Toyland

We were SO excited to climb into KK’s car for a Friday of fun, after a two-week drought with no sales. And like many other shoppers this time of year, my attention was snagged by toys. Not, I'm afraid, for some well-behaved child looking forward to a visit from Santa (or Tata, as Judy’s 18-month-old granddaughter says). Nope, these were toys for me!

I realized as soon as we stopped at our first address that I had been here before, and I know when and what I bought. It was the house where I found a lovely handmade Velveteen Rabbit, which was exactly the same size as my new kitten, Millie!

That bunny makes a handy yardstick to show how much Millie has grown.

So even though the sale appeared to be a lot of junk strewn over the front yard, I approached with hope. There was so much to look at! I was still inspecting old Christmas wares when I saw what KK pulled out of a plastic garbage bag and I dropped everything and hurried over there.

A Steiff lion! And a big one. I didn’t even need to see the metal button in his ear to know what he was. KK reminded me that Steiffs are not particularly attractive to resell these days. I assured her he was for me! What self-respecting Steiff lover who is also a Leo would pass him up?

Then I looked further into that bag, and some other bags and boxes. Oh my. I actually had to make myself choose between all that was there! I asked the seller (who said that all this was coming out of his parents overflowing attic, and that he had no emotional attachment to any of it) for a price. Which ended up being ten bucks for the lion, a reclining Steiff tiger 

(there were several sizes of this guy available), 

and a Steiff tiger puppet, 

and the cutest Steiff donkey you’ve ever seen. 

He’s not quite as big as Millie, who was very interested in giving him a good sniff. 

There were also a number of dogs – this vintage painted felt pup reminds me of our Zoë (and needs a bit of repair). 

The little made-in-Japan guy 

and the vintage Dakin cocker 

are mohair and probably date from the Fifties. 

(I do admit they might not be quite as cute as the dog KK met at one of our stops.)

So now I'm toting around a big lion, two tigers, a donkey and three dogs. Made it hard to check out all the other boxes and bags, but I managed to snag the missing Fischer Price guy from my three men in a tub toy 

and a quite wonderful handmade embroidered and cutwork tablecloth. 

I noticed it had been mended (which just says to me that someone loved this thing), 

and it turned out I needed to mend another hole as well, which didn't take long.

. 

But you only see the patches if you go looking for them, and I love it.

The other sales that morning were anticlimactic after such a beginning, mostly estate sales with either uninteresting items or high prices, or both. But even though I spent only another $3.50, I was almost as happy as with my toys. One of my favorite nursery rhymes was always the “To market, to market to buy a fat pig” one…and there it was on a linen towel! 

And one of our last stops yielded some choice sewing notions, like some packs of rick rack, 

a fair amount of Stitch Witchery (fusible web that I always pick up when I find it, especially for a dime), disappearing basting thread, and That Purple Thang.

Most of you are probably saying, what the heck is That Purple Thang? Well, it's a little sewing/crafting tool that helps you turn corners and even out puckers and use the sewing machine without stitching through your index finger. I picked up this one because it was a dime and looked interesting. But it might be the deal of the day, since it not only retails for about five bucks, but has 4.5 stars on Amazon with over 700 user reviews.

Good grief, I wish I could get over 700 reviews on my books! Hmmm, maybe I could retitle them as That Purple Thang series?