Showing posts with label thrift finds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thrift finds. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

My Favorite Thrift Store is Closing!!

I am so sad. All of the Volunteers of America Thrift stores in Upstate NY will be closing by the end of September.

I got the email yesterday.

Today I had to go to get what I could because they are not accepting anymore donations. What is there is all there is and will be. Kinda like the first day of a garage or estate sale. You have to get first picks! You know what I mean if you are a thrifter.

I would say I did pretty good.



The prize, to me, is the printers drawer. Something I have been wanting forever although I don't have anywhere in my home to display it. I am keeping it for awhile and savoring the fact that I got it for $4!


The drawer pull has Hamilton on it, number 183.

 
The first thing that caught my eye was the cute owl pitcher. Dark chocolate brown and unique.
 
The planter with the Scottish Terrier's is a McCoy. Some vintage items are chipped and not anywhere near perfect but so worth picking up anyways. This one has an ear missing on the far right doggy with a big chip behind it. Hey, a nice fluffy plant will hide all that. I thought it was so special!
 

 
The two nesting bowls are Hall's Superior Autumn Leaf pattern. They are great sizes and remind me of my early days of collecting. I inherited an Autumn Leaf ball shaped pitcher from my aunt. I've since sold it.

 
 
The pie plate is also reminiscent of my early collecting days as I had one just like it with a cherry top. It is ceramic and was available to glaze and paint at the many ceramic classes available in the 80's.
 
 
Oh, the deer! I just gravitate to anything deer and this one is so special. It is sparkly and I think it is made of paper mache. That would explain how light it was when I picked it up, thinking it was a cheapy $1 store item. To my surprise there is a gold sticker with Made in Taiwan on the bottom. 
 
 
Sometimes I am not sure there is a market for some items I pick up. The Hallmark Grandparent's photo album is marked 1984  and it is old style with large pages with plastic coverings. I am hoping not everyone uses Instagram or their phones to store photos, and like me, like physical photos to look at in unique albums! The little folk art pail is so cute and very rusty, dented, and full of charm.
 
 
 

 
 
 
This framed picture caught my eye for it's unique subject and black and white photo. I will have to research it to find out exactly what is going on in it! 
 
 
The frame was worth the buy. It is wood and very old looking.
 
 
I am so sad that my favorite thrift stores are closing! Declining sales is the reason. I did get to use all my rewards points, my senior discount and my tax exempt status on this sale so I did very well. There are three other VOA's in my area that I have to get to before all the good stuff is gone.
 
I've got garage and yard sales to pick for the summer but where will I pick all winter? I have to find some new places to feed my addiction, I mean, love for vintage.
 
In the meantime, I will be busy listing all these great finds in my Etsy shop.
 
Do you have a favorite, go-to thrift store?
 
AnnMarie xoxo
 
I am linking up with these fun blog parties:
 




Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Thrifter's Creed

"Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail (nor migraine) shall keep the thrifter from her appointed rounds."

 
Obviously I changed the postal workers creed to suit the thrifter in me!

Sometimes you just get the feeling that your favorite thrift store just has something there for you and you've got to go check it out. No matter the weather. Or if said weather triggers a headache!

This week I had a yucky migraine. The barometric pressure changes here in the northeast are killing my head! By midday as it started to lift I just got this strong urge to go check out my local VOA. I hadn't been in a while and I needed some fresh things for my Etsy shop.


The first thing I spotted was this great wooden stool with a braided rug top. It is in great condition and it happened to be Manager's Special day.....30% off furniture and lamps! Plus I get the senior discount of 20% off (you only have to be 55 to be a senior there).

When I went to the counter to pay the clerk said that the stool had only been there a few days and it was waiting for me. See!! I knew I had to go!

Of course I had to see what other treasures were waiting for me.

 
I spotted this cute wooden bunny with a pull string. My granddaughter Chloe just loves these. She loves swinging them. She won't know about this one! It's going in  my shop.
 
 
I was so excited to see a piece of black transfer ware. It has a great flower knob on top which is repeated in the handles on the side. It is quite old with just a triangle mark on the bottom. There is one chip on the whole thing. I have to research it because I have never seen transfer ware in black in person.
 
 
This sweet folk art girl caught my eye. When I picked her up I was surprised how heavy she was. She is made of terra cotta and hand painted. The back is quite interesting. It has a hanger for the wall.
 
 
 
I picked up the red framed rooster on the left a while back on a thrifting day and so when I saw the Cock a Doodle Do picture I had to have it.
 

 
I think I may hang the first one in my kitchen after I am finally done painting it (yeah I am still working on the white.....took a break over the holidays!). My kitchen is cobalt blue and white and I have recently been adding in touches of this great deep red.
 
 
 
On my way home I stopped at a few of the thrift stores on Main St. in my town. There was a huge box of bottles outside one of them. I have a huge box that I got last Fall full of late 1800's bottles. But none of them were this color. For a $1 I had to have it to add to my bottle display in my bathroom.
 
 
I spotted this basket in the front window of another thrift store on my way out. I went on my way to another store but eventually I had to go back and get it. It was 20% off and matches my parlor perfectly. It is all silk fabrics and tiny pink and blue beads on the trim. The bunnies are a find from another trip that I am keeping for now. Too cute not to!
 
 
I am finding these days that I am keeping almost as much as I am listing! They may make their way to my shop eventually but for now I am finding great treasures to fill my home.
 
 
Is it just me or do you do that too when you are out hunting and thrifting?
 
AnnMarie xoxo
 
I am linking up with these great blog parties:
 






Friday, March 14, 2014

Friday Thrift Finds

Friday always seems to be the best day for thrifting.

My local VOA (Volunteers of America) is having a 50% off sale today and I took full advantage! The sale was supposed to be on Wednesday but that is when our northeast snowstorm hit. So happy they decided to offer a "rain check" for today. The temps here today are supposed to reach 48 degrees. But wait 5 minutes and that could change too!


I scan all the houseware shelves several times and I usually find the best things on the second or third time through. The red box is a recipe box and the little tray has strawberries and flowers on it. The nesting hen covered dish is from Japan and I can't find another one exactly like it online anywhere. The Avon mint green milk glass pitcher is from the 1970's and held bubble bath.


The basket in the background tugged at my heart when I first found it. It is very similar to my Easter basket growing up but is much larger without the handle. I am temporarily using my Easter basket in my bunny vignette until Easter. Then my husband will take it and fill it with lots of candy and goodies (hopefully some of those Cadbury mini eggs!).


I am tempted to keep this larger one for my knitting. Isn't it perfect? Those are two of the three prayer shawls I have going right now.


I thought this chalkboard sign was cute and reminiscent of what I would have had at my house for my babysitters. Mine hung on the fridge. This is a heavy metal piece with green chalk paint on the front. It struck me funny that the first line is "Our name is....."! Shouldn't you know the names of the people you are babysitting for before you get there??!! I guess I probably hired a babysitter like that once too!


Just  can't get enough of colored Pyrex baking dishes. With Spring on the mind daily, I thought these shades of yellow and lime green were perfect for cooking and baking on a dreary, still winter, day.


I also couldn't resist the yellow Tupperware coffee canister, found with coffee still in it! It needs to be cleaned up and it will be in perfect condition!


The coffee canister is sitting on a wooden lazy susan, which also brings back memories of my Uncle Sam and Aunt Jenny's cottage at the Thousand Islands. I always remember the lazy susan in the middle of the kitchen table with lots of kitchen stuff and goodies on it. Those are porcelain liquor bottle tags and one metal one. They are made in Japan.


I just loved this cobalt blue laquerware paper and pen holder. It has a ship on the front and is from the 1970's. A nice manly gift.


These are just really cool wooden knife holders. One has a folk art Scandinavian look couple on it and the other has a great rooster. They date from the 1930's - 1960's. 


I couldn't pass up the kitty with the milk bottle. So cute! And the three coasters are made from a stone like material with vintage pictures of dogs.

I regret that I don't have a picture of one of the most fabulous items I found today. My SD card decided NOT to go back in the camera no matter how I try. The picture of the tray is on my camera's memory and I have no way of transferring it to my computer...ugh! Anyways it is a huge, vintage, red metal tray with a rooster in the middle. Very 1950's/1960's looking. It hurts not to be able to post it but I decided I must go on with my post anyways so that I could link up with all the great Friday blog hop parties (and a Thursday one)!

All of these items will make it to my Etsy shop soon, or when I get my camera to work so I can take pictures of each one for the listings! 

Minus the ones I can't part with.....

AnnMarie xo

I am linking up with these great blog hop parties: