garage sale-ing & flea market-ing

This morning I woke up early and headed to some garage sales with my friend Katherine and her boyfriend Dustin. She was on the lookout for furniture for her new apartment.

I spent a total of $4 between the various La Crosse and Onalaska garage sales and Goodwill. Here are some of my finds:

summer 2010 martha stewart weddings magazine: free bin, garage sale
teacup/mug rack: $1, garage sale
embroidered tablerunner: $1, goodwill
old golden books: 10, 10, and 25 cents, respectively
ziploc bag of a dozen handkerchiefs: 50 cents

pretty handkerchiefs

The mug rack definitely doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's sturdy and I can see the potential. I'm thinking of painting it a bold turquoise, which I think would look gorgeous in my future Bloomington kitchen. In the above photo it almost looks rusty, but it's just a dull, dirty wood - probably been stuffed on a shelf in someone's basement for 10 years. 

I'm smitten with the lovely colors of the embroidery on my new tablerunner: turquoise, tangerine, carnation and rose pinks. There were many more pieces of embroidery at Goodwill, but this was the only one that was $1. The rest were $3, so I'm desperately waiting for it to be the yellow tag 50% off day! I'd love to cut the miscellaneous pieces of embroidery into squares and incorporate them into a crazy quilt. 

The Golden Books will probably be cut up to be used in scrapbook layouts; they aren't in great condition. And I'm totally smitten by the handkerchiefs... definitely a new collection. 

I'm just now realizing that I completely forgot to include the small fist-sized dish I bought. It's delicate and pretty, emblazoned with a flowers and strawberry print and gold rim. $1, Goodwill. I'm using it to keep a few chapsticks and lipglosses readily accessible yet tidy on my desk.

While I had the camera out I thought I'd photograph some of my finds from the Hatfield Flea Market, which I went to this past Monday (Memorial Day) with my grandparents.

owl embroidery: $5

house embroidery: 50 cents

I wouldn't mind living in this whimsical red-roofed house

slight damage in the upper left hand corner, easily fixable

Neil and I have taken to calling the possessed-looking little owl Strange Botwin. (Any Weeds fans out there?)

books: 25 cents, 50 cents, 50 cents

baby book: $1

american home & ladies home companion magazines: 50 cents apiece

old greeting cards: 25 cents apiece

tiny bird cards: 25 cents

my loot

Flea markets definitely feature some characters... I saw a fair amount of Confederate flags flying proudly (not to mention Confederate flag bikinis) and it's a little jaw dropping. I just don't see that icky stuff everyday in my college town world. I almost wanted to shake the owners a bit and say, "Come on! Your Confederate flag, clothes that look like they've never been washed, fearsome-looking pit bull, chainsmoking teenage daughter and wife with four teeth are completely fulfilling the world's backwoods redneck stereotypes! Have a little imagination and break free!" But I abstained from doing so. It's likely that many of those individuals have been caught in a cycle of poverty and suffer from a lack of resources that I've been lucky enough to have access to.

I am SMITTEN with my owl embroidery. What a find! I found it in a dusty pile under a tarp from the same seller that had the vintage, new-been-written-in greeting cards. The kid who was manning the tent didn't want to sell it to me because his mom was asleep and he didn't know how much it cost, so I offered $5 and he accepted! It's funny how much cheaper flea markets are than antique malls... that embroidery would have been 4x as much. It's the sort of trendy, Anthropologie-esque piece that I'm sure other owl-lovers would adore, but it's all mine!  

As for the greeting cards, I purchased significantly more than I ended up photographing, spending $6.50 overall - less than one of those newfangled, annoying musical cards costs! The magazines were also a great deal - the wartime advertisements are so amazing. The baby book has never been written in; it's from the 1950s and offers lots of antiquated advice about motherhood and newborns. I can't resist pulp novels like "The Lady from LUST"; are you kidding me? Any book written by someone named Rod Gray has my undivided attention.

All in all, both were great thrifting adventures. I love my treasures (even if Neil does keep grumbling about the amount of stuff I've been bringing home)!