Pretty. Quirky. » Yard Sales

Long Time No See.

Lara Jo — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:59:53 +0000

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It rained again this last weekend! That makes the third weekend in a row Mother Nature has ruined my yard sale plans. This is especially annoying since we only have a very few yard sale weekends left in the year. LUCKILY my friend Roxana called to let me know that St. Paul’s Rummage Sale (in Lincoln Park) was Saturday. Even though we didn’t get there until 11 am, it was still the most impressive church rummage sale I’ve ever been to. So well organized and attractive and every single person working the sale was super-nice. Their baby section was unbelievable. There was a ton of really good stuff still there — I think because their prices were a leeeetle high BUT we got there just as they were marking everything half price. We filled a garbage bag full! Between that and our trip to the thrift store with the Sextons last weekend, we are SET (more than set, really) for both kids through 9 months, at least, and things are looking pretty good for 9-12 months as well. Why does anyone buy baby clothes new?

Other than baby clothes, I got this new miniature vase to add to my collection at the rummage sale:

Once the rain had stopped, we did hit a few yard sales. I got this cute bird house to use in the nursery as a catch-all (one side of the roof is hinged):

And that would be the extent of our goodies for last weekend. I don’t know how I’m going to keep the blog going if I can’t find thrifty goodness to show you guys! I need to get back on a thrift store schedule during the week, but so far, I’ve been so tired after work. Hopefully once I get in the swing of things I’ll be managing the work load a little better.

One more photo — I got this about three weekends ago for $1! She’s BIG, too, around a foot high. I’m wondering if maybe she’s meant to be a doorstop?

The Aftermath.

Lara Jo — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:06:29 +0000

Sorry I haven’t written in a few days — I think I’m still in recovery mode, as pathetic as that sounds. I went back to work for three days last week, and I am ashamed to say that that kind of did me in. Seeing as how I start back officially on Wednesday, I guess I’d better adjust ASAP. I will miss waking up at 9 am and going to Dunkin’ Donuts for my two Boston Creme donuts (WHAT? The babies insisted. Shut up.) and meandering around town at my leisure. Of course, in the last week, I’ve tried to squeeze everything I SHOULD have been doing over the past two months into these last few days — there was just so much I couldn’t do while I was trying to get ready for the Bazaar, because I was storing so much merchandise in the dining room and the soon-to-be-nursery, there was no room to navigate. Over the past three days, I’ve gotten everything moved out of what used to be the craft room in preparation for painting — and its eventual transformation into the nursery. As soon as all of the final touches are on the new craft spaces I want to put some pictures up as I’m proud of some of the “found” spaces I’ve utilized around the apartment to re-locate my crafting supplies.

I have not been doing a lot of thrifting lately, though I did score some awesome baby clothes on Saturday (all girls, though — why is it easier to find girls’ clothes at yard sales than boys’?) but here are two recent finds. First, a set of four lustreware tea cups:

They’re really beautiful and delicate but as soon as I got them home I had buyer’s remorse — they’re exactly the kind of thing that I am trying very hard not to buy: something with no resale value and something that I can’t really do anything with — I have no room for them anywhere and even if I did drink tea, I would need more than the thimble full that these would provide. Sometimes, you have to look at a really lovely item with a good price and say “pass;” my overstuffed apartment is evidence of that.

I found these apothecary jars on Saturday at a yard sale and am intending to put them on eBay. There are 13 of them in all, in various stages of disrepair.

Those are glass plates over the labels. So cool! There are probably three of them that are in really good shape, including this one, which has a recessed label:

And in the batch there were these two unmarked, unlabeled amber bottles with stoppers:

And this one is the oldest one, but I don’t know what to do with it. The cork stopper is pushed all the way down into the neck of the bottle and I would have to dig it out to get it out, probably ruining the cork. It’s still got wax over the cork — surely it’s been opened?

So I know nothing about these — I’m hoping my bottle expert friend Roxana will sound off on what she thinks.

Tomorrow I’ll be finishing up the house and shopping for paint samples, then school starts, and there won’t be any good yard sales this weekend because of the holiday, so I’m thinking I won’t have a lot to post about — however, tonight I have to got through all of these magazine tear sheets I found while cleaning out the craft room and if I find anything particularly interesting, I’ll probably scan them in and set them to post over the next week. The weekend after Labor Day weekend is the Andersonville Yard Sale, so look for some thrifting news after that!

Weekend Finds, Part 2

Lara Jo — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:08:48 +0000

These are dark, sorry. Items one through six came from the Wolff’s Flea Market at Rosemont, where I ventured for the first time on Sunday. I actually got up at 5:30 to get there as close to 6 as possible. I have heard that it’s hit or miss, and I would have to agree. The good points are that I paid very little for everything I got there and I covered the entire thing in about an hour. I absolutely adore the plaid dog, and have it priced for the Bazaar, but I have a confession: I marked it pretty high in the hopes that it won’t sell and I can save it for myself. The platter next to it is huge and so, so pretty — I couldn’t get a good photo of it. The milk glass bowl in the bottom row has a lovely green interior. The pear is a chip and dip bowl and the dog bookends were irresistible to me.

Weekend Finds, Part 1.

Lara Jo — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:40:36 +0000

This turned into a four-day shopping weekend for me. You know, because I won the lottery and I’m wondering what to do with all of this cash.

Here are a few of the fruits of my labors. I’ll take pics of some of the other stuff as soon as I get the chance.

That red jar is over two feet tall! It’s huge! Followed by the tiny three-legged vase — about four inches tall. The green base is a Rum Rill vase — I had never heard of that before, but I loved the shape of it. Next is the smallest, cutest little spool of fabric-covered wire. What for? I don’t know. But it was cute. And I’m not supposed to be buying any more hats, but the combo of that color and that flower sealed the deal for me.

I cannot resist the barkcloth.

Lara Jo — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:07:20 +0000

I hit a yard sale last weekend and found two bag fulls of barkcloth. Yay!

There’s one panel of the first pattern, four perfect panels of the second, and two perfect panels of the last. I LOVE the last one. I dig the yellow with the deep pink. If the pattern weren’t too big to use it on a lampshade, I would keep it, but I think I’m going to try and sell them all at the Bazaar.

I just LOVE fabric. Cannot resist!

Worldly Finds.

Lara Jo — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:11:22 +0000

I got these two globes at the same yard sale last weekend.

I have decided that the globes with the black backgrounds are my new favorite. (As Justin said, “Pretty soon, that’s what he oceans are going to look like, right?’ Ah, dark ecological humor.) The one on the right is HUGE — about three feet in diameter — and broken. But I couldn’t resist it because of its size.

ETA: I wrote this post before visiting my friend Roxana’s house — she has an amazing collection of vintage globes. Her tips on quickly dating globes are to look for Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, since it didn’t exist until the early 1960s and/or check out Africa for historical changes (if you’re as smart as Roxana!). Also, she says many globes have copyright information on them which, of course, would be the easiest way to date.

This is very cool, I think. The very nice woman I bought it from said her aunt brought it back from the Phillipines when she first came to this country — she said it was hand-carved.

Recent Purchases.

Lara Jo — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:33:51 +0000

I bounce back and forth between thinking I have nothing of worth for the Vintage Bazaar and thinking I have way too much. I have a bad feeling I’m not going to be able to fit half the things I bring into my booth. I wonder how long it takes before you know instinctively how much merchandise to bring for a 10X12 space? I believe my space at the last Bazaar was 8X10, so the fact that I”m dealing with significantly more space is making me nervous.

ANYWAY. This is all to say that I cannot stop buying things lately.

Set of five vintage green glasses. Wee little hobnail vase (about three inches high). St. Francis planter (my obsession with religious planters continues). Set of canisters (there are four of them). Cast iron cow. What a weird, random group of objects!

My subconscious at work.

Lara Jo — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:25:39 +0000

I was wandering around a yard sale on Friday when I saw a mini-coat rack — and I thought to myself, I wanted one of those. What did I want one of those for? It seemed like it had something to do with the Vintage Bazaar but I just couldn’t remember what. Since it was only $2, I went ahead and bought it in the hopes that I would eventually remember.

It wasn’t until I hauled a bunch of vintage purses (for a song!) I found at a sale on Saturday up to the apartment that I remembered! Yay! A perfect purse display!

This is about a fourth of the purses I have to sell at the Vintage Bazaar, by the way. It’s out of control.

Angelic Mobility.

Lara Jo — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:39:14 +0000

Justin and I found this mobile at a church rummage sale last weekend.

I’m having trouble taking pictures that show how cute it really is.

They immediately brought to mind Little Twin Stars — remember those Sanrio characters? Oh my WORD, I was a Little Twin Star fan. Stickers, erasers, pencils, notebooks, etc., I couldn’t get enough. Of course, this will just be for decoration in the nursery. We don’t want the babies chewing on any lead paint, you know.

Random, Part 2.

Lara Jo — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:09:50 +0000

By the way, I’m going to be closing down the booth in Fayetteville — what with my pregnancy and my sister-in-law’s pregnancy, neither of us has any business trying to run it for the next year (or eighteen…) — especially me, being 600 miles away. I’m bummed, but it was a really good learning experience for me. I would really like to get a booth up here, but the Chicago booths are so freaking expensive — $300 and up. I’m not in the big time! I can’t afford that! If anyone in the Chicagoland area is reading this and knows about any antique malls in the area that are reasonable, let me know. In the meantime, I’m heading down to Fayetteville as soon as the morning sickness is gone for good to hang a 50% off sign on the booth and pull anything from storage I think may sell at the VB here.

Some more recent finds…

Both of these were late-in-the-day finds. The matte cream planter was purchased at a yard sale at around 2 pm. It was $1! And it was still there at 2 pm! I love the outrageously ridiculous girly frilliness of it. I got the ornaments at an estate sale — seven boxes, 50 cents a box. On the second day of the estate sale! How is that even possible? These are earmarked for some vintage ornament wreaths that I hope to have finished by the time the Vintage Bazaar rolls around.