Fa la la la la

Merry Christmas!

I know I've groused about Christmas crapola in past blogs, but the truth is that some of my favorite Christmas tchotchkes were purchased at garage sales. These rusty old metal snowmen were too cute to pass up some years back. They look pretty cute on my mantel. I think I paid $5 for them.

My friend Cynthia sent me a little tiny nativity set a couple of years ago (pictured on the right here). I love it because I have a matching set (on the left) that my daughter, Sara bought me at Olvera Street in Los Angeles. So cute! They're so small that they fit on little Mexican plates (also from garage sales!) and I love that their clothes are different shades. If there were a few more figures in each set they could fill a chess board. Sheep for pawns maybe?

Here's one of my favorite finds: another nativity set, also from Mexico. It came in a beat-up cardboard box. I couldn't believe anyone would part with it, but that is really the nature of garage sales, isn't it? Again, I think it was $5, but it may have been a bit higher. It's been a while. These little figures are so sweet, very intricately painted and such lovely expressions. I especially like the "halos" that are just balls on sticks poking out of their heads. They always sit in my living room window, along with the little tiny guys mentioned above, plus two other nativities that together constitute a collection of sorts. Ironic, considering my complete lack of faith. No matter. I do love the story, and as Joe often says by way of a quick toast during the holidays, "Baby Jesus rules!"

A Dog Christmas Story

I was on my way to San Diego yesterday morning, so my saling time was cut short a bit. I did manage to find a couple of nice little goodies before heading south. Snagged these old (I was going to write "vintage" here, but I think that word is getting overused a bit lately...I'll just go with "old") tablecloths. I especially like the one with the cherries. $4 each.


I also found these lovely Italian pasta bowls, a set of eight for $5. They're going to do double duty as soup bowls at our house. Sometimes when soup is extra pretty I want a nice wide, shallow bowl for it.







Finally, the reason for the trip to SD: The Annual Painting of the Christmas Windows at my sister Kathy's house. Her dog, Indy, is always the star attraction. I must admit that this year's theme was a bit lost on me, since I appear to be the only person left on the planet who hasn't seen the movie A Christmas Story. These windows are always a collaborative effort. Kathy comes up with a theme. For the last two years, my daughter Emily has done the preliminary sketches. I usually draw them onto the windows with markers. Then Jackie, Kathy, and I fill them in. Then it's lunch time!

This year: Urban Solace in North Park. Yum.
Here's a photo of the main window for your holiday enjoyment.

Wise Men Still Seek It

I've had the entire week off. Two of those days were furlough days: in previous years I would have spent last Monday and Tuesday having parent/teacher conferences. But not this year! Budgetary constraints axed those babies, along with seven more days, for a total pay cut of 5%. I am not complaining. Those conferences are stressful for me, and the week was like a little mini-vacation: home alone with nothing to do but cook, clean, read, and walk the dog. (Not necessarily in that order.) I haven't actually left the house (except for dog walking) for two days. Ahhhh. I love that! But you can't garage sale from home (well, you can, but it's really not the same.) So this morning, despite the chill in the air, I decided to take a little spin through the neighborhood. I wasn't really expecting much because of the holiday, so it was surprising how much was going on.



Since Phil (my stepson) moved out last month I've been looking for little bedside tables for what is now back to being a guest room. I was hoping to find a set of two, but no luck so far. I did find one today, which seems to work fine, at least temporarily. The table, lamp, and picture frame came from the same front yard for a total of $10.







There are always picture frames at garage sales. Always. You should never, ever spend real money on a picture frame, even if it's at a discount place like Ross or T.J. Maxx. I never spend more than $1 for them and although you sometimes have to weed through some icky ones, there is always a good selection.





More kids' books. Third graders love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. My single set is always out on loan while someone else is waiting for them. So these are back-ups. The Pigeon books are by a very funny and inventive children's author named Mo Willems. They are really for younger children (I'm trying to convince my friend Debbie, who teaches first grade, that Mo Willems needs to be an "Author of the Month"), but eight-year-olds still appreciate the humor. And of course, the Grinch needs no introduction. This copy is in excellent condition. I don't think anyone has even opened it! Room 18 will take care of that in a few days when all my Christmas books come out. All these books and the picture frames were loaded into a big box and purchased for $5.


The cards are some of those square ones that require extra postage. But since they each say "2.95" on the back and I paid $2 for all four of them, I guess I can spring for the extra stamp. Some lady had an entire rack full of them. I kind of wanted the rack more than the cards.




She also sold me the "item of the day": the Jesus bag! It's brand new and it's tag says it's an "overnighter" made from "95% post-consumer material." It even has a big red zipper. I love it! I paid $6, but it's tag says $27. It's made by Blue Q, and the tag line on the bottom says, "Wise men still seek it." I know I do. Almost every Saturday.

Feeling Lucky

My friend Carol has finally returned from a long stay in Vermont. She brought some kind of good saling vibe along with her! It is a beautiful fall day here and there were so many sales we couldn't possibly get to all of them. We read in the Penny Saver (remember the Penny Saver?) about a "world traveller's estate sale." Today was the half-price day. Excellent.

So this old Aunt Gretchen died at 93 recently after a long and happy life travelling the world collecting cool things. Carol bought a lovely little painting from Iran, Gail got a very classic-looking statue of the Virgin Mary, and I bought a this little bronze grasshopper for $6. Aunt Gretchen's niece told me that her aunt had always kept it by her bedside for good luck. I'm not a fan of grasshoppers. In fact, I beat two of them to death with the end of my hose earlier in the week. I had actually intended to set him outside near the plants that they are always chomping on as a sort of guard. But maybe I should do like Aunt Gretchen instead and keep him next to my bed. There were many really beautiful things for sale: lots of small Laguna Beach oil paintings, many pieces of crystal, a lovely silver tea set on a big tray. None of it was really my style, except for the house itself. I could have packed a few bags and moved right in...grasshopper and all.

We met another charming old lady down the road. She had lots of old jewelry and elegant things. I couldn't resist these two little elephants that she had displayed in a glass case. They are both from India, a place she loves and has visited twice. I bought the little green one first. He is brass on the bottom and looks to be covered in cloisonne. He was $4. I carried him around in my hand for a while and kept coming back to check out the other one. Those two little riders with their pearl-spangled cover were too much for me. It's made out of a combination of things, including silver on the bottom. I paid $25 for it, which I didn't feel too badly about. Joe handed me that exact amount last night, his winnings at golf yesterday, and told me to take it yard-saling. So there you go...it was meant to be. Here's a photo of all of these little guys next to an original box with nut crackers & picks in it ($1) so you can see their actual size.

There were many more goodies out there! Carol bought a really beautiful rustic-looking coffee table for $15 (unfortunately I helped her get it home without getting a photo.) I found a big pile of plastic envelopes (26 in all...almost a classroom set) which I spend a fortune on buying new every September. I use them for book-borrowing. $5. I paid $2 for more cute little fallish place mats, and somebody gave me Nora Ephron's last book, I Feel Bad About My Neck for free. But here's the real find: whiskey!

We saw a sign on one of my favorite little streets: Shady Lane, which is almost as adorable as it sounds. We pulled up to find a driveway covered with more Christmas crapola than you have ever seen gathered in one place outside of a Michael's. Evidently they have recently sold (get this) a 100-foot yacht. (Maybe the recession is over.) Every Christmas they decorated it with hundreds of garlands and lights and trees and .... well, you get the picture... for the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade. None of the three of us are interested in any more Christmas crapola (as you will remember from last week), however, back in the garage we spied a table full of brand new bottles of liquor. From said yacht. $10 each. Those we were interested in. I bought one of Carol's favorites (Dewar's) and one of my own (J.D.)

Got my grasshopper and my Jack Daniels. I'm definitely feeling lucky now!

'Tis the Season?

This morning every garage sale had Christmas crapola for sale. Every one. Is there anyone out there who needs more Christmas crapola? Really?

I did find a couple of things amidst the festive falderal.

An Anne Klein jacket for $2. Maybe with black pants or skirt...

it's greenish, of course. (See last week's post.) Two more scarves,

which I need about as much as I need more Christmas crapola...but

for $3...well, I couldn't resist.

Jenga Xtreme! "Edge of your seat fun!"

It's for my classroom...and it does look fun, more like "Spread out on the floor fun."

Finally...a doggie toy for my sister's recovering tripawd. (See http://poochsmooches.blogspot.com/)

She deserves something

nice...probably something nicer than a 50 cent, garage sale, nondescript, tubular, wild animal.

But there it is.

Now I need to keep it away from my own wild animal:

here she is.

*By the way...I'm being extra careful today not to make grammatical errors. However, I have a tendency to use a lot of .... which I'm sure drives my serious writer type family members completely crazy. Anyway, when I used the spellcheck, it did not like the words crapola or falderal. Am I misspelling those? I don't think so! Of course, it rejects doggie and tripawd as well.

It's Easy Being Green

It was raining (again!) this morning, so there was no reason to go out saling.

I decided to dredge up some oldies but goodies.

Today's focus: green stuff.

Not "green" as in reduce, reuse, recycle...although garage saling certainly qualifies.

We're talking the color green. I have sort of a thing for it. In piles of useless dreck dragged out onto driveways my eyes will always seek out the green stuff. In a quick walk around my house here's what I came up with:

The lamp is one of a pair that I bought for $10 at a school rummage sale.

I had to buy new shades for them, but otherwise they were perfect for my front room. Those pale green glass goodies sitting next to it were purchsed together for about $5. does anyone know what that jug is for? I just thought it was kind of pretty.

I think I paid $2 for this tall turquoise green vase. I love it.

There are a lot of vases here...it's ridiculous really. Most of them were very cheap. The one that I paid real money for (ok...$20) is the art deco looking one sitting with the jade green bowl ($1)

and the olive tray (also $1). I think I paid $10 for the big green bowl full of sea shells, and another $10 for the set of four fruit bowls that I have sitting on my kitchen counter. The little hand-made ceramic pot sits on my mantle and holds matches. The bright green pear is very heavy and made of marble. It's a nice paper weight for notes, bills, etc for the many people who get mail at our house. (But that's another story...or another blog.)

Then there are the green clothes, green jewelry, green linens, and green dishes that I've picked up.

There's a reason that sock monkey is posted for my profile photo: he's green.

Drizzly

It's drizzly and cool this morning. Good morning for reading the paper and drinking coffee.

I started the laundry, read the first section of the L.A. Times and then headed out on my own.

I saw some great stuff at a house nearby on the very snootily named "Private Road". This is a little dead-end of a street with their own community swimming pool and little park right in the middle of their cul-de-sac. The backs of the houses look out over the nearby Back Bay. Lovely.

The garage sale in question had beautiful antique quilts, lovely mirrors, many interesting architectural pieces, and a really pretty red damask scarf. Unfortunately there was nothing available at a garage sale price. Pillows (which were admittedly, kind of nice) were marked $25. Please. The aforementioned scarf: also $25. Once in a while I'll pay real money for something, but this place was over the top. There were people swarming over the place, too. I heard someone say that it had all come from some giant flea market in Massachusetts. Maybe if I had flown to Massachusetts and visited this flea market myself I would've paid $25 for a scarf, but not on somebody's driveway.

I headed out to a public road where I ended up spending $1.

Here's what I bought:

I know. It looks boring. But it's a lot of useful stuff! Teachers have to write a lot of thank-you notes. Kids and parents are constantly bringing you little things and you have to be a good role model and write a little note. Anyway, it's just polite. And who doesn't need brand new magnetic grocery lists? I usually pay $1 for one of those at Michael's. As far as the little picture frame...I should really stop buying picture frames because I have way too many of them. But they're nice for little gifts for people. And the price was definitely right.

OK. It is kind of boring.

Great Weather, Poor Saling

It was a beautiful fall morning here: crisp and clear. A lovely morning for a little drive, but unfortunately, no goodies to be found.

So I'll just have to wax rhapsodic about past garage sale finds instead.

This little reading corner is at the top of our back stair case. It's a very strange little triangle-shaped space which once housed my desk & computer. Now that our kids have (mostly) grown up and moved away, we have actual bedrooms available for things like desks & computers! Hence the "reading corner". Except for the book shelves, which were here when I moved in, everything else came from garage sales. The big cozy chair was $10. It has a little tear on one of its arms, but we're sort of rough on stuff around here anyway, so it doesn't really bother me. I bought the floor lamp at a sale so long ago that I can't remember how much I paid for it, but I'm sure it wasn't more than $20. The funny thing is that I have two of them in the house, exactly alike, from separate garage sales. The little side table cost $15. That is something I was actively hunting for: it needed to be just the right height to work with the big cushy chair. The carved wooden window piece was $5. It's broken on one side, but still pretty cool. I bought it with absolutely no idea how I'd use it. I wandered around the house with it and discovered that it fit perfectly over this little window. The wooden tapestry hanger was a gift from my friend Carol, who travelled all over Asia last spring. The green scarf hanging on it came from a garage sale in Arkansas. And last, but not least, you can see two little Royal Doulton mice. They're called "The Flax Weavers." I rescued them from a particularly icky garage sale in San Diego a lot of years ago. They were sitting like little lost souls among grimy piles of old tools and junk, and the young man who sold them to me clearly had no attachment to them. I think he sold them to me for $1. (Out of curiosity, I just looked them up online: it turns out they're from "The Bramblyhedge Collection." The Flax Weaver, the adorable little guy in blue pants, is priced anywhere from $175 to $300. Lily Weaver, in the charming dress & cap, is going for about $195.)

The book shelves in this reading corner, of course, are packed full of lots more garage sale finds: books! But that will have to be a whole different topic for another day.

Tesoros

We've been having unusual weather this week. Ridiculous heat (now that it's officially fall) and monsoon-like showers. There was a little far-off thunder this morning, which did not deter us.
There were a few intrepid sellers armed with tarps out there.

Here's what we found:


More books for kids. Skippyjon Jones is an enormous hit in my classroom, even though my daughter thinks he might be a "leetle beet" racist. He is a Siamese cat who pretends to be a chihuahua. When he enters his semi-magical closet, he begins to speak in his "very best Spanish accent." There are a series of SJ adventures and my third-graders, who, by the way, are mostly of Hispanic ethnicity, love him. And, I admit, I love to read these aloud. Always good to have extra copies.




I actually found an adult book of interest today. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. I've read In the Heart of the Sea, which was excellent.






It must be pillow season: I got this really nice black bolster for $4.








I found a slouchy, soft wool sweater, big & boxy in my favorite shade of green. It will be nice if it ever cools off around here. $2.


Uno tesoro mas: this green beaded bracelet for $2.


Hasta la vista, muchachitos.

That is a little more like it!

The past couple of Saturdays have been so dismal for saling that I wasn't even planning to go this morning. But when Gail came out of her room fully dressed with purse in hand, I decided to head out. It turned out to be a pretty good idea! Here's what we found:



Two little black and white lamps: if you've been reading this post for a while I guess you can figure out where those are going to live.



New pillows: I never buy new pillows any more, but I switch them out pretty often. In this neighborhood, people are constantly redecorating. It's funny, too, because when you find pillows at yard sales (which is pretty often), there are oodles of them at the same house. They must do a complete pillow purge! I chose these three from a giant pile of about two dozen. They're perfect on my brown leather yard-sale sofa!

















The lamps and pillows were purchased at the same house, along with this pretty little silver & ceramic box, a mortar and pestle, this nice silver tray, and the adorable measuring spoons. The total price for everything was $18. Not bad.




Other sales yielded these goodies: an Everyman's Library edition of John Donne's poems and prose. Very pretty. I've actually paid real money for other editions in this series. A set of eight very sturdy Crate & Barrel wine glasses for $4. We are constantly breaking these around our house. A brand new giant bubble maker (if you've never tried these, you might not be impressed...but trust me, they really do make giant bubbles.) Gail found a brand new Cuisinart ice cream maker for $5. It says it uses "no ice or salt". How is that possible? We intend to find out.

It's hot here today. Bubbles and ice cream could figure in our immediate future.

%$^# Happens

It was so bad out there today that I shouldn't even bother blogging. I bought a Barefoot Contessa cookbook for a quarter. That's really about it.

It was very damp and cool this morning, so poster-board signs hung by inept sellers curled in on themselves rendering them useless. When we were actually able to find sales, there were hoards of people scrounging through piles and piles of baby clothes. There was nothing but baby clothes. It was unbelievable. Rude drivers double-parked all over the place, boxing us in more than once. People were actually trying to have garage sales in areas where their entire property were surrounded by open trenches from city street workers. C'mon. Wait til next month! The icing on the cake was when Gail unknowingly stepped in fresh dog business and then got back in the car. Bleahhh. Time to go home.



On a more upbeat note, remember the little purse I bought last week? I used it this morning and it worked great (except for the part where there was nothing to buy.) A woman actually offered me ten bucks for it!



Finally, I do have one thing to show off. Last Sunday morning, after the really bad sailing on Saturday, Joe & I headed out for a walk only to find a neat stack of free stuff on the neighboring cul-de-sac's corner. We snagged this little dresser, which is in perfect shape. Sometimes free happens, too.

Some Days Are Like That

Some Saturday mornings would be much better spent in bed. This was one of them. There were poorly worded, curled up signs with text in about a 12 font size. Really irritating. There were used paint brushes, and I mean we're talking house paint, for $5 and $6. There were strange things from Alaska at at least three different sales, including some very creepy fur-covered gnome-like baby dolls (the seller assured us they were very popular in our 49th state) and Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. There was bad parking. I was completely boxed in by double parked vehicles at least twice. There was an "Estate Sale" that wasn't. Not even remotely.


Gail found stuff. Mostly things for her Mexican toy box.


Here's what I found: Russian nesting dolls (it's a classroom thing...we read a story where they play a part, and it's nice to have bits of "realia", which I'm pretty sure is a made-up, teacher word). A little black bag that will be useful for yard sales (ones where I may actually buy things) because you can have your money handy and your hands free. It cost me $5 which was probably too much. A kid book about rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels. And the piece de resistance: another squirrel. This one's a little glass dish that says Avon on the bottom. I'm not sure if he's supposed to hold a candle (which seems lame...wouldn't a squirrel's tail catch on fire?)
or...nuts? Anyway, he was cute and I grabbed him. He cost a buck.


I think this Russian nesting doll's expression pretty much says it all. Should've stayed home in bed.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

It's Labor Day weekend, and in the past, I wouldn't have bothered getting up. There were never any garage sales on a three-day weekend. But on my way home from work yesterday there were signs all over the place advertising Saturday morning sales. It's the economy ("stupid!"). People can't afford to go anywhere, and they need all the cash they can scrape together. The number of sales every weekend is getting to be sort of remarkable around here. This is probably the only good thing to come from the weak economy. In any case, I'm taking full advantage.

Gail and I headed out into the fog this morning and saw so many signs we had a hard time deciding on a direction. First stop: toy land. Gail told me recently about a little boy named Emiliano, one of the many youngsters who often stop by their Baja palapa to visit. Recently he told Gail's friend Lucilla (his abuela) that Gail and Stan are getting pretty old. They're probably going to die soon, he told his grandma. Oh, so touching, she thought, he's worried about them! Then he said, "What will happen to their toy box?"

Gail has been stocking her toy box with garage sale goodies for years. She also tries to bring back special items for each of the little boys who are regular visitors. This year before she left, Emiliano said, "Remember when you brought me that truck?" Ooohhh. Hard act to follow! Today we found this Tonka helicopter, complete with sound and rotary action: 50 cents. Unbelievable deal. Everyone who's seen it sitting on the kitchen counter wants to play with it: hopefully Emiliano will, too.

We bought all kinds of little goodies today, including a bunch of games and books for my classroom. Also a very nice white bathroom cabinet to replace a pretty funky one in my smallest bathroom. I won't bore you with photos of all of it. But I did get a bunch of little useful kitchen things: very nice wooden salad utensils, a set of like-new steak knives, and a pretty little tea cup with a lid...and then these wire things. Gail thinks they're for fishing hard-boiled eggs out of the water. Does anyone know what they are? I just thought they were cute! They may even have costume potential.

We saved an "Estate Sale" for last today. It was right around the corner, and it's been going on since Thursday. We figured it would probably be pretty picked over and we weren't expecting to find a thing. And that word "estate" is often used pretty loosely! But lo and behold: an actual estate sale, where everything in the house was for sale. It was the source of the steak knives, and the Viking egg-dippers, and all seven of these Audobon Society field guides for $3.50. A very nice find, I thought, especially on day 3 of their sale. A gentleman perusing the book shelf right after me was pretty bummed that he had just missed them. There were plenty of other goodies left for him, though. I wished him "Happy reading" and went on my merry way.

One last tesoro: this piece of Tonala pottery from Mexico. It says "ardilla" on the bottom, in case you couldn't already see that it's a totally adorable squirrel! Definitely the find of the day.