Pride Goeth

I like to think I’m pretty good at this garaging thing. I’ve done it for years, I go out regularly, I know what I’m doing, right? I mean, I literally wrote the book about it! And yet…

KK and I went out Friday morning (Judy was home with a hubby who had surgery this week), and we had our usual rollicking good time. Mostly nice folks to chat to, and the occasional sale that you walk away from trying not to let the folks hear you laughing. Like the one that had a tableful of jeans – marked $50 each! Good lord. I’d be hard pressed to spend $5 on a pair of yard sale jeans, let alone ten times that. If I spend fifty bucks on something, I want to be able to return it if something is wrong. KK said the weirdest part for her was that people were actually looking at the things.

Then there was the sale that had about eight ads for it on Craigslist. I don’t know how they do that, Craigslist never lets me load an ad more than once even if I change the title. Some of the ads cracked me up, especially the one that promised an “executive family moving sale.” As we drove there, we tried to figure out just what an executive family entails. What would executive children be like? Not to mention executive pets, since our pets are part of the family. I’m trying very hard not to think about executive parakeets.

Turned out to be just one woman, who might or might not have been an executive. I would say she did show executive ability. When we admired the beautiful maple trees on her corner lot, she decried all the leaves on the ground and ranted about having to rake them or hire a gardener. KK said she finds raking pleasant and meditative, and the executive tried to hand her a rake.

So yes, it was a fun morning. Then I got home and started looking at my purchases. One was a vintage pig pull toy, an old Fisher Price, and the more I looked at him the less I knew why I had shelled out a dollar. Very dirty and quite beat up. I decided not to keep him, so off he went to the donation box.

At our first stop of the day I purchased a set of Ikea sheets for our king size bed for $4. New in the package,

and I love the fabric. Reminds me of Marimekko. When I opened the package, the fabric had a great feel to it. I shook out my sheets – and realized I had not bought sheets, I had bought a duvet cover! I looked at the packaging again and saw that in Ikea picture-speak it clearly indicates a duvet cover. Sigh.

But Zoe immediately fell in love with it.

And Edward likes it too.

So we’re going to try it as a duvet cover.

The pink floral comforter I bought for a couple of bucks about fifteen years ago admittedly looks a zillion times better stuffed into it.

I was quite happy to find a little trinket dish to make into a magnetic pin holder.

No problems with this buy, although I did clunk it pretty hard on the edge of the table and then nearly drop it, so almost broke the darned thing as soon as I got it home. (Not the first time I’ve done that!) I taped a magnet on the underside

and it really does hold pins. The low rim makes it easy to scoop them out for use.

KK noticed the vintage children’s records. Since they were only a quarter each, I added some to my bag. My heart beat a little faster over finding my absolute favorite childhood song, How Much is That Doggie in the Window.

Alas, even though we have the vintage stereo to play them on, they’re not in good enough condition. I don’t want to ruin the needle. But it was interesting to see these names.

If you’re anywhere close to my age, you probably know Robert Keeshan better as Captain Kangaroo. I absolutely adored the captain and all his crew. Mr. Greenjeans. Grandfather Clock. Bunny Rabbit. I think I got my 75¢ worth just in the nostalgia of remembering Captain Kangaroo.

Then there was the vintage creamer I brought home.

It was only fifty cents, and I like the handle on the side. But the actual deciding factor was that I looked on the bottom and saw that it was made in Finland. Cool, I thought, don’t find stuff from Finland very often. Except when I was photographing it, I realized it actually says England, not Finland. Not that England isn’t cool, but English china is far more common than Finnish.

And on top of that, when I took it out of the dishwasher this morning, I saw there’s a tiny chip on the spout.

(Actually much less noticeable than in this nice clear macro photo!) I don’t know whether it was there when I bought it or if it happened after arriving home. But at the same sale I found a 25¢ Melmac sugar bowl in cotton candy pink.

Perfect as a Q-tip holder in our bathroom, along with the other two I use in there.

A pink midcentury sugar bowl makes up for a lot.