The Big Splurge

As I walked up the driveway of the first sale on Friday, I heard one of the selling ladies say, “They’re two dollars a dozen.”

My ears pricked up like a collie’s. Could they be talking about…no, couldn’t be…yes! EGGS!! Lovely brown eggs from happy chickens! Woo hoo! I scored two dozen, and hopefully will get more in the future. Ann, the egg lady, had brought her stuff over to her friend Becky’s house, which isn’t far from ours. And Ann’s husband sees Becky’s husband every week, so they can hand off future eggs and i can pick them up at Becky’s. And we can continue to have happy eggs.

Of course I looked for other treasures at their sale as we all chatted away. And didn’t find anything I couldn’t live without. Except for that very handsome leather sofa sitting there. By my lights the price tag was pretty hefty, but then I sat down on the darned thing.

Okay, no offense to any of you whose sofa I have sat on in the past…but this was the best sofa I’d ever experienced. I got the brand name from Becky and took a couple of pictures to show the hubs. The thing is, we sold our 8 foot long MCM sofa last week to a nice young couple (hi, Emily & Joe!) and I wasn’t planning to buy another for a good while. But here it was, butt heaven. I decided to think about it.

The next fun stop was another group effort. “We had several people bring stuff over and we’re making deals!” they promised me. The first thing I spotted was a little painted house from Poland.

Which turned out to be a box

with two little people inside.

And from what I can glean online, there were probably originally nine little people and a ball, and it was a set of skittles. But two is fine, and they are going to hang out with my Funny Little People collection.

I kept looking, and noticed some hand knit sweaters but not in our sizes. And then in a box under a table I hit treasure. Hand knit socks! Wow! (My friend Toni said, “But you knit socks yourself.” Which means I know to pick them up when I find them – though these are the first I’ve ever found.) I picked out my faves. The heavy wool ones

and the spiffy black and white ones

and the ones from self-striping yarn

that I believe Zoe has designs on

and the Fair Isle ones (the only pair that are too long, but I can fix that)

and the wild opposite colored socks.

And then in another jumbled box I found this gorgeous embroidered runner. Vintage, I’m guessing 1920s or 30s.

Probably intended for a buffet or mantel or even a piano top originally, since the lace is only on one long side.

I love the stylized iris design.

So I took my treasures up to pay for them, holding my breath to see what kind of deal we’d be making. “How about five bucks,” she said. You bet. No problem!

At another sale I picked up this 60s era horse to resell

and a vintage tablecloth that actually fits our dining table.

And I’m hoping these adorable painted shoes will fit one of my nearest-and-dearest, whose feet are much smaller than mine (as are these shoes).

The lady who sold them said she loved them so much she bought them even though they are two sizes too small for her. “I thought I’d just make them be okay…and I couldn’t!” she said. Yeah, feet are like that. And feet should not hurt!

She lived around the corner from some older ladies having a sale as well. They liked my car, though one thought I was awfully optimistic having a convertible in the Willamette Valley. I explained my car’s California origin, and then they told me stories of convertibles from their youth. I think it was their house where I scored this Pyrex carafe with the cool cork ball lid.

On Saturday I was scheduled to return to the Sheridan Library to talk to their writers group in the afternoon. And in the morning I met up with Ann, one of the ladies who came to my Shopping on Driveways program there a few weeks ago. (Hi, Ann!) She’s the local school librarian…for five more days. And then she retires and reinvents herself and she is SO excited she literally was jumping up and down. Have to confess I was a little late getting up there. A zillion sales in Salem on Saturday, including a nearby neighborhood sale. Which seemed a bit played out to me, not as good as previous years, but I did score these MCM teak table legs to try to resell

                          and the perfect little table to go with our vintage outdoor chairs.

When I got to Sheridan I asked Ann if she was okay with having the top down on the car. She gave me one of those ‘duh’ looks so we happily tooled around town checking out the local sales. She found a bunch of stuff including some great clothes, and I found Mel Torme

and a cute fifty cent sweater with ruffled sleeves.

Then we had Mexican food and margaritas. Then we went to the writing group. I hope I made sense; it was only one margarita!

Okay, wait, you’re saying. What about this big splurge? For that we must double back to Friday afternoon, when I’d returned home and had a cool drink and looked up the sofa I’d seen on that first driveway. (An Ekornes Stressless Manhattan.) The one that seemed pretty spendy to me. As it turns out, they still make this sofa and it goes for, oh, around $4000. So it wasn’t all that spendy after all. Grabbed the hubster and went to see it again. Another guy was looking at it when we arrived, but he went off to think about it. We sat down – butt heaven again – and talked and thought, and went home and talked some more.

And went back and bought it.

   And we love it. All of us. Maybe especially Zoe.

But she’s willing to share.