Estate Sale Finds

A few weeks ago I attended an interesting estate sale. The home, in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago, was built in 1920 and was home to multiple generations of the same family. The gentleman that passed was a retired Lutheran minister who was one of the creators of Uncle Mistletoe - a tradition at Marshall Fields in Chicago and a local children's program. The Uncle Mistletoe above has been on my tree for the past 20 years. 

This picture peaked my curiosity for the sale along with this one: 

Oh my! Be still my heart! Look at those incredible German rabbit candy containers! I wanted them all! Or at least one :)

When I went to the sale, I realized the house was tiny so only a few people could be inside. There were at least 25 people ahead of me, so I left :(  Late in the afternoon of the last day, I found myself back in the neighborhood, so I thought I would try again. 

Of course all of the items in the first two photos sold in the first half hour of the sale, but I did manage to find a few little treasures...

There was an entire bedroom filled with antique toys. The gentleman working the room told me that the minister didn't collect toys, these were all his toys from his childhood and they were very well cared for.

This little box with its winter scene caught my eye.

I opened it up and found this!

Snow White and the 7 dwarfs are now part of my Christmas decorations. 

This sweet little velvet tabby kitten came home with me along with 

the teeniest tiniest jointed teddy bear that I ever did see.

His mohair is so worn and well loved :)

Other little treasures found:

This little box will be a pincushion someday and I loved the graphics on this matchbox.

And since I love all things Abraham Lincoln, this coin came home with me as well.  

And finally a single button shoe. Not sure what happened to its mate, but it looked awful lonely.

When at several estate sales, I met a lovely woman named Wanda. Wanda and I have the exact same taste in antiques. I try to go whenever she has a booth at a show as I know that I will find treasures. Last weekend she had a garage sale and I found these:

A wonderful salt box.

A wooden folk art bird who will live in my garden next summer.

This great green bucket 

Some vintage red velvet, a Ball freezer jar, a clock bank and several tin items.

With my new finds I added some greens and lights and came up with this:

Of course, I should have been preparing for Christmas, but sometimes you just need to take a break :)

"The wolf will live with the lamb,

the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear,

their young will lie down together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea."

~Isaiah 11:6-9

Blessings, Patti

Best.Estate Sale.Ever Part 2 and a little giveaway...

 

I forgot to mention in the last post that the photos that I shared were from EstateSales.net and were taken before the sale began. (although believe it or not about 50% of those items were still there!)

EstateSales.net is a national website that allows you to subscribe to an email update showing you the estate sales in your area. I have subscribed to it for a few years now, but had my email updates set for within 5 miles of my house. You can be sure that I have expanded my area now! LOL!

 

I have to say that I am a true collector - having one item is never enough ;) it's always better to have a few. And once you start collecting an item you start searching for better more unusual items in that category. I learned from the best - both my parents are collectors as well. I really appreciated this woman's wonderful collections and thought about how she must have felt as she amassed such an incredible collection of treasures.

 

I was thinking that it might be fun once every other week or so to share with you some of my many collections...

 

Anyway~ here are my purchases from the sale:

 

I have been having fun changing the greenery in this neat old lantern for the seasons - I took this photo in the winter.

 

Yes, I bought not one, not two, but three punched tin lanterns! How greedy am I?!

Each one was so unique and when you held them up to the light the intricate designs were mesmerizing. The one on the far right had her original purchased price tag on it - "Early pierced tin lantern with rare regional history" Oh how I wish that I knew what that "rare regional history" was...

 

 

This tiny little lantern was the first thing I picked up and just couldn't put it back down.

The fish scale piercings are so neat and it appears to have remnants of old red paint. It measures a mere 6 inches tall and has its original hook and bellow. I just need to find the right place to hang it.

I think that I am now a collector of lanterns :) I've put timer candles in each of them and love how they glow at night. 

 

And my most treasured find and my most precious antique (right now ;)

My Noah's Ark

 

This wonderful hand painted ark is hollow with a little wire latch.

Inside were 29 animals, one bird and 2 men and 2 women.

 

 

The details on the carving and painting are wonderful. The little pigs snout, the deers white chest, the cows spots. I love how the animals aren't to scale (the pigs are bigger than the deers, etc) I can imagine a child playing with it on a Sunday afternoon after church... I've put a timer candle on this shelf as well, so that I can still admire it in the dark as I walk by :)

 

Well, I put together a little giveaway if anyone might be interested:

 

 

Staying with an antiques theme: A few favorite magazines for reading about antiques, two old quilt squares, an old piece of ticking, an old wooden hoop, an antique key and a few old mother of pearl buttons.

 

As always, my giveaway is open to everyone. If you don't blog, just drop me an email at pgagliardi9@hotmail.com with "Antiques" in the subject line. And tell me in your comment or email - what one antique do you hope to own one day?

 

I will pick a winner on Friday, June 7th.

 

And I will be back here on June 1 with a few handmade offerings that I have been working on...

 

"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"

~Romans 5: 1 - 5

 

Blessings, Patti

 



Best.Estate Sale.Ever!

 

Do you know Rhonda of Kattywhompus Primitives?

She has two lovely Etsy shops and is an artist on Early Work Mercantile.

She also is a writer for Mercantile Gatherings Magazine and last winter wrote an incredible article about our favorite shop, Country Sampler in Spring Green, Wisconsin. I had the pleasure of meeting Rhonda at Boxwood & Berries at Country Sampler two year ago and it was a joy!

 

This past fall, I received an email from Rhonda. She wanted to let me know about an incredible estate sale that she had heard about and thought was near my home. It was about 40 minutes away and it was an incredibly busy weekend, but after I saw the photos I knew that I had to get there some way, some how! Between commitments, I figured out that I could go to the Estate sale on the final day, but could only stay for about 40 minutes and would have to run. I took my small budget, hopped in the car with my gps and headed out.

 

There was a line of about 12 people ahead of me and time was ticking. Seeing the treasures they were coming out with I started hyperventilating! All the good stuff was going out! The house was teeny and tiny and as one person left, one could go in. I waited as patiently as I could...

 

The woman that had lived there was an incredible collector of primitives - no junk here. She didn't have just one of anything, each type of item was an entire collection!  Her home was bursting to the brim and each and every item was the best quality available - no reproductions.

 



 

 

I can't imagine how long it took her to amass her collections.

But just looking at everything brought me such joy!

 

 

Time was ticking and I had to make some decisions.

(Those that know me know that I am not good at making spur of the moment decisions :) I must ponder and agonize over every purchase LOL! So my 30 minutes flew by in the blink of an eye!

 

 If only my budget had a few extra zeros after it!

The prices were fair retail antique shop prices, but

I was fortunate enough to be there on the final day, so everything was half off!

Even so a bigger budget would definitely have helped with the decisions!

 

 This was the room I spent the most time in... agonizing!

I have always wanted a punched tin lantern, but oh my stars! How do you make a decision with card tables stacked on top of each other filled with punched tin lanterns??!

 

 

I have always been mesmerized by toy Noah's Arks, I had a plastic one as a child that I adored and treasured. I had never seen an antique one in real life, just online or in books and here was an entire fleet. This was the only decision that I was able to make in a snap!

 

After my half hour was over and I was heading home, I had to call my parents on the phone to tell them all about it. I think it took a few minutes before they could understand what I was saying, I was babbling so!

 

 

Don't you love all these antique painted baskets piled up in the bathtub!

 

Thank you ever so much Rhonda for taking the time to tell me about this incredible sale!

(I told  her so with a little treasure that I found for her there :) 



It was a half hour that I will never ever forget!

 

In my next post I will share my purchases.

And if I can get myself together I will have a little giveaway of some sort...

 

Blessings, Patti

Happy Spring and a Sale

Happy Spring!

Although like most of the country, in Chicago it feels more like July!

Plants (& weeds) are busting out all over!

I was so happy to putter in the garden on Sunday -

the strawberry patch has been cleaned out

and I planted 5 planters with pansies and pussy willow branches.

To celebrate the first day of Spring, I am having a sale at my etsy shop.

Through the end of the month I am offering free shipping on any purchase - just enter SPRING2012 in the coupon code.

Don't have an etsy account? No worries, simply email me at pgagliardi9@hotmail.com

Coupon code is valid until March 31.

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these"

~Matthew 6:28-29

Blessings, Patti

A Contented Heart

Do you ever feel like life is better than you could have ever imagined?

Do you feel like God has blessed you infinitely more than you deserve?

I feel this way on a daily basis and even more so earlier this month when I celebrated my birthday. In addition to my oldest son returning home from Guatemala and having the best rescue dog ever make our home his forever home, we also went to the best estate sale ever.
We bought my birthday presents there :)

We missed the first day of the sale, but were excited to see the half off sign on the door when we were finally able to go on the last day...

I've always wanted a stack of firkins and we found the bottom two and the top one at a reasonable price ~ I started hyperventilating immediately! I just love them and find myself just looking at them and smiling periodically (my sons think I have gone crazy!)

We also found this beautiful wood bowl and...


this great wooden trencher.

I love the make-do repair where it had split. It adds great character.

There were really wonderful antiques throughout the home. And wonderful handpainted murals on the walls of the dining room. One thing that really intrigued me were the wonderful clothes from the early 1800's through the 1920's. Each outfit was labeled with who wore it, when they were born, when they wore it and when they died. My favorite was a brown silk dress worn for a wedding in the early 1800's. I wondered aloud to the man running the estate sale, "How could the family part with these incredible treasures?" He replied that there was simply so much and that the family had taken so many incredible treasures out before the sale that these were merely the leftovers. Who knew that a 1920's suburban home just blocks from my own house contained such incredible finds...

I went home and lovingly cleaned my purchases while my mind thought of all the other wonderful things that I saw. I decided to go back the last half hour to see if anything was left that they might want to make a deal on...

I came home with this lovely wool blanket in perfect shape gifted to the family on Christmas Day handwoven by an aunt from sheep on her farm. The blanket was gifted in 1934, but the dealer running the sale insisted that it is almost 200 years old. I don't know about that, but the blanket and letter are just precious!

I also picked up this old cutter quilt.

a pewter childs mug, a redware santa, and a sweet original paper cutting made and signed by Claudia Hopf.

Each of these are treasures that I will cherish.

I truly possess a contented heart!

Blessings, Patti

Tiny treasures & fun for a quarter

I love to go to Estate Sales. I enjoy looking for treasures, but I also love looking into old houses and admiring the workmanship and character of older buildings. Lately there haven't been very many in my town. I guess that this is a good thing :) But I miss them. The past few weeks there have been a few and I have really enjoyed the chance to go.

I found this sweet little strawberry botanical framed print that I thought was so appropriate for me right now :) And this sweet little graniteware pitcher.

It's hard to get perspective with how tiny they are, so I added a spool of thead in this picture.

At another estate sale I found all of these treasures for 25 cents!

Who knew you could have so much fun for only a quarter!

And look at these treasures from another sale - all for $10!

*sigh*
I hope that I don't have to wait too long for another estate sale...


I did finish stitching this Stacy Nash design.
I'm a little nervous about finishing it as a standing pinkeep, but I do want to give it a try.
If anyone has finished this piece and has any pointers, I'd love to hear from you!

"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be
hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come
in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are
good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body
also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not
darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it
dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on
you."

~Luke 11:33-36

Blessings, Patti

A finish and a few finds...

Stacy Nash Primitives

Country Sampler's Spotted Hare Pinkeep

It continues to be hectic both at work and at home and has taken me longer to finish this than I thought. This was an exclusive class kit and was supposed to be a pinkeep drum, however since I couldn't attend the class I felt more comfortable finishing it as a pillow instead. I changed a few of the color placements and decided to put the word "hope" in the center rather than a year. I really love this piece and think I like it even better as a pillow ~ you can see all the motifs at once...

I really enjoy going to local estate sales - both to hunt for treasures and to get a chance to peek in wonderful homes. There haven't been any estate sales for a while (which I guess is a good thing.) When I saw an ad for one near my house I couldn't wait to go.

The woman who lived there was a sewer. Not much left by the time I got there but I did find some great vintage yardage of this sweet flowery cotton and a quilt top. The quilt top would fit a twin bed and appears to be completely pieced. Not sure what I will do with it (any suggestions?) but when they said both were $6 I couldn't leave it there now could I???

In the garage I found a few treasures as well - two little wooden holders that I thought I could use for needles or pins (the larger one has copper wire wrapped around it). And a wooden what not that certainly intrigued me. Any idea what it might be? It seemed like a very well made clamp. I loved the detail on the screw and noticed that every piece of wood was marked with the initials FAS. I'm not sure what I will do with it, but for $3 it certainly intrigued me.

Look how much fun you can have for $9 lol!

I don't think I ever shared these estate sale finds:

A sweet Steiff rabbit and an antique puzzle ball pincushion. I think that they look so nice together and I've been enjoying them all spring.

Well, I hope to work on my TDIPT offerings tonight. Some creations are close to being finished while others have a ways to go.

Wishing you time to enjoy your heart's desire.

Blessings, Patti