The Weekend in Junk - It Was Meant to Be

Friday and Saturday I decided to go to a few sales, but I didn't get started until after noon on either day.  I know I am a disgrace to "real" yard salers.  But, I always find things that make me happy and things to sell, so it's all good.  By the way, I don't sleep until noon or anything.  I'm just not a get up and go kind of gal.  I get busy with laundry and paying bills and checking emails and before i know it it's noon.

I finally wised up and took my pictures in the groups as I bought them since I usually have something fascinating or wildly entertaining to say about each and every thing I buy.  HA-HA-HA-HA-HA

Well, except for this photo - I instagrammed the Rusty and Crusty things yesterday and threw them all in one photo together.

The stool came from a "50 years in one house" sale.  The seed planter, two metal boxes and the croquet set (no balls) are all from a Shed Clean Out sale.  The boxes will go to the booth, the croquet set will be re-purposed or sold in pieces at the next Junk Barn Sale.  The stool will be for my behind when I do my next sale.  I never sit down and then I am wrecked for about four days.  So now I can perch and still look at the ready.  (Don't you hate it when sellers just sit?)  The bicycle wheel came from a one sale and it was my only purchase.  

Have you seen them turned into photo displays?  This is my plan, but we'll see.

Here is the seed planter in it's original shape - D-I-R-TY.  I love the way it says the names of all the veggies all around it.  You put the seeds inside the red doohicky then dial up what you are plating, say PARSNIPS and then it drops a seed every so often based on the proper planting rules for said vegetable. It's a SMARTYPANTS.  I think it looks like a flower, so I think I will stick it in the flowerbed somewhere.  

I stopped at a huge fundraiser and spotted a pile of 1980's Care Bears on the ground.  I asked how much and they told me about a dollar each, but if I bought several, they would make me a deal.  I said, "What about all of them?"  We counted and found there were nineteen in all.  She said, "How about $14.00?" then in the same breath she said, "or $12.00?" and then she looked in my hand and saw a $10.00 bill, grabbed it and said, "that'll work."  I brought them home, threw them in the washing machine and held my breath.  But they all came out fine - they mostly had a little surface dirt from being in storage for 30 years.  Last night we watched World War Z and I listed all the CareBears on ebay.  (ZOMBIES!)

I stopped at one sale and it turned out to be the family of my adopted family.  I didn't acquire anything that belonged to Bill and Margie, but I found a couple of things.  The Fenton praying children will go on ebay - does anyone know what you call that weird greenish glass?  Is it Vaseline?  (Ottermom - I know you know!).  I spotted that tiny BABY collar in a baggie with old nail clippers, phone chargers and kitchen utensils.  I thought it looked old, so I pulled it out.  It is handmade, mother of pearl button and so delicately embroidered B-A-B-Y.  So, so sweet.  I am happy that I rescued it.  "You can have that old thing" she told me.  Which made me happy.  And sort of sad too.

Early in the week there was an ad for this sale:

HUGE Garage Sale - almost 50 years in same house

Now that sounded like a GOOD sale and it was all of four minutes from my house.  It was a no brainer that I would go to it first!  I got the Cosco stool from the first photo and ALL OF THIS........

That's IT.  They had nothing.  And if you are thinking that is because I got there late on the first day - you are WRONG.  Lara hit it bright and early and they had NOTHING.  She got a few rolls of uber sweet wallpaper, but that was IT.  She had to drive a lot farther than four minutes to get there too.  I do love the pottery and the old ruler though.  The wooden/ lucite horse pin will go on ebay, the tin will hold crafty junk, the ruler will go in my collection.  The pottery is undecided.

They had this old TV set that I loved, but I didn't even bother to ask the price of it.  Wouldn't it be a fun thing to take apart and repurpose?  I just have no room for any more projects.  *sniff.

I swung by the SCT since I was driving past.  They were decidedly low on merchandise and especially low on anything COOL.  One good thing is that they are putting Christmas stuff out, but so far it is all new-ish Made in China junk.  But the possibility of something good awaits.  I bought the old camp stove toaster, heavy duty industrial stapler, the set of colorful vintage fondue forks and a Minion (not shown) all for $2.00. You may not get much there, but what you DO get will be Super Cheap!  :)

This brings me to the Shed Clean Out sale.  The guy having this sale works for the local auction company. When people start to lose interest in box lots or piles of stuff, he says, "put it on my tab" and he gets it for a dollar or so.  He takes it home and puts it in his shed.  When the shed is full - he has a sale.  I stopped by Friday and got a pile of stuff and he told me to come back the next day since he hadn't even started cleaning out the shed.  So, I went back on Saturday too.  

Everything he has is small and very cheap.  You pretty much gather up anything and he will throw this really low price at you and then say, "Or is that too much?"  I got everything you see here plus what is in the next two photos, plus the croquet set, the seed planter and the two metal boxes for FIVE DOLLARS.  

Saturday I spotted an old box shoved under a table with writing on it:

I picked the whole ting up, never opened it - and put it on my pile.  

What I found when I got home made me SO HAPPY.  Look at all those chenille critters and that huge - albeit scary - rabbit candy container, plastic baskets, vintage Easter Grass and a few other odds and ends.  

THOSE BUNNIES.  O M G.  They feel like a real baby bunny.  

As I was leaving, Amy, the brains behind the Farm Fresh Sale, was arriving.  She saw that box marked Easter and said she had seen it at the auction where he got it and had thought about bidding on it for me.  But she didn't and it went away to his shed where I found it and bought it.  WEIRD, right?  As she said, "It was meant to be".

Stuck inside the Easter box was this wee trick or treat pumpkin.  It is about the size of a grapefruit.  The black cat candy container was inside the pumpkin.  He's missing a cap of some sort, but he's still cute to me.  If I only bought perfect things, I would have NOTHING.  

I spotted a box of wrapping paper on the ground - inside it was a plastic bag full of old bows - but peeking out at me from a bow was this:

So, of course, the entire box. lock. stock and barrel went in my pile.  98% of it went in the trash or to Goodwill - but the spun head bow was worth it all.

As well as a few packs of fun old wrapping paper.  

A handful of old metal cookie cutters for crafting, scrap of lovely old feedsack and a handmade turtle shell.  It's made of clay and very well done.   The CANDY jar was full of peppermint sticks and everyone was saying - "Ew gross -old candy" and I was thinking - "Hey cool - neat jar."  You can throw away the candy, don'tcha know? 

These old plastic flowers were in a box and when I spotted them. I heaved the box up to my chest and wrapped my arms around it so no one would come and steal them from me and yell "OLD PLASTIC FLOWERS - JUST WHAT I HAVE BEEN WANTING!"  Of course, you know that no one else had given them a second look all day, but when you find something GREAT you are excited.  :)  I hate silk flowers and fake plants.  But these old plastic ones make my heart sing.  

ARE YOU STILL THERE?

More heart palpitations.  I love old candy boxes for storing my craft supplies - the GOLD CHEST is a new to me box- vintage Jingle Bells make the BEST jingles (Am I right, Heidi?), a tiny kneehugger and a rock painted (very well) like a rabbit.

There she is again! 

"Do you see me?"

Old Jello molds for crafting, glass Stars and Stripes toothpicker, vintage rickrack that I can NEVER leave behind, teapot salt and pepper shakers, lots of old rub on transfer letters from my journalism days, a huge box of stick on labels for sticking on things and a box of Lambs Nipples.  Yes, I said LAMBS NIPPLES.  I will buy anything in a box lot.  Point PROVEN.

Old receipt books and "While You Were Out" pages for ephemeral packs, a Guest Plaque, vintage SALVE tins and a huge bunch of crocheted flowers.  Crocheted flowers do not make me giddy.  At all.  To the booth!

My little pile of keepers and happiness makers.  Plus the Easter stuff - of course.  

It was a cheap and very happy junk filled weekend!  

It there anything better?