I HEART EVERYTHING: estate sale

Well, here it is again, Monday! I had a really nice weekend with lots of eventful stuff happening. I got to make stuff, break stuff, appreciate the arts, appreciate cars and car people (wassup Edgar!) and lastly, went to a crazy, crazy Estate Sale!! I got a lot of stuff at the sale and spent my stipend of weekend money all in one spot ($40).

I woke up earlier than normal on Saturday and was havin' my tea and toast whilst perusing the Craigslist garage sales section. The listing for the estate sale said "45 years in one house, clean sweep". Ahhhh, music to my ears! It was only 8:45 when I arrived at the sale. I didn't see any signs, but I did see a mob of about 40 people waiting in front of a house. I found parking and joined the line, shortly after there were about 10 people behind me. They were to open the house at 9:00. The lady running the announced that she was letting us all in at once, and to follow the "rules" No pushing, no arguing, no grabbing or you will be asked to leave. When they opened the doors, it was like a semi organized swarm of killer bees being let loose! I managed to keep all my limbs and find a buncha stuff too!

Here is the jewel of the day, a beautiful mirrored shelf that is dated 1958 on the back. On the shelf are some of the things I found at the sale.

The Shelf is wooden with mirrored frame & back. The mirror has beautiful gold metallic "scribbles" all over. It is in nearly perfect condition. I got it for $25, a steal! I have it in the bedroom and you can see the corner of my "wall-o-chalkboard" which is still a work in progress.

This looks like a glass light bulb, but its a Radiometer. The tiny weather vane thingy spins when it is placed in the sun. When I was a little kid, I would play with the one my grandma had, it used to belong to my father's father. It fascinated me then & now, I'm stokled to have one of my own!

I found this radio but have yet to test it, its in pretty good shape. I just love old radios and have quite a few. The little animals and paper umbrellas were an impulse buy near the check out of the sale. The lady running the sale said the more you buy the cheaper it gets. I guess she was right!

Some pulp fiction paper backs and a felted parakeet. I'll read the books and let you know how steamy the windows get! LOL.

I got a lot of other things there too:

-2 plastic pink flamingos (actually free 'cus they need repair)

-3 super cute vintage aprons

-Adorable pink gingham table cloth with barbeque theme & a kitchen towels

-Vintage Kazoo

-New Old Stock w. original box car windshield squirty kit for 1960's cars. I'm totally gunna put it on the Station Wagon

-Molded Plastic Bowl set

-Other little thangs.

All for $40 bucks total!

About the house where the sale was:
The folks had lived in the same house for 45 years. The wallpapers throughout the house were all silver metallic, some had butterflies, flowers and the like. They were well to do, having one of the homes with a water inlet to the Ventura Harbor where they could park a boat. The house was packed with stuff. They had a player piano playing classical music in the living room the whole time the sale was happening. They had two wet bars downstairs, fully stocked with bar ware and old ass liqueur bottles. In the garage, I opened a cupbard and found about 15 bottles of champagne & Martinellis among other old booze. The kitchen had the original cabinets, but new apliances. The house was neat and had a lot of its original charm but newer furniture. I love to check out the insides of peoples homes. I treat estate sales like a history of someone's life. I can only imagine what mine will look like. Yowza.

I scored some cool stuff at an estate sale this weekend. I was hooked by the signs exclaiming 1/2 off and followed the arrows to a cute little house that was a remodeled mid century home. The last occupants had probably lived there since the 60's but had covered up a lot of the vintage charm of the house sometime in the 80's. There wasn't much left at the sale but I did find two things that I had to have!

I bought this chair, pictured with Lucy, my old Dart wagon (which hauled the stuff home) for half off of $28.50. It has a spring-rocker-action that is really cool. It came with a custom fitted cushion that is covered in a yucky 1980's rose print fabric. I will see if I can recover the cushion with something more age appropriate. Here it is in the living room with my other wire chair, an original Herman Miller Eames model which I found on its way to the dumpster.

I also found this red table in what looked like the sewing room of the house. It is a homemade mash up of two different materials. I believe the stand was from another table and the top looks like it was just a scrap piece of wood painted a nice red. I like it because it is homemade and vintage at the same time!

I'm going to include it in the re-design of my bedroom. I am taking out the "wall -o-curtains" and putting in a wall-o-chalk board. My apartment is pretty wacky and seems to have been built out of whatever was laying around. My bedroom is a closed in sun porch and not only has windows all the way around the outer wall, but has a window looking into the living room.