Category: puzzles

Scooby Doo where are you?

Check out this haul from about four different trips to the Goodwill Outlets in Indy and the Salvation Army in Bloomington (where I found the ceramic rooster planter). Among my most treasured Goodwill finds were a Minnesota Model X Sewing Machine (which seems to have been built around 1912-1913 according to all the great info I found on the Victorian Sweatshop Message Board, some OPA ration tokens from WWII that had apparently been used as bingo markers by the previous owner (I learned more about these from the site: Owlcation), part of a vintage toy car called “Nifty,” some cool metal tins, some Ruth Reeves linen napkins, and a lot of vintage greeting cards and doll clothes patterns, and a life-size Scooby Doo advertising display.

Minnesota Model X Sewing Machine
WWII OPA Red and Blue Coins
3 Ruth Reeves Linen Napkins
Nifty Car
Minnesota Model X Sewing Machine

Treasures in 2 hours for under $20?

I had about two hours to spend between family events at the Goodwill outlet in Greenwood this weekend. The fact that this outlet is a little smaller than the others in the Indy area actually made it a little easier to navigate in a shorter period of time and it certainly did not disappoint in terms of the types of treasures I was able to uncover. Check out the corresponding video for this week’s haul at: https://fb.watch/gWbEObr5Wg/

There’s treasure in trash if you aren’t afraid _to_ hunt…meant to put the number 2 in there since I couldn’t find more T’s but forgot!
Vintage Rumplestiltskin Puzzle
Letters and Postcards from the maiden voyage of the Cunard line to Antartica
Pieces of a Masonic Certificate
Mork Action Figure
Lone Range Press Button Toy from the 40s
Fisher Price Vintage Camera
Lennon Sisters Paper Dolls
Vintage Halloween Decorations

Check out the corresponding video for this week’s haul at: https://fb.watch/gWbEObr5Wg/

Be very afraid

I had multiple opportunities to visit Goodwill Outlets over the weekend while staying with my husband and some of his friends from High School for their annual reunion. We ended up staying at a home that was formerly a store that the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy visited as a young man – and that happened to be across the street from his childhood home (which was torn down to make way for the Interstate that runs through the middle of the city). As such, that made the house we were staying in the de facto headquarters of all things Raggedy Ann related in Indianapolis. So you can only imagine my surprise and delight to find a Raggedy Ann doll on my final shopping trip. I decided to leave that doll as a gift for our hosts because (as you’ll see in the second video) they didn’t have quite enough Raggedy Ann memorabilia in the house. It also seemed like a fitting place for her to be.

Take a look at the video on the Unearthed Relics Facebook Page: https://fb.watch/gdkoLY650x/

And then check out a video of the Raggedy Ann Historic home site below.

Here’s how I used the spooky garlands to decorate
Princess Pat Box
Edison Records
Chatty Baby Puzzles
Stawberry Shortcake Puzzle
Know Your America Program Booklet: Our Nation’s Capital
Know your America Program Booklet: Aviation in America
Modern Watch and Clock Repairing
1776 metal Bicentennial Bowl

A carload full of memories

While the Indy 500 was in full swing, I was making my way around the city of Indianapolis in a race for treasures. …and a few true treasures I did manage to find.

Some of my favorite finds are the ones I have to painstakingly reassemble…that was the case for the pieces of the 1950’s version of “the Game of the States,” the “Bionic Woman Beauty Salon” the collection of plastic vintage toys, a set of vintage cookie tins, and the remanents of a set of Shiny Brite ornaments.

Other things pop up when you least expect them (though when something exciting appears in a bin I’ve previously searched, I suspect they are often the things that other shoppers cast off) – that was the case with the vintage bingo-like game and a stack of vintage books.

1950s version of Game of the States
Bionic Beauty Salon

Flip it over!

The theme of this week’s thrifting adventure is: “Flip it Over!” I found several amazing treasures during my stop at two Goodwill Outlets in Indy yesterday…but the surprise treasures I found on the backs of several items turned out to be even cooler than the things that caught my eye in the first place.

Notice the really cool game board in the back, I did too…and it turned out to be reversible, with an equally cool bowling game on the back. In fact, it was a great day for games in general. The Chinese Checker boards have a cool checkerboard on the back (and this one happened to have all the checkers and 20 of the original marbles as well). I also learned a little about the Cleveland Indians and the Curse of Rocky Colavito.

I’m getting ready for our annual puzzlefest event this coming weekend…so puzzles were definitely jumping out to me as I searched through the bins. And speaking of “jumping out,” this one caught my eye because it is 3D! It had been broken up into four large pieces of assembled blocks…and I didn’t see any other pieces around it in the bin so I decided to take my chances. The fact that it was mostly assembled made it really easy to reassemble and I was delighted to find that all the pieces where there…as well as the 3D glasses! But the cooler thing, was discovering the Star Wars spoof comic on the back of the box. I totally missed that while I was shopping! The cards in “The Game of Authors” were also neat, and I was happy to find so many of them (though admittedly not a full set) because they led me to the box, which is interesting in its own right.

Next up: Photos! I found so many old photos on this trip. I was going to count but forgot to do it while I had them out. I’d guess at least 100. Sometimes I find clusters of photos that all seem to be from the same family, but these were in zip lock bags (marked $10)…so they seemed to be sets that had been reassembled for sale. The photos are amazing, but I happened to flip one of them over and loved the image on the back almost as much…so then I started checking all the backs of the photos too and found a few other ones that were neat as well. This proved to be another example of the benefits of flipping things over.

It was also a great day for Christmas finds. I couldn’t believe that these vintage ornaments and tree toppers had survived the bins! I was super-happy to rescue them…and managed to get them all home without breaking!

I found lots of vintage hand-sewn goodies as well. Some were in pretty bad shape, but I’ve been seeing lots of crafts on pinterest that I can try…and because they are stained or torn in some spots, I won’t feel super guilty for altering them.

And there were lots of other decorative and crafting goodies in this week’s haul…

I also found what appears to be a Redmon basket (the brown one)…based on comparison to another one that I had in my collection. I took a few other photos for comparative purposes.

Bigger Chill

I came up to Indianapolis with my husband for a weekend with his friends from High School…but they kindly let me duck away for a little thrifting. It was a good day for games and toys, and cameras and ephemera…and Christmas!

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!

I LOVE thrifting/Thrifting Bingo

 

There are a few things that I can’t resist when I thrift (its like a thrifting Bingo if you will): vintage games, wooden spools of thread, puzzles, vintage holiday decor, vintage cook books, rulers, horse things,  chalkboard, paperdolls and Nancy Drew Books. Today, on my two Goodwill Outlet stops in Indy I found everything except the last one on my list.  My favorite finds: sheet music for Star Dust, which I’m looking forward to gifting, and several vintage valentines and games.

IMG_0371

I also found a lovely vintage bingo game set and a mind-teaser puzzle. Both had several small pieces, which I combed through various bins to find…and then I proceeded to drop the stack I was holding into a bin, and then onto a floor, and even after I finally moved everything to my cart, I somehow managed to drop everything once more. Admittedly, It was not my finest day, but thankfully there were folks who were kind enough to help me each time.

Whenever I dig through bins to find pieces of puzzles or games, I always assume that I’m not going to find everything…so I wasn’t too sad when things fell all over the floor (repeatedly) – more embarrassed, really (but I’ll chalk it up to not having any lunch).   I didn’t drop any of the puzzle pieces I collected, yet I only came close to finishing one of the many puzzles who’s pieces I collected. Miraculously, I ended up with all the pieces of the Bingo game and the puzzle game (thanks to my husband’s help; after I gave up looking, he kept combing through cards and boxes and managed to find the few of each that I was missing).

Here are my take away lessons from today’s thrifting adventure: 1) pay attention to the small stuff; it would have been so easy to miss out on all the fabulous valentines I found today (in fact, I felt like my repeated spills of other game pieces kept leading me back to find more valentines), 2) bags and carts are your friend, and  3) have lunch!

 

Here’s to Pop-Culture!

 

I had another fun and productive day of thrifting on Saturday. The day included stops at two of Indianapolis’ four Goodwill Outlets and a stop at a regular Goodwill Store just before closing time.

I have to admit that since discovering the outlets, the allure of the regular retail stores has diminished, but this weekend was a good reminder that there great treasures still to be found at the retail stores – like the items shown in the upper left hand corner–including a grab bag of vintage buttons and zippers and two vintage Barbies and a whole bag of clothing and accessories.  As someone who transitioned from childhood into adulthood with no remaining Barbie shoes in my personal Barbie collection, I see it as no small feat that this bag had 12 complete pairs!  The dolls aren’t in the greatest shape, but again, thinking back to the tragedies that befell my Barbies, they really aren’t that bad considering they are about 60 years old.

My outlet thrifts included a fun salt and pepper shaker set, some vintage cooking utensils and tools, some fun vintage Christmas decor, Vintage comic books in fair condition, a few more children’s books in decent condition, copies of two Opera Librettos and a Chicago Opera program from 1942, two vintage photographs, images of John Bouvier and another gentleman that seem to have autographs, and a collection of vintage toys–including what seems to be a somewhat older collection of bouncy balls.