A Tuesday estate sale - really?

A month or so ago (I really have no concept of time; it could have been September for all I know, but I'm pretty sure I had a coat on, so probably not) there was a random Tuesday-only estate sale right around the corner from my house in South City.  It just so happens that I'm off on Tuesdays, so that seemed particularly serendipitous to me, and I stopped in with high hopes.  I didn't find any one amazing, huge thing, but I found several small things that I quite liked, and that seemed like they might do well in this Etsy store I still haven't posted anything in.  First and coolest is this little Cuckoo clock-inspired looking plastic thermometer/"weatherhouse":

It's plastic, and in need of cleaning, but super cute! 

It says Made in USA, Chicago on the bottom, and there's a cardboard backing that says lots of other stuff, but I think it's still at the bottom of the box that I carried all my treasures out in, so I don't have the details handy.  I did find a similar one online that describes the little characters as "children" who come out when the weather is to be good, and a "witch" who shows up to portend bad weather, so while it's not very gingerbready, all I can think about now is Hansel and Gretel.

I love the marbly-swirled plastic of the house.  What's up with that?

I also picked up a bag of goodies by the sewing table in the back room which contained all of this:

Why do they call stuff like this "notions"?  Anybody know?

I particularly liked the advertisement/free book of needles from a local moving company from some time in the past, "Needles Moving and Storage"

They're "Lady Mary" needles, from England for some reason.

Oddly enough, there's one just like it on Ebay right now, except in their photo it's black and white, whereas the one I have is printed in green on a creamy cardstock.  

I also picked up a couple of linen items:

1964 Vera calendar tea towel.  Great colors!

2 Park Ave. poodle napkins.  Hee!

I always love Vera colors, and the napkins are uber-kitsch - love them!  One is pretty stained, and I'm not too sure about cleaning them because of the poodle-fur bits, but they are awesome just for existing.

I also nabbed a couple of things for the sake of the cool packaging.  The first was audio tape (not "an" audio tape):

Apparently, you could buy audio tape for $0.39 at some point in time,
and you could do so at Western Auto!

Nice that it looks cool, since I don't actually have an apparatus for playing it.

I'm guessing it was a recording of Julia Child, rather than one belonging to her.

The other was a tin that I believed to be for typewriter ribbon when I bought it:

I love the stylized art-deco-y gazelle!

But when I opened it up:

The spool inside was not for typewriter ribbon, but 8mm film:

I don't think that was the original contents of the tin, though, as it has "Underwood" clearly stamped on the bottom.

And finally there were coasters.  First an assortment of mid-century-ephemeral paper coasters:

I particularly like the Buffalo Ranch one.  These are "ROYAL CATCH-ALL COASTERS" according to the backs: "Used Exclusively by the Perfect Hostess for CARE-FREE ENTERTAINING" (all emphasis theirs).

But I know that the truly Perfect Hostess would use these next coasters, of the awesome melamine variety, with the much-less-austentations message on the back "Made in Boonton, USA":

I love the mid-century 4-colors thing and the speckling, and the fact that there are roses sculpted on the edges and daisy/star-bursts in the centers, like they can't make up their minds.

There was also a small bundle of rolled-up maps found in the closet with the paper coasters.  Fortunately for you, I don't happen to have pics of them at this point, but anyway, the moral of this story is, you never know what fun stuff you might find, even on a Tuesday!  Or maybe it's something like never miss an estate sale; they might have poodle napkins and plastic Hansel and Gretel weatherhouses.  Or maybe there is no moral, but just a bunch of pictures of some stuff.  Either way, have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!

The coolest score from last weekend, finally

So last Monday and Tuesday I showed off some of my scores from St. Vincent de Paul, and mentioned a couple of times a special score that I hadn't shown.  I still haven't unpacked/cleaned up/checked over that special score, but I did find a picture online, to show you what I found:

Hallcraft "Shape" line, designed by Eva Zeisel.  

The pattern is called "Harlequin".  

Image taken from Funky Home Finds

I found several cups, saucers, berry bowls and dinner plates.  One or two out of all of the pieces were in really good shape, but most of my haul, I freely admit, was chipped, scratched and even, in the case of one of the dinner plates, a little bit cracked.  But the pattern was so unusual, and the price so right that I couldn't pass it up.  According to replacements.com the pattern was discontinued in 1955, and according to the guy I spoke to at China Finders on Cherokee Street in South St Louis, it is not easy to find, and not cheap (I thought, since the condition of what I found isn't that great, I might be able to fill it out with some not-that-great serving pieces and have a not-that-great quality, but totally rockin' atomic set of dishes).  He didn't have any of it, and only knew of one platter available, for $65.00.  Seeing as how I spent less than a quarter of that for all of what I have, and seeing as how I'm all thrifty, I'll stick with my turquoise speckled Melmac dinnerware I've been using proudly for years:

Vintage perfection!  

This set is one thing I can guarantee you I will never put up on Etsy.  It's beautiful, functional, virtually indestructible, and I love it dearly.  I find melamine stuff frequently - you saw the pink set I bought last week already - but this?  Since the day I found it, I have never come across even a single piece of this set at any thrift store, garage or estate sale.  I am very attached!

So, for anybody who might be reading - a question, in two parts:

Do you thrift?  What's your equivalent of my beloved turquoise Melmac set?