BARGAIN GRINS

I had one of those Saturday mornings with a big score right at the beginning, so that I went around grinning like the Cheshire cat for the rest of the day.
The grin may have affected my ability to converse, because it wasn’t a very chatty morning. I admired this cute pug
and little Buttons, who had recently had an operation but other than the cone showed no signs of being convelescent
and exchanged pleasantries with folks, mainly along the lines of “My isn’t it hot - aren’t you glad you are/don’t you wish you were on the shady side of the street.” I had a moment of startlement (evidently I have just made up that word, since the built-in dictionary refuses to recognize it, but I like it so I'm keeping it) when I saw this item.
The startling thing (other than its being invented in the first place, let alone patented and manufactured and actually sold) was that I saw another one exactly like it, including being unused, at another sale earlier in the morning. What are the odds? Seems possible to me that these are the only two ever sold. Or maybe I'll start seeing them every week. If that happens then I'm sure it will cause bad dreams, in which I am pursued by grapefruit cutters down dark hallways and over misty landscapes full of bridges.

But though I was not presented with amazing life stories or even pet ducks, I did manage to spend $24.50. More than half was for the single item that caused my Cheshire grin. Yes, of course I'm saving that for last.

Found several DVDs
A book on CD, don’t see these too often in my price range
Some felt Christmas ornaments (all six for a dime, how could I not…)
A sort of combination mat/frame from Martha Stewart. These are designed to be autographed at an event, but it looks pretty good plain, and again it was a dime.
Now here’s a case where the packaging is inaccurate. I know it says these are turkey lacers
but I have been a vegetarian since 1972 and will never, ever do that to a turkey. So I am sure this is actually a lifetime supply of cake testers. No more sticking in my smallest paring knife to see if my cake is done. I just figured out I've been baking cakes for about fifty years now (yes I started young. Pretty young.) but some purchases you just don’t want to rush into.

Found two of these little Gund bears, which I'm hoping will sell at Christmas.
I picked up several items for children’s librarians’ door prizes…




…which is good, because I had a door prize extravaganza at my meeting with them last week. Everyone there got a prize. There was much merriment over the jester hat that Edward so disliked modeling.
I think this future door prize is particularly fine: a pair of Winnie the Pooh wine glasses for that after-work tipple.

So that brings us to my big buy of the day. I'm still grinning. Because I found a Heywood Wakefield Sculptura vanity and mirror for a very good price.


(Thanks to my husband and our friend Bob for holding the extremely heavy mirror in place so I could take a pic!)

I didn’t know it was Hey-Wake until I got it home. I just liked the lines and was pretty sure it was midcentury. The daughter of the family having the sale helped me wrestle it into the back seat of the convertible and I headed home to drop it off. Wasn’t sure if my husband would love it as much as I do—and he does!—but I knew it would be a fun piece for the retirement house. We were gloating and chortling over it, and Steven pulled out one of the drawers, where we spotted this.
Now of course I want a set of blond Hey-Wake twin beds to go with it. Maybe I'll spot some next week on a driveway.

They’ll be hiding under the grapefruit cutters, but we can leave those behind.