Garage Sale and Auction Bargains

I love, love, love a bargain, and I know most of you do too—I’ve seen your evidence!

My brother and SIL started going to auctions a few years ago and they kept inviting me. I finally went because I was really intrigued by the bargains they’d found on beautiful things, but I was really a little scared too. You know how you hear of people scratching their noses and BOOM! they just bought themselves a buffalo head or something??!! So they coached me a little bit, and the first few times around my SIL did the bidding for me, but from there on out I was ON.MY.OWN…and HAVING A BLAST.

One good thing I did was set a budget for myself—I took the exact cash—because there was nothing big that I needed, and only so much smaller stuff I should haul home. Some of you might remember my Taming the Monster in the Basement post I did when I finally got our basement organized. Today I thought I’d share some of the finds—so you can see why I need to keep making room for STUFF!!

These pictures were taken on our garage floor, as I unloaded my car to take my stash to…the basement :), of course!  Some of these things you’ve seen in use, but didn’t know their story, like the amber and teal vintage Tiara Glass pieces (if you look closely you can see that the tiered piece still had the original label on it) and I used it for my summer birthdays party; the super-nice, super-heavy Pottery Barn lantern that I use all the time;and tons of patriotic decorations (you can see them at 4th of July Table and More).

Even though this picture is blurry (apologies :( ) I included it, because the beautiful figurines I used for my Little Boy Blue Spring Table came from this auction too! The collection of red, white, and blue lighthouses comes out every 4th of July—they’re sweet and something I probably wouldn’t have paid retail for, but I like having them.

Do you recognize the half-visible patriotic slate heart at the upper edge?

                                   It made its debut in my July 4th decor post, 2011.

I was so excited to find this darling little dish in a box lot at the auction. It has a bit of a carnival-glass quality to it that I like, although I’m not a fan of regular carnival glass. I thought it was old/vintage, but since then I’ve seen them in several places, so now I’m wondering. Does anyone know about this dish? I still like it, especially for fall. When I needed a lid to transport my corn soufflé (Rave Reviews Corn Soufflé) it served the purpose quite prettily—vintage or not.

I collect silver Revere bowls, and there was one of those in the stash, as well as a nice mixing bowl with a spout that goes to a set of Three Rivers pottery I already have and really like because it has three pine trees with snow falling, so it’s a great pattern for after the holidays and into the rest of winter. I don’t have any Dept. 56 houses, but I love their detail, and in a box lot came a brand-new house from the Dickens line! Also, a large metal spoon that for some reason I like quite a bit, a copper tea kettle, and my second Don Quixote! I already had one statute of the adventuring dreamer, but another one was just fine with me, since I’m a big fan of Don Quixote, the main character in Cervantes’ classic, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.

I seldom have time to get to garage sales, but I LOVE to go to garage sales! Here’s what I think was a fabulous find—I think $3 for all the items in the picture except the plates, which are an Odd Lots—now Big Lots—find (does that tell you how long I’ve had them?).  Yes, the square platter (maybe 15” square), a medium-sized bowl, and the large square divided dish, as well as the navy blue biscotti jar that has a nice seal to it, so it’s useable, not just for pretty. Can you believe the match with the long-ago plates?!

Oh—and they still had the Pier 1 price tags on them. The owner told me they were a wedding gift they DID NOT like (she was emphatic), so they’d never used them. One woman’s junk…

And are you ready for the BEST find yet?

I found it in my own basement! A stash of STERLING SILVER PIECES! I had completely forgotten that my mother had given me all these sterling candle holders (the ones on the far left aren’t sterling). Can you imagine by surprise and joy at finding STERLING candle holders, and a pair of large candelabras?! That was a fun, fun find!

So what’s your haunt of choice for bargains and unexpected treasures? Auctions? Garage sales? Estate sales? Your basement? Goodwill, et al? Now I also do online auctions occasionally—what else am I missing?

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NOTE: Some of the items I use in my posts are in my Etsy shop, but many are not, simply because I haven’t updated my shop. If you see something you like and wonder if it’s available for sale, email me and let’s talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to pin it on Pinterest and follow me there too! Thank you!

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DIY by Design Party at http://diybydesign.blogspot.com/

Home and Garden Thursday at http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

Open House Party Thursday at http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com

Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

Feathered Nest Friday at http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home Fridays at http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Inspiration Friday at http://www.atthepicketfence.com

Thrifty Things Friday at http://thethriftygroove.blogspot.com/

Vintage Inspiration Friday at http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/

Show and Tell Friday at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Fresh-Cut Fridays at http://rosevignettes.blogspot.com

From my nest to yours~

Zuni

Dad’s Old Suitcase

My nuclear family—father, mother, little brother, and I—came to the U.S. from Cuba in 1961. We left behind what had been a pretty comfortable lifestyle—until the Castro takeover, that is. With communism we lost not just property, businesses, and that known and comfortable lifestyle. A greater loss was the loss of our inalienable rights—FREEDOM, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM TO CONGREGATE and so much more. So we came with nothing more than two duffle bags (they could hold more than suitcases) and started our lives over.

Starting over of course presented many challenges that were actually weathered quite well by my parents, so the transition for my little brother and me wasn’t as traumatic as one would expect.

One of those challenges was my father’s job. Where he had been a young, established professional with many friends and contacts that extended to the U.S., he now was a technician, an entry-level job in the industry where he had owned several businesses. We were thankful for the job, given to him by an industry associate who had become a good friend. And that is how/why we came to settle in Columbus, Ohio. He came to Columbus first, leaving the three of us in New York City—our point of entry into the U.S.—and he stayed in this gentleman’s and his wife’s house until he found “a place” at the YMCA. With the help of this couple and their friends our family was reunited in a tiny but new and cute apartment. This little girl remembers that the window sill of the large picture window was lined with African violets. To this day, I love African violets.

But I digress. The new job required that my father service the eastern part of Ohio, which meant overnight stays, and the need for a small suitcase. We came with duffle bags, remember?

So Mrs. Mooney, his boss’s wife, gave him one of her suitcases. To this day her initials survive.

In my recent post about our furniture rearranging (HERE) we’d moved my MIL’s writing desk to a spot in the great room~

but we needed something under the desk, and the suitcase, which I’ve carted around for many, many years, came to mind.

It was in such a sorry state…

Not so good a shape, huh?

So I turned to my ol’ reliables—first E6000 glue to try to salvage some of the cracked and dried leather that had come loose, then Rustic Touch, to revive the leather itself.

And I think you’ll agree that the results were amazing!

The strips of leather along the sides were hanging by barely a thread. Re-gluing at least salvaged the pieces that were still there.

So much better!

And now the suitcase is once again serving a purpose—as decoration in our home. I’m very happy about that! :)

We had the trunk in another room, but it found its way to fill the void under the table.

With Black Beauty nearby, our babies are playing near something that belonged to their great-grandfather! I like that—a lot.

BEFORE

AFTER

 

This little suitcase represents a lot of important things about our family: The courage to leave the known life for the unknown; the courage to seek freedom; the courage to start over, putting pride aside; the courage to maneuver through the challenges of learning a new language. It’s an important memento in our family.

Those weren’t unhappy times for our family; we were very grateful for the freedom, for the open arms with which we were welcomed and helped. And the story of the suitcase has a happy ending~~~my dad was able to buy the business from his friend and create success in his/our new country. Dad’s been gone many years now, but the business still remains in the family.

 

A bit more about our departure:

Did you see the Ben Affleck movie Argo? According to npr.org, “the movie sticks pretty close to what really happened during the Iranian Revolution. In 1980, a CIA agent named Tony Mendez sneaked into Iran and spirited away six American diplomats who were hiding with Canadians….Mendez and one of the American diplomats say those hours at the airport were plenty tense.”

Our family’s hours at the airport were plenty tense too. I can’t begin to imagine the stress my parents and the family members who were outside the glassed waiting area to see us off (hopefully) were under, because my parents were traveling with children—little children! Being the older of the two, they decided I would travel with my father, and my little brother with my mother, but via separate airlines, in an effort to disguise the fact that we were all leaving/escaping. Can you imagine keeping a 5-year-old from wanting to walk across the room to play with his sister or sit with his father?! We now have a 5-year-old grandbaby…I.can’t.imagine….

I think Ben Affleck needs to hear our story, don’t you? :) 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What family pieces are precious to you, and how do you use or display them? I’d love to read your stories.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to Google+ this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

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Masterpiece Monday at http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

Tuesday’s Treasures http://www.myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/

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Wednesdays at Ivy and Elephants: http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com

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What's It Wednesday at http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

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Open House Party Thursday at http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com

Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

Feathered Nest Friday at http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home Fridays at http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Inspiration Friday at http://www.atthepicketfence.com

Thrifty Things Friday at http://thethriftygroove.blogspot.com/

Vintage Inspiration Friday at http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/

Show and Tell Friday at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

From my nest to  yours, ~Zuni

Furniture Rearranging

Several months ago we thought it was time for Baby Love to start piano lessons, so of course it was a package deal—the piano had to go along with the lessons, so our piano now lives at her house. It’s the piano her Papá and uncle used to learn practice ummmmm spend our money—that’s what it was!—so it seemed only right that she have it now. It didn’t get played much at our house, and when we had it tuned recently we were pleasantly surprised to learn that it’s in very good condition!

Once the piano was gone, it gave me the opportunity to re-think our furniture arrangement. It had been a focal point in our home, and I had loved using it for vignettes (if not for playing, LOL). Here’s where it was~

We played musical furniture (thank heavens for those slider-disk things!), and our vintage buffet came to the former piano spot…that was it! Loved it! That’s where it needed to live! ~~

And guess what’s gracing the sterling punch bowl my MIL gifted us many years ago?! Hydrangeas, of course! Today was a perfectly beautiful day, so I took advantage of the beautiful weather to harvest more of them for future use—I’m thinking Christmas, but my ideas are still a secret (to me too!—I’m thinking…I’m thinking…).

I thought you might be curious about the three pictures to the left of the buffet. The top picture is of my parents happily walking down the aisle after their wedding. The second is a portrait of my mother and me, taken in our home in Havana, and the last is of me with my father at the beach—in perfectly clear water (also in Cuba).

~~~~~~~

The move of the buffet created a void, of course, and after more musical furniture we settled on my MIL’s writing desk. It had been living in our bedroom (it’s the surface you see in The Nook and Old Ladder post {HERE}). Now it provides me with the opportunity to gather some blue and white~~

The vase on the desk is another perfect vessel for drying more hydrangeas. The black-and-white pictures are a collection my husband and I put together at our other house and repeated it in this home. It’s a collection of pictures of us and the generations before us. (Some adjustments need to be made to the collage, since I had to take some of them down with the new furniture piece.) Sometimes we talk about taking them down and doing something different there…we’ll see, but it’s interesting to me that after so many years of having them up I still enjoy looking at them. For example, there’s a picture of my beloved grandmother holding my baby brother and I’m sitting real close, right next to her. There’s one of my husband eating an ice cream cone that’s almost as big as he is, and an 8x10 of him deep-sea fishing with his parents in Mexico. Lots of good memories.

The sunlight was playing its lovely games when I walked in the room, and I quickly grabbed my camera.

Aren’t they drying beautifully? I know many of you dry your hydrangeas—how have you used them? Have you used them for any Christmas decorations?

I’ve been on the hunt for blue-and-white bowls, and recently I found this beauty at the antique shop where my SIL has a booth. Guess how much?? I HAVE to share the price because it’s so pretty and it was such a buy--$6.00!! It has no flaws, and the gold rim and base are perfect. See the reflection on the desk?

The rest of the vignette—blue and white plates on brass plate racks/candleholders. I got these candleholders years and years ago, I think from the Pier 1 catalog, because I wanted to display not only our boys’ Bunnykins plates, but also their mugs, and I was able to hang the mugs from the arms. It was a precious vignette in our other dining room. (Hmmmm…I wonder if I have a picture of them? They wouldn’t be digital, that’s for sure.)

I’m looking forward to your ideas on how to use dried hydrangeas, so please share them with me, and if you have pictures, please share those too! I can’t wait!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to Google+ this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

I invite you to follow me. If you’ll let me know that you’re following, I’ll be sure to follow you back.

Sunday Showcase at http://www.bystephanielynn.com

Sunday Creative Home Expressions at http://creativehomeexpressions.blogspot.com

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Metamorphosis Monday at  http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Tuesdays at http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

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Wednesdays at http://diybydesign.blogspot.com/

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Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

Be Inspired Friday at http://www.Commonground-do.com/

Fridays at Feathered Nest: http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Fridays at http://rootedinthyme.blogspot.com/

Fridays at Home Sweet Home: http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Fresh-Cut Fridays at http://rosevignettes.blogspot.com

Thrifty Things Friday at http://thethriftygroove.blogspot.com/

Show and Tell Friday at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

From my nest to yours~

Zuni

Hydrangeas Galore

I’m so excited about my hydrangeas this year—we have tons of them! I don’t know what variety they are (I wish I did), but they usually start blooming around mid-August, which is perfect, as we were able to use them for our Baby Love’s baptism reception back in 2008 (to see a re-make of that day go to HERE)—here’s one of the pictures of that table/post, already graced by the start of hydrangea season at Chickadee Home Nest, even though I did the post in late July:

My birthday is in mid-August—could the timing of the hydrangeas be any better?—and I mentioned Southern Living’s tiered basket over at Ballard Designs to Mr. CHN. Well, three or four days later a package from Ballard Designs appeared at our front door :).  Sweet, sweet man. And perfectly timed to further enjoy our hydrangeas.

The possibilities with this basket are endless—it’s useful for every single season. I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot of it at Chickadee Home Nest.  In this vignette, the first tier holds three small medicine bottles I bought from my compounding pharmacist (!). They no longer use them for medicines and were selling them 3 for $2.95—what a deal! I hope they still have more, because I could’ve used NEED more. I digress, but I had to share my bargain. So the first tier holds sweet cuttings of the freshest and newest hydrangeas to bloom.

The second tier is cuttings of the larger clusters in full bloom, and the third tier holds three good-sized bowls full of another favorite—shells gathered over the years while on vacation—embellished with…HYDRANGEAS!

~At this point I should warn you…lots of pictures to follow. I just can’t seem to get enough of the beauty.~

No words necessary…

My favorite part of the basket is this handle…it looks like a garden shovel’s, which insinuates gardening, earth, plants, flowers…what a perfect touch!

Having ample supply of HYDRANGEAS, I moved on to create another vignette at the bar that faces into the kitchen. This time, I left the silver ice bucket and tray in their tarnished, “old” state—I liked the contrast with the fresh, white, dainty flowers, and my “perennial” favorite—a blue and white vase.

As I walked by at one point I noticed the reflection on the granite. If you’ve read my blog for a while you know how taken I am with the unexpected, fleeting gifts of shadows and reflections. They are magical moments that you’re blessed to see simply because you’re there at that precise moment.

Someday I’ll do a post that will probably be called The Saga of the Picnic Table. Suffice it to say that I now {finally} have the old picnic table that I’ve wanted for a long time, and now {finally} it’s on the patio—painted and ready for family meals, which was no minor feat (but like I said, that’s another story for another day—probably in the spring, to allow some “distance.” Are you getting my drift?? I’ll laugh about it by then {maybe}).

But I AM already enjoying the “new” picnic table, and the fact that as I glance out through the screened porch I can see it, in its soft teal splendor. Already it has served its purpose in several ways: 1. The babies have eaten there; 2. It brings me joy to see it out on the patio; and 3. It’s yet another surface to “pretty up” and make the view even prettier.

So I’ll let you guess how I prettied up my view!  Yes! Of course! MORE HYDRANGEAS!

This wood planter has seen its better days. For some reason my husband had it before we got married (did he really plant something in it?!), and that was almost 30 years ago. For the last 10 or so it’s been abandoned at the entrance to our business (empty, I’m embarrassed to say), so it’s been in the elements for that many years and then some. You know that look men give us when they have absolutely no idea what we’re thinking or why we do the things we do? It’s a look of surprise, mixed with curiosity and resignation. Well, that’s the look I got the day I asked Mr. CHN to bring the beaten-up, ugly, brown thing home. And then it sat in the garage for a year or two, but bless his heart, he never once asked why I he’d brought it home. (I, of course, knew…it was going to be a centerpiece someday! :) )  And THIS was the moment. The place. After it’d gotten a quick whitewash!

Don’t you just love the contrast of the dainty, sweet flowers against the rough wood and smooth metal strip?

And the contrasts even within the flowers themselves? Some pinkish, some white, with spots, some browning to a beautiful final stage. The stages of a flower are like the stages of a woman’s life—beautiful even as they reach their final stage.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them, and you can’t imagine how it means to me that you took the time. And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to +1 or Pinterest them too! Thank you!

I invite you to follow my blog and to follow me on Pinterest. If you’ll let me know that you’re following, I’ll be sure to follow you back.

Sunday Showcase at http://www.bystephanielynn.com

Mop it Up Monday at http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com

Metamorphosis Monday at  http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Tuesdays at http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Tuesdays at http://hickorytrailblog.blogspot.com

Wednesdays at http://diybydesign.blogspot.com/

Wednesdays at Wow Us: http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/

Wednesdays at Ivy and Elephants: http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com

Thursdays at No Minimalist Here: http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/

Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

Be Inspired Friday at http://www.Commonground-do.com/

Fridays at Feathered Nest: http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Fridays at http://rootedinthyme.blogspot.com/

Fridays at Home Sweet Home: http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Plus I’m joining the Creative Home and Garden Hop at :

Kathy at Creative Home Expressions, http://creativehomeexpressions.blogspot.com/

Mary from Back to the Basics and Mary’s Kitchen

Alison from Mumtopia

and Lisa Lynn from The Little Homestead On The Hill

From my nest to yours, ~Zuni