Priceless

I don't have too much to share lately, so I'm combining a couple of weekends in this post. Last Saturday Carol & I had a very nice morning, but all I really had to show for my efforts were these fish plates. They are excellent fish plates, though. They were $2 each. I'm trying to decide whether to use them or hang them up.

Carol is out of town, so I was on my own yesterday. I found a beautiful jewelry box with lots of nice, movable compartments and not one, but two keys. At the same house I also got a brand new dark taupe bed skirt for my bed...no photo since that's really sort of boring. It's already on my bed, having replaced the lighter one with Roxanne residue all over it. Yeah...it needed replacing.

Both the jewelry box and the bed skirt were $4. Nice.

Then I went and visited my jewelry-selling friend again. This time I stayed and chatted with her a while. Her name is Michelle. She's one of nine siblings who evidently live nearby. Between her and her brothers and sisters, they always have goodies to sell. Sometimes I see her out "sailing", too, and I'll say, "Hi! Look! I'm wearing your earrings!" Nice lady with tons of pretty jewelry. I bought these turquoise scarab, semi-Egyptian-looking things for $5 each.

I like them!

This last item isn't a sailing find, but it's so cute that I have to share it with somebody. School started on Thursday, September 1. I had 28 students on my roster, 29 actually showed up, and by Friday I was up to 30. I have 15 boys and 15 girls: perfect. On Friday morning one of my new students walked in and handed me this little package, hand-colored and wrapped in the inimitable style of an 8-year-old girl. Inside: a pink, plastic Hello Kitty wallet. Priceless. The year is off to a pretty good start.

Now we are ... much more than six

School starts September 1st! I haven't been anywhere near my classroom. I have been having too much fun gardening, reading, and drawing. Now I have to get serious about getting my room organized. I will be out there Monday, and these two bright little stools (purchased this morning) will be joining me. They will be perfect in my "library", which is built from funky little shelves that are very close to the ground. I always assign jobs in my classroom, and the "librarians" can use these when they reshelve my books. So cute! $3 each.



I bought this little tank top with Emily in mind, but I really bought it because the tag was so cute. $1. Want it, Em?

We visited the jewelry lady again today. Carol found a lovely bracelet for her sister, and I bought this one to go with the earrings I got last time I shopped there.
The tag says $35, but I paid $10.
Very pretty.

Another picture frame. Sometimes I think that the reason people are selling picture frames is that they can't get the TJMaxx tag off the glass! This one was brand new, marked $4.99, and I used a squirt of Goo Gone (if you teach little kids this is just something you know about) and voila!
Nice frame for...well, for free actually, because the guy threw it in with my favorite purchase of the day, which is this Winnie the Pooh print. $5. Carol and I could not leave it behind.

It might go in my classroom...but it might have to stay here with me.

Happy "Garage Sale Weekend!"

In a whirlwind 40-minute tour of the neighborhood this morning I managed to find several very nice little items.

A plain, red quilt: queen size and in perfect condition. Very nice for a change in winter. Even if I decide it's not so good in our room, it will look pretty across the end of the bed in the black & white guest room. $10.

Three lovely blue glasses. I often find glasses or plates in groups of three. I think that's why people get rid of them (because there's not four anymore!) My dishes are all just a big mix of styles and colors, so it doesn't really matter. Plus, we break things a lot. All three glasses: $1.

Three more books. (Look, Em: more George!) The woman who sold me these had lots of great books, but most of them were ones I already own. She sighed when she sold me these and said, "Nobody reads books anymore." I do! I loved Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, so I'm looking forward to Summer. The Phantom Tollbooth is one that my girls loved when they were little, and this one is a great, illustrated, like-new edition. Three books: $1.50.

A beautiful little sterling silver and garnet bead necklace: $2.

And last, but not least, this wire gizmo. Every year at Christmas time I pore over those fat Pottery Barn catalogs, not so much to actually buy anything, but just to see how they're decorating for the holidays. I've been tempted to buy their long, wire card-holder for a couple of seasons now, but I could never justify the $40 plus it would cost. Well, here it is! (Actually, here's one end of it...the entire thing is not quite five feet long.) I have lots of places in the living room where it might work. I think it actually looks sort of interesting even if I don't stick any photos or cards in it.

The best part? One tenth the PB price: $4.

Everything from A to Z

Emily headed back to Tucson this morning. It was a badly planned flight: leaving at 10:00 am on a Saturday morning, meaning she'd have to get to the airport early enough that any saling beforehand was out of the question.





So I dropped her off at John Wayne and headed out on my own. My first stop turned up these cast iron A & Z hooks, complete with hardware. $2. Useful. And cute!



These next little items are definitely not for me. My daughter Sara has been creating interesting little nail "art" lately. These were a quarter a bag...so I bought her a couple bucks worth of goodies to play with.





The yellowish leather purse was $2. It had so many cute little zippers and pockets that I couldn't pass it up. Plus it fit over my shoulder like it had been there before...you know how that is. How can you resist? The red dish rack behind it was also $2. That one is for school in our teachers' "lounge". The word "lounge" is a tremendous misnomer here. For one thing, no one is ever "lounging" in there. No one would want to: it is pretty disgusting. The dish rack (which most people ignore, just leaving their dirty dishes in the sink...such pigs!) is old and nasty. Maybe this bright red one will get noticed and people will actually use it. But enough of this rant...





My last purchase was this lovely crock. This garage sale had quite an interesting array of items, including a pretty nice leather sofa, some antique tools, & some "vintage" patio furniture. There were two fairly large boxes full of rubber stamps, which I always check out for use at school. And then there were the crocks. This one was the prettiest, but it didn't have a price tag. As soon as I asked about it I knew I was in trouble. The woman said, "That is a lovely (yes...I see that it's "lovely" or I wouldn't have asked) French (uh oh) piece of crockery. It's about (about??) twenty dollars." So I said, "OK. Will you throw in these two rubber stamps with it?" That threw her for a loop. She said, "Oh. I don't know. Just a minute." She goes over to her friend, and they whisper to each other for about three minutes, and then she reluctantly says, "OK. But this is really worth about seventy five dollars. You're really getting a great deal."





I said, "Thanks!" and hit the road with my (French) crock and my two rubber stamps. I don't know if it really is worth anything, but it looks very pretty on my kitchen counter.


I think the real deal was probably on the stamps. They still had price tags on them: $4.00 for the hummer, and $5.50 for "I really love to read!" Hope you are enjoying your weekend!





Next week is National Garage Sale Weekend! (According to my local Pennysaver). So go forth and find stuff!

Slightly NGK Today

Emily is staying with us for a little while, having a break from the Tucson heat. So we were really looking forward to some serious saling this morning. Unfortunately, the saling is "bunco" today (as Gail always says), or "NGK" ("no good kind") as my sister, Linda, likes to say.

Here are Emily's treasures:

• a purple bag, large enough to carry her laptop, and it crosses her body for easy carrying while bicycling ($2)



• a book of Yeats, and two volumes of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, plus an illustrator's book of nude poses (there are ones that are pretty straight-forward such as "arms around knees", and then there are others that are a bit trickier, such as "abandon" or "sultry")



• A card (more about these later) that is too perfect for this English major doctoral candidate, and which she intends to hang in her "cubicle" at school. Just last Wednesday, Emily introduced me to a podcast called Stuff You Missed in History Class, in which two young women related great stories about Byron and Shelley.

Here are my goodies:

• a never-used, hard cover copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. This one is illustrated by Marcia Kalman. The illustration shown here opens Chapter III: "A Few Matters of Form"



• More books...so boring, but when there are no fabulous little treasures, books must suffice. I love three of these authors already: Roald Dahl, Joan Didion, and Harriet Doerr. Tobias Wolff I'm not as familiar with. His book is a novel, the others are short stories or essays.



• cards...but not your ordinary cards! These are made by "Cara Scissoria", and they are each marked $3.00. I bought about 30 for a total of $2.00 (with the Strunk & White thrown in for an additional quarter!) I'm only picturing a couple of them, including some little wine cards, but here are some of the titles: The Christ Child at the Olive Platter, Free Range Pinatas, and Planet of the Aprons. Check out the website. None of these cards came with envelopes, but ... ta da! Last summer we bought a lifetime supply, which happen to be a perfect fit.

Actually, now that I look at this stuff again, I guess it's only slightly NGK.

Finally, here is a little note especially for my friend, Alicia. Stanley went out sailing on his own this morning, too. He found (in his words), "a cute jumping deer picture" for $2, which he thinks would be perfect in the Wrightwood cabin. It is pretty cabinesque,
but I'm not exactly sure that's what we were looking for! It might be bunco...or just NGK.

A Glimpse at the Future?

Carol and I had a great time this morning, especially after we safely emerged from this cul de sac mayhem! All these cars, including the taxi, (a first for us), were carrying garage salers. The sale itself was at the blue barn-like house in the background, and it looked like those people had just dragged out trash bags full of stuff and scattered it all over the driveway. Two teenage girls in pajamas told us, "There's more in the garage," but the garage was so packed full of junk we just had to laugh. Nutso.

We went to a real, honest-to-God, estate sale today, the kind where you walk in through the house and everything is for sale. Clearly an old lady had recently died. Carol & I are well aware that this is our future.

Carol bought all kinds of goodies, but I forgot to get a photo. Here are my finds:

New chaise lounge cushions. My old ones were shot & I was just looking for new ones at Home Depot. Evidently these things are becoming obsolete. There are no new ones anywhere in stores. Some kind of new patio furniture technology? What is the deal? Anyway, these two were $10 and the teenager who sold them to me threw in a bunch of like-new Zoobooks. If you haven't ever seen a "Zoobook" you are missing out. My girls used to subscribe when they were little, and I've kept their old issues for use in my classroom for years. I even bought a subscription for a grown-up friend years ago because he loved the photos and illustrations.

More books for school, home library, and kitchen.

Has anyone read Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes? I love that guy, so I'm hoping this one is good. And the illustrated Sherlock Holmes...how can you go wrong?

Yard tools. Yes, my brother works for Toro, but I have given up on automatic sprinkler systems. I just drag my hose around. I have never had one of these old oscillating types, but for $1 it is certainly worth a try. And the Craftsman limb hacker (technical term) is something I really do need. That one was $2.50.

Finally, kitchen goodies. The blue pyrex bake pans are smallish, so I'm taking one to Emily. She cooks for one (sometimes two) and this is perfect for that. The little yellow-handled knife just felt so nice in my hand that I had to have it. And last, but certainly not least, the little pitchers. Carol bought one of the little friars, too, although a bit larger. This little guy is about 2 inches tall. So adorable. I have absolutely no use for him except to ooh and aah at his cuteness. I don't know what it is, but I have sort of a thing for little pitchers. Someday I'll get them all together and put them on the blog. If they don't end up at my own "estate sale" first!

Watch out for those cul de sac crazies!

Adventure Addict?

Happy summer! It's been a while since I've done any posting. I haven't found anything too terribly exciting in recent weeks, so I've been waiting to consolidate some finds.

Two weeks ago I headed south to sale with my three San Diego sisters. (What a lot of alliteration!) A very cute neighborhood called Talmadge has an annual garage sale event there.

I picked up a few things here and there, but the only ones worthy of posting are the ceramic pots ($2 bucks each) and the little fountain ($5). I think the little wind god or whoever he is on this stone fountain looks very much like our friend, Stan, who happens to be staying with us this summer. Those of you who know Stan, what do you think?

Now I need a little pump to get him

working.

The Child's Garden of Verses is the classic edition, with those old-fashioned Jessie Willcox Smith illustrations. It was $1 at a sale around the corner a couple weeks ago.

Today there were many, many antiques out there. Unfortunately, they all had antique store prices instead of front yard prices. I did find flashy little luggage tags. Joe and I leave for Chicago on Monday, so those will be instantly useful. I'm going to make sure Joe gets the green

"adventure addict" tag. Those of you who know Joe will appreciate the humor there, I think. I picked up those along with this little soapstone elephant dish (very smooth and pretty) from Africa for a grand total of $1.

I hope you're enjoying your own summer adventures.

Emerson, Hockney, Matisse, and McMurtry

My Saturdays are pretty busy during the school year. It's laundry day, house cleaning day, grocery shopping day, and often yard work day. I get up early, start my laundry, and then slack off for an hour or so to go sailing. It's a bright spot in my week, and very often the highlight of my Saturday. Yesterday morning was pretty nice despite the drizzle (June gloom is upon us here in SoCal), and there were lots of people selling stuff.

I bought a 100% wool Pendleton shirt for my stepson, Phil, and Carol promptly wrapped it around her shoulders to keep from freezing. Nice shirt: $3. And it will look nice on Phil, who always needs clothes and who appreciates absolutely everything you give him.

I found this little metal Emerson sign for $1 and have been dragging it around the house looking for a place for it, but it will probably end up in my garden somewhere. Love, happiness, Emerson, and a nice shade of turquoise...what's not to like, right?

This beautiful red ceramic dish actually got used last night. Made in Italy, and oven-proof, it worked very well for some roasted potatoes with red onions and rosemary. It looked very pretty on the table, too. $5.

Beanies: when they're a quarter a piece I can't pass them up. I'll add them to my classroom stash. My kids have become Beanie snobs! They only choose ones that have their tags attached so that they can check on their "birthdays" and their names. For example, this pig's name is "Squealer" and his birthday is April 23, 1993. Don't ask me why, but they love this information. I have to be more careful when I buy them to make sure they're intact. These two kitties have no tags...an oversight on my part! I also bought (yes, I know) more books for school, but these will probably be part of the "store" that I run on the last day, which is coming up this Thursday. My kids earn "E-tickets" (E for Emery, which is the name of our school, Eagles, our mascot). On the last day I "sell" all kinds of old stuff in exchange for unused E-tickets. It's very fun for them, they get books to take home for the summer, and I get rid of stuff like brand new stuffed animals that my mother-in-law often buys for me. (Don't ask.)

Andy Warhol cat stationery, another little blank sketch book, racy but fun Taschen postcards: these will probably be "sock gifts" (Christmas stockings...big involved tradition in our family). I know a person who will love those postcards.

And finally, more books for me. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is one of my all-time favorite books, and one I am always recommending to people. Nobody has ever actually read it based on my recommendation, but I'm ever hopeful. I'm going to give this one to my friend Debbie. (I guess that means it's not really for me.) Matisse was an easy choice, but the David Hockney book is a real find for $3. I might be his biggest fan. This one is all about his close study of master paintings and drawings and using them to inform his own work. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with it after Thursday, which as I mentioned above, is the last day of school!

Margaritaville

It's June and around here it's kind of like the opening of the season. There were so many sales happening yesterday that we couldn't get to all of them. We picked up a few little goodies and then found something Carol's been searching for: a very nice leather couch. Unfortunately I don't have photos, (don't know how I missed that detail), but suffice to say that it was a screaming deal: a very soft, excellent condition "nutmeg" leather couch originally purchased at Macy's for $2500 for a deftly negotiated $300. We scurried over to Joe's shop to borrow a pick-up (not to mention $200 cash: good old Joe!)) and transported it off to its new home.

I found a lovely and elegant glass margarita pitcher with turquoise blue stripes around the base...really pretty. And then promptly broke it as soon as I walked in the house. Aaarrgh!

I picked up some travel books (London, Ireland, New England, San Francisco, New York!), not that I'm going anywhere, but a person can dream, right? I've got a passport! Also found like-new hardcover books for school, including The Velveteen Rabbit. Remember that one? Also something called Country Ways and Wisdom because it was pretty and looked interesting.

I'm not sure why I bought these little shell-topped glass bottles, but I do have a thing for seashells and they're kind of pretty (and of course, cheap: $1 each).

I found some brand new chili-pepper lights (actually "Luces en Forma de Chile") for $5 ...thinking of my brother, who is a big chili pepper fan. But then I found the margarita pitcher and thought, "Maybe we'll have a margarita party! Complete with chili pepper lights!" Then, as I said, I broke the pitcher.

Also found a little black and white Parisian dish...cute in the black and white room. $1.

Finally, my little sign..."Margaritaville". I saw this sign and said to myself, "That looks like my friend Nikki's work. Sure enough, I picked it up and there was her little sticker on the back. Nikki's children were in my kindergarten and first-grade classes about 13 years ago and we've been friends ever since our first parent-teacher conference. Nik said, "I know Natasha is fine. Let's talk about this diamond ring." (I was newly married to Joe back then.) She is a great fine artist, but has also been creatively crafty for years. Some of my favorite Christmas items were made by Nikki. So I happily paid $3 for the little Margaritaville sign...too bad I broke the pitcher to go with it.

Fortunately, you don't need a lovely pitcher to enjoy a margarita. Summer's coming! Margaritas and time to actually read some of these books I'm always buying!