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.