Four Sales, Nine Dollars, and Several Conversations Later…

Where was Judy when we needed her? The object of the day turned out to be vintage hats, and she is our hat model! Alas, she couldn’t be with us on Friday. I loved this beauty, but couldn’t justify spending a fiver on it when I have two others of a similar nature.

Neither of mine has amazing folded ribbon trim decorating them though.

Hmmm. I just realized that tomorrow will be their half-price day, and the sale is close to home. Must resist…

The same sale had linens bundled for $4 “unless otherwise marked.” You can bet I scrutinized my bundle to make sure I wouldn’t have a price surprise when I paid, but four bucks it was. Which got me quite a deal.

A hand-printed tablecloth from France that is still being sold in stores. This size goes for $120. And the set of six matching napkins?

They retail for $85. The set feels close to new. Even better…no dryer sheet smell!

Didn’t have to pay a penny for the nice conversation with the white haired lady who was also enjoying the hats. We met up again in the dining room by a bookshelf, where she commented that she so wished she could have known the person whose estate sale this was. “I can tell by her books that we would have really gotten along well,” she told me.

I am wondering if anyone named Ingrid came along after we were there, and scooped up this sign.

Had another interesting conversation at our next stop. A woman a few years younger than me was perusing tablecloths and said ruefully that she is practically helpless to resist them. I commiserated, thinking of my own over-stuffed tablecloth drawers. And the stack of vintage pillowcases, and drawer full of kitchen towels. As we chatted, she mentioned she is moving to Hawai’i soon. I was surprised. “Most people sell everything they have before they move there,” I commented, “since it's so expensive to ship things over.” But she said she has it all worked out.

“I bought a shipping container, and I'm taking everything,” she told me. “I have a big old Victorian in Albany I'm getting ready to put on the market. Whatever space is left in the container I’ll sell to other shippers. Then when I get there, I'll have the container moved to the land I'm going to buy, and I’ll live in it until I can build something. I lived in my car once and liked it so I figure this will be even better.” 

Then she started telling me how some of her friends think she’s crazy, and how much healthier she’ll be over there, and somehow it became a bit of a rant. I was standing there thinking about a life path that led from living in a car to buying a million dollar shipping container, and whether she might like to adopt me, but wondering if the friends might be right and she’s certifiable or possibly delusional or just plain making it all up.

 But I hope her story was true, and that gray haired ladies can go from living in a car to living in a shipping container in Hawai’i.

This was the sale where I resisted all the linens (let them go to Hawai’i) but picked up a couple of pairs of clip earrings to make into sweater guards.

My SIL has been looking for some, and while I thought two bucks a pair was a bit high, I liked them. 

I also picked up this adorable kitty pin, 

a measuring cup to go into the dog food container (an upgrade from the plastic scoop from a box of detergent I've been using for years), 

and a vintage aluminum half teaspoon measure. 

It's going in my jar of stevia; I use a half teaspoon of the stuff in a pitcher of iced tea, so now it will have its own little scoop. Looks a lot better after I washed it!

When I went to pay, I set everything on the table. The guy running the sale (we know him from other sales) gave a quick glance and said, “One dollar.” Done. I never argue with anyone who wants to give me a screaming deal.

Third stop was on the west side, and this is where I stocked up on more sewing notions.

The sewing machine needles alone would cost more than I paid for everything all morning. Also brought home a yard of heavy cotton basketweave fabric, 

a gold paint pen, 

and in the kitchen I scooped up a pancake batter dispenser. Can't wait to try it out.

Back across the river and north to the last sale. Where we almost didn’t stop, it looked so junky, but we were there so we got out to look. Oh my, was this lady “proud of her stuff” as we say at overpriced sales. KK and I were goofing around with a pile of hats, and she came over to try to get us to buy them for five bucks each. She took her hats more seriously than we did; they were battered and nowhere near as cool as the hat at the first sale. But I did end up buying a bracelet.

Which might possibly be about the ugliest bracelet I've ever seen, with the combination of chain mail and faux pearls. BUT…it has a very good magnetic clasp! So I'm going to use that for something else. And it looks a lot better since I scrubbed it off. Can you tell which side has been cleaned and which hasn’t?

We ended the morning celebrating one of our favorite holidays: National Pizza Day. Guess I should have taken a picture of my pizza for the blog, but all I could think about was eating it!