Two weeks ago Ann and I went to day two (half off day) of a "digger" sale. A digger sale is when there are just heaps of items, and box after box to dig through. Pre-sale photos do not do these types of sales justice. Much of the items are stored in boxes, or heaped in piles, just too much stuff to display properly. These sales are a lot of fun!
Look at these gorgeous hand painted Florida plates I unearthed! They are from Cypress Gardens, FL, which apparently closed in 2009. Sadness! The colors in these plates are lucious. I feel so lucky! I can't wait to hang them in my someday tiki bedroom. $3 for the set! The flower frogs were 50 cents each.
I found a huge box of vintage Christmas stuff languishing in the basement. I bought it for $2.50 without knowing exactly what was inside. I have very limited space for storing more Christmas stuff, so I had to be very picky. I gave a few items to friends and my mom, will sell some, and decided to keep this heap for myself. Glass garland! Mercury bulb picks! A gorgeous glob of heaven!
Last weekend I was stalking some estate sales online, like ya do. Estatesales.net is the best. Tons of pre-sale pictures, so you can decide which sales are worth hitting. Unfortunately / fortunately I saw that one of the sales was at the home of a frog collector. Yes, someone who collected frog stuff. All of the frog stuff. So much so that there was a sign in one room that had been used as an office that read, "Frog Free Zone". (Oddly, not the first frog collector sale I've been to. People really like frogs, apparently.) Can you deduce where this is going?
Kermit items. Kermit the frog. And one of the items was a Kermit Christmas ornament that was not already amongst my ample Muppet Christmas ornament collection! Instant sweats. Twist in stomach. Image burned into brain.
The problem was that this sale didn't start until 10am (suuuuper late in my estate sale-ing day) but I still wanted to be among the first to get in, so I could elbow everyone out of the way and get to MY ONE TRUE LOVE. There were several other sales we wanted to hit that started earlier. What to do? What to do? I mean, Kermit clearly takes priority, but the other sales started way earlier and had great stuff that I didn't want to miss out on! Could I make it to the earlier sales early enough to be among the first to enter, thereby allowing us to be shopping when we would normally be standing in line, waiting to get in? Then we could get to the Kermit Sale early and get a good number for that, too? The agony!
Ann (@magicsummervintage) and I decided that this was doable. We would arrive at the first sale a half hour before it started, secure a good entry number, and then be free to get to the Kermit Sale a half hour before it started. Two other friends were joining us for this Friday adventure, as well. Go team!
This is what I found at the first sale. $5 total. The straw purse will be super fun for beach vacations. I change purses at least once a week for special events. Sometimes going out to dinner is a special event. If you change your purse for it.
We did the first sale rather quickly. It was a very "clean" sale. Meaning, all the items are in good condition, but there aren't a ton of them. We were able to get to the Kermit Sale in time to get a number below 20, which was good enough for me. We still had a half an hour before the sale opened, and having secured numbers, we didn't have to wait in line.
There was a yard sale about a block away. We decided to walk over and browse. I wasn't super excited about it since it was a driveway full of baby stuff from what I could see. Boy. I could not have been more wrong.
One of the first things I found was this set of shakers. I think they are lovely, and hysterical, a bit. Sailing is technically a thing you can do in Rochester, though for only about 3 months of the year. Because, cold. It totally leads you to believe Rochester is a beach town. Ha!
I picked up these clip earrings. They are a little scratched, but still pretty, and made from the lightest metal, ever. Aluminum probably.
But, here's the real jewels:
Can you even? I got all these yard sale goodies for $13 total. TOTAL. Including the clam broth jadeite lamp! Mind blowing deals! @magicsummervintage pointed out the flower frog and said, "I assume you want this?" Yes. Yes, I do. I scored the Haunted Mansion puzzle for a freaking quarter. I cannot wait to set it up with my graveyard scene Halloween decorations! Just a few more days before I can start decorating for fall!
So after that amazing high, we went to wait for the Kermit Sale to start. They were, of course, late opening, which nearly gave me fits. I had literally been having stress dreams about this damn Kermit Sale for a week. Not fun, people! Open the @#*$^#ing door! I passed the time by mentally assessing each person that would be going into the sale before me, and the likelihood that they would be in the market for Kermit. I figured that I could probably knock most of them down, if I had to. Thankfully, I was also able to ask a sale worker where the Christmas items were located, so that I didn't have to waste time looking for the room once I was inside.
Then, it was go time. I ran up the stairs and landed in the Christmas room. I was the only one in there. I went to the table I had seen in the pre-sale pictures. I found one of the three Kermit ornaments right away. It was one I already had. The Holy Grail was not present! Agony! Could someone have swooped it already? I couldn't imagine that they would take one and not the others. There was a box of random ornaments for $1 each. I picked it up and walked around the room with it, looking everywhere, just in case. Then I dug around inside the box. BAM!
Finally!
It is MINE!
I cannot tell you the relief I felt to have it in my bag. Mine. MINE. Ah-hem. Sorry. I like the Muppets, OK? I was now free to enjoy the rest of the sale like a regular person and not a rabid animal. The Kermit high made it feel like I was floating around the sale in a cloud of joy.
I found these amazing Hawaiian picks. Gorgeous metal toppers! Can't wait to use them in some delicious drink!
I also grabbed all of these beautiful millinery fruits. The colors are just luscious. I like to display them in vases. The pink will look particularly lovely in a jadeite vase.
Because our luck had held out for so long, we decided to hit another nearby estate sale. It was half price day there! I nabbed some vintage Christmas stuff. Because I obviously need more of that. And I obviously have a lot of spots to store more of that. At least the owl will be going into a "fall decorations" bin. :)
Now it's time for
New In My Etsy Shop
Just a quick reminder that I have a coupon for your use, until the end of August. Enter code FIRST1 at checkout for $5 off your order of $25 or more.
Click on a photo to be taken to that item in my shop.
Vintage Gund Creation Lamb
Most of these rubber faced vintage dolls and animals scare the crapola out of me, I'm not going to lie. But this little dude is just darling. Her fur is so soft and she has glitter eyeshadow! I hear littlelambseativy.
Here's another one. Not quite nightmare inducing. Pluto, Mickey's pal. In all his rubber-faced glory. He's in great condition.
This vintage scarf is fab! Cats, and dogs, and stars, and moons! All the awesome sauce. I keep thinking that it would be pretty cool in a Halloween display. Not that I'm obsessed with the thought of decorating for fall, or anything. At all.
I also added a bunch of teenage mutant ninja turtles. And will be adding more this week. The boys have joined the military, become beach bums, and started practicing the ways of the samurai!
Until next time - happy hunting!
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