T-BIRDS AND TEAPOTS AND A TEA TOWEL TOO

Saturday morning started auspiciously at the bagel store. As I was waiting for my toasted bagel with cream cheese to be prepped, the other lady waiting for her order asked me if I came here often. I told her once in a while, and she said, “Here, I forgot to use my coupon, you can use it next time you come.” And she gave me a coupon for a free bagel with cheese with the purchase of a drink. Good through June—but I'll probably use it next week!

As I drove off, I noticed a duck in the parking. I think he was saving a parking place for someone.

I headed out, making my way toward a neighborhood sale in Huntington Beach. Saw a few signs along the way, and at the first sale I parked behind a man who was trying to fit a wooden easel into his small car. “You’ll have to be an artist now,” I commented, and he laughed and said first he had to figure out how to get the thing home. That’s when I noticed the car—a vintage Thunderbird.
“It's a ’55, with a ’57 porthole top,” he told me. “Yeah, it's really a lot of fun to drive.”

In the passenger seat lounged a large stuffed bunny. I said Bunny must really enjoy riding with him.
“I just bought him,” the guy said. “I figure on Easter it will be okay to use the car pool lane with him in the car, right?” I agreed—it would be just too churlish of the Highway Patrol to give someone a ticket on Easter just because their riding companion wasn’t actually a person.

I crossed the street and shopped the first sale, then headed back to my car. The T-bird man had finally gotten the easel wedged in his trunk, and was talking to another guy of about the same age. “Yeah,” I heard him say as I started my engine, “it's a ’55 with a ’57 porthole top. Really a lot of fun to drive.”

Down the street I found another sale, apparently held by several young couples. One of the guys was holding up this object and commenting on how cool it was.

A vintage bike light with AM radio. How I would have loved it when I was 12! I took the pictures and mentioned my blog, handing over one of my calling cards. They seemed to enjoy the card, and when I asked the price of something, one of the guys said a dollar, and then his wife said, “No, fifty cents! She’s the fifty cent lady.” Found something else I liked, and again she priced it at fifty cents. It's always so gratifying to encounter someone who speaks your language!

The neighborhood sale was a bit out of my usual area, but I'm glad I headed over there—it proved fruitful. Evidently this tract does a neighborhood sale annually, and I heard several sellers commenting that this was the most traffic they’d seen in several years. When I arrived home I found that my husband had the LA Times folded open to the big article headlined “Garage sales are a win-win in this economy .” Ummm…duh! I hope one of the results of this period is that people will realize that garaging is a win-win in any economy. Monetary issues aside (because the advantages are so obvious they hardly need belaboring), thrifting is green, and a heckuva lot of fun. Whenever I buy something new, I'm struck by how annoying all that packaging is. Besides putting more stuff in the landfill, a lot of it is just darned hard to get open. How in the world will I be able to get into one of those plastic clamshell thingies when I'm elderly? I can barely manage now with the help of electric scissors! Thank heavens most of what I buy is second hand—so no packaging, and no awful sizing smell in my ‘new’ clothes.

Okay, I'll step off my soapbox now!

The dogs of the day included Baxter, a miniature Schnauzer, who likes to bark. Also Bella the bulldog, who doesn’t bark.


Here’s what I picked up this week. I spent a total of $28.50, and over a third of it went for one deal. But I'm not going to tell you which, you’ll have to guess!

I scored two pairs of like-new Levi 550s in my husband’s size. Sorry, no picture, but you don’t need one. Just close your eyes and imagine a really cute middle aged guy. Now picture him in relaxed-fit jeans. You got it—that’s exactly what he looks like in his new 550s!

This Pooh lamp was the first buy of the morning.
I think I'll use it on my desk at work, so I can leave the obnoxious overhead fluorescents off. He looks a bit like he’s having a Near-Death Experience (“The light! I see a very bright light!”) but with that honey pot in his arms you know he’ll go happy.
Found door-prizes-to-be for children’s librarians:
This great monkey is made on a wire frame, so he’s posable.

Twenty-one new boxes of crayons—made from soybeans.

And who wouldn’t want a purple unicorn marionette?
I recently got a camcorder at work for making library webcasts, and this will make a good bag for it.
Of course the label has to come off. Danged if I'm going to walk around carrying a bag with a label that says Dickies.

These cat shoes are too cute. How I wish they were my size, but alas they are not, so they’ll be sold. They’re a size 9, so if you’re interested let me know and we could avoid the eBay middleman.
This find is a keeper however—a fabbo Noritake teapot, creamer and sugar bowl. I haven’t yet found the pattern name, so if anyone knows what it is, give a holler. I used the pot at breakfast this morning, and I just love it—the shape of the handle, the way it pours.

Speaking of breakfast, last week’s waffle iron is a keeper as well. I'm so happy to be able to use my waffle cookbook again (our last waffle iron died some time ago).

Great book (she wrote a wonderful pancake book too). This morning we had ricotta waffles with fresh strawberries and sour cream. Yummers!

I love the bunnies on this William Sonoma dish towel.
I scored three shirts and two sweaters. The soft pinwale corduroy shirt is a Polo Ralph Lauren. I may have to share it with my husband—we both like it.
I will need to shorten the sleeves on this denim colored Eddie Bauer sweater—evidently it started life as a guy’s sweater, but no need for it to stay that way!
Black Italian sweater of 100% merino wool—it has an incredible hand, very springy. If my hubs decides he doesn’t like it, I think I'll try felting it.
This sweet rayon blouse is a Liz Claiborne.
Says to dry clean, but as you may know, I don’t do dry clean. I've given it a hand wash and it's drying on the line. Keep your fingers crossed that it didn’t shrink so I can wear it with my swishy black skirt. But if it does shrink, my loss will be the thrift store’s gain.

And a cheerful border print shirt, should be fun to wear this summer. The fabric is linen and rayon, feels great.

I'll be able to replace one of my non-whistling kettles. The older and more forgetful I become, the more necessary is the whistle!
And lastly, a lovely framed watercolor. I think I'll hang it over my computer at home; I'm a little tired of the picture that’s there now.
I thought this bed of nasturtiums was amazing, and when I commented on it, the lady having the sale laughed. “We didn’t even know they were blooming. We always park the car right here so they were out of sight.” We talked about nasturtiums as edible, and she said when she was a child they put them on sandwiches. I've had them in salads, but a nasturtium sandwich sounds awfully charming!
Favorite comment of the day: at the sale with the vintage bike light, the conversation wandered from yard sales to weather (via the thought that we’re so lucky to be able to go to sales all year round here, unlike places with snow). One of the guys commented, “Talk about snow. I lived in Indiana for four years once. It was the longest eight years of my life.”