Little did we know that our town in Minnesota, Northfield, was holding a town-wide garage sale event. The profits going to various charities. That kind of news sends me into happy dance territory. Greg, my husband, has grown fond of garage sales despite what he claims was torture as a child when his mom would drag the kids along. He now knows the value of these treasures aka someone else’s junk. Plus, our monies went towards worthy causes and we never spend too much anyway that would put us in any financial hardship. I mean geez, it’s a garage sale. I’ve been recently hitting the thrifty find lottery. Here’s what we nabbed this time.
Brody milk glass vases-the modern shape and $.50 for both made them irresistible. I plan to put striped taper candles in these babies.
I found these canisters at two different places. A woman was by the smaller tin so I acted like I had no interest… pretending that whatever was around it was the object of my affection until she was far enough away then I scooped it up. I was thinking “ha” in my head when in reality she probably had no interest. Isn’t that thrifting nature or am I just a jerk? I think they were $.75 together.
This was not from a garage sale but from the store I’m in love with in town. A minty jade glass shade for $12. The salesperson said she saw this elsewhere for $40. But I really like that jade color paired with a blushy pink, coral, or purple decor and didn’t need convincing.
From the same sale as the vases was this cheap lamp base. It’d be so easy to build on and use in any decor. Now I have to decide which direction to go shade wise. $1
From the store with the shade, was this $5 quartz pen holder. Gorgeous. I’m trying to make it into something other than a pen holder. More on that later.
For the geek in us-a vintage Italian Quercetti binary “toy.” $1 or close to it. I forget. Greg loves it.
These ReadyMade magazines of yore were free from a like-minded woman’s sale. Why do the good ones stop being published-Domino, ReadyMade, Gourmet? At least Domino Quick Fixes is out.
Books! The 4 volumes of Popular Mechanics Home Handyman (these are sweet) and childhood/adolescent favorites. $13 (the highest amount paid that day)
Cheap rustic frame and the sheep was for our pup Henry (a sheepdog). $.50
Monkey chopsticks. No explanation needed, I think. $.25
This mug is for Greg to take to work because we thought it would be funny in an office full of sarcastic guys. Just have to wait til they notice during one of Greg’s several coffee sipping moments. The smirk no doubt on his face is stuck in my head.
We actually passed on this $10 dresser. I know. What the deuce, right? It was heavy HEAVY and we took it as a sign since the lug sat there all day (we got to that church sale late). The amount of repair and trouble storing it had us walking away after a 5 minute discussion of the pros and cons. It’s not a good time in terms of storage space and time to spend on repair. We’re still doing the whole backyard makeover thing (different links there) and putting the indoor renovations back on the list for upcoming tasks (umm finally back to the new attic entrance).
We also house/pet-sat in the country (us new town dwellers miss living there) and had a little break from working on house projects. A little. The garage and garden shed were cleaned and organized Sunday. (More on that later.)
Speaking of pets, I bought Pet Sematary at one sale. It scares the bejesus out of me but also holds fond memories with my friend, Jennifer, who was in a horrible accident and killed before graduating from highschool. We watched this at her house when we were in middle school, when she lived down the road from me. That was a fun night. But I have to work myself up to seeing it again.
We bought some herbs and while in a downpour, hence the poncho and boots, had to plant the aromatic guys and keep ’em in the garage overnight until the rain passed. They are sitting in the sun today looking simply marvelous (like Billy Crystal would say).
When we came downstairs to work on the two current dressers Sunday, we found standing water that had come through the brick…we now need to move up the plans to level our yard.
Hopefully we don’t get that much rain until we can address those issues. But the water caused a setback on the one piece since it was taking a bath when we found it. Wood and water do not mix nor make furniture happy.
Henry obviously enjoyed his time in the country.
For anyone waiting on the Soy-Gel stripper review, I swear it’s coming.
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