Maybe you can’t go home again, BUT…

…you sure as heck can return to a sale you saw the day before! And if you’re lucky, the thing you went back for will still be there. Was it? Stay tuned…
Two days of garaging, one alone, the other with my husband. I do believe in Spring, I do believe in Spring! And when I tell you I spent a little over $40, you’ll know it was a good weekend indeed. Of course it always seems to be the case that the folks you enjoy talking to the most don’t have anything you want to buy. On Friday that would be the couple at the adorable mid-30s house I reached about halfway through the morning. You know the kind of house I mean, with the steep-pitched roof, and the arched doorway, something like this:     

Found this pic on an article about Sears kit houses, and actually their house might have been one. They told me it had been moved to its present location not long before they bought it…35 years ago. Anyway, I was admiring the house, and what I could see of the backyard, and the mister was eager to tell me more about the yard. Which was full of fruit trees – cherry and apples and pears and plums. No, make that prunes, he insisted that prunes and plums are different trees, while I have always clung to the belief that a prune is a dried plum. Though I’m willing to admit it’s probably a particular kind of plum. You will be proud of me for two reasons: I did not argue with this very nice man about prunes, and I did not break into the Prune Song, though I almost did. (“No matter how young a prune may be/It’s always full of wrinkles./A baby prune’s just like its dad/Though it’s not wrinkled half as bad…”) Besides all the fruit trees, there was a kid’s fort up on posts, something like a treehouse. He laughed and told me it used to be a foot or so higher. “We noticed the posts were starting to rot, and we couldn’t figure out why…until we realized they were 25 or 30 years old!”
Ah, yes, time does fly.
The first thing I bought on Friday was this jingle bell Christmas wreath.

The lady selling it tried to talk me out of it. “Are you SURE you want it? If you put it on a door you’re going to have to listen to it every time you go in or out.” Pretty clear why it was in her sale! But I persisted, because a) I like it, b) it was only a buck and c) if I put it on the front door we’ll be safe because we almost always use the side door. I was about to leave their driveway when I spotted another Christmas ornament, and fell pretty hard for it.

 

A wonky kitty tree topper! With stars hanging from his tail! Disapproving Angel Kitty will most likely refuse to be on the same tree. I tried to get Noll Baxter to wear it for a hat, and he disapproved too.

Made a few more stops, then found one more sale where I bought a few things. This nondescript black shirt was purchased solely for the cuffs! I have a jacket with sleeves that are too short, and these cuffs are going to fix that.

A Julia Roberts film, pretty much a no-brainer. I know I’ve seen it but have no memory whatsoever of the plot. Entertainment gets pretty darned easy once your memory starts to go.

A twin-size vintage wool blanket for one of the guest beds, or to use as an afghan. The tag says to dry clean, but that is SO not going to happen. In fact, it’s already been machine washed and air-dried and came out beautifully.

And, to make sure that the really nice weather we’re having this weekend will last, I bought a coat. There’s nothing like having a new coat that you’d like to wear for clearing away the last of winter.

It’s a Land’s End barn coat, a nice medium weight. It too has been washed and air-dried and will be ready next fall!
There was one other sale I stopped at yesterday, an estate sale, where I saw some nice stuff but I thought the prices were silly. However, it was one of those sales where prices go down the second day. I dithered over a Dansk fondue pot, but just couldn’t bring myself to fork out the asking price.

But dang, it haunted me. It was so MCM, so blue, so Dansk. So I put that sale back on today’s list, just in case no one had bought it. It was our second stop, and to my surprise they had not opened the doors yet when we arrived. Finally the guy running the sale came out and actually stood there and made a speech. Okay, his explaining that prices under X dollars were half today, and over X were 30% off made sense, though a sign to that effect would probably be more efficient. But he did like the sound of his voice. At last we were allowed inside, where I scurried to the kitchen counter where I had last seen my (MY!) fondue pot…and it wasn’t there. I heaved a sigh. But then I looked across the room, and there it was on a side table! I must have levitated over there, because I have no recollection of actually walking. I think I may have jostled another shopper just a bit, but I don’t really think she was looking at MY Dansk fondue pot. (No, really. She was getting something else.)

My pot! Half price! Woo hoo! It’s the feet on the stand. Don’t you just love those feet?
So now I could relax and look around to see if there was anything else we needed. Okay, wanted. First thing we found was this nice MCM coffee pot.

We passed on a very nice MCM credenza, since even at 30% off the price wasn’t tempting. But there in a corner was another MCM must-have: a pole lamp!

Sorry not to have a better picture; it needs cleaning up and new felt pads before we put it up. Which will probably be down in the family room somewhere. Stay tuned.
From there we headed out to the garage and scored again. Steven found pruners on an extension pole

and I found a box of wooden Christmas ornaments. Most are not really significant

but this guy makes me laugh

especially his profile

and I quite like these metal soldiers.

Although someone else does not.

We figured we’d better drop this stuff off at home, which fortunately wasn’t terribly far away. I almost asked Steven if he wanted to call it a day after that haul, but fortunately I didn’t. Because I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this cast iron maple leaf which may become part of the whirligig I’m planning to make

or a brand new can of tennis balls.

And for fifty cents I scored this wool sweater.

I’m only planning to wear the sleeves. Because you see little Miss Zoë got hold of one of my favorite sweaters the other day. I call it my Yeti sweater because it’s kind of hairy looking, but it’s cashmere, and I wear it (only!) around the house to keep warm, and I love it. (And it cost fifty cents!) But it’s not in very lovable condition at the moment.

So I’m going to trim off the tatters and graft on new sleeve ends. And then I really will only wear it in the house!
And then at our very last stop, after two non-existent sales, I found something I have never ever seen before at a garage sale. Not ever.

Sparklers! They were left over from a wedding. So we got them to help celebrate our big-number anniversary that’s coming up. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I held a sparkler in my hand? Definitely worth staying married to get to play with these babies!

Spring? Really??

I’m almost afraid to believe it’s really Spring. I think it was the snowstorm in mid-March that did it.

But there is quite a bit of evidence. Trees went from a bare haze of green a week ago to being leafed out, or hysterically in bloom. (That haze of yellow behind the trunk is the daffodils in my front yard.)

But that’s not how we really reckon the change of seasons, is it? That’s right – we count the number of garage sales available to us! And since there were more than I could go to yesterday…it must be Spring!
Not that I came home with much. Finding a lot of desirable items might be how we know when it’s summer. But at my first stop I was able to double my collection of Pampered Chef items. I now have…two.

This is one of those gadgets I’ve always kind of wanted to try out, and for twenty-five cents I can. I handed over my quarter and was heading to the car when I spotted this, and I admit it, I was tempted.

If I were still a children’s librarian, an owl hat would certainly have been something I couldn’t resist. But I took a deep breath, remained strong, and just took a picture instead. But then I noticed something else I hadn’t seen before. (You should always go around every sale twice!)

A set of makeup brushes! Not for me, I gave up makeup years ago (and no one noticed, which is a really good reason to stop bothering). These are for my BIL Biker Bob. I see you scratching your head, wondering what a Harley-riding dude would want with makeup brushes. Well, he’s not just a Harley guy. He’s going to be a clown in Portland’s Rose Festival this year, and clowns wear makeup. If you go to the Rose Parade, he’ll be the ring-master-esque clown with the drum set in the little red wagon. Be sure to yell out, “Hey! Biker Bob! The Queen of Fifty Cents told us about you!” I’m sure he’ll be impressed, and I will feel like I too am part of the Rose Parade.
Made several more stops, bought nothing. (I take that back, found an ornament, more on that in a moment.) Then at the last one before I had to scoot home to pick up Zoë to go to puppy playtime, I scored a DVD and a conversation about the relative merits of various movie stars past and present. The general consensus was, Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant were way, way classier than anyone around today, but De Niro is a damned fine actor. 

Zoë made a new friend at puppy playtime, Keela. From the loud growly noises both were emitting you might not have thought they were having fun, but those were just what we call purr-growls. Half an hour of this and their tongues were hanging on the ground.

This is SO much fun!

A tired puppy is a good puppy! Which is why, when I noticed another sale on the way home, I took Zoë with me – her first garage sale! She met Bobby the dog, and got to go into the house to look at things with me, and said hello to a bunch of people and sniffed new smells. We even met a professional dog trainer…hi, Tori! And I spent another quarter.

First thing my hubs asked was, what are those things? I suspect they started out as inserts in an egg poacher. But I’m hoping to take a class soon on making whirligigs out of found objects, so that’s why I shelled out that quarter so happily.
Now, the second thing Steven asked was why the heck I brought this home.

But he got it once I pointed out the expression.

The thought of Disapproving Angel Kitty sneering at my other ornaments cracks me up. However…

Yes, Disapproving Angel Kitty is capable of universal disparagement.

If I ever start feeling cocky, DAK is on hand to take care of things!

Short Stories about Long Stuff

Yes, our theme this week is ‘long stuff’. Starting with the road on Friday! There were several sales up in the NW corner of town, so I headed out. And out and out. Two of the sales turned out to be in the country. I’m talking barns and farm ponds. And muddy driveways. Long, hilly muddy driveways one lane wide that I had to either back out of to return to the road (SO not going to happen) or turn around, holding my breath that I wouldn’t hit any trees or slide down a muddy hill. One of those times when your three corner turnaround becomes a seventeen corner turn.

I just wish there had been anything at any of these sales worth the drive. But it was a combination of total junk and ridiculous prices. My fave may have been the pair of used French doors for $200, and the buyer had to detach them from the house! That’s not a whole lot less than you can buy them new at Home Depot, where they’ll most likely carry them out to your car for you. But that was actually reasonable compared to some of the furniture prices, like the nondescript office chair for ninety bucks. As my friend Marcia says, they were way too proud of their stuff!

It was a relief to get back into town, where a couple of sales were across the street from each other. Still nothing I wanted to buy, but I was happy to park by a nice civilized curb. (I can see it’s probably a good thing I bought a house in town and not the farm I always fantasized about.) When I walked up to the second one the couple having the sale seemed to be fussing at each other, not sure about what. Maybe they were just tired and hungry. I did get amused at listening to the lady’s grumpy voice while she stood about a foot away from something labeled a Karma Flag. Kind of wanted to take a picture of it but didn’t dare!

However, they did have some interesting stuff in their yard which it turned out they made. They bought scrap metal pieces at a local metal yard. Some they just partially buried, others they twisted onto rebar. When we get started on our relandscaping project, I’m thinking of seeing what we could find for our own creations.

I had about an hour and a half on Saturday to try again. They were still putting stuff out at my first stop, assisted by their nice kitty.

She was helping by rolling in the mud and standing in the way wherever they wanted to walk. Good kitty! Here I found the first of my elongated purchases.

I’m rather taken with the smile and the single eyebrow!

Our friends Diana and Dave have two lively and adorable miniature dachshunds, Sophie and Tootsie. They haven’t met Zoe yet but will soon. So whaddaya think…will playing with this prepare the Z for playing with the real thing?

The next sale didn’t exist. Had some of those Friday too. (Does someone thinks it’s funny to put ads in Craigslist for nonexistent sales?) Kept going to the one that promised clothing I wanted to check on, but she wasn’t very accurate about the sizes. They were way too big – not an experience I have all that often! Like Mikey-the-insurance-guy from last summer, she and her husband are moving to Hawai’i. Turns out her husband is originally from there, so they are going home. On one of her tables I found a piece of midcentury (or maybe a bit earlier) pottery, and succumbed to its elongated charms.

And that was it for this weekend’s purchases! I had to head home to get Zoe to her puppy playtime. Her only companion this time on the ‘rowdy puppy side’ was Sparta, but they expended as much energy as half a dozen dogs.

Just a heads up…I may not get any garaging in next weekend. I’m planning to head down to Roseburg for their annual quilt festival, just to soak up some beauty and marvel at other people’s creativity. And not incidentally, I’ll get to play with those dachshunds while I’m there!