junk bonanza!!

Ohh...the yard sales were good to me this week, and I wasn't even trying. Didn't look any ads up in the local Pennysaver...and left the house on Friday morning with very little cash. I hit the jackpot at my first sale...1st sign said "yard sale", but the sign out front said "Estate Sale"..hhmmm. Little old house with lots of junk...er...cool stuff in the carport, so I hit that, the laundry room and the back shed before I even went into the house. All the good stuff was in the shed!! Found the red & white enameled basin, the galvanized milk box, and the turpentine pot...$1 each!! Score! Now, in case you're wondering "what in heck is a turpentine pot?"...it's the tall clay pot that looks like a flower pot, but it's not. It has no hole in the bottom, but does have a hole in one side where it hung from a nail on a pine tree and collected sap, which was then made into turpentine. They were made of very poor quality local clay, so very few have survived intact. This one is in beautiful condition! I saw my first pots like this at a small museum of Lake County history at our local court house. That was about 18 years ago when we were buying our property, and I decided that I had to find at least one of these pots. In 18 years, I've only come up with 6...so they're not easy to find. Most were left behind in the woods, and many of them ended up in bits & pieces. So... there's a little Central Florida history for you! The other goodies in the photos were found at my favorite thrift shop...the checkers and the cool dice...$1.00...and at one yard sale that I went back to a second time this morning, cause he said he'd have more out today. Don't usually do a second trip to the same sale, but was glad I did...found the cute Noddy Elve books, the metal milk crate, and the old rusty iron this morning. Spent a whole $4.50 at this guys sale...oh, also the little cardboard boxes with vintage dividers, and neat letters. Two sizes, 2 colors with punctuation and stars, They were originally marked $3.50 a box and I got both for $1...fed my letter obsession and saved some cash! Takes so little to make me happy! Oh...see that rounded rusty thing on top of the green and brown pot?? Anyone know what that might be? It has holes in it, so I was guessing a strainer of some sort, but it doesn't have much of a handle to hold onto. Whatever it is, it's wonderfully rusty and a steal at a dime! So that's the junkin' for today! My son's coming over for chicken on the barbie with homemade coleslaw, and some wonderful candy corn that's been popping up at our local market...Yum! If we don't get the grill going, we're gonna be eating just the coleslaw for dinner!! Time to fire it up! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend...Enjoy! After dinner I'm going to play with my new letters...I'm seeing maybe a sign for the 4th of July...with the red and blue letters and the stars? Now I'll have to go raid the chippy, peeling wood pile in the shed. I'll let you know what I come up with!! *elaine*