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!