Seed Bead Bonanza - Awesome Garage Sale Find

A Seed Bead Bonanza

Wow, look what I found on my garage sale expedition Saturday morning!  It's a seed bead bonanza.

A subdivision down the road from us with very nice homes holds a neighborhood garage sale once a year in July.  I have always found things I like there, so I showed up at 8:00 in the morning to go to all the houses that had a sale.

I found a few things I liked at the first sales I visited, and then I stepped into a garage and saw all these boxes of beads plus more.  If you are a beader, you will understand when I say my heart went pitter-patter a little faster than usual.  I purchased 12 boxes of beads for $2.00 each.  I did not have the heart to try to negotiate the price down because I was so aware of the value I was receiving at this point.

In addition, this lady had many more beads, wire,and other things.  She told me that she used to work in a bead shop in Wisconsin, and had accumulated all this there.  So essentially, everything she had for sale was new.  Plus all of the items were of the quality sold in a bead store.  This is usually better than what can be purchased at a big box craft store.

This nice lady said she does not bead anymore because she can't see well enough to do this type of work.  I really feel for her.  That is one thing that I hope never happens to me. I do need my "peepers" to do the detail work, and they work great for me. (I call reading glasses from Walgreens, peepers.)

I decided what I had selected already was really more than enough for me.  You need to understand that I already own thousands of beads.  Keeping them organized is a major project already.

If you look at my beaded items in my shop, you will see that I use seed beads extensively in my lanyards and eyeglass chains.

My New Stash of Beads

So what beads did I get in these lovely Craft Mates bead boxes?  Here is the run down.  But before I go over that, I would like to share with you that the Craft Mates boxes with 14 compartments retail for $8-$10 depending on where you buy them.  So for $2.00 each I got eight of them filled with beads.  What a deal!

Take a look at the wonderful seed beads.  Also, this lady had organized them by color.  How good can it get?

Aqua and Turquoise Blue Seed Beads

This photo is just part of a box filled with aqua blue seed beads of different shades, shapes and sizes.

Pretty Pink Seed Beads

These are my new pretty pinks.  All compartments have pink seed beads.

Luscious Lime and Other Greens

Let's not forget about greens.  What luscious green seed beads!

Spicy Orange

And we need to jazz it up a bit with orange.

Cool and Regal Purples and Blues

Not to mention purples and cool blues.

Beading Staples

Any good beader knows we need lots of neutrals.  How about all the white and other neutral seed beads?

In addition to seed beads, I got lots of pearls.

Then just for good measure, I purchased the boxes with head pins, silver-plated clasps and findings, chains, some lamp work beads, and other beads.  I already put the lamp work beads and some of the other beads away in my other bead boxes by color before I thought of writing this blog post.

Once I got these home, I had to figure out where to put them, but I was able to carve out an area on my shelves.  These all have a new home.  How I will ever use them all is beyond me.  The good thing is that when you come to me for a custom order and tell me you need something in pink with a dash of purple, I can look through these and the rest of my inventory (stash) and find the perfect thing just for you.

What have you found at garage sales that makes your heart go pitter-patter?

Garage Sale Finds for the Bedroom

Garage sale finds make my heart beat a little faster.  Like so many of you I head out into the community every week to see what treasures I can find. Most of the time, I don’t have any specific items for which I am searching.  I do enjoy finding something to decorate my home. 

I am also always on the prowl for items to make and display jewelry.  I would love to find a mannequin or mannequin head in good condition in a flesh color.

Recently I located some excellent bargains for my bedroom.  I have wanted to change out my bedding to a celery green and soft blue theme.  I had already purchased a set of green and blue decorative boxes last year at a garage sale.  I wanted to place them in the window seat in the bedroom, but they simply did not coordinate with the room.  I could not justify to myself purchasing a new bedspread and pillow shams just to coordinate with the boxes.

Last week I scored!  I located a beautiful green Pottery Barn brand new bedspread and pillow sham set.  It is the exact shade of celery green that I wanted.  It is a full/queen size and works very well on my full size bed.  I believe it is an older version of the pick stitch quilts now sold by Pottery Barn.  It is so soft and light weight for summer.  I also found a cute small pillow in a slightly different shade of green at another sale.  That works as a throw pillow.

As I went from sale to sale I found one more item to use with the ensemble, a lovely off white feminine lampshade to place on my bedside lamp.  This bedroom is feminine and kind of cottage chic.  The white wicker headboard and the pictures above the headboard were also garage sale finds within the past few years.  My most expensive purchase here was the Pottery Barn quilt set for a sum of $30.00, brand new.  Each pillow sham was originally marked with a $39.99 tag.  What a deal!

What treasures have you found at garage sales or flea markets?

Garage Sale Find - Crystals and Pearls

One of my favorite pass times is to go to garage sales on Saturday mornings.  Among other things I am always on the lookout for jewelry that I can remake into something fun and interesting.  This Saturday I only found one piece, but what a treasure!

This necklace has lots of graduated beautiful blue crystals plus lots of large soft green pearls.  They look like Swarovski crystals and pearls, but I am not sure.  I think the combination of these pearls and crystals is not very attractive.  But, it is geat for me to use in other jewelry.


Now for the really good part.  This necklace cost me a grand total of fifty cents.  YIPPEE!

Here are some close-up pictures of the pearls and crystals.  If anyone has some advice on how to determine what kind of crystals and pearls these are, I would love to hear it.

Do you make new  jewelry from rescued treasures?