Estate Sale Finds Feb. 17, 2015

We found a couple of estate sales this weekend and one of them was really fab!   I love a house that is crammed with stuff and the sellers are motivated to move, move, move their items.  I could have spent hours there with no problem.  Let me show you some of the great stuff I got.

A wooden pizza paddle.  I want to clean it up, sand it, stain it and stencil PIZZA on it with my wood burner. 2 Log Cabin syrup 100 anniversary tins -  Chablis has already snatched one for herself.  I have no idea what the small tin that says "Carborundum" originally was, but the tin is cool so I took it.  5 vintage belt buckles - some lead, some brass and all very nice.  I loved the pinking shears because they're in their original box and are in really good condition....

5 pants hangers, a Pyrex 2 qt. casserole in the Snowflake pattern - no lid tho.  A darling little tin pencil box and a wooden box with a sliding lid....

A Snickers tin - again, Chablis grabbed that one.  A super long rolling pin with Red handles.  I bought the brand new bread tin for myself.    And here's the book that was actually my favorite buy for the day.

 The cover is hard to read but it's the "Elements of English Composition" and it was published in 1902.  Oh...  so..... cool.   I don't know if I'll keep it or sell it, but there's just something so awesome about this book.  Plus the owner's name and Chicago address - from 1924!

A square yard stick...

6 assorted license plates.  I have no idea why I love them so much, but I definitely have a weakness for license plates.  I love the colors and the designs on them.   I already have plans for a few of them at the Lake House....

5 assorted leather belts.  Very vintage and very broken in.   I've already cleaned them and later I want to put some leather polish on them.  They are wonderful.  Some are hand tooled.

A nice assortment of trinkets and jewelry that I'll be selling - perfect for those of you who like to up cycle this kind of thing into new jewelry and odds and ends.

This plastic box is in rough condition, but I liked all the buttons and old clothing labels that were inside...

And that's about it for this week.  I have to say, I had a great time at the last estate sale - great sellers and so much stuff to go through.   If it wasn't so close to lunch time and I wasn't starving, we might have stayed a little longer.  But that's ok, I have a bunch of stuff to clean, photograph and list this week.  What did you find this week?

If you see anything that you like, most items will be listed in my shop sometime this week.

Linking up With....
Sundays at Home # 47
Vintage Inspiration Party # 177
Let's Talk Vintage # 19
Party in your PJ's # 43

How to make a Smash Book/Journal

I know a lot of people who like to make Smash Books or Journals.  I've seen some really cute ones all over on Pinterest.  Last week when Chablis was cleaning out her closet she pulled out a bunch of old board games.  I had them sitting in a pile in my office when I had an idea on what to do with some of the old boards.  The graphics are so cool looking and colorful, so I decided to make a couple of Smash books out of some of the boards.

First I cut a Sorry board into 4 equal pieces to use as the book covers and then I pulled out our paper cutter and started cutting white sketch paper and card stock into sheets that would fit in between the covers....

I picked up a couple of binder rings from our local office supply store....

DON'T do what I did at first.   In order to put holes into the thick covers I pulled out my drill and a drill bit.  I placed the board so it was hanging over the table and started to drill a hole into it.  Big mistake......  The drill bit went thru the cover and the pressure from my hand made the drill slip and it it tore a huge hole into the game board.  Idiot!  

I went outside and got a piece of wood like I should have done in the first place, put another game board piece on top of it and then drilled it.  Much better and worked like a charm....

 I put about 50 assorted sheets of card stock and white paper in between the board covers and attached everything with the binder rings.  Instant Smash books!  They make great diaries, art books and journals too.

I like the bright colors and being able to use the vintage board games for something fun....

I even used the original box to make the back cover on one of them...

They make great gifts too - I put a couple of them in my ETSY shop here and here.

Linking up with...
Showcase Sunday # 21
Sunday's at Home # 47

Craft Frenzy Friday # 79
Catch as Catch Can # 201

Worthwhile Wednesdays # 56
Let's Talk Vintage # 19
Vintage Inspiration Party # 177
Party in your PJ's # 43

Full of Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Stuff

Did you look at my blog post title and wonder what the heck I was talking about?   That's the name of a geocache that we did last weekend.

Full of Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Stuff  - isn't that a great name?

I originally heard about this cache from my friend Dave, who writes over at "Only Googlebot Reads This Blog."  Dave lives in North Carolina and he took his family on a roadtrip last spring on their way to a geocaching event in Missouri.  They made a grand event out of their trip, and Dave did a series of blog posts about their stops along the way.  You can read about this cache here.  They ended up caching not far from where I live.  How wild is that?  I wish I would have been in town when they were here so we could have met up.  Anyway, they did this cache that sounded cute, so I bookmarked it and we finally got around to doing it.  It was a really nicely constructed geocache.  I could tell that a lot of work and thought went into it.

The cache is in a residential neighborhood in front of the cache owners house.  It resembles a Police call box and when you open the doors, its actually a little free library that anyone can use.  Feel free to stop by and trade a book.  Isn't that cute?  The geocache is hidden in a secret compartment.  I won't tell you where....

I left a geocache themed book.  I received "101 Devil Caches" in order to do a book review.  I enjoyed reading about all the great geocache ideas and decided to share the wealth.  I dropped off the book with instructions for the next geocacher to read it and create a geocache based on the book, and then pass the book on to someone else to do the same.

I hope it inspires geocachers to go a little above and beyond to create a special geocache, like this one was.  I liked it so much that I gave it a favorite point.   Geocaches like this are what this game is all about!

Key to my Heart

Louie bought me a letter stamping kit for Christmas.  Does anyone out there do this?  I've been wanting to try it for the longest time and I was so excited to start.

Here's the first thing I've made so far....

I used one of the skeleton keys I got at an estate sale last summer and some twine that Chablis had in her craft box...

The stamping is quite fun and I wish I had more free time to mess around with it.  The hardest thing for me is getting the dark marker in the letters and wiping away the marker surrounding the letters while leaving it inside the letters.  Cripes, does that make any sense?

If anyone has any tips, please send them over.

Linking up with...
Sundays at Home # 46
Catch as Catch Can # 200

Vintage Inspiration Party 2-10-15

Party in Your PJ's # 42

Estate Sale Finds Feb. 4, 2015

I was excited to find a couple of Estate sales this past weekend.  I haven't been to any in awhile and sometimes I just need to paw through someone else's junk.  It's the thrill of the hunt - you just never know what you might find, right.

We went to 2 sales where we didn't buy a thing and I was getting discouraged.  I hate it when I go to estate sales and the prices are practically retail and the sellers don't want to haggle.  Hello, it's an estate sale - price this junk to move!!

The 3rd house was a little better.  Not a ton of stuff but we managed to pick up a few things.  I was digging through a closet and found an old Levi Strauss Jean jacket that was in really nice condition.  It was well worn and soft, with no rips or tears.  It was just really dirty, but nothing that a good soak and run through the washer wouldn't take care of.

Here it is all cleaned up.  I had plans to re-sell it until Chablis tried it on and darn it, but it fit her perfectly.  It's now hanging in her closet....  How rude is that???

After finding the jean jacket we headed down to the basement.  Louie was digging through a pile of outside Christmas decorations and found a leather bomber jacket laying under some strings of lights.   He motioned me over and I took one look at it and wrinkled my nose.  It was filthy!  It looked horrible.  I shook my head no, tossed it onto a table, and turned my attention to a box of wooden ornaments.   There was a lot of crappy ornaments but I managed to pick out a few nice wooden ones which I am selling....

Isn't this one great?  He was my favorite.  I was tempted to keep him but I'm going to list him for sale...

I get very irritated at some people at estate sales.  While I was going through the box of ornaments another woman came up next to me and kept trying to get her hands into the box.  Really?  She couldn't wait until I was finished?  I grabbed the box and moved away from her.  Idiot.

A little porcelain Santa bell....

This elf stole my heart but he's also headed to my Etsy shop...

I don't know why I bought this plastic rocking chair because it's in pretty rough shape but if someone wanted to paint it and remove the hanging string, it would look cute in a doll house...

Once I finished with the ornaments I turned around and took a second look at that leather Bomber jacket.  It had no rips or tears and I noticed that it was a Wilson Leather jacket, which is a pretty nice brand.  I added it to my arm with the Jean jacket and decided to see what the seller wanted for both of them.

I also found a Silk Tabasco tie to add to my pile....

The seller at this house was way more interested in eating his box of chocolate chip cookies than taking money.  Now that's my kind of seller.  We did a little haggling and came up with a lump price for everything. I went home and removed the lining from the Leather jacket and ran it through the washing machine.  Then I got some leather cleaner out and went to work on the bomber jacket.  Holy crap - this thing cleaned up  nice!!  It's now up for sale in my EBAY shop.  I have to say that Louie's eye is definitely improving on things to look for at estate sales.  **  UPDATE - this leather jacket already sold!

After we got home I was back online and noticed an estate sale in Chicago that I had missed earlier.  We decided to get  up early the next morning and head into Chicago to check it out.  Since it was the last day of the sale everything was marked down by 50%.  Don't you just love that???

We picked up a couple of things.  Chablis found this strawberry treat tin and a Chicago milk bottle.....

The graphics and green color on this tin are awesome and Chablis added it and this whiskey jug to her collection.  Photos were taken before she cleaned everything up.  I'm totally bummed out that she got her hands on that tin first....

I also picked up a Chicago milk jug for my collection and this green potato ricer...

The green on this is fabulous and the masher is heavy duty and in really good shape.  It's headed to my shop as well.

The Chicago estate sale was in a fabulous house.  It had 3 floors crammed with stuff and the people who lived there obviously had money.  The walls inside were inlaid with gorgeous stained glass that stretched from floor to ceiling.  They also must have been hunters because one room had over 25 stuffed big game animals in it - some of them full size  - bears, buffalo, lions, elk, deer, caribou.   It was amazing.  One whole room was an indoor swimming pool with skylights overhead and plants growing all around.  The back of the house had a huge greenhouse.  A lot of the rooms had giant elaborate wood cabinets with hundreds of drawers that were crammed full of crocheted doileys and candles in every size, shape and color that you could think of.   And there were hundreds of dolls everywhere you looked.  It was fun to walk though the house and just look at everything.  Unfortunately, even at 50% off, most of the stuff was out of my price range.  But it still made for a fun morning.

Crocheted Scrap Blanket

Today I want to share the blanket I just made entirely from scraps of yarn that I had.  I don't know about you, but I'm just an average crocheter.  By that I mean that I'm extremely slow and I only make a few projects each year, usually in the winter because I like to have that nice warm yarn in my lap.  Otherwise I just whip up blankets during the year as needed for anyone I know who is having a baby.

Last November I happened to take a look at the shit show of leftover yarn I had stashed behind my easy chair in the front room.   I had dozens and dozens of balls of different colored yarn, in various sizes.  I had anywhere from almost full skeins of yarn, down to small balls the size of a golf ball.  They were stacked up in totes and small bags and they were getting out of control.  One night I had a brainy idea -  I'd take the scraps and use them to make a blanket.

I started by using a "P" size hook and grabbed 3 random colors of yarn.  I chained 120 stitches and then just started single crocheting row after row.  Any time a strand of yarn ran out, I reached down, grabbed a new color, tied it on, and kept going.  Since all the balls of yarn were different lengths, the yarn colors would run out at different times, so there was always new color combinations going on.  I liked that because I get bored easily so I was always excited to add in a new color.

I just kept crocheting row after row until it got almost as long as I wanted, and then I began to crochet around the entire blanket until I had added a few rows all the way around.

I liked the contrast of the lines running around the outside of the blanket...

So there it is - the perfect yarn busting project.  I did a couple of rows almost every night while watching TV, so this took me about 8 weeks to finish.  See, I told you I was slow!  This blanket will probably get taken down to the lake house and put at the end of one of the beds.   And believe it or not, I still have a few more balls of left over yarn.  Looks like another project for next year maybe.

Linking up with....
DIY Sunday's Feb 7, 2015
Simple Saturday's Feb. 7
Thoughts from Home # 45
Catch as Catch Can 199
Craft Frenzy Friday # 77

Party in Your PJ's # 41

Vintage Inspiration Party # 175