SILK AND JADITE

The crochet hook flew in and out of the bright red yarn, leaving a trail of shell pattern in its wake. The younger woman hoped to learn how to crochet by watching her grandmother. “I learned by watching this lady I knew,” the grandmother told me. “I was ten years old. She had a son my age, and he didn’t know it but I knew he was supposed to be my boyfriend. I told him I knew how to crochet even though I didn’t, that I just didn’t have my hook with me. So he handed me a hook, and I took it. Now what was I going to do? Somehow I started making a chain, so he was convinced I knew how. And after that I just watched and then I could do it.”

I told her the perfect end to the story was if they had grown up and she had married him. She laughed. “No,” she said, “that was in Texas, and then we came here, and I haven’t seen him for many years. But I still know how to crochet.”

I was a little surprised when I got home that I hadn't bought more stuff. Not that I didn’t pick up plenty! Found another huge neighborhood having its annual sale day, and I didn’t even get around the entire tract before I called it a day. I'm so proud of myself for not overdoing it. If you go to sales, you’ll know that they’re as addictive as a slot machine—though ultimately produce way more return for your quarters. (A lot of this morning’s deals were literally paid for with quarters. Somehow I had a whole bunch o’ change in my billfold and now it's down to a few pennies. And weighs about six pounds less!)

I doled out a total of $11 this morning, and came home with:

A cozy cotton velour shirt for next winter.

As I was fishing for money, the seller held this shirt and told me it always gets lots of compliments. “One guy I work with would always come up behind me and rub it and say it’s SO soft,” she told me. Hmmm, could be harassment, I said. She shook her head. “Nah, he was gay, he just liked my shirt.” From her I also picked up this cute little china chick.
“There’s another one like it somewhere, but we can't find it,” she said. No matter, two would be less perfect than one. I keep saying I won't get any more chickens, but I didn’t have a baby chick so I needed this, right? And it was twenty five cents. Even I can't get too guilty over a quarter. Also found two bottlebrush trees
and some kitchen/office scales. I was going to give them to a colleague who told me she’s looking for one, but my hubs took one look and claimed it for his office. Sorry, Cathy G., next one is for you!
Loved the colors in this silk scarf.
When I asked the price of this little Rubbermaid container, the guy joked, “Well it used to belong to the Queen of England, which makes it pretty collectible.”
I gave him my Queen of Fifty Cents calling card so he could see how appropriate it would be for the container to go from one queen to another. I think I'll use it to hold birdseed. A couple of weeks ago I hung up a bird feeder outside my window at work. Two purple finches found it the first week and told all their friends. Now the gang is consuming an entire feeder’s worth daily. I'm going to have to put the birds on a diet.

A large sale turned out to be two in one—the driveway and part of the front yard had wares belonging to a mother and daughter, and nearer the porch a couple of friends were setting up their display—tasteful china mostly. A couple of boxes in front of the tasteful china had odds and ends of kitchen stuff, and I pulled out this wonderful bowl.


He quoted me the stiff price of two dollars (okay, it's stiff for me!) but then because it was with the fifty cent stuff he said that was fine. Thank you, thank you--I love this! Perfect for waffle batter on Sunday morning with our new waffle iron from two weeks ago. He said he bought it at an auction in Iowa, which is the icing on the cake. A jadite batter bowl is good, but a jadite batter bowl from an auction in Iowa is perfect. When I got home it was the first thing I showed my husband. “Look! A jadite batter bowl!” He peered at it. “And that’s a good thing?” he asked. I assured him it is, and I'm sure he will agree at breakfast tomorrow. And at least he didn’t ask me where I'm going to put it!

I also scored on the mother-daughter side of the sale: three pairs of shoes! You know how I love Mary Janes, and to find sporty green suede ones, as well as flowered ones just really made my morning. The other embroidered shoes make me feel like an off-duty pasha in my palace.



Ironically, I had bought this cute pair of tennies at the Nordstrom Rack on Friday.

They had been marked down and marked down and were another 35% off which put them into my comfort zone, and are a perfect fit. And I know they’re really cute because while I was trying on the green suede Mary Janes, another shopper picked up my new tennie that I had just taken off and started looking for its mate! “Umm, that one’s mine,” I said, pointing to the other still on my left foot.

Besides all these great deals, this sale sported a handsome—and wide!—black Lab named Blue, who was giving his undivided attention to a sandwich (in the yellow wrap) being consumed over his head.
Little candles for the lanterns in the backyard.
Actually, there are lanterns in the front yard now as well. Good thing I keep finding candles at yard sales! My husband added a couple more in the back recently, and got shorter crooks to hang the furthest, so at night the yard looks longer than it really is.

The resident dog at this sale was Mack, a poodle-Maltese cross. He was a little shy but finally agreed to a bit of petting. Those Maltese genes have given him the most amazingly soft coat—almost as soft as our cat Mrs. Wilberforce!
On the same street I had a lovely chat with a couple of ladies who may have given me the deal of the day. Piled on a daybed were several packages of fabric. I told them I'm not crazy about sewing but I do love to look at this stuff. One plastic bag held a partially made silk kimono. “My mother was a seamstress, so she was either working on this or got it to use the fabric.” We looked shook our heads admiringly over the hand stitched seams. I was very tempted by a package of Indian fabric with horses hand embroidered on it, but I resisted. I stopped resisting when I saw the grocery bag full of wonderful textured silk.
All that plus the piece in the next picture. For a couple of bucks I have enough fabric for the curtains I've been needing in my home office, and possibly slipcovers for the rattan sectional as well. Woo hoo! Silk curtains! I hung some of it over the empty curtain rod so we could see how it looked.
“You got all that for two dollars?” my husband asked. I nodded. “Sure beats the ones we saw at Ikea the other day,” he said, “and I think we would have had to hem those as well.”

Now really. You just have to love being able to look at Ikea as the expensive option! But that makes me remember something the fabric lady said that cracked me up. We were talking about second hand clothing, and I said all mine comes from driveways because I think Goodwill is just too expensive. “Oh,” she said wisely, “you always have to remember—it's the name you’re paying for.”

T-BIRDS AND TEAPOTS AND A TEA TOWEL TOO

Saturday morning started auspiciously at the bagel store. As I was waiting for my toasted bagel with cream cheese to be prepped, the other lady waiting for her order asked me if I came here often. I told her once in a while, and she said, “Here, I forgot to use my coupon, you can use it next time you come.” And she gave me a coupon for a free bagel with cheese with the purchase of a drink. Good through June—but I'll probably use it next week!

As I drove off, I noticed a duck in the parking. I think he was saving a parking place for someone.

I headed out, making my way toward a neighborhood sale in Huntington Beach. Saw a few signs along the way, and at the first sale I parked behind a man who was trying to fit a wooden easel into his small car. “You’ll have to be an artist now,” I commented, and he laughed and said first he had to figure out how to get the thing home. That’s when I noticed the car—a vintage Thunderbird.
“It's a ’55, with a ’57 porthole top,” he told me. “Yeah, it's really a lot of fun to drive.”

In the passenger seat lounged a large stuffed bunny. I said Bunny must really enjoy riding with him.
“I just bought him,” the guy said. “I figure on Easter it will be okay to use the car pool lane with him in the car, right?” I agreed—it would be just too churlish of the Highway Patrol to give someone a ticket on Easter just because their riding companion wasn’t actually a person.

I crossed the street and shopped the first sale, then headed back to my car. The T-bird man had finally gotten the easel wedged in his trunk, and was talking to another guy of about the same age. “Yeah,” I heard him say as I started my engine, “it's a ’55 with a ’57 porthole top. Really a lot of fun to drive.”

Down the street I found another sale, apparently held by several young couples. One of the guys was holding up this object and commenting on how cool it was.

A vintage bike light with AM radio. How I would have loved it when I was 12! I took the pictures and mentioned my blog, handing over one of my calling cards. They seemed to enjoy the card, and when I asked the price of something, one of the guys said a dollar, and then his wife said, “No, fifty cents! She’s the fifty cent lady.” Found something else I liked, and again she priced it at fifty cents. It's always so gratifying to encounter someone who speaks your language!

The neighborhood sale was a bit out of my usual area, but I'm glad I headed over there—it proved fruitful. Evidently this tract does a neighborhood sale annually, and I heard several sellers commenting that this was the most traffic they’d seen in several years. When I arrived home I found that my husband had the LA Times folded open to the big article headlined “Garage sales are a win-win in this economy .” Ummm…duh! I hope one of the results of this period is that people will realize that garaging is a win-win in any economy. Monetary issues aside (because the advantages are so obvious they hardly need belaboring), thrifting is green, and a heckuva lot of fun. Whenever I buy something new, I'm struck by how annoying all that packaging is. Besides putting more stuff in the landfill, a lot of it is just darned hard to get open. How in the world will I be able to get into one of those plastic clamshell thingies when I'm elderly? I can barely manage now with the help of electric scissors! Thank heavens most of what I buy is second hand—so no packaging, and no awful sizing smell in my ‘new’ clothes.

Okay, I'll step off my soapbox now!

The dogs of the day included Baxter, a miniature Schnauzer, who likes to bark. Also Bella the bulldog, who doesn’t bark.


Here’s what I picked up this week. I spent a total of $28.50, and over a third of it went for one deal. But I'm not going to tell you which, you’ll have to guess!

I scored two pairs of like-new Levi 550s in my husband’s size. Sorry, no picture, but you don’t need one. Just close your eyes and imagine a really cute middle aged guy. Now picture him in relaxed-fit jeans. You got it—that’s exactly what he looks like in his new 550s!

This Pooh lamp was the first buy of the morning.
I think I'll use it on my desk at work, so I can leave the obnoxious overhead fluorescents off. He looks a bit like he’s having a Near-Death Experience (“The light! I see a very bright light!”) but with that honey pot in his arms you know he’ll go happy.
Found door-prizes-to-be for children’s librarians:
This great monkey is made on a wire frame, so he’s posable.

Twenty-one new boxes of crayons—made from soybeans.

And who wouldn’t want a purple unicorn marionette?
I recently got a camcorder at work for making library webcasts, and this will make a good bag for it.
Of course the label has to come off. Danged if I'm going to walk around carrying a bag with a label that says Dickies.

These cat shoes are too cute. How I wish they were my size, but alas they are not, so they’ll be sold. They’re a size 9, so if you’re interested let me know and we could avoid the eBay middleman.
This find is a keeper however—a fabbo Noritake teapot, creamer and sugar bowl. I haven’t yet found the pattern name, so if anyone knows what it is, give a holler. I used the pot at breakfast this morning, and I just love it—the shape of the handle, the way it pours.

Speaking of breakfast, last week’s waffle iron is a keeper as well. I'm so happy to be able to use my waffle cookbook again (our last waffle iron died some time ago).

Great book (she wrote a wonderful pancake book too). This morning we had ricotta waffles with fresh strawberries and sour cream. Yummers!

I love the bunnies on this William Sonoma dish towel.
I scored three shirts and two sweaters. The soft pinwale corduroy shirt is a Polo Ralph Lauren. I may have to share it with my husband—we both like it.
I will need to shorten the sleeves on this denim colored Eddie Bauer sweater—evidently it started life as a guy’s sweater, but no need for it to stay that way!
Black Italian sweater of 100% merino wool—it has an incredible hand, very springy. If my hubs decides he doesn’t like it, I think I'll try felting it.
This sweet rayon blouse is a Liz Claiborne.
Says to dry clean, but as you may know, I don’t do dry clean. I've given it a hand wash and it's drying on the line. Keep your fingers crossed that it didn’t shrink so I can wear it with my swishy black skirt. But if it does shrink, my loss will be the thrift store’s gain.

And a cheerful border print shirt, should be fun to wear this summer. The fabric is linen and rayon, feels great.

I'll be able to replace one of my non-whistling kettles. The older and more forgetful I become, the more necessary is the whistle!
And lastly, a lovely framed watercolor. I think I'll hang it over my computer at home; I'm a little tired of the picture that’s there now.
I thought this bed of nasturtiums was amazing, and when I commented on it, the lady having the sale laughed. “We didn’t even know they were blooming. We always park the car right here so they were out of sight.” We talked about nasturtiums as edible, and she said when she was a child they put them on sandwiches. I've had them in salads, but a nasturtium sandwich sounds awfully charming!
Favorite comment of the day: at the sale with the vintage bike light, the conversation wandered from yard sales to weather (via the thought that we’re so lucky to be able to go to sales all year round here, unlike places with snow). One of the guys commented, “Talk about snow. I lived in Indiana for four years once. It was the longest eight years of my life.”

SATURDAY FLUFF

The cute little girl was helping her grandmother arrange their yard sale. I said what a good helper she was, then added, “You must be…four or five years old?” Her grandmother said yes, she was four and a half. But her granddaughter drew herself up and said, “I am four and three fourths.” “Wow,” I said, “you’re a good helper and you can do fractions!”

When I started out this morning I promised myself that everything tempting me during the morning would be put to this test: is it excellent, and will I use it now? Thrifting on a regular basis can be such a good time to practice self discipline! I certainly met some excellent pets. One was a plushy black cat named Sasha. Her owner lit up when he talked about what a great cat she is. Sasha was a little shy, which was disappointing because I was dying to see if her fur was as thick and soft as it looked in the morning sunshine.

A few stops later I met Ben E., a sweet elderly dog.
His owner said the name was originally just Ben, but he seemed to demand a middle initial, so he became Ben E. My pets always end up with middle names, so I knew what he was talking about. (Edward’s middle name, for instance, is Hopper—partly after the artist, partly because that is what he does.) Ben E. has been through much in his fourteen years, including getting his tongue caught in a paper shredder as a puppy. (youch! He had to have it sewn back on!) Not so long ago he had a stroke, and they thought that might be the end, but brave old Ben fought his way back. I think the thing that’s so inspiring about our pets is not just their amazing ability to heal, but the way they take whatever comes in their stride. I've been through a lot with my furry guys, and they never moan or complain or feel sorry for themselves. Wish I could say the same about myself! Whoever said that line about ‘wanting to be the person my pet thinks I am’ got it right.

My favorite overheard line of the morning came from a lady who was paying for some knickknacks and dishes and something cross-stitched. As she pulled out her billfold she remarked, “I thought I was stopping for gas money earlier, but this will get me way farther!”

I spent a total of $7 (not counting my own gas money!) and brought home these excellent items:

Two little lusterware demitasse cups.
They’re for my husband, who makes espresso regularly with his prized vintage La Pavoni. (Check out that shine—he gave it a major polishing this week.)
An angora sweater to felt.
A movie I've never seen, but Brenda Blethyn is fabulous so I figure it's worth a look.
A whole boxful of magazines—fifty in all.
Ought to keep me entertained for a bit. Some of the titles are not things I go out of my way to look at, but hey, this is my big chance to check out Retired Officer Magazine!
And the prize of the day—a brand new waffle iron, still in its box with the original sales receipt tucked inside.
It was originally $40, on special for $20. It was WAY more special when I bought it for $3! Of course, it makes heart shaped waffles, but what the heck. We can just eat heart shaped waffles until I find one I like better.

At my final stop of the morning I saw an amazing beaded dress and commented to the seller that I bet she had looked pretty slinky in that. She laughed and said I should try it. I noted that it was about five sizes too small for me, and that anyway I actually own an amazing beaded dress myself, only I've never found any place to wear it. “Oh, let me tell you,” she said. “We now go to the performing arts center once a month, and that’s when I get myself all fluffed up.” I loved that phrase, and when I left I told her I'd keep an eye out for her at the theatre. “I know I'll recognize you,” I said. “You’ll be the fluffy one!”