Saturday, April 3, 2010

ON THE PROWL FOR THRIFTY GOODIES


My sister cracks me up. Had an email from her the other day in which she was telling me about getting caught up with listing items for sale on her website, then going out and finding more stuff to resell. “I plan on hitting a big church sale today after getting Mom home…I really should stay away from them because I have a pretty good backlog of stuff to list now, but what can I say, it's in our blood, no use fighting it. In fact it's probably affected by the full moon we've had. We are garage sale werewolves!”

So now you know, I come from a family of garage sale werewolves. Instead of pacing through the house, needing to be outside when the moon is full, we get extremely restless on Saturday mornings. And if we cannot go thrifting—look out, we bite! And yes, we’ve been known to infect others. We take someone along with us who has never been to a yard sale or thrift store, and they are so amazed at the great deals that they turn into garage sale werewolves too.

I should have t-shirts made up for us that say “Garage Sale Werewolf” but you know me, it would seem way too expensive! I’m awfully happy wearing the silk and cashmere sweater I bought for fifty cents a couple of weeks ago. As far as I'm concerned, that’s how much clothing should cost.

Being a holiday weekend, pickings were slim today. I thought for a while that not only would I find nothing to buy, it looked like I wouldn’t talk to anyone either. The curse of silence was finally broken by a couple of cute elderly pups. This is Lady, who is about 14
and her housemate Roxanne, who is 19.
Roxanne has had hard times in her life, but got lucky at the age of 10 when she was adopted by the ladies whose sale I stopped at. She’s a little lopsided from losing part of her jaw when the bone got infected, and she’s very hard of hearing, but like most dogs she doesn’t seem at all concerned about her infirmities. Dogs are such great role models! And these two have a real symbiotic relationship. Roxanne tends to dribble food since she's missing part of her jaw, but Lady is happy to clean up the dog food that falls on the floor!

The most exciting part of the morning came at a rather crowded sale where a number of shoppers showed up at the same time, including a couple walking a miniature Pinscher. “Oh,” said the lady having the sale, “keep an eye out for our cat. She likes dogs. In fact, here she comes.” This cat wasted no time checking out the dog on her driveway. She may like dogs, but she made sure that this one knew not to mess with her.
I was expecting hostilities to break out any moment, but both cat and dog decided not to push it. But neither one took their eyes off the other for a second.
Even when kitty got picked up to be petted, her gaze was glued to that dog still on the ground.

As I said, pickings were slim, but I'm happy with what I found. Spent a total of $8.50 and brought home five DVDs.
One is a new addition to the collection, the others will replace old VHS tapes.

My other find was this sweet little hand painted plate.


Love the name of the maker: Hutschenreuther.
As I often do, I looked it up when I got home. Turns out this was a well regarded German porcelain maker begun by a family of that name. Didn’t find this pattern, but there are over 3000 listings on eBay so they made a lot of china over the years! It's about 7” across, perfect for dessert.

Perhaps I should go bake something. It would be a shame to make this little beauty wait to be used.

15 comments:

  1. I've made it through Lent without entering a thrift store or antique mall. Whew. It would have been easier to give up coffee. Or chocolate. But, I guess the whole point is that it shouldn't be easy.

    On Monday I shall be on my way!

    Love the plate you found. So pretty!

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  2. Love that little plate! Glad you got out and hit some yards sales, feel better now? Me too!

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  3. My ex says I'm a yard sale addict and then when I can't go out due to rain, my personality changes. Maybe there is something to that after all. lol. I love your plate. I'm thinking maybe I can use that design someplace..... lol. Happy Easter. Pat.

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  4. I can relate to your sister's comment about her backlog... that's where I am too. I haven't been thrifting in two weekends and I feel like "howling"!! Love the little plate too.

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  5. only one garage sale in our town today...still a bit early for the spring rush of them. but i couldn't find the garage sale. i went to the block. drove around the block. twice. and nothing. i was so irritated! don't tease me newspaper and sign! don't tease me!

    and i am really with you on the back log. eesh. but as my husband says, 'it's inventory! and we need inventory!'

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  6. So THAT'S it - a thrift werewolf! I KNEW there was something different between me and the rest of my family! And it would explain why I have to wax so often!
    At least you've been to a sale. There aren't any in this area for a few weeks yet.
    Love the film ELF - so sweet.
    Have a wonderful Easter.
    Aaaroooooooooooo!

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  7. I will name that pattern, "mistletoe"!
    looks like it, don't you think? pretty!
    You should have been around North County and Monrovia where we went to an open house today. Must have passed 10 signs for different yard sales; alas, my unsympathetic middle son was driving, and he would not heed my moaning and gnashing of teeth...

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  8. Our local high school had a huge sale yesterday. It turned into sort of a mini-festival. There were about 25 "booths" along with folks selling BBQ, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, etc. Some students even provided musical entertainment.

    I bought way too much, but had so much fun. My best buys were a new pet carrier for my Himalayan cat, Gwennie, for seven bucks, and one of those raised feeding stations for my dog, Sandy, for five. (The folks running that booth must have owned a pet store in the past. They had everything for all kinds of pets.)

    Also found a brand new set of queen-size sheets for five bucks, a very pretty bowl shaped like a strawberry from Pier 1 for a quarter, and other stuff. It's hard to beat the feeling you get when you find bargains like that!

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  9. LOL I always get tickled at how cats fur gets all poofed up when a dog is near. Great find on the DVD's. Around here everyone seems to think DVD's at garage sales should be priced around $5 a piece :(

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  10. Oh how I have missed your yard sale adventures. You have the most interesting adventures and meet the sweetest four leggers :)
    Toni

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  11. I totally agree with your analogy! I think we are all werewolves in disguise. I start to feel a little hairy if I haven't been thrifting for a while. Great post!

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  12. Very cute story, and looks like you got some good finds too. I enjoy garage sales also! I love it when an entire neighborhood participates so that I can just park and walk around to all houses.

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  13. Hello, Saw you comment on my fiance's blog (odds and odds) and came over to read yours. Hutschenreuther is a fantastic company, one of the very finest in the world. I collect horse figurines and I've been praying to find a Hutschenreuther for a long time now. Some day!

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  14. Garage sales haven't begun in Central NY yet, but i am anxious!! Ilove lady's lopsided face - so sweet!

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I really love your comments. Thanks for coming along on my thrifty adventures!

 
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