One of my very favorite things…

If I can manage to carve a few hours out of a Saturday morning, my very first hope is to find a few great estate sales. I love the vintage kitchen tools and bakeware, well-used cookbooks full of detailed markings indicating her culinary flops and favorites, delicate aprons that point to a time in our country that has long-since passed – just to name a few.

I love vintage hand-embroidered tablecloths and table linens ((again an art form that is fading)) and commonly find them by the boxes at 50¢ an item ((gasp!!)).

Another thing my eye scours the stacks and piles of estate sale wares: glazed pottery. I need not one more single piece of glazed pottery, yet every time my eyes land on a gem, my heart leaps as I imagine the potter’s hands working the clay over, selecting the colors and style of glazing – I can almost see the look of satisfaction on the face of the mysterious artist as he or she pulled the piece out of the kiln. Moreover, what must the former owner have seen which caused her to buy it and keep it in her home for so many years??

Glassware is another deep love, vintage glassware – thick, rippled with age and wonderfully & perfectly used yet still so useable. To say “they don’t make these things like they used to is an understatement. P.S. -the pepper mill, shown in the above picture, is made in Japan in the 1950’s the brand is “Woodpoecker Woodware”. I cleaned it ((deep-cleaned it)) & filled it with peppercorns — and it works marvelously! She’s back in the business of making food taste yummy!

Oh, and I can’t even start on my love for vintage framed art. What must be the reason a family member didn’t cling to it as I want to?? There must be an explanation, I am sure the family kept all the very best for themselves, and left only what seemed like crumbs, haha. As happy as I am to have it, is as sad as I am the person who once enjoyed it, no longer can.

Back to the happiness of finding treasures of the past and treasuring them anew. Frankoma, Texasware & Foley are just a few of the markings I look for. Hey, now that my fav’s are public, please leave some for me!! They are not really of great value, it is just a game I play with myself haha!

Today, I had the pleasure of finding a bright mustard Frankoma bud vase. ((Yum!!))

I also gleaned a pair of small glazed mixing bowls with sporting a hand-formed pour spout. They have an interesting mark, not on the bottom, but at the base of each bowl on the side. The mark is a small circle with the letters RW in the center, not by hand but a stamp…I am on the hunt for info about these lovelies.

I snagged a lusciously thick-walled glass cake dome – so obviously old and loved. A little dawn, some goo gone and a bit of elbow grease & I am certain it now shines brighter than the day it was purchased new. ((EWW!! Look at that mess in the background!! A grocery store ((Braum’s)) run, an estate sale extravaganza and a herd of kids – and in a blink, the house is a pit, oh well.))

Oh, how my heart leapt when I realized I had in my possession ((actually under my rear, as I was seating on it at the moment)) a perfectly molded a buttercream colored Heywood Wakefield chair. I have been scouting for one of these gorgeous mid-century school chairs for years. I would have missed it if Shep hadn’t asked to look for a tackle box in the garage.

Oh, and he found an awesome vintage shimmery green, metal Old Pal tackle box FULL of vintage fisherman-like treasures, he was (and still is) thrilled.

A beautiful piece of hand-painted, signed Japanese watercolor. The frame alone is gorgeous – but the art takes the cake.

And then there were books. Mounds and mounds of books. Neatly stacked in floor to ceiling shelves, no subject matter seemed to go unrepresented. World History, art and the theory and progression of, poetry, Bible, politics, the art of needlepoint. gardening, music – lots of music, birds…birds of America, birds every child should know, and on and on. My top favorites that bring delight as I think about them while typing:

• Baking with Julia ((with the owners notes throughout and an explanation of how she acquired the book: her husband MET Julia in Chicago and he got the book at that time!!
• The Way To Cook, by Julia Child
• A very well-studied Bible, full of the owner’s notes and dated passages. From all the writings, I can see this woman read this particular Bible at least four times through to completion from the years 2004-2011. I will treasure it and keep it as a reminder and challenge to accomplish the same.
• Birds of America, copyright 1936 – with color pictures!!
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare!! ((another heart flutter))

I also found a stack of children’s piano music, since all three boys play piano ((as do I)), I grabbed it all. I was delighted to find some of my most favorite hymns in one. If you follow Food for a Year on FB, you got the “opportunity” to hear me play on of my favorites on the piano…”My Faith Looks up to Thee” haha, a little rusty but still recognizable.

There you have it, a quick show & tell of my recent estate sale “finds”. What is your favorite thing to hunt for at estate sales ((I won’t tell, haha))??