I did a little garage saling this past weekend. Starting on Friday, I went to a handful of sales with my friend/picker/former co-worker Sue. Then on Saturday I went to the East Isles/Lowry Hill neighborhood sales with my sister.
East Isles and Lowry Hill are side by side neighborhoods in Minneapolis that are chock full of stunning houses like this one.
In fact, the houses and their accompanying gardens are so fabulous that I took a few photos and plan to share them later this week in my ‘Sunday mornings in the garden’ post, so be sure to stay tuned for that.
I brought home a nice pile of little goodies from the various sales. I managed to photograph the small haul from the neighborhood sale, but after that everything got jumbled up including a few things that Sue had found for me earlier.
I was working around three vehicles, a huge yellow dumpster and several pallets of roof shingles to get this photo, so excuse my neighbor’s truck in the background. They are starting on our roof replacement this morning.
I passed up quite a few cool things that were priced just a bit high for my budget, but I did find a few bargains. So I brought home a rather random bunch of things.
I grabbed this pretty pair of vintage pillowcases.
I love the heavy weight of the fabric in vintage pillowcases. They just don’t make them like that anymore. These are a little yellowed in spots, but it’s nothing that a good soak in OxyClean won’t fix.
I’ve been grabbing vintage copper when I see it.
This tea kettle will make its way into the shop to be sold.
You may have noticed the pair of crocks. They aren’t legit crocks, and by ‘legit’ I mean they aren’t Roseville or Red Wing pottery. Also, the previous owner had drilled drainage holes in the bottom of them, so that would make them perfect for use as planters. I can see them with some mums in them for fall.
I went ahead and dressed them up with some label transfers.
I purchased those zinc lids for $1 each. I have a few vintage ball jars that don’t have lids, so I thought I’d stock up. In hindsight, I should have grabbed more of them to have on hand, the seller had a big pile of them. Drat, more garage sale regret!
When shopping garage sales, you have to buy things when you see them, even if they are out of season. I grabbed a few summer garden things and will store them until next spring, then bring them into the shop.
I also found a trio of bunnies.
I’ll hang onto the bunny mold until the Easter season, and the bunny pull toy will get a paint makeover by then as well.
As for the other bunny, he’s a door stop and I’m considering him the find of the day.
The entire time I was working on my potting shed makeover, I was struggling with the lower half of the Dutch door. It doesn’t stay open on its own, and the bottom of the door is high enough above the brick step that a traditional door stop is too short. I had to resort to using a small chair to hold it open. So when I saw this doorstop with its … um, I don’t know what you would call it, a pole? Anyway, he’s perfect!
I hesitated slightly over the $20 price tag, but I’m glad I splurged. This is going to be a super functional piece for me. I may end up giving him a rusty finish, but he also looks pretty good as is.
Speaking of paint makeovers, I’ll be painting up both of these boxes.
I think the one on the bottom was a cigar box, but the one on the top is cedar and is a Lane.
Just out of curiosity I googled the Lane box and found 4 of them on eBay ranging in price from $19.90 to $58. I got a chuckle out of the $58 ad because they called it a ‘salesman sample’. I’m fairly sure this was never intended as a salesman sample, what do you think?
This ironstone pitcher was too pretty to pass up.
As was the ribbon.
I tend to pick up pretty, quality silk ribbon when I see it. I’ll use it for gift wrapping, or for bundling vintage books to sell, or even just as a photo prop. The ribbon was $4, which felt a little high to me. The seller had a few more rolls in different colors, but I decided to just splurge on one. In hindsight, $4 was probably a bargain for 100 yards of silk ribbon. I should have grabbed a couple more!
Speaking of too pretty to pass up, I also found another bluebird platter.
This one is too large to display with the rest of my bluebird china …
so I’m planning to sell it on. It’s 18″ across!
If any of you locals are in need of a bluebird platter, let me know (price: $20).
I also picked up this stand with a glass dome.
It’s a little hard to see the scale in that photo, but it’s around 21″ tall.
Last, but not least, I purchased this antique side table.
I plan to strip the top and paint the base, and I’d better get on it because our temps are really starting to drop. Fall is definitely in the air. It’s possible that this may be my last neighborhood sale for the year, I’m not sure if there are any held in the last half of September.
Hope you enjoyed checking out my garage sale haul. What would you have picked as the find of the day?