She's About to Pop Party

My speech assistant was pregnant with her third child. (I am a little late in posting this as she has had said child and is now enjoying a lovely break from school whiling away the hours taking care of three little ones under the age of four.)  I wanted to give her a fun send off at school so I created the "She's About to Pop" popcorn bar.

 I bought pre-popped popcorn from Gordon Food Service.  I purchased various kinds of popcorn salt from my grocery store and Big Lots and then transferred them to Dollar Store salt shakers.

 The banner I made by printing out flags on card stock and scrapbook paper and stringing them on Baker's twine.  Here is an easy tip another teacher gave me as I was trying to get the banner to stay up.  She suggested I hot glue it to the brick.  It worked like a charm and it came off super easy.

 The small signs were also done on card stock, printed and then cut out.  Again I googled tag templates and just added my own labels.  I tied them on with baker's twine as well.

I made the pinwheels from a template I got from Googling pinwheels.  To get the two pattern look, I glued two different scrapbook papers together and then cut them out.  I hot glued a button in the center and hot glued them to kabob skewers.  I made the popcorn balls the night before.


I went with the red, black and whet theme because that was color of the enamelware that I had.  (I am sure that is what the professional stylist do...right?)  All in all it was really pretty simple to throw together and it came out so very cute.

Patty

City Wide Garage Sales -The Great White Sale

Call me Ishmael.  You know when you are out thrifting whether it is at an estate sale, a thrift store, flea market or garage sale and you have the deep hope that you are going to find the sale of all sales? You know the kind I mean.  The kind you read about in magazines like FleaMarket Style (where they never print the prices...I always suspect they pay a lot more than I would ever pay.)  You know the kind where someone is cleaning out their attic and just wants to get rid of stuff.  Well, we hit one during the city wide garage sales.

After trolling through countless sales with baby clothes, afghans and a thousand candlesticks and bad eighties decor, we drove by this driveway that had one table and lines of boxes up and down the cement.  It didn't look promising, but my daughter-in-law said we should stop.  At first we saw a few things and then my daughter-in-law started digging through the boxes and oh my...things got real fun.

The homeowner didn't have very many prices on things and when I inquired about a lamp, he said the words every hardcore thrifter longs to hear.  "Just make a pile and we will work something out.  I made a pile and he charged me a whopping $5.  That's right.  Five whole dollars for this pile of fun.

 As per my last post, my son took the pictures...a little more artistically than I would have.

 I would have paid $10 for the lamp.  My husband isn't too sure about it, but my daughter-in-law and Thrift Chick both said, "I can see you spraying that some fun color....they got that right.

 These are Pyrex tear drop measuring batter bowls.  I usually don't buy clear pyrex.  However, my daughter-in-law unearthed them in a box and we both thought they would be quite useful.  Turns out they are also quite vintage and single pieces of them go for $15-$20 on Ebay.  I saw a few full sets for the $40-$50 range.  I just like how much use I am going to get out of them.

 The enamel pot was filthy.  It is amazing what a magic eraser can do.  I have a growing collection of enamelware.  However, I have never paid more than $1 to $2 per item.  I actually saw some enamelware at some other sales for $15 fa piece.  Some day I will do a post about how I started getting enamelware when I didn't actually like it!

 Okay the Pyrex gravy boat and saucer is not all that vintage because it has microwave instructions on the bottom.  I just liked the look of it.  I actually collect the red translucent vintage cookie cutters and put them on my white Christmas tree (see it here)  My mom used cookie cutters like these so I threw them in my pile.  I am sure I will find a use for them.  The flocked vintage Santa was a piece I threw in at the last minute.  I couldn't think of how I would use him, but he reminded me of my grandmother's decorations.  Thrift Chick said "He's cool in a real creepy sort of way."

There was also this vintage small casserole dish in the browns and harvest gold of eras gone by.  I forgot to have my son take a picture of it, but you can kind of spy it in the top picture.

If you divide up the $5 total by pieces, each item cost me less than $1.  Now that is a "Great White Sale" for ya!

Patty

City Wide Garage Sale

I am not a fan of blog posts where people post their recent thrifting finds.  After all, it is not like it is going to inspire me....more like make me wish I lived in an entirely different state.  However, I had such a great haul at our city side garage sale days that I feel the need to share.  Outside of Thrift Chick, no one else in our family really gets it.

This year Thrift Chick had an out of state funeral to attend so she missed out, but my daughter-in-law stepped in.  My lovely daughter-in-law had never been to a flea market until she started dating my son.  She is a fast learner!  She was a great companion.  She was on the hunt for preschool clothes and kid games.  However, she is also is very knowledgeable about kitchen items and has a great eye.

This lovely plastic pitcher set cost me a whole quarter.  I bought them for Thrift Chick's apartment.  She has this whole vintage vibe going and was in need of some display items.

 I have this thing for old thermoses.  I think it is because I carried my lunch to school every day with a lunch box and thermos.  It was the highlight of school shopping to pick out a new lunch box.  These were $2 and have also found a home in Thrift Chick's apartment...but they will be back home soon.

Whenever I see pyrex in vintage colors I pick them up.  I will post about our growing collection of pyrex.  However, we have two rules.  One is we use the pyrex.  If it is not usable, I don't want it.  The second is we refuse to shell out big bucks or antique store prices.  These two were just $2 each.

About a year ago, Thrift Chick picked up four Apollo 13 glasses at a Salvo.  She thought they were kitchy and fun.  She paid 50 cents a glass.  Turns out that many people sell them on Ebay for around $3 a glass.  I came across some also for 50 cents a glass.  They also had Apollo 12 glasses so I picked up some of those as well.

Lately I have had a thing for old textiles.  I don't know why.  Thrift Chick uses vintage 50's era ones in her kitchen.  I mostly have them stored away.  I think I like them because I know someone long ago sat down and hand stitched them....that kind of effort is worth more than $1 but that is what I paid for the two towels (which also came with a bunch of handkerchiefs to add to Thrift Chick's collection) and $1 for the tablecloth.

I also picked up these old skis for $8.  My family laughed, but they will be a part of the Christmas decor.  However, if we have another winter like this last one, they just might be how I get out of my driveway!

I also picked up other miscellaneous things like a toy box and new toys for the grandchildren as well as a dog cage.  You know the everyday things you need, but gasp at the retail prices...that is what garage sales are really for!

Stay tuned for one more post on the city wide garage sales.  I hit one sale that deserves its own post!

Patty

Disclaimer:  My son took these photos for me.  He has a real artistic eye and takes some amazing photos....so that is why some of these are less about getting a good look at the haul and more about the cool angle.  However, since they don't have the bad lighting and fuzziness I tend to end up with, I will take them.