Welcome to Thrill of the Hunt #70, friends! I've got another one of my eclectic mixes to share with you today so sit back, relax and enjoy. I recently experienced a huge thrifting dry spell -- but once I finally got out of it I was rewarded with some truly awesome vintage finds!

A good college friend was in town for a few days recently, so what better way to spend time together than to scout out local thrift shops? Ironically, I was just interested in taking her to lunch when SHE noticed a local thrift shop's abbreviated hours and proceeded to tell me that if we hurried a bit through our lunch we might just make it. Girl after my own heart. And I'm glad I listened to her.


The shop was a St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop -- where I got this vintage chalk statue for free! Yes, all religious items were free! Interestingly, I assumed it was a chalk statue of Mary and a girl child from one of the two noted Marian apparitions in history (Lourdes and Fatima) that claim Mary was seen by children. But once I looked into it I realized that this is actually a statue of St. Anne, the mother of Mary, and Mary as a young girl. In the background you can see a replica of a vintage Mary statue, one of my favorites.


I should have known when I realized that I'd never seen Mary depicted in any other color but blue. It seemed odd that she was wearing brown. That's what led me to look into it and determine that it was actually St. Anne. 









It has already become a favorite. 


Not only do I collect vintage religious chalk statues, I also collect vintage globes. This beauty was found at the Kane County Flea Market in St. Charles, IL. They wanted $20.00 for it and I talked them down to $15.00.

I love this disk on the top of the globe. I never knew they were called "time dials." Did you? I found the definitions of some interesting globe-related terms on a blog called Globemakers:

Time Dial

I'll have to go and check out all the other globes in my collection to see if they also have this interesting feature.


I also really love the patina'd brass half ring that encircles the globe. Do you know what it's called? According to Globemakers:

Meridian (Half Meridian / Full Meridian)



One of the neat things about vintage globes is that if they were made by Repogle, a well-known globe-making company, you can go to their website and figure out how old your globe actually is. Their chart is based on the names of the countries, as many of the names have changed over the years. This one looks like it's been taken apart as you can see the mid-line is not altogether flush -- I wonder what possesses someone to take a globe apart? It says right on it "Repogle 10 Inch Reference Globe."

When I checked the Repogle website and their handy dandy chart it looks like this globe is from 1956. That would make it 62 years old! No question that it's vintage! I think the colors are pretty vibrant considering how old it is.


And last but not least is an awesome vintage find I picked up with Mother's Day moola at a local vintage shop's anniversary celebration. The picture is a bit off, color-wise, since I took it inside the shop with their lights on. But let me tell you -- I knew as soon as I saw this baby that it was the real farmhouse deal: a vintage wooden grape picking tote.


I think it was the 6 individual split wood grape picking baskets that gave it away. That, and the signage on the sides of it that display the name of a California company, Vignolo Farms, that has grown, packaged and sold grapes for the past 80 years.


When we got it home I was so surprised because the thing seemed so darn big! It's 17" tall and 14" wide. I thought that I could use it on my farmhouse kitchen table but when I placed it there it actually seemed too tall. So I moved it to the coffee table in the living room and filled the baskets with plants, which was perfect. But I can just as easily see myself filling them up with LED candles, pine cones, pumpkins, dried hydrangeas, Christmas ornaments, and the list goes on.



Ironically, I won this pretty pink kalanchoe plant through a raffle that the shop had going on in celebration of their anniversary!





And the best part? It was 20% off in honor of the shop's 10th anniversary! So I  paid $33.60 for it. I know that's a lot compared to the price of my usual vintage finds but this was funded with gift money, yippee! I've since seen some similar vintage wood fruit picking totes on Etsy for as much as $117.00. I've also seen reproductions for around $55.00. I do wish I had a better handle on its actual age, but I'm still quite pleased with my authentic vintage farmhouse decor purchase. 

and

Don’t miss another thrifty,

 DIY home décor post!