Why I LOVE Bernat Antiques

So its no news that I like to scoop up Scrabble games at yard sales for $1 and use the trays and tiles to spell out words around my house. On New Year's Eve day I found myself shopping at my most favoritest local antique mill, Bernat Antiques. I had a couple of gift cards burning a hole in my pocket and now that I'm starting to settle into my new home a little more I had a better idea of what I might use.

I had my oldest daughter in tow and after a late night sleepover she was a major grump, complaining and whining about leaving the entire time. That's when she wasn't begging me to buy her vintage Barbie dolls, LED-lit peacock lamps or other random things that caught her fancy. I had my eye on several goodies but ended up going home with just a few.

Here are some of the LOT of buttons I got. They are for making the bracelets that I want to make more of and still have yet to share here.

I may or may not have gotten the urge to sort them out and put them away in their storage compartments after midnight. It was quite therapeutic.

Besides the buttons I also got a couple of framed cross-stitch pieces...

 

 

It's an art.

 

...that will go with these I've found in previous hunting:

$2.49 at Salvation Army

from Bernat's last year

I want to hang a collection of these in my front entry hall but I need to do something like switch out the frames or paint them all to match to unify them a little more. I've got enough to start hanging but will arrange them in such a way that I can add more if when I come across them. Or when get back to cross stitching myself. (One of my unofficial New Year's resolutions is to get back to stitching/embroidery some time this year.)

As I was driving home from Bernat's with my buttons and cross stitches I was hit with remorse over a couple of other items I didn't buy. Oooh, I was kicking myself good. I resolved to get back there as soon as I could to nab them before someone else did.

Two days later, with remaining gift card balance in tow, I braved the snow-dusted roads to claim my treasures shortly after Bernat's opened. (Of course I'd already contacted the owner online to reserve one of the items for me...just in case.) 

I couldn't pass up I did pass up but came back for this 3-D rusty metal "V".

One of the booths had a bunch of different letters like this for sale (though not quite as rusty as this one), but only one "V." It's going to be part of a funky gallery wall in my kitchen, sort of like the one in my previous dining room but with major revamping.

And then, to think I almost let a rare, 1960's, mini, magnetic, travel Scrabble game get away!! Rare because it doesn't fold up and the board isn't plastic. It's just a mini game board with plastic magnetic tiles and metal trays. How did I ever walk away??

This is a comparison of the regular tiles with the travel size ones.

I've since turned this rare little treasure into a something fun. Stay tuned. Its coming up next.