Cats and Tarts and Cupcakes with Feet

One of the local realtors had a big sign on my friend Marcia’s tract this week about a neighborhood yard sale, so I headed over there this morning. When I got to Marcia’s house to pick her up for some garaging fun, I told her I hadn’t seen any sales on my way in. We drove back to the big sign and this time we read the fine print (i.e. the line just below “Neighborhood Garage Sale”) where it said “May 14.”

Oops.

Fortunately I had checked Craigslist earlier just in case there were other neighborhood sales, so we had an alternative destination a few miles away. I always think it’s funny how different tracts seems to have distinct personalities. This one’s was friendly! The first sale we stopped at, they offered to fill up our car for us with their stuff. We thanked them kindly for their offer and explained that one has to be disciplined when one goes to sales every week. (No one wants to end up on that hoarders show.) But I didn’t get away from their driveway without parting with a quarter.

 

Of course, if you were going to use these for a party you’d have to buy several sets. I’ll just have to have a very small party!

Across the street we met a sweet dog named Maggie. She was too excited to hold still for a good picture.

Later we saw one of the young women from Maggie’s house out cruising the sales on her bike. In the bike basket I spotted a book. A 1957 decorating book. Which I talked her into reselling to me!

When I told her about my 1957 house in Oregon she said I needed the book more than she does. Hope she’s not suffering from any seller’s remorse. I can’t wait to look through this one!

On another street we stopped at a sale where a handsome tortoiseshell kitty held court. This is Cocoapuff.

When we expressed our admiration, her owner went inside and brought out another of her cats. She is big into rescuing kitties and giving them a wonderful home.

How’s that for a mug? Can’t remember his name. He used to live down the street, where he was neglected and left to live outdoors with battle scars and uncombed fur. One day her daughter found him with a wound on his head and brought him home, where they nursed him back to health. She told her daughter that if the neighbors put out flyers they’d have to give him back…but they didn’t. It was six months later before the neighbor’s kids went looking for this cat, and by then there was no chance he was going back. And that was five years ago.

She laughed and told us she was known as the crazy cat lady, so that’s how she dressed for Halloween last year, in a crazy cat lady costume she put together complete with Beanie Baby cats sewn to her dress. “Pets and laughter,” she said, “that’s what you need in life.”

I spent a total of five bucks through the morning, and half of it was for my children’s librarians. I tried to resist, but just had to get these puppets, a Folkmanis lamb

and a set of Manhattan Toy royalty – princess, prince, knight and dragon. Hey, you could re-enact the royal wedding!

I am quite taken with the dragon!

I think this embroidered laundry bag may be quite old. I’m hoping to resell this one.  Don’t you think she has a Twenties look?

I also picked up a book called Flea Market Makeovers

and a Martha Stewart cookbook.

 

Published some time ago, from the youthfulness of Martha’s pic!

 

Just having it in the house seems to be inspirational – my husband is in the kitchen making a strawberry tart. Not Martha’s recipe, the one his mother gave us long ago. Hmmm, really long ago. I remember sitting in their kitchen before we were married and writing that recipe on an index card – and we just had our 39th anniversary!

Fair Trades

My car sat outside for a couple of nights while other stuff was in the garage, and I noticed a haze of pollen settled on it when I started out Saturday morning. Evidently it looks its most alluring that way, because it seemed like at least half the sales I stopped at, the people like my car. In fact one older lady said hopefully, as I approached her sale, “You’ve come to trade your car for something!”

Well, no. I did end up trading a couple of quarters for these cute handmade pins though.

 

Went through a biggish neighborhood sale, one of those tracts that twists and turns, and you’re never quite sure you’ve been through the whole thing…or if you’ve already been to a particular sale or not. I always get embarrassed when I show up at the same place more than once, which is awfully easy to do when the houses all look alike and the sales don’t have any stand out item. Like the inflatable boat on this driveway.

These two gents pulled up as I was talking to the lady having the sale, and called out to ask the price. They must have liked what they heard, because they parked and got out for a closer inspection. “You need that boat,” I told them, then amended it. “No – you really want that boat!” They laughed and agreed I’d gotten it right that time.

Pets were few this week. Met an ancient Golden retriever who is helping this 8 month old “goldendoodle” learn the ropes.

And Roxy the cat

has recently taken to climbing on her owner’s shoulders to watch TV with him.

My big score of the day was a fresh stock of door prizes for my children’s librarians. At our last meeting I just about wiped out my stash, so I was glad to be given 17 Bee Happy magnets for free.

 

Okay, they look better from a slight distance; macro photography is not always flattering! And for two bucks I came home with a bunch o’ hand puppets…swimmy things

    

and buggy things

and bird things.

I especially like this hedgehog, which can roll into a ball

or come out to play.

At the same sale with the hedgehog, I picked up a queen size dust ruffle for a bed

and a summer-weight black cotton skirt.

I’m fascinated by the skirt’s construction. It has eight half-circle gores set in, making it very twirly.

Must have been in a twirly mood, because I could not resist this Gearation toy.

The battery is dead, but you can just turn gears and it does stuff. The board is a magnet so you can stick the gears wherever you want them.

I admit it, I’m easily amused. I may give this away…or I may not!

I was eavesdropping when an older lady asked the price of something, but when the seller said, “How about if I trade it for your sweatshirt?” I had to see what she was wearing. Yup. I’d want to trade for this one too. But not my car!

A, Alligators All Around…

Spring. Don’t you just love Spring? As old Mrs. Cheever tells the children in Return to Gone Away by Elizabeth Enright, “Oh, I declare I can hardly wait for it myself! No matter how old a person gets, he’s never old in spring!”

Of course Spring is a relative term. Winter still grips colder climes, and my readers in Australia are heading into Fall. But here, Spring is springing, and how do I know this? Not the arrival of Daylight Savings Time, though I’m glad for that. Nope. We’re talking the arrival of neighborhood sales!

I found at least four yesterday in my usual garaging territory. It won’t be long before there are enough that I can’t get to them all in a morning. Why yes, that is one of my definitions of heaven! Doesn’t even matter that I only bought stuff at two sales (and one of those was not part of a neighborhood sales). It’s all about the treasure hunt.

Of course for me part of the treasure is getting to meet pets. This nice kitty enjoyed a good writhe on a warm spot of driveway.

This little cutie headed right up my leg for petting.

This is Maggie, a certified therapy dog. She visits a hospital and a local school, where kids get to read to her.

While I was petting Maggie, a lady walked by with her two Golden retrievers. Didn’t get this sweetie’s name, I was too busy petting her as she leaned all her considerable weight against me.

The other retriever was Gunnar, who insists on walking himself!

Had a really good time at the first sale of the morning. My friend Linda is part of a large music group, and these ladies throw a fund-raising yard sale a couple of times a year. (It was at one of their sales that Linda and I met!) I eagerly anticipate these events because these ladies are a hoot. Oh, and also because I always find some new-to-me clothes—which they sell for fifty cents apiece. Not sure how they always come up with so much clothing to sell, but I continue to be glad that they do! Got extra lucky this time, because everything I bought fits. Came home with a cotton shirt that feels like linen

and a printed tee with ruffly edges.

   

Two Land’s End sweater sets, in (Spring!) green

and blue.

A pair of Sigrid Olsen pants.

And two long-sleeve t-shirts for the hubs. (T-shirts are easy, long sleeved is hard to find—at least in my fifty-cent price range!)

This adorable handmade Chinese  character doll will go to a children’s librarian, to be part of our around-the-world summer reading program.

Linda also gave me a couple of bags of big pieces of felt for my librarians. I foresee new felt boards in several locations!

And possibly my fave item of the day…an alligator.

 

He’s a nutcracker. I think he has a sort of vintage midcentury vibe, though one online antique dealer had one  that they said is from the 30s, so who knows. I just like him. All the ladies of the music-group were calling him Alfred, and it turns out they have a song in their repertoire about an alligator named Alfred, which one of them sang to me. I had to return the favor with my favorite crocodile song:

“She sailed away on a happy summer day

Riding a crocodile.                          

‘You’ll see,’ said she, ‘he’s as tame as he can be.

I’ll ride him down the Nile.’

The croc winked an eye as she waved them all goodbye

Wearing a happy smile.

At the end of the ride, the lady was inside

And the smile on the crocodile!”

 

Need a Workout? Forget the Gym!

I found a great way to get a workout on Saturday, and there are no gym fees to pay. All you have to do is go out garaging, find an estate sale, look around, then poke your head into the backyard…just at the moment one of the sellers announces, “All of the tile out back is free.”

Oh. My. God.

The tile at this place. The elderly gentleman who had passed on collected it for years. YEARS. From the evidence of the patio, he made good use of some of his stash.

But not all by a long shot.

 

From what I gathered by eavesdropping, a lot of it was leftover from big jobs, and he would bring it home and add to his supply.Can we just say I was thrilled to happen upon this. We need to re-tile the top of our outdoor cooking area.If I were buying tile in a store for this project I would probably have gone for a darker color. But I scrounged up enough of the free stuff to do the job, including a large patterned tile we might use as a centerpiece.But where’s the workout, you say? Oh my dears, I said I had to scrounge. While the dear old gent had organized pretty much by color, his color categories were simple—like, light and dark. I spent probably 40 minutes lifting large heavy tiles around to find enough of the same kind. Then I got to carry 50+ large heavy tiles to my car and fit them in. (Each tile weighs 4 pounds. Yeah, I just weighed one!) By the time I got them all loaded…let’s just say you would not have wanted to be too close to me!

After I loaded the car I wandered about just looking. It was so tempting to keep adding more to my stash. I could have made sets of coasters for everyone I know—or have ever known—for next Christmas. But I decided to restrain myself. Might as well leave them for someone else with a real project to do.

Later in the morning I was at another sale, and a lady and I were looking at some handy person books and magazines. I said something about the free tile I had found, and she immediately wanted to know where the sale was. Another guy who was looking at stuff looked up and said he had  been there too. Sheesh, how likely is that? Between us we kind of were able to remember where the sale was. Hope she found it. The other guy told me he used to work in a tile store. He said if someone was remodeling a fifties house, he bet they’d find the exact thing they needed in that back yard!

The free tile was the highlight of the morning, but really the whole outing was fun. First stop I met a sweet elderly Lab. This is Jake, who is 11.This little cutie really wanted to get loose and help everyone shop. Her tail is a blur because she was a champion wagger.

Met two nice young couples having sales. The first is expecting their first baby in March. Being a children’s librarian, I made sure they are planning to read, read, read to the child. They assured me they already are. The dad-to-be told me he’s going to speak English and she’ll be speaking Chinese to the baby so she’ll be bilingual. I told him they’ll have a very smart child, and he looked awfully pleased.

The other couple were young and hip. Don’t remember how we got to it, but I was telling them a theory someone shared with me last week: You know how you’re always missing a sock or two? And at the same time you always seems to have more wire hangers in your closet? Well, this guy’s theory is that socks are the larval form of wire hangers. We were all cracking up over this. They told me they do musical theatre, in fact that’s how they met. We decided a musical number about socks and wire hangers would definitely be a hit.

I spent $6.75 during the morning, plus the sweat equity of the tiles! Brought home a couple of librarian door-prizes: a bag o’ ribbons for craft projects, and a Spin & Draw thingie, complete with two pads of the paper.

I recently lost my cute little metal tin that I kept in my purse for various pills. Picked this up as a replacement.Merely practical. Easy to replace when I find something spiffier.

A few of the handy person magazines. And sweaters for me and the hubs. His looks new, of very soft merino wool.Mine is also new, one of those items bought and never worn. Jones New York.The polka dots are embroidery. I think it will work with black pants. Love the colors.

Happiest story I heard all morning: a woman who has been out of a job for over two years starts her new position on Monday. She was beaming.