Ever Bright

The last 2 weeks weren't that productive. I tend to do my garbage runs at night, and I've noticed that a lot of the people on my usual routes don't have anything out anymore at night. I think with the cold winter weather, people are staying in as much as possible tending to only put their garbage out in the mornings when they pop out of the house on their way to work.

I do enjoy my night time runs though, even if I come away empty handed. I spend about 45 minutes to an hour out there, and it's nice to get away from the chaos of the house. I look forward to cruising around listening to my music without having to listen to my kids squabbling. Sometimes I'll even turn the music off and just enjoy the silence :)

So let's look at my finds...

This pile caught my eye because this is pretty much exactly how it sat at the curb. the purse was on the ground and the sweater was hanging out of the box. When I stopped to inspect it, I could tell the bags were full of clothing as well

Here are all the clothes piled in front of my washing machine waiting to get washed. In the bag was this cute pair of shorts with the tags still on.

Brand new, never worn, and garbage.

All in all, these were all the men's items... a t-shirt, a tank top, a bathing suit a pair of shorts, 2 dress pants, 2 turtle necks, 4 dress shirts (the purple one at the bottom has what I think is a dry cleaning tag stapled around the collar tag.), and 4 sweaters. All brand name and in excellent condition.

The women's clothing included...a pink fleece sweater, a pair of pin stripped dress pants, jeans (Riders by Lee), 3 tank tops, a bra and undies, 11 shirts, and 2 baby doll type pajamas.

Here is the purse and sweater that caught my eye in the first place. Confession: After I took the sweater out of the wash, I put it on because it felt so soft and I was a bit cold. However, I then promptly spilled spaghetti sauce on it while making supper. The purse is actually covering the spot up in this picture. Whoopsie! :P

There were also a few other odds and ends in the bags as well...a bunch of bobby pins, a nose hair trimmer that was still in the package, yet cut away from whatever else was in the original package, some kind of lotion that still had a sticker seal on it, a travel size hair gel, a pencil sharpener, 3 sample sized hand creams, a transformer key chain, 2 hairnets still in the package, a few pins, a hair clip, and a toothbrush holder/bathroom organizer.

At another pile I spotted the sandals in the middle sticking out of a bag. There were also 2 t-shirts, a pair of shorts and 2 pairs of awesomly comfortable yoga pants (I'm wearing the top pair right now). I don't think the sandals were even used or worn.

There were also some paper coin holders, a neat looking doily, and a Christmas basket.

I'm not sure how old the holders are, but they look a little vintage, and one box features a 1982 voyageur dollar which was minted between 1935 and 1986

I also grabbed this lamp because I liked the look and shape of it. The metal looks to be made of brass. I think I'm going to polish it up and see how it turns out.

My best finds came from the same place that got me that neat old Bell & Howell movie camera. They skipped a garbage night, so I thought that the place was cleaned out, but this week I decided to pass by again. Sure enough, even in the dark I could see the big pile waiting for me at the curb. 

Here is what they tossed out this week...a jig saw who's button was in the on position unbeknownst to me, so when I plugged it in, it gave me a massive heart attack! a Star Frit veggie chopper, a working clock radio, a flashlight, 2 BBQ brushes, both are like new but only one still has the original packaging on it, a mosquito coil burner, a strand of beaded Christmas garland, a tape measure, a roll of teflon tape, a nice glass bowl, an old Motorolla cell phone, an ashtray, a pair of glasses, a compass key fob, an old but working telephone, a wooden peg towel holder, and a matching wooden toilet paper holder. The second hand store will recycle the cell phone and they give all eye glasses to a local optometrist who sends them to a foundation that uses them for the less fortunate.

Here is a closer look at the ashtray. I grabbed it because I couldn't read it in the dark, but once I got home I saw that was because it was so faded. It says Parliamentary Restaurant Parlimentaire. It's a restaurant that is inside the parliament buildings in Ottawa. There is one ashtray exactly like it listed on Ebay for $43.35, but since this one is so faded, I don't think it will have much value at all. I'll do a little more research on it, but it will probably end up in the donate pile.

 20 full and functioning lighters. Ya, I have no idea either...

 4 Nintendo Entertainment System controllers and 3 cartridge games. The game titles are: 1942 from Capcom, 76 in 1 (which I think is a bootleg from Japan), and Metal Gear. Vintage video game stuff is always an easy sell. :)

A Bell & Howell synchronized switch which has a plug for a projector and lamp, which I assume goes with the little movie camera I picked up last time, 4 packages of film, some used and some not, and an Abbott and Costello movie. I was really excited about this one, but when I took the reel out, I knew it wasn't the right movie just by looking at it. It was extremely short, and when I held it up to the light, there were just a few frames of a man and a woman and the rest was dark. Boo :(

A few religious items...

The Jesus statue is cracked (repaired) and chipped, but still kind of cute. It's dirty, but I don't want to scrub it in fear of washing away the paint details.

The little book is called Paroissien explique des petits enfants, which basically translates into parishioner explained for small children.

and it was published in 1962. Looks like a little child wasn't too happy with his lessons :P

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but even though I'm not religious at all, I love old religious imagery.

My favourite find from this haul is this old chinese railway lantern by Ever Brite.  I opened the recycle bin lid and it was just sitting there right on top of everything. Yup, I'll take that!

However, it was extremely grungy and greasy. I like how rugged and worn it looks when it's all dirty, but it also smelled like grease and oil. I just can't keep it in the house like that, so it had to be cleaned. 

Here is a before and after...

I found similar lanterns by the same company selling online from $50-80. This slightly rusty one on Ebay is going for about $56.71CAN, but I think I'll be keeping this for my son's room as he loves trains. I might see if I can even turn it into an electrical lamp :)

Depends

The new year started a bit rough. I was really looking forward to large garbage pick up on the firsts of the month as I was hoping that people would be throwing out their "old" technical stuff after getting new upgrades for Christmas. Well if they did, I didn't find it. The weather didn't really co-operate this month at all and there seemed to be a snowstorm on each night in addition to a week of biting cold.

I did manage to get out a bit despite the weather, and am pretty happy with what I got. Let's take a look...

 The first garbage night of the year didn't net me much at all. The weather didn't co-operate, and since it was the day after New Year's Day, I don't think many people were up to hauling out all their stuff. I think many people were probably also away, because there were many empty curbs. I did manage to grab this wicker dresser though. We have one just like it in dark brown in our entry way. The bottom drawer on this one was falling apart, and the wicker was broken so there was no salvaging it. I slid it out, left it at the curb, and took the rest. I think it's still perfectly usable. It will go upstairs in my sons room for all his small toys and lego pieces. Without the bottom drawer, there will be room underneath for perhaps some storage bins. I also grabbed a baby bouncer seat and then headed home.

On another day I found the following...Since Christmas was over, I guess it was time to throw out all those decorations. Here is a wicker wreath, a small table top silver tinsel tree, an etched reindeer votive candle holder, working lights, 2 decorative tin signs, ribbon and a ribbon curler, 4 strands of beaded garlands and 8 gift bags

I found a pile that looked like someone took advantage of the Christmas holidays to clear out a relatives house. Here is a bag full of working Christmas lights, a vintage Veg-O-Matic food slicer from K-Tel, a small handheld sewing machine still all packaged up in the box, a box full of unused Christmas lights,  a cell phone car charger still in the package, the same ribbon roll as in the pic above (whoops, mixed up my stuff when I was taking the pics!) 5 pairs of unused real suede gloves, 3 glass butter dishes, 2 crystal vases, a vintage pencil sharpener, a 35 mm camera, an old army flask and a pair of leather cowboy boots.

Here is a close-up of the Veg-O-Matic. I can practically hear what the TV commercial would have sounded like in my head :)

There was also a pharmacy shopping bag with 2 packages of Depends undergarments and the receipt still inside.

This BBQ set looks like it may be missing a spatula and a scraper, but the rest is still in perfect shape. 

A nice ship replica. Unfortunately the little plaque is faded so I can't make out the name of the ship.

I liked the look of this mug. It has a sort of shimmery silver glaze to it. 

These vintage cameras were just awesome. I kept the Bell and Howell movie camera

A vintage rosary

Sterling silver

 I plucked this booklet out after seeing the title because I thought it would be a great laugh to read. Come to find out it's a collectors item because Arnold Schwarzenegger is in it, and it sells for about $20. can you see him on the cover? He's right in the middle.

 And here he is inside...

I packed up a bunch of stuff and made my first donation of the year to the second hand store. You can see some items I didn't manage to take pictures of here. On the left is the toy piano that I found a few weeks ago that my son finally got tired of playing with. the heart shaped thing behind it is a fold out plant hanger, then there is also a small baby stroller, another wreath and the baby bouncer that I mentioned above.

During the next garbage night I came across a pile with some clear bags. I love it when people use clear bags, it makes it so much easier :) In addition to a TV and a broken suitcase, they threw out this bag full of shoes. there was anoer bag with some knicknacks in it, but they had also decided to put a litterbox full of poop inside it so I decided that it definitely was not worth taking. Bleh!

Inside the shoe bag were 8 pairs of shoes, one pair with a matching clutch, 2 purses ( The black one at the bottom still had all the packing paper and silica pouch that you find inside when you buy it, so I'm thinking it was totally unused), 2 unused leather insoles, a plastic toy dagger and the reusable shopping bag everything was stuffed into. Inside the brown purse I also found a pair of ear phones, 40 cents in Canadian Tire bills, a dime and 3 pennies.

One pair of sandals still had the $19.90 price tag on it. The sandals next to these looked brand new and unworn as well.

From other piles I found Christmas decorations, another purse, 2 belts, one with price tag still attached, 2 maps, and 2 frying pans in pristine condition.

  

$20.00

 This adorable baby toy to help babies sit up. There was also a baby exersaucer and jumparoo at this pile but I couldn't fit them into my car the the time. By the next morning, the garbage man had already come by. I'm hoping someone else managed to grab them, but I doubt it.

 I also grabbed this fun baby toy that makes kooky noises whenever it's moved, a heavy "pearl" necklace, and the little gift bag which was filled with a dime, 2 fuzzy heart key chains and the various unused baby items. It was probably extras for a baby shower that didn't get used.

 This vintage hand made snowman lay across the top of someone's garbage cans so I had to save him. I think he's just adorable.

It wasn't very "green" of someone to just throw this Greenbox on top of their garbage pile...

 Inside of it was this aquarium set. Everything still works and as you can see some items are still in their package.

 This electric fireplace was sitting at the curb with a Rock Band drum set (I also grabbed that but didn't take a picture) and a computer desk. Since the drum set was complete and the desk was also in perfect shape (no room for that unfortunately) I took a chance and grabbed the fireplace as well. The next morning I turned it on and it made a horrible squeaking noise. Well, I guess now I knew why they threw it out. However, all I had to do was open up the heating element on the bottom, spay some WD-40 on the ends of the revolving piece, and when I turned it back on again, it was silent.

Put back together and working perfectly. This will be going down in our chilly basement.

I picked this stereo system out of someones bin which works just fine.

This telescope works just fine as well

This was  the biggest thing I grabbed. No sooner did I get it in the front door when my kids yelled "Awesome!", grabbed a ping pong ball, and started playing. I didn't even get a chance to wipe it down. See the round yellow sticker on it in the bottom right? It says $40 on it. I guess it didn't sell at their garage sale, so they didn't bother trying again.

The next night was another large garbage night, but a tonne of snow came down again, and since the plows did such a lousy job with the snowfall from the night before, the roads were just horrible. Since I wanted to live to see another garbage day, I sadly decided to skip it. 

Hopefully the weather on the firsts of next month won't be as bad!