Weekend Finds (FINALLY)

Good morning!

I still haven't found the dadblamed cord for that dadblamed digital camera, but I took Matthew's iPhone and recreated the pictures from Monday-- these finds are too good to keep under wraps! I'll lump these in a few general categories.

1) Clothes (my favorite category!)

I almost didn't go to this sale in the River Plantation Subdivision out in Bellevue...it was the last stop on Saturday afternoon, and my dad and I were already a little cranky from having taken EVERY. POSSIBLE. WRONG TURN. from the Forest Hills area to General George Patton Rd. We generally use a street map of Nashville and Davidson County since neither of us have a smart phone, and it can be a trial occasionally getting from one obscure side of town to another.  Plus the sale was supposed to be 90% dolls, which, as you could imagine, didn't hold much interest for my Pappy (and only a little from me). However! When I got there, one hanging rack next to the piles and piles of old collectors' dolls was filled with clothes. Ok, cool, maybe not an entire bust... I picked up these two jackets with one sharp intakes of breath-- VICTORIAN. JACKETS. I know I'm always on about "things you never see at estate sales that I somehow manage to see at estate sales", but Victorian clothes are on ebay, or in antique shops, and ne-e-e-e-ver less than $80 dollars. I'd say $80 is a good baseline price for 1880's clothes even in decrepit condition. The Stevie Nicks emulator in me is always hoping to find some crazy trunkful of forgotten, 100 year old clothes in mint condition and somehow sized for a giantess, but THIS WAS THE NEXT BEST THING:

Tiny, tiny (won't come close to buttoning on my 24'' waist mannequin) satin jacket, much prettier in person, with the nattiest little coattail-detail in the back...sticker price? $20. Me, to the saleslady, asking if the price was right. "Yes, but all the clothes are half today." TEN DOLLARS? When I asked about the next one (below), which was without a price, she said "It was marked five yesterday, so it would be two-fifty today." WHAT IN THE WHAT. ARE YOU SERIOUS?

I think she saw my disbelieving eyes (try as I might, I have broad comedienne face that tends to pull a "REALLY?" in spite of my best efforts at times) and pointed out that there was some lace coming undone from the bottom. Which was supposed to make me forget about the Gibson girl MUTTON SLEEVES and over-a-hundred-years-old ness of it? These two are officially the oldest clothes I own now (beating out two beaded forties' dresses by almost fifty years!)...and they cost $12.50. TOTAL. PEOPLE.

Continuing in the nonsense realm of pricing, this 1920's dress (left) was $10, and these two forties/fifties' over-dresses (they're completely see through, but in the least fragile condition for the material!) were I think $3 and $5. And unlike the museum piece Victorian clothes, each of these fits me like a glove. SUCCESS.

This black fur cape (I'm thinking forties? Can you see the shoulderpads?) was a consolation grab at the first day of an estate sale in the aforementioned Forest Hills. I think I messed up and reversed which sale was which, as they had two within a block radius of each other, and Eartha and Rae and I ended up standing in line for the wrong sale to scoop up a leopard coat I'd singled out in the preview pictures (tragedy). By the time we got to the sale, a re-seller had filled no less than six huge canvas bags with hats, clothes, and (presumably) my coat. I think in the end, though, I might like this one better! It was first day prices, so I think I spent forty dollars on it, but I can't get over how vampishly Gothic, Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express the whole effect of it is. There are no sleeves, only those arm holes I'm trying to awkwardly pose with, but the sides of the cape are shaped like sleeves. How cool is that?

This is the label on the inside. Look at the little alpinistes:

                                             

2) Dolls

In spite of what I said earlier, I've been really bad about buying old dolls lately. I wasn't ever really crazy about plush animals or baby dolls when I was a kid, but EVERY time I see something unusual or particularly sweet in the doll section of an estate sale, I am very likely to buy it. Like this double sided doll. You can see me buying it, and the amazing house it was in (same place with the Dietrich cape) at Rae's blog (she takes such good photos!). One side is a rabbit, then you literally flip it over and the feet of the rabbit become the ears of the dog, etc, etc. I love how they're both wearing waistcoats. It's the little things. Also, the rabbit has a pocket watch embroidered onto his. Classy! I also got the little girl doll at the sale with the Victorian clothes. A woman came up to me as I was in line oohing about what the maker's name was (it was really a collectors type sale, all the dolls were old and beautiful), but I was still too high on the my pending clothes purchase to pay good attention, and have now forgotten. Oh well. Isn't she pretty?

3) Global items

Well, the first of these global items is actually a globe-- I pulled this out of a storage barn at a really terrible estate sale in Bordeaux just so I could leave with grace. They'd left all the items out in the yard the night before, and it had rained early that morning, so the sale pretty much consisted of a bunch of waterlogged clothes and books in a woman's backyard. And two older women arguing over which key went to the back door and which key went to the front of the house. But now I'm really into the odd, black ocean and yellow tones color and the silver stand, so all's well that ends well. It was $3. The other was at the Charlie McCarthy doll sale in Donelson where nothing was discounted and I still feel stinging disappointment over not buying Charlie. The husband of the couple who lived there had been a commercial pilot, so this souvenir from the South African port of Durban is probably from fifties' tourist souvenir shop. I couldn't get over how detailed the beadwork is! Each of the traditional Zulu ceremonial outfits are carefully decorated and not one bead is missing. As with all good, delicate craft handiwork, I'm probably going to display this more than use it, but I had to have it.

4) Miscellany

Two cameras from the Forest Hill sale. It's like they see me coming and they put out the cheaply priced vintage cameras. We're pushing forty on the collection count!

A golden peanut souvenir charm bracelet from Plains, GA celebrating Jimmy Carter's birthplace? How oculd I say no?

And last but not least, I made this terrarium this weekend! I keep seeing these things floating around on Pinterest and I was finally like "Ok, we're doing this". The plant stand looks so Planet of the Apes to me, and its stylishness outpaces its ricketiness (my great-uncle George gave this to my mom who gave it to me...that's two degrees of no cost furniture!). Matthew put the "invisi-lizard" out of his car in the terrarium for extra kick. Can you see him amongst the cacti and succulents?

Did you find anything drop-dead awesome this weekend? Seen anything you haven't ever seen in the wild lately? Tell, tell!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the long-put-off finds post; I'll see you tomorrow!