A Goddess, Seattle and a Lamp

Just a quick catch up on some things that have been going on in my etsy shop this week...

I sold a statuette of the goddess Kwan Yin (that I completely wanted to keep for myself but was a good little etsy shop owner and put up for sale instead - and someone bought it, damn!) I found her a few months ago at a church sale hidden behind a pile of Tupperware.So glad I did and that she is on her way to Texas to be appreciated again.

And a lovely lady in Portland bought this pendant I made with a piece of vintage atlas of the great city of Seattle. I've never been there but I want to go really, really bad. Although, I love rainy days so much, I'm a little scared that if I did go I'd never come back.

 And this mid century Tensor desk lamp was one of the coolest things in my shop and will be leaving via Priority mail tomorrow for...wait for it...Brooklyn, New York. Yes, currently the coolest place in the known universe. Wish I could tag along with the lamp.

   But it might be a little awkward, I'm not that cool.

And They Were Good

On Friday I went to not one, but two, fundraiser sales at two different retirement communities. This caused me some consternation because these - next to church fundraisers -- are my favorite kinds of sales and don't come around very often, so I don't usually have to decide which to go to first. This is important because the best items are nabbed early.

I flipped a coin.

I arrived at the first sale just as the doors opened and then had to make more decisions as there where six separate rooms of items...and I wanted to go to all of them simultaneously...I have yet to figure out how to do this. Would be such a handy skill.

I chose the room with kitchenware and was happy I did. I found this unusual vintage stainless steel Revere Ware pan with a Sea Horse design. Never saw one of these before.

And then spotted this great set of 6 matching mid century high ball glasses.
The next room had electronics...found this cute Tensor lamp.And another room had linens...found this fantastic Eames era linen towel with cocktail recipes.

When I had picked through each room, twice, I decided I'd go to the other sale just to see if there was anything left.

There was...not much, but enough.

The best find was this Bates bedspread in perfect condition, like it was never used.
The picker Gods were smiling that day and my cup runneth over.

Goodwill Hunting

Saturday was a family hunt at the local Goodwill stores...I know, you can probably think of a few other things your family would like to do on a Saturday morning. But, one member of my family, my sister-in-law Corey, works for Goodwill Inc and once a year she gets 50% off coupons she is good enough to share with us.

So Corey, her sister, my boys (who thought they might find something really great they had to have, their allowance burning a hole in their pockets), my husband (who is convinced one day he'll come across an Eames chair and a McIntosh stereo system lying around the housewares department) and I loaded into the Suburban and made the rounds of the local Goodwill stores.

The stores were crowded - other employees taking advantage of the discount -- and the shelves did not yeild any great treasures (certainly no Eames chairs lurking in a forgotten corner), but I did find some nice mid-century china...
And my son, Will, spotted a 1960's globe, so he bought it and I put it in the etsy shop for him.

And my oldest son, Evan, found this great vintage glass decanter and bought it for me to put in the shop as well - they will probably both make more money than me this week!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

With all the holiday running around, I was only able to get to a few thrift stores this week, but I did find a few interesting things.

I thought I'd give a quick, down and dirty view of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from this weeks picking...

The Good
A set of eleven atomic ranch dessert plates, love them.

The Bad
A ceramic figure of two rabbits...one has fake eyelashes (what is it with weird bunnies at the Salvation Army?)

And the Ugly
This is a lamp made with a piece of plastic and a dented old root beer can...really, you can just throw stuff out, you don't need to bring every treasure to the thrift store.

Whoo Hoo Friday

Whoo hoo Friday! That's what I like to call the last Friday of the month, four-times a year, when these two blond's favorite retirement community has their sale. It's a charitable event to raise money for members of the retirement community who have run out of funds - so its also not a bad place to spend your money either.

This last sale on Friday did not disappoint. I don't know what it is about this particular community that makes it so great to pick at, maybe its that the residents there that donate their cast-offs for the fund raiser were all furnishing their homes in the same era that I like to buy (50's, 60's and 70's)...and they all had really good taste!

Here is my absolute favorite thing I found, and one of the first things I spotted. A vintage chenille bedspread in near perfect condition. Gorgeous. I'm actually having some trouble putting it up for sale!


Linda and her mom, Lee, introduced me to this wonderful quarterly event and I will be forever grateful, it's a pickers dream. Which is also why it has gotten progressively more crowded each time we've gone. It is at a point where you need to get there almost an hour before to get in line, and then be prepared to just about run to the area you have the most interest in - I usually go for the craft table first because I have a thing for sewing boxes, and then I head for the linens table, where I found the chenille spread.

This is a cute green pot from the 60's I snagged in the housewares area.


This event has gotten to be such a madhouse that Linda, Lee and I devised a plan to most effectively survive, and even enjoy, the day. We got there a half-hour before they opened the doors so we could be in the first wave, and then brought our armloads of purchases out to the car where we snacked on sandwiches and donuts we'd brought to fortify ourselves. After a half-hour sanity break, we headed back in and found the crowds had died down somewhat and we could poke around at a more leisurely pace.

Good day. Whoo hoo!