It's Not Just Socks!

The garaging momentum is really building. Last week, spent a buck and a half. This week we were up to $3.25! One way and another, All This has probably saved me quite a bit of money. I didn’t buy gas for two months, or go out to eat (still haven’t had any restaurant meals that cost more than four bucks…yay, Taco Bell takeout), and so far this year I've only spent $72 garaging. Last year this time that figure was $183, and two years ago it was over $550!

I was definitely on the prowl for some heavy cotton t-shirts to use for making masks; I've read they make a pretty good filter. So I was pleased to pull a bright green one out of a free box, and found a dark gray 50₵ one further down the road.

Green and gray turned out to be the day’s color scheme. For a quarter, I brought home a fun wine bottle stopper.

And maybe it can do double duty as a Christmas ornament?

Another free box yielded two quite nice potholders. I can always use another decent potholder.

It was a good day for free stuff. Found a favorite childhood book at my first stop.

 Had a nice chat with the lady there. I remembered being there at a previous sale, and even what I bought, and was able to tell her how much I've liked this little bowl.

Splurged a couple of bucks on a bunch o’ magazines, some gardening and sewing, and all of last year’s Martha Stewarts.

My last stop was another 25₵ buy – a dog shedding tool I decided to try. For that price, why not? Apparently the resident Australian shepherd had disliked it. Fannie was okay with it, and clearly it did some de-shedding.

But I still like my Furminator better. If you need a really good, sturdy dog grooming tool, it’s the one I’d recommend. But they don't end up on driveways – at driveway prices – very often. It's actually something I bought in a store, but only after a lady at a garage sale was telling me what a great tool it is. So it has garaging roots! I’ll be donating this new one to the humane society thrift store, so I’m sure it will get a good home.

As I left the sale, one of the ladies in charge was crossing the street to her house, and I admired some of her flowers, She asked if I knew the name of them, which I did (echinops, or globe thistle) and she was so happy to finally be able to recall the name that she cut some for me to bring home!

When I got home, I started a load of laundry that included the t-shirts and the potholders. And somewhere between the laundry basket of dirty clothes and the folding of clean things out of the dryer – the gray potholder disappeared! In the two–plus years I've been in this house, I don't think my dryer has eaten anything. Not a single sock has disappeared. And now it seems to have gobbled up a potholder. And dang it, I used the green one this morning, and it's a really good potholder! 

I'm still hopeful it will reappear as mysteriously as it left. Perhaps in the company of socks I never noticed were gone.

Happy Hopping

I'm happy to report that the garaging scene here in Salem is looking up. The proof? I managed to spend a whole $1.50 on Friday!

I was flying solo and promised myself that if I started to get too hot wearing a mask, I'd pack it in for the morning. This is definitely not an issue I've ever had in close to half a century of garaging! It turned out I had no problem getting through my list, which I had limited to the south part of town. Most of the sales again were meh, just nothing that needed to come home with me and not much conversation either. My first purchase was this book.

You can see its original bargain price, but that pales in comparison to the 50₵ that I paid! A couple of stops later I picked up a DVD for a buck.

Price-wise, the deal of the day had to be this stack of free magazines.

The real highlight of the morning was unexpected. I was heading toward the final stop on my GPS route, when I passed a house with something in the yard that made me turn around and go back for a better look.

Aren’t these hoops terrific? I've been trying to come up with some kind of inexpensive arch for a trellis over the wide double gates into my yard, so my first thought was maybe this was something I could copy. Turns out these are made from galvanized pipe, which is not something I have the wherewithal to bend. As I was about to return to my car, I noticed a woman in the back yard, so I called hello and she came out. (Holding a colander full of strawberries she had just picked!) We had a nice conversation and she showed me around her garden, including the flock of young chickens and the guinea pigs who live under the deck. She and her husband have spent the last 3 years turning the former lawn into a productive food and ornamental garden. They made the hoop trellises themselves, and she confirmed it was quite a lot of work. Those vines you see climbing up are hops vines, which also grow on their back fence.

It's always delightful to visit someone’s garden. But it was all I could do not to grab those fresh-picked strawberries and run!

So Where Is All That Decluttering?

Hello! Is everyone okay?? Hasn’t this been (and continuing to be) a strange and amazing time? KK and I actually got to go to some yard sales on Friday, and it struck me that I never heard the words coronavirus, Covid, or pandemic in any of my eavesdropping through the morning. Instead, folks around here are using the phrase “all this,” as in “Before all this we were planning to do such and such.” I wonder if it's that ancient tendency not to give power to something evil by speaking its name.

If that works, let’s all do it!

We’re fine at my house, and probably definitely experienced less disruption than many. There are advantages to being an introvert living alone. Though many of us introverts have discovered there is quite a difference between staying home because we want to – and staying home because we have to. Our greatest privation was the closing of our dog parks for several weeks; thank heavens for my biggish yard and dogs who like to retrieve balls.

My big stay-at-home focus has been the landscaping of my yard. It was pretty much a blank slate when I moved in. (Except for the ever-fertile weeds, goldurn ‘em.) 

I've been working on it (slowly, because I am an old lady) since I moved in, and am starting to see some results. 

One of the businesses that have remained open are plant nurseries, and I live in the Willamette Valley, which is nursery heaven. I read somewhere that we have more wholesale nurseries here than anywhere else in America, and the plants you buy wherever you are have a good chance of originating here. So, other than the grocery store and the pharmacy, nurseries have been just about the only place I've gone since March. Plus, friends like my gardening buddy Lysa have shared plants from their gardens. Anyone want to guess how many I've put into the dirt since mid-March?

At last count…148.

Some went into containers, like my new window boxes, and many more into the ground. 

Almost everything is thriving, and I sure hope that continues. I really don't want to plant anything over again!

While I've been working outside, it's my impression that many folks have been going through their homes for some serious decluttering. I’m not planning to go to any estate sales for the foreseeable future, since they are usually inside a house. But outdoor sales, bring ‘em on – with all that decluttering I've been thinking this will be a good garaging season.

So it was with high hopes that KK and I donned our masks and gloves and headed out into the sunshine Friday morning. And what did we find? How much did we spend???

Between us, we spent…fifty cents. Yup. At the last stop KK bought a fifty cent spatula. That was it. We went to 10 or so sales, and by and large what we saw was stuff that even I would likely throw away. And I don't throw away anything without thinking twice about it.

But what the heck. We got outside for a while, talked to a few people (from several feet away), and avoided adding any clutter to our own homes. I count that as a good day’s work…and there’s always the next time!

Unexpected Treasures

Wasn’t going out on Friday, only two estate sales in town that looked meh and Judy and I both decided housework could take precedence. Then KK ended up with Friday off, so she and I checked out the estate sales. Which turned out to be…meh. And both involved climbing stairs, and both houses were, um, somewhat smelly. The first had been inhabited by smokers (lovely collection of ashtrays for sale in the garage), the second by mildew and infrequently changed cat boxes.

And I admit that stairs are not my favorite thing. The new knee is doing just fine, but we're still slow on stairs. I really appreciated the lady going up in front of me who commented, "You know, I have always hated climbing stairs!" Someone who understands me!

I managed to spend four bucks at the first sale. The family was probably Swedish; among other things there were numerous Christmas ornaments made of the traditional straw. I was a bit tempted, but my rambunctious cat Millie would have made short work of them. But I loved this hand embroidered (all in chain stitch) bell pull, 

and Millie highly approves of the bunny tea cloth I brought home.

I love the bunnies, don't they look like they are conversing?

On Saturday, KK and I headed off to Portland. We were lunching with Linda, then getting KK’s car serviced at the dealer. When we reached Linda’s house we found she had ducked out to run a quick errand that of course took longer than expected, but we had seen an ‘estate sale’ sign around the corner so of course we had to check it out. Turned out to be further away than expected, but on the way to our lunch spot.

Everyone else in Portland must have been at a mall, because this very nice estate sale was practically deserted. And luckily Linda soon texted, and joined us. KK found several things (sorry, can't remember what!) and Linda went back the next day to buy the mirror she fell in love with – at

half price.

I hit the jackpot before I even went in the house – found a large Japanese aralia (fatsia japonica) for only ten bucks. (If you buy plants you know that’s a steal!) It was one possibility I've been considering for a part of my yard I'm developing because of its imposing appearance and shade tolerance.

 Inside I picked up a pair of fifty cent earrings,

two lovely blue ramekins (fifty cents each),

and a handmade tote bag that I just love.

Needs a bit of mending, but hey, I like to mend!

Out in the garage I found another holiday bell pull, this one of Swedish hardanger embroidery on linen.

I guess it was Swedish weekend, since we had to go by IKEA while we were in Portland as well. But the little glow we felt from finding this completely unexpected estate sale carried us through the retail encounter. Which on a Saturday afternoon, ten days before Christmas, we certainly needed!

The Schedule That Flew Out the Window

Usually my thrifting week is pretty predictable. Okay, completely predictable: I go out on Friday morning with friends to wherever Craigslist sends us to see what we can find. Occasionally KK and I will make a mid-week jaunt to the Goodwill Bins. I start glancing at Craigslist usually on Wednesday, because there’s now a feature where you can delete ads you don’t want to see again. I discard the ones from out of town or any area we probably won’t be visiting, as well as the ones that advertise themselves as “clearing out the man cave” or “tools, camping and baby items.”

But this week! My whole routine was upended. There was an estate sale that started on Wednesday afternoon near my house, so I went. Oh. My. Goodness. It was the estate of a woman who was a dealer in vintage textiles, and she had an unbelievable amount of antique clothing, quilts, and linens of all description. As well as all the other stuff she had collected. Among which were two mangles (those ironing machines for flat things like sheets) which explains why all the linens were heavily starched and pressed. Boxes and piles of towels and napkins and tablecloths and you name it. And a whole bunch of dealers there on the first day; I overheard three women exulting over all the hardanger pieces they were finding to resell.

I bought only two items that day, for a buck each. A sweet embroidered tea towel with bluebirds (BTW, those rust spots came out completely with an oxy soak!),

and what was probably intended as a pillow top.  It was made with a punch needle and possibly rayon thread, which creates an interesting texture, kind of like a miniature rug.

Love the colors, and when I got it home I realized it works really well with this fabric. I think the punch needle square will be the back of a kimono style jacket.

Millie likes it too.

Knowing that KK likes vintage linens, I took her over there on Thursday. I was confident that there would still be much to find, and that I would see things that had been buried the day before. True on both counts! Lots fewer people too, so we were able to take our time and enjoy sifting through. We both found a few things. My most practical score was this hanger thingie for drying hand wash.

I'm always a sucker for dog items. I guess these are coasters and a holder for them.

I really love the slightly grumpy expressions on the dogs!

Couldn’t resist three vintage lucite or maybe celluloid buttons.

And when I ran across this never-used heavy linen towel with my initial on it, I knew it had to be mine.

So now we come to Friday. Usually KK and Judy and I start out bright an early, but this week Judy was out of town, and KK had a meeting to attend mid-morning. And another friend needed to pick something up from me and could only do it Friday morning. So after she came by, I put together a short list of sales, and when KK’s meeting was over she picked me up and we made it to a few of them. I picked up a large pot for the garden and a pair of fleece gloves for this winter, as well as a couple of really beautiful scarves. The pink one is soft, soft lambswool from Nordstrom,

and the rayon & silk one is supple, gleaming velvet.

Wish my photography could capture the beautiful dark green color.

On Saturday I needed to show my face at the annual plant sale that my garden club puts on, so of course I mapped out a few sales to stop by along the way to the venue. I could hardly believe it when the first thing that caught my eye was this cute set of watering can lights. 

At the same stop I selected a small original watercolor

of a courtyard in Spain.

And although I resisted buying any plants at the garden club sale (too much planning to do in the new yard before I really invest in plants) I did pick up a potted bamboo at my last stop. Though it's not large now, this type gets about 15’ tall, and bamboo is expensive…and this was six bucks.

So, four days in a row of going to sales. I'm exhausted! But I wouldn’t have missed the fun or the good finds. And the icing on the cake was that I overheard a bit of conversation that has to go in my eavesdropping hall of fame: two women sitting in their garage minding a sale, and I heard one say to the other, “So, did you get all the snakes fed before you came over?”