Thrifty Acres: A Few Fun Finds

Hello! Have been too busy lately to do much secondhand shopping, but I do have a few recent purchases to show off. 

I purchased the above as part of a set of four of these electric candles. I don't know if the candles work, but when I opened one of the boxes the candle appeared to be in perfect condition. I almost would have thought it'd never been used, but I saw a small masking tape label affixed to the cord, indicating into which window the candle should be placed. Found at a local bazaar.

I bought the set of candles because I liked the graphic on the box:

A nice old-fashioned scene, I thought. According to eBay, it appears that these electric candles date from the 1950's. Needless to say, none of the sellers there were listing these at four/$1.00, which is what I paid. 

Feed sack fabric, found at a thrift store. I didn't realize it was feed sack material until I got home and undid the rolled-up bundles. How could I tell the feed sack origin? The striped pieces had lines of small holes along one edge, which indicate where a seam had been. The floral piece still had two seams sewn together - not the usual clothing seam, but the kind of string-like seam that closes off the top of the "critter mix" bags I buy to feed my squirrel pals. 

According to what I've read, feed sack material became very popular in the 1930's and 1940's, with countless garments, aprons and the like made from it. These fabrics fell out of favor when other forms of packaging became popular. That's too bad, because the pieces I found are of very nice quality. (This stuff had to be strong, obviously, to hold the contents therein.)

My last find came from an estate sale:

I already have a set of whisks, but I couldn't resist this when I saw the handle:

This was obviously a promotional item for the Holland Furnace Company, with the slogan "OUR SERVICE CAN'T BE BEAT" above it. I don't know if that was the usual slogan for the company or if they thought it made sense to use that phrase on an whisk. 

I noted the phone number: 3845 - proof that this whisk was made decades ago. That explains why the handle looks slightly beat up and why some of the lettering is worn. But this little whisk (it's 7" long) still does a great job of beating eggs - in fact, better than the whisks I already owned do! Well worth the quarter I paid for it. 

My recent buys may seem small, and their price tags certainly were, but I still think of them as fun finds!