Where the Heck ARE They?

It’s Spring. Definitely. Things blooming all over the place, including a zillion daffodils in my yard.

The Japanese maple has adorable baby leaves and the birdbath is full of pink cherry blossoms.

So where the heck are the yard sales?

Rain? You think the rain is still stopping things? I bet you’re right! And okay, I admit there have been sales in town, but so widely scattered I haven’t even been tempted. Not with gas prices the way they are. So it’s been strictly local, which for the past couple of weekends translates to two sales, and a total expenditure of six bucks. But again everything I found was on my look-for list. I’m starting to wonder if I’m going to wipe out that whole list this year…and what I’ll do if that happens! Actually, I know the answer to that. I will be the luckiest woman alive because I’ll have nothing left to want for, and can just spend the next forty years or so (yes, planning to live to a very ripe old age!) enjoying what I have. Now that’s a plan.

So what did I find at these two sales? Last weekend at a sale set up on the wide front porch of an old Craftsman house I picked up three cotton turtlenecks.

I had been thinking I might have to buy some in a store, because I wear turtlenecks constantly for about 7 months of the year, and two or three of my current supply are at least twenty years old. Guess it pays to buy good quality, huh. They’re tatty, but so soft and comfy, hard to give up. Now they can go to a well deserved rest in the rag bag.

Another fifty cents went for a set of fondue forks

to use with that Dansk fondue pot I found almost exactly a year ago.

Someday I hope to find some classy Dansk forks, but in the meantime this set should encourage increased fonduing. Fondueing? Fondue forking?

This Saturday we stopped at one sale on our way up to Portland (more on that in a moment). Her Craigslist ad said she had over-shopped and over-collected and was selling off her crafting stash. She also said she had “the usual garage sale stuff” which included tatting lace. To me the usual garage sale stuff is more along the lines of used candle stubs, stuffed toys, and a handful of rusty tools. Had to go to her sale just to find out what “tons more etc.” might entail. Sadly, either she’d already had a bunch o’ buyers by the time we arrived, or she overstated the merchandise a bit. No, a lot. Steven took one look around and decided that price-wise “she was dreaming.” However, even here I found something on my list, and it was fifty cents.

I decided last December when I was hand-cutting homemade dog biscuits  to give as Christmas treats to our dog park friends that I had to find a small cookie cutter or two. This should speed up production considerably. And with a bit of elbow grease I was able to remove most of the vintage price-tag goo.

The drive up to Portland was to attend this plant sale. Our relandscaping still requires quite a few plants, and we were able to make a dent in the list in this one place. Doesn’t look like all that many plants grouped in their boxes like this

but I’m very pleased with what we found, including Himalayan maidenhair ferns for under that Japanese maple,

three kinds of lavender, a couple of salvias and a penstemon, and several varieties of heuchera which will go around the birdbath to take over when the daffodils are finished. I can hardly wait to get everything in the ground.

But you know, I just realized that even when every item on my need-to-find list has been found and brought home, there will probably ALWAYS be another plant that I will want!