More Estate and Garage Sale Madness

I met a local gal that I have been emailing for a while.  We headed out after dropping kids off on Friday to a couple of estate sales.  My mission of finding garden stuff and patio furniture as of yet unfulfilled.

Beka and I drove to Garden Grove, 20 minutes away, to get an early preview of what the guy said would be a "BIG" garage sale.  Well... some people's BIG is anothers no BIG deal.  The man was very nice, but there wasn't much to choose from.  I got 2 patio chairs that will make a cute bistro set if I can find a table to go with it.  I also took 2 drawers from a junk pile in the driveway, and an old blouse I plan on making into an apron for my ETSY site.  Becka got an old washing bucket rusted out and full of black widows, an old piece of chipped pottery in good condition and a towel ring from the trash pile.  She scored the best stuff for free.

With enough time to go to one more sale, we headed out to an estate sale in Fullerton.   This is one run by an estate sale company.  But a different one that I have seen before.  When we saw the nice displays and prices, we figured it would be to costly to shop here... we are quarter garage sale gals... But, I picked up a few things that interested me, and the prices in the end were actually negotiable...  The photo shows the things I got from the 2 sales, along with a trip to a GREAT salvation army store Beka told me about that I have never been to.  She is going to be a great person to know.  She knows all the really good  places to shop and find the best deals.  Thanks for a fun day Beka, and for telling me about all the other fun places to explore.  I look forward to more thrifting and saleing adventures with you...  BTW... I went back to the sale on sunday, and bought up all the other things I wanted on the first day for a fraction of the price.  I got the bodies to the doll heads that Beka bought on Friday... and a huge bag of vintage trims and fabrics and clothes for $20...

Estate Sale Madness

I love a good estate sale.  Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is these days, many estate sales are charging such high prices, they compare to new things at TJ maxx and Home Goods.  The great deals are harder and harder to find. 

I got up at 5:30 to go shopping at one that sounded promising.  Armed with a wad of cash, shopping bags and a determination to find garden stuff, I headed out.  It started at 6:30,  When I got there at 6:00, there was a crowd standing outside the garage peering in... The Estate sale guy, a very hip, bald headed, earringed bohemian wearing a beret, says "OK, start pulling the boxes out, this is how we do it." and it was complete madness... I beelined for a chandelier hanging in the garage, and saw a couple of dealers pawing through boxes. I could hear glass breaking everywhere as people literally threw boxes to each other.  Many of them worked in teams.  Whole families working together digging and passing boxes like a bucket brigade.  We were bumping in to one another and  some were elbowing others out of the way.  I tried to get more things, but my hand was full with the chandelier and I didn't dare put it down.  I put my things in a pile on the driveway, the designated spot for all claimed things, and started digging through boxes.  As I unpacked things and sat them on the ground, this lady was scooping them up and running off with them, and my :"hey, I wanted that" went unheard.  I was digging through a box of stuff a dealer had passed on, Franciscan Desert Rose china, a full set... and another guy comes up to me out of the garage, sees what I have and says "Oh, that's mine" He was nowhere near it... and said it after he saw what it was... because I had been standing in that same place the whole time... but whatever... He paid a lot for it all... I have been looking for that china for a long time, but it was out of my price range.  In all the hubub, I still managed to get some cute things... Many of which will be going up for sale on my ETSY site...  So check it out in the next few days.

Flea Market Style dining room

As anyone who knows me, or follows my blog knows... I love old stuff.  My mom was a flea market style decorator WAY before it was fashionable and had it's own magazine dedicated to it.  On sundays she would go to the local drive in flea market and buy stuff for a few dollars, bring it home and redecorate the house with it.  She was so good at using what she had, and completely changing the look of something by rearranging and changing the color.  Every couple of months I would come home and the house would either be rearranged, or in the process.  We would help her move stuff around so she could have it done by the time dad got home.  I never really realized what she was doing until recently.  She was moving energy unconsciously.  She wasn't the trained psychic she is now, back then.  She didn't know feng shui or anything about energy.  But she did know the house "felt" better after she moved things around. 

Whenever I feel stuck energetically, I clean and then I purge, and then I rearrange.  All lessons taught to me by my mom... She was down here recently and helped me decorate my new living-room-turned-dining-room.  Together we make an awesome team.

I showed you the dresser and cup shelf I had done previously.  I also had this china hutch I bought at goodwill for $40.  I had intended for Paskie to use it in the garden with his plants on it.  It was dark brown, and too shaded on the lower shelves for the plants.  So I painted it white and brought it inside.  By placing it on the other side of the fireplace, it balanced the dresser and cupshelf I had on the other side. It also gave me space to display the rest of my tea collection.  Mom had also regifted me with a dining room set we traded back and fourth a few times.  It was silver and gold metal.  I painted the base white, and stuck the chairs in the tack room for another days project.  I took the chairs I had left from an old farmhouse table set I bought when I was pregnant with Zack 17 years ago, and spray painted those white as well.  It took 2 coats to get the right coverage, but they look great.  The mirror I got from friends when they closed their business, and the pictures above it, I had purchased a long time ago at a garage sale.  They all came out of the tack room (my storage facility.)  We placed my grandmas trunk, which my dad painstakenly refinished for me, under the window for now.  It will eventually go in my bedroom.

Then mom went digging in the garage and tack room some more, and found these pictures, frames and shelves to create these spaces.  The chair was one I bought to recover, but it goes perfectly now in the space the way it is, so I am leaving it for now.  All I have left to do is recover and paint the matching dining chairs and paint the long dresser I have in the tack room, and my flea market style dining room is complete.