your friend, the bandit: estate sales

8/21/09

a day in which the sky echoed my words

once again, an unfortunate sounding "estate sale" turned out to bring me some great stuff, and for mad cheap!

sometimes things are just meant to be. let me count the ways...

1-we pulled up to the sale after waiting at my brother's school for his football practice (it was cancelled...damn) and NO ONE is there. usually a bad sign, right? nope, this meant that there was very little jostling of arms and things when maneuvering around the home. YES

2-we go inside, at first not much looked too promising...how i was wrong (thank god). then we head upstairs...KA CHING VINTAGE CLOTHING COLLECTION! and everything was like, $5??? YESYES

3-the true stroke of fate, after seriously only 5 minutes in this place i have a nice little pile set aside for me and as i go to pay the grand total is $20 (WIN). and it gets better, because i ask who lived in the house and i am told a 90 year old woman named GENEVIEVE (yeah that's my name, holy hell weird!) had died and left all her glorious things for me to buy, haha. now that is fate!

the only true "vintage" dress i bought was this blue 50s/60s pleated number. it reminded me of 500 days of summer (which i have to talk about in another post, so i don't rant, lol). i've been craving all those beautiful blues from the film, though!

next i picked up this sweet little pink striped/lace accented/rosebud buttoned day dress. no tags, but i think it must be 80s? late 70s? it's in good condition if it is old!

my favorite piece by far has to be this ADORABLE (caps are necessary) white sailor blouse! the label Lover is old hat by now in the blogging community, but i lusted after that sweet (but exorbitantly priced) sailor blouse for months, and now i think the one i have here (for $5! ok, enough gloating, i'm bad, lol) is way better! it has the perfect almost-elbow length sleeves, a nice sized sailor collar, and pretty little details. and i wasn't all too happy with the split collar on the back of the lover shirt anyway, so i'm really glad that this blouse is sans unsightly split!

i also picked up these two interesting little purses in the basement of the home. i love the saddle style of the black one, and the fact that the strap is long like an across-body bag. and i wanted a picnic-basket type purse for some time now, and i like the gold/white combo. the picnic one is also vintage, judging by the label.

so yeah, other than waiting for my brother's football practice in a thunder/lightening storm, today was a good day =) and i might just go back tomorrow, because i left behind piles of nubby vintage sweaters and some good dresses that i'm now regretting not buying...haha!

8/9/09

tiny dancer

isn't it funny how some things work out, like when you blow something off but end up checking it out anyway, and it turns out to be pleasantly surprising?

that's how it was yesterday, when i was on my way to the thrift store with my mom. i usually check the newspapers for weekend estate sales, but after going to so many that were misleading in the advertisements (a few old sweaters and ortho shoes ARE NOT VINTAGE people, sheesh. don't lie to me!!) i decided that unless i actually go by a sale that looks promising, i won't bother hunting down the undoubtedly disappointing ones that advertise. so that's what i did this weekend; looked in the papers and saw some that might be promising, but blew them off for my trusty salvation army.

so there we were, driving down this windy road, and what do i see? an actual estate sale, and not only that, the exact one that i blew off! we had a crazy parking spot at the end of the road, and had to walk up a steep hill with people whizzing by in their cars. the house had a lot of cool stuff, although there was a lot of playboy in the basement...and sketchy old men buying said playboy...eww...

but other than that i got some AMAZING steals, making out like a bandit as always ;)

the people who lived in this home had a lot of antiques, and i wish i could have taken more home!