And I Almost Didn't Go!

We were happy campers on Friday. Went to a moving sale close to home that was just random junk in the garage, but Judy and I both walked away with one of these large pots for a couple of bucks each. 

They’re made of that foam stuff, which I like for its lighter weight, and big enough for a tree.

Next was the annual book sale at one of the big downtown churches. We were barely inside the door when we spied the free boxes and had a good time pawing through those. I came away with a couple of knitting magazines, plus these two treasures:

If you remember Hullabaloo, welcome to the Baby Boom. I grabbed it for the hilarity of learning a dance from photographs. Raise your hand if you too had a pair of white go-go boots!

And how could I pass up something (free) as weird as a cookbook of recipes using diet soda? Ig. While the illustrations are pretty cool,

the recipes are just gag-worthy. (Yes, I am a food snob, but still…) Soup, anyone?

From there we headed to an antique-heavy estate sale. I thought there was nothing of interest (either style or price-wise). But then I spied some linen peeking out of a partially open drawer, which turned out to be a lovely linen tablecloth from Belgium (and the brand turned out to price their lovely tablecloths at $250 and up).

Down in the basement I found a pair of placemats I liked,

and Judy turned up a vintage linen towel. 

They accepted a fiver for all of it. Judy & KK both found a few things as well, so we went off to lunch feeling happy and satisfied.

And then there was Saturday!

I wasn’t sure I wanted to bother going to the one estate sale I saw on Craigslist. The pictures didn’t look like much and the sale was in an apartment rather than a house. But the ad mentioned that the lady had been an artist and that there were lots of nice clothes. I took the GPS along when I went to the dog park that morning, and when we left there I decided the girls could spend a few minutes in the car while I ran in to see if there was anything good.

To get the complete picture, going straight from the dog park where I had tramped around a swampy field in the rain for over an hour meant dripping hair, sopping coat, mud on my boots. But hey, it's Oregon. No one batted at eye at my appearance.

At the sale, I made my way to the back bedroom and stared in amazement. The artist had turned this entire room into a closet, with clothing racks on all four sides and another down the middle. Every rack was so stuffed it was hard to look at anything. I pulled out a sweater that looked soft. Immediately my hand said cashmere, but the label had been removed. I pulled out more, same story. Then I noticed the sign on the wall.

Clothes $1

Coats $5

One dollar for cashmere? Oh, yes - label or no label. I wasn’t sure what sizes were there, but didn’t really care. If I only used these to make undershirts and wrist warmers it would be worth it. At a dollar each I just pulled any color that I liked.

Then on the far wall I reached the non-sweater clothing and practically swooned. Many of the pieces were by Citron Santa Monica, which I know is quite pricey. Their shirts, usually of silk, are in the $150 and up range. These were a dollar. I added more hangers to my pile.

Then I saw the shelves of scarves, priced at 75¢. And realized that these were made of cashmere and silk and alpaca. More into my pile.

A few other ladies were shopping the clothes, but most looked into the room and backed right out again. No one else made a pile like mine, and from comments I overheard I think it was because so many things had the tags removed and people weren’t sure what they were buying. I chatted a bit with one lady, who looked at all the turtlenecks and began to reminisce about wearing them in high school.

“I have a really long neck and I was so self-conscious about it that I wore turtlenecks all the time, just trying to hide,” she said. She paused, then added, “I couldn’t believe it when I was voted best-dressed my senior year!”

I finally made myself leave the clothing room and walked through the rest of the house. Nothing in the kitchen or living room of interest, but in the other bedroom I spotted this.

A Pendleton White Raven blanket. It was pretty expensive compared to the cashmeres and silks: $2.

In all I went away with $40 worth, which took two trips to get to the car. When I got home I saw that KK had texted me, asking if I wanted to go to a sale over in Dallas. I called her and said she had to get to the one I had just left. Then I called her again and said I wanted to go with her. So I made a second trip over there. We went straight to the clothing room which was still packed with cashmere and silk and wool. KK found over $40 worth, and I picked up about ten more pieces.

Then we went back to my house to compare our finds. Oh. My. God. Look at our piles.

We did show-and-tell first with my mountain, then hers, oohing and ahhing over what we had found. Later that evening I tried on every piece and was thrilled that most of them fit. Since I wear turtlenecks constantly in the winter, this is a golden opportunity to move up from the cotton ones I've been using to cashmere. The ones that are too short or tight I can embiggen with the non-turtlenecks I brought home.

So what did I find? Twenty-two sweaters. All are cashmere except for a couple of silk and wool ones.

I am crazy about the cashmere ponchos! Got one in beige and one in black.

I have 9 new scarves,

including hand-woven alpaca and pink plaid cashmere.

Ten pieces are Citron, 

plus two pairs of wool Pendleton slacks,

several rayon pieces,

and two hand-painted silk cocoon jackets from the 80s.

I now have a pair of black cashmere slacks. Who knew they made cashmere pants? When I tried them on, it was all I could do to take them off again to be washed. And look at the cool detail at the hem of a pair of Citron pants.

The seller did not want to keep the hangers for all the clothing, and many of them are posh. Lots of padded ones, and even some hand decorated ones. This one is not just covered with hand knitting - the yarn looks like alpaca!

And this wooden hanger has been hand covered with purple velvet, possibly silk velvet from the feel.

From outside the clothing room, I picked up a vintage tablecloth, 

the Pendleton blanket, 2 hats, 

and a linen towel.

Then there were more things outside by the cashier. Where I picked up a great tote bag. Of course I looked up its brand when I got home and found that their totes in this size retail for about $150.

And if that deal doesn’t sound good enough…I found a dime in one of the pockets.