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!
Bigger Chill
Category: vintage sewing
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!
Button, button, who’s got the button?
I’ve been collecting buttons and wooden spools for a long time, but I recently had a wonderful button haul! I look forward turning some of these beautiful buttons into some crafty creations.
Christmas in July
Above: I’m always on the lookout for fun Christmas things that I can use to make ornaments or other decorative displays.
Below: A fun set of vintage games and playthings (including some toy horses…I never pass up a good looking horse). My husband and I were especially curious about the “Easy Money” game board (sadly, I didn’t find any of the pieces to go along with it, but it looks ). Apparently this is the Milton-Bradley version of a game that bears a lot of similarities to Parker Brother’s Monopoly. Here’s more info about the game and it’s history: http://games.cdbpdx.com/EasyMoney/EMTM35.html – this board appears to be from the 50s or 60s.
Above: I found some great buttons and a vintage singer device that turned out to be a button-hole making machine. I haven’t figured out how to use it yet, but look forward to giving it a try.
Below: I found two vintage hats and a parasol which I’m looking forward to using during an upcoming commemorative march for the centennial of the women’s suffrage movement. They look love with bird print and other fun floral finds.
Thrift-ma-geddon
I’m not sure if this will be my last Goodwill outlet trip for a while…but it was a good one. Vintage santas, paperdolls, vintage girl scout goodies, craft supplies and some delightful vintage books. The red wooden box once contained a silverware set. I’m not sure how I’ll repurpose it, but I couldn’t pass it up because I loved to the colors and the decorative star.
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.
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!
Start your engines!
Its a new year and I’ve already found some fun finds…including some cool vintage Indy 500 treasures including a collectable bottle of 7Up from 1979, a postcard, a poster signed by Al Unser, and a set of glasses from 1973…which happens to be the year I was born, which made it an extra-cool find.
I also found a beautiful red glass cream and sugar set, a Santa and Mrs. Claus Salt and Pepper Shaker set, vintage sewing patterns and a pamphlet and ownership certificate for a Brunswick sewing machine from 1916, an amazing stash of vintage puzzles, a few games, some fun art, and a delightful autograph book with some fun inscriptions.
Silver spoon…
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.
Down on the Farm
Yee-haw! It was a great day of thrifting in Indy. Check out these great finds from the Goodwill Outlet. Can you tell which of the items below are vintage?
The barn is from 1967 and the two nursery playsets are from 1972. Surprisingly, the teaching clock, which looks quite vintage, turned out to be from 2009 (though the design was originally produced in 1962).
Below – vintage Christmas finds.
Above a vintage Tootsy Truck. Below, some decorative items.
Above – silver or silver plate? After searching for a long while to find magnets to test to see if the metal was magnetic (I ended up finding several – see below), I went ahead and splurged on these heavier items. It may or may not turn out to be a good investment. The fact that magnets didn’t stick to any of these items means that they could be silver…or they could be just be silver plated.
Below – magnets + Rainbow Brite books.
Above: a vintage hat and purse. Below – vintage school supplies, blasting cap, and Hardy Boy Books.
More vintage books. Care to wager a bet on which ones are old and which ones are newer?
The one in the lower left looks old, but was published in 1980 (“My Favorite Book”), and the Little Red Hen was published in 1981. “Tell me about the Bible” (upper right) was published in 1957; and “365 Bedtime stories” was published in 1955. My favorite one in the bunch is the Space Ghost: Scorceress of Cyba-3 book from 1968.
Below: Vintage patterns, fabric, thread and sewing supplies.
Above: vintage games and brass(?) items.
Below a Nestle Dessert Cookbook
Outlet shopper-extraordinare, Evie – posing with a part of our day’s haul.
The Thrifty Sisters 