1st sale:

Eh. Not a great start. I actually bought John Wayne for the glass globe.

Sale #2:

A lot better:

I’m in love with Boo-Boo Head Doggie. He’s made out of Syrocco and is in pitiful condition. The busts were made in Italy. I’m thinking I’ll paint the wicker angelfish.

Sale #3

No, that’s not a mistake. It was a big, fat nothing of a sale.

Sale #4:

Who could resist a pile of green handle man tools? Apparently I was the only one they spoke to. Maybe that’s why I don’t sell tons in the booth. Nobody around here gets it. But you do… don’t you??

I was actually pretty content with the days finds, but there was one more, about 40 miles away that I couldn’t resist. It was advertised as a barn sale with woodworking materials, upholstery fabric and junk. I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough money, so deliberately didn’t try to get there early. Made it there about 11:00. Sixty seconds later I was so excited I ’bout wet my pants. Or maybe I did, but was too excited to notice. I thought about taking pictures but my cell phone had picked that day to go crazy. There was so much, I didn’t know which way to turn. And other people were there getting stuff I’d have like to have! Nooooo!!! Turned out the sellers just wanted us to make a pile and they’d price it. And the price turned out to be very affordable. Wanna see what I came home with?

(One of the first things I spotted was a 6′ silver aluminum Christmas tree in it’s box. I got it, but didn’t take a picture.)

I’m keeping the doorknobs and the aforementioned tree.

That’s barkcloth on the bottom. The brown and black is zodiac upholstery fabric.

There’s more of this fabric than I can tote.

Musty smelling trim.

Old Christmas tree stand.

Another old Christmas tree stand, but I’m a little sad that that’s rust and not dirt.

I actually got two lamps. The other is drying out. It was naaaaaasty.

That was all in the cab of the truck. The bed was filled up with this:

Let’s see. There are 2 mid century chairs that I want to put some funky fabric on, a newel post, a small rolling stand with no top, two metal trays, a tall turquoise rolling cart, a tin panel, a tall stainless steel rolling cart, a little vanity chair, a turquoise seat stool, a record player stand and two beach chair frames.

There was actually more stuff, but it was boring. Woodworking trim, stuff like that. Ricky and I went back a couple of days later and he loaded up on tools. I got some more things we didn’t have room for in the truck and will go back for them next week.

And how much money did I spend the day? Under $100. Do I win the prize for the best bargains?

A Panasonic flip clock radio (Why didn’t I stage the picture better and hide the cord?), a piece of so-so fabric and a badly broken clock. And…….

An old movie projector, a broken slate, a trinket box with a chipped corner, a white Bible and a white child’s prayer book, a cheap hour glass – or is it a minute glass? – and a little Christmas tin.

Oh, I forgot. Some sheets to use as muslins for the pants pattern I’m still(!) trying to make fit. How pitiful is that? It seemed if I was remotely interested, it was too expensive. I do regret not buying the brown transfer plates for $5 each at the first sale. She started out wanting $10 each and came down to $5. She paid $65 a piece for two of them, for Heaven’s sake! But I never make good decisions at the first sale of the day. Maybe she doesn’t make good decisions at antique shops?

On another note, I need to grumble. Our DSL is flying away at the super sonic speed of old dial up. This is so frustrating! I wanted to view the live feed of the Etsy workshops on Friday, but all I got was the spinning wheel. No movement of the picture and no sound. Pinterest is a pain. Pinterest! All the pictures won’t load. So until we do something about this or it gets better – cough – I’m doing only what I have to do on the internet. Work and check emails. And play Words With Friends with my son. It’s too annoying to try to do anything more.

But what does one do with 19 big burlap bags?? Yeah, yeah. I know. Share with friends, maybe sell a few. But I want to be sure I’ve had my fill before getting rid of any. So, OK. Make a pillow, cover a chair seat and/or back, make some kind of sign. Table runner. I don’t think any of my rooms could use them as curtains. I suspect the lady selling them had the same problem. I can imagine she was excited to get them then ran out of ideas of what to do with them. Or didn’t have the time to put the ideas in motion or lost motivation.

Since a stack of burlap isn’t a very interesting picture, while I was outside I took a few pictures of some blooming things. Oh, don’t worry. I won’t do endless pictures of flowers. Some folks enjoy seeing pics of flowers, some don’t.

That picture is just too bright.

These are better:

My husband started these pink flowers from breaking a sprig off his mother’s plant. He’s the gardener in the family, taking after his mother and grandmother. I stay away. There seems to be flower poison in my skin. I can’t grow anything.

That’s what I do. Put the garden junk in strategic places. This is a great little corner that needs some thought. I bought this cooler a couple of weeks ago and just set it there in the corner to keep from piling it up somewhere until it found its home. Maybe it’ll stay there, maybe it’ll go somewhere else or maybe I’ll sell it. Who knows?

Wow! Really?! Apparently it was an oil lamp that had been electrified in the 1940′s or 50′s. I believe I can take the socket off. I’m sure it had a matching glass globe at one time.

It’s way fancier than my usual decor, but it just might have to go in the spare bedroom with {this bed}. The bedroom that I haven’t even thought about thinking about starting the redo.

It’s been broken, but I say who cares?

Since this isn’t my normal thing, I don’t know this mark. Do any of you? I thought maybe Dresden, but didn’t find this one in the Dresden marks.

On another note, Google seems to be punishing those of us who don’t have our blogs on Blog Spot. They’re discontinuing Friend Connect and I haven’t heard if our feeds will automatically be transferred to Google Reader or not. It kinda looks like not. So if you follow me, and I sincerely hope that you do, please follow with a…uh… feed… thingy. Straight out Google Reader subscribe thing or whatever you use to see your feeds. Thank you ever so much. This is annoying.

Grandpa called me his “gal”. I was his most well behaved grandchild and it didn’t hurt that I was the only one who lived in the same town. We’d sit on the front porch swing and he’d peel and cut apple slices for me. With his dirty pocket knife. Oh, he’d wipe it off on his pants first and the germs, of course, never made us sick. That’s one of my favorite memories or our time together. The other was the words  I’ve got some new baby birds! You see, he raised parakeets.

My first recollection of him and the birds was when I was 5 or 6 years old. He had an unpainted wood shed where he kept the birds. When there were babies, he’d lift me up to see in the nest. Those ugly beautiful little birds always had their mouths open and they were all mouth. Scrawny, featherless mouths. But I so loved seeing them and that was one of our special times together. So when I found this little birdcage at an antique mall the other day, all those memories came flooding back. Not that they’re ever that far from the surface anyway.

It came just like that with the bird in the nest and the bottle. $10.00. I’d gone in just to breeze through, but had to spend that $10.00. I believe it was a cage people took their bird home in when they bought it or perhaps they bought the cage later if they wanted their bird to travel with them. Or who knows? Maybe it’s for baby chickens. I really have no idea. But I also wonder if Grandpa had some? I don’t know what era this is from. Maybe it’s older than he would have used. I simply can’t remember how he got his birds to their new owners.

It’s funny how different things can trigger memories. This particular memory can also be triggered by the smell of hay and birdseed. I’ll never forget being at the library once when a man came in who had that smell to him. It made me want to cry. I wanted to be near him. Wanted him to be my grandpa. Imagine my shock when he left and the library workers turned up their nose and talked about how he smelled like a wild animal. Huh? Is that what people thought my grandpa smelled like? That made me so sad.

One final thing about Grandpa. He got Alzheimer’s. In 1976 they called it hardening of the arteries. It was heartbreaking to watch this man who once said he’d “work til the day he died” slowly slipping away from us. I’d bet most of you reading this have been affected by this disease in one way or another, too. Shortly before he died he was in the hospital. I stopped by to visit and Grandma, in the way people will do said, “Do you know who that is?” His eyes had a moment of clarity and he said, “That’s my gal!” and he left us again.

There’s an estate sale company near where my daughter Erin lives that has “invitation only” sales on Sunday afternoons then have the same sale open to the public the following weekend. It’s such a privilege to be on the invitation only list — with all 9000 of her other closest friends. It’s so funny how there’s always at least 100 people there on Sunday afternoons then the Friday it’s open to the public there’s maybe 20.

This sale, a couple of weekends ago, sounded like a good one. They had told Erin at the previous sale that she needed to be at this one. That there were lots of vintage clothes. Well, you know that had us foaming at the mouth. A good many other people, too.

It’s an hour drive for me, so I’d called Erin and told her — I TOLD HER! — to get there early to line up for a number. She didn’t. We were numbers 79 and 80. But, no matter. We know when everybody gets in, it’s dog eat dog anyway.

About 10-15 minutes before they opened the doors, I got something in my eye. Under my contact. My hard contact. It was excruciating and wasn’t going anywhere. Tears pouring down that side of my face. The pain making me crazy. If you wear or have worn hard contacts you know exactly what I’m talking about. So I slipped off to the side, took it out and washed it off in my mouth. And don’t you go being all shocked at that. Don’t you be actin’ like you’ve never done that. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And I was desperate. But when I tried to put it back in, it dropped on the ground. Did you see that coming? I bet you did.

I’m on my hands and knees with my big ol’ but in the air hunting, hunting. Erin came over and helped. The occasional passer by helped. It seemed to have disappeared. Gone. Vamooshed. We hunted for 10 minutes before I sent Erin into the sale. Told her to go on without me. Get those bargains! I looked another 5 minutes before giving in to the I’ve-got-to-get-into-that-sale feeling. I blame what happened next on my wonky, one-eyed vision.

Erin had run up directly to the vintage clothes, but all the other vintage clothes ladies had beat her and cleaned everything out like a pack of wolves. I roamed around downstairs, picking up a few things here and there. Met up with her and we went back upstairs. Then back down where I spotted this::

Something told me I needed to get it. That gut feeling. But it was more than I wanted to pay and besides, I couldn’t see it very well. Erin looked at the bottom and saw that it was Taxco, so I looked it up on my phone. Didn’t see an example like it on eBay and the Taxco candlesticks I did see were dead in the water. I passed.

We paid for our stuff and left, but made one last search for the naughty contact. And would you believe she found it? Stepped on. Crushed. I had to drive home with one eye sharp, one a fuzzy wuzzy. Not fun. And the candlestick was on my mind the whole way. By the time I got home, it was a pair of candlesticks and perfect. LOL I did some better research on the computer and found that they are made by Hector Aguilar. It means nothing to me, but it does to a lot of other people. These things are valuable! Why didn’t I trust my instinct? Friday couldn’t come quick enough.

I was there when they opened the doors and headed straight for the candlestick. Dang it. It wasn’t a pair and it wasn’t perfect, but it was still there. I grabbed it and a couple of other little things, paid and spent the rest of the day at thrift stores. Now I’ve got to figure out what price to put on the candlestick. Looks like I could price it anywhere between $50 and $450. But what would someone actually pay……

The first sale of the year was pretty darn impressive. Or maybe I was starving? Ricky and I went Friday, the first day and Saturday for half price. I managed to get some pictures before the things were scattered here and yon. These are only a few, though. Some of the pictures were horrible and need to be retaken. Also, I didn’t take picture of the bigger items, yet or the things Ricky loaded up. (I’m so excited that he’s starting to get interested in buying and selling junk, even if he isn’t obsessed like I am.)

All of this, with the exception of the baskets – I thought they were too fragile to ship – will be on Etsy. Actually, these pictures are Etsy ready, only these are cropped more.  I’m trying them out here. Do you think the Cheerios are too much in the little frying pan? Is that pushing things too far? I’m trying to get more artistic with my pictures. Etsy pics are so different from eBay pics. eBay is straight out, show the item as close as you possibly can in the thumbnail. No frills. Etsy is artistic. Backgrounds and props, maybe. Lots of white space, maybe. I edited these while I was tired and had the laptop in my lap. Now I’m not so sure about the coloring.

So. What’s been going on with me these last few weeks? I’ve been trying my best to start the new year off right. Trying to develop new good habits that will naturally replace the old, bad ones. I’ve been trying to keep the house clean, dishes washed, clothes washed, bathrooms clean, etc. I’m trying the pick up every day, but do one chore a day. Floors one day, dusting one day and bathrooms another. It’s just the two of us. You’d think it would be easy, wouldn’t you? So far so good. I started some of this in November, but worked hard to get the house to a maintainable level. I’ve made it into the first week of the year and I’m right proud of myself. Now, if I can just get on that *%&^$^* treadmill.

We also moved Ricky’s shop into my old store. It’s still a crammed up mess. We’ll be tackling that probably this week. He and the rest of the employees where he works were laid off for three weeks. A big account was lost and they have a back up of product. We’re trying to take advantage of his time off to get some things done.

Aaaannnd, I’m trying to step up my Etsy business. And the booths. Call me crazy, but I think the treadmill is going to get lonesome.

I’m excited about this! Can you tell?

A couple of months ago I bought this stool. (Ruth D., this is the one you said you wanted to see.) The most fierce competition had already been to the yard sale and bought up most everything. There were still some furniture pieces with sold signs on them. Somewhat unattractive furniture pieces at that. But oddly, this stool was still hanging around. Am I the only one in this area who appreciates naturally aged, painted furniture? Probably.

Anyway, my intentions were to put it in the “white” bedroom that is no longer going to be white. As I was considering the stool the other day, knowing I couldn’t part with it, it hit me that I had the perfect spot for it. This spot has always had a kitchen stool and the one I’m replacing is wonderfully sturdy, but this little crackly stool looks so good here. And it’s the perfect spot to hold the jar full of tart tins. (I saw this idea either on someone’s blog or on Pinterest and naturally I can’t find it now to give credit to the inspiration inspirer person blog whatever.)

It was difficult getting a good picture. I tried all kinds of angles.

But do you want to see the real problem?

There’s that pesky modern invention on the counter to the right, I was too lazy to move the garbage bag in the background and the vacuum cleaner in the bottom right corner. (A Dyson, by the way and the best vacuum I’ve EVER owned.) There’s a cabinet door that won’t close at the moment, and Lawdy! The counter top to the left is in a horrible, flat surface, piled up, mess!

I’m linking to Faded Charm’s White Wednesday.

The picture colors aren’t quite true. I’d planned to use a bookcase in there with the back and shelves painted this same color. So far so good. You can see some of the inspiration rooms I’ve pinned on my “Spare bedroom ideas” board on Pinterest.

Then, at an auction a couple of weeks ago, I fell in love with a shabby, chippy, cream colored chest.

More pics of this later. It deserves a post of its own.

OK. This isn’t white. Hmmmm…

Then yesterday, a childhood friend’s mother called and said she was going to sell the iron and brass bed I’d admired and did I want to buy it? Yes, please.

It does have a foot board in the same pattern. Now, I originally planned to use either an upholstered headboard or no headboard, or a door or a mantle or something. But I do like this and it fits the room, so….. Now my white room will have gray, white, mint green, cream, brass and silver. Dangit! Best laid plans. I seem to be incapable of sticking to them.

Don’t expect to see any room pics any time soon. We don’t have a mattress, we’ll have to paint, and all kinds of things. I see at least a year in the making here. The 8 month in process craft room is still unfinished. It only lacks a few things, but they’re out of my control. Waiting on the hubby.