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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for Home Living Handbook, HGTV.com, and a handful of other websites. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

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Garage Sale Goodness

May 24, 2011

We’ve lucked into some great estate sales lately. I love this time of year. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we stumbled upon an amazing neighborhood by way of following hand-written garage sale signs, but didn’t really get into the what we found and bought at the house itself. We left after spending $17.10, which is really quite a garage sale splurge for us, but we could have spent 20x that if we had splurged on any of the Danish contemporary chairs, tables, and the green leather 6′ long mid-century bench that would have looked so (so, so, so) good in my house (it was $50, and I’ll forever regret quitting my job and not being able to responsibly splurge on the spot).

It really was a crafter/maker/mid-century moderist’s dream.

The home itself was stunning, with huge glass windows and contemporary design aesthetic, albeit a little outdated. I still woulda moved in and rehabbed it in a heartbeat though; the lot went way back up a fully-wooded hill and the homes were set reasonably far apart from one another. The folks that had sold the property (yielding a need to clear it out estate-sale-style) had lived there since the home was built, meaning that they had the space highly customized and jam packed with goodies which suited their hobbies.

Tsotchkes, blankets and books aside, which I didn’t buy into, they had a huge basement full of tools and raw materials from their jewelry making and metal-smithing workshop. For instance, they had boxes of shells, rocks, and glass, some of which I bought; I don’t even know what I’m going to do with these huge pieces of glass (just some of the pieces we found), but they’ll be wonderful paperweights until I figure out what they’re intended for (any jewelers out there interested?).

Large chunks of glass.

Oh yeah, and FYI, the little green one is the size of my fist. The others are considerably larger, kind of the size if I hold my two hands together like they’re clawing at eachother. Have a nice visual of me doing that?

Pete found lots of random things like paint scrapers, J.B. Weld, sanders, nails and bolts and nuts, and lots of little clamps and a framing square, which are always nice to have, especially now that I started my little frame making biz (surprise!).

Lots of clamps.

I also picked up this basket because I liked the shape and it was in good condition. I don’t really need any more baskets but I think with a little sprucing up (ex. removal of that gold stripe) it will look nice next to the fireplace holding driftwood. Just an idea.

Garage sale basket. Other odds and ends included this antique blue glass jar with an original porcelain-lined lid, and a little mod polka-dotted cup that might soon be a new home to our toothbrushes.

Blue glass! And cute cup. I was also won over by this pretty little trivet, which according to an etching in the underside was made in Israel. Loving the ornate detailing. Also, I found myself a little pack of metal pushpins that are just infinitely covetable, and this little container of odd things stored… tiny pine cones, dried branches, and two of the tiniest starfish I’ve ever seen.

Trivet, push pins, and little starfish. I can’t even decide if these are real dead starfish. They are SO SMALL.

Tiniest starfish.

I also picked up two more carbide glass drill bits (since they’re $10+ each retail). You’ll understand why I want after you see the post I’m planning for tomorrow.

P.S. A second post will be coming this afternoon because HomeRight offered a giveaway for readers of Merrypad! I’m excited!

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Being Thrifty  / Decor

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast living a very merry, DIY-filled lifestyle. As a freelance writer, you can find my work on many popular home and garden sites, including HGTV.com, Home Living Handbook, a Pursuit Channel for Men's Journal, and other outlets. Follow me on social, or drop me a note.

7 Comments


amber perrodin
May 24, 2011 at 9:21 am
Reply

Great finds Emily! I especially like the basket….and beside the fireplace seems like a good home for it!



    Emily
    May 24, 2011 at 11:12 am

    It’s a cute basket, right? I think it ended up being $4. I like the weave.

Cait @ Hernando House
May 24, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Reply

Great finds! And I agree with Amber, I like the basket by the fireplace :)



Ashley @ DesignBuildLove.co
May 24, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Reply

LOVE your finds Emily! I’m totally diggin’ that basket, that amazing Ball jar, and that trivet is totally gorgeous!



Nicolette
June 6, 2011 at 10:43 am
Reply

Great finds! The Ball jar is really old! I recently did some research for some that I had found and I remember see the ones without “shoulders”, and if I remember correctly, they are some of the first ones made. Excellent finds!



Nicolette
June 6, 2011 at 10:46 am
Reply

and P.S. I ADORE the glass chunks! No idea what they are all about, but they are really really cool!



    Emily
    June 6, 2011 at 11:34 am

    Thanks Nicolette! I still don’t know exactly what I should do with the Ball jar because I want to appreciate the cool lid… and still have no idea what those glass chunks are either, but they’re making for nice in-front-of-fireplace decor.

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    You can find me writing for Home Living Handbook, HGTV.com, and a handful of other websites.

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