I missed so many yard sales this summer! I shouldn’t feel terrible about that because I really need to have a yard sale of my own and get rid of a ton of clutter instead of buying more clutter, but I do feel a twinge of sadness in having missed so many bargains.
Of course, I did hit a few yard sales that were duds, plain and simple. One notable one was touted as “Estate Sale! Everything Must Go!” I arrived on the first day of the sale. They would have done better to have rented a dumpster and let the city haul it all off to the land fill.
The month of September has been kind to me, however. I found some pretty cool (to me) junk for just a few dollars.
What I like best about this photo is the fact that I left the sale tag on it. Heck, I think the tag is still on it! One of these minutes, I will remember and will peel that bright orange circle off. It was a silly purchase, but one that said it belonged on my house, by my front door. It says something about the inhabitants of this home, the bug lovers who dwell here.
A bird house? This was seriously a silly purchase. A creature had chewed on it, the doll in front is missing an arm, and I don’t have a bird house collection.
It adds a certain charm to my garden – so maybe it wasn’t such a silly purchase after all. I’m not going to attempt to fix it up: I like it as it is, a little rough around the edges.
We don’t even have light switches that will work in this. It’s brass. It’s funky. It’s going to hang somewhere outside. I just don’t know where yet. I do have a power drill that is all my own, so when I do decide were it will go – I won’t have to bother my husband with the details. He’ll be as surprised as anyone else.
I picked up this tin horse at the second-most funky of yard sales. Most of the merchandise was old lotions and powders from a stuffy bathroom. A pre-teen age girl was sitting at a card table acting as cashier. An elderly man wandered around picking things up and taking them back into the house.
“Grandpa, we’re selling that!”
“No, I want it.”
The mother and father wandered out as I bought the tin horse. I’ll try to refrain commenting on them, but they weren’t at the top of the ladder, if you know what I mean. And they didn’t have any change. Usually, when you have a yard sale, you stock up on change.
But the girl at the card table was cute, so I donated a buck to her cause.
And I removed all the paint when I got the tin horse home. It will get a new coat, eventually.
oil or acrylic on tissue paper covered canvas board. $0.25 each, “as is”.
Framed and hanging by my desk, Artist Unknown. They remind me of a children’s book series I have been reading: The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy.
Outside of yard sales, we inherited two beautiful crochet doilies. My sister-in-law, Debbie, gave them to my husband this summer. They were created by their great grandmother on their father’s side. Today, I put the doilies into frames.
I cut a printed calico just a hair larger than the cardboard backing. I chose something that was mottled, rather than a single color, thinking it would add depth and character to the doilies.
I hot-glued it into place on the back side, stretching the fabric tight.
I marked where I wanted the ribbon to go.
And I hot glued the ribbon in place.
I used different ribbon, so each doily is presented in just a slightly different manner. Aren’t they beautiful?
We’re arguing about where they should be hung. My husband thinks about things like studs and placement of nails in walls and I think only of aesthetics.
I’ll win the argument solely because I will simply hang them one day when he is not at home. And that will be that.
Jaci Dawn 