Tuesday, January 25, 2011

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!
 

8 comments:

  1. Love the clock, and the scary teeth by it! Those always had the dual effect of fascinating and repulsing me at the same time. :)

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  2. I have the same radio, except in a moldy pink!
    Those spaghetti meatballs are sweet! I was thinking about making some but they would be nowhere as amazing as those ones! I bet they look so cool lit up! Those spaghetti strands probably glow so much!

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  3. Oh the spaghetti swag lights.. I am currently sear searching high and low in my little corner of the world for some too. I want one in my bedroom and one in my television room! hahaha

    Lucky lucky lucky!

    I also love the velvet photos and that owl Oh dear how awfully fluffy cute!!

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  4. Those swag lights are to die for...and the owl, very cool. You scored big!

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  5. Oh that Snoopy is so funny! Snoopy ran away from Charlie Brown, ran down to Tiajuana and ... well, I heard there was a Mexican Chihauhau involved!
    All captured for posterity in a velvet portrait.
    My Grandma had that radio on her kitchen counter in pink! Love it.

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  6. Great finds! Hey there were old cars at the mall tonight and the Batmobile...gorgeous...just put pics on my blog! Thought you would like to see!!!

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  7. ahh i am so very jealous of your spun spaghetti lucite swags... enjoy those! is attaboy still doing those vintage swaps? i would love to join in! i live in downtown ventura.

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  8. We bought our 70's house and these swag lights are all through it. We have three big white ones in the dining/lounge, and two small ones over our bench top (which we are replacing). We also have a blue, green and orange one in rooms. We have a diamond shape one in the our bedroom. Classic.

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