Category: Vintage photographs

The Fresh Thrift of Bel Air

This week I traveled to Los Angeles for work. I spent most of my time in Monrovia, where I didn’t find too many thrifting opportunities, but I had a little time open on Thursday morning and decided to attend a few estate sales after dropping my colleagues off at the airport in the wee hours of the morning. I started bright and early in Bel Air and then headed to Silverlake.

The Bel Air estate was lovely and I found a nice sized bundle of treasures – some of which are shown below.

After the first sale, I headed to Silverlake. I had to park about half a mile away from the sale and the roads were really curvy and hilly so I was pretty reserved in terms of what I got, knowing I’d have to carry everything I got back up the hill. It was also a really funky house…with so many different levels to explore – indoors and out!

I also got a chance to visit the Giffith Observatory for the first time.

I also got a chance to stop in to see the Monrovia History Museum.

Below is a digital collage I made on the flight home using some of the things I found at the Bel Air estate sale…and below that is a printable page including clippings of some of the cool ephemera I found. Help yourself and enjoy!

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

Best day ever?

Was it the best day ever at the Goodwill Outlet in Indy? Let’s take a look…

On this trip I found some amazing old books, vintage photos and vintage postcards. I also found some great craft supplies, and Christmas decorations and vintage linens.

The angels above were in a box marked “fragile” but that warning had clearly not been heeded. Only one was intact and one was in several pieces, but all the repairs looked fairly straightforward and all the pieces seemed to be present – so I took a chance – and I rather like how the came out.

I’m not sure it was my best day ever, but all in all it was a pretty good day. Check out the video of this week’s haul to see more: https://fb.watch/f21r7TUwFz/