelder’s of Albany, New York–long gone, but I love the deep wine color.

I fell in love with this basket, even though it’s missing one of its handles and the top binding is loose in an 8″ section. It’s quite old, so I’m going to do a little research on it. I also grabbed up the brass frame, flour sifter (listed here on Etsy), and two cake tins. The tins are to make cake stands that I saw on Pinterest. You paint a cake tin and candle holder with chalk paint, sand off some paint to age it, then glue to candle stick to the tin–voila, a cake stand.

I purchased three of these pretty pillow cover’s that are worthy of framing and hanging. I love the Art Deco style and the colors are wonderful. One has a small stain that I’m working on. I’ve already listed the other two here and here. (UPDATE: These both sold to the same buyer at the beginning of January ’14: Each for $24.99.)

I’m very attracted to the texture of these old flour sacks. Each is about a yard, some have a bit of faded writing, the one in the front has the faded stripes. I haven’t decided what to do with the six of them yet, but for now, I just like touching them every now and again! (UPDATE: I used one of the towels to make to French cafe aprons, one of which I’ll be listing on Etsy soon.)

This is what I call my “Adirondacky” stuff–a small pack basket (not old), the cardinal on the birch log, the Dept. 56 birch tree, and the wonderful antique, miniature basket. I’m considering doing some kind of craft fair and I’d use the tree to hang things on. The basket’s going on Etsy, and not sure what I’ll do with the rest(!).

Isn’t this apron really unique? I love how it’s all one piece and the girl in the garden is so sweet and so graphic. I think you’re meant to tie it around you waist by grabbing the pointy ends and tying them together. Once I iron it, I’ll be listing it at my store.

Lastly, I bought this really beautifully embroidered cloth. I find white on white so beautiful, and this one is really well crafted, and it’s in terrific shape (needs a bit of an iron though). It measures about 32″ square and I’ll be offering it at my Etsy store soon. First I’m going to soak it in mild detergent and baking soda to eliminated the musty odor. Then, I’ll iron it with a cooler-than-normal iron to avoid scorching it. Old linens sometimes scorch very easily.

So that was just my first sale of the week-end, where I spent a total of $25 for all of the above. I didn’t spend more than $2 on any one item, in fact, that’s about what most of them were–$2 each. The people running the sale were super nice to deal with and that’s always nice, too. Hope you all find some great bargains this week! Happy shopping 🙂

Bye for now,