Estate Sale Treasures

I interrupt the Valentine's crafts to show you some treasures I scored this weekend at two different estate sales.

A great way to spend a Saturday morning in my opinion is at the sales.  Mark is my partner in crime. (He is actually better at finding stuff that I like than I am.) We split up when we go into the house and divide & conquer. For those of you who are experienced with estate sale shopping you know that it is survival of the fittest. It is a contest between you and the other collectors to see who can nab the best stuff first. If you hesitate you often miss out.

Here are some pics of the haul spread out in my living room.

For about the same price as a meal out for 4 people, I brought home various items including:

A vintage dress form

A chalk board

Awesome "shabby/cottage" shelf

lots of pottery

2 mirrors

embroidered pillowcases

Fisher Price toys

old hat box

kitchen stuff

vintage seed packets

old cards - to use in crafting

vintage metal hooks

baskets

flower frog

Here is a close up of some of my favorite scores.

Estate sale stuff can be pretty dirty and gross when you buy it. You have to have an adventuresome spirit and be willing to get a little dirty. If the stuff is cheap enough, you may have to do repairs, painting and usually will need to clean it thoroughly before reselling or using it.

These pieces of pottery were found buried in the garage at one of the sales. They were covered in dust, dirt and spider webs. Mark was willing to get dirty by digging into boxes until he uncovered them.

Once I gave them a good wash in hot water they came out perfect - not a chip or crack to be seen!

The dress form was uncovered in a cubby hole under the stairs in someones basement. Mark didn't care about getting dirty so he crawled in there to look. This particular sale had been going on for 3 weeks before we got there. It is my guess that nobody else was daring enough to go into that cubby. I bought the dress form for $10. I priced it on ebay for around $100. For now I think I'll keep it.

Here are some of the items after they were cleaned up and put out on display.

Most of the items I showed you today will be keepers. I cleaned everything up and have plans to put it all to use somewhere in my house. Stay tuned!

Check back tomorrow as I continue with project #3 in the Valentine's craft series.

Happy Sunday,

KayteeJane