Today’s Post is Brought to You by the Letter L

L as in…lie on top of your brother because he’s a lot warmer than the tile floor! Yes, this is Zoe’s new favorite sleeping spot, when she’s not sleeping on someone’s lap or in her crate. It’s a little frustrating for her, though, because Edward is not perfectly flat, so she keeps sliding off. She’s working it out though. I saw her lying on him a little while ago with one foot on the floor to brace herself. Edward, saintly dog that he is, just reclines and lets her experiment with the perfect way to stay on top of him. We’re wondering if he’ll still put up with it when she gets bigger. She was at the vet this morning for a shot and weighed in at 18 pounds – 3 pounds more than one week ago. (Yes, she’s a good eater!)

L is also for something I found this morning at an estate sale that I Love. I was easily able to pass up the Frankoma pottery, and wasn’t tempted by the quite nice collection of giraffes, though the yoyo with a giraffe decal on it was a little tempting. (I overheard one of the two sisters holding the sale that their mother had loved giraffes because she herself was quite short.) But then I spotted these two little stainless steel lidded jars by Lauffer waiting for me.

My midcentury modern antennae quivered. When I saw they were from Denmark, I had to have them.

There was just one thing. I wasn’t 100% sure of the price.

Given what other items were marked, I figured this was fifty cents. But I’ve been to more than one estate sale around here where it could have been fifty dollars. One of the sisters was in the back of the room, so I went to check with her. Yup, fifty cents. She said she was so tired last night when they were prepping the sale that this was how her price tags came out. We started chatting, turns out they moved to Portland from Alaska a few months ago. Then as the conversation moved along she asked what I did before I moved here, and it turns out her husband is also a retired librarian!

Probably could have stood there yakking all day, I was enjoying her so much, but other customers needed her, and I had Zoe in the car. So I went off to pay for my treasures. Her sister said, “Oh, yes, you’re the librarian.” Hmmm, must have been talking louder than I thought!  I said something about enjoying talking to her sister and she allowed as how their family was quite conversational. Well, her mother was, but not their dad. “When they’d go to church, he’d just go sit in the van and smoke his pipe afterward and let her talk as long as she wanted to.” She gave a reminiscent chuckle. “When dad died, he was cremated. After the service there was a little gathering for friends and family. So I took his ashes and put them in the car with his pipe. He never did like to go to those things!”

So L is also for laugh – because that’s what I was doing as I left!

When I got home I started looking for info on my little stainless steel pieces. It turns out they were designed by Arne Jacobsen, who was a midcentury architect and designer! These are probably condiment jars. They’re similar to a sugar bowl he designed, but taller and thinner. (Hmmm, maybe they tie in to the giraffes, the epitome of tall and thin?) After I shined them up I was inspired to make one my current sugar bowl. My little ceramic spoon just fits.

  

Lovely!

I wand to give everyone a bit of a heads-up that my posts may be limited or even lacking for the next few weeks. Our little Zoe is starting Puppy Kindergarten tomorrow! Classes are on Saturday morning, and she really needs to be working on her social skills, so unless there are Friday sales I’ll have to go without for a few weeks. Hope I’m not too twitchy at puppy school, missing going to sales! Of course, with a roomful of cute puppies no one will be looking at me. Plus, on March 3 I’m doing a couple of workshops at this preschool conference – including my Shopping on Driveways workshop. Can’t wait to go encourage folks to experience the wonders of garage sales!

Uh-oh, must fly. Looks like I need to remind a certain puppy to Leave the kitty alone!

Though Edward’s doing heroic work as a go-between.

Puppy school cannot come too soon!