Saturday, August 31, 2013

The White House receipt



Early this summer I bought a group of patterns at a rummage sale. They sat on my shelf all summer, until today when I decided to get them on Etsy. As I opened one envelope I was pleasantly surprised to see the receipt for the pattern tucked inside:

The receipt is from The White House in San Francisco. Two items were purchased for $1.41 on May 10th, 1957. I love to find things like this. I wonder who it was that bought the pattern and how did it eventually end up in North Dakota?

I had to do a little research on The White House as I had never heard of it. The store opened in 1854, but after the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906, the building was destroyed. It was rebuilt in a French style and was known for its French atmosphere. There was a tea room on the fourth floor which was quite beautiful. See some postcards of the tea room here. I can't imagine shopping there and stopping to have tea. Being dressed in you finest to shop and have tea sounds so much better than having cheap lingonberry pancakes at IKEA. The store closed in 1965 and the building now houses a Banana Republic.

Also check out this blog for more information and a store directory.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Thermos collection

There are somethings that I have always loved and have always collected. Then there are collections that just sort of happen. My thermos collection is one of the latter. 


It started with the big metal Stanley one. Then I found a red one and thought I needed a red thermos for my red kitchen. The next thing I knew I had five of them. Thermos are easy to find, but I've only bought the ones I truly loved. I love red and I love plaid so it was easy to pick those up. The others I liked for whatever reason. Together I think they look nice all lined up on my kitchen windowsill. 

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Happiness is a great thrift store find

One of my thrift store pet peeves is when they price items higher if they feel the item is antique or collectible. I understand why they do it, but my feeling is either be a thrift store or an antique store. I rarely look at the collectible section of thrift stores and would rather search the rest of the store for those diamonds in the rough. 

This weekend I got to do some thrift store shopping with my mom and she spotted this blanket:  

My mom was nice enough to let me have the first crack at this blanket as I love sports collectibles. I looked at the price tag and it was way more than I would want to spend on a blanket at a thrift store. However, it was too cool. And it's Snoopy. My husband loves Snoopy. This time I just had to bite the bullet and purchase it. It was one of those things that I knew I would hate myself later for not getting. 


There are some dirt marks, but no holes or tears in the blanket. The tag has 1965 as the last year listed. I'm thinking the Snoopy in the fur coat with the Jets flag is a Joe Namath reference which would make the date right on. I have Googled and searched for this blanket, but have found no references to it. 

I'm really glad my mom spotted this blanket. I found lots of little things at the thrift stores, but this was my find of the day.


Saturday, June 8, 2013

Something for my room

As usual my kids get things before I do. Now I really want to redo my room too! It might be awhile before that happens, but I did add one thing to my room this week:

I found this map at one of the rummage sales in New Salem last week. It was rolled up with another map and I didn't even look at them before I bought them. The price was so good that I bought them no matter what they looked like. If they looked horrible they would have become a decoupage project. I have always wanted a large old map, but didn't realize I really didn't have a spot to hang one. Except for my room. I love it, but it looks pretty blah against that white wall. It will look much better once I get our room painted. Someday.

I'm guessing this map came from a school. There is a stamp that says it came from a school supply store in Grand Forks.

My oldest son really liked looking at the mountains on the bottom of the map. The world's tallest mountains are shown as they compare to each other. I like the rip at the bottom. I like my junk flawed. Gives it a little character.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Another new room

Whereas my oldest son is pretty indifferent to the junk decor in his room, my younger son fully embraces it. He loves to go to auctions and rummage sales and has started a few collections of his own.

My younger son is the sports fan. His favorite team by far is the Steelers, but he has a mixture of teams in his room. On the bottom left is his metal map garbage can he picked up at an auction last year.

He picked up the map garbage can because he has been collecting globes. One sits on top of his shelf above his desk along with a couple of lunch boxes that he found, one at Junkfest and one at an auction. Yes, he loves Junkfest too! 


Here's just a few more of his globes. 


He's also got a really cool metal trunk in his room too. I found this trunk several years ago at a thrift store. It was previously full of my daughter's dress up clothes, but I had to take it because it was always meant for my son's room. Oh well, I guess that just means I need to find another trunk for my daughter!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Daughter's room

My daughter didn't really get a new room, but her room did get a major overhaul after the boys got into their new rooms. 

I like blue. Really I do. But when we moved into our house almost every room was painted blue. The darker blue reminds of the blue and country decor that was popular in the 80's. And if you know me I hate the 80's.  The only color I hate more than this blue is pink. 

I should have really taken the before before photo. This lovely wood floor was not only covered with laminate flooring, but on top of that was really ugly brown shag carpet. I can't wait to rip up the carpet in the rest of the house and get to the wood floor.


My girl is a girly girl to the max so it's no surprise that she would pick pink for her room. When I opened the paint can it looked like a gallon of bubblegum had melted inside. It is really hard to tell from the photo, but the pink on top is a lighter shade. I know I said I hated pink, but I loved how the pink and brown looked together. I ended up going back and painting all the baseboards and trim around the closet and door brown as well. 

My daughter's room didn't get much junky decor. I did however repaint a dresser we found at an early rummage sale this spring. The ombre look is everywhere and I couldn't resist with this dresser. Ironically it was painted in the exact blue I detest so much. I think it looks a lot better in pink! 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

New room

 We've lived in our house for over 10 years, but somehow all those years got away from us and suddenly we had totally outgrown our space. So finally we, (with a lot of help from my dad), got the boys moved downstairs. This is my oldest son's room. He's more of a computer and Lego guy so we were going to go with more of an industrial look. I wanted to paint his room a blueprint blue, but he picked green. Oh well, it looks really good with that NDSU National Championship poster.

My dad also repainted an old bed to make it look metal for the industrial look. If you look closely you'll see an old suitcase under his bed for some extra storage. I have another suitcase to put under there, but first I have to get my junk out of it!

I've been  hoarding collecting things for the boys' rooms for a long time. I found this trunk last summer. I love how it looks and will provide some extra storage as well. My son also loves the Baltimore Orioles. I just happened to have an older batting helmet. Go figure.


This is my favorite spot in his room: his Lego corner. The green Lego baseplates are actually glued onto the table. Now he can make creations and keep them there for as long as he wants. No more having to move them from the dining room table. I also donated one of my red chairs for his corner.


Above his table is a towel rack with some metal buckets full of Legos. I have to go back for one more bucket as the hardware store only had two left when I was there.




 I also added some framed pages from an architecture textbook. They look like blueprints so maybe that will spark some Lego building ideas.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

It's rummage sale season!


Gotta love rummage sale season! Yesterday the kids and I headed out to Lincoln for their town-wide sales. Hubby felt left out so today we took a little road trip to New Salem and hit the many sales there. We filled the van up by the time we were done. Not pictured is all the stuff on the seats. Some of our finds were for us, but I also found many things for the Etsy shop. Hope to get the Etsy shop up and running again soon. And I'll get some more photos of all the fun stuff I've found recently as well! Stay tuned....

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Guess what I got?


Pegboard!

Our two boys have now officially moved downstairs and as part of the remodel I get a crafting space. We still have some things to do in the boys' rooms and then we can move them in completely. As soon as they are moved in, then I can focus on my crafting space. I'm so excited. Once the pegboard went up I couldn't help but stick a few things on it. I can't wait to organize all my stuff and get to a lot of overdue projects.

I found the little pails at Target in the dollar section after seeing this idea to hang them on pegboard. They even had aqua color pails which is the color of my walls. Perfect! The white stripe on the pail is even a dry erase surface. Target is the best.

Hopefully I'll have some more photos soon. I'll also have some photos once the boys are moved in. They'll have some fun junky decor in their rooms to show off.

Friday, February 8, 2013

What would you do?

I'm posing a question to my audience. What would you do in this situation?

You're in a thrift store looking at some books on a bookcase. Next to you is another bookcase and a woman is sitting on the floor looking at the books on the bottom of that bookcase. You flip through a book laying on top of a pile of other books on your bookcase and decide to purchase it so you put it in your basket. You continue to look at the books. The woman stands up and begins looking around and then says, "Did you pick up that book?"
"Yes I did," you reply.
"I was going to buy that book," she says. Awkward pause. "I put it there while I was looking at the other books."

So.....Do you hand the book over to her or do you keep it?

 
 
I was nice and gave it to her and snidely remarked that I didn't know she was going to buy it and acted generally annoyed by her. Really, I wanted to tell her too bad, it's mine now. I got the feeling she didn't really want it until I picked it up. There's been times I've set something down, only to realize later that I really did want the item, but when I returned it was gone. You snooze you lose. Right? I think that's a basic junking/thrifting rule.

What do you think?

Monday, February 4, 2013

Where in the world

My younger son loves to go to antique stores with me. He has a few favorite things that he is always on the lookout for. One of those things is globes. Globes aren't hard to find, but the older ones are usually more than I'm willing to pay. I tell my son to be patient which is not easy for him. I know it's hard, especially when it's something you really want. However, it never fails. If you wait you will be rewarded. Usually when you're not even looking.
 
That's how we came across this gem of a globe. We found it at the annual St. Mary's carnival for a whole $5. It looks like a globe that could have been used in a classroom. The photo is not the best, but it is a really nice looking globe.
 

It's a fun globe to look at because there are many countries that have different names than they do now. I'm sure some of the borders are different as well. There are some countries in Africa that existed until 1960 so this globe had to be made in the early 60's. My son and I will have to look at it some more and see what else we can find out about the countries on this globe. It would be a good history lesson for the both of us. 

Friday, February 1, 2013

You're not selling that!

I jumped for joy when I found this Super Mario Bros thermos at a thrift store recently. This will be a quick sell on Etsy I thought to myself. My family, however, had different plans. They quickly commandeered the thermos and forbid me from selling it. I have to agree it is really cool and I don't come across many vintage Mario things. For now it belongs to my son and will go in his new room.
 


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Kitchen wall art

A while back I found some Dick Bruna books. They were well loved and were held together by tape in many places, but I knew the pictures inside had to be framed. I spent a long time looking for some square frames, but my patience paid off when I recently found some silver frames on clearance at Target.
 
I went back and forth on what I wanted to use as a background, but in the end I used some of my favorite vintage shelf liner.  


I like how they turned out. It adds a bit of whimsy to my kitchen.
 
Another fun side note: I had these books for many months, but it wasn't until I started this project that I noticed the signature in the back of two of the books. They belonged to my kindergarten teacher! Is it possible I could have read these books all those years ago and they found their way back to me? I like to think so.
 


Sunday, January 27, 2013

$20 in my pocket


Last week I unexpectedly found some time to do a little thrift store shopping. It didn't begin well as the first thrift store was rearranging which made it difficult to shop at so I left. The second thrift store didn't even appear to be open as there were no cars parked outside. It looked like a sign was posted in each window, but I didn't stop to see what it said. Instead, I went to the other side of town to one of my favorite thrift stores. I think the thrifting gods were with me that day, because my bad luck quickly turned to good. I found some great deals and I spent less than $20.
 
 

I have always wanted an old medicine cabinet, but have never found one that I really liked in my price range. I finally found this metal one. The glass on the outside is perfect and there is a cool label from Montgomery Ward in the inside. I haven't decided what I want to do with this yet. I may keep it until we redo the bathroom or I may use it my crafting area.

I've been chucking all our little kids plastic cups and getting nice glasses instead. I've been finding some nice vintage glasses that stand the test of time instead the ones sold in stores that break so easily. I found this juice glass which my daughter quickly claimed as her glass. 


Numbers and letters for some future project. 
 
 
Not sure what I'm going to do with this old receipt book either, but I'll find a project for it someday.


 And my find of the day. To think I almost didn't buy it. I tend to be very cheap while thrift store shopping and I have a pet peeve about stores jacking up prices on things they feel are collectible or antique. It is Pyrex, but I thought it was a little weird looking with the one dot on each side. I mulled it over while I walked down an aisle and then ran back for it. What was I thinking? It's Pyrex. It's red and white. Just buy the thing already! I figured if I saw it in an antique store it would be much more than I paid for it at the thrift store.
 
I'm so happy I did buy it. After I got home I did some research and found out it's a pretty sought after piece. I found conflicting info, but I do know it is the Moon Deco pattern. Mine does not have the lid, but frankly the lid is really ugly. Still, I'll keep a look out for one to complete my set. My dish is in great shape and it looks great in my kitchen. I would have been kicking myself later had I not bought it.


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

My finds in new homes

When I'm looking for things for my Etsy shop, really I just buy what I like. That was part of the reason for opening the shop. I have way too much stuff and some of it needs to go. Now it's fun to see something and not have to debate buying it because I'm not sure I have a place or need for it. Now I buy it because there's always room on Etsy!
 

These flashcards were my first sale. I would have loved to keep them, but really I didn't need them.


I don't really care for jewelry, but I just thought this necklace was a cool and funky piece. When I got home and inspected it further I discovered it was an Avon necklace. It ended up going to Moscow.  


I had another set of these pillowcases, but in blue. They were still in their original packages from Montgomery Ward. The person who bought both said it was exactly what she was looking for. She snatched them up within a couple of hours of posting them. 


I debated long and hard about selling these flashcards. But really, what am I going to do with a couple hundred flashcards? In the end I decided on a price I could let them go at. If they didn't sell, then I figured they were meant to be mine. I guess they were meant for someone else because they are on their way to Texas. 
 

I found this Nun's Boilproof Thread at a thrift store. I can't help but buy things with great graphics and fonts. The person who bought the thread had recently bought a Nun's Boilproof cabinet with drawers for thread. I bet that's a neat looking cabinet.


Sunday, January 20, 2013

Back to Etsy

Back in 2008, I was working part-time and looking for a way to make a little extra cash and also feed my creative side. I stumbled upon Etsy and set up shop. Back then I had to explain to people what Etsy was and no, I didn't mean Ebay. It's Etsy. I loved selling my homemade items, but when I went back to work full time, I closed my shop. I had always hoped to get back to Etsy. I also wanted to have another shop filled with vintage items. A few months ago I did both. I re-opened my shop, gave it a new name and started selling vintage. Maybe someday I'll get back to selling handmade items again, but for now selling vintage items is a lot easier. And I'm loving it. I also love that I have an excuse to thrift store shop more often and buy things I wouldn't normally buy because I don't have a place for the item. Check out my Etsy shop at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/junkism.

I was going to share some of my favorite things I have sold so far, but I'm having some trouble uploading photos tonight. Hopefully, I can get that fixed and share them soon. I was going to post the neat flashcards that were my first sale, the funky necklace that went to Moscow and a recent item that sold within hours of posting it.

It's been fun having an Etsy shop again, but selling vintage is a bit different from selling handmade items. Now I'm looking forward to summer so I can get out to some rummage sales and find some more things for my shop.