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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Thrifting at the community garage sale This past weekend was our community's garage sale and eventhough I was not feeling very well, I made a quick trip around the need to pick my daughter up from Youth Orchestra. At the community centre there was a large sale as a fund raiser for a child with a rare disorder. I did not get to the sale until after 1:00 but the deals were still to be had. For $1 you were given a plastic bag to fill: all the books and the ceramic piece fit in the bag. The Planter(?) is marked Crown Ceramics, Vancouver, B.C. and the only information I could find on the web was a vase with an almost identical glaze which dates it from the '50s. I am really attracted to that colour and the shape reminds me of a lotus flower. I forgot to add the bread machine cookbook that my eight year old wanted in the photo but you might see the "Arthur" and "Science Experiments you can eat" books he also wanted. There are sewing and craft books from the '60s and '70s and "Roughing it in the Bush" by Catherine Parr Trail who was a early Canadian Pioneer diarist ( I already have the book by her sister Susannah Moodie). The small red book is Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" which is about people in Australia after a global nuclear war and I remember being struck by themovie when I saw it as a teenager and no doubt made a huge impact when it came out in 1959 at the height of the Cold war. The last book is the "Rand-McNally Reference Atlas of the World" from 1936. It is filled with demographic and social information as well as maps of countries whose geopolitical boundaries are quite different than today's. It will live on the shelf next to my Father's "Historical Atlas of Canada". The last piece is the shelf the books are on. We will use this in our music/living room to hold the sheet music used daily by my husband for teaching and by my children for practising. The ironic thing is that we know the family who donated it to the sale because their name is written on the back. Fine Hand inspired me to photograph my front door(or part of it to show the colour) like she had been inspired by pink picket fence and the bookshelf had belonged to her in-laws. Is there some kind of thrifting karma going on? I actually went to another sale first and I immediately saw the Androck egg beater for $.50 and it was all I bought at that house. As the first purchase of the garage sale season it is great because I have waiting for one to go with my other vintage kitchen tools for over a year and it is perfect mostly because of the red wooden handles. Selena at posted about patience and thrifting today. The yellow bowl is Fire King rather that Pyrex and in rough shape but at only a quarter, I thought I might use it in the sewing studio as catch-all for buttons I am using. The train case came for the same house as the bowl as well as some videos and DVDs. The case is in rough shape but I would really like to alter it like Julie or Bethany. Number 3 found some very nice newer Bushnell binoculars in a nylon case that he bought with his own money. He was in a spending mood because what he found next was way out of my garage sale budget. A return trip home and discussion/negotiations with his father ensued and then a call back to the owner sealed the deal. I know that this would not happen in many households, but we let him buy a drumset. Yes, you read correctly. What is a housefull of classical music types doing with a drumset? Well just because my training was to be a orchestral flutist does not mean that I do not enjoy other types of music and the same goes with my husband who has worked as a full-time orchestral musician for over twenty-five years. The fact is that our harp-playing choir boy of a son plays percussion in the school band. He knows that he cannot play the drums when anyone else is practising, teaching or sleeping but he was still willing to use his whole year's choir pay to buy it. We were going to need to buy him a snare drum anyway. I hope that we do not regret this decision. When we went to pay for and collect the drum set all the garage sales were over and free stuff was at the curb. The water carafe and glass/lid is for my husband's bed side table and is nicely weighted at the base. The vase is marked "Treasures of Spain", Brody, Japan. Click on the photo to get a clearer view of the texture and colour. I can picture a bouquet of same type flowers in this vase and it will work well with less attractive stems or lack of greenery. Does anyone know about this ceramics company? The lamp shades were also for free at the curb and although they look good in the photo, they are damaged so I will be stripping them and using the frames. It is amazing that people do not bother to donate leftovers to charities. This morning was our local garbage pick-up and there was still some donate-able stuff at the curb. If people place so little value in their stuff, why did they buy it in the first place? I do not mind benefitting but I do believe that the lack of thought behind consumerism has contributed to the world's present economic woes. As consumers we have the power to reject what does not have the quality and lasting value we seek!
Posted by Jenifir at 8:36 PM Labels: books, collecting, community, thrifting The Queen of Fifty Cents said...

Wow, you got some really great deals! I'm jealous of the lampshades, they look like just what I need for the estate-sale lamp we got recently.

May 6, 2009 at 7:17 AM gardener-b said...

Wish I had your keen eye. I did score yesterday at the Thrift store...2 sewing books...one dated 1943 and all about thrifty sewing as well as a complete reference. Also found some more packaged rayon seam tape. Today I bought a wicker double headboard in perfect condition for 10.00. All this with the money made from the returns to the Bottle Depot.

May 6, 2009 at 11:11 PM 

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