2009 Holiday thrift finds

[daswitzer]

I hit the jackpot today for Christmas ornaments!  Some new donations came into the food bank thrift & I got a smaller box of vintage aluminum tree plastic ornaments & figures for a buck & a big box of Shiny brites, including some pinecone-like shapes that I haven't found before.  Yesterday I found a bag of metallic stenciled bells for 89 cents at the Sal Army.  I also got a brand new glass tea pot with infuser and tea for $1.99 at the Sal Army today, so five bucks for everything!

I'm jealous!!

[valleythriftshopper]

Normally I don't find so much Christmas stuff, especially so close to Christmas, but that Christmas room at the food bank thrift has been great, they were talking about keeping it open all year round- I hope they do!

[valleythriftshopper]

The Salvation Army still hasn't put out much for Christmas stuff and anything they do is really junk, but today I did find a vintage Swedish chime thing for 50 cents, too bad the box is ripped.

At the food bank thrift I got a blue "Vitex-Glas" depression glass cake knife with box, I never heard of it before, apparently it is from the New York world's fair- 75 cents.  They made them in pink too, I would have been very excited to find that one too!

[valleythriftshopper]

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I found more ornaments at the food bank thrift today for $1.25.  Shiny Brites & Polish and also two little felt "made in Japan" ornaments.  I was excited to finds some "iced" christmas bulbs too, I hope I can find some more so I can put together a string.  I have started putting out a few Christmas things, but will probably not really get going until the end of the week.  Has anyone started their decorating yet?

[thriftymama]

don't feel bad about posting! i love seeing photos! do you have multiple trees so you can use all those ornaments?

i got our tree up last weekend, but i don't have any thrifty/vintage ornaments, unless you consider getting the ornaments half-price at Target the day after Christmas thrifty. 

[valleythriftshopper]

I love Target, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc.  Luckily they are all at least a half hour + drive from me or else I would spend way too much time there.  Some of the clearance stuff is a better deal than you find at thrift stores so i would say a thrifty person would be wise to stop in there once in a while.  They had some cute 100% cotton twin sheet sets for $3.74 not too long ago at Target, I picked those up for my daughter's bed.

Christopher Radko makes Shiny Brite reproductions and there are other companies who are doing vintage repros too, you might find those at Target (wait til they go on clearance, of course!)

I do two trees, a smaller one in the dining room & a larger real one in the living room, I will post some pics when I get them up.  I will probably start selling some of the excess ornaments when I figure out which ones I want to keep.

[valleythriftshopper]

Here's my little tree in the dining room, I have all the unbreakable ornaments on this one since there is a possibility the cat could knock it over.  The big tree will go up this weekend.  The only problem with white trees is that the standard christmas lights have green cords which stand out against the white.  I will have to see if I can thrift some lights with white cords.

Someone on freecycle offered up small PINK Christmas tree with built in lights.  I hope I can snag that one, I will put it in the kitchen.  

All the ornaments on this tree are from the three local thrifts and the star came with some freecycle ornaments- perfect representation of my usual finds.

[thriftymama]

i love it! thanks for sharing. 

[valleythriftshopper]

I must be on Santas nice list this year because I had another great day at the food bank thrift, my favorite thrift of late.  I picked up a blue medium size pyrex fridge dish with lid and was happy then I spied a box of green/vaseline depression glass and was really happy.  Yhe box contained some Federal glass cups, saucers, sherbet dishes and a sugar bowl with lid.  Also in the box was a hex optic fridge dish like this

http://cgi.ebay.com/Jeannette-Hex-Optic-Green-Honeycomb-Refrigerator-Dish_W0QQitemZ400084866094QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5d26ea942e

and a Cameo candy jar like this

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAMEO-BALLERINA-GREEN-DEPRESSION-COVERED-CANDY-JAR-EXC_W0QQitemZ280428866340QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item414adceb24

Lastly there was a small scoop/ladle which looked like a coffee scoop to me, fairly unusual.

Five bucks for the box of glass, one dollar for the pyrex dish.

I stopped into the Christmas room before leaving and found a box of gorgeous hand painted Polish ornaments, some old figural ones- snowman, wine barrel, etc, presumably German and a small box of shiny brites.  One dollar and 50 cents for all.  

It was a good day!

[valleythriftshopper]

Best day yet for Christmas ornaments.  I was at the food bank thrift and looking in the Christmas room, not seeing anything exciting when I decided to look under the table where they sometimes keep stuff that is waiting to go out.  A big box was under there and in the box were these ornaments:



and these giant Polish ones in an old toy train box





Also one other box with some handmade ones & paper mache bells from occupied Japan- My head was spinning!  $8.50 for the whole lot.  They gave me a great christmas present.

[thriftymama]

cool! I did see some Shiny Brites at the thrift store tonight and thought of you. I'd actually never heard of them until I joined this forum. And the only reason I knew what they were was because they were in the original boxes. But they weren't any of the fun ones, like you've posted. They were just single-colored and had lost much of their "shiny brite" quality.

[valleythriftshopper]

The boxes are quite popular too, some people make dioramas with them like this:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34023289&ref=sr_list_13&&ga_search_query=diorama+christmas+box&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

I bought a box of plain shiny brites because the box was near mint, but I haven't tried to make a diorama, I just like to display the boxes with ornaments in them.

[valleythriftshopper]

Got a great Christmas present find at the food bank thrift today.  A brand new AT&T bluetooth headset for $1.50.  For myself I also found a vtg Pyrex 2 1/2 qt Amish Butterprint mixing bowl, dressy cardigan to wear to a Christmas party, and flower brooch, $6.00 for everything. 

At the Sal Army I got two adorable old baby planters for a buck each.  I have a friend who is due in May, the planters are girlish though, so if she doesn't have a girl I will have to Ebay them.