The biggest indoor garage sale in the world? I think not.....

This past Saturday we had an indoor garage sale at our fairgrounds, supposedly the biggest in the world....well, I knew better but couldn't resist going. You never know when you'll find a bargain or even the start of a new collection. The cute little bag above was $5, it was dirty but now it's very clean! I'm somewhat of a clean freak when I buy things at a garage/estate sale, or even on ebay. The first thing I do is clean them! Anyone else have this habit? I actually enjoy doing it, there I said it, now you can all know how wierd I am!
So every once in a while I come across some old player piano music rolls, and sure enough there were some here too, pretty mundane looking except for this one roll, check out the box!

The woman tried to get me to buy all the rolls, there were about 6 more, but the boxes were plain so I wasn't interested....but give me a box with cool graphics like these and I'm all over it!

The music is "Tea for Two" so I thought that was kinda sweet too, I'll get more and display them in some cool fashion, hopefully my dh won't have me committed......
Then I found a sweet lady selling all kinds of very small items, including what's pictured above and below. Love it all, especially the little Sacred Heart find.....it's so sweet.
So that was the extent of my haul from this "huge" garage sale.

I'm pretty happy with what I found.....

Til next time....

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful......

So dd and I went thrifting today, nothing was found so I decided to hit my favorite Antique Mall. It's recently been expanded and has some very reasonable prices and cool things. Walking through the front door, I saw her! She was sitting regally on a chair...very elegant. I ventured over to check out her price tag......was absolutely astounded! $29....couldn't grab her fast enough. A lady came over to ask if she wanted me to hold her at the counter...I said yes, please, but am I reading this price correctly? She said $29....ok.
Look at her beautiful satin gown, pearls, flowers, etc. And check out her painted on shoes....
Sorry the pic above is skewed, I was trying to get a close up of her hat....
her painted on blue eyes are not so painted on anymore, but I like that about her.




The lady who finally rang me up said that maybe she wasn't really old, just a reproduction for that price. There is no way this doll is a reproduction, she's just in great shape for being so old.

I'm totally smitten with her, she's my new favorite possession.

Every once in a while we just get lucky and find a real bargain.......

Hope you find some soon!

Beach and Portland loot....

Grab a cup o' tea or joe, whatever your preference, and check out the "finds" on our trip......

This sewing basket Mel spotted at Monticello and I made her go back and buy it for me....

The dolly below is also from Monticello........$12.....
The beautiful wallpapered box below was from Mel's store "All My Favorite Things", the cutie hangar was from a Lion's sale in Garibaldi......it was 25cents.
Sorry for the next two pictures and their fuzziness, this is a HUGE ledger book that Mel gave me....why would she just give me that you say? Because she had two of them! That's right, my best friend loves to share, and I'm so grateful she does....


She also gave me the sweet doll head above, and the cute initial "G" note cards below.

We went to a thrift store in Portland and she snagged these three jewelry boxes for me, I've already added some wallpaper to the smallest one, it had a really faded top.
Mel also gave me all the old envelopes above, I scored the cool cigar box, that I'll probably cover with old wallpaper, at a thrift store...
I spotted the head form above on Mel's blog, and asked her to hold it for me so I could buy it....

love it to pieces....
The reams of paper above were purchased at the infamous school sale at the coast, there must be thousands of sheets in there, and Mel has just as much if not more than me. We went berserk I tell ya!
Check out the supplies above, I screamed when I opened the box! Old dennison tickets, huge round tickets with silver rims, plastic coated tags with thin wire attached, too many brads to count....
Look at these cool phonics cards, Mel got one box, I got the other :). She also got one with math flash cards that I didn't want (too many bad memories tied to those bad boys).
I scored in the trim department, look at this fantastic french trim with sparkly gold on it....too pretty for words so I'll shut up......
And this might be my favorite find at the coast, yards and yards of this beautiful trim that looks like it has glitter on it, it just sparkles......
The note below pretty much sums up this purchase, doesn't it?
Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing the fruits of our "labor" over the weekend. I tell ya, when Mel and I get together it's just magical, we have the best luck and the best time.......can't wait for our next "buying" trip.

"A Baked Potato Likes to Dance".....

Ha! Bet that got your attention.....I love old children's music books because look at the titles!

They're just hilarious....these aren't songs I grew up with, that's for sure......:)
But they're very sweet and will look so great in some artwork, if I can just get going on that!

In my next post I'll show pics of my finds from the birthday beach bash that Mel and I went on.......too fun!

This is how thrifting makes me feel....

O.K., well maybe not the bunny face, but you get the idea...I went out today and found a fun stash of goodies for dirt cheap that I can use in my work, and that's always a bonus!

I've obviously fallen for these cute, plastic little craft doll faces and keep running across them, but buried in one of the packages was the Easter Bunny! I'll have fun with that one, I was hoping there was more than one of him (her?) in the package but no such luck.....too cute.

Hope you're all having a crafty day.........

Gail

"I meant to do my work today....

But a brown bird sang in the apple-tree,

And a butterfly flitted across the field,

     And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land,

             Tossing the grasses to and fro,

And a rainbow held out its shining hand-

       So what could I do but laugh and go?

                             -Richard Le Gallienne

Oh, how I love this quote! Years ago I was a huge Elton John fan and this poem was on one of his album jackets (tells you a bit about how old I am!)

Then a few years back I found it again in a magazine and clipped it out, and it just hung around my bedroom for quite a while. It's a miracle I found it again when I fixed up my studio because I really wanted to have this quote hanging in my studio.

Anyway, I thought it appropriate to post now, that Spring is almost here, even though it's cold and rainy in the Willamette Valley right now.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!

My stolen quote for the week..........

So this is a very busy week for dh and I, as we are the chairs for our dd's school auction......

life is very busy at times, but here is a lovely quote I came upon...........

"The greatest part of our happiness and misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances."-Martha Washington

I hope you all have a lovely week, and stop to enjoy the important things!

Ta Da!!!!!!! I finally have a dress form to love.....

Isn't she pretty? I took my dd to the flea market yesterday and we got there late (around 3:00) and people were packing up! Yikes, we had to hurry.....so I found some great old books that I'll show in another post, a cute little jewelry box for $2, then we hurried into the other big room

and I saw her from a distance and made a beeline for her!

Her price tag said $48.....I thought that was cheap and reasonable, but still asked if he would take less for her. "How about $30?" He got her at an estate sale and believes she's probably from the 40's. I think he's right about that, even though there aren't any vendor marks on her.

Love the fabric covering her too, it very aged and has a lovely pattern, you probably can't tell from my less-than-great photos.

As I was carrying her to my car a lady saw me with her and shouted, "Wow, how much did you get her for?" I told her and she asked if I was a seamstress (not so much) or an artist? I said the latter, and she wanted to know if there were any more forms in there. Told her this was the only one I saw....I feel like I got so lucky!

I brought her home and cleaned the cobwebs off her and now am clearing a space in my studio to proudly display her. And she'll need a name, of course, so any ideas?

I'll post again soon with some other finds..........