Elizabeth Holcombe ~whimsies and words~

Fifty Percent Off

Hello, My Friends!~~~

The fifth anniversary sale in Beth's Bagz etsy shop is coming to a close on June 1st (this Friday). Come June 1st I will put Beth's Bagz on vacation until mid-June (date TBA). Then I will have a grand re-opening with all new goods!

If you have your eye on something currently in Beth's Bagz, please consider grabbing it as the current items will not return after June 1st. As an extra incentive, I am now offering a further reduction to 50% off ALL Goods in Beth's Bagz from now until June 1st!

You must enter the coupon code: BB50OFF in the space provided at check out to get your discount!

Thanks so much!~~~XXOO, Beth

A Very Old Estate

Hello, My Friends!~~~ Today we hit a fun estate sale in a very old farmhouse situated in the middle of a corn field near Wicomico Church, VA.

As you can see this nice old house is located at the end of a long tree-lined dirt lane. I love the double chimneys!

I heard from the fine fellow running the estate sale that this house remained unoccupied and closed up for 2 years prior to the sale. The owner is quite elderly and currently in a nursing home. There was an outbuilding and the contents of that building were displayed on the front lawn.

Here is a small sampling of the contents of the outbuilding. The house inside was a little shabby but there was plenty to dig through, and I will be adding some of the treasures I found to Dime Store Chic this weekend!

But what I want you all to know is this sale is the first (I think) estate sale run by a very hard-working teenager and his father. This young man owns a great thrift shop in Lancaster, VA called The Big Red Flea. It is truly the best thift shop I have ever been to. The teen, Brad, buys storage units and estates and sells the items for the most reasonable prices in his shop. He has recently branched out to running estate sales. I couldn't be more thrilled.

Brad told us that he and his father (and others) were up until 2 a.m. setting up the sale and actually spent the night there. Well, after seeing how fabulously organized and professional Brad ran the estate sale today, I know he has a long and fruitful career ahead of him. If you are ever in Virginia's Northern Neck area, let me know and I'll send you to The Big Red Flea!

XXOO, Beth

52

Hello, My Friends!

I am 52 today.

So is...

...the anniversary of the Hilo, Hawaii tsunami.

...the anniversary of when Pres. Teddy Roosevelt's son, Kermit, used his father's rifle to go on an African safari.

...the surfer, Wes Lane.

...the anniversary of the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

And...Georges Claude, the inventor of neon, died the day I was born.

These facts are probably only interesting to those of us born this day in 1960.

But I am 52 and age doesn't matter unless you're a banana.

XXOO, Beth

Lots and Lots!

Hello, My Friends!~~~

One of the more tedious parts of having a vintage etsy shop such as Dime Store Chic is listing all of the new goodies in one big batch. Yesterday, which was rainy, I stayed in and added a whole bunch of new goods to Dime Store Chic. I think it took me about 4 straight hours to list each item. Afterwards I required a long walk to get the kinks out from sitting in front of the computer for so long.

But I think you may like the results!

Here are some of the highlights offered for you and freshly found this weekend:

Pristine vintage bridge scorepads.

Sad eyed kitschy Honey Bear puzzles.

2 sets of German cling stickers. Adorable!

 

Simply sweet child's handmade Halloween decorations from the early 60's.

Colorful puffy yarn.

All of this and so much more available in Dime Store Chic while they last!

Oh, snd I made a Mad Men avatar of myself...

I have no idea why I am holding A Bonwit Teller shopping bag at my messy picnic site. But I love how I look in my swinging green capri pants and mod shirt!

May you find your inner Peggy Olson or Betty Draper!~~~XXOO, Beth

Estate Sale Adventure!

Hello, My Friends!~~

There were no promising estate sales near my home on Friday, so I decided to go on an adventure to a sale that promised "100 years of family collecting in a historic home on the Potomac River". It was 18 miles south of my home, but I knew the way and headed out bright and early. The drive was so scenic and pretty, even went past historic Gunston Hall, the home of George Mason. I got to the sale a little over an hour before the sale began and couldn't believe my luck that I was number one in line. The house was in a wonderful location and so very cute.

Here is the front of the house. I waited on the little porch. By the time the sale opened there were about 25 of us in line. Parking was in a a field near by. The guy running the sale was someone I was familiar with. He is a friendly fellow, but a little odd and very chatty. Not much is priced at his sales and you have to wait in line a long time while he "oohs and ahhs" over every little thing people bring up to purchase. For the most part his prices are pretty good but sometimes I just don't get why he prices some things the way he does.

I started my search in the basement which was full of stuff, good vintage stuff. In no time, I had filled both bags I brought and also had an armload of stuff too. No longer able to tote around anything else, I went ahead and paid for my goodies and stashed them in the back of my car. Of course, I went in for another look around.

Here's the side of the house that faces the river. I love the little boxwood hedge maze.

Here's the Potomac River. I bet that tree stump used to be a gorgeous tree at one time.

This wonderful vintage Impala was offered for sale too. Sadly, I didn't bring enough cash to bring the car home with me.

What did I get, you ask? What didn't I get! After going into the house 3 times and a sweep through the garage, I managed to almost fill up the back on my car. Here is my vintage loot spread out in a haphzard mess on our dining room table:

This photo shows just a fraction of what I found. My main purchases where vintage Halloween decorations, most of which I put on ebay (ebay ID: bethsbagz). I also found sewing notions, some Christmas, books, and craft supplies. There are lots and lots of great goodies here destined for projects and for Dime Store Chic.

I am so happy I took a long drive on a beautiful day for an estate sale adventure! I hope you like what I have found too!~~~XXOO, Beth

Greenhouse Bounty!

Hello, My Friends!~~

One of the many things I adore about late spring is the fact that the sun starts shining 5:30 in the morning. I love getting up early. The air is so fresh and quiet. I can spend time in our vegetable garden before anyone is stirring. I took photos early this morning to show you what I mostly grew from seed in our new greenhouse this year.

Pole beans started from seeds I harvested from last year's crop and grown in a container with bamboo climbing supports.

Tomatoes! I am so excited about these plants because I have never grown tomatoes from seed before. The pots in these photos are only a third of our crop of tomatoes this year. Oh, and BTW, all of our vegetables are grown organically. I use our garden compost and lots of worm castings (poop). To combat pests, I either pluck them off (gross) or use insecticidal soap.

Celery! OK, this is the only plant in our garden we bought. The originaly tiny celery plants are huge now and are growing in a cast off wheelbarrow from our neighbors. We have already harvested some celery stems for salads or for dipping in peanut butter! Yum yum!

Peas! This one of four pea gardens we have going this year. Just look at all of those pods! Fresh garden peas in pasta with extra virgin olive oil--Heaven! I started these peas directly in the garden after soaking them.

A bush variety of summer squash begun in the greenhouse. I put in vintage croquet stakes next to the plants to add support if needed.

I love onions! So far we have harvested quite a lot of green onions for salads, slicing for sandwiches, and for grilling. This in one of 6 onion patches we have going this year. Most of the onions were started from a bundle of hundreds of small plants or from small onion sets bought by the scoop at the garden center. We have garlic growing too.

Beets! I think the leaves are so lovely. I started these from seeds sown directly into the cold frame. We now keep the cold frame permanently open for the warm weather months. We can harvest baby beets if we want to.

Strawberries---delicious! I have strawberry plants in two strawberry pots and in a salvaged broken wheelbarrow. So far we have enjoyed about two pints of juicy berries from our small garden.

Cumcumbers ready to climb. These were started in the greenhouse too! In the lower left corner you can see small onions which I started from seed for the first time.

We have lots of lettuce growing in containers which means we have lots of salads. Warm weather means bolting lettuce, so we're eating it as fast as we can!

I have several dwarf varieties of blueberries in containers. Hopefully we'll harvet enough this year to make at least a small tart---a very small tart.

Our garden space doesn't really lend itself to many flowers, but I did put in some lovely nastutiums (edible peppery flavored flowers!) into a pot along with a bell pepper plant.

And finally, we are trying grapes this year. Our neighbor Joe gave us these vines after cleaning them out of his garden. They orginally looked like dead sticks but you can see from this one they are now vining and green. We need to support them on the fence before they goet too big.

Thanks for taking a little journey with me through our vegetable garden. We have other gardens of veggies scattered here and there, but I didn't want this post to be of epic proportions!~~Have a wonderful day!~~~XXOO, Beth

 

Autograph Week

Hello, My Friends!~~~

Before I go on to tell you about the title of this post, I'd like to remind you that until the end of May, I am offering 40% off ALL items in Beth's Bagz etsy shop! Just enter coupon code: BBYEAR5 in the space provided at check out! I have greatly reduced the original prices of several seasonal decorations so your discount will be substantial. At the end of May I will close Bethsbagz for a few weeks and then will reopen late June with all NEW handmade creations made from recent and oh, so fun finds! The items currently listed and on sale will not return, so get them while you can for 40% off! Thanks so much!

OK, now on to "Autograph Week!"

Earlier this week I noticed that one of the homes near our neighborhood had a big pile of trash near the curb awaiting pick up. Some of the items piled on top looked old so having no shame I decided to poke through the pile and see if I could unearth a treasure. And I did!

I found buried beneath some damp old clothes this autograph book. I opened it up and noticed that the signatures were in fountain pen. I brought it home. As I flipped through the pages I noticed that the signatures were written between 1933-34. And then I noticed a note written on the inside cover: "mostly movie star and radio star autographs." Really? I decided to see if I recognized any of the signatures.

Joan Marsh was vaguely familiar. I looked her up and found out that she was quite popular in early movies. Here is her info: Joan Marsh.

Then I saw this familiar autograph...

I knoew George Raft played a lot of tough gangster roles way back in the day. Here is his info: George Raft. He was in a ton of popular movies including "Some Like It Hot" with Marilyn Monroe!

There are many many more signatures in this autograph book. I called my mother and she knew quite a few of them. What a fun find in the trash!

But the autograph fun train chugs on for me this week!

I went to a wonderful estate sale in Arlington, VA on Thursday and found fun goodies (most are now in Dime Store Chic!) I looked into an beat up old paper bag (I never pass by a beat up old paper bag, you never know what you might find) and saw some baseballs. Hubby loves his Washington Nationals with a passion, and I saw a ball that had a bunch of signatures and a ball that had one signature. I recognized that signature. The lady running the sale charged me a dollar each for the baaseballs. Hubby was thrilled out of his mind when I gave them to him, most particularly because of this baseball and its signature:

Do you recognized Ted Williams? At one time he was a manager for the Washington Senators (Nationals) but before that he was pretty hot stuff in the world of baseball. A Hall of Famer too! Before giving them to Hubby, I took the baseballs to a local baseball card seller and he said that the signature is not a fake and we that the other baseball has four signatures of umpires. Hubby will research to see if he can pinpoint which game the umpires officiated. The balls are dated anywhere between 1959-1973. The baseball card dealer offered to buy the balls but I told them it was up to my husband. Hubby will keep them. The dealer told me that the Ted Williams ball is worth hundreds of dollars. Not bad for a one dollar investment. Hubby is one happy fellow!~~~XXOO, Beth

 

Beth's Bagz 5th Anniversary Sale!

Hello, My Friends!~~~

Beth's Bagz is celebrating 5 years on etsy! It has been a total thrill to be part of such a wonderful on-line community!

My goal for May is to clear the shelves at Beth's Bagz and return in June with new creations! I have been busy on some new goods I hope you will like!

In the meantime I am offering you 40% off ALL current goods in Beth's Bagz for the whole month of May! And on top of the 5th anniversary discount, I always offer you one low shipping price (USA only) no matter how many Beth's Bagz creations you buy at one time!

To get your 40% off discount for May, at etsy check out simply enter coupon code: BBYEAR5  in the space provided! This is my only sale in Beth's Bagz for the rest of 2012, so enjoy!

Easy peasy! And just in time for Mother's Day, and I am happy to ship directly to your special someone, just let me know!~~~Thank you all for 5 fabulous years on etsy! And come back in June for Beth's Bagz grand re-opening!~~~XXOO, Beth

Don't Kill Jackie!

Hello, My Friends!~~

I hit one estate sale on Friday. The company running the sale isn't one of my local favorites. They price their items quite high. The sales are usually not for diggers like me. I show up at least an hour after the sale starts becuase waiting in line for this company's sale isn't worth it. I prefer to walk right on in. I did just that today.

The estate was that of a long time resident and there was plenty to look through. I began putting a few things my trusty bag that weren't priced too high. This company puts misc. household goods in boxes with lower prices, not great prices, but reasonable. I like to dig through these boxes, and often I come up with a treasure or two. At this sale I found quite a few vintage kitchen utensils, unused and in original packaging.

Handy kitchen scissors in a mod package!

A nifty meat tenderizer...perfect for barbeques!

And this...

A cake breaker in original box and with a yellow bakelite handle. Looks practically new!

When the lady, who was running the sale, added up my goods, saw the cake breaker she took it from the box and asked me,"Where did you get this?"

I told her I found it in one of their bargain boxes in the basement. She said, "You know this is a bakelite handle, don't you?"

"Yes," I replied with caution. The reason I was somehwat concerned was that this estate sale company is known for raising the price at checkout claiming that the price on the item is too low and was mis-marked. It is so wrong that they do this. I mean they have ample time before the sale even opens to evaluate and price goods. If something gets overlooked or an employee prices it too low, that's just too bad. Part of the fun of shopping an estate sales is finding that overlooked cool vintage piece at a bargain price. Last year I found a gorgeous quilt at a sale run by this company and it was marked $25. After practically accusing me of changing the price, they finally let me buy the quilt for the price marked. It took me a long while to go back to their sales after that incident.

So I waited for the lady to tell me that I couldn't have the cake breaker from the bargain box at the bargain box price. Instead, she announced to me that there was a similar item, without the box, in the display case at the sale for $30. So? I found this one in the freeakin' bargain box! Under her breath she said, "I'm going to kill Jackie." I assume that the hapless Jackie is an employee somewhere in the house. Finally, the lady said that I could have the cake breaker for the bargain box price, which was the right thing for her to do.I mean, really!

So I have a cool bakelite handled cake breaker in an equally cool box along with some other great finds from this Friday's estate sale and ALL of it is in Dime Store Chic for you!~~~That's a good thing, isn't it?~~~XXOO, Beth

 

Meet Janice!

Hello, My Friends!~~~

One of the wonderful benefits of hitting local estate sales is running into the same folks over and over again and making friendships.

Earlier this year I met Janice. After a little conversation, Janice and I quickly learned that we are kindred spirits. We love vintage textiles (I mean, who diesn't right?) and look for them at estate sales. Of course my Spideysense said that Janice was competition, but I quickly pushed that aside as there is plenty for everyone. And Janice is so sweet and generous that she gave me a fabulous bags of fabric scraps and pieces that she couldn't use, but I will certainly use in my creations!

Please hop on over to etsy and visit Janice's shop: OddsandNipperkins

You will find her lovely and so stylish bags made from vintage fabrics as well as a sweet array of vintage goodies!

 

There is one estate sale this weekend I may hit, and perhaps I'll see Janice there. It's always fun to see a new friend!~~~XXOO, Beth