Saturday, July 23, 2011

Friday's Found Treasures

No art glass vases in this week's installment of Friday's Found Treasures.  Rats.  But I did find some cool stuff in my estate sale adventures this week.

Steve and I hit two of them yesterday.  He's learning the ropes so he can check out a few when I go back to work in a couple of weeks; his training is going quite well because he found one sale yesterday that I missed!

Our haul yesterday included this adorable folk art dolls:


I have a small Amish basket I bought in Iowa a few years ago that sits in my living room and in it I have a collection of these small dolls that I bought from Milly Rose.  The lady with the red kerchief on her head is actually wax.  She's about 3 inches tall.  



The twins in the red dresses are actually glued to a barrette:



The little boy is porcelain.  These won't all fit in my basket but I've found another spot for them.
I also found these wonderful glass knobs in an old tool box.  There are twelve of them which I got for $3.00 total:


After a good soaking in some warm soapy water these things will shine right up.


I really want to keep the original hardware so I'll try to clean them up with some WD40 and see what happens.  I've already found a home for one of these little buddies but I'll have to show you that in another post.  It's going to go on an antique medicine cabinet that I bought today for $10.  I'm refinishing it, though.  It was in rough shape.
Pickings were getting a little slim.  No art glass or depression glass to be found anywhere.  Steve bought a book:


...and I bought a wooden cow:


At the last sale of the day yesterday I picked up this Fostoria Amercian toothpick holder.  I have a lot of this pattern that I inherited from my grandmother but I didn't have this.


Today I set out alone and thought the day was going to be a bust at first.  I picked up this old, heavy plant holder (I guess that's what it is...).  I hit it with some black spray paint and hung it over my stove in the kitchen:



Yes, that's a bright orange accent wall behind the stove.  Due for a paint update.  Recognize the dolls?



Next I picked up the antique medicine cabinet; as I said, I'm refinishing it because the oak was so beat up.  The mirror is missing and I'm trying to decide if I want to replace the mirror or replace it with clear glass and just put vintage stuff in it.  I have an old Rolls Razor that was my grandfathers that would be neat.  Indecision.

At my last stop of the day I scored big time.  Look at this awesome mirror!


Lordy but I do love this mirror.  I especially love that I only paid $20 for it.  I didn't do one thing to it but clean the glass with some Windex and hung it up.  There are layers and layers of old white paint on there, but I rather like it like that.

You can see where someone even stuck a rose decal on there which I left alone.  Kind of like that, too.


It's quite heavy and has a thick twisted wire across the back for hanging.  Love it.  Love, love it!  It fits perfectly in this spot in my hallway right over the old telephone stand.


Now I just need to put the old rotary phone back in there, get that cute vanity stool from Milly Rose to put right there and that would be fabulous.  Time trippin'.

So ends treasure hunting for one more week.  Steve and I saw a cute cast iron bank yesterday called "Trick Dog."  Here's a similar one on eBay.  You put a penny in the dog's mouth and he jumps through the ring and puts the penny in the barrel.  So cute.  We didn't get it, had second thoughts, and I went back today, but it was gone.  Lesson:  if you like it, get it while it's there!

And so it goes.

2 comments:

Tina said...

Oh my that mirror is gorgeous!! Good find!

And you are so fortunate to have your grandmother's Fostoria American. The toothpick is a great piece! That pattern always sold very well for us - it's versatile and so well styled it goes with contemporary settings just as well as vintage ones. What a nice heirloom.

We were going to sales for a while earlier in the year but it's been so hot that by the time I get off work on Saturday mornings (I work six days a week but the 6th day is only a few hours), the temp has gotten too high for comfort already. Maybe we can start up again in the fall.

Leslie said...

great post. thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it and reading Tina's post as well!