Second Hand Bonanza

I've been very lucky with thrift stores and garage sales recently! I'm looking for an old manual typewriter, so I've stopped at every garage sale I've seen lately. Instead, I found a bunch of odds and ends and a few good dresses.

I get so excited about these things, especially the really old items I find. I probably spent under $50 for everything you see here (plus a few other little things that will probably end up as gifts so I can't post them here). Fifty bucks! For three dresses, a jacket, furniture, odds and ends! I'm mostly posting these pictures because as soon as I get home with my loot, I want to show it off to Israel. But he's in Tennessee. So pictures will have to do, and blogging about it is easier than attaching all these pictures in an e-mail.

I think I like this dress best. Sorry for the busy background.

This is my favorite find! My roommate said I look like Marilyn Monroe in this dress. It's old, and heavy, but cute, right? I almost got some very old, still-packaged stockings to go with it, but where's a girl to get a garter belt these days? (I mean, other than for $114.99 at Victoria's Secret... I need second-hand functionality, not sex goddess.)

Gap dress, $5. With all the weddings I'm going to this summer (well, I guess only two...) I figured I needed a "new" summery dress.

This jacket is a little Sherlock-Holmes, hmm? But it's really old--from the Sears catalogue!--and I just really like it. It has a removable fake-fur lining. Not sure how water-proof it'll actually be. It's a little big, especially when I don't have the belt cinched tight, so I might have the buttons moved in a bit. Or try to do it myself.

I just liked the looks of this old pipe and the shaving mug with brush. For someone who doesn't like knick-knacks, that's about all the use these will be to me--to sit on a shelf looking cool someplace.
I'm not sure why I bought these funky old ties for 25 cents each. I told the guy that I could wear them as belts or in my hair. Who knows if I'll ever get around to it... He had a huge pile of them, and he said that when he was in high school (he's middle-aged now) he bought them at Goodwill to wear to work at Hy-Vee!

That's the same pipe as above, but I'd been wanting to read "Leaves of Grass," so I was glad to find that.

Set of four hand-embroidered cloth napkins.

I got three flour-sack calendars from the 1970s. One I just liked the pattern on. The calendar from 1970, in the picture, has the same dates as this year, so I can put it up and use it! And the third one had a rooster on it, for my roommate who likes roosters, but somehow I lost it between the sale and home...

Cute old train case with a mirror and everything. It even has little straps along the side to hold bottles. 50 cents! I want to reline it, as the fabric inside is kind of stained and yucky, but I think I can work something out with some fabric glue and an old flour sack or something... I think it'd be kind of fun to take it when I take the train to Denver at the end of July.

Cute train case closed.

For right now, the train case is holding my new little collection of vintage hankies! I threw some fresh lavender from my garden in there too, to try to get rid of the musty smell.

I found an estate sale with a set of four chairs that an old lady had re-covered herself. The daughter, who was selling everything, had ripped off the cool hand-made covers on all the chairs except this one. What was underneath was terrible, ugly, and plasticky, but I really like the fabric on this one.

This ottoman had a matching couch and big comfy chair, but without knowing where I'll be living in a month or two, I settled for just the old foot rest.

I got these two pots to re-plant a few of my indoor houseplants that have grown too big for their jars. The re-potting is on my list to do today.

I've really been liking owls lately. Owl mugs from a garage sale's free pile!

I'd been thinking of joining Pilates classes for the month of June, but decided I just can't afford it. A 10-cent book, however, I definitely could afford.

That's all... for today anyway!