The Week in Junk: Buying in Bulk

I haven't blogged in a week - that is unlike me!  Ever since I hurt my leg, whenever I sit in my office chair  - it THROBS.  So, I quit coming in there and sitting in my chair.  But, by golly, I need to blog, so here I sit.  And, luckily, my leg is some better, so that's a perk.  Oddly enough, when I am on my feet walking - my leg hurts only slightly.  So, I can still get out and go junking.  WHEW.  Had you worried there for a minute, didn't I?  Oh, I really think I could be on life support and still hit thrifts.  Do you ever see like a really, really OLD lady at the thrift - the one that has her oxygen machine in the cart pushing it along?  Yea, that will be me.  

So, Friday I went to a couple sales and I found not much at all.  I have left empty handed at so many sales this year. There is the fact that I don't drive very far away and I don't search out sales to go to so what I find is limited and I under stand that.  But, I don't want to tally up gas and mileage and what I paid to make a profit.  I am small potatoes, folks.  

The first sale I went to on Friday was the sale that Lara just blogged about.  It was up on a long, long windy dirt driveway that you had to get to down a long, long dirt road waaay out in the middle of NOWHERE.  I second guessed myself as I kept driving and driving.  I really wasn't far from my house at all - I think about 8 miles is all - but it was in the middle of NOWHERE and then, just as I began the ascent UP the driveway DING DING DING the low tire pressure light came on.  Craaaaaaap.  I half expected a flat when I left, but it was good.  (I am a bit anal about car issues).  

When I got inside the garage, two women were working there and they both looked up at me and said, "Oh, HI!" which meant they knew me.  I couldn't quite place them, so I asked them and we all agreed that we just knew each other from around town and at yard sales.  (Small town living...)  I bought a pile of stuff and they gave me a discount price of $7.00 since they "knew me".  (Small town living pays off....).  

The best thing I found was this tablecloth.  it was folded up inside out and had some dirt on it so I was told it was a quarter.  I washed it and now it is perfectly folded up in my collection.  I was just feeling sorry for myself for not having found a tablecloth in a very long time.  POOR PITIFUL ME.  :)

I also got this little handheld puzzle for 25¢.  This was one of my very favorite things when I was a kid.  I could solve it in NO time.  I have several of these, but I always pick them up when I find a good old one.  For the record, this one was scrambled when I found it.  I can still do them like a BOSS.

The second sale I went to was a big sale for a Non-Profit.  The Sheriff's Prisoner Transport van was sitting at the sale and I wondered why.  I wondered no longer when I walked into the warehouse and there were FIVE Deputies all in their uniforms, with their hands on their guns (in the holsters) and about twelve "prisoners" were helping with the sale.  It turned out that "prisoners" were hot check writers and no insurance drivers, so they weren't exactly "hard core" criminals.  If you are in jail and you volunteer to work somewhere, you get a day credit off your time.  NOT THAT I KNOW from experience, thank you very much.  Anyway, it was kind of a weird vibe, so I didn't stay long.  I did buy a couple things there.  

Terrible awful photo - sorry.  I bought twelve stainless steel restaurant creamers and nine clipboards at the "prisoner" sale for $6.00 total.  I love old book pages on old clipboards so I will take those to the booth and the next Junk Ranch.  I might make some pincushions out of the creamers.  Or a wind chime.  Or just sell them as creamers.  Who the hell knows.  I just buy stuff sometimes and figure it out later.  The old children's books and a handful of doilies all came from the first sale

Saturday I went out to the SCT and hit a couple more sales.

This Christmas tablecloth was marked as being ROUND, which it clearly is NOT.  Two tablecloths in as many days.  I'm back BABY!  I know I bought a few more things, but I have no memory of them - they all went to the booth whatever they were.  Hmmmm.

On the way back home, I stopped at one more sale where everything had been drastically marked down at noon and then half of that at 1:00.  I bought a toleware lamp that needs a new hurricane globe and all these trophies.

WHY DID I BUY THESE?  Bulk buying seemed to be the theme of my weekend.  I brought them all home and dismantled them into loose parts.  I have seen various things made out of the parts like wine stoppers with the cars on them.  Whatever becomes of them - they will be at the Junk Ranch in October.  

Today I made a quick stop at the thrift and scored a dozen of these vintage Baby Jesus jigsaw puzzles.  Some of the pieces are shaped like doves and hearts.  They are from the 1950's and probably for a Sunday School class.  I don't usually buy religious things, but these were just sweet enough to meet my requirements. 

So, that is a dozen trophies, a dozen creamers, a dozen puzzles, eight books, eight clipboards, six doilies and two tablecloths.  Yes, I buying in bulk is just the thing that I DO NOT need to start.  :O