Saturday, October 6, 2012

Begging for Bargains


 I really, really should be ashamed, but I am defiantly not!  I went forth on Friday and Saturday and I shopped - not too much, but yes, in the midst of the great October Overhaul, I hauled home more.  I do mean more.  A true mountain of more.

It started innocently enough.  Even though this was the weekend for the city- and county-wide yard sale event, I was not planning to do anything except corral my junk.  

As I was running errands there were about ten signs around the neighborhood announcing a vintage estate sale.  I had to go.

I was so ashamed of my slide into begging for bargains that I neglected to take pictures of the three sweet 1950's black chalkboards I picked up.  There were a set of five metal chairs.  I hemmed and I hawed, but the brothers and sisters would not budge on their prices, but invited me back on Saturday at twelve when everything would be half price.  I packed my chalkboards and silently stole away saying to myself, "It just wasn't meant to be!"


Now you know Chucks and I have a set routine on Saturdays:  yard sales, me painting or cleaning stuff,  BBQ sandwiches, sweet tea, and Carolina football.

I know, it is a truly exciting existence.

You know what happened.  I went back to that estate sale.  Now, to my credit, I did not go to any other of the fifty or so near me - just one.

They had added more.  Much more.  It was half-price day.

Here is the list as you follow the ever-increasing picture parade:

Two dark green boards that were originally  the back of a sofa their great-grandfather built.

A small bookshelf (I need this to overhaul!)

Four spindles.

A painted cabinet door.

Three full-size woven spreads.

This one yellow, white, and gray.  Look at that detail.  It looks just like ruffles, but it is absolutely flat.

This one is red, cream and gray in a large block pattern.

They are so, so soft.

You would have bought them.  I know you would have.


This one has two roosters in a face-off - in black, gray, and white.










 There was a great big roll of fabric taped with duct tape with paper labels a lady in front of me pulled out from under a table.  She exclaimed she had not seen this item since the early 1960's.  She said she might want them if the price was right.  One brother said half price.  She put the roll back.  I asked if she minded me looking.

There were cowboys and Indians in white, brown, yellow, and red.  Definitely brought back memories of The Rifleman, Sugarfoot, and Bonanza.


She said, "Take them - I don't need them."

"Need?"  Who said anything about "need"?

There were four twin spreads!  All together for one great price.

I reversed one in the photo so you could gaze in wonder at what was my childhood.  You know I still have my Dale Evans cowgirl boots.




 So the secret was out - there was still piles of stuff in the boxes under the tables that had not made it to the sales tables.  One sister said they were too tired to care anymore.  She was wrong.  The hard bargaining was fixing to start.  Over a humongous box of mattress ticking covered feather pillows.

She insisted they were a bargain at $2 a pillow.  I begged for a better bargain.  She nailed me as a "dealer".  I don't know why that is bad, but I owned up to it.  I countered with I will buy more stuff.

 She counted - 20 pillows, yards of blue and white and pink floral mattress ticking fabric, and about a dozen ticking covers.  All from a defunct camp.  All packed up in 1970.

The smell brought back fond memories of camp - the pillows smell of must, dust, and a faint waft of cedar.

I begged some more and added more to my pile. 

 

Finally her brother informed her she would be taking all this stuff home if she did not let it go.

She conceded.  The mountain of pillows are mine, all mine!  Maybe she won after all!


 Also in the growing pile was:

A Game of States

A bag of various game pieces

A box of Dennison red stars (15 cents printed on the box!)

A neat box from a Vermont jeweler with two coils of silver made in Denmark (don't have a clue - maybe floral supports?)

A Sears and Roebuck ruler advertising Kenmore sewing machines


 I am showing this game again.  Why?  You have seen this game or one like it before.  Every child in America had a game  about the states at some point in his/her life.

What is so special about this incomplete and tattered game?

There are only 48 states!!!

It was produced in 1950 - no Alaska, no Hawaii.

In addition to the plunder I have confessed, I picked up a cigar box of rusty nails, screws, and casters with a green enamelware covered refrigerator container of nuts and bolts.

Loving this red, white, and blue color scheme.

And the metal chairs?  I forgot them and left without them.  Maybe that was a good thing.





This is what met me at the door when I returned home.  A furiously irate Miss Molly who spent three days at the vet hospital hooked to an IV.  She had two teeth extracted and her kidneys had stopped filtering.  She is having to stay mostly inside and must have two kinds of drops twice a day.  Both Chucks and I fear the Molly Monster when she is in this mood.  Normally a super-sweet kitty turned demon kitty over the thought of us putting medicine in her.  We have managed to get about half in her with minor scratches.

By the way, who knows how to get the funk out of feather pillows?  I'm just asking.

See y'all!

October Overhauling



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11 comments:

  1. For your textiles: http://www.amazon.com/Restoration-Hypoallergenic-Powder-Antique-Delicate/dp/B002ISCPD2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349573320&sr=8-1&keywords=restoration+linen+cleaner
    I've used it on vintage linens and my children's christening gown (which was horribly orange with age). Susan @ http://myplacetoyours.blogspot.com also sells it. You'll love it.
    Nancy

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  2. I am so envious over those blankets and the ticking. Oh yeah, I've been meaning to tell you that mom opened a booth over at Riverfront, maybe we will run into you at some point. Mom's name is Helen in case you run into her, she will be over there more than I will.

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  3. Donna....we may have to have an intervention for you!! Nahhh...just kiddin! I totally would have bought that stuff!

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  4. Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy! Or is it horror? Please, please stop making me laugh so hard and then invite me over. I want to wallow in the stuff with you. Chucks can take a visit to Florida and go fishing or something. I would play the states game with you - you would beat me by a mile because I stink at geography (as well as math- I know, my talents are few). Then we would reminisce about camps we went to and lament about whatever happened to the good shows of our childhood and we'd pretend to organize and defunkify pillows and whatnot. I would try to convince you of what you do and don't need and then we'd go find some more sales and start all over. Sound like a plan?
    Liz

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  5. My goodness! I don't know if I could have passed up most of what you bought....those cowboy bedspreads remind me so much of my brother's room when he was young. You have such a good eye for these finds. Forget overhaulin' and just get a truck for haulin'!

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  6. OH MY, what treasures you sure did find! Those spreads look wonderful, I think I would hang up the roosters. What a haul on ticking and pillows. I wish we had estate sales like that around here? Thanks for stopping by my blog and I am now a follower.
    Chrissy
    rosesrhubarbandpearls.blogspot.com

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  7. Oh my gosh Donna ... you hit the jackpot, but as my hubs would say "where are you gonna put all that stuff?" Usually when he asks that, I just have to walk away from it. Of course,I don't have a shop anymore, but I still like to buy like I do. That is why I have stuff packed up everywhere. Good luck with your sales.
    Blessings,
    Audrey Z.
    http://audreyzumwalt.blogspot.com/
    Timeless Treasures

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  8. Thanks for sharing all these neat treasures with us at my party this week.

    Blessings,
    Linda

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  9. You scored- but poor Molly! She scares me - I would not want to upset her like that ever again!

    And your Saturdays with your hubs sound like the perfect way to spend a day!
    Kelly

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  10. I wash feather pillows on a gentle cycle with Woolite or other detergent meant for delicates and dry them on a low setting with a tennis ball in the dryer (it helps plump them back up). Depending on the size, only one or at most two pillows at a time. Perhaps you could try that on one pillow to see if it works?

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