Winter Winners

There haven't been too many great estate sales this winter.  But I have managed to collect a few goodies here and there.

The hubs has a small collection of belt buckles.  I found him this show stopper.  Who doesn't want a Bill of Rights belt buckle?  TJ and Ben, riding around your middle? Obviously that is a win.

Also, 80s earrings.  I can't get enough.

There was one estate sale, back in January, that I went to only because I saw a few tiny pieces of Christmas in the listing pictures.  When I got to the sale, I saw a lady checking out with all the Christmas stuff I'd seen in the photos. But, while I was perusing the other merchandise, I heard murmurs of a "Christmas Room" in the basement.  I'd already been in the basement and hadn't seen any such thing.  I figured I'd go take one more look, just to be on the safe side.  As I was descending the stairs, I saw a man walk through a wall, into the room at the bottom of the stairs.  Kitty Pryde would have been proud. Or at least, that's what it looked like.  Because of the shape of the room and the lighting, there was a hallway that couldn't be discovered until you were basically right next to it.  I'd found it.  The Christmas Room.

Vintage jackpot.  Also, overpriced jackpot.  There were gallon sized ziplock bags full of vintage Christmas, going for $15 a pop.  Tiny boxes of vintage ornaments for $10 and up.  Now, that might seem immediately worth it, but $15 is a lot for me to drop all at once, on one bag of stuff.  Plus, I don't have a whole heck of a lot of room for more Christmas stuff.  BUT - it is my true love.  So, if the items are worthy, I can get my mind around the price.

Everyone who collects vintage from yard sales, church sales, antique stores, estate sales, and thrift stores has a set of rules.  Price rules, for themselves.  Personally, I don't like to spend more than $5 on a Christmas corsage.  That's my limit.  $5.

I found TWO bags of vintage corsages in the Christmas room, and they had 4 corsages each, plus some other delightful tidbits. 

Candy canes and sugared bells?  Yeah. Thanks.

HOT PINK VINTAGE BOTTLEBRUSH WREATH.

Don't make me say it again.

Gold poinsettia, flocked poinsettia, and flocked pinecone.

These honeycomb cuties are flat on one side and meant to go on top of a package.  Love love love!  They have also been used.  Man, thank goodness for old ladies who saved and reused every damn thing.  Am I right?

I also found these awesome hankies. I'm not sure I know anyone who would turn down adorable Christmas pets.

This fancy Lily of the Valley towel has a small hole in it.  I patched it and it made it through the was safely.  The little enamel comb holder is gorgeous.  Mint green.  My jam. Perfect for carrying around in your lucite purse.

As I was standing in the checkout line I noticed a lady next to me had bags of great stuff.  I said to myself "This lady knows what's up".  Then I looked up and saw the lady was none other than Heidi ( @upstatevintage )  We'd never met in real life!  What a treat!  "Hi!"  I nearly shouted at her.  She looked at me like I might be a little bit crazy.  Then my words left me and I stammered, "You're Heidi!  I'm Sarah!  ....INSTAGRAM!"  I played it very cool. 😉 We oohed and ahhed over each other's finds, and did NOT get a selfie together.  Next time!

Another week and another sale that I decided on because of the Christmas loot.  No, I don't need anymore.  Yes, I'm running out of places to store it.  No, I'll never stop buying it.  NEVER.

This funky Lefton Christmas boot is on it's way to my mom, along with Santa's head and the plastic floral pick.  I'm keeping the mercury glass picks and the crazy Christmas tree candle.

I have no idea what this felt Santa man is.  You can put your hand up inside, like a puppet.  Or a tree topper?  Or wine bottle garb?  At any rate, he's fantastic.  And has a glitter beard. And a tiny Santa head peeking out of his belt. #notweirdatall  the ornaments still have their "Japan" tags on them.  They are pink and gold and will look luscious on my upcoming tropical Christmas tree.

These choir cherubs are rubber.  They are sitting on a gift box like platform that rotates and also is a music box that plays Silent Night. So, a lot going on here.  It's for my mom.

Check out these babies!  80s purses in glorious colors.  I'm currently using Ms. Hot Pink as my everyday purse.

This is from the third sale that I chose because of Christmas.  There was an entire set of shelves along one wall of the basement that looked like they were covered in Christmas stuff.  The photo was kind of fuzzy, and not taken head-on, so you couldn't get a great look at what was there.  What was there ended up being: not much.  I did decide on this cool wire midcentury Christmas card holder that I plan to clean up (a project, lawd help me) and spray paint (red glitter) and use to display vintage Christmas package labels.  I thought the sprig of ornaments was glass until I got home.  Plastic. Bummer.

You might recall that there was an estate sale over the summer that gave me stress dreams for a week, until I could get there and scoop up the Kermit the Frog Christmas ornament to add to my collection.  Recently I was checking out photos for estate sales and spotted a Muppets puzzle that I didn't own. I decided to go to this sale, even though it was being run by a company that is not my favorite.  You do what you have to do for your collections. I arrived about 15 minutes early and slogged through the snow up to the door to take my number.  I passed a few cars with people waiting.  It's cold here and we don't wait in line during the winter if we don't have to.

One of the regulars (Rat Tail Guy - I don't know any of the regular shoppers' names.  There is also a No Bra, Big Boob Lady.  And a Smoker.) jumped out of his van and said "Do you need a number?" (When a company doesn't put out numbers, the first customer on site will hand their own out.)  I said, "No, I just got some."  This did not go over well with RTG.  He started swearing up a storm and said "They @#%*^ing said they weren't putting out #@&#$)!+ing numbers!"  To which I replied, "Well, they are liars.  Because there are in fact numbers at the door."  He asked which numbers I got and I cheerfully told him #1 and #2!  Then I hustled back to my warm car.

This knowledge of numbers incensed RTG (Which is understandable. We aren't forcing companies to put information out.  If you want to do numbers, do them, if not, don't.  But get your shit together and do what you say you are going to do.  This is exactly the kind of thing that keeps me from being a fan of this particular company.)  who got everyone else all riled up and they, along with their pitchforks and torches, stormed the door of the sale and demanded reparations.  Which, came in the form of the person running the sale knocking on my car door and asking for numbers 1 & 2 back and giving me numbers 7 & 8.

The sale starts about two minutes later and - get this - we all just WALK IN WILLY NILLY with nobody even collecting numbers.  The drama.  These are the moments when I reaffirm that dogs are far superior to humans.

At least I got the puzzle.  And a cool bleeding heart metal icon.

Since there haven't been great estate sales to choose from in the past few weeks, last week I decided to hit up a local thrift store.  The linens section was particularly good to me.

I got a selection of handkerchiefs to use for my rockabilly hair-do.

And this amazeballs vintage beach towel that looks like it's never been used.

And this gorgeous pink plaid wool blanket. 

(We have a real blanket hoarding problem at the Snug Bungalow)

And a third pair of parrot earrings. #totallynormal

Thanks for playing along, kids!

If you care to see more of my found junk, or how I display said piles of junk in my home, check out @thesnugbungalow on Insagram.

My shop account is @thesnugbungalowshop

My Etsy shop can be found here.