That's What She Said #6: Junk In My Trunk

This week our daring dynamic duo (Me, and Ann from @magicsummervintage) ventured to an estate sale and two church sales, plus a special stop to pick up some Muppets!  It was a rather long adventure and at the end we were duly and justly rewarded with lunch on the water. (No worries, I actually took pictures of that part! Priorities!) 

We go out adventuring together and then each blog about it from our own perspective. You can check out Ann's version of events, here.

We started at the Estate Sale.  There was a magical unicorn inside and I was hoping to see it.  The "magical unicorn" was, in this case, a set of very rare Jim Henson promo puppets named Wilkins and Wontkins, from the 50s. They were a mail in offer from Wilkins Coffee.  I figured they'd be too expensive for me to purchase, but I at least wanted to see them in real life.  Something I thought would never happen.

I didn't figure our numbers were low enough for us to get to see the puppets.  There were lots of men in the line, with a lot of nervous energy and no place to put it.  This was definitely a toy sale - a sale with tons of vintage toys. This is not my favorite type of sale even though I collect and sell vintage toys.  It always brings out lots of re-sellers, and the ones looking for toys tend to be men.  Older than me.  They tend to flat-out run through a house, and gloat, and rib each other, and buy all of the things.  I'm much more of a laid back shopper. (Who has stress dreams about estate sales and can't wear bracelets to them because they slow me down and get in the way!) I don't mind finding one great thing here, and another great thing there, over a series of weeks or months. Unless the sale is filled with Muppet items that I don't already have at reasonable prices, I just can't match their level of energy and enthusiasm. It's not about the acquisition so much as the hunt for me.  The hunt and the subsequent databasing and arranging the collection.

A photo of two girls pretending they aren't being eaten alive by a swarm of never ending mosquitos. (You can kind of see the line behind us, snuggling up to the house.  The mosquitos were even worse over there.)

Once inside I went directly to the table that the Jim Henson puppets had been on in the photos.  No dice. As I suspected, they were gone. I channeled my disappointment into shopping energy and went to search the house for treasure.

  A very blurry photo of some of the millions of robots in the house.  This guy also really loved model planes, and had more than one room stuffed full of them.

Rock 'em. Sock 'em.

This is the first room that I found treasure in. I rifled through that baby crib full of stuffed animals and came up with a few winners.  I also found this pink metal shelf thing for three dollars, so that obviously had to come home with me.  Even though I had zero idea what it was supposed to be used for.

After this room I went down to the basement, where holiday paraphernalia is usually relegated to. I want all the holiday decorations!

Look at this gorgeous table of Christmas jumble! Almost everything was a dollar! I swoon! (And dig, and dig...)

Snowman sighting! After collecting quite a bunch of vintage Christmas, Ann showed up to tell me that the person who was originally going to buy the puppets had put them back, and they were up for grabs again. We ran upstairs and I asked her to take my photo with them.  The people running the sale were gracious enough to let me manhandle them and take some photos.  I think they get a kick out of our enthusiasm, which usually hovers somewhere around 11.

Here I am with Wontkins on the left and Wilkins on the right. Quite a fan girl moment.  (They were $200, which is a great price, but also an amount of money I don't really have to spend on a pair of vinyl puppets.)

With my heart still bursting with puppety (Not yet Muppety - as these items were created before Jim coined that phrase for a National audience.) goodness, I went to check out the upstairs.

I found Steve's safari hat, but that was about all.

After we checked out and said goodbye to our Estate sale buddies, we went to two church sales. The first of which was amazing, and had prices mostly under one dollar.  They had an abysmal holiday area, but I forgave them when I found the jewelry area.

This terrifyingly poo-like, hand panted E.T. was lying in wait to startle passers by.

A huge plastic crayon bank that eight year old Sarah would have died over.  I loved crayon themed stuff as a kid!  After I took this photo I plunged into box after box of vintage toys (No line of men to be seen.) and was rewarded with a basket full of goodies!  Ann helped me look and when I was about halfway done, she felt a disturbance in the force.  "I feel like there could be Jem here.  I have to look."  And she did, too!  She pawed meticulously through the barbie stuff and didn't come up empty handed.  You'll have to go over to her blog and see what she found! (She has mutant powers for finding Jem!)

I took zero pictures of church sale #2. (Shocking) But I did get a few things.

After the church sales it was off to my special Muppets pick up location.  Someone I know, saw that someone in town was selling a whole collection of ceramic Muppet items.  I had all but two of the items, and was able to make a deal to purchase just those two.  We picked them up at a yard sale, and low and behold! The lady running the sale had other Muppet items that were not already in my collection.  I bought the extra items for one dollar each!

Kermit creamer and Miss Piggy teapot. I'm just missing the Gonzo sugar bowl, now.

These are the extra items! Surprise Muppets are the best! The Miss Piggy ("Miss Piggy for First Lady...President!" and Kermit ("Wouldn't You Rather Vote For Kermit?") pins will be perfect for the next election year.  I'll trade them out with my Pinky and the Brain ("Put A Brain In The White House") election button.

I had these stickers when I was a wee one!

After all that hard work, we needed a reward.  In the form of lunch and drinks.  By the water.  We went to a place called The Pelican's Nest.

Rochester's waterfront (Lake Ontario) is often overlooked.  It's not super close to downtown, and not many people venture out there for something so frivolous as a meal. Sucks to be them, because it was awesome!

Great food, great drinks, and even wildlife!

(Somewhere my mother is screaming.)

We spent a lovely, warm, sunny, meal out by the water and it was glorious.

#teamsummer

Junk in my trunk! I haven't found this much stuff in one day in a long time! Very thrilling!

See how cute this looks in the light of day? After reaching out to my vintage loving community on Instagram (Perhaps the most awesome community in the world??) I learned that this cute pink item is a metal vegetable keeper.

Used to store potatoes and onions and the like.

Imma use it to hold and display my purse collection. Can you even stand how cute that will be??

All of the following items were purchased to put in my Etsy shop.  I have a backlog of about a year.  So, if you see something you need before then, please contact me via Instagram.

The pup with the Santa hat is Benji! He has a collar with a metal tag and everything. So darn cute.  There is also a Spuds MacKenzie knock off.

So many cute vintage puzzles.

Fisher Price, Sandylion, and Teddy Ruxpin.

I always find a few things for my thrifting buddies, and family members. That Pumpkin pail cost all of ten cents!

 This is the tiny pile of stuff that is for me. Santa is a clip on ornament. Yes, that is a Yankee Candle.  Those things are expensive, and I got this one for a quarter.  The blue velvet ring box is so worn and sweet.  It has a mother of pearl button! I'm going to display it with a ring inside. Don't miss the tiny Scottie dog earrings and the rad neon parrot pin!

All in all a very good day!

For more adventures, find Ann and me on Instagram at:

@thesnugbungalowshop

@magicsummervintage

Or if you have a hankering to get yourself some vintage treasures, visit our Etsy shops:

The Snug Bungalow Vintage & Design

Magic Summer Vintage