Thrift Share 3/27

I was able to squeeze in two stops at thrift stores this week while the girls were in school. I literally ran in and out of the Goodwill in about 25 minutes, where in line I almost put down my pile as I thought I was going to be too late picking up the kids. But I made it, with two minutes to spare!

There I found a bunch of Ralph Lauren rompers and a collared shirt, woo-hoo! These are great since I can either use them for the impending baby (only 3 weeks to go!) or sell them. They are in great shape.

I love rompers for babies, they are so easy to wear and change and tuck in your bag as a back-up outfit and all that good stuff. And Ralph Lauren! So fancy! Actually, I don't care about the brand, but I hope some eBayers do if I end up giving them up.

I also found one of these:

I read on some blog post that I can't find now that these have great resale value, but I didn't research eBay before I picked this one up. And now it doesn't seem like these are that awesome to sell unless the are Cutco brand. Which I've never even heard of! And I thought I knew a lot about knives and kitchen tools.

But I guess I'll throw it up there and see who bites. I should at least be able to get my money back since it was only about $4.

But then a quick trip to SA netted me this beauty in the fancy stuff section:

How cute is this!?!

The little houses are irresistible, so of course I scooped it up right away. It didn't come with a lid, but a quick look around the shelves, and I found it stuck inside another dish. Woo-hoo! A matching set.

The pattern is Country Village and was made in Japan by Nasco. I can't find when it was made, but have found some photos of teapots in this pattern on flickr. This pot I have no problem reselling, but if I found the teapot, I would have trouble letting that go!

Here, do you want another look at the cute little houses?

Don't you just want to move into one of the little houses? I like the one with the pink chimney!

Linking up to Apron Thrift Girl!

Birthday Crafts

There have been a lot of birthdays among family and friends happening these days. I like to make gifts when I can, so I've been at the sewing machine for a while. I got a good break a few weeks ago, but now I'm back in the swing of things.

Or sewing of things. Ha ha.

I've made these pennant banners for my kids' birthdays, and now we have two Goddaughters turning one! Not twins, not even related actually. But one is my niece and her birthday is coming up next weekend. I already made one set of banners for the older Goddaughter, so now it's on to the younger one.

I bought the fabric a couple months ago at Aunt Bea's online going-out-of-business sale. Boo. But I got a good deal!

So I started with long strips of fabric.

And then I starch, starch, and more starch. Then cut into triangles with pinking shears.

Then there's a lot of zigzag stitching and many yards of extra wide double-fold bias tape. And then, ta da!
We have 12 yards of festive banners, ready for a party.

A couple lunches

I haven't made super-inspiring lunches lately, just packing something up in the 10-15 I have in the morning before we leave for school. But at least I'm familiar with it enough that it's easy to pull something together if I don't have anything planned.

Like this lunch from last week.

Here we have reheated gyoza, a clementine, strawberry cut in half, TJ's onigiri, edamame on top of a small container of cottage cheese, and the last of the gingerbread men tucked in on top.

It's nice to have frozen things easy to reheat and tuck into the box, like the gyoza, edamame, and onigiri. And it's always nice to pattern lunches after the Japanese, who came up with the whole bento idea in the first place.

This next lunch was a super rush.

It's pretty simple. Just cut up pieces of veggie pizza, beautiful grapes, a tiny container of muddie buddies, PB pretzels, and some prunes.

After I sent it, I realized I had included peanut butter! Peanut butter is not allowed at their preschool, so I usually send sunflower butter sandwiches as an alternative, which the girls really enjoy. But I didn't even think about the peanut butter-filled pretzels!

Well, I didn't get a note sent home about the inappropriate lunch, so I think I'm okay. Whew!

resale update

Finally got a bunch of stuff from February listed, including the colorful owl pillow!

It's quite darling, and if it actually matched anything in my house, I would consider keeping it. But right now, I just like how cute it makes my shop look!

Still have a lot more stuff to post, but actually took quite a few photos this weekend, which is half the battle. I don't mind posting, I just have to find my rhythm for it.

Also, my husband told me this weekend that I should just sell the really big payoff stuff, and not waste my time with the little things. I told him I'd love to do that, but it's trickier than he thinks. How do I go about explaining it to him? Hmmm, one to think about.

Thrifty Share 2/13

I read with relish everyone's visit to multiple garage sales/estate sales on the weekends. Even though I'm in California, and the weather has been fine, there just hasn't been many in my area lately! But, I will persevere.

The one garage sale I made it to this weekend was pretty good. Even though I didn't get there until 11:30, there was quite a bit of awesome stuff, including this group of copper kitchen goods:

I asked her how much the pans were right when another lady asked about the set, and was immediately worried that the other woman would get them, especially since the entire lot was quoted at only $10!

I figured all that copper is worth at least $10 in scrap, and I managed to claim them while the other shopper was still looking them over and bargaining. Whew! Now I've been checking metalprices.com... Ha! Not, this will probably end up on eBay.

At that same sale I found a bunch of CUTE Christmas ornaments for about 50 cents a piece. I don't think they are old, just cute. They are for me!

And this very old set of wooden vehicles with lots of little wooden people.

At $10, this wasn't a steal, but if you think of how much you'd have to pay for a set like this retail, then it still seems like a bargain. My girls have been enjoying it, I just wish I could find out more about it. All I know is it was made by Three Worlds Toys, but that's about it.

Speaking of toys, I also found this Haba Solitaire game at the flea market with all the pieces.

That's always the tricky part about games, especially ones with lots of little bits.

I've had pretty good luck with vintage linens lately. The cartoon kind, not the hand-embroidered kind. I've found Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, and this very cool Smokey Bear pillowcase.

And then there's this really awesome crafting book I found at the flea market for a dollar. It's a Christmas one from 1971, and is so great!

The inside is has such a variety of craft ideas, I had so much trouble choosing which spread to feature. Here's just one, but it covers the gamut from fabric to yarn to pottery to paper to cooking to wood, all with beautiful '70s photos.

I took about 10 more pictures, and I'll try to include them all in my listing. Now I just have to decide if this is eBay or Etsy material.

Finally for resale I picked up this 1970s bridge pad for $2. I couldn't resist, even though the guy drove a hard bargain.I don't even play bridge! It comes in the original box with original sharpened pencil along side. So cute.

I also picked up a jogging stroller for $20 for after the baby comes. I'm going to try to join a friend in a stroller fit class, and need a jogger for it, but can't start until September when the older two are in school. So I started looking, and found what I needed the very first weekend! That's always cool.

Now the only thing I need is a pair of swim fins that will fit my daughter for her birthday next week. I've been searching for months and haven't found ones that will fit her. Am I going to have to buy some retail? I hope not!

Since this is only part of my haul, I guess I can't complain about my limited shopping options. Hope you all had a good week too!

Linking up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

back into bentos

I haven't made lunches forever for the kids because of school break and sickness, so I am just back in the swing of things this week.

On Monday, I packed lunch in the Totoro boxes the girls got for Christmas. They are just the right size for them!

Here we have ham and swiss, a happy sunflower butter sandwich, bean salad with our new mini-elephant forks, carrots, edamame, and a clementine with a cute new pick.

After I packed these lunches, I realized I forgot dessert! But they managed to survive. In fact, these went over pretty well and pretty much only some of the carrot sticks were left. And then they ate a lot when they got home! Must be a growth spurt or something.

Next week I should have more bentos to share.

thrift share #4

Got out to the flea market this week, which was excellent. I think that is my favorite place to thrift, even though I'm more likely to find valuable things at estate sales. For some reason, I only find maybe three estate sales a month, even though I'm in the bay area, which of course is heavily populated. I must be missing something.

But the flea market is like going to 1,000 garage sales at once. And if you keep going, you start to get to know all the vendors, and then they start to like you, and hopefully give you a better deal! One guy last week even gave me a pastry after we had talked for a while. The guys are so cool there!

The first thing I came across was this vintage glass cutter.

I wasn't actually that excited that it was vintage, though that does add to its charm! But I know that specialty crafting tools can be expensive, so for about $1, I was willing to give this a try. It looks like it hasn't been used at all! Really great shape.

I found this guy and was immediately drawn to his face.

Mostly because he wasn't cheesy looking, but authentic and crafty. He's in great shape, just a small hole in his sack, and the tag is labeled 1978. The girls, when they saw him, wanted to go put him down in our Christmas boxes. I think they've taken a liking to him! How can you not? His face is very genuine.

Then it was off to the super-cheap booth. Everything there is 10 cents or 25 cents and the big-ticket items are $1. Thought they did have some new 20-quart cooking pots they were selling for $8. I almost got one as the husband needs one to help collect honey from his hives, and it's much harder to find pots for super-cheap than I expected. But since he doesn't need it until next harvest season, I was just annoyed with the idea of carrying it around and storing it.

Anyway! The booth is cheap, but of course it's mostly crap. I do usually find one or two things though, including a Christmas craft book and these vintage baby shower plates:

Very cute design, and for 10 cents, it's hard to pass them up! I wonder if anyone would actually be interested in buying them, though.

Hit another moderately-priced booth, and found some breakable things!

I quite liked this cup and saucer for the shape and design, and when I noticed it was made in Germany, that sealed the deal. I have German roots, so I have a soft spot for anything from that area. It joined me along with these three collectible plates.

The are actually miniature plates, and all tied together so they hang in a chain on the wall. They don't really seem related, however. Even the markings on the back are all different. But the illustrations were appealing, as well as the mini cuteness! I got all this breakable stuff for $4, and afterward, I wish I had tried to go down to $3, which I think I could have gotten. But, eh, sometimes in the madness of thrifting you forget to bargain.

I also picked up some clothes for the new baby when he arrives ($2), a set (complete!) of vintage sheets for the guest bed ($4) which I had been looking for, and a couple Cooshee Boosters for $3 each. I had always wanted that booster, even though my two kids don't even use them anymore, and thought at least I could leave them at the grandparents' house or something. But it looks like they do pretty well on eBay, so I'm going to give them a try there.

Unfortunately, I could only stay there for a little over an hour, which is so hard! The market is huge, it would probably take me six to seven hours to go through all of it. Usually I can spend two or three, and that makes me pretty happy. After a while I do get sick of digging through so much stuff.

Walking through the booths I didn't get a chance to look through on my way out was so difficult! It's a great place.

Linking up to Apron Thrift Girl's thrift share monday.