Call me an old soul. I love to scope out estate sales and scour the booths of vintage vendor malls. Something about it is both therapeutic and exciting. The idea of giving something with a history another life seems a bit romantic. I enjoy mixing old items that have charm and character with the new.
A sampling of my favorite estate sale finds include wooden spools of silk thread, lace textiles and antique World Atlases with incredible maps. The cross-stitch Clipper Ship art was a true diamond-in-the-rough, for which I paid a dollar. Updated with a custom mat and frame, it now has a new home in my youngest son's room.
My mother is a fantastic "picker" and lives in a rural Oklahoma town. The estate sales near her yield some pretty great things at even greater prices. At one sale, she overheard a fellow shopper pay $5 for a set of three Florentine nesting tables. FIVE dollars. She offered that lady $20 and now they're mine. *ahem* sorry mom, I mean ours.
One of my favorite places to spend time shopping locally is River City Trading Post in Jenks. Two of the three mainstays on my mantle (a chippy cabinet door and an old barn window) came from there, along with countless other accessories and props. Some of my best finds include: vintage and antique trophies, white ironstone, locker basket and a unique wood typewriter crate (repurposed as a foot stool).
The deal of the century may just be a pair of diamond-pattern wood sash windows found in the corner of a booth at Vintage Market Days. Can you believe I scored both for ten bucks?! I love that they are untouched and left in their "found" condition.
One man's junk is truly another man's (or woman's) treasure.