Weekend Wrap Up: Sales and Travels

What happened here?  All of a sudden we switch our calendars to October and the temperature drops 20 degrees?!  Is this fair??

Wow, what a lovely, warm fall September day this is.
...

Helloooo October.  I cannot feel my fingers.

My mom, my sisters and I woke up on Saturday, bright and early on the day of the World's Largest Garage Sale, to 50 degrees.  And rain.

Of all days.

But, being loyal bargain shoppers, we went anyway.  Ponchos, rain boots, umbrellas, and all.

For half of our party, the weather got the best of us.  Only two hours in, my sisters retreated to the car to sit with the heat turned up to 90.  Two hours, several purchases, and one soup-in-a-bread-bowl later my mom and I joined them. 

My fingers were so cold and red I could not use them anymore.

I listen to my body's signals.

More on my super finds later, like after I finally show Corey.

One purchase may or may not be well received.

But that's a story for a different day.

After the sale, Corey and I packed up our overnight gear for a trip to his parents' house.  It was a rare free weekend he wanted to use to see one of his grandmothers.  I oblige.  Gramma time is good time.

We sat by the fire, kept Oliver from eating the cats, shopped, ate Italian, ate cake, ate breakfast, ate meatloaf, talked about how lousy the weather has been...your usual family togetherness stuff.

I also stabbed myself with a felting needle.  A through-and-through as I think they call it in crime scene investigating.

"If it was bad you'd be bleeding."

"I AM bleeding!!"

"Oh."

Now we're back to the grindstone.  Busy week ahead of us.  Lots of plans.  Packing for our cross-country adventure.  Worrying over flying.

Yay....can't wait.

Garage Sale Day: Debrief

Saturday was the most wonderful day of the year.  Besides Christmas.  And Thanksgiving.  And each day I get to buy new shoes.

It was GARAGE SALE DAY!!!

Again, this was the World's.  Largest.  Garage.  Sale.

As in, it don't get much bigger than this.

As in, you'll find all the junk your heart desires.

As in, bring your walking shoes, wallet, granny cart and patience.

...

Friday night I stayed at my parents' house; we planned to leave for the sale early the next morning.  Kimberlie and I blew up the air mattress, settled in with our favorite sleepy-time movie, The Mummy, and fell asleep.

But not before her darling puppy peed all over the kitchen floor sending Kimberlie downstairs to the laundry room for "dog towels" (which are just crappy towels they no longer use) to find the basement flooding.  So while she cleaned and disinfected the kitchen, my mom and I rotated from the wet ground to the washing machine's spin cycle the rest of the dog towels until we cleaned everything up.

I then went to sleep and woke up at 6am.

But not before I had to leave the air mattress because I am now too old to sleep a mere 5 inches from the cold hard ground to sleep on the couch, waking Kimberlie's dog every 15 minutes to stop her from snoring.

It was a great start.

But nothing was going to stand in my way of junk shopping my little heart out.  Not lack of sleep, not cold, harsh winds, not even Mother Nature's poorly timed surprise.

And with that resolve, we headed out.

However, some of us were a little less resolved than others.  Some of us are also not morning....creatures.

This is the gang before commencing, minus my dad who is taking the picture.  Kimberlie is on the right and my mom is in the middle.  Notice: the dog is wearing a pink hoodie.  And, yes.  She is matching my sister.

See my granny cart?  You'll see in a second just how useful the sucker was.  What you won't see are the hundreds of other granny carts, carted by non-grannies.  I can't properly express the feeling I had pulling it behind me, a feeling of camaraderie between me and my fellow Warrensburg Garage Salers as we braced ourselves for a full day of wading through treasures, watching novices, counseling them in the ways of weight distribution.  It was evident, by that cart, I knew what I was doing. 

And then I knocked over four people on my way to get dried Chinese lanterns.

We start so early in the morning because by noon the town looks like this.  Tens of thousands of people, literally, pack into what is really a small stretch of Warrensburg.  It gets annoying.  Especially when one of those ten thousand buys the glass pitcher and bowl I knew would look so perfect on my antique dresser. 

The food is a great part of this who shebang.  It's the same fried crap you get at county fairs and at a time of the year when you and your lower GI are just starting to miss it.  We got chicken quesadillas here.  At 10am.  Donuts came next.  Then sausage and peppers.

Eventually, we did need rest breaks. 

And we took them wherever there was enough space to park our tooshes.  See my cart?  It's full of goodies, jackets, water bottles, an empty tin can, hopes, and dreams.  See the lady petting the dog?  This happened all. stinkin'. day.

Hehe.  I am in so much trouble for posting this.  I consider it payback for her little monster keeping me up all night and literally trying to eat my hair.  But because I am afraid of my youngest sister, I am not going to tell her I "featured" her here.  Let's just keep this between you and me.

There is an equally hilarious picture of me floating around out there, but I conveniently can't find it.

...

So after 7.5 hours of walking up and down the main street in the small town of Warrensburg, stopping at almost every stand, completely filling up my cart, this is what I ended up with:

An old tobacco tin, a horse hankie, five green buttons, one antique button and a gold flowery thing. 

You probably had the same reaction as I did:

That's it?!

...

See you next year best garage sale ever.

Secondhand junk on the brain

Corey is counting down to track season.

I am counting down to garage sale season.

Yes, I know there is a "no crap" rule in our house, but I am banking on my gift of BS to make even a literal pile of crap look like the essential tool for my latest craft project.  Rest assured, however, I will not be purchasing an actual piece of poo.  Because really, with three living, breathing and eating bodies in our household we aren't so short on the stuff.

Plus, the definition of "crap" is entirely subjective.  According to Corey, anything that doesn't come with a straight-from-the-factory smell is crap.

My mom is really freaking out, by the way, at my liberal use of her less favorite word.

On my scavenger hunt list for this garage sale season:

• cow creamer
• junk wool sweaters
• old keys
• old door knobs
• more buttons, always more buttons
• funky patterned clothes
• soap dish

I should point out that I do not intend to wear the clothes I am in search of.  That's a little icky to me.  They will be sliced and diced and transformed into little rose balls and aprons...someday.

The cow creamer, however, will be in use.  Heebie-jeebies do not come into play when I can sterilize objects in the dishwasher (if this is not possible, please, for my peace of mind, do not point it out.  thanksomuch).

If you know of any garage/estate sales within 40 miles of Saratoga Springs let me know ay-sap.  I'll need to schedule time blocks, map out routes, assign designated drivers (dangerous to browse and drive), recruit secondary shoppers, laminate itineraries, etc.

Gracias.

Wanna see sumthin' funny?

I'm a garage sale freak (obviously), so when I plan one of my own I like to really plan.

Like this:

And then I re-plan. 

Like so:

And I take into consideration such things as traffic patterns, and possible obstacles to the flow.

Weird, right?

Garage Sale Review

On Saturday, I spent five hours looking at all the junk my heart desired, and that wasn't even all the junk that was there.

I woke up at 6am.  This is what also gets me up at/before 6am:

• fire alarm
• dog throwing up
• Disneyland
• black Friday

Had perfectly shaped pancakes (thanks to dad's OCD) with my parents and sister, drove to Warrensburg, parked the vehicle, began the junk treasure hunt.

My favorite junk? 

Definitely these guys, and there were a ton.  You put cream or milk in their backs, pick 'em up by their tails and they spit it out!  One of them was $125.00.  Yes, I did check the placement of the period.  It was after the 5.

Although I didn't end up with a cream-spitting cow (I had clear instructions from you-know-who to leave the junk there) I did end up with some goodies:

• 
  
  a pashmina, with the "Pashmina" tag taped on
  
• Christmas present for my cousin...it's a sssssecret
  
• huge bunch of dried hydrangeas
  
• a large jar of buttons
  
• roasted almonds
  
• sausage and peppers
  

The old keys and pocket watches were hard to resist, but I couldn't think of what I would do with them and that would be a direct violation of the "no junk" policy I unknowingly agreed to upon entering the marital residence.

In the end, it was a successful day.  After five semi-dry hours of meandering through endless vendor stalls I left with half of the items on my list and money still in my pocket.

Only 360 days until the next one.

47 days...

...until the Fall Kickoff Event!!


The most anticipated weekend of the year....


The biggest collection of used crap in the country...


On Saturday, October 3rd you will find me and my walking shoes at

The Warrensburg Garage Sale!!

The big deal?? Uhhhh...it's only the world's largest garage sale...in the world.


On my shopping list for this year:

• Elvis earrings
• sausage and peppers
• homemade dog treats
• antique doorknobs
• buttons
• roasted almonds

I also plan on playing smooshy-face with every dog I pass and squeal at every antique stained glass window that I can neither afford nor carry.

I love routines.