After a very successful (and fun!) garage sale last weekend – I couldn’t resist an excuse to go up to Indy to “restock.” I found many delightful treasures over the course of the day – and managed to visit with several family members as well. Some of my favorite finds included a vintage bread box and a few other rusty vintage tins…an NBA game which turned out to be from the early 80s (but nowadays, that’s vintage as well)…some cool old sewing supply and patterns…some old birthday and “get well” cards, an antique photo album, and one lone Shiny Brite that survived the bins. I also found a lot of great craft supplies.
My niece Evie made it to the finals in several events for her state swim meet yesterday. Great for her, but good for me too since it gave me a chance to go shopping before going to see her swim in the finals. I went to the Goodwill Outlet on the west side of Indy because my parents were having lunch, and it seemed to be the closest option to Evie’s meet.
The first great find of the day was a vintage cooking set – similar to one I remember playing with at my Granny’s house when I was a kid. It looks like it was designed to be something like an easy bake oven – with a power cord that had been cut off (probably for the best since it was a little rough…and definitely old). I loved the stove, but the thing that delighted me about it even more was finding a little note tucked inside along with some of the tiny metal pots and trays that said it had been owned by Janet Kinsey Beanblossom and she’d received it around 1944.
I was also surprised to learn a little more about the creators of another object I’d found – a tiny dollhouse dresser. I had to scavenge through the bin to find all the pieces, and didn’t notice it at the time, but it seems to have been signed by its creators on the bottom of one of the drawers.
The next great treasure of the day was a 1919 Singer Sewing Machine. Whenever I find a vintage machine I love thinking about all the outfits or home decor items that had been sewn on it…and all the hours that its former owner would have spent on it stitching those items. Admittedly, this one is in rough shape…but it is still a treasure…having survived for more than 100 years and also surviving the Goodwill Outlet bins. I found the base earlier in the day but didn’t see the machine…so I ended up letting the base go…but I realize in hindsight that I should have grabbed it and put it back if I didn’t find the machine…because I later discovered the top of the wooden traveling case…and then the machine itself.
On the way back from a trip to Chicago, I convinced my husband to stop with me at the Goodwill Outlet in Gary Indiana because I was shocked to find that there were no thrift store outlets (with bins) in Chicago. Which left me wondering where all their old stuff goes (but that’s something I can mull over more on another post).
The Outlet in Gary was delightful. They allowed shopping to continue in different sections of the store while rotations were taking place, and the rotations were announced with a train whistle sound effect played over the loud speaker. They also had several bins of books – which I haven’t seen at the Indy-area outlets in quite some time.
We only stayed for about an hour, but we still managed to find some treasures. I’d say Chris was the big winner of the day since he stumbled across a set of mix-matched vintage silverware. It is likely all just silverplated but there are some beautiful Oneida, Rogers and Community patterns in the mix, as well as a couple unique pieces. I think my favorite treasure was a set of screen printed holiday cards that hadn’t been used…or maybe it was an old science book that had many charming illustrations.
I’ve also been trying to do some live videos to show off my finds (long before I get photos posted on the web). Here’s the link to the video I did for this “haul” – https://fb.watch/erKDnhI4s0/
While athletes were battling it out at Wimbledon, I was scouring the goodwill outlet on Indy’s east side for some treasures.
I loved how the patterns kind of tell a story…outfits for a young woman, a sexy bathrobe for a man, a wedding dress, maternity outfits, and kids clothing.
I also experimented with a live walkthrough of these items if you are interested in seeing any up-close: https://fb.watch/eczwB0yXAn/ – feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.
On the way back from Chicago I had time for a very short stop at the Goodwill Outlet on the West side of Indy and found a few treats including a Fashion Book with lots of wonderful illustrations and some vintage game and sewing treats.
Check out all the amazing images found in the following book!
…and because I wanted to celebrate with my father on Sunday – I got to stop at another goodwill and find a few more treasures.
From the time that I was in High School I had a home-crush on Woodruff Place – a neighborhood in Indianapolis with beautiful Victorian Homes – set apart from those on the opposite side of strip of grass with fountains interspersed throughout. To my great delight, as I was driving for a quick visit to the Goodwill Outlet after I dropped my husband off at A movie theater downtown, I came across signs announcing that this was the last day of their annual Flea Market. The lure of the outlet was too strong to pass up, so I headed to the east-side for a quick stop to search the bins, and then made my way back to Woodruff Place. In addition to finding some lovely vintage patterns, one of my first stops at the Flea Market yielded a treasure trove of books and pamphlets, including two copies of Kinsey’s seminal work and a cool old painting book and engineering book that were both in rough shape but have lovely illustrations. I also found a cute tin with two dachshunds. After roaming the streets and getting quite warm and thirsty – I finally found another treasure worth investing in: a set of vintage paper dolls made all the more appealing by the fact they were in a cool Santa Claus box.
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 StatesBionic Beauty Salon
An appointment-free day gave me an opportunity to visit four goodwills, including the three outlets in Indy today. At my first stop I stumbled upon a really cool set of vintage game boards. …and found almost all the pieces of a toy metal barn. Later in the day I found a cool miniature sewing machine…and at my last stop I found an adorable bunny cutout. Without further ado, here’s today’s haul.
With a snow storm predicted for next week, I decided to squeeze in a thrifting trip this weekend at the spur of the moment. I was channeling “board games” (specifically a vintage Nancy Drew game I’d somehow just learned about). I didn’t find the Nancy Drew game, but I did find several others…along with some illustrations that look like they might be prior to 1900 and a magazine from 1903, along with a great hymnal that was in really bad shape so I’m not going to feel too bad about repurposing it for some junk journaling. I also found some fun vintage Christmas pieces and a few sewing patterns.
The coral-colored suitcase was one of the first things I spotted on this trip. It had been turned into a dog bed, but I plan to remove the staples and felt covered pad and recover the insides to make it good as new and functional for some exciting purpose.
I took a gamble on some old art supplies…and have been watching some You Tube videos to see if I can revive the paints. I’ve also seen warnings that it may be ill-advised since older paints are more likely to have materials that are now considered toxic. If I do revive them, I will proceed with caution. In the meantime, I thought the bottles would look good as part of an art-related shadowbox.
I also stopped by a regular Goodwill…thinking that I might have better luck there looking for vintage board games (i.e., before they are sent over to the bins). I left with two small tin plates that were beautifully decorated and a binder that I’m going to use to organize some of my ephemera (along with some plastic organizer pockets that I found on an earlier thrifting trick).
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.
The Thrifty Sisters 