Mini Hoarder

The estate sale that I went to this weekend was labeled "mini hoarder".  If you can tag something with t.v. show verbiage, you've got people on a hook.  Everyone wants to go to a "Hoarder's" sale or a "Picker's" sale, or even an "Antiques Roadshow" sale.  What I found even more interesting and appealing than the title was the catchy phrase: "Nothing new".  Every single piece of treasure up in this place is old.  It's ALL old, ya know?  That makes my mouth water.

I went on the second day of the sale, so everything was 30% off.  There was a tiny porch with a long table full of jewelry.  I mean, more jewelry than you could ever, even.  And most of it was unused, still on the store cards.  I heard some women talking about how ridiculously expensive the jewelry prices were.  I wanted to bang my head on the wall.  For real, ladies??  If you were to go to Target #righthisveryminute and purchase some stupid pair of earrings, it would cost AT LEAST $8.  Whereas these earrings are all unique, vintage, and 30% off of $2.  Face reality.  I bought A LOT of jewelry.  A bunch of stuff for myself, but almost even more fun, a bunch of stuff for presents!

The day glow pink danglers on the right are screw backs.  I plan to trade them out for hooks.  Please make note of the glitter clip-ons in the middle.  Few things will make me endure the pain of clip-on earrings.  Multi colored glitter is one of those few things.

*drool

Now that I've been purchasing my weight in 80's earrings, I need a place to put them.  I had a lovely mint green box with floral print on it for earrings when I was a kid.  It had square sections inside for storing earrings.  I've been looking for something like that for a few months.

THE EXACT box I was looking for from my childhood!  Huzzah!  I also got the clear plastic one that is probably for fishing lures or bullets or something.  But now it's going to hold earrings.  Gorgeous, gorgeous earrings.  And plenty of 'em.  The velvet lilac box is stunningly gorgeous.  I could not pass it up.  I have no idea how much it cost.  I just sort of mumbled and stared dumbfounded at it's beauty whilst checking out.

It's not even going to be super useful for storing many earrings.  But it matters not.  It's beauty is enough for me.

So, this "mini hoarder"'s house was four floors of stuff.  I hadn't seen a lick of holiday paraphernalia anywhere.  I finally found it hiding out in the attic.  Boy howdy.  I had been up there for at least two full minutes before I spotted this by nearly walking into it:

This is what is referred to as "an eyelash tree".  It's made of metal. Aluminum probably.  I nearly died when I saw it and did this crazy dance trying to get it into my hands before anyone else could scoop it up.  I'm afraid I really didn't do a good job of maintaining poker face for this one. 30% off of $7.  Swoon!

I also found this vintage Beistle honeycomb pumpkin ($2) and some aluminum double layer bell decorations.

Come to find out, the "mini hoarder" is a 100 year old lady who just moved to assisted living.  Not a nursing home, not hospice.  Assisted living.  I'm not sure that people say this anymore but, "You GO, girl!"  Respect.

So, in summary:

If this was mini, I'd hate (love) to see what a full sized hoarder looks like!

Stark Panic

It's June.  That means summer in upstate NY is half over.  HALF OVER ALREADY.  I'm starting to have anxiety about winter already.  It's like John Snow's favorite line is just playing on repeat in my head.

Not to mention it's been raining so much I feel like gathering up two of each kind of dog and finding a Jewish dude with a big boat.

On the weekends I'm dutifully attending church and estate sales to keep my mind occupied. Last week it was two church sales.  Now, church sales are notorious for being the cheapest of all the sales.  They are even cheaper than yard sales. You WILL find things for a dime. 

I've been working on cleaning out the upstairs of our house (The first step in a monumental clean, top to bottom, which will probably take at least 2 years.) which we don't really use, and has sort of functioned as a giant storage area for the past 11 years.  When I say "clean out" I don't mean that I'm putting things in their place and doing some light dusting.  I'm opening every drawer, cupboard, and box, dumping the contents, donating 9/10 of the stuff and then reorganizing the rest.  Thusly, I've been on the lookout for small organizational bins. I bought a bunch of them for a quarter each.  I also got the cocktail spoon for a quarter.  Because, this project is so big you need booze to fuel you onward.

The green wooden bracelet was a quarter and so were the earrings.  The rad flamingo mug was ten cents.  Told you that there would be stuff for a dime.  What is this?  1950?  Should I go down to the soda shop and get a malt for a nickel? (Seriously, that sounds pretty good.  Though, I've never understood the difference between a malt and a milkshake.  But I'm an ice cream fiend and I'm pretty much down for ice cream in all situations.)  The set of vintage tiki salt and pepper shakers were $5.

This weekend I went to an estate sale down the street from my house.  I bought this hanging light for $10.  We'll put a new light kit in it since the cord is both filthy dirty and sticky as sap.  It's also old as the hills and looks like it would burn your house right down.  Thankfully the husband is an expert at putting in new light kits and can do it in a matter of minutes.  I plan to hang it on his side of the bed as a reading light.

All this gorgeous treasure was traded for $8.  The problem with buying jewelry is that I want to wear it immediately.  All of it. At once.  I want to Iris Apfel the crap out of it.

So, In Summary:

Winter Is Coming

If you don't know who Iris Apfel is, we can't be friends.  Since I want to be exactly like her when I grow up.