Carport Sale Gift

The main road near my home leads to many, many retirement communities.  Fall begins the "snowbird" season, and with that come carport sales.  I often lament that Floridians don't have basements to store up old stuff for me to buy at estates sales, but we do have retirees who bring treasures to Florida only to find they don't need them (wool blankets, vintage coats), or don't have room for them (antique furniture, Christmas decorations, knick knacks).

Today was a community-wide sale at a huge park down the road.  One of my first stops had quite a bit of vintage stuff.  The homeowner said he has a booth at a local antique store.

I came across this box and as soon as I picked it up the gentleman said, "Do you want those?  You can have them!"
"Are you sure?",  I asked.
"Yeah", he said.  "I have 2 more boxes somewhere.  I'll give those to you also."

What did he just say?  He'll give me three boxes of vintage vocabulary cards? For free?  Whoa!
This box contains about 1000 cards with a word on the front plus an example of it used in a sentence.  On the back is the definition.  They are kinda cool for all kinds of projects.

For an example, look at this cute idea from the October 3rd post on Itsy Bits and Pieces.

http://itsy-bits-and-pieces.blogspot.com

I waited around a while, but the kind man never found the other two boxes.  I told him I'd stop back by after I browsed the other sales in the neighborhood.  About thirty minutes later I checked, but he still had not found them.  He took my number and said he'd call if he found them.

Well, I figured that was that, but, later that afternoon I got a call from him.  They are found and they are mine!  His sale was still going on, so I told him I'd be right there! 

Here are my F.R.E.E. vintage vocabulary cards!  Yay!  Another box of English and a box of French!   

How exciting is that?

By the way, did I mention they were FREE!

Mom's Button Collection

A few years ago I gladly inherited my mother's button collection.  

 

A seemingly ordinary thing can prove extraordinary if you look closely.  These buttons are a perfect example.

It's wedding season and I am planning to make a few of these adorable hanky favors.  I thought the buttons may work for some of the trinkets. 

Lauren Elise Crafted

Lauren Elise Crafted

I have a great collection of vintage hankies already, so I'll be laundering them gently and pressing them to perfection. After that, the fun will begin.  My sister has promised to help me - her talent and creativity will guarantee success. 

A little nest emptying

My youngest moved to Nashville 2 years ago joining her sister who has been there for 8 years.  Today I begin the purge of her bedroom.  It's tough, but it an important part of my summer:  "The Summer of the Purge".

Because I work for the school system, summers are epic.  I can spend all year planning what I will do over the summer.  (I love that I have not had to grow out of this lovely childhood timeline.  Everyone should have the summer off.  It is so cleansing to close out a year at work, take ten weeks off, and start over all fresh and new in the fall.)

Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, greenest state in the land of the free.

Anyway, back to the purge.

As I took all her photos off the walls and cleaned her books off the shelf, I replaced them with treasures I collected years ago for my husband.

Coonskin cap

My husband had some hard times in his childhood, but one positive memory he often talks about is the Christmas he got his Davy Crockett toys.

Fringe galore!

"Mossakins" aka moccasins

Probably about 10 years ago I started collecting Davy Crockett memorabilia for him.  Now I have a place to put it.

Eyeglass case still has the "Return to" card.

I thought I'd share with you some pictures of this stuff his good memories are made of.

Raised in the woods, so he knew every tree.

 

Awesome Fire King breakfast set

Kilt him a "bar" when he was only three!

Davy, Davy Crockett!  King of the wild frontier!

Happy Father's Day, honey.  You are a blessing to me.

How I Got Here

Thrifting is in my blood.

When asked " Just how long do you intend to keep this stuff?" my parents would answer, "We keep it for seven years, and if we don't use it we keep it for seven more."

The youngest of five children, I have memories of my brothers bringing home bounty gathered from neighbor's trash piles.  The best ever was the stack of teen magazines.  I papered my bedroom walls with images of Bobby Sherman, Herman's Hermits, David Cassidy, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Jackson 5, Donny Osmond, and The Monkees.  What a thrill!  I was hooked!


In my teens my mother taught me how to sew and I began to develop my own creativity.  Patterns and textures, colors and embellishments, all these go into sewing a garment.  Not to mention the satisfaction of presenting the finished product.

In my twenties I married a man with a background in scrap.  (His uncle owned a scrap yard).  I have never met someone with such an eye for fantastic junk!  When I go to the junk yard all I see is piles and piles of metal.  But my sweetie can spot a treasure!  Whether it's a birdcage, or an industrial cart, or maybe an old iron gate, he is my American picker!

Fast forward to today.  The kids are grown and gone.  We have way too much stuff already.  But, the desire to hunt never dies.  That 's when my children convinced me to open an Etsy shop and sell vintage.  What a thrill to have a reason to treasure hunt!   I have been an Etsian now for about two years.  I also enjoy creating with vintage items.  I can't wait to share my findings and creations with you. 

I hope you will come back often and together we will see what becomes of it!  This thing called keepsacred.