Eclectic Grab Bag of Garage Sale Goodness!

I have discovered that a few fellow bloggers have been having exceptional luck at sales, thrift stores, estate sales, curb sides, and whatnot as of late.  I have been having some good luck with the Thrift-Gods myself.  Here are some recent acquisitions:

Little yellow Tonka Jeep Wagoneer Truck.

I got this at the Vintage Swap & Shop for Atta Boy Vintage a weekend or two ago.  I traded an old wooden Honeymoon Photo Album that still had all the original piccies in it!  Until I find a metal toy of my actual old station wagon, I'm gonna have to satisfy myself with wagon-like items! 

 Vintage Clock Radio

This item is also from the swap & shop.  I traded a set of  Round Aluminum Canisters for it.  It doesn't work but that's just fine by me, it had an instant home on the "Old Radio Display Shelf" , which deserves its own post...coming soon *wink wink*  The best part about the Swap & Shop was being able to freshen up my collection without really adding more stuff!  Swapping is the bee's knees! 

Macrame Owl

Okay, I admit it...this is super cheesy, but I frikkin' love it.  For some reason, I just couldn't leave him behind at the estate sale.  I spoke to the lady running the sale and she told me that her late Mother in Law made him herself.  That pretty much sealed the deal.  This fuzzy freak would be coming home with me!  I also scored a pair of plastic glitter-flake faux candles and a super sweet hand painted apron that the daughter-in-law had made for the mother-in-law, once upon a time.  No pics of that one though, it needs some serious mending.  That'll have to be in my Vintage Aprons Post, lol!  

Plastic "Spaghetti" ball lights

Allrighty folks, I'm sure you have seen these around before...  They are made of a plastic/fiberglass type of material that looks like it was drizzled all over a beach ball.  The result is a really sweet-ass swag lamp that I have been wanting for oh, lets say a ba-zillion years!  Well I found not only 1 but 2 of these weird wonders at a warehouse sale that is always brimming with junk-o-la.  You're gonna die when you find out how much they were....are ya ready....$5 bucks....for BOTH!   But before you send the Hitmen to my door, the white one has a big chunk missing from the bottom.  I will try to mend it somehow, until then...who cares!  They are super sweet!  I also don't have a spot in my bursting apartment for them.  They will likely end up in the Tiki-Bar Arcade down in the garage till I win the lottery and can afford a big warehouse to live in :-)  

Speaking of the garage...in addition to being a Tiki Bar Arcade, it is also my Velveteria.  What is a Velveteria you ask?  Well here's a clue,  my next super duper score of the month:

Tijuana Velvet Paintings

Oh HELL YES!! I am a serious collector of Velvet Paintings and have quite a selection...in my Velveteria (aka museum velvet paintings, aka museum of absolute tackiness).  It is getting harder and harder to find these in a natural and organic way...like say, at a thrift store and costing less than a down payment on a house!  Velvet paintings are the best example of kitsch becoming a big ticket item.  Yes, they are crude, yes they are tasteless but would I pay out the nose for a Tijuana Snoopy?  No!  But would I pay the ridiculously low price of $3.49 ea (+ the 20% off special discount at Salvation Army that day)...Oh yes I would! 

Lil' Mariachi Pisser

 Hey, when you gotta go you gotta go!  The funny thing is that is a similar feeling I had the day I got these paintings (minus the needing to pee!).   I had been sitting at my desk at work and for some reason, my brain kept drifting to a visualization of the Salvation Army thrift store.  My Mojo, as I call it was telling me, Amber get yo' self to that thrift store.  So of course I went, you never ignore the Mojo Feeling.  Sure enough, I get all tingly over by the paintings, when I look at my feet these are sitting there!  Wowee!  I have psychic junking powers!*

*Cable TV producers take note, this isn't the first time my Mojo has led me to awesome stuff...I'm totally willing to exploit that phenomenon on a syndicated TV show about junkin' ...you seem to be giving them to everyone else these days, why not me?  I can just see it now: 

Next on Junk Psychics...Amber gets a tingly feeling at an Estate Sale, resulting in an mutha load of Pyrex! WOWOWWWEEEE! --Shoot!  I'd watch it!