A Second Life

The junk out back is a nagging eyesore. It is purposeful though, so what's a girl to do but work the pile one item at a time until everything I've drug home has been been fashioned into some newly reborn piece of furniture or what have you. Mostly a lot of "what have you".

Here's what became of one of one of those junk pile eyesores.

Mob Rule

To drag home a few things and set them up against the wall here or there or inside the front door or piled up out back, stuffed in the trunk of the car or crammed into the garage storage space would be manageable in and of themselves, but get them all together and it turns into mob rule.

The individual has no rights under mob rule.

Whatever the collective decides, the individual becomes a slave to. Freedom finds itself on precarious footing.

Junk Eccentricity or Junk Insanity?

It was another intriguing Thursday morning trash day in our little waterside town. The battle of Me vs Me started before dawn while I still lie in bed thinking those interruptive thoughts that snatch my sleep because the subject matter is soooo weighty. 

Would I go hunting for junk that morning or not? That was the important question that separated me from my slumber in the dark. 

"There's no room for more stuff!", Rational-Practical-Would-Love-to-Sleep-Past-5:30-Me told Maniacal-Junk-Greedy Me. No need to go hunting. Settled. I turned over and nestled my head soundly back into my pillow, happy that another daily dilemma was wiped off the "worry chart" and I could sleep on until the next worry butt in to wake me. It was simple really. I couldn't go, for I am in danger of being run out of my own home by my kids who think a safe walking path and room to breath is of some import. Case closed.

Maniacal Junk-Greedy Me is persistent though, and drives a hard bargain. "We'll just drive a few streets and look! What if there's something out there?!" I lured myself with the promise of a possible discovery. By "SOMETHING", Junk-Greedy-Me means something that would be a heart breaker to see lost forever, whether we want it, need it, have room for it - or not. It's the principal of the thing, and for all of Junk-Greedy-Me's gimme-gimme, grabby hands, that Me's attitude is rooted in the past and aggravated by the present. My love for the past longs to fight a valiant battle to beat back the present's evil desire to suck all the treasured wood and metal relics down into the ashes of the earth and make a sort of historical compost out of them. Uh, uh!

The battle lines are drawn and so are our junk warrior weapons!

Shut off the alarm, fire up the coffee, rev up the engine, and we're off. 

Yes, Practical-Rational-Me is a pushover.

Plus my sleep was already ruined. Once I'm awake, I might as well get up and drive. I know I'll never fall back to sleep.

The Mod Squad

Mod: popular, fashionable, modern - Yep. This fits the bill.

I've had my eyes peeled for one of these for a very long time. I passed up a cute blue one at a garage sale about a year ago because the woman was only willing to go down to $25.00. Being uber-cheap, that was too much for me. I hadn't seen another since...

...until last Saturday. 

Junk Legacy

You never know what the street holds for you until you get out and drive. I headed out on Thursday morning at the crack of dawn just to see if there was anything impressive on its way to the dump via the curb. Turns out that the streets were fairly barren of junk this week. Hmph! I'm just not used to that! With each turn, the empty streets were a big disappointment. After hitting up my neighborhood with no luck, I remembered a pile I had seen down a street in another neighborhood on my way home the night before, but which I hadn't had time to stop and check out at the time.

Fun Finds on the Fly

I want nothing.

I need nothing.

I have room for NOTHING! (My son just arrived home from California and told me it seemed crowded in here (or did he say cluttered). Number one: He doesn't know clutter, and number 2, Eh, hem! I beg your pardon! This is the random treasure of the world carefully stacked, arranged, or otherwise crammed into place for maximum visual effect. He also had questions about the giant pickle. Who doesn't.



Imagine the nerve of him not seeing the junky/beautiful splendor of it all. Apparently I have some work to do on that front. But if he would hurry up and get a place here, I'd be able to unload all the excess onto him. I'm waiting! I got most of it for HIM, after all.

When The Back Goes Out

I have NOT fallen, but even so, I can't get up. Absolutely nothing happened and out went my back anyway. I'm immobile, and it's even more the pity because I was in the middle of painting my tall chest of drawers when it happened.

This one.

Junk Warrior Without Her Weapons

You've heard the sage advice that even a young boy or girl in scouts learns: Be prepared. 

I should pay attention to the sages and the scouts. While out garage sale-ing, where I hauled in $9 worth of fabulousness plus a 75 cent glazed donut, I spotted a junk pile in front of a house for sale.

Cue the brakes.

Night and Day Difference

Remember how I said I was going to try and spend every evening now that daylight savings time is over (since it gets dark so early) doing at least one small thing to keep the ball rolling in my efforts to get my house in shape by next week? Well, that was laughable. Here is a picture of me at the end of each day as the sun sets:

 Image Source

Even trying to do one small thing each evening has been a flop, except a couple of nights ago when I polished a bunch of silver and then last night when I ran errands.

However, I have been an entirely different creature in the mornings. Here I am before work each day:

While I Slumber

I hope you haven't given up on me, thinking I'm a slacker who has abandoned her blog. Not exactly. It's just that blogging takes time and if I want to get this place in any kind of shape by Thanksgiving, I have to keep at my projects every minute. After all, dirt, mold, yard growth, mail and other papers, broken items, plumbing leaks, trash, junk, weeds, ugly paint colors, poorly placed items, gifts that must be made, car breakdowns, hunger and cabinet and closet contents (to name a few) all multiply 24/7. Then there's me. I stop and take each night off to sleep. So these things have an unfair advantage, and I cannot seem to keep up with them. I certainly never get ahead.

But Wait, There's More!

Yesterday's post told only a portion of the tale of the "great stuff-shuffle". I dubbed it "great" because it was intense and so much "stuff" was involved. But wait, there's more, including a bit of this:


More on that in a minute...

The Great Stuff-Shuffle

The weekend began Friday night with a necessary mowing of the lawn and a clean up of all these pieces of wood.

I'm sure my neighbors must wonder about me.

Well, this had to be done. The trunk was fed up with all of these circles, cylinders and blocks inhabiting its space, and the only place for them to go from there was in the house, and they weren't coming in without a good cleaning first. They were caked with grit and grime. 

Shopping the Avenue

The streets were thick with junk this evening, and I went out shopping those avenues, drives and boulevards looking for fantastic hardware for the chest of drawers I've been working on. However, all that came my way was an array of wood knobs attached to the drawers of a dresser that was way too big for my backseat, and round wood knobs were not the kind of fantastic I was hoping for.

Family is coming over tomorrow night so dragging anything home that would impede our ability to function in this already small house of ours wasn't going to work, especially since I've been frantically shoving as much as possible out of sight the past two nights. That means a little sewing room and bathroom are crammed to the gills. There's still stuff where stuff doesn't belong in a normal living scenario, and there is more furniture to move out of the way tomorrow. The backyard can hide some things for a few hours if needed though, right?

Even with my spacial concerns, on the way home today, I was thinking I wanted to try and find some metal before the guys with trucks come around and snag everything (thinking the metal I want would be flat things that could hang on a wall or slide behind other things or lie flat for inconspicuous storage). Then my neighbor across the street and over a few houses just happened to put this out to the road:

 So much for flat and inconspicuous!

One of the wheels was rusted off, but someday, somehow, I could certainly find a way to fix that, right? What a great display cart! For now, the wheel has just been set back on so it doesn't look like a train wreck. It's not sturdy, but at least you can see its potential. If it's too much of a pain to fix, the parts could be used separately for other purposes.



The wheel makes a nice accent all on its own, don't you think? And who knows what the flat metal part of the cart could become. Certainly time would tell, and broken into parts, this piece would be less obtrusive as well. Hmm... I do like the wheels!

So what do you think, fix it and leave it as a cart or disassemble it for parts?

Oh, and just so you know, I could have also had an older barber's chair on the way home from work today. Seriously... there out by the curb at someone's house. I've actually had my eye out looking for one, but then when I passed it, I couldn't justify bringing it to live with us right now. It was really grungy looking and the arm was broken. I'm sure it was fixable, and I have wanted one for quite some time, but again, there will be people in the house. Sometimes the timing is just not right. Anyway, surely by now the metal hunters have taken it. I should put it out of my head. Then again, I usually cut my kids' hair myself. We could really USE a barber chair! What was I thinking...or not thinking? I never originally thought of getting it to actually use for our own haircuts. I just wanted an old one because they are cool. Dang, I'm all about practical finds, and besides, practicality is a great excuse to bring home junk, especially if it's cool and free!

It's official. I should have brought it home! Now comes the junk REMORSE.

Don't think I haven't contemplated going back to check on it even though it's late. I'm really curious to see if it survived the evening, although it is highly doubtful.

Note to self...remember to pick first and ask questions later. I can always toss it back out if I decide it's no good. Wouldn't be the first time. So why can't I seem to remember that in the moment? I suppose it's the competing thoughts that are always swirling through my head, which include making sure not to run a stop sign or worse, among other things! I'm thinking I need to create a cute little reminder motto that could be posted on my dashboard...

Pick first, toss later!

That's right, just what I need... another project.

Mop it Up Mondays @ I Should Be Mopping The Floor
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage
Fridays Unfolded @ Stuff & Nonsense

Glorious Disaster

Their glory may be a bit underwhelming at the moment, and "disaster" may outshine "promise", but that's the nature of this game. I've already cleaned everything up and drug it to the back yard now, so after a short rest of my lower back, the neighbors will be enjoying the sound of my sander at work for a while.

Yes, I have my work cut out for me, as if I didn't already, and I'd be lying if I wasn't a bit concerned about where I was going to put all this stuff. [Yes, girls - my daughters - I know, I know.] But this is what it is. Gotta strike while the garbage pile awaits and the stuff is free. We'll deal with where to put it all later.

The burn and water damage on the top and the scent of stale cigarette smoke came along with this piece. This is the match to the 9 drawer dresser that was standing on its head and which I couldn't get on Monday. Same apartment. They seem to be ditching stuff one piece at a time. I have redone another table top with a similar problem before and I actually like the character it gave the finished result, so we'll see how this comes out and whether or not I can get rid of the cigarette smell.

Best find of the day! 

The guy who put this out with the table and the long piece of wood and a bunch of other stuff I didn't take, also had some little electronic things, like a handheld TV, that were new in the package (from quite a while back), but I just didn't feel like dealing with that. This little lady, however, was another story. 

Well kids, if not for blogging, I might actually get something done on this glorious disaster. So, I hate to show off and run, but if I don't get crackin' and beat the heat and rain, you may never see the final results of any of this stuff.

Plus I may have some "splainin' to do" when Casey wakes up and sees the latest additions to the household. Yes, it's getting a bit crowded in here (although the last two things I redid, she immediately wanted - so maybe she'll cut me some slack). The unfolding of the day will tell that tale.

However, I think I even saw my little hula doll shaking her head at me.

Ah well, I'm shaking my head at  me too.

Mop it Up Mondays @ ISBMTF
Nifty Thrifty Sunday @ Nifty Thrifty Things
Sunday Show Off @ Twigg Studios
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Who Am I Foolin'?

No.

Of course I don't "hoard".

I stockpile.

You see, I'm just very prepared.

I'll be in good shape if there's ever a junk shortage.

My rationalization is fed, as it is for many of us, by an I'm "gonna need that some day" mentality. Meanwhile, living space dwindles and decisions mount. In my case, my friend and I are intending to open a shop, and the mounting stash of treasure that's growing as if someone's fertilizing and watering it has the potential to become valuable product in some iteration or another. We're counting on it. If I ever get to the store for some of the supplies I need, I will continue to transform the elements of my stash into other life forms. Unfortunately time and circumstance are often fickle and rude. They find ways of interrupting me and changing my mind about what I'm going to be doing next!

Now, this past weekend was no exception to the hunt and gather phenom that fuels my junk stockpile.

Despite the approaching tropical storm (Isaac), and the driving rain that began on Friday, the thought of missing out on something that might be out there, and the hope that the rain would deter others (thereby providing me with an advantage!) prevented me from staying inside and enjoying the dark day inside where the atmosphere was devoid of blustery winds and raindrops.

I donned those fantastical "Raspberry Red"(okay, you can call them pink if you like) Rain Boots, which have become a sort of soggy Saturday staple, (see, I DID need them!) and I set out to run the gamut of stops on my list.

 "Raspberry Red", the friend of a soggy day yard-saler - they did me proud this weekend.

Early on, I happened upon a couple who was selling quite a few items they had from a shop they were closing. There were a lot of things made with wood and seashells. Two ladies had arrived just before me and scored some items I'd have wanted, but they were pricey, so perhaps the timing was just as well. I got this for 50 cents because some shells were missing. It's actually a nice heavy wood frame, and I intend to take the shells off anyway and see what comes of it.

Spotted this old fashioned looking gumball machine on my way into their garage, but the owner wanted $25. Too rich for my blood, so I just glanced at it in passing and continued the hunt.

...whereby I found this and snapped it up for $10.00.

which is odd considering my $5 limit.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and striving after the wind...so it felt while sanding down this paint job.

This is a new piece (and not any special quality). The owner had just painted it to look like this. I justified the $10 by considering that each piece was $5. That, my friends, is how rationalization works. I also figured the straight lines would make it easy to work on. Flat surfaces don't provide much character when painting/distressing, but they are easier to sand to bare wood (and I rarely find character pieces around here anyway) and I like to get the old finish off as much as possible if it's not going to add to the character of the end result. I wanted the purple outta here so that when I distress it later, the wood will show through here and there. With a white basecoat, it's already a new creation. And maybe me too, as I listened to Matt Chandler messages while I painted. (He's the pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, Texas. Cally sent me a whole bunch of his older podcasts, and I listen while I work. So yes, it's holy work I'm doing. 

What? You find that to be a stretch? Well, he is an excellent speaker. His Biblical messages are also quite timely and engaging.)

So while I got somewhere on that piece, it now sits in furniture limbo. That's the place where so many of my projects go to dream of a quick renewal and recovery (they dream with futility, I might add, but they can dream). I made a deal with myself to come home and immediately get sanding and to get the first coat of paint on it. Surprisingly I did. Unfortunately it was raining, and that left my sanding efforts to fits and starts, since I do such work right outside of the back door on the porch step. Then I didn't have the color of paint needed for the final coat. I also need to create a stencil I can use to paint the fabric, which I intend to use to cover the seat. I intend that this vanity will no longer resemble its former self when I'm done with it. 

I got this fish net thrown in with the vanity.

So, I left with my vanity and the net and also with soggy hair from the time spent in the rain trying to wedge the vanity into the backseat as water fell freely from the sky (the guy ended up having to unscrew the mirror for me after my futile attempts.) Because of that mirrored vanity, I had to sacrifice hair vanity for the rest of the morning. So it goes. However thanks to "Raspberry Red", my feet and the bottom of my jeans were spared a soggy saga! Perhaps I should become one who dons her little plastic rain bonnet like my mom and her generation used to pull out of their purses, unfold and cover their heads with back in the day. 

Ummm...let me think about that...

Yeah...no.

I think I'll pass. 

. 

Yes! 7 feet of longboard goodness! 

Well, this is South Florida, so I was thrilled to score this.

This is meant to become a sign or some sort of display piece. It's got a bit of fiberglass damage at the bottom, but since we don't intend to use it for surfing, and it's not noticeable, it is perfect. The guy wanted $10 and that was too much for me. Mind you, around here, used surfboards often go for between $150 and $200. Even so I am very conservative with my expenditures. Can't be spending $10 on just anything. I called Casey when I first found this because she's been wanting a long board. I had to wake her to ask, but through a sleepy fog, she declined despite my proclamations that it was a great deal. Then she promptly returned to the land of nod. I wasn't sure I wanted to blow my own cash, so I left, however, as usual, I began regretting the uberthrift and hesitation with which I had operated. You know that feeling; it's the opposite of buyer's remorse. 

I shall henceforth call it "uberthrifter's remorse".

I ended up on the phone with Lynette and told her about the gumball machine and the surfboard. She thought they were great ideas even at asking price and gave me her approval. So off I took in a hurry, pretty sure both would be gone. I arrived at the house only to realize that a 7 foot board might be a bit tricky to fit in my car. 

Ha! By now, you (and I!) should know my car has skills. The board was still there (woohoo!) and the guy selling it managed to fit it through the back car door, over the passenger seat and the dashboard, with the back resting on the back window space. Guess what, he took $5.00 for it! Nicely scored! And guess who came home from work later and promptly fell in love and proclaimed it to be hers?! 

Uh, uh, sweet thang. It's a shop sign now. Casey told me that I should have known not to listen to her when she's sleepy. 

Oh brother.

When I went back for the gumball machine, it was still there too. It's not authentic or old but has enough of a look, and I got the seller to go down by $10 to $15 and made the deal. The owner and I had quite a time trying to get it apart to see how the money would come out (she had never used it the correct way) and then we had to try and get it all back together. Glad I asked her to be sure it worked first because it was a bit tricky. In the process, she went in her house and managed to find the key, which I would have been sorry not to have. She thought she had lost it.

So there you have it. I have added to my stockpile and actually worked on some things. By this weekend I hope to have not only the vanity done but to also have a few other little projects at least in the works.

Wish I had it all ready to show you, but I'm a dabbler. I have to work around my job, the yard work, repairs of many kinds, food prep and clean up, laundry, house cleaning, blogging and such the like. A little time on this, a little on that, and one day soon I'll have something to show for it all.

In the meantime, I'm working on distributing the ever-multiplying junk throughout the house so as to trick the eye into believing it somehow makes sense.

Think I'm gonna fool anyone?

I'll be sharing this with:

Sunday's Best @ My 1929 Charmer
Mop It Up Mondays @ I Should Be Mopping The Floor
Pink Saturday @ How Sweet The Sound
Nifty Thrifty Sunday @ Nifty Thrifty Things
Sunday Show Off @ Twigg Studios
Freedom Fridays @ My Turn
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday @ My Romantic Home
Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage
Share Your Cup Thursday @ Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Longest Yard Sale Treasures

Part Three 

from our adventures at 

The World's Longest Yard Sale

Well kids, here it is...another day and I did say I would finally show you what I hunted down and haggled over (or not) as well as hauled home from Longest Yard Sale, didn't I? I was supposed to do that two days ago now, but honestly, when I said I would post my finds "tomorrow", I think I really meant the tomorrow that seemed a lot further away. The "next day" is almost always too soon to promise anything. I don't know what possesses me to do that. I do so hate being a slacker...and yet...

Anyway, as you will see, my takeaway was not hefty, but the items I got are each a treasure in their own right. You think I'd go crazy buying junk with all that laid out before me on Tabor Road in the Noccalula Falls area of AL, but as indicated previously, those rolling eyes kept me in line. Those eyes belong to my daughter who is in the accounting field, and she has a stellar sense of thrift. Those eyes are a powerful force too.

By the way, today we are celebrating her birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear CALLY!

Sending hugs and kisses from home.

xoxo

Now, in Cally's eyes, buying numerous inexpensive and unnecessary treasures is as foolish as purchasing overpriced things at a high end store. So I took great care not to overbuy just because something was cool, old or cheap compared to the store. I really do think that for my stellar restraint I deserve points or some sort of "good financial behavior credit" I can apply toward my next thrifty adventure, don't you?

So here is what I came home with:

An ammunition box I'm now using this to hold my fire wood and christmas tree stumps. I paid $8. I know, that's $3 over my limit, but he was asking $10 and I've never come across one around here before.

Love all the imprinting on it.

I had fun buying these goodies. 50 cents for each potato sack, $1 per headlight (I have a plan for them and they were on my list!), I paid 50 cents each for the black handled scissors and 25 cents for the fantastically rusty scissors.

The Chevrolet emblem I got for FREE comes with a story. 

I came upon an older man, who was probably in his 70's. He was tending to a table laden with the assorted car parts of the ages. It was just as beautifully junky as it could be, covered with random stuff in boxes overflowing with paper, hoses, automotive thingamajigs and doohickies and whatnot, displayed about like he had just gathered up the lifetime contents of his garage still in the dirty and oil stained boxes and dumped it all out there in a pile. Think "trash heap". I loved it. I had fun looking through it because it was car-related and I need some old car stuff for something I want to make my brother one day. The man struck up a conversation with me as I discovered and picked up a sweet Chevrolet emblem that was the old cursive look and made of metal, but he wanted $10 for it. That was not what I wanted to pay, even though I've never found one before and have only seen them online for about the same amount or more. 

He wanted to know what the heck I would want that for, so I tried to describe what I wanted to do. Maybe it made sense, maybe not. When I asked how much, he said he needed $10 for it because it was old and they are hard to come by. I know they are and didn't begrudge him the price but it was too high for me and what I really want and need is an old metal Mustang emblem. I thanked him and looked around through the stuff a bit more. Not seeing anything else of interest, and knowing we had miles to go and things to see, I said so long and off I went. 

I finished looking around at what some of the other vendors had to offer and then ordered a hotdog at the food cart which took kind of a long time. As we waited we stood in front of a huge old fan they had set up to keep the customers somewhat cool; huge fan, meaning like 5 feet square. When we were done, Cally and I went to the car and were about to leave but I ran back across the expanse of grass to throw something away by the eating area. As I was coming up to it, across the shady dirt path to my left came the same man carrying this Chevrolet emblem. 

He held it out. It was plastic (and not cursive). I told him, "Aw, that's cool, but I really need the metal kind. I'm looking for an old one in cursive that's made of metal." He tapped it and said, "it IS metal!" "Naw, that's plastic," I laughed. (and after tapping it a couple more times as if to convince me and himself, he laughed too.) "...but I'm sure I could use it for something," I said. He smiled and handed it to me and told me I could have it. Awww... I thanked him kindly and told him how sweet that was, and as I was leaving, one of his old buddies joined the fray and questioned him, "Are you hittin' on her?" they chuckled and joined another older guy under a tree on the path to chew the fat and compare notes on the day while keeping tabs on their tables full of treasures and perhaps a few stories yet to come. I smiled to myself and off we headed to the next sale and the next story. 

And that, my friends is what it's all about.

2 Potato Sacks I only bought two of these because I wasn't sure the print on them would suit my needs. I have a chair seat (a step stool chair in my kitchen) that I want to recover with something along these lines as well as an ottoman and a bench that might be candidates for something similar. We'll see.

Longest yard sale goodness! 

Quick story about the cute little pail.

Another super personable older man was sitting in front of some sort of a weathered red wood building in the shade at a small table with a shotgun or a rifle lying across it (not sure, I wasn't really paying attention to that). In front and to the right of him was a huge old trailer, the flatbed of it was wood. There was some sort of antique plow or some such thing and a couple other items strewn around and remnants of whatever had been there lying on top of it, but not much left. I walked up and said hello and started looking around. The cute little pail was lying on the ground and I picked it up and turned to ask him how much he wanted and he said, "you better hurry and get that before them democrats come and tell you you can't have it cuz it's no good for ya." I laughed and said, "you're lucky they haven't shut down this whole sale yet." He laughed and told me he wanted a dollar for the pail. It was too cute to pass up. 

Then I picked up a pair of rusty scissors and we proceeded to haggle over the price. I wasn't going to pay more than a quarter and he was trying to get me to grasp the higher value he wanted to attribute to them, starting at a dollar and working his way down. We had a good natured financial tug-o-war about it. His friend came up and said "What are you doing!?""Give the girl the scissors! They aren't even worth a quarter!" 

So he accepted my quarter with a laugh and then as a man came up to ask about the shotgun (he wanted $300 for it), he told me how his daughter had cleared out her barn and piled everything on the trailer. He said he was sure everyone would go crazy for the antique plow or whatever it was and a couple of other cool old things he had, but he said that people passed those things right up and had a free for all fighting over the junk. He said elbows were flying and people were snapping up the old stuff that he thought was worthless, and they didn't seem at all interested in the things he thought were the treasures. "Go figure", he said. Indeed. And darn, but we were no where near there when the free for all was underway. Sorry we missed that. Well, I did get the pail and the rusty scissors, and those scissors came in very handy while trying to get Cally's new place in order. There were no scissors in the apartment and we kept needing them desperately. Those rusty things had one good spot on them, and we made the most of it. Rusty scissors to the rescue!

I got these two windows for $10 each. I thought these were especially cool because they each have hardware on them; a handle and a latch. One side of each is wood and one side is painted a dull dark green. They also have a bluish green layer.

Yes, it would have been nice if I had ironed this old Florida tablecoth treasure before showing you, but I assure you I didn't buy it clean or ironed, so all's fair. At least I've washed it now (and you know that's saying something because my washer is still torn apart and lying in pieces where I left it when I told you about my attempt to dismantle, diagnose it and prove my genius).

I've wanted one of these for the longest time. In the past the people I have found selling old Florida tablecloths, which have been few and far between, have always been asking closer to $75. I once saw one for $55 but it wasn't the right color. None before have been these perfect 50/60's colors like this one. None were the right price either. I paid $25. At first I had to walk away from it and hope the other woman from Florida who was looking at it didn't go back and get it while I was trying to decide if I could let go of that much money. She ended up back there too but decided to buy something else. Woo hoo! I'm so glad I got it!

So without ironing it, I went ahead and put it on the table to see how it would look. Isn't it so perfect? It's only card table size, but that works for me because I don't like to cover my table completely. I'm not really much of a tablecloth person, more of a table runner type, if anything, so this works well for me. Best yet, is its Old Florida style which is something I love and find works well in my old Florida house with its old Florida temperament! Oops, I forgot to light the candles in the above shot. I liked the minimalist look of the centerpiece but for those of you who like things a little more involved...

... I stepped up the look by moving the flowers over from the table in the back room, just to give it a little flowery pizzaz for ya.

 So you see, I do have a use for some of the things I buy!

(For the record, the tablecloth is in a special category which justifies spending $25 on a single item. I'd never expect to get an old Florida tablecloth for $5, although I'm not opposed to trying!)

So it goes at the World's Longest Yard Sale.
You want it, you better be ready to break your own rules.

And it doesn't hurt to take your daughter along for the memories and the fun.
Thanks for accompanying me on the journey, Cally.

It wouldn't have been the same without you!

I'll be sharing this at:

Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner

Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage

Cowgirl Up @ Cedar Hill Ranch

Open Call Tuesday @ Salt Tree

Cure for the Common Monday @ Lines Across

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm

Tuesday to Do @ The Blackberry Vine

Metamorphosis Monday @ BNOTP

Newbie Graduate Party @ Debbiedoos

Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality

Sunday's Best @ My 1929 Charmer

Mop it up Monday @ ISBMTF

Nifty Thrify Sunday @ Nifty Thrifty Things

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

One Creative Weekend @ One Creative Mommy

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Thursday Favorite Things @ Town & Country Living

Treasure Hunt Thursday @ FMFPTY

Primp Your Stuff Wednesday @ Primp

Share Your Cup Thursday @ Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

The Longest Yard Sale - Tips for the Novice

My foray into the other world that was the World's Longest Yard sale came along thanks to a heads up from Stephanie at The Cozy Old Farmhouse. Thank you, Stephanie! 

It wasn't but a day or so before I was to leave to visit Cally in AL that I found out this long-wished-for opportunity would come my way while I was there with her, and that it was starting only an hour from where she lives. What!? I could hardly believe the brilliance of the timing. After driving over 11 hours to get to Mountain Brook, what was one more hour on the road the next morning? I knew the joys that would await! Cally was kind enough to oblige me, despite the fact that spending a full day in the heat wandering through and looking at people's old junk was not on her list of top 10 ways to spend her waking hours, especially when it was one of two days she had off of work to get her new place in order. Thank you, Cally!



The adventure began with breakfast at the hotel that I had stayed at the night before. We got on the road a bit later than planned but the experience was every bit as fun as I thought it would be. I do regret that we couldn't go for more than one day, that I didn't concentrate on taking more (and better) pictures and that we passed up so many good things thinking we might come back to them later if we didn't find something better. 

Now hear this: There is no going back. You snooze, you lose.


I have a few other tips from my novice trip to the World's Longest Yard Sale. Feel free to learn from my maiden journey to this enticing venue of junk and stuff and treasures.

Have a Spending Strategy

or Come Prepared to Go For Broke

You may have heard it said, "Don't bring a knife to a gun fight," well I say don't bring a fist full of dollars to the World's Longest Yard Sale. That is unless you are a tightwad like me with fairly strict self-imposed spending limits and a thrifty daughter in tow who will keep you in line whenever you dare to err where financial prudence is concerned. Actually, even I came prepared with plenty of cash on hand. I knew the likelihood of finding something spectacular that I might not see for some time (if ever) again, if I didn't come with enough cash to spend. In the end, I found that space for hauling things might be more of a consideration than price, but my spendthrift ways did go a long way to holding me in financial check, that and Cally's facial expressions whenever I considered buying something pricey or that she considered too frivolous. Cheap habits die hard and they run in the family.

Photography 101

Take lots of pictures! By all means, if you are going to carry a humongous camera with you as you drive and haul it along every time you exit the vehicle, and if you are actually going to have it on your shoulder with every step you take - for heaven's sake, use it and use it well! 


Get in and get close. This was one of the few times I did just that. This huge light was something I would like to have bought, but at $25, it was way too expensive for me. I thought it would be a cool addition to the shop my friend and I want to open but she wasn't there to consult, so I let it lie. I saw soooo many things that would be cool for our potential shop, but without a consenting voice of affirmation, I had to pass them up.

• Don't just take pictures as you are walking or driving or practically running from one place to the next, snapping random thoughtless distant shots of the general area as I did. What a waste! Learn from my mistakes. Look at my photos; you'll see what I mean. They could have been so great, but I didn't take the time.

• Do take in the sights then set aside your concerns of what people think of you taking pictures (even your daughter) and just do it. I wish I had pictures of the people I spoke with too. They were one of the best parts of the whole day! Get your memories stored in digital format so you have them later (Especially if you are going to blog about it. People want interesting visuals! Right?) 

• Besides, if you don't take pictures, you'll forget all those cool things you let get away. Capture them on camera so you can fully mope about, and rehash, what could've, would've and should've been when you get home.

Slow Down

This shot was one of those taken quickly from the car as I waited in standstill traffic.

• We were in a bit of a hurry because, well, first of all there is so much to see that you don't want to miss a thing. Secondly, we were looking for some specific furniture pieces for Cally's new place. We did a lot of scanning of sales as we drove by, trying to see if they were worth stopping for, always mindful not to hold up traffic like some people in front of us did. I refrained from being a horn honker myself even though people inching down the road with a line of fanatical garage salers piling up behind them made Cally and I crazy a time or two. We tried to be polite and patient. One angry woman drove a long stretch of road laying on the horn for an eternity despite the fact that the woman in front of her was going along what seemed to be perfectly fine. Just come to the sale with your driving patience in good working order.

Enjoy the Experience

The fact is you aren't going to see it all, so you might as well actually take in and enjoy that which you ARE able to see!

• We did do some quick run-throughs of some of the different vendors to see if they had anything remotely close to what we wanted. The day seemed short and the yard sale, endless. It's hard to stop and enjoy what's in front of you when you are thinking about what someone else might have that could be better and cheaper down the road (apparently what is true in life is also true with reard to yard sales!). The best parts of the day were those where we stopped and interacted with people, tried to score a deal (when it worked and even when our attempts failed) and those where we got an up close and personal look into the lives and stories of the folks along the way, not just a look at the items they had for sale.

A Strong Bladder Helps

Go to the bathroom before you begin and bring lots of water, preferably in a cooler. 

• Having a vehicle with a good AC in it was invaluable for recharging our energy as we drove from one group of sales to the next. After each jaunt through a section of sales, we'd get back in the car and crank the air and chug water. Luckily we were so hot and we sweat so much that the water never seemed to make it to our bladders. That didn't stop us from following the signs to the Black Creek Fire Department on Tabor Road and Blackwell and Styles Bridges Roads that lured every woman at the Gadsden end of the sale with their strategically placed signs for miles; signs that boasted CLEAN RESTROOMS and great BBQ.

The #2 is where we started the sales, and we went as far as the #3 to the Black Creek Fire Department and then back again. How does anyone get through all the way to MI or even halfway in four days. Talk about rushing...

• After stopping at a zillion sales on our way there, we decided to make that fire department our turnaround point, at which time we were going to go back and hit all the places we had noted down side streets, as well as others we had passed up. We wanted to revisit some stops where we had seen potential purchases, at that point still hoping we might go back and score a deal. Although we went all the way to the Black Creek Fire Department to find the bathrooms (just in case we needed them by then - seeing as it was the only hope of bathrooms we'd actually seen), once we walked in to what on the outside appeared to be a tiny little ho hum building with only one person sitting on a rocker out front and a couple guys grilling out back, there on the inside it reminded me of a small church fellowship hall from back in the day. We opened the door and the place was bustling with lots of folks buying food and drinks and eating at tables packed together to accommodate the masses as women lined up against the walls to have a turn at what appeared to be the one bathroom available, a line that snaked all the way around the inside of the room. That was enough to make mine and Cally's decision for us. We didn't need to go - it was agreed. We were fine. Really. Good thing, I didn't want to sacrifice that much of my quickly dwindling yard sale time partaking in the camaraderie of a long bathroom line. So we hopped back into our car and made tracks to the next set of vendors. 

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Try to go on the first day before everything gets snapped up and while vendors have the most stuff from which to choose. Then if you see something you want, buy it right then while you can or put it out of your mind and move along to what lies ahead.

• On our way back, one place I wanted to revisit was the set up under some trees on the side of the road of an older guy who had lots of interesting antique things, one of which was a large square weathered metal box with faded buttery paint on it. He was only asking $15, but being the cheapskate that I am with my general $5 limit per item, that felt high for me early in the day. His wife also had some wood folding chairs like I've been collecting, and he said she wanted $8 each (about $5 too much). When we came back by on our way through as we were leaving, he'd been wiped out of almost everything he'd had for sale earlier. The man with the one dresser we were considering for Cally had also sold much of what he had when we stopped by earlier. I'll tell you about him in the next installment.

• If there are any one of a kind or special things at the sale that you think are to die for, buy them, right then. Most of the trendy stores in Homewood, AL wanted way more for items similar to those that one guy I'll tell you about next time was selling. And when I say the trendy stores want "way more", I'm talking as much as $100 more. There were so many fantastic things in the Homewood stores, but woo-wee! were some of them expensive! One store had a burlap pillow for $100. Sure it was cute...but $100 for a pillow...and made of burlap? Those stores made the expensive yard sale vendors look like dime (not dollar) stores in comparison.

The Road Less Traveled

Next time I would go to more of the sales down the side streets where individuals are actually having yard and garage sales. 

• Many of the vendors in the lots on the main thoroughfare were dealers with their antiques and pricey items (often the same type of glassware and expensive signs that other vendors had). So many of those were not all that rare, and similar treasures might easily have been up for sale by an individual clearing out their garage or cleaning up their yard or storage area for a fraction of the price the dealers were asking. However, we could fit more stops in if we parked by a large group of vendors, got out and walked to a bunch of sales on the main road before getting back in the car to move along to the next set. Some of the side streets only had a sale or two at a time. You never knew what you might find anywhere! 

Speak Up and Ask!

• In many of the places, the items were not priced, so after finding out how high some vendor's prices were, it was tempting to assume everything like those that I wanted would be out of my price range at the other vendors' sales as well. I almost passed up some old windows because I assumed they would be as expensive as they were at the guy's place next door. I ended up asking though, and this guy's prices were half that of his competitor's. Because of that I didn't try to talk him down further, which Cally reminded me, I may have gotten them cheaper. I was just glad to get them for cheaper than what I paid for one at home and half of what the guy next door was selling them for. I completely forgot to try and bargain with him. You have to stay on your toes and be on your best game! The longest yard sale is no place for bargain slackers. Gotta be thinking about your strategy every minute.

It seemed that most of the prices were higher than yard sales here where I live. Deals were still to be had though, and there were so many cool items, especially if you didn't mind paying flea market prices rather than garage sale prices. 



We were going fast, so I didn't take the time to really linger too long at any one place or take the time to soak everything in and really peruse all the cool items littered about. It takes time to scope everything out and relish the sights. Mind you, Cally has an eye for a different aesthetic than I, and she tends to turn her nose up at the old scrappy junk I could spend hours pouring over. I saved lots of money because of her response when I'd show her some remarkable old thing that I apparently (in her mind) have no use for. I really didn't buy too much. I spent $57.25 altogether which was plenty, but one of my items was significantly over my usual limit. It was something I'd wanted a long time and had only seen previously for two and three times as much as I got it for here, so I was happy with that. I also got the couple of windows I mentioned for $10 each. The few other things I got were each a dollar or less. The whole experience was lots of fun for the amount of ground we were able to cover in a day, and we made some memories for sure!

It was a day of entertainment, exercise and unequivocally good junk and good people. 

Next up I'll tell you about a couple more people I spoke to and show you a bit of the scenery (not sale related) that we saw which added to the experience as well as show you what I brought home with me!

I'll be sharing this with:

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

One Creative Weekend @ One Creative Mommy

Treasure Hunt Thursday @ From my Front Porch to Yours

Wow Us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style

Open Call Tuesday @ Salt Tree

Tips & Tricks @ Stringtown Home

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm

Tuesday to Do Party @ the Blackberry Vine

Inspire Me Monday @ Create with Joy

Sunday's Best @ My 1929 Charmer

Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality

Manic Monday @ Serendipity And Spice

Mop it up Monday @ ISBMTF

Nifty Thrifty Sunday @ NIfty Thrifty Things

Sunday Show Off @ Twigg Studios

Spotlight Saturday @ Classy Clutter

Saturday G'Day Party @ Natasha in Oz

Show & Tell Saturday @ Be Different, Act Normal

One Creative Weekend @ One Creative Mommy

Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous