My friend Ann (@magicsummervintage) is a teacher, so she has the summers off. I have Fridays off. We use this to our advantage and go to estate, yard, and church sales together nearly every Friday during the summer. This summer we decided to blog about our adventures, each of us from our own perspective. Each week there will be a new she said/she said installment to read about, you lucky devils!
This Friday was very special. My mom was in town! She lives in a different state, so I don't get to see her often enough. We both really love to go to garage and estate sales, so it was perfect that she was here on our regular sale-ing day. She also knows @magicsummervintage from way back, and counts her as one of her own children. Again, we won't be talking about how long ago that was. "Way back" seems like enough.
Since the estate sale didn't start until later in the morning (10:00 - Come on, the day is half over by 10 am!) We stopped at a neighborhood sale first. There were people milling about, not a huge crowd, but enough people to make you want to get in on the action.
The neighborhood had an Italian flavor in both architecture and landscaping. But then, this is Rochester. Most neighborhoods do.
Right away Ann found this...African...instrument. A maraca-ish thing made from a dried gourd that makes a nice "shuka-shuka" noise. She'll use it once the school year starts back up, as she's a choir director and loves to incorporate very specific instruments into some of their numbers. (NO tambourines!)
En route to the second house we saw a tiny poodle all dressed up for the 4th of July. Complete with headwear. Her owner was an older lady, perhaps in her 80s, wearing a kerchief and some other crazy bits, including shorts and poodle socks pulled up to her knees. The cumulative effect of which was something like a fever dream about Gray Gardens and Paw Patrol. I've mentioned this specific poodle and her owner before. They frequent neighborhood sales in our area. Never have I taken a picture, though. Mostly I'm too agog, at the time. You'll have to trot over to Ann's blog to get a glimpse. She can be agog and still remember to take a photo! Quite a talent!
It was warm and sunny, so you know the members of #teamsummer were in our happy place. We saw these tiny law chairs and it was a perfect day to use them. I hope someone bought them and made some tiny kids super happy. When I was little I had a tiny lawn chair and thought it was the most special thing.
I didn't end up finding any treasures at the neighborhood sale. We only had time to visit a few houses before we had to go to the estate sale. My mom found a beautiful blue rhinestone bracelet, but of course, I didn't take a picture of that.
We got to the estate sale a bit later than usual. But, still in time to pick up numbers, get in line, and enter in the "first wave". As you can see, I was #34. My mom and Ann got numbers too, but apparently that doesn't matter. I just took a picture of my own number. Tunnel vision.
It was a good day for garden statuary. The house and driveway were FULL of pots, vases, figures, etc. Basically if it was meant to house a plant, or be put among plants, this sale had one bajillion of them. (The vintage metal motel chairs were only $9 each! Too bad I don't have room for any more.)
We entered the sale through the garage, and it was loaded with shelves full of vintage pottery. Amazing pieces of U.S.A., Haeger, and McCoy. Interesting shapes, and all colors.
There were also some oddities, like this fish planter.
Odder still, this green elephant bank planter. Yep. It's a bank AND a planter. Don't ask me how that's supposed to work. How are you supposed to get the money out without dumping the plant all over?
The garage was seriously overwhelming, and not lit well. This contributed to me grabbing what I wanted and getting the hell out of there, into the house proper. And therefore not taking photos of the many, many shelves of pottery.
Although, inside the house wasn't much better. It was very dark, and the flooring had all been pulled up, so we were walking on bare particle board. And everywhere you looked there were ceramics, vases, glassware. So many things. All breakable.
Ashtrays and figureines in the living room.
One very special ashtray that I didn't buy, but had a chuckle about.
I did find these cuties inside the jumble of the house. I was shopping for @hmcamma since she had to (stupid) work. She had quite a long list and had, along with my mother, freaked right out when she saw the pre-sale photos online. They both love vintage planters and have very large collections of houseplants. (I cannot make house plants grow at all, so I have none. No sense in bringing in a poor, innocent plant, just to kill it.) I was able to secure many items from her list, thankfully.
I got her a whole basket of goodies! (Yes, she wanted the green elephant bank planter!)
I also scored her a few surprises, like this vintage enamel hair clip! I was going to get it for her when I thought it was a pin, but a hair clip is even better!
I was able to round up a few goodies for myself as well.
Check out the amazing Pac-Man glasses! I'm sure I'll break them sometime soon, (Nobody is better than me at breaking glasses.) but until then I'm going to enjoy using them. Whiskey and ginger in a Pac-Man glass? Yes please! The duck planter will join my other cream colored Easter planters, and the mint green planter (upside down for this photo) will go to work in my bedroom holding jewels. Or maybe change purses! OoOOooOoohh! Good idea!
I also got some loot for my Etsy shop. Vintage Care Bears Christmas tags, and one billion micro machines. They will be put into my ample backlog and show up in my shop about a year from now. (DM me on Instagram if you see something you'd like a price on before then.) @thesnugbungalowshop
I know that Ann and my mom bought stuff, but I couldn't say what exactly. I wasn't there when they checked out and of course "didn't take a photo". My new catch phrase. Much of what Ann finds ends up in her awesome Etsy shop: Magic Summer Vintage . Go check it out!
After the estate sale we hopped over to a sale we'd seen advertised as an estate sale with a ton of jewelry. What it actually was - a garage sale with loads of new jewelry - wasn't what we were looking for. They had some vintage items, but wanted exorbitant prices for them. Like $40 for an unmarked rhinestone bracelet. Higher prices than most antique stores I've been to. Needless to say, I didn't find anything worth haggling over. It looks enticing though, doesn't it?
After getting slightly cranky at the jewelry sale, we decided it was time for lunch.
My mom treated us to a round of very delicious drinks, just the right thing to cap off a day of sale-ing with two of my favorite people. Ann and I both had the blood orange margarita, and my mom had a dirty martini. This place makes amazing martinis, and if I hadn't been driving, I would have had one of my own!
All in all, it was a very fun day and I was happy to share it with two of the awesome women in my life. Cheers!
(P.S. - My mom took a picture of her loot when she got home. Here it is! Color coordinated vintage planters, along with a large brown lightweight planter, a sparkly poinsettia pick, and a groovy orange dress!)
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