FROM PIGS TO POTATOES

The first driveway I visited this morning was neatly edged with plastic bins, each filled with clothing for a baby girl. Each marked with the sizes…2 mo., 4 mo., 6 mo… The lady having the sale noticed me looking at them and said ruefully, “First granddaughter. Everyone went a little crazy.” Hope some young moms got to this sale, looked like these things had been worn maybe once. And they would have had to change her clothes about five times a dayfor her to wear everything before she outgrew it!

Another sale had a lot of clothing, this time for adults. “I'm arranging it all by color,” the seller told me, hanging up a denim shirt in the blue section. I mentioned that they do that at the Goodwill stores around here. “Oh, I know, and it makes me crazy,” she said. “I don’t know why they don’t arrange by size.” She hung up a shirt in the white section as she spoke.

It was a singularly dog-less morning, but I did meet this nice kitty, Tiger.

Several sales were of the deluded types that believe they are really antique fairs. Or as my friend Marcia says, those folks are way too proud of their stuff. One of these had some fun items but I was about to leave because the prices were so high. But then the fellow having the sale mentioned as he passed me to ignore the marked prices, they were dealing. Ahhh, music to my ears! A basket with ornamental bird nests and blown glass birds was marked $20, so I asked what they might take for just one of the birds. His mother came over and we started talking. Apparently she is quite a collector and decorator. She said she has hundreds of pieces in her Humpty Dumpty collection, and then there’s her Alice in Wonderland collection, and on it went. I told her about a book I was looking at this week called 500 Handmade Dolls, published by Lark Books. A couple of really nice artist made versions of Alice are in it, and she wrote down the title so she could look it up this evening. (Lark has done a whole series of these books, and they’re fabbo. There’s one on teapots, another on tiles, another on quilts…and having looked at them I now want to collect all those things! Check your public library, and if they don’t have the series you could ask to interlibrary loan them.)

By the time I left I'd spent $7.00 at her sale—which was less than the price marked on just one of her items. Two lessons here—always ask for a better price, and always take the time for a little schmoozing so they will want to give you that better price!

Spent a total of $13 this morning, so her sale was more than half. Here’s what I got:

This is the glass bird I picked out of the basket to get the bargaining rolling. I think it's German. I was relieved it reached home with it intact—I've broken things in my car a few times.


Little Red Riding Hood will be going to my office to live with my collection of children’s literature toys. Isn’t the little wolf doll a hoot? It's not marked, but it might be a Department 56 piece.

This little piggy is definitely Department 56—still has its $13.50 price tag.


I actually like the box as much as the ornament!
I may take this Humpty Dumpty rug to work too. Don’t think the janitors ever actually vacuum our offices so it won’t be in anyone’s way. ;o)
While I was taking its picture my pets started coming by. May have to rethink taking it to work. Everyone but Mrs. Wilberforce has stopped in to lay on it, and I expect she’ll be along soon.

Don't you love Noll's artistic pose? What a show off!

I dithered a bit over this plate, which was marked $8.

Finally asked a price, and she held up one finger, so I said sure. Then she asked me what it was marked, and I said eight bucks. So she goes, oh, then how about three dollars. Ummm, well, I liked it better at one I told her, and she said okay. Sheesh, yard sales don’t work like that—after you quote a price you move DOWN from it, not UP!
It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed the Bunny in the Moon.
Evidently it's artist made—signed Howell ’87 on the back. Anyone recognize the maker?
At other sales I found a big soft ball to play with in the pool…
…some fun candles…
…a garland to put together for Valentine’s Day…
…and a whole bunch of small tubes of the toothpaste my husband uses. I know, how unexciting, toothpaste—but I checked on the price when I was at the grocery store, where it was $1.69 per ounce. My score cost about 24 cents per ounce. I win!
And if you want to get really unexciting, my other great buy of the morning was a ten pound bag of potatoes at the 99 Cent Store. Hey, when was the last time you saw potatoes for ten cents a pound?