Weekly Thrift Report: Finding Silver Linings

See that cat right there? We were scowling like that by Sunday evening.

Between the holidays, a bad work week, and very unproductive trips to thrift stores (if they were even open!) and a HUGE antique mall, it was all storm clouds for us. Fortunately, a last minute schedule change practically dumped us into virgin thrift territory and we found our silver lining.

Heller glass container by Massimo Vignelli. It's always nice when digging through the plastic junk section to find something of actual value. We found this earlier in the week during one of several anemic trips. I pulled my first Heller ever out of a generic picnic basket full of made in china junk a couple months ago and this is my second ever Heller score.

I picked this Robert Maxwell ashtray up while getting an oil change earlier in the week (you may have a problem if you  schedule everyday errands around your habit...). I guess this doesn't really make up for leaving a pair of these behind a couple weeks ago.

Speaking of Robert Maxwell, Janel spotted this Stoneware Designs West bowl/planter.

As far as we knew by Sunday afternoon, this was the culmination of our weekly thrifting. Admittedly, one can't complain too much in this scenario. Not sure if you can tell what it is (jk), but this is seriously the foot of some kind of deer with a bottle opener attached. I know, right? Please keep reading for more "mind-boggling" taxidermy [at the end].

OK, so this is the part in the story where things start getting better:

It all really started to turn around when I picked up this large three-tiered macrame hanging shelf. I literally don't even understand how this thing works, but it is so great.

I walked over to where Janel was to show her my macrame shelving unit and then she said "I think I found something cool" which, this like-new Pottery Craft hanging planter (a theme!) is pretty cool.

But then I found these Iittala Arkipelago glass candle holders and felt about a billion times as cool as Janel (which, seriously). Also, officially, our first Iittala!

OK, so Janel spotted this huge  (like 2ft tall) Metlox Poppytrail Aztec coffee carafe, and it was unsigned, and we weren't familiar with the line, so we Tweeted #thriftbreak and successfully ID'ed the piece before leaving and now we have this awesome mid-century ceramic piece; seriously check out the lines on that thing. Big shout-out to #thriftbreak on Twitter!

Well, that's it for now.

We've been adding stuff to our Etsy store like every day, and I think that's helped our selling slump. We also can't wait to start adding the new stuff we've found.

So, as promised, here's a couple more taxidermy shots:

This one was on the end of a cane, which is probably great if you require the use of a cane...

I may have screamed when I saw this. This is a real dead taxidermy Giraffe torso. How this made it from real life to being mounted in the back of a Temecula, CA (look it up) antique mall is beyond me. I wish I had reason to write the next chapter in this glorious beast's life, but alas...could be yours for the low low price of $8,000.00.