Hey, what happened to October?

Good heavens, it’s Hallowe’en tomorrow. Between a new puppy and a new sewing machine the days have just flown by. We head for the dog park every morning with Zoë and Fannie, and back again most days in the afternoon. A tired dog IS a good dog!

Fannie is spending this week “in jail” – she was spayed on Friday, and the only way I know to keep her quiet for the requisite week is in her crate. Fortunately she does not have the manic energy Zoë had at that age (still does, pretty much) and seems pretty happy sleeping and chewing on various toys. Zoë thinks this whole Fannie-in-the-crate thing is just weird and barks at her to come out and play. Ours is not always a quiet household.

Once the rains started a few weeks ago, garaging disappeared. We’re down to mostly estate sales, and a couple of weeks ago didn’t have a single one of those. So we were pretty excited on Friday to have three to attend. We lucked out, and the first one we went to was not the ones the obnoxious dealers started with. So we managed not to see them at all. Of course it's not just dealers who can be obnoxious. I was happy to find the cookie scoop I've been looking for.

But would believe that KK found one of these a few weeks ago, and some woman got all snarky at her over it? She saw KK pick it up to look at (it was in the kitchen with other utensils) and snarled at her, “That’s mine!” Evidently she hadn’t figured out that if you plan to buy something at these sales, you grab it and hang on. KK handed it over (I like to imagine she might have given a disdainful sniff as she did). One of our mottoes is, there will always be another one – and lots of times the price will be better!

At the next sale (the one I think all the dealers went to first) my big splurge was a vintage Mr. Bartender pouring spout. 

Since I don’t really drink I was thinking to use it on my olive oil bottle. But apparently it pours out a measured shot so that might not work. But it's vintage, it's chrome, it was one dollar…I'll think of something.

Added another vintage dish towel to the collection. This embroidered motif might give new meaning to the phrase about playing with your food.

Do you think there may have been recombinant DNA projects going on this far back – or that embroiderers may have come up with the idea? I mean, look at those vegies. Are they not walking around on grasshopper legs?

My favorite find of the day was not as practical, but I fell in love. Vintage dog acrobat.

No markings, I'm thinking Japan from the Fifties. Kind of reminds me of Zoë. If her paws could grip a bar, she would definitely do flips.

One more reason I love these sales. For just a few bucks you can own something that’s not just charming, but perhaps even a metaphor for life – or at least for the upside-down days!