:: to market, to market… ::

I’ve had a ton of thrifty-adventures lately! Despite the fact that it seemed for awhile that 2008 was becoming a bad year on the thrift-front, this past weekend has restored my faith a tiny bit… lol!

Mom and I stopped at a thrift shop the other afternoon after going to look at a new church to have the wedding at (long story short: the other one I was going to use just wasn’t working). Despite the fact that last week was really stressful on the wedding front, my little side trip totally made up for it! ‘Cause guess what I found for $2?! The holy grail of thrifting. These are definitely the sort of finds that keep my going and make me hope that if there are Thrift gods, they decide to be nice every once in awhile. haha! It’s dated 1856, and includes a handful of black and white fashion engravings. What makes it even more fun, for me at least, is this inscription in the front:

Considering L. is US Navy too, I just think this is too neat! I mean, it’s one of those historical connections that is also personal. I wonder if he purchased this volume to take with him while he was out at sea? Which makes me imagine just where this book has been and adventures it’s seen…

Last week Kate emailed me with an idea to meet up for a flea market that is held every few months. I’d been dying to go to this for years, and I think it’s slightly ironic that I finally got there since I’m moving out of state after my wedding. lol. Isn’t that always the way it goes?! Anyway, so we hatched a plan to meet Sunday morning, and see what trouble the two of us could get into…

I think we both were completely and utterly overwhelmed by the size and number of vendors! Two, huge buildings (thankfully, air conditioned! lol) were stuffed with booths and tons of gorgeous, old goodies. I think it was a good thing Kate and I had limited ourselves with a cash-only budget, ‘cause otherwise it would have been bad. haha! We spent most of the day in the first building, and scored some great things, including a bunch of $1 costume jewelry, Kate got a gorgeous patchwork quilt, and I found a bunch of pretty little odds and ends. The second building we canvassed a bit quicker, and at that point in the afternoon we were starting to hunt for bargains. A lot of the dealers were marking their merchandise down towards the end of Sunday (since it was the second day of the market), or were willing to bargain. Kate and I both scored some amazing things at this point, including an utterly awesome set of company dishes that Kate bought (I hope she posts photos of them–the dishes are really unique!).

Clothes-wise, I picked up a pretty, Japan-made pearl collar for $2. Then I found a delicate, white cotton child’s dress with an embroidered neckline (I think it’s probably 1930’s/40’s). The dealer said all her clothes were 50% off, so I got it for $7.50. And yes, it fits! Later in the day I scored a pretty, robin egg blue child’s dress (labeled a “Semiteen”) for $6. Perhaps this is my “folly” of the day, since it needs some repair work and to be let out about 1” (darn my wide back!), and needed to seriously be soaked in Oxiclean. But it’s cleaning up nicely (in for soak #2 as I write this!), so I have high hopes. I also found a pretty length of printed voile for $2. Hurrah!

All in all, I stuck to my budget, and after tallying everything up (minus lunch and the entrance fee), I spent less than $24. Which a gal can’t beat for a Sunday afternoon of fun with a friend and bargain hunting, can she?

I hope everyone had equally splendid weekends! This week’s Vintage Monday feature is again a 1947 image (I know… I’m stuck!). hehe! Hopefully next week I’ll have scanned some of the fashion illustrations from that 1850s book…

Have a lovely evening, my friends!

July 21, 2008 · 6 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings · tags: happy things, thrifting + vintage, vintage inspiration