Yardsale Finds!

So one of my favorite new hobbies is the art (and luck) of ‘yardsale-ing’. Since I’m a stay-at-home mom, I really don’t have a lot of money to spend shopping, but I do enjoy some retail therapy now and again. Yardsales are like a treasure hunt – you never know what you are going to find. And when you do find a great bargain, it’s like a true accomplishment – and you only end up spending $6 on a good day! 🙂

My friends and I go out to yardsales every Friday morning after we drop the kids at school. There are always a few people who like to start their sales early on Friday – and we take advantage of that. Every Thursday night, we take our local newspaper and map out the sales we want to visit while our kids are in preschool. You’d be surprised how many sales you can hit in 2 1/2 hours!

We also try to go out on Saturday mornings too, but it depends on everyone’s weekend schedules. So here’s what I found last weekend…

I am always looking for additional seating during my stamp clubs and stamp camps. I found these old wood folding chairs for just $1 each (I bought all six they had left):

I also bought two of these old chairs for just $10 for the pair:

The woman selling the chairs was probably in her 70’s and said that these chairs were in her grandmother’s bedroom – she thinks they may be more than 100 years old. Even if they’re not, I like them anyway. 🙂

I also picked up a beautiful and unique set of teacups and plates:

The plates have a small lip for the cup:

These are from the 1940’s – I just LOVE the colors and design! The set was $20 for 12 place settings.

I also picked up this unique set of coasters for $2:

Not sure how old they are – they are a lightweight cardboard-type material. I just liked the images – I’m sure I’ll find some project in which to use them! And if anyone knows more about what these are, please let me know.

This weekend, I wasn’t nearly as lucky and didn’t find as much great stuff. But I did find a set of eight small, old (1930’s) encyclopedias for $1:

I thought these would either make great altered books or I could use the pages as a background for an ATC or collage.

I also found an old wooden box that I’m using for storage on my front porch…speaking of which, I do have a weakness for old trunks, boxes and other storage items. I have several out on my front porch:

I don’t know who S. Rosengard is – I got the trunk for free at a previous yard sale! 🙂 The desk at the end of the room is also a yardsale find ($10) and the chair with the desk was actually picked from the trash (yes, that’s right – I’m not too proud to trash-pick!)

We just bought that couch for the porch last week – I love that it comes apart and can be used in different configurations – it was my early Mother’s Day gift:

We spend a lot of time out on our porch and wanted some more comfortable furniture for out there – this is working great!

But back to my addiction to trunks…here is a stack of vintage suitcases I found a few weeks ago at a sale – I paid $10 for all of them and am now using them stacked up as an end table:

I also have trunks as both of my coffee tables too – you can see one of them in my post about Emily’s birthday party (the dress-up stuff is stacked against it).  My husband cringes every time I come home with another box, trunk or suitcase! 🙂

And one of my favorite yard sale pieces – I got this original watercolor painting that matches the colors in my family room for only $3…

It has a little bit of water damage on the lower right corner of the mat, but it fits in perfectly in this house – nothing here is perfect!

Who knows what treasures I’ll find this weekend…