How Are You Ringing in the New Year?

To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I went to a New Year’s Eve party or really celebrated the beginning of a new year. Some years I don’t even stay up till midnight. So far our plan for tomorrow night is to order a deep-dish Chicago pizza, crack open the Dom Perignon champagne (given to my husband by his boss…not our normal tipple!) and start a 1000-piece Gustav Klimt jigsaw puzzle. We’ll likely find a movie to watch at some point on one of our streaming services. All in all, it will be a quiet evening, but I think a pleasant one.

On New Year’s Day I may venture out to my neighborhood thrift store for their “big” sale…maybe! Their Black Friday sale was a bust for me. Very disappointing. The shelves were not full and the store got crowded very quickly. And if I’m brutally honestly, I still have plenty of good stuff to add to my store. I don’t need to go to this New Year’s Day sale or any others for quite a while.

BUT. But for the last few weeks this thrift store has been yielding some fabulous stuff. Just yesterday I popped in on my way to church and scored a sweet French cotton quilt by Elsa C. I unfurled it in the store and it didn’t have any damage or wear! None. I haven’t been able to find out much about Elsa C. other than the items are handmade in France, good quality and at one time were sold in upscale John Derian stores. (I really like his aesthetic.)

And the little handmade Mimbres-style pottery bowls that I bought in the store a few days ago sold 24 hours after I listed them! I thought they were great. Glad someone else thought so too.

And of course there’s the charming 1823 S. Alkens, Maile and Sutherland engraving I bought a week ago that could be one of my best finds of 2019.

And the fabulous 1950s Rialto lucite purse.

So you see there has been some unusually good stuff lately! I’ve also noticed, and this might be true for most thrift stores, that donations are way up! I’ve seen cars queuing to drop off their stuff. I suppose folks are desirous to start the new year with less stuff. So it might be good picking on New Year’s Day.

I think I’ve talked myself into going, but if I don’t, I’ll focus on listing more from my stash of vintage charms. Charms have been selling fairly well for me and I’ve got over a hundred to list! Just the other day I started to deconstruct a bracelet I’d bought last year to sell and found that one of the charms listed as sterling silver was actually a 14k gold antique baby ring with a tiny diamond. Now that was a nice surprise.

Well, I hope your New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are grand however you choose to celebrate them.

Wishing you happy hunting in 2020,

Karen