Whoomp!

I'm back in the saddle again, as it were.  I'm able to walk around unaided, have one pair of shoes that fits correctly on both feet, and can navigate stairs.  That means it's estate sale time, people.  And boy, did I sniff out a good one to start back with.  A great one, in fact.

Heather drove us across town and we both got a great haul.

We went straight down to the basement, where more often than not, our favorite vintage Christmas and holiday decorations are relegated to.  Everything in this sale was boxed and labeled by the previous owner.  You could tell that she took a lot of pride in her decorations and wanted them to be stored well and safely. Everything had a tag written out in fine old lady handwriting.  We always feel kinships with people like that.  Which makes us super happy to take home some of their treasures.  To keep safe in our nicely labeled bins, and to display with pride with our seasonal decorations.

This sale was what is referred to as a "digger sale".  This means that everything is just sot of out, or in big tubs, and almost nothing is tagged with a price.  So you just sort of find something to stick all the stuff you want in, and then hold it out and say, "how much for this many?"  Almost everything I bought was 50 cents.

This first photo is of some rare treasures indeed.  Crafted Easter bonnets, made from condiment cups, construction paper and bits of ribbon and flowers.  Each one is unique and endearing.  I just thought they were such a hoot!  I have NO idea how I'm going to display them.  But as we collectors know, that is not a question for now. I'll figure that out come April.  Right now I just have to follow my gut.

This vintage honeycomb pumpkin is giant.  It's like 9" tall.  The paper snowman is a vintage, flocked, Hallmark gummed label.  I think I'm going to put a card stock backing on him so that I can display him along with my Christmas stuff.

This huge stash of tiny mercury glass ornaments and floral picks was given to my mom.  I'm nice like that. 50 cents.  I did take out the wired red flocked balls for myself.  I'm nice, but I'm not a saint.

The jewelry was $10 per piece, marked down to half price.  Both multi-strand necklaces are made of wooden beads.  Tiki mama here I come!  After this score I went home and started watching Golden Girls nonstop. 

Here are a few more tiny Easter joys.  Vintage chenille easter chicks with bonnets and parasols, a vintage Easter bunny with a cotton spun head and some plastic dudes, too.  I can hardly even stand that tiny white plastic chick with his itty bitty orange wings.

All crafts in the 80s had shiny red apples.  Trust me on this.  I used to hate them.  They were everywhere.  But now that we've had some distance, I might be able to get on board with a few shiny red apples to be displayed with my Jadeite.  I also found a tiny vintage Hallmark Easter bunny for the shadowbox and a pretty crafted red and green ornament.

Vintage Christmas corsages are among my most favorite treasures to find. Next to Muppets.  And paper lanterns.  And Jadeite. These were found in the basement, underneath a table of wares, in some ratty old cardboard boxes filled with crumpled bits of paper.  The silver floral pick on the left is made with real metal!

I do apologize for the quality of these photos.  They were taken with my phone, and the camera isn't great.  But, it is very convenient. 

So, In Summary:

Tag team, back again.

Christmassy

It was very slow going this year, taking down the fall decorations and putting up the Christmas stuff.  It took so many weeks that I transitioned from crutches to being 100% weight bearing.  So, my dream of decorating my Christmas tree on my own two feet, being able to walk around it, came true!!  I'm teetering around like a toddler learning to walk for the first time, but I don't mind.  WALKING!!  That's the really important part!

It's finally all up, though.  And boy howdy, do I have a lot of Christmas decorations.  Thankfully, I've met lots of people on Instagram that have a ton more than I do.  So it makes me feel better about the amount I'm trying to cram into our small space.

I know I'm years late to the party on Instagram, but I'm hardcore addicted now.  I found it durning the months that I wasn't allowed to stand up.  Tiny pictures of other people's decor and thrift/estate sale finds really helped me get through some of those long, painful, 3:00am hours.  I'm also finally feeling well and steady on my feet enough to start tackling estate sales again!!  After a 4 month hiatus!  

So anyway, here are some pictures of my Christmas stuff.  :)

You know you've found a kindred spirit when that person decorates their bathroom for Christmas.  No space left un-jollied!!

This is the epicenter of the crazy.  I can admit that.

So I might have added one or two (hundred) more things this year.  So what?

More kitchen stuff.  Disregard the bags of dog treats and the dog brush.  They are not Christmas related.

The Santa garland and my brand new (to me) Santa honeycomb!

I love this tree that I picked up at the Ronald McDonald sale a few times ago.  It fits so well on my kitchen window ledge.  And the tiny pups are from my awesome friend Daria!  They are a salt and pepper set - with scarves!!

Shout out to my friend Karl who is always on the lookout to add to my (insane) Muppet collection!  These are two Muppet Christmas posters from his childhood that he gifted me.  They are hanging in my living room for the season!

There are lots more thrilling pictures on my Instagram account, which you can find a link to at the top right of my blog.  Also, lots of pictures of my dog.  ;)

So, in Summary:

My house lost the war with Christmas and I'm loving it!

Fall 2015

Surprisingly, even with my injury, through the help of friends and lots of eye-rolling, glitter fearing help from the husband, I was able to decorate The Snug Bungalow for fall!

This gives me a lot of joy, every day, because, let's face it, I'm not going anywhere.  So, even though I'm stuck at the house, at least it's gorgeous and festive!

Shall we take a look?

First, the dining room.  My ever faithful, antique cabinet.  Fit for displaying all manner of collections.  It has a few new additions since last year.  One of my delights is to count the number of new things I found over the past year that haven't ever been displayed yet.  Though, I don't keep a tally of items culled from the collection in order to make room for these new treasures...

Now for the inside of the cabinet's three doors.

A favorite new item is the vintage honeycomb pumpkin I found at an estate sale this year.  I cannot get enough vintage honeycomb decor!

The vintage Lefton pumpkin & cat candleholder that I just got at the RMD sale looks great in the cabinet!

The husband had to help me with this display since you have to climb up on a chair to reach the shelf.   He endured many glitterings at its hands.  Being glittered is not his favorite thing. Though, in this house, it's a risk you run most days.

Still loving my drinking straw wreath!

A great spot for my "new" vintage black cat to survey the room from.  Velvet with jewel eyes and a rhinestone collar.  

Bats, cats, and skelies!

My tiny Peanuts Halloween town on the bathroom shelf.  The Peanuts characters were gotten at last year's October RMD sale.  I just cannot tell you how much I love these tiny Hallmark figures! Merry Miniatures for the win!  Plus, if you are a dude, they are eye level with you when you go pee. A nice little tableau for you to ponder whilst you do your business.  Ya welcome.

My shadowbox has many new residents this season!

The green monster wreath I made from an idea I found on Pinterest.  He lives on our bedroom door.

This is a blurry picture of my burgeoning graveyard. 

"There's always room for one more!  Hurry baaaacck!"

I do up the mantel very similarly every fall.  When you get a classic look that lasts, use it!

So, In Summary:

Thanks to everyone who helped get my house ready 

for the beginning of the Holiday Season!

The Ronald McDonald House Sale I Did NOT Miss

Thanks to my wonderful husband, I was able to go to the fall RMD sale, even in my crippled state.  He pumped up the tires on the scoot (I'm not even kidding, he wanted me to be at peak performance!) and carted us off to the sale.  He waited in the car for an hour with me, before cutting in line with our friends (I don't have the stamina to wait in line for an hour and then shop for an hour) and hauled around my three bags of stuff for an hour and a half. (New record for me on the scoot.  A straight hour and a half!  I was sore after, but it was worth it.)  He was very good at weaving in and out to get something that I'd pointed at across the room.  And, adorably, he turned out to be an awesome good luck charm!  I hit a Mother Load.

I had to alter my usual plan to maximize my time on the scoot.  No doubling back.  Which meant that I had to do holiday first, since it's right by the entrance.  Oh holiday!  How I love thee!  I'd been worried about making it around the tiny Halloween room on the scoot.  But, I was able to do it with no trouble. There were significantly less people there this time, and it made for easier movement.  Jackpot.

I scooped up some delightful vintage treats in the Halloween room!  Small stuff is my favorite.  The Snug Bungalow is obviously not a large house, so I can have many more decorations if I keep them tiny!

Look at these awesome pompom spider dudes! Ack! 50 cents for the pair!

This skeleton man is either made of a shoelace, or knitted. I don't have the expertise to know what is knit, crocheted, tatted, etc. What I do know is that at 50 cents I could not pass him up!  I love a skelly!  The plastic pumpkin and cat decoration to his right was one of 10 that I got in a bag for 50 cents! I think they are vintage cake decorations.  I almost did a one legged happy dance when I found the little bag of vintage Russ/Hallmark merry miniatures back there. One dollar of happiness for my shadow box!  The pumpkin man is doffing his hat (top of his head) to you!

The boxed Hallmark ornament section wasn't as well stocked as usual, but I did find one cutie!  A kitten in a red "Chuck".  $2.  The two felt ornaments were from a "fill-a-bag" area.  Generally the fill-a-bag" ornaments are crap.  But this year I found two awesome vintage hand made felt ornaments.  The tiny mouse on a little scoot to commemorate scooting around the sale this year, and an awesome mobile-esque tree created using tiny bits of fishing line. $3.50 for the pair.  The photo doesn't do justice to the fruit in the middle.  It's a gorgeous blush fading into a creamy yellow color.  Topped with white mica. I got this in the new, very awesome and well stocked, "Vintage Christmas" area. Delicious at $3.

The two trees were also in the Vintage Christmas area.  The wooden tree is hand made, imperfect, and yet perfect for me.  I love that it looks so illustrative.  Like it could have popped right out of a vintage Christmas storybook. $2.  The stocking tree is something that I've only ever seen on Pinterest.  Seen and yearned for!  They had a bunch of them, but I like to have just one and move on.  It's made of stocking, wire, glitter (yeah baby!), and mercury glass beads. $5.  The silver mercury glass picks were $1 and will be a fun addition to my Christmas displays.

I have a Pinterest craft that I want to do with tinsel garland so I picked up an unopened bag of magenta Country Living (Country Living is my JAM!  How did I not know they made Christmas decor??) for $3 and a bag of silver on the inside, green at the tip, garland for $1.50  The Tootsie Roll santa was spotted from across the room and the husband sprang to action! He grabbed it in no time flat.  It's cardboard with a plastic top.  I've spied it on Pinterest and thought how cute it was. $2.  The pumpkin cat piece is a Lefton candleholder! The paint is peeling off in spots but it was $2!  Yes, please!

Yeah, that's right.  THREE Muppets to add to the collection!  TWO of them talk, sing, and move!  Then there's Gonzo.  Weirdo.  Santa Kermit was the second thing I found at the sale.  He was hiding out in Christmas.  You know how much I love it when Christmas and The Muppets join forces!!  He was just hanging on the wall with some other sad holiday toys. $3, WHAM!  The other Kermit was in the toy section but NOT with the Muppets.  He was with some other noisy toys that need batteries.  $5, BAM! Gonzo was in the regular toy/Muppet section. $2, Thank you ma'am!

I got a picture frame for a small poster that needs to be reframed. $2.  A group of styrofoam wreath forms for 75 cents.  And a worn out old paper towel holder for a Pinterest craft wherein you spray paint it and then store bracelets on it.  I have too many bracelets.  They are taking over all of the space in my life.  They need to be wrangled.

So, In Summary:

Thank you, husband. 

From the bottom of my collecting-crazed little heart.

This was one for the books! <3

A Very Long Rest

So.  At the end of July I broke my ankle.  I was indoor rock climbing, working on finishing a ceiling route 9 feet up.  Obviously I fell and missed the crash pad.  I was surrounded by friends who stood silent for only a few stunned seconds before taking action and helping me to the car, where my husband took me to the emergency room.

Apparently your ankle is one of the worst things to break.  3 metal plates and 12 screws later, I'm told I'll be able to start learning to walk again at the end of October. Three months after the accident I will be allowed to start physical therapy.  Nobody has told me how long physical therapy will last.  I'm afraid to ask.

It's been a crazy road of surgeries, medicines, splints, and going nowhere.  A lot of going nowhere and doing nothing.  Which can really wear on a Type A personality like mine.  I'm the planner!  I plan the events, I invite the people, I get us out and going and having fun!  I'm the Monica Geller!

There are a few things that I've learned in this amount of time:

1. The people at my job are awesome. There are horror stories of people losing their jobs over this same injury.  Because it takes FOREVER to heal.  I have had the immense fortune to be able to work from home, this entire time.  I get emails, visits, treats, cards, presents, and meals from the people at my work.  This is a group of people who loves me and it's pretty awesome to feel that way about your job after 10 years.

2. I have amazing friends and family.  The level of care that I'm getting from these people is off the charts. The kind of people who will come over on your worst day, ignore the smell radiating off you since you haven't been able to shower in over a week, fix you meals, and bring you cold drinks, and read to you when listening is the only activity you can participate in.  The kind of people who will color in coloring books, watch Golden Girls, and do your laundry all the while assuring you they are having the time of their lives.  These are the people I think my lucky stars for every day.  These people are my family, related or not.

3. There is no husband better than my husband.  There is no friend better than my best friend, Nick.  There are no words special enough or meaningful enough for me to express how grateful I am to him.  I'm sure there are worse things to deal with than a broken ankle.  But, in our lives, at this time, this is the worst.  It is absolutely the worst thing we've had to deal with.  I cannot walk. There were weeks of intense, intense pain.  I couldn't get up out of bed, I couldn't eat, it was all I could do just to keep from screaming.  Nick just took care of everything.  We were in the middle of a bathroom remodel when the accident happened.  He made sure it was finished by the time I got out of the hospital, so that I would have a place to shower.  He rearranged our living room with a bed from upstairs in place of our couch, which went onto the porch.  He scratched the floor moving all this furniture around for me and sanded and varnished the scratch so I would't worry about it.  He also takes care of our dog, does the laundry, the vacuuming, the dishes, all of the cleaning, the meals, the grocery shopping, the bills, not to mention helping me shower, get dressed, and get to weekly doctors appointments.  When I needed daily injections, he gave them to me.  When I can't change the dressing on my wounds because it's too gross, he does it. He has never complained.  Not once.  He tells me "I would do so much more for you, I love you so much. Your comfort is my priority."  I guess when we made those vows to each other 12 years ago, this was the "worse" that we mentioned.  I'm sorry to have to put him through it, but holy cow am I grateful he's here with me.  Love is not strong enough a word.

But, this is not supposed to be a post about my horrible leg business.  This is a post about a sale I went to.  A sale that I go to every year.  The Advent House Sale.  Remember those friend/family members I talked about?  Well, my friend Heather is one of those.  She didn't want me to miss the sale so she hunted down a wheelchair to borrow and wheeled my ass all around that sale.  It was cramped this year because it was in a church as opposed to being out in an open yard.  The small space seemed to be cramping the amount of things for sale because it seemed like they had a lot less than previous years.  We are hoping they rethink the format.  Other such events have really got their act together. (I'm looking at you Ronald McDonald House sale!)

Even with the leg, and the wheelchair, and the cramped space, and the less stuff, I found some things!  Some of my favorite things to find, too!  Vintage Hallmark and jewelry!

Wooden bangles in three colors ($7), metal and resin bracelets ($4) and pink 80s earrings ($2 each)!

Tropical scene on velvet?  You bet!  $2!

Awesome vintage pipe cleaners. White with red flecks, perfect for Christmas crafting (50 cents) !

Ridiculously cute son and daughter vintage Hallmark mice sleeping in slippers ornaments!  50 cents each with the original boxes!  It's just so cheap!  Even at the Ronald McDonald sale I pay up to $8 each!  The slippers are fuzzy, even!

More vintage Hallmark.  The crocodile has a piece on his tail that moves and when you twist it his mouth opens.  No teeth!  Again, 50 cents each with the original boxes!

I can't do any estate sales because I can't really do stairs very well.  Not in a crowded house with breakables around, that's for sure!  So none of that for me until I can walk on my own.

I do plan to attend the RMD sale next month.  Of course my body guard, champion and all around helper, Nick, will be there to see that I am safe, have someone to help carry things, and have a ride home the minute I need one.  He has never, ever gone to this sale before.  It's not his thing.  But, he really wants me to be able to participate, and volunteered on his own.  I told you he was the best.  <3

So, In Summary:

#blessed

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.

MCC Parking Lot

I'm almost certain that this was the first time that the local community college held a garage sale style event in their parking lot.  It was very small, only about 20 vendors and we had to pay (gasp!) one whole dollar to park.  When you see twenty tables set up in the midst of a huge and sprawling parking lot, you don't get overly excited.  It looks wee.

But, I did end up getting a few things, and it was full sun and 80 degrees by 9:30 am, so I'm not complaining!  Any time I can go to an early morning sale in a sundress is a good day.  Plus, one of the vendors was an ice cream truck.  You know, one of those trucks that drive around neighborhoods ringing a bell?  I really respect a 9:00 am ice cream truck.  I would have become best friends with that truck if we'd stayed 10 minutes longer. Or if they'd had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle face ice cream treat with the gumball eyes.  Because, yum.

This is my haul.  I found the funky lattice earrings for $1.  Kermit was $2.  Every time I find a Muppet thing I don't have it seems like some kind of magic.  Still thrilling after all these years. The gold bangle was $5 and fits my child-wrist well.  The earrings are hand made by a hysterical woman who repeatedly told us about how much vodka she consumed while making them.  And about how much her dog wants to be right on her lap in the middle of everything.  I hear ya lady.  On both counts.  Nothing like a boozy craft day with a pup!

I'm glad I stuck it out and didn't turn right around when I saw how tiny the sale was.  I'm hoping that they do it again next year and that it grows and becomes a big, fun thing.

So, In Summary:

Ya Just Never Know!