Successful Saturday

Today was a day of many clay pots.
We bought this shopping bag-full at one of our first stops for $2.

That's twenty pots and eight saucers for $2. Every place we stopped afterward had more clay pots for sale.


We were actually out searching for specific items this morning. It is Emily's last day in Newport Beach. She is heading off to Tucson in her little Penske truck tomorrow morning. Her new place was still in need of a couch and a floor lamp. Here's what we found:


The couch has a down cushion and a cover that zips off. It had a small stain which washed out completely with a little Oxi Clean. They were asking $100 for the couch, but we got it for $60. The lamp was $7.
And as you can see, very cozy for reading.


Once we found our assigned items we were free to browse. I couldn't resist this little antique lap quilt for $10. These three herb-designed plates were 15 cents each. I have sort of an eclectic set of yard sale dinner plates in shades of green. These will fit in nicely.


It was a very successful morning!
But a little sad for me. I will miss
having Emily along on my Saturday morning jaunts.

Patience

Did you hear about the guy in Fresno who picked up a box of old glass negatives at a garage sale? Turns out they may be the early work of Ansel Adams.


It never occurs to me that I could come across some fabulous item worth gobs of money as I'm roaming the neighborhood. But I do know that if I'm patient I can usually find exactly what I'm looking for.


A while back, I was searching for a just-right little cabinet for my entry way.

I carried the dimensions around in my wallet for months. And I always have a little measuring tape (a garate sale find, naturally) in my purse.


My good friends, Mike & Cynthia, were visiting from Arkansas. Cynthia is a die-hard garage sailer, but Mike? Not so much. I think the only reason he came along with us that morning was to keep an eye on the amount of "junk" that might be hauled back across the country. It turned out to be a very good thing that we had him along. We were out in their car when we came across this little old cabinet about six blocks from the house. It was perfect: the right color, shape, size, aesthetic.


And the price was right, too: $25.


The only problem was how to get it home. Mike made it easy. He threw a beach towel on the roof of the car and we flipped it upside down. He and I sat in the back seat with our arms out the windows hanging onto the legs while Cynthia drove (slowly!) home.


So, lower your expectations (no Jackson Pollocks or Ansel Adams negataives), but have patience and you'll find your own little treasure.

Familiar Haunts

When you've been sailing the same neighborhood for as long as I have, you're bound to revisit houses where you've made purchases before. Even though I have a rather advanced case of what my siblings and I call "CRS" (Can't Remember S#*t), I always remember things I bought at certain houses.

Last Saturday we revisited at least four former garage sales. Two years ago, I bought a beautiful little red lamp at a house around the corner. I paid what I call "real money" for it: $40.

This year the same house offered up a little wooden jewelry box for Emily at a fraction of the lamp price: $4.

At a cute little cottage a few blocks away we bought an excellent cookbook a few months ago. This time they had something I've actually been searching for: a small, plain cement turtle for my sister's backyard. (Yes, I really was searching for a small, plain, cement turtle!) The price was right, too: free (thanks to a missing leg). Emily found a print of one of our favorite local restaurants, the Crab Cooker, at the same place. ($15)

At another house we came across a woman we've bought things from before, but she was in a different location. We recognized jewelry that we passed by the last time we met her...and of course we bought more stuff from her this time, too. The dragon pin, necklace and old silver & turquoise bracelet are Emily's treasures, all for about $40.

At new locations we managed to find other goodies: a green chair that scrubbed up quite nicely for $5. A sweet little wooden dragon fly shelf for $3. And a brass bell to replace the one that was broken after exuberant clanging on New Year's Eve: $5.

You would think that there'd be nothing left at these same old spots, but it's amazing what people can find to drag out of their house a year or two after their last sale. And it's equally amazing what we find we can't live without.

Today's Haul

Emily & I headed out early this morning because the Armenian Christian Church in our neighborhood was having a rummage sale. We had seen the signs and were trying to come up with a list of things that the Armenian Christians might have for sale: Icons? Samovars?

Here's what they had: about 100 gold chargers and many, many knick knacks. (More about church rummage sales on some future post.)

We left in a hurry and headed out into the neighborhood to search for signs.

Here is a photo of today's haul. The little table & chairs are for the duplex in Tucson where Emily will soon be living. The top comes off the table and then everything folds up flat, so it fit into my little car very easily. I was told that the black box on legs was a "berry basket", but I think it's going to become a home for potted succulents at my house. And I couldn't resist the little Betsey Johnson wallet.

All of this stuff cost us about $47.00.

Good Books and Early Birds

I drove my mom back home last week. She had been making the rounds of her six children's Southern California homes for the last couple of weeks. She did her last stint at our house so that I could drive her back to Prescott, Arizona, where she has lived on and off for the past 25 years. My mom will be 85 in October. She has lived alone since my dad died eight years ago. She doesn't have that serious clutter that many older people have, but she does have enough stuff sitting around to make her begin to think about what will happen when she's gone. So...she wanted me to help her with a garage sale.

You can't get the full effect from this photograph, because you can't see the sides of the garage which were stacked high with more merchandise, but my mom is very organized. When I arrived, I found that she had already moved most of her sale items out to the garage by herself. Some of it was difficult for her, and I don't mean physically. She had decided to part with about 200 books. And, as she must have said a dozen times, "They're good books. I already got rid of all the trashy ones." (And, I admit, some of them were indeed good books. I snagged a really nice copy of Anna Karenina from her. Maybe someday I'll actually read it.)

Some of it was difficult for me. There was the tall wooden Santa that my dad cut out and put together, and which I painted. I admit to being a little relieved when it didn't sell. Some day I'll take a truck over there and bring him home.

Here's the thing about having a garage sale: it is way less fun than going to other people's garage sales. For one thing, it is a lot of work for very little monetary gain. Also, it can be disheartening to watch people paw through stuff that used to have value for you, even if that value has long since faded. And then there are the "early birds." We wrote an ad for the local paper with an opening time of 7 am. We debated about 8:00, but this being Prescott in July, we decided that we'd start early to beat the heat. When we opened the living room blinds at 6:15 there were three cars parked outside. Yikes.

I must say that even though the sale was a bit of a bust there was an upside. I played a lot of cribbage and Scrabble, read through some of those good books, and met some nice people. We boxed up a lot of old stuff. Some local library will get some good reads. And I got to hang out with my mom.

Simply Irresistible

Don't these dogs pretty much say it all?

I couldn't believe my good fortune when I came across them: I knew they were coming home with me.

They make me happy. And strange as this may sound, they really fit in my house.

Who would get rid of these? I guess it's true what they say about one man's treasure...

Strange coincidences

It is a holiday weekend, which usually means no sales. Lately, though, with the economy in its present state, the usual garage sale rules have been abandoned.

There was a surprising bunch of estate and moving and just plain old yard sales. And it was an outing: me, my daughter Emily, my friend Carol, and my mom, who is visiting from Arizona. We stopped at six or seven houses and found quite a lot of interesting little things.

We have noticed that there is usually an "item of the day". Some days are all about sleeping bags. There are all-baby-nothing-but-baby days. Sometimes you encounter The Bridges of Madison County every twenty minutes. Today was a day of little rolling carts. There were four of them. Only one was cute enough to ask about, and it had just been sold. What kind of cosmic thing happens on Saturday mornings that makes people in the same neighborhood think, "Time for this little cart to go"?

This little winged treasure is one of Emily's finds.