Garage sale finds.

Two weeks ago, when my father-in-law John and my brother-in-law Tony were visiting us for some fishing, we all piled into Tony's SUV on Saturday morning and ventured out in search of garage sales.

Luxuriating in the spacious leather back seat of an SUV while someone else drives (Tony) and someone else navigates (Todd) is truly the way to go garage saling. Plus, I had one of my best sale days ever.

I got all three of these recipe booklets for 25 cents. The one on the left was compiled by a local woman 15 years ago and has all her favorite family recipes in it. The Pillsbury Bake-Off booklet is falling apart and very well-used, and no wonder--there are a whole pile of mouth-watering recipes in it.



For $1.00, I got a Girl Scout manual from the late 1940s that has the cutest illustrations, and lots of useful information about knots and table settings and such things.


I got a big pile of vintage ornaments for about $3.00. They're not the fancy kind with images on them (those are my favorite) but they'll work very well as filler on my tree.


I also got a giant wicker basket that I'm wondering what to use it for now that I have it ($1.00) and a scanner. And I found an amp for my friend Matthew's new electric guitar.

But the best find was these chairs:


In this spot in our living room I have had two small Ikea armchairs with white duck slipcovers, which we've had for about 8 years. We've had small living rooms ever since we bought them and they've been perfect for each one.

But they were very boxy and plain, in true Ikea style. And visually, they took up a lot of space. So when I spotted these vintage yellow armchairs in the front yard at an estate sale, I snatched them up for $45 for the pair. Don't they look great? They're small and they fit into the room very nicely. They're not cushy, but they're comfortable. And the upholstery is in great shape. I'm just delighted with them, and my mother-in-law has laid claim to my old chairs, so everyone's happy.

Now if I can just figure out how to get Tony and John to come back down every couple weeks next spring to drive me around and bring me good luck again!

P.S. I think I came off sounding pathetic in my previous post, and that wasn't what I intended! We had the option of spending Thanksgiving with my brother three hours away, or we could have flown up to my husband's family get-together in Columbus. Running up to DC for a day at the museums just seemed more manageable (and affordable), and there was a Norman Rockwell exhibit I especially wanted to see. So we had a very nice day and a tasty meal (with no clean-up afterwards!) I just wish my family was a few minutes away instead of a bunch of hours.

Yard sale finds.

I swear I have sat down to write a blog post and been thwarted at least three times in the past few days. Our internet seems to be dismayed by the hot steamy weather and develops an intermittent case of the vapors. (And it cut out on me again while I was writing this.) That's my theory anyway--we may just need a new router or something prosaic.

I had a great Saturday morning, hitting a few yard sales for the first time in months and months. For quite some time, I've just been sleeping in on Saturday mornings and letting Todd go out and do the hunting and gathering--mostly because my house is brim-full of stuff and I have no more room. But on Friday night I started thinking about some of the things I'd like to do outside, and it occurred to me that yard sales are always a good place to find outside stuff, too.

I found these cushions at an estate sale:


They're very flat, and made from printed panels that were stitched around for a quilted effect. I remember this being a very popular craft 15-20 years ago. They just look so perfect on the patio chairs, don't you think? I bring them in at night so they don't get damp and dirty.

The back deck looks so cool and lovely here, doesn't it?


Actually it was upwards of 100 degrees out there and not much better today. So I admire the cushions from inside where it's cool and dry. Maybe someday I'll get to sit on them.

At the same estate sale, I spotted this doo-hickey:



I think it's supposed to be a sewing basket on a stand, but the top of the lid is all torn. The guy who was handling the outdoor traffic told me I could just take it, no charge.

I was all set to bring it home and chop off that lid piece and spray paint it and reveal a wonderful before-and-after miracle...but the spray paint can says to spray when it's between 45-85 degrees and low humidity. That may mean it will be September before I transform this thing. It certainly won't be happening this week. I want to set it on the back deck and fill it with plants and tchotchkes. Can't wait!

I also got three strawberry jars, those terracotta jars with all the holes where you can tuck plants. When I asked the gentleman at the sale how much the strawberry jar was, he asked me to show him where it was. He told me that when I said "strawberry jar," he had no idea what I was talking about--his dad always called them "10-man urinals." I laughed and laughed! This is a strawberry jar, for those who don't know:


I also got three books, an old-fashioned food mill, and curtain rods for Todd's study. Not too bad.

Yard sale finds.

We were having our new mattress set delivered yesterday sometime between 8 and 10 AM, but we found a few sales that started at 7 AM, so we left bright and early and ran out to see what we could find.

We came skidding back home at about 8:05, and the delivery guys were just getting out of their truck! Whew!

Then after they left, we went back out for a couple more hours. We're yard sale addicts, I fear.

Here's a couple things I found:

a small McCoy planter bowl to add to my collection:


two pairs of linen cargo pants, two pairs of capris, one pair of dress pants:


a few old books (I think I might frame the seashell pages for our bedroom):


an old birdcage--at least I think it's old:


We were planning to stop by Target or somewhere to pick up some queen-size sheets for our new bed, but I found a set at a church rummage sale for $3.00. Score!


They don't match everything exactly, but for three bucks they'll certainly do until I find the perfect new set. I think they're quite pretty, too!

Our new bed is so, so wonderful. We've been sleeping in a double bed for 16 years--the first eight years we had a very old hand-me-down from Todd's folks, then we bought a new Sealy Posturepedic in 2000, which started going south after about five years, and now we've made the move to a queen.

We've had the bed since December, when we bought our new bedroom set, but waited around to get the new mattress. So we've had the new headboard propped against the wall with the old full bed in front, and the footboard and side rails tucked up in the garage loft. Not the greatest arrangement! Now it's all put together and looks great.

(Hey, I don't even make the bed for my own husband--do you really think I'm going to make it just to impress y'all?)

I had noticed that Macy's was having a Memorial Day mattress sale last weekend, so we stopped in and lay on a few and found a Sealy with memory foam incorporated that we liked pretty well. But Todd is a shopper-arounder (sometimes annoying, but usually a good thing) and we stopped at the Original Mattress Factory the next day and found one we liked even better. Then we went to Mattress Discounters and lay on a few more Sealys with memory foam. But we ended up liking the Original Mattress Factory set the best.

Can I say a few words about the OMF? This is a chain that was founded by a guy who'd been with some mattress company for years and decided to spin off and build his own mattresses and sell them direct. This guy, Ron Trezinski, does his own commercials, and much as you might expect, they are supremely annoying. He reads his own copy in what I can only describe as a lilting monotone. It makes you want to stick skewers into your ears...especially if you have auditory hyper-sensitivity like I do. <---I made up my own name for my condition--nice, no?

OMF had stores in Columbus, so we were subjected to the commercials when we lived there, and then we moved down to Hampton Roads, VA, which also happens to be an OMF market. Nooooo! When I worked at the scrapbook store and had the radio on all day, I used to sit and fantasize about ways to kill Ron Trezinski, who was a VERY heavy advertiser on the classic rock station! And here we were about to put a fairly hefty sum of money into that man's pocket. But we lay down on this extra-firm mattress with a thin pillowtop and it just felt like heaven. Supportive, yet just the right amount of cushyness.

Ah well. Scruples just can't stand up against the promise of a good night's sleep, and I certainly did have that last night. But Ron Trezinski can still bite me.

Weekend activities.

We had a very productive day yesterday. We took off for some yard sales in the morning, and I found a white wicker stand, probably a bathroom piece, to put next to the front door. It's a little smaller than what I wanted, but the price was right, and I think it looks rather cute.

I also got the baskets with silk greenery and the two baskets on the third shelf, from various yard sales yesterday. Also a tiny ceramic bird that's sitting by the birdhouse basket.

So some of our yard tools and all the little bits that go on the various garden hoses can sit in baskets on the shelves and look nice--we really needed something nice-looking to hold all that stuff.

The other great find yesterday was an old retractable clothesline that Todd put up for me in the back yard. It fit perfectly between one of the deck railings and the closest pear tree, so when I have towels or jeans that take forever to dry in our little HE compact dryer, now I can take them outside and hang them up. It'll be great!

When we got home from yard saling, Todd tackled the front porch and the siding on the front of the house, which was dirty and mildewed, and I sat here giving him instructions:

Pretty sweet deal, eh? No, I did actually putter around while he was scrubbing...I cleaned the birdbath, moved pots around out of the way of the spray, clipped and deadheaded flowers, put out the sun tea pot, etc. But I did sit a little bit, too! The shady spot under the front maple is just perfect, don't you think?

This morning Todd put a coat of new navy blue paint on the shutters and garage door before I ever stirred out of bed, which made me feel guilty but relieved. I'm assuming the shutters at least, will need a second coat, so I may get drafted into painting duty yet. They look much better...nice and dark and unfaded.

Tonight I think Todd will be climbing up to wash the second story front, while I stand on the ground below praying he doesn't fall! He's very careful, but I'm the type that sees disaster around every corner.

Tomorrow we'll be taking a lovely morning trip to the beach...can't wait!

Thrifting.

The thrifting gods have smiled on me lately. I got re-bit by the thrifting bug after a really long hiatus...I think what caused it was reading other people's blogs and seeing the cool stuff they were finding at thrift stores and yard sales.

Two weeks ago, Todd's mom and I did some heavy-duty thrifting and I came across this gorgeous jug. It was more antique price than thrift price, but I love it. Made in Cambridge, Ohio, about an hour away from where I went to college.

I also found these lovely little unmarked cups--four of them. They go with nothing I own, but the flowers are so charming!

I also got a handful of books and a soft 100% wool sweater in baby blue for felting. When I get my little project done, I'll show what I made with it.

Thursday I went to my two closest local thrift stores and found a Pfaltzgraff dish, a footed fauxMcCoy dish, and a very heavy china tumbler. Also more books, two more wool sweaters to felt, and some pink gingham pedal pushers that I plan to chop into bits and make something out of.

Today Todd and I did a little garage saling around lunchtime and I hit the motherlode--an old house owned by a woman with a passion for old junk.

Five big wooden spools, an English china pitcher, and a tiny Japanese plate, and six English china saucers. Here's a close-up of the tiny plate, and then the saucers:

I also got a cool carved, painted piece of molding. It looks pretty old, but the woman had no idea where it was from--she had picked it up at a yard sale herself. Here it is below, between two more finds--two lighthouse paintings we found at one of the consignment stores we stopped at in the afternoon.

The lighthouse paintings will go in our downstairs lighthouse-themed bathroom.

I also ended up with a handful of Barbie books for my Barbie-crazy nieces Ev and Anna, and a child's prayer board book for me, and some other books. Books attach themselves to me and beg to come home with me--that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I also found a 1980's era book of iron-on embroidery transfers.

In true 80's style, they've glammed up the embroidery with paint washes and glitter and all manner of horrible things--I don't know if the emboidery on the model's sweatshirt is really visible, but trust me, it's dreadful.

But the transfers themselves are pretty straightforward and very cute...there's a castle picture that would make a great pillow for one or more of my princess nieces.

I think that's most everything. I'm pretty happy with my haul!