Yard Saling Away

Hello Friends, it's good to have you here!

Finally, the weather has warmed up and yard sales are sprouting everywhere! I had some great luck this past week. I hit a couple of rummage sales Thursday first.

I found a couple of vintage Hawaiian shirts at the first rummage sale- I thought it was going to be a bust for the longest time because I started in the housewares section and there was literally nothing but crap. I scoped out the clothing as a last resort and came up with a couple good ones- they are already listed in my Etsy store here.

I got to another rummage sale later in the afternoon just before it closed. And that means it was bag day- everything I could fit in a paper bag was $2. It also means that stuff was kind of picked over, so I definitely didn't pack the bag full. But I picked up a couple books and puzzles:

Also grabbed these art pieces. The oil painting is another vintage landscape for my collection at our cabin. That is really coming along, and I should probably do a post on that sometime. The empty frame is a simple but elegant art deco picture frame, which I always pick up whenever I find them. So much nicer than the frames they have at Michael's!

The little Hazel Atlas Moderntone sherbet glass was part of the bag sale, as were the cute fork and spatula. The fork is the Corningware Country Festival pattern. The speckled bowls are actually confetti Melmac, and are the first I have ever seen in black and white. Maybe they are "RARE HTF"? LOL  They will be listed in my Etsy store eventually too. 

This was another item I put in my bag- I'm going to let you guess what this is and then show you what we did with it later!

My husband took the kids to our local bike rodeo Saturday morning and I got to go driveway shopping. My son won 2nd place for his age group; I think he hasn't taken off his medal since then. But my prize was these pieces of Guardian Ware. I got all three for $1 each. The roaster is really huge and will bring a nice bit of $$ online.

I got these PBN horses at the same sale- it was a dollar sale, so everything there was $1. So, 5 paintings, $5! I am hoping to sell these as a group, I think they make an amazing "instant collection"!

More from the dollar sale- the Shiny Brites, lampshade and Homer Laughlin bowl. That bowl is the most stunning piece of stoneware I have ever seen. It's got a raised pattern of trees all around it. I don't know much about Homer Laughlin other than Fiesta, but I want to know more about this style. The only bad part is it has a bit of a chip on the rim and a crack there, but will be beautiful holding fruit on the table.

The Ponderosa plates are the only pieces of Pyrex I found. I have never seen the plates before, only the mugs. I'm sure these will go quickly in my Etsy store when I get them listed. The little brass swans were only a quarter; I actually have a couple of these already, they used to be my mother-in-law's.

It is hard to find bakelite radios anymore. I used to see them all the time and now they are definitely few and far between. I bought one a couple of months ago and now found this one- the only ones I've seen in a long time. It's an Admiral- doesn't work, but for $5, will definitely look great on a shelf. The alarm clock was only a quarter and that one works!

So that's the wrap up of my first real good weekend of yard sales, now here's what we did with that mystery item:

It's a bike rack! My husband painted it white and put it on my bike as a Mother's Day present. ;)

Not your usual Trash-picked Tuesday post

Hi there! Long time no post, I know....

I have been crazy busy these last 2 weeks- doing a last minute grant application (just submitted this morning, whew!), and galivanting about and generally having a great time meeting some new friends. Next up is my taxes. Blegh- you win some, you lose some.

But I wanted to pop in and mention the greatest website a trash-picker at heart can have, and that is freecycle! If you've never heard of it, basically it is a locally-based message board where you post things you no longer want or make requests for something you need- all free. You can find out more and join a group in your area here: http://www.freecycle.org/

So far, I have given an old printer and scanner to a new home and received a bike rack for my car- still new in the box! Now, I didn't put up a picture because my camera batteries were dead, but this is what I got:

$45 brand new- but free to me! 

It sure will come in handy, because my son has never ridden his bike on pavement before. (He's seven!) We don't live in an area with sidewalks and the road is too busy to ride on, so he rides in the yard. But I'd like to take him to the nearby state park for a little practice on the trails. Now that I have a bike rack, I can load up both of our bikes and we can head out. I can't tell you how happy I am to have this, and just from joining freecycle. You should try it out too!

Trash Picked Tuesday: Tricycle chopper, part 2

For those of you following Jayson's tricycle makeover, here is the finished project! He designed it himself, as well as doing the painting and parts of the assembly. (Adults used the power tools!)

Note the working headlight and tailight- they run off a bicycle generator. There is also a license plate and horn. We did not buy anything for this project except paint, and the thrifted stadium seat.

As a reminder- here is the starting point:

And the midway part (last week's update!)

A New Edition to the Family

The bicycle family, that is!

Here at Chez QT, we love our bicycles. I ride my bike for exercise several times a week, often pulling behind  a trailer for my kids. You may recall last Friday's post about the new trike I got for my youngest:

 I have two vintage balloon tire bikes which I absolutely adore:

Hers- my "daily driver" a Mercury, made by Murray. It's basically a 1990s re-issue of the 1946 Westfield Crescent.

And his- a red Sears Spaceliner, c.1960. 

I never pass up an opportunity to acquire anything vintage bicycle-related! So when my mom got a brand new Trek, I immediately asked if I could have her old bike, a 1960s Schwinn Suburban.

My mom put many many miles on this bike. And at age 71 she still thinks nothing of packing up and going 10+ miles on her new bike. 

This is my first geared bike (it's a 10 speed) since I was in high school. I rode it around in the yard for quite a while yesterday trying to get the feel for shifting gears again. It's a little bit slippery, and I'm not used to the handbrakes either. But it's a nice comfy road bike and I plan to take some longer rides with it. Once I add a basket to the rear rack I might even be able to take it grocery shopping- probably a 10 mile round trip.

Thanks, Mom!