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Tiny Estate Sale

May 24, 2016 by Florence 13 Comments

I went to a “Tiny Estate Sale” this weekend, a most interesting visit, having been given clearance by my doctor to begin moving around more. I’m quite certain he didn’t mean I was to go to THREE estate sales!

It was in a small historic house in Bluff Park (Alabama), set off from the road, and obscured by a grove of large trees. Having grown up just down the street, I was intrigued, and had it on my “must” list.

Bluff Park, a suburb of Hoover Alabama, is an area with a fascinating history. Originally a resort community in 1910, people from town vacationed on the mountain to enjoy cool breezes. An old hotel, boarding house, log cabins, and huge boulders lined the crest of the mountain. Descendants of the first families still survive, and if you look hard, you can see traces of the old life. A handful of log cabins remain, but sadly the old hotel burned in the 1920’s. The tiny estate sale house was built from a Sear’s plan to be a Superintendent’s Home, located across the street from what is now called “The Children’s Fresh Air Farm.” Pictures below show the quaint interior…a charming doll house…

The old cottage is a DIYers dream!

Here are a few of my finds from the tiny estate sale~

I came twice…once to shop; then back later to take photos. Of course, I had to shop again!

Now that mirror looks pretty cruddy. It’s actually a picture frame…forgotten on the floor, propped up on the wall in that dark dank closet. Rusty with silvering issues, but I have plans for it when my knee is healed. Stay tuned.

About fifty years ago as I was digging for a new flower bed with my mother, my fingers closed on something hard and round. In wonderment, I rubbed off the caked dirt to find an old locket. It looked like gold and there was a tiny diamond still in place! Remembering the couples who must have once strolled here, I wonder who lost this precious locket so many years ago. Were they sorry? Did they look for it frantically? I’ve treasured it all these years, and it has become a symbol of Bluff Park, the nostalgic place of my roots.

Confession of a Desperate Yard Sale Addict

May 9, 2016 by Florence 4 Comments

After many weeks of feeling deprived, I finally made it to a yard sale! So you might say this is the confession of a desperate yard sale addict! Other addicts will understand, you get to the point where you need a fix. Or I could call this…

“Confession of a Desperate Yard Sale Addict or You Know You’re a Yard Sale Addict When….”

You’re going to a yard sale on crutches
You’re asking your hubby to go to the sale for you as you’re biting your nails in the car.
You’re plotting how you CAN go to the sale, yet still sit in the car. Maybe a camcorder and a walkie-talkie?
You’re politely telling him (while gritting your teeth) to please park the car so you can at least LOOK at the sale.
You’re at the yard sale anyway even when the doc told you no…how stupid is that???

I must explain…I have a broken kneecap, and am not supposed to be walking on it, even though it doesn’t hurt. But doc said I may walk around in the house.

Once in the distant past, Gary told me he would go to sales for me. AH! File that away in the brain for future reference. So the time had come to take him up on it. I ~~coerced, arm-twisted, wheedled~~, sweet-talked him into going even though he was suddenly suffering from amnesia.

So there was a sale. Like Cinderella, I was DYING to go to the ball. I pointed out the things from photos ahead of time I wanted him to look for, and where they would be. I knew this was risky because as we know, men have a difficult time finding things. And sure enough, he couldn’t and didn’t. Someone else scored the little chest I wanted. Oh well…. This is what he came back with: not exactly my vision…of a productive Friday! Don’t get me wrong…I AM grateful he went. Desperate yard sale addicts can’t be too picky.

Saturday he talked me into going with him while I sat in the car. We went to about 5 sales, and he walked around forever, but came back empty-handed! (How is this possible???) I was cringing over what he was missing.

At one sale, he came back to the car saying “they have Barbie dolls and tons of other vintage items.” Arrgghh….before I knew it I was casting caution to the winds and going to look! I had my cane, and it’s almost like walking around in the house, right???

Vintage items were priced outta sight. The people kept saying everything was negotiable, but they could have sold a whole lot more if their prices were better. Badly tarnished silverplate trays…yes, I know it doesn’t matter if they are tarnished, but…$20 and $10? No way.

Lots of LP records…saw a Beatles record with a very worn cover….$15…NOPE! They had obviously checked Ebay. But it’s a mistake to price a yard sale like the winning bid on ebay. I’m not usually one to turn down the Beatles. However, I did find a few bargains.

This lovely vintage bookcase for the haggled-down price of $8. I love the pretty details on the edges and the shelves. Just a little peeling veneer on the top, which can be fixed. For an awesome tutorial on how to remove veneer, check out this post by Denise of Salvaged Inspirations.

A lovely paneled door with possibilities

and only $3!

THAT could be THIS lovely rustic chalkboard door~

From my friend Wanda Craft at Just Vintage Home (used by permission)

or THIS….beautiful hand painted cabinet door by Debi Coules Romantic Art and Design. http://www.debicoules.com/

(used by permission)

Here are my other priceless finds of the day~lovely vintage hardware which I literally grabbed…

If anybody knows what this is, please tell me! Close up of item in bottom row of photo above:

More hardware lovelies~

And last but not least….sewing trims and notions are irresistible to me….

One of the collars has stains, but I get around this by dyeing, which causes the stain to blend in.

Advice about selling vintage sewing notions:

Hoops & wooden spools always sell.
Notions and trims do better sold as a grouping or lot, although I have sold them individually. Vintage trims are very popular, but make sure they are vintage. They aren’t dated, so you have to guess by how old the packaging looks.
Generic, solid color yarn with no labels is a hard sell, unless in a lot with others and priced cheap.
DMC embroidery is difficult now that embroidery is out, unless you have a lot of it, with unusual colors.
Embroidery patterns are almost impossible to sell unless the pattern or kit is extremely cute.
Aunt Martha’s iron-on’s? Never tried, but I doubt they sell well.

I always tell myself not to buy sewing notions, but I do it anyway. I still love them, even though my machine and I have not met for many years!

All of the smalls (hardware and sewing notions) will be headed to my shop on Etsy: vintagesouthernpicks.etsy.com.

Otherwise, I would love to know what you think of this post!

Two Vintage Estate Sales Contrasted

April 7, 2016 by Florence 4 Comments

Two Vintage Estate sales contrasted…another fascinating trek. Went to 3 estate sales and 1 yard sale. Drove nearly 100 miles and this is ALL we found today!

Not complaining though. The third and last house we went to was in a location called “Leeds.” The house was PACKED with vintage items of all kinds. Photos below only show a fraction in a small area of the house.

People were dropping $100 bills…no sweat! “Cheapskate” spent a total of $22! Because it was the first day, things were much higher, but a place to get plenty of vintage!! So much in one place.

My favorite finds~Favorites yes, but I was annoyed when the estate sale person priced the tin on the right DOUBLE because it had a few little sewing doo-dads in it, NOT like gobs of old buttons, NOT like vintage crochet trim…I’m talking a mixture of bobby pins, a few ho-hum buttons, rubber bands…you know…worthless junk! And I got charged double! Should have put it back, should have put it down, should have dumped out the contents…blah, blah, blah….but I didn’t. Kicking myself, but doggone it, I liked the tin.

Always love it when I can find a couple of vintage cookbooks! And not that easy to find usually. These are from the 40’s & the 60’s.

Two Vintage Estate Sales Contrasted

The Christmas candoliers came from a different estate sale run by the family, and was one of the few affordable things there. There are usually 2 types of estate sales~those run by the Professionals, and those run by families.

Family -run sales are of 2 types…those where they want things to MOVE, and everything is priced cheap. The other is where, they are hoping to rake in the dough by pricing high. This was of the latter type.

Family has obviously checked Ebay for sold prices, then they price that way. The problem…they are pricing at the upper end of where a dealer has to sell to make a profit, BUT dealers can’t buy for that. So the family prices so far out of the ballpark, no one buys.

I saw a table filled with vintage safety razors for which they were asking $35/each! Waaay over-priced! Which is why all the razors were still sitting there. If you want to sell your vintage items, you have to leave a little wiggle room so the dealers can make a profit. Just my little nugget of wisdom…

Not a bad day at all…now there’s still tomorrow!

Yard Sale Dance

March 30, 2016 by Florence 2 Comments

I call my weekend yard and estate sales the “Yard Sale Dance.”

Why? Some dancing is frantic, some slower, much akin to what yard sales are like. I get up on weekends at the crack of dawn, do a last minute check on Craig’s List, and off we go, trying to be the one who gets there first.

But, no exciting finds this yard sale dance weekend. 🙁 I had a whole list of places to go, but not much to find. In fact, I found more at the place I expected to find zilch, which just goes to show…you can’t ever tell unless you go there. Those that sound great are often duds, and the other way around.

You can see the picnic plate holders and basket.

Next to that is a cute wire basket in/out mail organizer, already in my Etsy shop (and already sold),

but the real focal point is the lovely crewel picture! Need to restrain myself more on buying those because they are slow sellers, but couldn’t resist this one! And it’s already sold!

Friday we drove out kind of far afield because there wasn’t much around here. Found a basket with some wicker paper plate holders in it. BOR—ING, but guess I should be glad because they’ve already sold. Debating about what to do with the basket to make it cuter. I mean, it’s OK, just not terribly exciting.

Found 3 newer vintage suitcases for $8, which was a good price.

Yard Sale Jitterbug Vintage Suitcases — Vintage Suitcases

The estate sale had a TON of new cross stitch kits, but I thought they were too high. Seems to me they should price more reasonably the first day to attract anyone that might want them because cross stitch is really out right now. The kits that were even one degree cuter were even more. Pity…they didn’t consult me.

Saturday was only a little better even though we drove around a lot. We are really enjoying our new Garmin GPS. The “cheapskate” does not buy the newest techy gadgets, so we have been dragging our feet a long time before getting one. Did I mention hubby is a “cheapskate” too, so we are well-matched. He believes in reading maps. Now Garmins are practically obsolete because everyone is using their phones. But that’s OK. We always get there.

There’s always another weekend for the “yard sale dance”!

Ideas for the slat basket?