I got a bit lucky.

I ran into a spot of what I would call "luck" last week out hitting the estate sales, and thrift stores, and the Vets Stadium Antique Market!! I am so addicted. It'd be nice to have a hunting buddy but it's cool to also just wander by myself.

Alright, I'll keep it to 3 excursions:

1. Estate Sale.
This one was from craigslist, I believe, and there were lots of people there bright and early!! I got lost on the way there, even though I had looked up the directions. (That is why I will be looking for a dang GPS on Black Friday!!!) They advertised it as an 80-year-old collection of items. While I was there, I believe I heard that it was a couple of spinster aunties that lived there!!! Never married, and they kept EVERYTHING.

I love love love love love the vintage glass Christmas ornaments that I got, thanks to inspiration from another blogger (link to be added, and pics, when I get back to my apartment and computer!), but I was MOST pleased with this set of canisters:

I saw the set, liked the country feel, and noticed that they were Pfaltzgraff. I asked about them, the nice, nice, nice jolly man running the front said $15 for the set of 5 (I actually have a salt one instead of the Cookies one in this picture), though I wanted $10, and he went to go ask his associates to run it by them!! The sugar one even had a big old bag of sugar in it! In the end, after I dug through 4 boxes of old ornaments, I went to another more supervised area - got 4 Glasbake mugs (one green, one blue, two pink - all pastels!) for $4 - to check out, and she counted the set of canisters as $7. Um, I didn't correct her.

It was at the end of this sale that I walked out and saw a young teenage girl with a red umbrella WITH A STRIPED CANDYCANE HANDLE. I was suffused, awash, with regret, because I remember seeing a stack of a half-dozen umbrellas in the garage when I had been digging through, and ignored them. It is the HANDLE that did it for me. Yowza. It honestly even looked like Bakelite, darn it. However, despite its cuteness, the pattern of stripeyness was a bit smushed and marred around the curve and bend of the umbrella, making it look like a measled zebra. It would have been $1. I asked the guy. So I keep telling myself about its perceived flaws because I'm a bit sad I missed out on it. I did get another browny and pink vintage umbrella fro 50¢ later at another sale, though.

2. Thrift store.
I have a mad obsession with Pyrex. It started out with the clear glass stuff, like what I used in chem class, and especially what I prefer to use for storing leftovers in the fridge. Also, Anne's nice mommy gave Jen a pink gooseberry mixing bowl for her wedding shower, which I've seen Jen using, and now I absolutely love pink glass. I've been fortunate enough to find a few sets of cups, and bowls, too, in the pink. So I definitely keep an eye out for this stuff when I'm out and about, and on Friday, I found this:

It was not sold as a set, but they were priced individually. It is not my favorite patern, but I love the color because it will go with my strawberry stuff!! (whee, aqua and red, just like in this picture, incidentally!) The large was marked $8.98, the medium $6.98 or $4.98, and the smallest was $2.98. Not great prices, by any means, but cheaper than eBay, in good condition, and it was okay.

When I got up to the counter to check out, I had them stacked together so that I could carry them properly. The lady took a look and only entered the price for the large one. Yikes! Stuff like this has happened before at this place so I should watch it. I pointed out to her that the other bowls had prices too, so she picked up the smallest one, rang in the price, thanked me for being very honest, and then wrapped it up.

She never did enter the price for the medium one. Oops. So it was a good deal (at least, in this area) for that set.

3. Vets Stadium.
This one is sooooooooo cool. I had to rush to church so I didn't even go through half of it, this time, when I usually do prefer to browse as long as possible, and there were some really awesome things and deals this month. (I still am meaning to post about last month, when it was completely surreal with the Santa Ana winds blowing through like the dang Sahara desert ... it was sad and pitiful to see all the broken and smashed glass and pottery all over the lot! I fully regretted not having my camera with me.)

I found a wonderful linens seller that I don't recall seeing before ... her aprons are what caught my eye (Nov. 21 was National "Tie One 'Round" Day, did you know?). Then I saw her table runners, and hand embroidered napkins, handkerchiefs, and pillowcase. THE PRICES ARE GREAT!! $4 for a tablerunner, $10 for matching pair of pillowcases. Everything clearly washed.

The most amazing thing I found was a giant, like, king-size, redwork embroidered flat sheet. I really must take a picture of it, it is just stunning and compelling. It was tagged $25, which I thought was a steal for the sheer effort.

Well, I was digging through the table runners, to make sure I had a good look at everything, and the lady running the booth saw me with this sheet, which I had set on the table, and she picked it up and it looked like she was going to take it away. I told her that I did want it, and she asked if I knew how much it was. Her nice, nice, nice, NICE husband said that we had just been chatting and the price hadn't even come up yet. I said, "Well, I saw the tag for $25." She stopped, looked at me, and said, "Oh no, no no, this is $35. You go anywhere else here and they will charge you at least $65, $70, this is all hand done." I felt very very mild irritation but told her I still wanted it anyway, while I continued looking.

I'd found a gorgeous delicate appliqued table runner (pic coming as well), along with another embroidered table runner that was ALL FRENCH KNOTS. She told me her table runners were all $4, "even all this, look at this, mija, this is all hand done! for you - $4," but I did notice that the french knot table runner was marked $12.

Anyway, I got everything together, folded it nicely (folded the $12 price tag inside the runner), and told myself that I would just let her have a look at the pile and if she saw the price tag and wanted to charge me that price, I'd probably go along with it because they were JUST that nice. She looked through everything, didn't open anything up, charged me $4 for each price tag, went down on the price of the pillowcase pair, threw in a free apron, basically ... but still said the embroidered flat sheet was $35.

So I bought it. And honestly, when I post a picture, you will seeeeeeeeeeee ... stinkin' price tag was CHANGED! From $25 to $35, I think it's pretty obvious. Grrr. Anyway, I think I don't care because it is definitely worth at least $35. Totally. And the table runners themselves are beautemous. She said there were originally pillowcases to go with the sheet, but we never found them, and then she said she thought she was arranging at home and they were shams, and she had pulled all the shams out. I said I was definitely interested in the shams, for the set, and asked if she could call me if she did find it, just so I would know to come the next month. "Oh, no, I can't, I'm so busy, I'm working 40 hours a week ..." Hmm. I guess she does this as a hobby???

The husband was nice enough to inform me that they got all the items from a rag distributor, and they are usually in sad, horrible, awful condition, but she washes and bleaches them and spruces them up. I CANNOT BELIEVE what some people use for rags. Yeesh. She also had a nice pink tulip quilt but wanted $75 or $65 for it. Le sigh. Quilts are dang expensive.

I hope they have the shams next month!! And I am GLAD I hid that stupid price tag, what with her changing the price on me.

Pics to come when I get back, and once again, happy Thanksgiving!!