Something you won't want to miss

I'm excited for October, you guys!  I've always loved October.  When I was a little girl that was largely because of my Birthday, and Halloween.  I suppose those are still two of the main events, but the attractions are numerous:  cool crisp weather that allows for layers and sweaters; Fall leaves that look beautiful, smell kinda spicy, and swish and crunch underfoot; apples, apple cider and apple pie (more on that soon!); the return of my favorite earthy colors to clothes and home decor; the smell of wood smoke on the air; snuggling under blankets; unexplained bouts of nostalgia... need I go on?

But now there's one more thing to add to your list:  The Kenrick Antique Mall-sponsored Fall Flea Market, next Saturday, October 6th! 

Now, I've been to a few flea markets in my day, and I want to be clear.  Sometimes, when people say flea market, I've gotten all excited and shown up and it looks like this:

Or like this:

On the other hand I've also, in my days in Brussels in the 90s, had the great privilege to go to the Saturday market in the Place du Petit Sablon, which was like this:

Unfortunately, I can't promise you that next weekend will be like the Antiques Market in Brussels, but I can promise you it's not going to be just knockoff handbags and sunglasses, or three guys with some books spread out on blankets. There will be tons of vendors, this much I know.  And last time (in the Spring), they had food, so there's probably that to look forward to again.

I, unfortunately, will be stuck at work the day of the sale, but I've seen it twice now, and it's prety big, with lots of variety (Kenrick Plaza's parking lot is super huge, and much of it will be taken over by vendors.  I think the last I heard it was 80+, and the smallest vendor space is the size of a parking space.  Not bad!  And don't forget, the antique mall itself is open, and practically every booth inside will have a sale going for the weekend.  The 2ndhand Moon booth (78, as if you didn't know, 2/3 down the 3rd aisle, on the right!) will have 25% off every single item, no exceptions, so it's a good time to snatch up something vintage for Halloween, or a Treasure Craft candy dish or planter,or some cool vintage luggage, or a bit of Pyrex, or even the gorgeous Mad Men-esque chair, seen here if you missed it!  And as if the flea market and the antique mall weren't enough, don't forget there's also the huge Shrewsbury Value Village right there - literally next door to the mall, in the same plaza!

So if you go, let me know how it went?  I'll be stuck indoors away from the nice Fall air and all the treasures, so I need someone to give me the scoop!

The rest of the Chicago thrifting

Hi guys!  Can you believe this?  Three days in a row I'm posting!  Aren't you proud?  So Wednesday I told you all about this past Saturday's tourist-thrifting in a few nifty neighborhoods around Chicago.  Last night I gave you a cheapskate's review of an adorably decorated but decidedly cheap hotel.  

Now it's time to show off Sunday's haul, for yes, the thrifting did continue!

We started our day from the cheap hotel far, far from the city, and, as breakfast was not included in our thrifty accommodations, we found this fabulous establishment:

That's right, we had Spunky Dunkers Donuts for breakfast!

We took our sugary bounty to go, found the Starbucks at the local train station, and ate at a picnic table in the little park nearby while wondering whether very small aliens created the lawn-circles there, or whether perhaps someone spilled weed killer.

After downing two donuts and an iced chai I was ready for some more exploring.  We had hoped to visit some vintage shops we had scoped out online in the Wicker Park/Bucktown/Humbolt Park neighborhoods, but every place we found was either closed on Sunday or closed this particular Sunday because of the holiday weekend.  Todd and I did press our noses longingly to the glass at An Orange Moon, but nobody materialized from the back to let us in for an exclusive peek and huge discounts like in my daydreams.  Still, so much to covet there!  And a wander around that nifty area was by no means a bust.  There were fabulous old businesses and lovely residential streets to wander:

And lo and behold, the lovely residential street depicted above sported an "estate sale" sign - bonus!  In a converted carriage house, I apparently learned the importance of coasters, for here is what I purchased:

A set of 6 vintage coasters with Parisian street scenes. 

My very own Stonesters!  Sorry about the lousy pic quality - I guess I was excited.

I posted here about a set of cut stone coasters I got my Dad for his birthday at a craft fair this summer.  These are by the same guy - they have the same sticker underneath, and are just as awesomely Andy Goldsworthy-esque as those, but I got these for about 1/5 the price - yay!

After the estate sale we felt the need to appease the youngster in the group who had very patiently wandered neighborhoods and waded through junk with us for so long, so we headed for Michigan Avenue so he could do some coveting of his own at the Apple Store.  As sleek technology is nice but not necessarily covet-worthy to me, I took that time to stop and smell the... well, not roses:

Flower beds on Michigan Ave.

I'm sure this is a famous building.  I just call it cool                                                     

More from the flower beds 

I so want to go to the Tip Top Tap!

After Michigan Avenue we went looking for the Randolph Street Market, but again struck out, either because we were thrown off by the North Coast Music Festival that kept getting in our way, or because it was closed that day, I'm not sure which.  We did, however, find a real live nitty gritty old-tools-and-cheap-sunglasses flea market:

And look - the sky was clearing up!

I didn't find any vintage treasures there, but, as the clouds all blew away and the sun came out full force, I did buy a pair of the above-mentioned cheap sunglasses, and this most excellent concoction:

Mango con chile - sooooo yum!

Later, without realizing we were doing it, we found our way to another amazing comfort food spot that's apparantly been there for over 70 years, never closes, has been featured on the Food Network, and (this part's just my own personal opinion based on the super nice people who waited on us) appears to be a really great workplace.  The White Palace Grill boasted really, really good food, even if you weren't impressed by all that other stuff.  The soup was amazing (they really like to feed you soup in Chicago, I think).

So after a relative bust in terms of thrifty finds up to that point in the day, we managed to find one of the many Unique Thrift stores in the area, where they were having an awesome sale, and where I found quite a few treasures:

A green vintage lampshade (stitchery bit needs redone, and
I should've turned the seam side around, but oh well!).

A really nice mid-century magazine rack.

An adorable matched pair of crewelwork kite-flying kids.

A cheaply made but awesomely printed vintage bedspread
that doesn't appear to have ever been used.

A small blue and red monogrammed overnight bag.

An old TOMY owl clock-toy.

A beautiful vintage tablecloth in bright autumn tones.

I think I picked up more at this one medium sized strip-mall thrift store than I bought anywhere else all weekend!  We went back to the big amazing warehouse I mentioned in Wednesday's post after that, so Todd could do some wheelie-dealing (he totally scored a Lane Acclaim coffee table for $40!), but what I picked up there I included in what I showed you from there yesterday.  So this concludes the thrift haulage from the weekend, and my energy for continued typing.  I suppose that means I'll spare you my thoughts on Ikea as an analogy for the road to hell.  You don't have to thank me!

If you haven't had enough of thrifted treasures yet, check out these link-ups full of folks who are lucky in thrift:  

Chic on a Shoestring's Flaunt it Friday and The Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday. 

And what about you?  Thrift anything good lately?

Some of the thrifted treasures headed for the booth tomorrow

Even with the spare room is so nicely organized, I am still not ready to add more inventory to my enormous stockpile, so I'm still shopping my garage (since that space is decidedly not organized, it's good to get bits out of there).  Here are a few of the treasures I pulled out to take to the booth tomorrow:

HATS:

Pair of men's wool Kangols

Totally 80s straw cowgirl hat with suede, feathers, fur, beads and one
of those silvery thingies.

SHOES:

Lovely gold metallic open-toed mules marked Famous Barr Co on one
shoe and "Leisure Loungers" on the other.
I love that these were once considered loungewear!

CLOTHES:

'60s Arrow Decton "Perma-Iron" poly/
cotton short-sleeved shirt.

JC Penney poly/cotton pale green short-
sleeved shirt with dark stitching.

Large-collar funky-print shirt.
No label.  So soft!

Large-collar green/white poly/cotton
shirt labelled Famous Barr Supre-Vino

Pink poly/rayon/flax cap-sleeved dress,
non-metal zipper, California Girl label.

Ecru lace over slightly darker color dress,
satiny lining, metal zipper, no label.

Black/silver lamé vavoom dress.  Small tag inside
says size 13, no other label.  Metal zipper.

Remember - all clothing and accessories are still 50% off through the month of August, even these new arrivals, so if you're local, get thee to Kenrick Antique Mall booth 78 tomorrow afternoon and all these new treasures can be yours!

BOOKS:

Little Golden Heidi - 1954 and The Three Bears - 1948

Actually, these will not go into the booth.  I snapped them up without a thought at the Goodwill Pound Store, where together they cost less than $0.39, since they don't weigh a pound, but upon inspection, too many of the pages have been scribbled.  I think I'm looking at a crafty project with the remaining good bits.  I'm open to any suggestions!

The Story Road - 1952 edition reading book

A well-used Wizard of Oz cookbook, surprisingly from 1981

Random children's book Fur & Feathers - 1965

LeeWards Illustrated Library of Arts and Crafts -
1974.  Check out that cover art - Fabulous!

 Peeks at some of the illustrations in a few of these (click if you want to see them bigger):

Also from The Story Road

One of the intact Heidi pages. 

From The Story Road

Fur and Feathers

Wizard of Oz cookbook

Linking up to these great link parties:

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

An organized room, and the fancy, fancy china

So, I mentioned the other day how I had turned myself in to the organization police in the form of my friend Melanie, who tackles such projects like they're second nature to her.

Today she came over at noon, and once we at some lunch, we got to work transforming this:

Shamefully jam-packed spare room crammed completely full.  There's not even a path through the chaos.

First, we dragged everything out and piled it all around the living/dining/kitchen rooms of my house.  Yes, there's so much stuff in here that it took up pretty much the whole rest of my house!  Here's during, once we'd pretty much cleaned it out and started putting the shelves in:

Don't mind the giant baby crib full of vintage clothing and whatnot.  That one part is a job for a whole other day.

After some re-configuring (like deciding we needed the full perimeter of the room, so the clothing rack, with its wheels, makes the most sense in front of the windows), we started sorting things into categories and filling it all back in.  Here are a few small shots of that in-progress:

And here's the room now - and I promise, what was there before is still there now:

Everything's sorted and stored, there's room to walk around (a bit), and the you can get to it all!

And one of the best things about getting this room organized is that I finally have been able to sort through the huge set of fancy, fancy china I picked up awhile back at the Salvation Army on Cherokee Street.  It's one of the highest quality, most beautiful, best purchases I ever made, and it took revamping the entire room to get it all in one place together and get a count on the pieces.  In the center of the 3 'during' pics above, you can see that the smallest wire shelf/rack is already chock full of dishes (go ahead, click on it and see!).  That was before I found the rest of the plates and bowls.  I'm pretty sure this was originally a service for 12, because I now have at least 9 of everything, plus spares, and to my untrained eye, it looks to be in excellent condition.  Take a peek!:

Fancy, fancy china!  Cups and berry bowls pictured.

It's labelled Meito Norleans China, Fairfield, Made in Occupied Japan.  It's so delicate I'm afraid it will dissolve in my hands, and it's beautiful.  Way too beautiful to be in my possession - I'm a danger to myself and my things, as you saw in the before picture up top.  And yet I didn't break any of it!  If the Internets are to be believed, it's pretty darn rare, this china.  Currently there's not a single piece of it on Etsy, or Ebay, or Ruby Lane, or anywhere else I could find except for Replacements.com, and even they can only offer you 2 imperfect cups and saucers (I have over 60 pieces!).  Beyond that all they offer is the information that the pattern was discontinued circa 1950, and since it's marked 'Made in Occupied Japan', I think that narrows this down to the second half of the 1940s.  It's so, so beautiful you guys!  I'm scared to take it to my booth.  Scared I'll break it along the way, scared it will make everything else I sell look crummy by comparison, and/or scared I won't be able to sell it for anywhere near what it's worth because the rest of my stuff is nifty, but far less rare and special.  I'm taking advice on the situation!

In the mean time, don't miss all the fun link-ups!:

Cap Creations Thrifty Love Link Party, Beez Rental Designs' Frugal Treasures Tuesday, Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays - My entry into Nifty Thrifty Tuesday Party is sponsored by Appliances Online and the Best Range Cooker. -  and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Mondays.