Follow me on my pathtojunkentreasure as I hunt for treasures at flea markets, garage sales, rummage sales, thrift stores, estate sales and even on the side of the road. I'll share my love of ironstone, hammered aluminum, vintage Christmas, vintage jewelry, doilies and tablecloths, flower frogs, garden items and anything rusty and chippy. You can find me at Carriage House Antiques in Crystal Lake Illinois. Please join me on my pathtojunkentreasure!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Fun Filled Weekend!

Before I picked the boys up from camp on Friday, I fit in many sales during the morning.  One in particular was an estate sale in Cary.  I had been to their first one a few weekends ago and bought some great vintage tablecloths.  So, when I saw they were having part 2, I had to go.  I bought vintage costume jewelry (quite a few pieces) and a jewelry armoire to go with them.  I needed some more jewelry space and this was a nice large armoire.  I am very pleased with it.  I still haven't put anything into it yet.  I need to spend some time going through my jewelry and organizing it into what I wear most often to what I don't wear often enough.  I'm looking forward to going through all of my jewelry.

On Saturday was a day trip up to Monroe and New Glarus Wisconsin.  We always do a cheese stock up run in November, but didn't have time this year.  We were mighty low on cheese.  Most cheese freeze well (except cheddar), so we buy a lot and freeze it.  Swiss Colony had soooooo many good deals on cheese, cakes and candy.  We were in heaven.  The town of New Glarus had a "taste" of local foods and it was fun to sample different restaurants in the area.  They do it every year and it makes for a nice day trip.  We stopped at Van's Antique Shop in Walworth on the way home.  I found some things for Christmas presents already.  It's never too early to shop for Christmas when you come across something that you know a certain person will love.

Today was the Elkhorn Flea Market.  It started out cool and cloudy, but turned into a wonderful morning.  The boys and I actually did the whole flea market in 3 1/2 hours.  Pretty quick for us.  There were quite a few booths with $1 and $5 items.  Of course, we bought some things.  I bought a wonderful angel decorative piece for $5 and already put it into my hosta garden.  It is an angel area so this fit right in.  I had just mentioned to the boys that I wanted some pink flamingos and would you know it, there they were.  The dealer wanted $10 for the 3 of them.  How could I refuse?  Every dealer we saw after that was priced so much higher for their pink flamingos.  I already put them into the garden and they look so cute.  Since I only used 3 (and not a million), it looks cute, not tacky.  We had lots of fun at the flea market.  We probably spent most of our money on food.  As usual.  But, we did come home with some treasures.

The next Cedarburg flea market is on July 13 and on the same day is the Union Historical Museum day in Union Illinois where they have an auction and a thrift sale.  On July 12 is the Master Gardener garden walk starting out at the Demo garden at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake.  It is a self guided tour with a plant sale at the Demo garden.  It is a wonderful way to spend the day.

Happy treasure hunting!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Treasure Hunting Early

Bright and early start this morning.  I usually get up early anyway.  The day seems to last longer when I'm up early and getting started on my to do list.  This morning I wanted to get in line early for the rummage sale in Crystal Lake.  It was fun to stand around and talk to my rummage sale friends.  It's such a nice way to start the day.

The sale was quite large and I did find some nice treasures.  I found a giant pottery seashell ($5), vintage jewelry (mostly pins for 25-50 cents each) and a few vintage tablecloths for $1 each.  I even stopped at some garage sales and found the boys some video games.  Since they are coming home tomorrow, I wanted to add some things to their pile of treasures that I have found for them.

There is a church rummage sale in Barrington tomorrow on Church St.  I haven't been to this one before so it should be a nice surprise.  There are some garage sales listed in the paper that I hope to get to. 

There is a flea market every Sunday during the summer at Wilmot Mountain in Wilmot Wisconsin.  I haven't been there in a while but my friends say that they have found some treasures and that it is quite large at times.  I should probably get there to check it out.

Happy treasure hunting!

Monday, June 23, 2014

Blumen Gardens in Sycamore Illinois

My friend Mary and I headed out this morning for Blumen Gardens in Sycamore Illinois.  It was a little rainy, but the sun finally poked out later in the morning.

Wow!!!!! That is the word for Blumen Gardens.  It was amazing!  The merchandising was great.  Lots of vintage items were used in displays.  Just how I like it.  Every time we turned around, we were taking a picture.  I'm going to use a few of the pictures in my Flea Market Garden talk next year at Gardenfest.  We didn't want to leave.  It is definitely a place to visit to stroll through.  They had many ideas that I would love to incorporate into my own garden.  So many items can be repurposed and used in the garden as Blumen Gardens showed so well.  Mary bought me this cutest button.  I haven't figured out where to hang it yet, but she thought it said "me".  I love it!  The color is one of my new color obsessions. 

I finished my memory pillow today (Mary gave me a bright idea to make it more complete).  It has a Paris theme with some vintage Paris items to finish it off.  I'm happy with the result.

Thursday is a rummage sale at the Immanuel Lutheran School in Crystal Lake behind the Hobby Lobby starting at 8am.  McHenry East High School will have a sale in their parking lot on Friday.  Elkhorn Flea Market is on Sunday in Elkhorn Wisconsin. 

Happy treasure hunting! 

Friday, June 20, 2014

Vintage Treasures Day

What a fun day it was!  I started out extra early today to get to the St. John's church rummage sale in Johnsburg.  It started at 8am and I was there at 7:10am and was first on line.  It was the perfect time to chat with friends that came along a few minutes later.  I was sad to hear that a rummage sale friend had lost his sweet wife quickly to a brain tumor.  I have been going to these sales for years and have many dear friends because of it.  They have watched my kids grow up and I have shared in their joys and sorrows.  Today was a shared sorrow. 

The sale was wonderful.  I brought home many vintage treasures of linens, jewelry, metal mini trays for 25 cents each, 2 aluminum trays for $2, a vintage Paris plate for $1,  pottery including a McCoy swan (for 50 cents) and lots of other useful treasures.  Most items cost between 25 cents to $2 that I bought.  The prices were so reasonable that I couldn't pass up anything.  I also stopped at lots of garage sales and a few estate sales.  I came home with more vintage linens, including a hand embroidered crib sheet that is darling and a wonderful vintage lamp (for $5 that was a wedding present to the mother of the woman who was selling it) which is now in my living room.  I am still looking for the perfect lamps for the living room and may end up incorporating this one when I find another one that I like.   

Today was one of those days that I just wanted to keep going a little while longer.  It was that much fun.  Tomorrow the weather should be perfect for the garden walk in Woodstock from 11-4 and then the Belvidere flea market from 4pm-midnight.  I'm looking forward to treasure hunting some more this weekend.  Hope you can spend some time treasure hunting too!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

More Completed Projects

The house is still too quiet.  At least I am completing my goal of finishing up on projects. 

I sewed another pillow that I wrote about the other day.  It has muted soft colors in a quilt top that I bought at a garage sale and on the back is another piece from a vintage tablecloth that I couldn't throw away.  They look really pretty together.

I also completed a felted handbag in a beautiful turquoise hue.  It has white repurposed handles and a huge blue flower pin that really plays up the color of the handbag.  Love it!

Not many treasures today while out garage saleing.  Tomorrow is the church rummage sale at St. Johns church in Johnsburg at 8am.  There are a lot of sales listed in the newspaper so I hope to get to many of them.

Happy treasure hunting!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Pink Floral Pillow

The house is way too quiet with the boys at camp.  The bright side is that I have been able to finish many projects that have been started but never finished.  I even cleaned the whole house today and hopefully it will stay clean until they get home.

I have been meaning to finish this lovely faded pink floral pillow for a while now.  The fabric is an old vintage tablecloth that was torn and stained, but too wonderful to throw away.  I sewed on a hand embroidered piece for a pocket and attached the small fabric yo-yo's that I bought recently at the Elkhorn flea market.  I sewed vintage buttons onto the yo-yo's for some detail.  I'm going to include some items into the pocket as I figure out what would look the best.  I started out by using a vintage rose floral handkerchief.  I really like how it came out.

Today I will be finishing up another pillow using a vintage unfinished quilt top piece.  The back will be another piece from the rose floral vintage tablecloth. 

It looks like many treasure hunting garage sales starting tomorrow.  The next Elkhorn flea market is on June 29th. 

Happy treasure hunting!

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Surprises are Fun!

We just got back from dropping off the boys at camp for the next 2 weeks.  The house is already too quiet.  So, I figured that I would try to load some pictures since no one else is on the internet or video gaming and it worked!  I'm going to try to catch up.

The boys and I had bought some really great garden items at a garage sale last week.  I finally found a home for them in the garden.  The turtle especially looks so fun.

This past weekend had so many surprise sales that I couldn't take advantage of.  I had so much to do and wash to get the boys ready for camp that I had to pass up many.  I did go to a sale on Saturday in Cary and I'm so glad that I did.  They had a table of vintage tablecloths and I got them for $5 each.  I bought 5 of them.  The other ones just didn't grab my attention like these did.  These have the most beautiful and bright flower patterns on them.  I'm soaking them now in my Oxyclean way and they look wonderful.

I'm looking forward to checking out lots of thrift stores this week to keep me busy.  I do have some projects to finish so I hope that I get them done.

Happy treasure hunting!

Friday, June 13, 2014

No Pictures for Awhile

Sorry, but my internet is once again not working properly.  I haven't been able to load any pictures for the past 2 weeks.  I'll just have to make the best of it.

We just got back from a vacation to South Dakota.  It was really cold and rainy, but we managed to do all of the tourist attractions anyway.  It was so cool to see Mount Rushmore in the fog.  When the fog lifted, it was an amazing site.  We had taken the boys there when they were little, but they didn't remember it.  Now they will!

We got home this morning at midnight, but we were up early to go to the rummage sale at the church in Ridgefield.  We only found a few items.  I found more items at a few garage sales that we stopped at.  I wanted to go to more, but the laundry piles were calling me home.  I did find some sea shell collections for $2.  Since I love anything sea shells, I was happy to find them.  Austin has wanted a table for his room to put his Xbox on.  I found an old school desk and chair that was painted white and was now shabby/chippy for $3.  It was perfect and he loves it.  I told him to wait a while for the perfect table and it will come along.  It always happens.  Sooner or later the item will turn up at a sale.  We had stopped at some antique stores in South Dakota, but we didn't find anything.  I thought they were priced on the high side.

Yesterday was our favorite rummage sale at St. Mary's church/Montini school in McHenry.  I was bummed that we weren't home for the first day.  We stopped on today, but didn't find anything even at half price.

Saturday is a night flea market at the Belvidere fair grounds starting at 4pm.  It's also the Woodstock garden walk starting at 11am.  Tickets can be bought on the square.  I haven't been on the walk before.  It used to be held on a Thursday.  The Master Gardener garden walk at MCC is on July 12.  This year the gardens are all Master Gardener gardens.   It is always a great educational garden tour.  You can call MCC for tickets or get them the day of at the Demo garden at MCC. 

The boys are off for camp for 2 weeks.  This will be the first time that I'm without one of them.  I have lists of places to go to hunt for treasures.  Lots of towns that I haven't been to before.