In with a bang

I gotta say, 2016 started of great. On new years day, I arranged to meet someone not too far from here for a $185 dollar sale. Cha-ching! When I got home, I decided to add up all that I had kept track of this year to see how I did. Now, I didn't really start keeping track too well at the beginning of the year, and when I did garage sales in the summer, I also didn't always mark down every sale when I had a bunch of people keeping me busy, so my total is missing some. From what I have kept track of though, I did:

Online sales - $1972.00

Garage Sales - $423.85

Found change - $30.82

 

For a grand total of...*drum roll*... 

$2426.67!

 With the missing bucks, I'm pretty confident that I did at least $2500. The total could have been higher, but there are some things that were valuable that I chose to keep instead of selling, and I haven't cashed in my scrap gold and silver in either, both which would add in probably another couple of hundred to the total. Is that amazing or what? Granted, there are picker's that do a lot better than me, but they are also working in areas with a greater volume of garbage to pick through, so with what I have to work with around here, I'm pretty darn happy. This year I'm going to do a better job keeping track of things, and hopefully I'll be able to beat this total. :)

Now, I am still pretty far behind in my posts... we're in the new year and I'm still posting finds from October for pete's sake. So, let's tack some more stuff on to this post to get it out of the way...

This beautiful burgundy chair sat at a curb with a bunch of broken up furniture. I'm not sure why they decided to throw it out, there was just a slight bit of wear on the armrests, and it passed the smell test, so I figured they probably just changed their decor.

 

This huge ship was at another curb all by it's lonesome with the garbage cans. A few of the strings from the sails had come loose, so I hooked those back up, but then I noticed a deck rail was missing. Unfortunately the deck rail was nowhere to be found, so I brought it down to the second hand store because I figured it either wouldn't be a problem to fix for the serious hobbiest, or someone would just enjoy anyways whether it had a deck rail or not.

 

 Again, many more clothes. These were still folded. It's like someone just grabbed them from a drawer.

Also these lovely pieces...

 

This dress is from Jones New York. The necklace was in a jewellery box which was also tossed.

 

Here is the jewellery box and a bunch of other girly things. The jewellery box probably got tossed because the hinge and screw kept popping off. A little glue, a slightly bigger screw, and it's good as new!

 

Here is a look at some of the better pieces. The bracelet is silver, the single earring is gold (no match to be found) and the ring is gold as well.

 

I was hoping that diamond was real, but alas, inside it was marked CZ...cubic zirconia

 

And this gold men's ring weighed in at 2.0 grams

 

 In the dark of night I stopped at another pile because I spotted something that looked to be a mid-century modern furniture piece. It turned out to be a Selig ottoman by either the designer Jensen or Larsen. I kept an eye on the spot for a few weeks, but there unfortunately was no matching chair to be found. A chair and ottoman together would have been worth over $1000, but even just this ottoman alone will net me a couple hundred.

It was in pretty dingy looking when I picked it up...

 

I cleaned off the wood with some Murphy's Oil and cut off the broken straps, and as luck would have it, in another town a week later, I found a cushion from some out door patio furniture that was being tossed. I grabbed one with the ottoman in mind, and when I got home, I found it was a perfect fit! I still have to go over it with some Howard's Restore-a-finish and it will look good as new :)

 

The pile also produced this antique looking folding plant stand 

 

 

I've placed it in my living room to hold all my plant cuttings, which were also propagated from a garbage plant.

 

 At another pile I grabbed this huge stained glass light. 

 

 

and a collection of creepy masks

 

and else where I grabbed these statues that I call "80's power couple"

  

These 2 "redneck wine glasses" made from mason jars and a nice wooden serving tray

 

A perfectly good laundry hamper

 

Some track lighting never used and still in the box. 

 

At a move out pile I saved a box full of books. The title of the cat book cracks me up...

This retro vegetarian cook book from the 70's

 

 

 and this antique book printed in 1921 telling the story of William Wallace aka: Braveheart

 

  

which has some beautiful colour illustrations...

 

 

 A baby carrier

A vintage Speak n Spell from the 70's

 

 And this huge case which I grabbed without opening only to get it home, open it up, and find a C-PAP machine! Weird. Anyways, I didn't feel at all comfortable with even thinking about reselling this, so I donated it and asked that they give it to someone in need or at least properly recycled it.

This sweet antique fishing reel that I also found happened to be featured in an old reel catalog I picked up at a large pile a month or 2 ago in a completely different town.

 

 

and lastly, this wood burned Jesus portrait which got me singing "You're own...wood burned...Jesus" in the tune of  Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus"... and if that is now suck in your head, my sincere apologies!

 

 I hope your year started off with a bang as well! Keep looking out for treasures, and happy picking!