Category: garage sales.

these are some awesome finds.

the one that almost got away.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

Remember that adorable little dresser I picked up at a garage sale recently?

I’m going to call it the one that almost got away, because that other shopper almost snatched it up ahead of me.

Luckily it wasn’t the right color for her.

It wasn’t the right color for me either, but I’ve fixed that.

I started by taking off the little porcelain knobs and starting to give it a quick scuff sanding.  However, at that point I realized that the existing paint was not properly adhered to the surface (hence all of those scratches and dings you can see in the ‘before’ photo).  As I started sanding, the paint just flaked right off.  So I had to sand it down completely.

Then I realized I should probably begin with a coat of Bonding Boss, just in case the bare wood wanted to bleed through my new paint.  But also to make sure my new paint would adhere better than whatever that blue paint was.

I let the Bonding Boss dry overnight.  My usual strategy is to quickly get a coat of Bonding Boss on something before bed knowing that I want to finish painting it the next day.

The next day, I painted the dresser inside and out with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry, I applied a design from I.O.D.’s Gloria paint inlay (for more on how to apply a paint inlay, check out this post).

I should mention that this was technically a “Christmas” themed paint inlay, and perhaps if I could actually read it (I think it’s in French) that would make sense to me.  I’m guessing that it’s some sort of public notice, but how it relates to the holiday I do not know.

Regardless, it was the perfect size for the front of this little dresser.

Once the inlay was applied and fully dry, I gave it a quick spray with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer.  Then I applied Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over the entire piece.

Your q tip for today; it’s best to seal a paint inlay with a spray sealer first to avoid smearing it all over the place.  I’ve ruined more than one by forgetting this step.  I have seen others who say you can delicately brush a clear coat over them, but that never works out well for me.  Maybe I’m just not all that good at being delicate 😉

Once the clear coat was dry, I lined the drawers with some of my October Afternoon scrapbook paper in a simple grey and white pin stripe.

The final step was to deal with the screws that hold the knobs on.  They were just about a millimeter too long, which meant that the pointy ends of them were exposed on the inside of the drawer.  And that won’t do.

So I consulted with my handyman Ken and he suggested just grinding down the ends a bit which worked perfectly.  There’s no longer a sharp screw end waiting to snag anything you put in the drawers.

With that, I’m calling this one done.

What do you think?  Do you like the simple white and grey color scheme, or do you prefer something more colorful and floral?  If so, not to worry, you’ll see plenty of that coming up soon too!

Is $10 the new $5?

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

It’s here!  Garage sale season has kicked off in the Twin Cities!

Although there are a few garage sales here and there to be found in Minnesota in April, things don’t really start in earnest until the first weekend in May.  Then we are spoiled for choice.  There were no fewer than 38 neighborhood sales to choose from last weekend.

I have to admit, I’m not as ambitious as I once was.  I used to do a three day marathon of garage sales, starting on Thursday and going through Saturday.  But these days I run out of steam after Thursday and Friday.

My friend opK and I stuck close to home on Thursday with the North St. Paul city-wide sales, and then on Friday we headed to one of our favorite neighborhoods, Tangletown.

I found a few fun items to bring home with me.

I found a couple of very reasonably priced metal toolboxes, well, technically one is a tackle box.

The toolbox is quite rusty and in need of some work.

But at only $2, I couldn’t pass it up.

The trio of frames was also a good bargain.

The white with gold highlights feels a little dated to me, but I think I can do something fun with these.

I found a lovely set of green books.

That’s only five of them, but there are 9 altogether.

One thing we noticed while shopping was that prices seem to have gone up once again.  Last year opK and I joked about how $5 seemed to be the go-to price at garage sales since Covid.  We used to find lots of things priced lower than $5, but over the last several years it seemed like everyone just put $5 (or more) on everything.  Maybe because anything less than $5 just isn’t worth bothering with?

But now it seems that $10 is the new $5.  We picked up so many things that were priced at $10, it was almost comical.  We’ll have to wait and see if that trend continues over the summer.

I did bring home some furniture, a pair of metal chairs with a mid-mod vibe and this cupboard.

I’m guessing it was originally intended for storing sheet music.

But with my handyman Ken’s help, I’m going to remove some of the shelves to make it a little more functional.  It also needs its joints reglued in general, and a couple of other repairs.  Of course, I also plan to give it a whole new look on the outside, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

I’m giving ‘Find of the Day’ status to this cute little dresser.

You know when you walk into a garage sale and some other shopper is holding up an item, trying to decide whether or not to buy it?  And you are just hoping they put it back down so you can buy it?  That was the case here.  I held my breath waiting for another woman to put this back down on the table, and she did!  As I snatched it up she said “that is really cute, but not the right color for me”.

Well … it’s not the right color for me either, but you know I can fix that!

So be sure to stay tuned to see what I end up doing with it.

back home once again.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

I’m back from a lovely 10 days spent at my mom’s place just outside Las Vegas.

The weather was nearly perfect with temps in the 70’s to low 80’s, along with brilliant sunshine every. single. day.  Do the locals ever get tired of that unrelenting sun?  You gotta wonder.  Personally I appreciate the occasional rainy day for some contrast.

However, I loved being able to enjoy my coffee on the patio every morning while listening to the birds singing.  Unfortunately here in Minnesota we’re still having morning temps in the 30’s and 40’s, which is just a bit too brisk for coffee on the deck.

I also really enjoyed the walking trail near my mom’s house.  While most of the trail isn’t very green, there are some nice mountains off in the distance (and if you were to turn around and face the other direction you might catch some glimpses of the Vegas strip off in the distance).

But then there is my favorite section of the trail which someone has nicknamed Trail Heaven.

It has some lovely dappled shade.

I did do some painting while at my mom’s, the door into her garage was well overdue for a touch up.  I purchased some Sherwin Williams “door and trim” paint from Lowes, and as I started using it I quickly realized how much nicer it is to work with Dixie Belle paint.  The Sherwin Williams paint was rather thick, and if you brushed back over it at all it would drag back off.  I ended up having to let the first coat dry, then had to sand it down again and start over.  What a mess.

In hindsight, I wish I had brought some Dixie Belle paint with me like I did when I painted her front door.

I painted that in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Green Silk Paint back in March 2022 and it still looks great.

I also did some gardening … of a sort.  I raked the matted pine needles out of the rock bed that runs alongside the sidewalk next to the fence.

I pulled out five grocery bags of pine needles!

But I’m back home now, and first of all I want to thank all of you who left comments on my re-run posts while I was gone.  My mom doesn’t have wi-fi, and I’m practically incapable of typing comment responses on my teeny tiny phone.  But I did read all of your comments, so thank you so much if you left one.

Now, onward.  It’s starting to feel like spring in Minnesota.  The muscari is blooming …

as is the white bleeding heart …

and the brunnera.

But as is always the case, I did suffer some losses over the winter.  It looks like my favorite lungwort is not coming back this year.  Here it was in 2023 …

But it was significantly diminished in size last summer, and now I don’t see any sign of it coming up at all.  Bummer.  Looks like I’m gonna need to do some plant shopping 😉

That being said, I didn’t suffer nearly as much damage this year as I did last year when the the frost line was deeper than any year since 2019.  Thank goodness.

I always find it difficult to imagine that the garden that looks like this right now …

is going to look like this in just a few weeks.

I’m feeling very impatient and ready for it to warm up a bit more, and for things to grow!

I also have some fun makeover projects underway and hope to be sharing some of those with you soon, so be sure to stay tuned!

traveling back in time.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

My friend opK and I did a bit of time traveling last Friday.

It was a gorgeous, sunny spring day with temps near 60° F., so we headed slightly further afield than normal to an estate sale.

After first checking out a small shed and an even smaller little horse barn where we found plenty of spider webs, but not much else, we headed to the house.

Walking into the house felt a bit like going through some sort of magic portal and ending up back in 1976.

It was one of those places with multiple levels where the basement, a.k.a. the rec room, was on the lowest level.

The living room was half a floor up, and the kitchen and dining room were on yet another level.  Then there were three bedrooms and a bathroom on the uppermost level.  As you were coming up that last set of stairs and the floor was at about eye level, it was impossible to look away from the bright blue and green shag carpeting that was straight ahead.

That is, until you then spotted the wallpaper paired with the quintessential avocado green shag in the room next door.

It really felt surreal.  And by the way, is it just me or does that off-center basement style window above the bed seem really out of place?

No 1970’s boy’s bedroom was complete without orange and avocado football player wallpaper.

And I don’t know, but was a carpeted bathroom de rigueur in the 70’s?

Ew.

To really set the scene, I should also note that the former occupants of the home were very obviously smokers and everything was coated in a yellow haze of tobacco.  Yikes.

While the house itself was caught in a time warp, the prices were not.

You can always tell when someone has been looking up prices on the internet.

I did some quick research and was able to find that exact dresser on 1st Dibs for $1,500, but most of us know that the prices are 1st Dibs are always unrealistically high.

I did think these mid-mod pieces were pretty cool.

But there was a fairly deep scratch down the front of the low dresser that will be difficult to repair.

And the bigger problem really, as any of us furniture refinishers (or former furniture refinishers) know, is that it will be nearly impossible to eliminate the cigarette smell.

But hey, what do I know?  Maybe someone will be happy to shell out $2,100 for the complete set.  What do you think?  Would you buy it at that price?

As for me, I did find some things to buy and luckily the items I purchased aren’t going to be found on 1st Dibs so I got all three at rock bottom prices.

I brought home three metal boxes; a toolbox, a lunchbox and a small galvanized box, all for $10 total.  Not bad.

it ain’t over yet.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

This warmer than usual autumn weather seems to mean that garage sale season isn’t quite over yet.  So last Thursday my friend opK and I headed out to a few sales.

Our first stop was an estate sale where I came across this mid-century painting.

I just can’t resist these city street scenes with their thin matchstick figures.  I am guessing that they were a dime a dozen back in the 60’s and 70’s, but I don’t know much about them.  Do you?  If so, be sure to leave a comment and tell me more.  I plan to hang this on the gallery wall in my q branch.

Our next stop was a vintage/garage sale that my friend Sue told me about.  It was called JunkSmith Market, and if you’re local I highly recommend their sale.

It looks like they just have one sale per year in the fall, so unfortunately you’ve missed it for this year.  But maybe next year (follow them on Facebook).

I purchased quite a few fun things from them including this birdbath and large watering can.

I also purchased this old cupboard door from them …

I plan to clean it up, replace the knob with something a bit more fabulous, and add some sort of stenciled signage.

I also brought home some vintage books and an old brush …

and some adorable vintage Christmas glasses.

Our next stop was the Picket Fence Gals sale in Lindstrom.  If you’re from around here, you probably know about this one.  I posted about this sale last year after one of the vendors there purchased a few things at my sale, and I then saw them in her booth …

She did the same this year, but I neglected to get any photos of her booth this time around, but I did buy a couple of lanterns from some other booths.

I plan to do these up for Christmas, much like this one I did a couple of years ago.

So, there you have it.  I found a few fun goodies, not bad for the middle of October.

I’m going to have to get going on some Christmas projects this week, November is usually my best month for selling Christmas merch at the shop and that’s only three weeks away!  Time flies, doesn’t it?

is it just me?

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Is it just me, or do you also think garage sales gone downhill lately?

Remember the good ol’ days when I would come home with a haul like this one?

Here’s another good one that’s more recent, from 2023.

I always had some pretty good finds of the day too.

How about the time I found this awesome ‘portable’ typewriter?

Or this lovely glass tree topper to add to my non-collection?

I used to find plenty of vintage glass Christmas ornaments.

But this year I haven’t found any.

OK, to be fair, it might be slightly my fault.  I’m not getting out there nearly as much as I used to, especially this year.

Mr. Q and I took our trip to the Brandywine Valley in May, which caused me to miss a few of my favorite neighborhood sales.  And now I’ve gone and done it again since we have a trip to Canada coming up and I will miss two big neighborhood sales for this one.  I think May and September are probably the top two months for sales in my area (Twin Cities, MN).

That being said, I have found quite a few sleds this year.

And I also have quite the stash of ice skates to work some magic on for the coming holiday season.

I’ve also definitely found plenty of toolboxes over the summer.

That brings me to my latest ‘haul’ … if you can call three items a haul.

My friend opK and I went up to Chisago (yes, that’s Chisago, not Chicago, although autocorrect begs to differ) for their city wide sales a week ago or so, and I came home with just three things.

First up, this vintage laundry basket.

It has a fantastic patina and is in great shape.  My plan is to fill it with dried hydrangeas and then put it in my fall sale (tentatively scheduled for October 4, FYI).

I also nabbed a pair of vintage pillow cases.

I love the feel of vintage linens like these.  It’s hard to describe if you don’t know what I’m talking about, but suffice to say they just don’t make ’em like this anymore.

I will soak these in some Oxyclean (although I haven’t found any stains on them), then wash them and hang them on the line for our own use.

The third item I brought home is another toolbox.

It will be added to the stash to be worked on at a future date.

And that’s it for my recent garage sale finds.  How about you?  Have you had any amazing finds lately?  Leave a comment and let me know.

a makeshift cupboard.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

I purchased this vintage cupboard at a garage sale back in early May.

It was dirt cheap and I thought it would make a fun painting project.

The seller said that it was originally used for record album storage, but at some point someone added makeshift drawers to the interior which you’ll see in a minute.

After gluing down some loose veneer, I began by trying to decide whether to use Dixie Belle’s Smoky Mountains or Blue Grass.

The Blue Grass is one of their new chalk paint colors, while the Smoky Mountains is from their All-in-One Silk paint line.  The colors are quite similar with the Blue Grass being just a little bit lighter.

Ultimately, I chose to go with the Silk paint with its built in top-coat simply so that I could save that added step.  Although this cupboard is on the small side, there was a lot of painting involved since I painted the interior and each drawer fully as well.

Although the Silk paint also has a built in primer that should block stains, I opted to be absolutely sure that the original reddish colored stain on this piece wouldn’t bleed through my paint by applying a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss first.  I only did that on the outside of the cabinet because the inside wasn’t stained.

Once my paint was fully dry, I applied I.O.D.’s Joie des Roses transfer.

The transfer was actually a couple of inches taller than the cupboard, so before applying it I laid it out to make sure I wouldn’t be cutting off anything important at the top, like the top of a bird’s head or something.  In the end I only cut off the tips of a couple of flower buds, which was fine.

The transfer also wrapped almost all the way around each side.

It was fairly easy to accomplish this since this transfer comes on 8 separate sheets.

I’ve seen some complaints online about the seams between each sheet and how they can be rather obvious, but I think I got most of them fairly well disguised.  You can see them if you look closely …

but I think the faux crackle look of the transfer helps make them seem like part of the design too.

Although the Silk paint doesn’t require a top coat, the transfer does.  So once I had it in place I added a quick coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax over it.  I did not wax the inside or top of the cupboard.

And with that it was done.

It’s definitely a unique piece, but I could see using it to store extra linens … or possible even as a lingerie cupboard.  It would also work well to store your Dixie Belle paint or other craft supplies.  It would fit nicely into a bathroom to hold the extra t.p. or other toiletries too.

What would you use it for?  Leave a comment and let me know.

This cupboard is for sale locally, so be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page if interested in the details.

sometimes simple is the way to go.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

Today I thought I’d share just a few smaller projects that I’ve worked on recently.  None of them merit their own individual post, so I’ve been saving them up for a bit of a compilation.

First up, a simple painted bucket.

While going through my pile of decor books recently, the blue bucket on the cover of Romantic Prairie Style caught my eye.

See it there, over by the window?  Isn’t that a fabulous cobalt blue?

So I thought, hmmm … I have some old metal buckets, maybe I’ll paint one blue.

So I pulled out this one …

and then I pulled out the Soldier Blue milk paint from Homestead House.

I thought it would be the perfect match for the inspiration bucket.

I gave my bucket a quick wash with Dawn dish soap and hot water, and that was it for prep.  I find that milk paint tends to adhere quite well to old galvanized items, the key word being ‘old’.  The old ones usually have a rough surface that is fairly matte, while newer galvanized pieces have a slicker, shinier surface.  Also, keep in mind that any greasy or oily residue on an old galvanized piece will also resist milk paint so be aware of that.

I gave the bucket two coats of the Soldier Blue.

As you can see, I didn’t really get any chipping at all even though I did not using any bonding agent, or any special primer.

Once the paint was dry, I sanded it lightly with some 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface and add a little wear to the edges.  I followed that up with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.  If you aren’t familiar with this product, I like to say that if hemp oil and wax had a baby it would be Big Mama’s Butta.

It’s super easy to apply with a brush or a rag, and it comes in some nice scents with Orange Grove being my favorite.  It works beautifully over milk paint.

I popped in a couple of lavender plants that I am attempting to grow this summer.

I think my blue bucket is a pretty good match for the one in the book, what do you think?

Next up I have another old galvanized piece.

This is the $2 watering can that I picked up at the MacGrove neighborhood sales.

I originally thought it would be kind of shabbily fabulous to just add a paint inlay to the watering can without painting it.  I did that recently on another bucket and it worked out great …

So after giving the can a coat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat, I applied the inlay face down into the wet clear coat.  I was fully aware that the watering can had some horizontal grooves, so I was very careful to press the inlay down into the grooves creating good contact.

Apparently, I wasn’t careful enough …

Drat!

I will say that it was absolutely pouring rain the day I worked on this, I believe the humidity level was literally 100% for a good chunk of the day.  So I did also have a problem getting the paint inlay to dry and ended up using a hair dryer to help it along.  So I’m not sure if it was the grooves or the humidity, but either way this inlay didn’t quite work out.

Well, you win some, you lose some.

One major bonus of a paint inlay is that you can wash it right off if you haven’t sealed it yet.  It wiped right off this watering can, and then I was back to square one.

Since the blue bucket turned out so nicely, I decided to give the watering can a simple milk paint treatment as well.  In this case, I went with Sweet Pickins milk paint in In a Pickle.

Once again, very little chipping, but I think it looks somewhat authentically old after a little distressing with 220 grit sandpaper.

I did debate putting a transfer over the green paint, but in the end sometimes keeping it simple is the way to go.

But then sometimes not so simple is a better option, which brings me to project no. 3.

This is the oval bucket that I purchased at the So. St. Paul city wide garage sales.

I decided to play around with some layering on this one.  So, after giving it a good cleaning, I added some of Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray texture additive to their Cottage Door paint.  I then applied just one coat of that to the bucket using a chip brush.

Once dry, I sanded with 150 grit sandpaper and then wiped away any dust.  I followed that up with a a coat of Rust-Oleum semi-gloss spray sealer.

I then mixed up some off-white milk paint using a combination of Fusion’s London Fog and Homestead House Sturbridge White.  The London Fog is too creamy, and the Sturbridge White is too white for me, so I salvaged both colors by mixing them together.

I was hoping to get a good crackle finish, like I did on the box I painted back in June.  I applied a layer of clear coat first, then brushed on the milk paint.  Only this time around I put the bucket out in the hot sun to dry rather than adding heat with a blow dryer.  I’ve inadvertently had milk paint crackle under the hot sun in the past, so I thought it would work here.

Ultimately I did get some crackling, but not enough to really reveal that underlayer of pink.  In hindsight, I made two mistakes with this treatment.  First, I shouldn’t have sanded the textured Cottage Door color as much as I did.  I basically removed most of the texture.  I should have waited until after adding the off white, and then sanded lightly to reveal the pink.  I also should have added some beeswax here and there over the pink to create a resist before adding that off white.

Regardless, after adding some of I.O.D.’s Rose Botanicals and a little wording from that retired Label Ephemera transfer, I love how this bucket turned out anyway.

I wrapped the roses around the back.

And I finished the whole thing off with a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum’s matte spray sealer.

Although sometimes keeping it simple is the way to go, other times dressing it up is definitely the way to go.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know.

an industrial vibe.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

Man you guys, I am scoring toolboxes right and left these days!

Last Friday I brought 4 more home from the South St. Paul city wide garage sales.

My favorite is the black one simply because I love that shape.

I also really like the blue one because it’s so unique, it has a handmade vibe.

I purchased both the black toolbox and the blue one at an amazing garage sale.

Honestly, it was thanks to my friend Amy that opK and I even found this sale.  Amy was also in the neighborhood and she sent me a text letting me know that this particular sale had a lot of toolboxes.  If Amy hadn’t given us the heads up I’m not sure we would have ended up here.

I did quite like that box on the top of the pile above, but at $20 it was a bit pricey for me.  I like to keep my toolboxes at $10 and under.  So I passed on that one.  Although I did splurge on the black toolbox at $12, and the blue one was $8.

This was one of those sales where you really had to go around multiple times to be sure that you saw everything.

I have to admit, I may have a little garage sale regret that I didn’t purchase that little fan in the middle.  I like to use these as decor, rather than as actual functioning fans (they are a little unsafe with their old wiring and those sharp blades that could easily chop off a finger).  I usually cut the electrical cord right off just to make them safer for display.

They had several cool vintage scales …

But my own non-collection of scales already takes up two shelves in the pantry.

Plus, I had a few at my last sale and they didn’t go.  So I gave those a pass as well.

Still, this was one of those sales that just makes your heart go pitter pat.  So many cool things with an industrial vibe.

They had some business cards available at their checkout, so I grabbed one on the way out.  If you’re curious, you can check out their Instagram account at reimagined_industrial_design.  They have a nice reel showing their sale.

I did also buy a pair of old cupboard doors from them for $1 each.

I plan to paint them up and turn them into wall decor.

I purchased this oval shaped bucket from them because I just couldn’t resist it.

It was perfect for filling up with the stash of old paintbrushes that I grabbed from another sale, and I’m calling them my find of the day.

I have to give credit to opK because she spotted them in a covered plastic bin with the world’s tiniest little note on top that said something like ‘old paintbrushes’.  I hadn’t even noticed them.

Old crusty paint brushes might seem like an odd score to you, but they are perfect for including in a gallery wall like the one in my q branch.

Or to just display in a glass cannister.

I’ve already taken some time to dress some of them up with transfers.

That snippet of wording is from the Dixie Belle Vintage Post transfer, and this next bit is from the I.O.D. Home Sweet Home transfer.

Is it weird that I love these old brushes so much?

The 2nd pair of toolboxes that I brought home from South St. Paul also came from the sale with the brushes.  The seller told me that both the toolboxes and the brushes had belonged to her grandfather.  Both of them are Craftsman toolboxes (sorry Neal), and both are pretty rusty.

And yes, once again I brought home another red one, but this particular shape is my favorite to work with even though the color isn’t.

In the end almost everything I brought home from South St. Paul had a sort of industrial vibe.  It will be fun to get creative with these items and see what I can do with them.

Which find is your favorite?  Or do none of these things appeal to you?  Leave a comment and let me know.

an old favorite.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Last weekend one of my favorite neighborhoods, MacGrove, was having their neighborhood garage sale.  They joined forces with Summit Hill and Highland Park as well.  So all in all there were over 100 homes participating with garage sales.

My friend opK and I headed out on Friday morning to see what we could find.

I’ll admit that we ended up driving around in circles half the time.  Although the organizers of the event published a list of the participating sales that included info on whether the sale was in the alley or the front yard, and whether they were open on Friday & Saturday or just Saturday, they did not publish a paper map.  Instead they used an online map created with Google My Maps.

So, go ahead, call me stuck in my ways.  But I prefer a paper map.  One where I can cross off the sales that we’ve already been to.  And I’d also prefer that it be color coded with one color of dots for sales open on Friday and another for sales only open on Saturday.

We spent a fair amount of time heading towards a dot on the Google map only to discover it wasn’t open on Friday.  We also spent a fair amount of time circling back to a sale we’d already been to because there was no way to mark them off.

Sometimes an old school paper map really is better.

That being said, we did find a few fun things while we were out driving in circles.

The prices were really quite good too.  The most expensive thing I purchased was this old ironstone wash bowl at $15.

I have an idea for turning it into a birdbath.  I’ll be using the scoop for potting soil.

The next highest priced item was another vintage sled for my stash that was $10.

I’ll dress it up for Christmas.

Everything else I purchased was $5 or less including this set of vintage books …

this cool old blue bottle …

and this set of cannisters.

I also scored a watering can for just $2.

I’m not sure if I’m going to dress that one up with paint or a transfer, or just leave it alone.

I’m giving ‘find of the day’ status to some dollhouse furniture that I purchased.

While I’m not sure I’ll even use the tall cabinet, I just love the little plant stand.  I’m currently working on putting together a few things for the dollhouse porches (there is an upper porch and a lower one) and this plant stand will be added to that pile.

I don’t often find dollhouse items at garage sales, but not only did I get those pieces, but I found this one too.

I was hoping it would fit in the foyer of my dollhouse, but unfortunately it’s too wide.  I’ll still paint it up at some point though.  Just for fun.

I also purchased this little doll sized cupboard at that same sale.

I really just felt like it needed to be rescued from a bad paint job.  It will be another fun one to make over.  I may save this project for winter though, just because it would be easy to work on indoors.

So, although I didn’t find anything especially ground breaking at MacGrove this year, I did come home with a few fun projects.  Is there anything in my haul that you would have picked up?  Leave a comment and let me know.