Thrifty Acres: Rummage Sales Don't Fail!

Hello! I love rummage sales, so even though we were leaving for an out-of-town trip last weekend, I made time to check out a church rummage sale a few hours before our departure. (It helped that the church is but a short drive from our house). 

As a rule, rummage sales don't fail, especially the ones run by churches. Devoted congregants are usually happy to donate their unwanted items, and the results are tables laden with kitchenware, holiday decorations, vintage goodies and more. (there wasn't clothing offered at this particular sale). 

I came back from the rummage sale quite pleased with what I'd found. Only bought one kitchen item,  but craft supplies and vintage finds (often a combination of both, as you'll soon see) were plentiful.

Show and Tell Time!

Primitive-style pig cookie cutter. I don't know if this was handmade, but I thought it was cute. 

Portion of a craft kit produced by TBC (stands for The Best Choice). Not sure of the age of this but it's vintage. This is part of a 36"x36" cloth, with a different holiday scene on each of the four corners. The above photo shows a stamped scene of Santa going down a chimney, with two skeins of Nun's Boilproof Flochelle (a type of embroidery floss). 

So you'd think this Santa scene is meant to be embroidered, yes? No, as a finished corner shows:

Each scene is meant to be appliqued, and an unknown crafter had done a nice job on these bells. A scene of holly sprigs was also done, and a Christmas tree with candles was 3/4 completed. 

The set also came with four 12" napkins:

These are the two stamped designs, repeated for the other two napkins. Too bad my mother has already passed away - if she was still alive, I would have gladly stitched these up and given them to her as a present. She didn't do much needlework herself but loved vintage examples of it. And these designs are printed on high-quality linen. Sure, I could stitch them up myself - the embroidery is easy - but then I'd probably think they're too nice to use!

More vintage:

A children's ABC card set, back when tv's looked like this:

A television, circa 1959.

For a dollar, I got a pile of 1970's to early 1980'd craft leaflets and craft kits, starting with: 

From the cover of Macrame Forms And Figures (by Lynn Tucker, 1975),  clown, a Santa and a witch. Ugh!

Somewhat better is this:

From Easy To Make Macrame Pot Hangers (by Caren Greenwood, 1974), the "Texas Topaz" pot hanger. 

Pot hangers not your thing? Then why not make the elephant wall hanging, from Macrame Animal Art (Susan Shwartz, 1976)? All you need is 130 yards of gray yarn! Wow, wonder how long it took to make that thing?

In case you're curious, no, I never learned how to do macrame. However, I've started to see online pics of millennial types who've made macrame projects that look quite nice. I think that typically they've used some sort of natural cotton roping or cording, which gives their wall hangings and pot hangers a pleasing organic look. So who knows, maybe I'll try my hand at a 21st Century version of "Texas Topaz" sometime. 

But I'd be more likely to first try some projects from this leaflet, also in the bundle:

Pom Pom Parade (1977, Eleanor Zimmerman). I bought a pom pom making set at Target earlier this year and have dabbled with it. There's some cute, relatively quick projects in this leaflet:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears, in finger puppet form. 

For the holidays, an elf and Santa.

For next year's tulip festival:

A Dutch girl, and look - even her tulips are made from tiny pom poms! (Dress, apron, hair ribbons and hat are made from felt, as far the tulip stems and leaves). Pretty cute!

(Not everything in the bundle is photo-worthy, such as the two drab candlewicking pillow kits. Maybe a clever millennial will revive that craft sometime too!)

Another vintage purchase:

 
A grouping of six vintage children's clothes hangers. Liked the colors and the animal depictions:

Super cute! 

But one of my favorite finds wasn't vintage - rather, it was a shoebox-sized plastic storage tub filled with rubber stamping supplies, some of which had never been used. 

Three sets of clear stamps. The set in the center is still in its original packaging. Even discounted, it retails for over six dollars at Amazon. 

Handy words and phrases:

A nice collection to use on greetings cards, to add interest to collages, etc. 

I loved the image in this self-inking stamp, also in the same storage tub:

The numbers "11303" don't show up in the stamped image; I'm guessing that's a stock code. This stamp is a little beat up, so it's probably been around awhile, but still stamps up just fine. Perhaps a teacher had used it while grading papers? If so, I bet the students loved seeing this smiling face! It would have symbolized good work, I'm sure.

The storage tub also held five stamp pads and nine acrylic blocks, in three different sizes. (if you're not a rubber stamper, these blocks are used with clear stamps, such as the ones I showed off earlier). 

And for all this stamping goodness (plus a perfectly good storage tub)? Three bucks! 

I bought a few more things at the church rummage sale, some vintage, some not - but all at excellent prices. Needless to say, I was glad I had stopped in before we went on vacation!


.