After a busy fall that involved lots of holiday celebrations and big projects at work, I finally found some time to get back up to Indy to visit the Goodwill Outlets again. I managed to sandwich three outlet stops of varying lengths between visits to see friends and family one last time before the start of the new year. After a relatively uneventful start, my second day of thrifting resulted in some pretty epic finds and chances to learn some new and interesting historical facts. My whole haul (minus a new Christmas inflatable) is shown below.

Not bad for a few days of thrifting, eh? Now let’s dive in and take a closer look at some of the treasures I rescued from the bins. The “angel” was a clever craft project that was a little past its prime, but I was more interested in the book that was from the early 1910s. I was thrilled to discover that the pages had been folded (rather than cut). Going through and unfolding each page allowed me to see some of the spots where someone had carefully added notes and discover a few other illustrations that might be fun to use. The book is in rough shape, but will live to see another life, perhaps as part of new craft projects. I also managed to salvage the styrofoam sphere used for the head and part of the handmade doily that had been glued on as a collar. Below the angel, you’ll see a new Redmon basket (and a new-to-me pattern to add to my growing collection – as displayed at: https://jenni929.wixsite.com/redmon)…when I found that within minutes after arriving at my first stop on the second day of shopping, I knew an epic day was in store – and to think that sweet basket had not only survived the bins, but also lasted through an entire rotation before finding its way to my cart! I was also excited to find a plaid bag. When I had it my cart, someone pointed out that it was too bad that it was missing the thermos. That clued me in to the fact that it might be part of a set…but it turns out that I already owned the matching thermos (sadly sans cap). Next up: a cute little ceramic planter that I look forward to populating with some greenery soon. And lastly, in this block of goodies, lots of silver plated treasures. This was a little bit of a splurge because the pile of silver-plated goodies wasn’t light, but there are some really beautiful patterns in the mix, including some vintage pieces by WM Rogers and good number of Oneida pieces in a Grecian pattern from 1915. There is also an Oneida butter knife in the Vernon/Ashley pattern (manufactured 1917-1926), a Vernon Silverplate spoon in the Romford pattern from 1939, and a Pike & Madoc knife made in Utica N.Y. (likely no later than 1906, when the company appears to have been sold at auction according to this “House Furnishing Review” book from that year”).

Next up: toys and tins. In the first mini-herd of horses, it turns out one is a mule. Since it appeared to be of a higher quality than the ones I usually find I did a little googling and discovered that it is a Jubilation Bay Pinto Mule manufactured by Breyer. Fun fact: a mule is the product of a male donkey and female horse. I also found lots of fun smaller pieces for crafts. I was really excited to find what I thought was a vintage paint-by-number horse set, but after being bummed out that the box was empty, it later occurred to me that box had been used to house a vintage Meccano engineering set that I’d found a cover and instruction book for nearby. The pieces of the set were scattered throughout the bin and many were quite small so it was a bit of a challenge to recover them, but I was happy with what I ultimately managed to salvage. Rounding out this set of photos are a Swiss army knife, some vintage tins and some unique vintage games.

A good thrifting haul wouldn’t be complete without some holiday decor and vintage sewing or craft supplies and this trip was no exception. I grabbed the tin treasure chest to hold some of the sewing things I’d found. I like tins, but usually stick with the kind that have tops that come entirely off because they are easier to use for crafts and garden projects. It turns out this particular tin was a treasure in its own right. I found a similar pattern (but different style) on this site that suggests it was from around 1910, and I found a similar style of chest from what seems to be the same brand here but it can’t be too terribly common if I can’t find an image of it anywhere online. I also found a nice panel of vintage fabric.

The next batch of treasures amazed and delighted me. Scattered throughout one of the bins I explored was a set of documents in flimsy plastic bags (that had been priced at $10 by an antique dealer), some of which had already been torn open. They seemed to pertain mostly to property transfers of various parcels in Marion County.  We’re going to work on finding more info about the exact spots and people referenced, but for the time being, there’s lots of other interesting things to see in this batch of photos. Including the cancelled “document stamp” from 30 December 1863 (I found it 158 years later – to the day!), and a letter that describes a property sale in 1858. The document with two stamps, signed by Martha Caldwell in 1915 states that “it is expressly stipulated and agreed that the grantees their heirs, lessees or assigns or any occupant of said real estate shall not have the right to manufacture sell or barter any spiritous, vinous malt or other intoxicating liquor as a beverage on said real estate. There was also a stack of property tax bills from 1928-1933.

But wait, there’s a little more! I grabbed what I thought was a piece of patterned tin that I could use for a magnet board. It turns out it was made of aluminum but it is still pretty. Fun fact #2: magnets don’t stick to aluminum. I didn’t have a magnet with me on this trip (thus the reason, at least in part, I splurged on the silverware displayed above even though I suspected that most of it was just silverplate).  I liked the wire plant holder because it looked a little like baby Yoda…and I’ve been collecting things like that for a she-shed makeover project.  The bar in the front of the planter presented another great mystery to be solved.  The next two photos show closer-up images. My first guess was that it might be a set of firestarters that could be broken off. I’d seen another small piece of a similar block that had been broken off of the larger block that it had apparently come from, but I didn’t buy it – that one appeared to be made of what looked to be plywood. I reached out to my friend Echo who is a native Chinese speaker and asked if she could help me figure out its origins.  She was equally intrigued to learn that it was a brick of tea, and delighted to learn that the  Zhao Liqiao Tea Brick Factory that made it is in Hubei Province where her grandfather was born –and that there had been a longstanding tea trade route between Hankou and Russia.  She also helped me learn that a similar object is in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Australia (https://collection.maas.museum/object/363008) and that older bricks are prized by collectors.  We ultimately suspect that this is a more modern one, sold as a souvenir – but it was definitely worthwhile to discover all this cool history. I also found three great Vera Bradley pieces, a fun vintage dinner tray adorned with oak leaves (note: I found the black one on this trip, but was delighted that it was a close match to one that I’d purchased at an antique store several years ago). I also found some cute girl scout things and neat old fan.  Thankfully it weighed more than 15 lbs, which is usually a bad thing when you are paying by the pound, but that is the threshold at which they are willing to do individual pricing. I got this vintage beauty (likely made sometime in the early 50’s) for $7.  I added some Christmas cards to it for inspiration on how an old fan like this might be used for decorative purposes.