The Week in Junk: Forbidden Fruit and a Presidential Letter

I have been getting out to more yard sales int he past few weekends.  The main reason is that The Breadman had a bit of a job change and is going to work at 5:00 in the afternoon and gets home about 1:30-2:00 am.  He used to GO to work at 1:30 adn be gone all day.  So, this has been a SUPER big adjustment for me.  He is always here - either asleep or just here.  I know he doesn't know how things are around here during the day because he isn't normally here.  But he stands where I need to stand, sits in my chair, uses the cup I always use, follows me around asking what he can do to help (I am taking ebay photos - you can't help or I am taking clothes out of the dryer - you can't help.)  It is really quite a lot for me to handle, so I find myself going to work the booths, hitting more yard sales and even going on a job interview last week.  UGH.  With the job change, came a cut in pay which is not fun for anyone.  I am looking and have amped up both the booths and ebay sales.  He is looking for part time gig to supplement until he finds a new job.  He has jumped through all the bells and whistles of on-line testing for Frito-lay, so we are hoping that they call soon.  PLEASE.  

I bought this chippy old metal hamster wheel for 25¢.  I don't have a hamster.  I don't think it's valuable.  But, that chippy green got me.  It makes a really loud SQUEAK SQUEAK noise when you turn it.  I would drive you bonkers if a hamster started running in it.

At the same sale I picked up the little celluloid doll, a vintage keychain from a company I need to research and a pottery Kangaroo planter.  Pottery is on my DO NOT BUY list because I already have too much pottery.  TOO MUCH.  It is forbidden.

So, of course I picked up this PINK pottery elephant planter and matching PINK pottery elephant figurine at Goodwill the same day. Forbidden fruit.  It tastes SO GOOD.

A vintage heavy glass tiled wastebasket that looks like it should be in Dolly Parton's dressing room and a motley assortment of dolls and squeakers.  I also got 30 white ceramic knobs in with that $3.10 price. Surely I will need them and use them as some point?

I bought this from an older Hispanic man.  Through our language barriers, we determined that tres dollars would be the price and that he made it 50 years ago and used it every day.  I asked "Why are you selling it?"  He shrugged.  "I don't know!" and laughed.  I love the little handle.  I am such a sucker for handmade stools like this.  Being short makes me like them and I do use them

This weird Razorback will be going to the College booth.  I need to find more Razorback stuff to sell, but I just DO NOT like that sort of stuff so it goes under my radar, I guess.  I did buy a neat stool that is red with a white top to add in as Razorback decor.  That is my best bet - red and white and call it Razorback-y.

Saturday I spent $6.00 on a "fill a box for $5.00" sale.  No, that isn't a typo.  I am a good box packer, but I piled it a bit too high.,  I told them to charge me more, so they added on an extra $1.00.  The reason it was so high was I added a box that said SCRAPBOOKING SUPPLIES.  DO NOT OPEN.  I couldn't wait to get home and see what goodies I got.  Guess what was in there?  A scarf, two packages of deodorant, a very outdated package of Tootsie Rolls, a pile of friendship bracelets, carabiner clips, handmade bible flash cards and a pile of old jewelry plus two paper punches.  WHO thought that was scrapbooking stuff?  I kept the two punches and the Tootsie Rolls.  KIDDING.  I kept the punches and five Sterling necklaces in the jewelry to scrap (broken and ugly). 

A fairly big sampler dated 1974.

Pillsbury promotional Hungry Jack Syrup Pitcher.

This is a giant ceramic Salad bowl.  It looked like it should be something special, but I think it is just a salad bowl.  

FIve small Pyrex bowls - for matching and one oddball.  

Mirrored bird tray, baby planter, an old celluloid comb and a really old wooden box with the Mona Lisa on it.  The LW HARRIS is handmade and I couldn't just leave it at the sale.  We call our car Mr. Harris, so it struck me funny to find LW Harris.  (I wouldn't have bought it except it fit in that $5.00 box!)

Books to cut apart for ephemera packs and a few to sell plus a silk table runner.

I have an "Old Woman" doll that when you reach into her mouth, you pull out the fly, the dog, the cat, the horse, etc.  I have been looking for a copy of the book to go with the doll,  That reminds me, I also shoved a nice Lion puppet in that box......I wonder what I did with it?

A letter from George W. Bush.  It was in a White House envelope and is on White House Stationery, but it has Crawford, TX on it, so he wrote it from his Ranch and he mailed it from Crawford, Texas with an actual stamp.  I was sure it was an auto-pen signature, but after seeing where he wrote it and when it was mailed maybe not?  A bit of research is in order.  In any manner, I think it is a neat thing and I am happy I saved it from the landfill.

HEY EDDIE....LOOK.  COMIC BOOKS!  

This was the last thing I put in the box - a very old photo album that was a bit damp.  The cover has moldy spots, but the photos in side are fine for the most part.

The album is full of photos of one little boy from birth to 2 years of age.  

All of the photos of him are with a Nurse.  

I thought, "Poor thing, must have been sick.  Or lived in an orphange?"

But, then I discovered that his Mom was a Nurse.  

Well, that's a whole lot less sad, isn't it?

This one is my favorite.  Sitting in a box.  

Some things are always fun, aren't they?

Loving the old car that helps date the photos.

 Everything is booth bound except the Bush letter and the photo album.  Nothing amazing or valuable this week. But a little time out of the house, a bit of digging and a bit of booth fodder is sometimes just as good.