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 :)