Shirt-Bunnies and Craft Supplies

The four ladies in the rug hooking room at the textile museum were in the middle of a conversation about service animals and exactly what is considered one. (KK & I were in Tillamook and had already roamed through the quilt exhibit and the weaving room. I was eavesdropping obviously enjoying listening in. 

One lady said it was amazing what some people claim as service animals, and another exclaimed, “When I worked at the visitor center at the cheese factory, people would try to sneak anything in. One day this woman came in with a big rabbit inside her shirt. Guess she thought I wouldn’t notice.”

Excuse me, madam, is that a bunny in your shirt or are you just glad to see me?

We were in Tillamook Friday on our way home from a few days at the beach, at my SIL’s family beach house. (Linda, you ARE the best!) Three women lazing around and eating the fabulous food we all brought…even better than garaging! We were the complete tourists and visited a peony garden on our way to the coast. Gorgeous flowers! It was decided that the jacket I was wearing depicts peonies instead of poppies as I had assumed. 

Whoever planned this garden really knew how to combine plants and colors. 

Of course my favorite peony was one that must be rare – a single bush will set you back $204. Sheesh!  

The blooming fields were beautiful

as was the field of red clover being grown for seed next to the parking area.

I’m so used to garaging on Fridays that I felt a bit off-kilter this week, not being able to do that. But on my way to the dog park Saturday morning I noticed a sign pointing to a sale in my neighborhood. I heaved a sigh of relief when I headed to that one.

I think I'm more addicted to the fun of poking through other people’s stuff than the stuff itself.

The Craigslist ad mentioned furniture and kid stuff which are not on my wanted list, but one of the teen daughters (according to her mother) has recently moved on from her expensive hobby of crafting greeting cards to the expensive hobby of photography. I reaped the benefit. For a total of $7 I brought home a kit with 3 dozen Spectrum Noir dual-tip pens, 

a bunch of beads including green Czech glass ones 

some jewelry findings 

various cording materials 

and a carved wooden pendant. (I'm trying to broaden my thinking on ways to upcycle fabric.) 

Poking around in other people’s stuff can be worthwhile. Of course any burglar would tell you that, but they face jail time and all I need is to keep a little cash on hand!

If There Were No Gifts, There Would Be No Garage Sales

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against gifts. A thoughtful and unexpected gift is a delight.

I do struggle with enforced gift-giving occasions though, because they lead to ads like this one in our local Craigslist last Friday. I give it to you in its entirety, leaving out only the company name and address. I hope their moms enjoy whatever gifts they received!

ESTATE SALE- ——— IS HOSTING A PERFECT MOTHERS DAY SALE 

Ryobi walk behind Tiller
radial arm saw
hand planers
hand tools
chop saws
fishing reels
muzzle loading tools 
vintage leather gun holsters
vintage metal toys
shovels, ax, splitter maul
levels, contracting gear 
shelving
chainsaw (2)
metal toolboxes 
planters, garden equip timers
air compressor 
pressure washer Troy built 
seed spreader 
brunswick pool table
chains, host puller, pulleys
electric, gas weed eater
lawnmower 
vintage metal lawn chair
red wagon, kids toys
red Skelton oil painting and plate
lenox collection 
ceramic lights antique 
mirrored cabinet antique
leafed table over 75 years old
nordic track treadmill
fine linens
(3) modern bar stools
Barbie vintage with house x 7 
piano
Oil lamps 
African decor including a collection of beautiful elephants and wildlife
two beautiful microfiber chairs 
old lamps beautiful art deco
record player and over 300 records  
cds, dvds 
speaker system Harmon kardon AVR 120
Breyer horse collection
Red Skelton sculpture collection
Rock Old jukebox converted into liquor cabinet
various antique and vintage trunks and hope chests
Lord of the Rings collection 
Harry Potter books 
antique old old books.   Some valuables
pflatzgraff collection in great condition 
berry Christmas dishes set 
three bookshelves 
room divider 
(3) headboards and bed frames 
dresser tall one 

Lucky, lucky moms – after you plow the south forty with a walk-behind tiller and catch dinner with that fishing reel having cleared the river bank with your chop saws and ax and maul then maybe, just maybe, you can spend a few minutes in your microfiber chair playing with a Breyer horse.

Won’t that be fun?

The Good, The Bad…and the Smelly

The fun started on Thursday last week, when I stopped at an estate sale on my way to the grocery store. The ad on Craigslist showed a lot of interesting items. However, there was no mention of the, um, well, very strong smell of cat pee in the house. Which didn’t seem to stop anyone (including me!) though I admit I hurried through more than I would otherwise have done. 

A quick perusal turned up only a couple of items that I thought looked fun, one being a very nicely framed print of a watercolor by Valerie Pfeiffer, called “Budgies Galore.” I thought Millie might especially enjoy it.

Her kitty box lives in the bathtub in an alcove of our master bathroom. We never take tub baths, just showers. So it’s the perfect spot for the box, containing all the inevitable litter that gets tracked outside the box. Now Millie has art in ‘her’ bathroom.

I also grabbed a couple of baggies with kitchen linens, which turned out to include some interesting vintage tea towels.

My favorite of the lot is this small towel hand appliqued with a farmer picking apples. I think.

Friday morning’s adventure began with another estate sale which mentioned art supplies in the ad. But again, the ad left out that the house had evidently been occupied by a chain smoker for the past umpty years. And while the kitty smell from Thursday’s sale was unpleasant, I’m actually quite sensitive to smoke, which gives me joint and muscle pains like having the flu. Normally I would have taken one quick peek and left, but this house was full of whimsical items that I could not resist looking at.

KK got a great deal on a bunch of oil paints and brushes. I was stopped in my tracks in the first room by…bunnies! I didn’t have my camera with me, darn it. This could well have been the best bunny collection I've encountered. But I was very, very restrained, being mindful of how many bunnies have already come home with me. But this little glass bunny won't take up much room, right? And he didn't cost much more than the dime I used for scale.

And what could possibly be more practical than a set of bunny tablecloth weights?

Which are at this very moment keeping the tablecloth out on my deck from flying away in the breeze.

I admit the first thing I did when I got home was give them a good scrub. You can see from this before-and-after shot that they needed it!

My favorite find was this fabulous bronze candle holder. Even though it was marked $10 (a huge amount for me!) I grabbed it.

Seriously, you couldn’t have left without these faces either, right? And the nice lady running the sale seemed happy to take a fiver for them when I assured her they’d have a good home.

They appear to be from the same maker as the bunny paddling a canoe I showed you a couple of posts ago. As always I did some online digging to try to establish value and where they might have come from. Didn’t find out much, but I was amazed to see a very similar pair on Pinterest, which led me to Etsy, where I saw that they had sold. And the asking price had been $110!

Plus, amid the bunnies I spotted something else that’s hard to resist, an acorn item. (What is it about acorns?)

A hand-painted trinket box, about two inches high. Which is now on my acorn shelf, holding – that’s right – a real acorn.

Bunnies turned out to be The Item of the Day. We saw them at every other sale throughout the morning. But none were tempting, and in fact neither of us bought anything else even though we stopped at about a dozen sales. I've noticed this phenomenon before; seems like if you get a really good score at the first stop you might as well go home because that’s all you get that day. But of course you never know, and garaging is a form of gambling after all!

So we were done with buying, but it turned out not with smells. Yet another estate sale, and the house was fine…but evidently the smoker in the family had gone out to the garage to partake. For years. And being a much smaller space the residue was even more intense. I really did have to leave that one quite quickly.

But it was the usual garage collection of tools and miscellany. No bunnies, no problem!