Good Friends

Last week I tried to get my friend Marcia to go garaging with me, but it didn’t work out. But I made a new friend on one of the driveways I shopped.

Her name is Sophie.

“Great cat,” I commented. The folks having the sale enthusiastically agreed. “And she’s not even our cat. She lives down the street. Anything that happens in the neighborhood, Sophie is there helping out.”

   

She helped me look at earrings. We decided not to buy any. The more I petted her the louder she purred, and the closer she got.

I admired her fancy toes.

Had to leave Sophie behind (they didn’t think the neighbors would take kindly to their selling her). So I got Marcia to go out with me this week. We were just starting out when we saw this tiny little woman, probably in her 70s, trying to hang these signs on the wall. We stopped to help. Well, Marcia helped. I took her picture.

We didn’t see much at their sale we wanted, but they did give us this book, by an author I like. Don’t judge this book by this cover, it is way better than it looks!

We ran across one sale where they were into merchandising.

I snuck a shot of this terrier while the owner and a couple of other folks were talking about all the local problems with coyotes.

One of them claimed that the coyotes in Huntington Beach are now grabbing small dogs on leash and running off with them (and not in the amorous sense). HB – it’s not all surfers anymore. Around the corner the terrier turned up again, and was immediately surrounded by an entire teenage fan club.

Marcia asked them why it was just kids running their sale. Turns out one of them (the one with teal blue hair that I didn’t get a picture of) is raising funds to go to Europe, where she is going to study cooking in London, France, Italy and Germany. We were suitably impressed, and bought some cookbooks from her.

I needed another baking book, yes? When we left she thanked us and said she was all energized about her trip again.

I don’t think the HB coyotes would stand a chance with Dexie.

She was really growling at us. The girl’s dad took her and we petted her a bit, a trifle gingerly on my part.

This sweetie was introduced as the security guard. Well, both sweeties, they were a team. The dog is blind, but the guy wasn’t missing a thing.

I picked up a vintage cartoon book and a couple of DVDs at another sale

 

and some bookplates and cards at another.

She had several boxes of these cards. “Yeah, I bought them when my twins were born thinking I’d send out pictures of them every few weeks, and they just had their ninth birthday, so I think it’s too late.”

My one other find of the morning is in the nature of a sentimental ending to my time in Orange County. I was so excited when they offered me the position here.  That weekend I went to a yard sale and found a Peter Rabbit needlepoint pillow, and I remember thinking as I bought it that oh, boy, I had an excuse to buy children’s literature stuff again. So it seems just right to buy one more Peter Rabbit, who will be part of the collection of children’s literature items I’ve found on the driveways of the OC.

Nope, I didn’t give them all away to my librarians, and am planning to decorate one of our guest rooms with them.

Marcia and I ended the morning by meeting up with my friend Linda for breakfast. Linda is literally one of the best things I’ve ever found on a driveway. Yup, we met at a yard sale, started talking, and that’s all it took.

This is my last weekend here; I’ll be heading up to Oregon later this week. I’m not sure how long it will be until I’m back online and will be able to post. But rest assured, the Queen of Fifty Cents has only retired from her day job. I’ll let you know how things are going and what the Salem yard sale scene looks like just as soon as I can!

AHHH...

Did it.

Retired yesterday.

No more pencils,

No more books,

No more teacher’s

Dirty looks…

Oh wait. Wrong rite of passage.

No more meetings

No more bossing.

I’ll have plenty of

Time for flossing!

Sweetness

Last Sunday my children’s librarians had a Storybook Tea to help me celebrate my retirement. It was quite lovely, and I had a wonderful time.

We actually had it at my house, which was handy for me! Our house is in a central location, and we’re having to keep the house and yard spiffy anyway because the house is on the market. We ate a ton of delicious food that everyone brought, and talked and laughed, and petted my dog Edward, and they gave me gifts.

Can I say these women totally understand me? Take a look at this.

A beautiful bonsai…and what is that it’s resting on?

Quarters, so I can keep going to yard sales! There were also these fabulous vintage bags.

 

Each one had a quarter in it! And to honor where we are going…

Oregon quarters!

Isn’t that fabulous? Okay, I admit there were no quarters in this gorgeous blank book, but it’s going to be my new Saturday book that I keep notes in as I’m out garaging.

 

I’ve used up my old notebook. There are literally two pages left in it, and I’ve got only a couple more Saturdays for garaging here.

I’ve looked forward to this life passage for a very long time. Retired from my career – gulp! It’s scary, yes, but very exciting. Four more days of work. I’m very grateful to have spent the last 10 years in this place with these people.

Thanks, you guys. You’re the best.

Gods, Dogs and Chairs

The yard sale gods evidently were very, very sorry for last week. I mean, when two acquisitive women spend all morning at yard sales and manage to spend fifty cents between them, you have to figure you’ve either seriously offended the YSGs, or they’ve gone on vacation. I’m leaning toward the vacation theory…and now they are back.

I mean, today I spent a little over $26. Given my frugality you know it was a big day. Started out small, with me just taking pictures of stuff I thought was kind of cool but didn’t buy. Like this, um, lab equipment thingie.

Couldn’t think of anything to do with it except perhaps place it next to the control panel from a 1916 x-ray machine in my husband’s office (a story for another day). So I left it.

Wasn’t even tempted by these.

 

Her brother assured me I should not be fooled by the wings or the angelic expression. I wasn’t. They did enjoy my story about the guy I saw a while back do something similar, and then wasn’t able to get the darned wings off. His buddies were most amused.

First buy was a DVD.

Then a couple of vintage books I’m hoping to resell, though it looks like they won’t make my fortune as I had naively hoped.

At the same sale I picked up this handmade wooden jar. Just liked it. Might have been made by the same guy who tied the flies. Once it’s cleaned up I think it will be quite nice.

A stack of gardening magazines is always welcome.

Met a few dogs along the way. Handsome Kahlua was very hopeful that the cookies might be shared with him. But they weren’t.

Miss Molly gave my car a good sniffing. She’s elderly; maybe her eyesight is going and she thought it was a big dog.

Found a gift for a friend who likes dragonflies, one of those crystal cubes etched inside by a laser. Hopefully I’ll be able to give it to her before she reads this!

Another sale provided these little LED lights for a dime apiece

  

and a free sundial, something I’ve always wanted.

By now I was definitely feeling the beneficence of the yard sale gods, and sending them my thanks. And then it happened.

Walked up to one of those sales where the little kids have a table of cookies for sale. Noticed that two of them were sitting on rather nice mid century modern dining chairs. Took a couple more steps and saw two more of the chairs…with a price tag for the set of four. Fairly reasonable, although the woven seats of all four must be redone. Given that, I suggested an even more reasonable price, and soon they were mine.

I really, really like the look of them. Even with the seats coming undone they are rock solid and comfy to sit on. I love the contrasting wood on the backrest

   

and the sculptural quality of the pieces.

I wedged the four of them into the convertible and toted them home, and gloated over them for a while. Then started looking online to see if I could find a maker, since I don’t see any labels. (They may have had paper labels that have come off, or something under the weaving.) And I do believe I found them. Looks like they are the CH23 chair by Hans Wegner. If you’re into mid century furniture you know how exciting that is! Hans Wegner designed really cool stuff and I have lusted over pictures of his furniture for some time, never dreaming I would actually find some that I could afford. You can do a Google Image search on his name, or click here to see the results I got.

I’m sure I’ll get a bit snarly when I reweave all the seats, but I’ve done that kind of weaving before so I’m sure I can handle it. The Danish papercord will cost far more than I paid for the chairs, I’m sure! But when they’re done we will have four matching dining chairs for the first time. I’ll try to finish them before our 40th anniversary next spring!

So here’s to the yard sale gods: all my appreciation for a fine morning. Hope they smiled on you as well!

Elmos and Eichlers

My friend Stephanie came out garaging with me this morning, and since she lives way up in north county, we decided we’d meet about halfway between our houses. This put us in quite a posh area of the OC; figured if we didn’t find many sales we could at least look at the high-priced neighborhoods.

We figured right! I have new respect for my usual route, which has proven so fruitful over the years. Didn’t buy one darned thing, and Steph ended up spending a whopping fifty cents. But she spent it well, as you will see.

Some of the neighborhoods really were lovely, with beautiful landscaping. But even those areas of million-plus dollar homes had their stinkers, like the two story stucco house painted a very odd shade between pea green and acid yellow. We stopped at one sale in a neighborhood of houses that all appeared to be Eichler houses. Turns out they actually are Eichlers! We got kind of excited when we saw some open house signs, both of us perfectly willing to be looky-lous. But then we realized it was only 8 a.m. and the open house would not yet be open. I just checked some real estate sites and most likely the signs were for this house. Which would have been fun to see, but I have my own MCM house that I’ll be seeing in the near future!

We met a few dogs. This little guy was recovering from surgery and I tried hard to pet the Lab half of this pair but she was so excited I could hardly touch her before she bucked away in excitement.

Little Roxie was rescued from the pound. She has an absolutely gorgeous coat.

Handsome storm was shopping with his owner on Roxie’s driveway.

I hope he had better luck with his shopping than I did. Bought nothing. Zero. Zip. Of course, since I’m moving in the near future this is not a bad thing! Here’s proof that we’re getting serious about this whole retirement/moving to Oregon plan:

 

We’ve already moved part of our stuff! We’re putting our OC house on the market very soon and needed to clear it out so it will show well. It’s feeling quite spacious now! So if you know anyone in the market for a great house with an amazing yard in PRIME yard sale country (this week notwithstanding) send ‘em by.

So, back to Steph’s fifty cents. Her husband asked her before she left what she was planning to bring home, which of course one never knows. So we started watching for something silly she could take him, and we found the perfect thing.

Everyone needs a talking Elmo, right? When you tilt his head back he says various things, or just laughs. We cracked up the whole morning every time we hit a bump and Elmo said something from the back seat. Several stops later she scored a new change purse.

It’s the sequins on the kitty’s butt that make it really special. And so here we have Portrait of a Happy Garager.

Guess it pays to shop those posh neighborhoods!