Thrift Store Finds - A Good Haul!

November 12th is the day that all of the thrift stores in our town put out their Christmas goodies.  They wait until that day to honor Remembrance Day properly before switching over to Christmas.  I was there bright and early Wednesday morning to partake in some vintage Christmas hunting.  I collect vintage ornaments, mainly glass.  I found these little treasures -  Under the "No more Christmas crap campaign" these are permitted as they are used(*one of the primary guidelines for saving money at Christmas - perhaps I should change the name to buy no more "NEW" Christmas crap lol as used is OK).  I was too busy (lazy?) to dig out my good camera so some of these pictures are less than perfect as were taken on my phone.

Here are my finds:

Made in West Germany Vintage Glass bulbs.  Some even have the original glass topper.  The box says it was sold at Shoppers Drug Mart.  Shoppers Drug Mart was founded in 1962 under the name Kofflers Drug Stores and then in the 1970's changed the name to Shoppers Drug Mart and is still thriving as a chain store today with over 1200 stores in Canada.  The term Made in West Germany was used up until 1990 - therefore these were made between 1970 and 1990 - my best guess is in the 70's. A total steal at 75 cents for the box - all are intact.  

These glass icicles were $1 for the box, again, I would guess 1970's.The blue one is broken at the bottom but the rest are in good shape.  Typically these are hard to find as they break really easy.  I don't have many in this style so was happy to find them.

Vintage bunny cookie cutter.  I have a very small collection of these and no bunnies among them.  I paid a whopping 25 cents.

These 4 art tiles were rescued a few weeks ago - 75 cents each.  I love tiles of any kind and have no project in mind for them but could not leave them behind.  Original tile price?  $22.99 USD each - they came out of the Hearst Castle Gift Shop in California which sells many art tiles.  Although they are beautiful - no one in their right mind should have paid over $91 USD for them.  

I have never before bought Christmas presents at the Thrift store (unless I knew someone who would appreciate that) but when I was finding Christsmas Vintage these new with tag items appeared - and are absolutely perfect for a Mother-in-law who collects angels.  The bulb on the right has a matching angel with heart and lights up.  The one on the left was $2.75 (originally purchased at Hallmark according to the tag) and the left was $1.25 - found in two different thrift stores on the same day.

I previously purchased a glass humming bird as a gift for my Mom.  She used to have it hanging from the ceiling in her old place  but she currently doesn't have anywhere to display it.  The hanger was 50 cents and the new glass bird was $1.  I figure she can change out the bird between the two.  She loves birds so when I saw the next bird - it came home too for $1.25.

I am busy trying to get our life in order before our trip next week - finishing business presentations, making appointments with friends and family and sorting out gifts to take as this is our family "Christmas" time.  On top of all that I had a service guy come to repair my washing machine - same company - for the 3rd time today.  He is not entirely sure it is fixed yet.  Fortunately, they only charge labor on the first call if it is related to the original call - nasty $202 bill including the part.  Did you know you should run the clean cycle on your washing machine at least once every month or so?  I didn't.  Not only that but I use liquid detergent (bought in bulk on sale in massive quantity) and you should only use maximum 2 tablespoons per load.  I was already using half the suggested amount.  Since he told me this I have marked a line on the container so the whole family knows how much to use - and save some money at the same time!

And finally, last night about 20 minutes before we wanted to go to sleep the carbon monoxide detector went off - indicating what we thought was a battery that needed replacing.  After lots of swears it was determined that it was not a battery that needed replacing but the whole unit!  So, we had to completely disconnect it for the night (*insert paranoia as we have a natural gas fireplace and pretty airtight home) and a new one was purchased first thing this morning - we still have to put it up before supper tonight - another $60 out the window.  Apparently, the units must be replaced at a specific point in time - this one was 7 years old and original to the house as we found a sticker on the underside that said it must be replaced in 2014(previously missed all the other times we changed the battery lol).  The new one has a 10 year life.  I am sure the next time it needs replacing it will be sure to tell us at the most inconvenient time when no stores are open.  Isn't home ownership grand!