Flea Market Friday: Yard Sale Scores!

The best yard sales are held on Thursdays around here. I discussed this a little bit here, but I think it has to do with needing an extra day to sell a large volume of things. Usually Thursday sales are "estate" sales held by older people in older houses- just the kinds of sales I like! And to top it off the dear little old lady whose house it was (in her late 80s I think) commented on how much she liked my dress and that she wondered if I made it. (I didn't, but I have 5 day dresses all alike-just different fabrics- which I thrifted at one shot, which will be a Sunday outfit post one day.)

Yesterday's sale was no exception. I had been to a garage sale at this house a few years ago and bought some killer stuff. Mostly I remember buying stacks of vintage pulp mystery novels for 10 cents each.  I have been kicking myself ever since for not buying the whole lot of them- probably around 100 were left when I was done picking the ones I wanted. I was hoping there would be more this time, but sadly not.

But I did get some other cool stuff. Literally.

Did you ever wonder what people used before those re-usable blue ice packs came out? Me neither, but now we all know. All three of these are steel cans filled with some sort of liquid. I have one in the freezer now and will test it out on our next picnic. I thought I already had a complete vintage picnic set, with the basket and the thermos, etc., but now I know it wasn't actually complete until now. 

I got all 3 for a quarter- worth it for the graphics alone! I'm guessing these are from the 50s, going by the car and the clothes on the package.

I am such a sucker for vintage lamps, especially when they come in pairs and are cheap ($3). These did come with shades, but unfortunately not tiered fiberglass ones.  If I do decide to use these I might put the original burlap shades back on, or pilfer some of the tiered shades from my other lamps. 

Otherwise they might go to my Etsy store.

I also found these great 1940s vintage Christmas candles for $3 for all 4. The bases are bakelite, the "candles" are rolled paper and they all work. I have a bunch of vintage red window candles already, but didn't have quite enough. Now I have a couple to spare.

This was the most serendipitous find. My express purpose for going out this morning was to buy another blueberry bush for our berry patch. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of putting a rather large, wet, dirty and berry-stained plant in the car, so I brought a large trash bag along. But after stopping at the estate sale I had this great galvanized tub ($3) to carry it in. I always buy these whenever I find them (which isn't often) because they are so versatile (and did I ever mention that I have a love affair with galvanized stuff? :) Plus this has it's original label, and it's a shade smaller- 3 gal- than the usual wash tub.