Gathering Dust

It's (Antique) Show Time

This Saturday is my favorite antique show, both to buy and sell at - the Old Summit Antique Show.

I've already tagged and packed most of my treasures, but I picked up a few things this weekend that I really like, so I thought I'd share them with you.

A stack of old ledgers and day books- most from a dry goods type store in the 1900s.

Faded, dirty and torn livestock show ribbons- but they are faded to such nice shades of rose and lipstick pink.

A patchwork velvet quilt.  Usually when I see velvet on a quilt, it's a crazy quilt.  The little black blob at the bottom of the picture isn't a dust ball, it's a Yorkie that needs a haircut.

Wait, I guess that's a kind of dust ball...

I don't know the name of this pattern, but all of the pieces have been finished with a feather stitch.  Even the reverse side is pretty.

You can't really tell from this picture, but this piece is good sized- about 18" tall.  I think it's called a Chuck A Luck, or something that sounds like Chug-a Lug.  Anyway, I like it for its "sculptural qualities".

And if dice aren't your game, how about roulette? 

I love the handpainted gold numbers on the wheel.

I hope the odds are in my favor but if I don't sell my gambling equipment, I can grab some playing cards, get some matchbooks printed, and  open up my own casino.

Saturday in the Garden (and Garage) at Karla's Cottage

Last Saturday I went to Karla's Cottage to help set up our shopping venue (i.e. garage) for next weekend's Bird Song.

We'll have all sorts of pretties to sell.

And the garage really doesn't look like a garage anymore.

While I was at Karla's I got to spend some time wandering around the gardens. 

The flowers gardens are so pretty, and you can't help but smile when you find a chicken wandering through one.

But what really fascinated me was the "food forest"- a new garden Karla's son has put in that is low maintenance, self sustaining and doesn't use pesticides.  He'ss done so much work making it food producing, but also pretty.

Besides the actual food forest growing area, he's used natural elements like logs to create a play area and steps.

There are several arbors that will be used for growing vining plants, but right now, this one is sheltering a pony.

Ponies in the garden, chickens in the bushes, doesn't it all makes you want to explore just a little bit more to see what you can find?

A Box Lot from Mom and Old Beat Up Leather Coin Purses

The other day I got a box in the mail from my Mom.  The box was about the right size to hold some of her wonderful oatmeal raisin cookies, I thought, licking my lips. 

But instead of cookies, it was full of old pictures and papers.  Old family pictures (and my high school graduation program) like the picture on top...

...baby pictures of me.

...and a BOX LOT!

Turned out to be a pretty fun box lot.  I know I would have bid on it an an auction.

Have you seen the red and blue tokens in the upper left corner before?  Almost every time I buy an old jar of buttons, I find some inside.  I did a little research (i.e. I went to Wikipedia) and found out that they were the "change" given out from World War II ration stamps. 

If a person took their $2 ration stamp for sugar to the store and only bought $1.80 worth of sugar, they got the tokens back as "ration change".  Red tokens were for perishable goods and blue tokens were for non-perishable.

There, doesn't it feel good to get a little education on a Saturday morning?

The beaded fob has my Grandpa's initials on it, but I don't know anything more about it.  I have to wonder who made it, and what it was for.

My favorite goodie is the tiny embroidered coin purse. Like so many of you, I've loved coin purses for a long time.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of a collection of coin purses.

It's on my collections board on Pinterest.  I wanted to give you a link back to original website, Organon9worlds, but sadly, the website is gone.  The website belonged to Rebecca Purcell, who was the display guru for ABC Carpet and Home, and it was full of inspiration.

In searching for Rebecca's website, I did come across this blog post that shows some of her design work.

And here is MY collection of old, beat up, and well loved little coin purses.

I Found Instagram

Over the weekend, I found Instagram.  Well, I didn't just find it, I've been looking at pictures on the site for a long time.  I just didn't USE it.

When I thought of Instagram, I thought of big groups of people holding their cell phones in the air snapping pictures.  I never thought about using it until the cover fell off my Ipad and I realized I could use Instagram for more than just looking at other people's pictures. 

It was an "aha" and "duh" moment all at the same time.

So, I've used Instagram to post some of my crafting stuff and estate sale finds.  If you want to check it out, you can find me here:

Estate Sale Friday BUTTONS

Love it when I buy a bag of buttons at an estate sale, get it home and realize the buttons are already strung together and sorted!

Speaking of buttons, I've added a bunch to my Etsy Shop SugarPinkMoon.

And bunches of flowers, too.

And you'll find ledgers and other vintage paper in Gathering Dust.

Thanks for taking a look!

Spring Booth Re Do at the Antique Mall

I love having a booth at the antique mall. It gives me an excuse to shop estate sales and auctions, it's a place to for me to unload sell things I don't need anymore; and I make a little money at it.  When I stop at the antique mall to restock or rearrange, I always find friends, other dealers and customers to chat with, so it's a social thing, too.

 

But sometimes, the merchandizing, the rearranging, the styling, is boring.  I don't like things to be in my booth for very long, and I don't like them to stay in the same place.  I find myself moving the same stuff around together, just putting it on a different shelf.  Not very creative.

Karla is very creative, but she hates pulling together her business records for tax time.  But for me, working with numbers and spreadsheets is second nature.  So, we decided on a swap.  Karla would redo my booth, I'd sort and add up her expenses.

And I got a bonus.  Karla CLEANED my booth and went up on the ladder.

The ladder was needed to hang this fab and rusty garden chandelier- one of my favorite recent finds. 

I used to climb ladders, hang stuff from the ceiling, make interesting wall displays, but because of creaky bones and laziness, I don't do it as much as I used to.

My cubby got a complete make over.  Does it make you want to rummage around in it?

Some of these pieces have been around for a while, but Karla gave them a brand new look when she combined the blues with silver and clear glass.

So, while Karla was doing all this (and more that I didn't get pictures of), I hung a map on the wall.  That's it, that was my contribution to the re-do. That's why I'm smiling here, thrilled with the new look of my booth.

(Thanks Ms Patty)
Our friend Patty was at the mall, so we asked her to take our picture together. Pattie kept telling us to lean in, shoulders together, arms on hips, but we weren't cut out to follow instructions.

What a Girl Wants...Lace, Flowers and Fabric

The next time I complain about a dearth of good junk, just remind me of the estate sale I went to this weekend.  It was a vintage crafter's "de-light". I'm still overwhelmed by the lace, millinery, ribbon and supplies I found.

The estate owner obviously enjoyed crafts- doll making, sewing, knitting; and like so many of us, could buy more than they would ever use. 

The garage had over 40 boxes, most of which were labeled; wool, print, hats, etc.  But, the boxes didn't necessarily have what the label said.  So, we just started digging.

Beside the cardboard boxes in the garage, the craft room, and many other rooms in the house had boxes full of supplies- like this shoe box full of lace on cards.

Inside this box, I found one of my favorite sewing collectibles.  This card with the dog was actually the cardboard that J & P Coats wrapped rick rack, bias tape and seam binding around.

The front and back of the dog were cut out, and glued to either end of a wooden spool.  J & P put out several different versions of this like a cow, bunny and cat.

If you want to make a spool puppy, you can right click on the image and save it to your computer.

One box that I bought because of the lace and ribbons had some beautiful bonus fabric. Lots of sample pieces of embroidered Swiss fabric.  I think they'd make a great quilt.

I still haven't gone through all of my finds and I'm a bit embarrassed by all my "riches".  Last weekend was a good reminder that's there's still junk out there, you just have to keep looking.

Estate Sale Friday- Metal and Dirt Edition

Good estate sale day.  A sale in an older house that was big enough that when the owners got tired of something, they didn't get rid of it, they just put it in the basement. 

Neither of these candleholders was in the basement, but they both have wax drips.  Do you think the wax drips make the candleholders look dirty?  Or does the wax add to the look, making them more interesting, kind of like a patina on a piece of furniture would?

Almost everything I bought was metal, heavy metal.  I bet my bag weighed 40 lbs, and I had to walk uphill to get back to my car.  I know, you feel really sorry for me.

A hotel teapot, HEAVY candlestick, a pewter flask and a rhinestone trimmed clock.

A mini wire basket, silverplate shell dishes and metal cones.  I really don't know what the cones are for, maybe baking?  I think they'd be pretty filled with little bouquets.

One non- metal find.  At first I thought this was part of a Dickens Christmas village, but I looked closer and saw a hanger on the top.  It's a birdhouse, and it feels like its made of clay.  It also feels like there's something inside it.  I'm going to assume it's the remains of a nest and leave it at that.

Tomorrow, I'm headed to New York City with the Other Karla.  It sure would be nice if it's sunny like this picture, because I know we'll be doing a lot of walking.

We're also planning on seeing these:

Eating here:

Shopping here:

And we'll be in the Katie audience on Monday.

Yeah vacations!

The Kind of Estate Sale You Remember

Lately, I've complained a bunch about just how hard it is to find good junk. 

Thank goodness just when the junk seems the scarcest, and you despair of ever finding more than two items to buy in one place, you stumble across an estate sale that restores your hope, and gives you the strength to keep on junkin'.

Last weekend, I ran across a sale like that.  I got lots of fun stuff- these are just the "smalls" from the jewelry table. 

Want to look closer?

A little mother of pearl pin, a large mother of pearl pin that looks like a buckle and a Westie.

Pearls shaped like grapes, a filigree pin and a locket that looks like a book.

Another couple of pins- the buckle is actually a pin, and kind of a scary one at that.

The horseshoe is an Italian mosaic.  I've heard that you should wear it with the open side up- if the points are down, your luck might run out the bottom.

A folding knife and a folding comb.  Generally, I don't carry a knife- but if I decide to, it's going to be a pretty one like this.

These metal handled loops were new to me (although they are obviously old).  One says "Arrow Collars".  I think these were some kind of tool that was used to hook a collar stay on a man's shirt.

Speaking of "what's its?", in my last post I showed the tool on top and said I didn't know what it was.  A couple people thought it was an orange peeler- and that makes sense.  Look at how much they look alike.

My Birdsong friend Suzanne is as enamored of vintage sewing items as I am, and she looked it up in a reference book- and found the same item, with the same patent mark.  It's a button hole maker.

I think you COULD use it to peel an orange, but I'm sure an orange peeler wouldn't help me with any buttonholes.

Weird Sewing Stuff; Cool Stuff from the Auction

Sometimes when I go to an auction or estate sale, I just want to buy SOMETHING, anything.  For me, junking is a treasure hunt and I just don't want to go home empty handed.

That's how I ended up with this sterling handled button hook.  It certainly wasn't because I'd gone out with "get button hook" on my to-do list.  But last week's auction was busy and the bidding was fierce, so I was happy to get a few little somethings.

Today when I unpacked my auction box to put away my buttonhook, I realized I have a few "little somethings"- and some of them are kind of unusual.

Like this sewing stuff.  I suppose things were different 120 years ago, but it would seem that if you could afford a sterling handled sock darner, you could probably throw away a sock with a hole instead of mending it. 

This is one of the oddest, but most charming things I own-fine crochet worked around a chicken wish bone, meant to hold a thimble.  It was a gift from Lisa, who also appreciates the unusual.

More odd:  This looks like a broken shovel, but guessing from the handle, it's something you'd use at the dinner table. 

Does anyone know?

One more "what is it?".  Maybe part of a manicure set...but what's that hook on the end?  For crochet?

I don't know...do you?

Ok, no more questions.

If you're a junker like I am, I'm sure your heart beats a little faster when you see a discolored, slightly dirty, definitely old, formerly ivory colored box like this one.  It's like "Let's Make a Deal"- under that lid, you might find the item of your dreams.

And inside this box...flower sack Dresden plate quilt blocks.  I doubt I'll make a quilt, but I do enjoy looking at the old fabric patterns.

Under those quilt blocks, a delicately crocheted baby bonnet, booties and a card of tatting still attached to a boot.

Perfectly precious. I'll take that deal.