Month: September 2021

Happy Birthday to Me!

What birthday gift do you get the person who has everything? A day at the Goodwill Outlet to get a little more of everything.

I had an absolutely delightful day looking for treasures…and I think I found a few…

Contenders for my favorite finds were a small (child’s) desk that I’m looking forward to re-sizing so that I can use it, the tin (shown above…that I was totally envious of when I saw it in someone else’s cart, so much so that I almost offered money to buy it from her…but then I saw it in a bin a little later in the day and realize she’d cast it off…and I also found Saturday evening posts from 1973 and 1976 which are coincidentally the years that my sister and I were born. But the winner was the sewing pattern, marked “September 1921” …which means someone was touching it 100 years ago this month…and they’d cut out pieces of the pattern from an old newspaper…which meant I got to take a look at bits and pieces of news from the 20s. So interesting!

Happily Ever After

We helped my stepson move into his new house this weekend. I had just enough energy after we finished to duck in for a quick visit at the Goodwill Outlet and found a few treasures. There was a small pile of ephemera that I found in the corner of the last bin I rummaged through just as I was giving up hope I was going to find anything of interest. It contained cards and photos from Rosie and Charlie Hazel…and I learned from a quick internet search that she’d passed away last month and is buried not too terribly far from home. They didn’t have any children, so a lifetime of memories ended up in a bin of junk…which is sad…but it would be even sadder if I hadn’t stumbled upon these memories and find some ways to preserve a memory or two on their behalf. Even though I didn’t get home until close to midnight, I couldn’t resist making another digital collage.

“Happily Ever After” collage

Thrifting in Salem MA

I was out for the weekend, visiting friends in Salem MA. We went out walking on Sunday morning and found a delightful vintage fair…but I was still jonesing for a little bin-searching action. Thankfully, Salem did not disappoint! In an artsy alley way we somehow found our way to, there was a little cart set out where you could buy a bag of random items for $10. I had a blast filling mine up with treasures…and then discovered on the flight home that I didn’t have to wait til I got home to make a fun collage. I snapped some photos on my iPad and pulled them into Paper and even though they were photos snapped on a dark and bumpy plane ride, I think they turned out pretty well. And I’m so excited to have found a new way to create ephemera art when I’m on the go. I also think it will be a good way to plan things out ahead of time before I start cutting and gluing. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Time flies…

I’m obsessed with Redmon picnic baskets!

I finally got around to making a webpage about my Redmon basket collection. I was surprised to find that aside from the “History” page on the WC Redmon Company webpage there didn’t seem to be one already. I’m always happy to help fill in a gap. You can see all the pictures at jenni929.wixsite.com/redmon – if you enjoy thrifting and antiquing you are bound to stumble across one of these delightful picnic baskets yourself.

And while you are learning more about these baskets, check out this great article entitled: “Don’t you just love a picnic?” by Ruth Thompson in The Keene Sentinel August 10, 2023:  https://www.sentinelsource.com/elf/pickin_and_pokin/don-t-you-just-love-a-picnic/article_3a6d7d5c-36ee-11ee-b046-77e93639f138.html

Visit jenni929.wixsite.com/redmon to see the page I created to show off my collection.

MORE PHOTOS FROM MY COLLECTION

Seedlings

Reprints of old seed advertisements (from a placemat that I cut up), some vintage frames and photos, a little burlap and seeds = art!

Rainy day = time for some thrifting

As storms moved through the area yesterday it seemed like a perfect excuse to get up to Indy to do some thrifting.

Among my finds were some vintage handiwork, including embroidered objects and doilies, a vintage santa from the late 60s/early 70s that apparently sings and dances, a set of retro tea cups in pastel, a few Shiny Brite ornaments, various pieces of ephemera, a cool looking old doll and doll-head, some fun vintage tins, a chandelier which I’m planning to put in my shed and an Edgar Allan Poe book from 1904 – not a first edition but well over 100 years old!

On my “always on the lookout” list are toy horses for crafts and display (I usually try to steer clear of ones with hair and stick to ones in good condition that are all plastic), vintage sewing stuff (wooden spools of thread, notions, tape measures, etc.), vintage holiday decor (esp. vintage Christmas), paperdolls, Redmon baskets, dollhouse goodies, tea cups, globes, puzzles (old and new), vintage toys and games, old racquets, wooden rulers and cool old frames. I’m sure that’s not an exhaustive list, it is always evolving. I probably need to make bingo cards…but even without the cards, I feel like I’ve “won” a day of thrifting when I find a few things from this “favorite things” list.