Hats and Owls and Technology, Oh My

I was so glad we persevered Friday until that last sale. Not that it was difficult; Judy & I had a great time. But I would have hated to miss the conversation we had. Judy was considering a little rolling garden cart thingie that you sit on while weeding. It was marked $15 but the guy thought he could take five. Which is a pretty good discount, but her dilemma was, where to store it when it wasn’t in use? I know it seems like we weed 24/7 this time of year…but we don’t. 

So she decided to pass up the deal. As we headed to the car she told the seller, “I'm sure you can get your price for it. I've done you a favor not buying it!”

There was a definite twinkle in his eye as he said, “In that case, it sounds like I should pay you for leaving it.”

Which we thought was a great idea. Hmmm, a new source of retirement income…NOT buying things at yard sales!

We missed KK, who was at the beach (poor thing!). But…there were vintage hats at an estate sale. 

This last one looked equally good with the trim at the front or the back. Judy scored a couple of pairs of cute shoes (Red! Green!) and we chatted with another lady getting the pair of gold tennies. Someone else in that room said, “Hey, there’s a hat that matches,” and sure enough there was a gold cowboy-style hat with fancy trim on the closet shelf. She went off clutching the hat and shoes and wearing a big smile.

I spent a whopping $3.50 over the morning, and I wish I'd spent about a buck more. One of our first stops had a whole bunch of these boxes of bandaids, which she was happy to take a quarter apiece for. 

Don’t you love the verbiage on the box? All that technology…for bandaids. I can just see myself in the first aid aisle at the drugstore dithering over which technology I want in my bandaids. 

Then as luck would have it, I woke up yesterday morning with a little cut on my right thumb. (Which I was not aware of when I went to bed the night before. How the heck did I get cut in my sleep?) Not much of an injury but annoyingly in the way (don’t know about you, but I use my right thumb all the time) so I slapped one of the new bandaids on it. And wouldn’t you know, it's the best darned bandaid I've ever used. Stayed on all day, even through washing a dog. Now I wish I'd brought home a lifetime supply! Especially since this is what you see when you open the box:

Speaking of dog washing, I've had my eye out for something to make sleeve protectors with. I wash Zoë in the kitchen sink and always end up almost as wet as she does. So I was happy to pluck this vinyl tablecloth out of a free box. 

It has a zipper so it can go around an umbrella on a patio table. After I rather laboriously made the sleeve thingies, I realized that what was left would make a perfect dog-washing poncho to keep the rest of me dry. 

So I tried it out yesterday. Wouldn’t you know it – the sleeve protectors weren’t a bit of use, water went right under the elastic around the wrists and the vinyl was too stiff to be comfortable. I'm not entirely sure how my elbows got so wet! But the poncho worked great. So I tossed the sleevies and kept the poncho. Back to the drawing board on the dry sleeves.

I also scored a couple of DVDs 

and another windowsill vase. 

But this is my favorite find of the day – an embroidered pillowcase. 

Don’t you love the expressions on the owls’ faces? 

I think they might be discussing just whose turn it is to weed!

East to West

I have an excellent excuse reason for not posting last week. Nope, didn’t fall down again and break my arm or anything. I went to Washington, DC! My SIL Linda had a board meeting to attend, and we decided months ago that I’d go along and when her meeting was over we’d play tourists. Her daughter who lives on a farm in Maryland joined us and we had a ball. Linda and I are both completely pooped (Kim went right back to work on the farm without missing a beat) but we’re already making plans to head somewhere else within the year. We probably would anyway, but we got bumped from our first flight and they sweetened the deal with $200 flight credits for both of us. Ironically, we ended up on the nonstop flight we originally wanted to take…but that was too expensive!

As much as I enjoyed being out of my usual routine, I admit I’m awfully glad to slide back into it. We returned on Friday night, so after a blessed night’s sleep in MY OWN BED (ahhhhhh) you know exactly what I did on Saturday morning.

I went garaging!

First stop was a few blocks from home, and beautiful Tess was there to greet me.

 It didn’t take her long to realize that I had dog treats in my pocket. (I usually do.)

Permission granted from her owners, she was happy to crunch down a morsel. Then she donned her leash and went for a walk.

Had so much fun at this sale! Two nice ladies about my age with really fun and interesting stuff. One of them used to live on my street and went to the grade school on the corner. Perhaps since I didn’t get to do any thrifting last week I had to really restrain myself from buying a lot more than I did. This rooster just jumped into my hands. He might end up in the yard somewhere, but for now he’s on top of the coat closet in the front hall. (Wonder if my hubs will notice him there…)

I’m planning to use these hair picks to secure shawls or a scarf.

If these Nufoot slippers had been anything other than a Mary Jane – a POLKA DOTTED Mary Jane! – I might have resisted. But some things are too much to ask, right?

They are teensy until you put them on, but they really do stretch!

When I looked through the box of LPs I knew I was dealing with kindred spirits. They were selling several albums that I used to own! I resisted most of them, but did pick up this somewhat esoteric number.

Plus a couple of others I’m looking forward to hearing.

Found a few nice cards for those times that an e-card just won’t do.

And from the free stuff I brought home half a box of organic candles that actually smell good, and some magazines from the 90s.

When I’m done with them I’ll take them to the free table at the library and make someone else happy.

Finally tore myself away and headed to the next sale. At then end of the driveway a patio umbrella was set up, and the price was only $6. And my $5 market umbrella won’t go up and down now, the cord inside is broken. I figured replacing it my be better than figuring out how to fix it. Only trouble is I completely spaced out on the fact that I’ve been re-covering all our outside chairs…and the fabric totally clashes with the new umbrella!

So I may be finding a new home for this one and fixing the other after all. I hope my buying a giant umbrella isn’t the reason it’s been raining all day.

At the same sale I picked up this wonderful pot, and this is definitely a keeper!

She seems to have been made by Deborah Wolf of River Stone Pottery, a bit south of us.

I just love her. Can’t wait to get something planted. The lady having the sale said she bought her in Lincoln City several years ago, and that she planted something different every year for her ‘hair.’ You might be wondering how she could part with this lovely pot, but there’s a good reason. She and her husband are both retiring in a few months, and thinking it would take some time for their house to sell they went ahead and put it on the market. And then it sold in a week! So they’ll be living in an RV for a while, and it’s time to let go of some possessions.

I told her how much she is going to love being retired, that it’s scary ahead of time but just wonderful when you take the plunge. And she threw her arms around me in a hug, saying she’s been worried about the whole thing and it really helped to hear everything will be fine. I just know it will be!

At another sale in the same neighborhood I spotted this large planter. Figured from the size and appearance it would be a) heavy and b) expensive. But a) it’s made of foam and hardly weighs a thing, and b) I got it for a buck. Sometimes I love to be wrong.

My next purchase came from the sale where I was admiring some hand-carved printing blocks, and it turned out the lady I was talking to is an artist and these were from her print-making days. We talked about creativity and the fun of upcycling and reuse, and I bought this adorable vintage runner.

She told me this great story from when she used to buy and resell antiques. She was loading a set of books into a box at an estate sale, and this greedy guy reached over her shoulder and snatched Volume Two. She told him she was buying the set and he said so what and took that book. (She said it was that kind of rudeness that made her quit being a dealer – too embarrassing to be numbered among them.) She bought the rest of the set anyway and has been looking for Volume Two for over 20 years…and last week she found it!

I was starting to run out of steam (a single night in my own bed was not enough to restore full vigor), but one more stop was on my list. Turned out to be a block sale, but I only bought one thing. A hat for Judy!

Yes, after all those hats she’s modeled for me, I bought her one. It’s very similar to one that was tempting at the Methodist rummage sale a few weeks ago, but the price was a little high there.

Hand knitted of wool and then felted. Very cozy. And it was fifty cents! The young woman having the sale said it has never been worn, and yes, it was a gift. I think she wanted it gone before her mom, who gave it to her, stopped by and saw it.

I was happy to oblige.

What Goes Up…

Got a bit of a late start on Friday morning for garaging. I took Edward and Zoë to the dog park for their morning run, and they had an awfully good time. Zoë met up with another puppy she’s played with before, and they romped through the wet grass, and tumbled each other around on the dirt path, and got quite, quite filthy. Didn’t show too much on the black puppy, but my white puppy had to have a bath as soon as we got home.

Fortunately she still fits into the kitchen sink, so her bath didn’t take too long. I don’t imagine I missed too many fantastic buys. And almost everything I did pick up came from my first stop. They were still setting things up but said I was not early, they were running late. The younger of the two ladies was pregnant and dealing with morning sickness, which had slowed them down. And the older wanted everything to be Organized – but they had way too much stuff for that. I picked up some fishing line for making former-xylophone windchimes, and actually ended up making a couple. I’m so proud of myself.

I also bought this Fiskars paper cutter thingie. I’ve used one before, at a school I used to work at, and it does one thing pretty well: cut a straight line. Which I cannot for the life of me do with scissors. You’d think by this age I’d know how to cut, but if it hasn’t happened by now I strongly suspect this is a skill I will never acquire. So for a quarter I can just let that one go. Such a deal!

While I was looking around their carport at Stuff, I noticed this clever border on a flower bed.

They seemed quite jazzed that I took a picture of it, and we started talking gardens. Our relandscaping project is growing nearer (new retaining walls in a couple of weeks). Turns out the older lady works in landscaping. “I’ve got this other kind of cool piece of wood I’m thinking about getting rid of,” she said. “Come take a look.” I did, and loved it.

It’s actually a piece of root from what she called a sweet gum maple, which I believe is a Liquidambar tree. She said the tree came down in a storm and she wrestled this section of root home, intending to use it in her garden, but never did. She wanted a good home for it, and I will certainly provide that!

So five bucks later I had this big tree root in the back seat of the convertible. Can’t wait to see how we end up using it. We used an old section of log at another home when we did up the yard, positioning it in the front yard and planting things around it. As time went by it developed its own ecosystem, with ferns and rattlesnake grass growing on it, and each year it relaxed a bit more into the earth.

Hmmmm. I’m sitting here feeling quite nostalgic about a log. Seems like it encapsulated what the last part of life should be like…and it was beautiful.

Well, off I drove with my root. My next stop was a few blocks away, and had a gorgeous yard. Thriving vegie beds and lots of flowers. An older couple lives there, and their two middle-aged daughters were on hand to help with the sale. The daughters were sitting under the arbor attached to the house discussing how to determine a cubic measurement. They were selling an old cooler and wanted to be able to say how many cubic feet it was. But none of us could come up with anything that made the slightest bit of sense – the numbers were huge. Finally one of them said, “I know what it is. This calculator is broken.” We all agreed that must be the case and felt way better about our inability to remember this particular geometry lesson from our youth. Their mother came and sat down with them, and the conversation turned to the beautiful yard (when you’re working on a landscaping project, you end up having a lot of these conversations). I mentioned that pretty much the only thing that has survived in our yard was the daffodils, and it seems they have a nice bulb show in spring too. “There’s one spot out there on the corner though,” the mother told me, “that’s still awfully bare. But I think I’ve figure out what to do. It’s on a hill so it’s hard to get to, so I’ve got this bag of bulbs, and I’m just going to scatter them over that spot. Then I’m going to pray to the dirt fairy so she’ll come and cover them up for me.” I thought this was a fabulous idea, but one of the daughters was a bit indignant. “Mom, I’ve got that spot in my yard that needs some dirt,” she said. “How come you never told me I had to pray to the dirt fairy?”

The root and I continued on to a few more sales, but found nothing to add to our bag. At one stop a couple was gazing in admiration at my root when I got back to the car and seemed a bit jealous that they hadn’t found it first. It’s always nice to have your good taste confirmed by an independent judge. Root and I headed home, where two of the neighbors across the street had lively sales happening on their drives. Actually at the tops of their drives, because they’re across the street on the uphill side of our slope. I trudged up there, feeling very, very glad I live on my side of the street, especially in the winter. At one sale I succumbed to the charms of this…guess I’ll call it a cookie jar.

Flare Ware by Hall China. I love that name, and the Fifties-looking stars. And at the other house I picked up this little hand bell.

Picked it up because of its (to my eyes) midcentury modern look, and it turns out to have a lovely sound. I’m wondering if there’s a way to hang it somewhere it can blow in the wind.

On Saturday I headed out for a different adventure. It was the one-year anniversary of my retirement (still the best thing I’ve ever done!) and I had a birthday a few days ago too, so the family came down and we did an excursion cruise on the Willamette Queen, a river boat that lives here in Salem. That was followed by a ride on the Salem Carousel. I never get near a carousel without riding it, I love them, and this one is quite wonderful. It was created by local artists over 10 years ago, and they continue to carve new animals. There’s a carving room where you can watch the work going on. I love the local scenes depicted on the top of the ride.

I rode a lovely steed

and thoroughly enjoyed every moment…until the last. The carousel began to slow down, and I thought darn, it’s almost over. Then I though, wait, my horse is still going up. I sure hope it keeps going long enough to go down again. But ever more slowly my horse and I rose, until the ride stopped when I was at the exact apogee of my horse’s trajectory. I looked down at the floor, and I could tell it was farther away than the length of my legs. And I am no spring chicken. My husband was on the horse next to mine. “Ummm, I don’t think I can get off,” I told him.

These are the moments that tell you how fortunate you were in your choice of mates. He quickly got off his horse and came to my side, and told me I could do this. I didn’t believe him, but between us we got one of my terrified limbs over the back of the horse, and I started to descend. “You can do it!” he assured me, and I did. But I was right about the floor being farther away than the length of my legs, and one of my knees was pretty unhappy by the time I was standing on the ground. I guess you can do what you have to!

Now I come to think of it though, the alternative would have been to keep riding that beautiful carousel, round and round and round. Steven’s such a good husband, I’m sure he would have brought my meals to me…at least until my horse came to a stop much nearer the floor!