Themes

I planned to sleep in this morning because I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.  And when I say sleep in, I mean way in!  I wasn't going to bother opening my eyes until noon.  But the cute little gray kitty who has taken up residence in my house had other plans.  She let me sleep until about 10:00, but after awhile even Mary Poppins gets impatient, so she let me know that it was definitely time for breakfast.

Mary Poppins, cute enough to wake up "early" for.

Once I got up and fed her, I found texts on my phone from both Mayberrys of my acquaintance to the effect that I was missing out on a sale full of stuff I would get a big kick out of.  And as I have no willpower at all to stay away from sales when even mildly provoked, I hit the shower and headed out the door.  And they were right, this sale had a very clear theme, and I stuck right with it.  Wanna see?:

MUSHROOMS!  They somehow both compete and go perfectly with my wild 70's kid-sized card table, don't they?

A closer look?  Why certainly!

Tossed a couple of tissues in there so you can see the details.  I'm classy like that!

Love polka-dotted ones!  Strangely I've never seen a polka-dotted one in the wild...

The two tiny ones in front are porcelain, apparently intended to hold tiny candles.  The lager, almost-matching one with the flowers painted around its base is wooden, and came with (some of) its own candle.  The little mug is plastic and way too reflective to get a decent picture.  The pitcher has a chip right in its pour-spout, and there's also some chipping to the enamel on the big saucepan, but if I told you what I paid for the whole bunch of stuff, you'd know why I just don't care.  It's all adorable!

The second theme of the day wasn't really dictated by the sale itself, which had lots of other totally unrelated things, but for some reason I was drawn to things that all sort of told the same story:

Vintage desk lamp, address "book", stamp holder/letter scale and bow-tie.

In my head his name is Martin.  He is very meticulous, but not uptight.  His work is something academic that involves lots of correspondence to confer with colleagues around the world.  And these are his things:

Add Love the font and the star-burst, and you gotta know bowties?  Are cool!

It was hard to get a decent close-up, and now you can see I didn't bother dusting it first, but check out the awesome little scale.  You slip your envelope in the little clip to weight it so you'll know what postage to use, and then your roll of stamps is right there handy.  So cool!

A little glamour shot of the lamp.  The perforations in the shade are little Eiffel Tower shapes.

Anyway, I quite like Martin and his lamp and I'm glad his become one of the many fictional residents of my brain ;)


Wanna see what some non-fictional folks came up with, too? Visit these fun link-ups; I am!

Cap Creation's Thrifty Love Link Party, Chic on a Shoestring's Flaunt it Friday and The Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday

Labor Day weekend spoils

Hey guys!  a little late posting about the holiday weekend, but rest assured I had a good time with great friends blundering around the Chicago area.  My good friend Beth is thinking about trying a booth too, so she was on the prowl for vintage finds, which meant, alas, I had no choice but to do some serious thrifting along with her and her hubby, and here I am to share a few of the highlights with you!

First thing we did when we got into the Chicago area was stop and check out an estate sale in a super cute 40s-50s era bungalow in the suburbs.  I think it was Westchester.  The house had fabulous vintage wallpaper that I'm already mourning since it's bound to be ripped off immediately when the house is sold, but it also had, in the basement, these:

Vintage cookbooks, yay!  The Betty Crocker's Good and Easy is coming out of its binding, but the illustrations are so great I just don't care.

We wandered several neighborhoods after that, and stopped in at a Goodwill along the way, but I didn't find anything I couldn't live without.  Then we found our way to the Little Village neighborhood.  I think I could have wandered around there for most of the rest of the day.  I definitely would have enjoyed lunch there, but my partners in crime had had Mexican food the night before and were in the mood for something different.  So we visited the Village Discount Outlet thrift store.  Three stories worth of thrift - WOW!  We skipped the first floor altogether, as we weren't interested in clothing, but we still spent a considerable amount of time picking our way through two other floors of treasures.  Here's what I picked up there:

Nice vintage scarf - the green is much brighter in person.

A gorgeous pair of mugs.  The only marking is DR on the bottom.  I love them!

A cute children's book about a goose named Petunia.

Check out the illustrations!  Love the colors!

After all our hard thrifting work, we were ready for some lunch, so we wandered (pretty much completely aimlessly) into the Pilsen neighborhood, where we found Benny's Grill and Pancake House, which turned out to be omnomnommy.  We all loved what we got.  I had the Monte Carlo sandwich:

Then we wandered the neighborhood, which was fun and eclectic and boasted several cool vintage shops, which we very happily visited.  The best by far was this one, full of vintage modern goodness I can't afford, a cute little dog, and a very nice lady who told us a bit about the neighborhood:

If you're in the area, you should definitely check it out!

A few more glimpses of that area:

Due to our cheapskatitude, we weren't staying in the city proper, but out near the Schaumberg Ikea instead, and I had heard about a place in the northern suburbs that is something like a permanent estate sale.  From what I gather, they buy whole estates, either what doesn't sell at a regular estate sale, or just the whole shebang, and they have a giant warehouse that was, at least this particular weekend, open to the public.  So of course, we went for it.  Check it out - the picture doesn't do the place justice - it's huge and kind of grimy and altogether awesome:

I came away from there with a few little treasures as well:

3-D crewelwork flowers in cheery blues

A cute little desk lamp (works great!) and  old-timey rabbit ears antennae. I realize nobody
has a legitimate use for rabbit ears anymore, but I'm convinced that after steam punk
comes something like analog punk, and whoever is into that will love them, right?  Right?

Two adorable mismatched mugs.

A very, very old wooden puzzle in excellent shape!  

A little close-up on the children.

By the time we finished procuring treasures at the warehouse, we were kind of sweaty and dusty and gross ourselves, so we headed for the hotel, where we ordered a big messy Chicago style pizza and watched the new episode of Doctor Who.  Yum all around!

Plates, silverware and/or napkins would have been a good idea!

More on the rest of the trip, including more thrifted treasures, a mini-review of the cutest, jankiest hotel you may ever meet, and possibly an epic poem entitled "Ikea, Une Saison En Enfer", coming soon!  In the mean time, check out all the treasures hunted by the clever, clever folks at these link-ups:

Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday, and Beez Rental Design's Frugal Treasures Tuesday