I only had about an hour to run through the MCHC Garage Sale today before my day-long shift tomorrow, but the finds did not disappoint. Below are some of the treasures that I found during a quick run-through of the sale…searching for ephemera and vintage books primarily.
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.
A quick trip to the airport gave me a chance to duck into the Goodwill Outlet in Indy for just about an hour…and I found a few treasures…can you spot the winner?
Despite it being a short visit, this Goodwill trip provided quite a few “winners.” But one was a bigger win than the rest. One of the items above is worth more than $500.
Was it the collection of Indy 500 collectors cards?
Was it the 1829 newspaper (TBD whether it is a reproduction)?
Was it the box of 4H ribbons from the 30s and 40s?
The Abraham Lincoln pamphlets and book?
…Or rather…something worth its weight in gold…or silver?
Ding, ding, ding! The bowl, an award for sales from the mid-fifties, turned out to be sterling silver. It was the last thing I grabbed, just on a whim, and turned out to be the best find of the day.
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.
We spent Easter weekend visiting family in Phoenix. That allowed me time to get create some collages using some of the new things I collected in California…and I got a few new items while I was in Arizona.
I have a definitive answer to the question: “Can money buy happiness?” – or in the case of thrifting, “Can less money buy happiness?” The answer is a resounding “YES!” One of my favorite finds from this week’s thrifting adventures was a set of vintage coupon books from the Eagles Drive In Theater in Wabash, IN…each appropriately titled the “Book of Happiness.” Other treasures in the mix: some badminton racquets and a feathered birdie, various things to be used on crafts, some tins that match a set that I have – they look vintage (but aren’t), a set of illustrations for different colleges at Cambridge University, some retro travel maps and pamphlets, a Gremlins Halloween Costume (sadly minus the mask) and some Shiny Brite and Rauch ornaments — it always makes me happy when I’m able to rescue some from the bins…but it sure is a bummer when I see smashed up pieces that I didn’t get to in time.
It is Super Bowl Sunday…the day before Valentines…and we are in the midst of the Winter Olympics – but instead of going for the gold, I’m going for the OLD!
I found lots of great Christmas and sewing treasures, as well as a bunch of really cool old books – many from the early 1900s but also some from the 30s and 40s. I also found an “Olympic Hairstyle” book from 1968…turns out it was hair styles from the Olympics of Hairstyling, not hairstyles worn by Olympians…but still pretty poignant.
One of my favorite finds of the weekend was a cool set of vintage postcards with various saints. They were in a large frame that was cracked up pretty badly…and there was extensive water damage causing several of the cards to stick to the glass. I carefully removed as many of the postcards as I could salvage and was delighted to find a newspaper from 1915 in the frame behind them that had been used to help secure them in the frame! There were also some interesting doll finds on this treasure hunting expedition.
The other big “win” was finding several vintage ornaments that somehow managed to survive the bins – including 6 Shiny Brites.
I just realized that the paper was from February 13th, 1915…107 years ago today! Among the various articles there are references to World War I, and the sailing of the Lusitania (that would be sunk by a German U-Boat less than 3 months later, ultimately leading to the United State’s entry into the war) – It also has a very fitting reference to St. Valentine’s Day and an interesting connection to the suffragist movement. I guess my effort to rescue a few saints turned up a reference to another.
Equal Suffragists Adopt St. Valentine As Big Vote Winner
Each man who sends a suffragist a token of affection to be asked to indorse “The Cause” and pledge to vote for amendment. Saint Valentine has been adopted as the patron saint of the Pennsylvania suffragists. Moreover they intend to put him to practical use.
The secret leaked out at local headquarters today when it was announced that every suffragist in the state who receives a valentine tomorrow—and there are several hundred thousands who have reasons to expect one—will ask the donor to supplement his symbol of devotion by a pledge to vote for the suffrage amendment to the constitution, election day.
The originator of the idea to win the masculine votes essential to a feminine victory at the polls is Miss Sara Miller of Harrisburg. When she put it up to the executives as state headquarters, associates and officials gave it their hearty indorsement, believing it to have possibilities highly practical as well as romantic.
These possibilities were explained briefly today by Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, president of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, who returned to Pittsburgh from the state capital today.
“St Valentine offerings are usually indicative of affection,” she said. “Where there is affection it is fair to assume that there is also the desire to please. The pledge of a masculine vote in favor of the suffrage amendment will please every sincere suffragist. We hope St. Valentine will help us get a lot of them. There’s the whole story in a nutshell.”
Persons with a penchant for figuring may now take out their pads and pencils and estimate the number of valentines it will take to assure a “Votes for Women” victory at the polls this year. The suffragists admit that the number needed will run into big figures, but they are not at all depressed by the outlook. Some of the fairer Pittsburg suffragists, it is whispered, figure that they can swing even more than one vote on St. Valentine’s Day.
I also learned, among other things about the Indianapolis HooFeds (also called the Hoosiers), a major league Baseball team! The Hoosier hold the distinction of placing first every season they played in the short-lived Federal League (The Hoosiers won the title in 1913 and 1914 before being transferred to Newark where they became known as the Peppers). The league itself lasted from 1913-1915). Another fun fact about this short-lived league: Wrigley Field came to be as a result of the Federal League, playing host to the Chicago Whales before it went on to become the home of the Cubs.
Thrifting tips:
Apparently the Goodwill Outlet will still price books separately if you ask (even though their signage no longer references book prices (or has bins dedicated for books). I had a full bag of books that I got for $6, much less than it would have cost me if I were paying by the pound.
In the rescue of the 1915 newspaper, I found space saving vacuum bag to be the perfect size for helping me to keep it safe while I got it home. The tip here is simply to look around to see what supplies might be present.
Curious to see one of the Olympic Hairstyles? This one was definitely a winner!
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…
