Monday, August 26, 2013

Checking out the Chicks

Judy was in fine form on Friday, trying on all the hats we could find on the driveways of Salem. She ranged from glamorous

elegant Judy

to cute

Cute cap

to…how about mysterious.

This hat's too big!

She was ready to lead a parade

Ready for a parade

or go trick-or-treating.

Roar like a lion

Some of you may be saying, what the heck is that girl in the background holding? (The one who’s keeping her distance in case these two crazy women are actually dangerous.) She is holding a chicken. A silkie chicken, to be exact.

Charity the chicken

Named Charity.

It was a different sale that had fresh-laid eggs for sale. We each bought a dozen.

Fresh eggs

Right after we met Charity the Chicken we met Chester.

Chester the Westie

Chester’s sale was the one where I bought a nice kite.

Double French military kite

(Zoe wants to know what this thing is in her living room.) Hadn’t flown kites for years until we were at the beach a few weeks ago, and the kite-flying bug has bit us again. This one in a double French military kite. Big French militaries were used in WW2 as man-lifting kites – they used them to get men aloft off battleships to do lookout duties. I was chatting with the guy who sold me this kite, and he said he really wanted one of the big two-line parafoil kites he’d seen at the beach. So the last time they were at the coast he bought the biggest one he could find. “That sucker was dragging me down the beach,” he said. “It about lifted me out of my shoes. I took it back and got a smaller size!” My kite luck held, and the next day I found this guy.

Big flying bug

I have a super bug phobia, but even I can’t be alarmed by him.

What a face

He was originally purchased as a souvenir in Puerto Rico and has been displayed on a bedroom wall. But one of these day’s we’ll let him actually fly. Kites like that.

A couple of the sales we hit on Friday had just unbelievable amounts of random stuff. We wondered if maybe these people were buying up abandoned storage units or something. But they had really good prices. At one, I came away with a brand new twin sheet (we have several twin beds for guests)

sheet

for a whole fifty cents. At the other I bought a video (one of these, but can’t remember which!)

more movies

and a vocal-exercises CD for my husband

vocal CD

for a dollar (for both!). Then Judy showed me a mystery object.

hard-working giraffe

Yes, it is a little giraffe thingie. An odd little giraffe, made of pewter

Tin Woodsman tag

who turned out to be an espresso tamper!

espresso tool

My husband does make espresso using his yard-sale vintage La Pavoni

La Pavoni

and he uses a rather elegant rosewood tamp, but maybe he’ll have days he feels like using the giraffe instead. And if not, I’ll put this guy on eBay around Christmas-time to make some whimsical coffee lover’s day.

I was happy with this score.

embroidered case  hand embroidery

The hand-embroidered cover encloses a dozen never-used dinner napkins in a lovely white damask fabric.

D is for Dozen

They’re big. Twenty-three inches square. Enough for the largest lap.

good for wide laps

Yes, that is the letter D hand embroidered on each napkin. No, the letter D does not figure into any of our names. Here’s the thing: our sweet dog Zoe seems to have a vendetta going against any cloth she can get her teeth on. She’s chewed up a large number of dish towels and cloth napkins. We’re getting better about keeping them out of her reach, but she’s a wily creature and still snags them from time to time. So I needed cloth napkins. I got a dozen beautiful ones for – are you ready? – fifty cents. So as far as I’m concerned, the D stands Danged Decent Deal.

Why were they so inexpensive? (I refuse to use the word ‘cheap’ for such nice napkins.) The lady who sold them to me (probably in her 70s) was given a lot of stuff that had been her aunt’s. These napkins were from her aunt’s husband’s first wife so her aunt never used them. And now it was time to clear her home of all the stuff that had been her aunt’s.

So the dozen napkins were fifty cents.

I went back out on Saturday morning by myself. Found some ten-cent magazines and the rest of those DVDs, and met some pets. (No more chickens though.)

Peekaboo  handsome kitty

I picked up a lovely Noritake dinner plate.

Lovely plate  Plate detail  Noritake

Sometimes you want something a little fancy to eat from. It will go great with the napkins. As I was leaving this sale, I paused to chat with an older gentleman and his miniature schnauzer. He struck a pose and said, “Our mustaches match!”

The Chick Magnets

I had to get their picture, of course, and as I did he said, “You know what’s the best thing about a dog like this?” I couldn’t imagine, but he had a ready answer.

“He’s a chick magnet!”

8 comments:

  1. I always enjoy reading about your yard sale finds. You never disappoint me.

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  2. what a great buy on that sheet for fifty cents! It was fun to see your bargains!

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    1. I know...a brand new, all cotton sheet for fifty cents. Better than buying a lottery ticket any day!!

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  3. Hi! I regularly read your blog but seldom comment. I love all your finds and your little stories about them and the pets you meet.
    I am headed out a little later to a community yard sale. A lot of towns around here have town wide sales, but this town does it one better. Instead of running all over town to the locations, they have everyone set up in the big college parking lot. Makes it a lot easier and fun. Last year I got a beat up boom box for a quarter. I wanted it to play my cassettes as all my players were broken. The CD player on it is broken but the cassette works fine. And as a bonus the radio works great even though the antenna is broken off.

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    1. That sounds like a great sale, and what a great system with gas so expensive. And a boom box for a quarter? You really scored!

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  4. Awesome hats!!!! And great finds. Thanks for visiting and I appreciate all your hard work scouring the sales. Beautiful napkins!

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  5. Hi, I'm one of the folks you met at Happy Curry.
    My brain failed me and I can't remember the name of the cat book you told me about. The cat who pretended to be a hat, because he was ready for adventure? I did find The Grandfather Tales. :)

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

 
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