forest county junk.

this weekend i took a very much needed trip up to sam's camp in marienville. we did lots of hiking, exploring, eating & drinking. i've been there a few times now, and each time i see new things - flowers, mushrooms, birds, bugs (i got a tick this time! ewwwwww!) and animals. there are so many different spots to visit and things to see. 

the last few times we were up there, i noticed some lil junk stores. i had a feeling they would be really cheap & loaded with treasures. so, this time we made sure we stopped at them on our way back. our first stop was one i had visited before. it's a pretty unusual set up. there's a woman who owns 2 houses in row. one she lives in, and the other she stores her "compulsively bought" junk in. the lawn, first floor, second floor, and basement are all full of things for sale. she has some pretty cool stuff, but is pretty aware of what everything is worth, so it's not the kind of place where you'll find anything super old & cheap. i did manage to find a few pretty good finds. i got the two matching jars on the left, both for $1.50. they'll be perfect for terrariums (of course i got another bag & jar full of awesome moss from sam's camp) or smaller tropical plants. 

i also got this little old leather polish tin for $4.00, which is a little expensive, but i really liked it. i think my dad's can collecting is starting to rub off on me. i always keep my eyes open for cans for him, but i'm starting to really like old tobacco tins & other interesting little ones. i did some research on this one, and it seems to be a pretty common one, but i really like it. 

after this stop, we moved along down there road. there were 2 kind of crappy looking junk/thrift stores i had noticed on trips up before. they seemed like the kind of places that would be dirt cheap. the next one we stopped at was probably the cheapest store i've ever been in.

the sign outside advertised "10 cent clothing." unfortunately, the store was probably about 80% clothing, which i'm not too interested in. it wasn't vintage clothes either. everything was donated, so the lady running it didn't seem to care much about making any profit. at one point i dropped one of my glass containers right on top of a glass bowl & she said "if you break it, it doesn't matter, i don't care, it's all donated." so, i got the 2 glass containers in the right side of the photo above, and this cute little cardinal wall plaque for 80 cents! so cheap. i will definitely stop back there again next time i'm around.

our next stop was a store we had heard was pretty expensive - and it was. they had a lot of bigger items, and everything seemed very over priced. i did find one thing though. they had a room full of old linens & things, and i found this old cloth calendar, which i will probably hang or use as a tea towel. it was only $2.50. i had to resist the urge to buy about 4 other similar ones with birds on them. 

our last stop was a pretty large building. it had a lot of reasonably priced items, but it was kind of strange. it was really dark & dreary inside. i overheard the woman who owned it talking about most of the stuff inside being her grandma's, who loved to sew. there was tons and tons of old fabrics, which i would have liked to picked through, but didn't want to keep sam waiting. there was nothing of interest to him in this one, it was all old lady looking stuff. lot's of clothes, kitchen things, and knick knacks. the only thing i got here was this little teal creamer for 50 cents, because i liked the color. 

another blue jay feather!

overall, some pretty good, cheap junk finds. but i have to say the things i saw/found in the woods are much better. i'm sure i'll be posting tons of photos from my trip soon. here's a few of the things sam and i found in the woods that i brought back with me.
 

lots and lots of moss!

i took one with no snail, of course!