My thrifting goal this weekend was to find as many gold necklace chains (and silver, but those are easier) as possible for my clay pendants. My selling season starts next week and I need lots of chains as I've been concentrating on pendants lately. With that in mind, I headed over to Millstadt, IL Saturday morning to the "village-wide" yard sales. As I'm not in the market for children's clothing, these sales didn't help me much, though I did find a couple things (see the revolving cannister set in the photo below) and I got to wander around a very, very pretty town. There are many fine gardeners in Millstadt and I probably spent more time admiring the zillion varieties of iris than going through anyone's for sale items. Note to self: go back to Millstadt in a couple weeks when lots more of the warmer weather flowers are blooming. I can only imagine how pretty it will be. One high point was the two gigantic azalea bushes spilling over a tall wooden fence from a compact back yard -- one was vibrant yellow and the other bright orange. Such a nice change from all the pinks one usually sees around here. Alas, I did not find a single chain.

Late last evening I got wind of the Lindbergh High School annual flea market happening today. I wasn't sure if this was the big one (and admittedly, I didn't know just how big the big one is), but it turned out that it was. We got to LHS around 9:15 a.m. and the parking lot was full. We were lucky to stumble upon a recently empty spot. Early on I spotted the coffee pot below. The pleasant lady came over as I sat it back down saying "Hey, don't put that down.! One dollar!" As it was in pristine (and seemingly unused) condition, this was an offer I could never refuse (and I've been in the market for a vintage percolator -- if it works so well for the tiny cafecito maker, how could I go wrong for regular coffee?). Once I got it home I saw that the innards were still wrapped in plastic and the original insert was still inside. The handle is bakelite! One dollar! Gold and turquoise pine cone design! One dollar!


Further examination of her table revealed the adorable measuring cup/chopper combination. The turquoise and black metal lid was too much to resist. And again, one dollar!


A pretty good start, indeed. After fortification from a coconut donut and a trip to the ladies room, I acquired the crocheted frog puppet/potholder (it was a dime, so...). Even though we weren't even a quarter through, I was feeling a little discouraged about finding any quantity of chains. I'm not looking for junk -- just usuable vintage chains with often junky stuff hanging from them. Soon enough, though, I was pawing through a shoebox of miscellaneous jewelry and realized there were many little packets of new 14K gold plated chains. I asked how much and the lady quoted an unbelievable price. Needless to say, a dozen of them were soon in my possession. Almost immediately after walking away, though, I regretted not getting more and swore to return to her booth before we left. I did and got eight more! Then she told me that she had gotten them from a company she worked for and that she had many more and would probably just give them to me! I gave her my card so I will keep my fingers crossed! Huzzah! No more stressing over chains! The rest of the market was somewhat uneventful. Steve got a baseball book, an old comic (not d but it's a Murder, Inc. from about 1950), an Argosy men's magazine and a McCall's from the 40s with an adorable kitten on the cover. Oh and a Coronet magazine from the 50s.