Calgon, Take Me Away

This May has been ridiculously cold and rainy.  Makes a girl wonder if summer is ever really going to start, or if we'll just get to "enjoy" 60 degree weather with cloudy skies until the snow returns. Don't put it past NY.  It's happened here before.

One of our favorite, most intense biannual sales happened a few weeks ago. We have a group of about ten people that roll up an hour early to get in line for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Rochester's Household Sale.  This sale is held in a giant warehouse and is like a huge garage sale.  Everything under the sun is at this sale.  And the prices are good.  Like, bring multiple shopping bags, good.

It's a great distraction from what the weather may or may not be doing.  Except that you stand outdoors for an hour while waiting for it to start.  This year it was 47 degrees   Full sun, which was a nice surprise.  But still.  Cold. My friends remarked on how lovely the day was.  I had to remind them that 47 degrees is NOT a lovely day in the month of May.  Even if there is full sun.  We are just desperate and starved for sunshine so we feel grateful and thankful to get any at all.  That is what we call an abusive relationship.

I always try to have a plan of action.  Things at this sale are very organized and set up in sections. I usually hit holiday first, then toys, then jewelry, then I mosey over to kitchen and pick up any doo-dads that we might have on our want list.  I never let myself even look at furniture.  I don't have room for furniture.  The Snug Bungalow is full up.

In order to attend this five day sale on the first day, you must donate items to the sale, which earns you a ticket.  I love this sale because it really brings the community together in a spirit of giving. (With a pinch of avarice.)

The holiday section is just inside the main door.  @hmcamma and I darted into that section first.  We were duly and justly rewarded.

Look at all the treasure!  This sale is so intense that there isn't much time to think.  You just stick stuff in your bag and hope for the best.  Opening everything and seeing what-all you ended up with is an event to relish the next day.

Some of my very favorite vintage finds: Christmas corsages!

These two have tiny spun head pipe cleaner Santas.

The one on the left is made mostly of metal.

I've never seen a bottle brush tree corsage before!

I thought this Santa guy was made of paper and picked him up very carefully.  But, he's made of wood!  "Sweden" is stamped on the bottom.

I love those tiny mice!  I have a burgeoning family of them and have never found a duplicate yet!

And I'm going to overlook the fact that the candy cane dude is a clown and let him live at my  house anyway.  The Snug Bungalow generally does not abide clowns.

Merry Miniatures! An Inuit type Santa and a flocked baby lamb.

I almost never find honeycomb at this sale, so I was excited when @hmcamma threw a baggie full of these my way!

Whilst wandering the very packed aisles of kitchenware, I found these adorable, magnetic salt and pepper shakers.  The one on the left looks marginally like my own Yorkie, Sprocket.  But a lot less grumpy.

And these shakers for use in Halloween displays.

When I finally made my way to the toy section, this huge Kermit was waiting for me! The little wooden duck is about  five inches tall, for reference.  I also scored a huge Gonzo that was in better shape than the one I currently had.  Upgrade!

I scored a few pretty things in the bathroom section.  A vintage compact (minus the mirror inside, boo) and a jadeite colored travel box for soap.  The earrings were the only jewelry that I found this time.

A set of string lights for some amazing vintage lanterns that I've had for just under an epoch  and a tiny Hallmark mouse Christmas ornament!  (Check out my Instagram feed for the finished light project: @thesnugbungalow  )

Since I go to at least one estate sale per week, my jewelry collection has grown quite fat.  I'm a person who really likes to be able to see all of my pieces at once, to make an informed decision each morning when putting together an outfit. I needed a spot to store / display my clip on earrings.  Which is kind of tough, because not many people wear them anymore and most clip on earrings cannot be displayed on normal earring trees. Voila! This plastic number is perfect!  I put a few pair on just to show you and then loaded it up to full capacity after.

I'll hopefully be posting my finds from a crazy digger sale soon.  This place was loaded, with minimum walking space!  So much fun!

Until then children, stay warm.  #teamsummer

Wet, Cold, and Ready

May seems to be having a bit of a crisis of personality. We've had highs in the low 50's and upper 40's along with so much rain I'm surprised the animals aren't lining up two by two.  It's gross, cold, terrible, and I'm totally over it. Summer needs to hurry it's ass up.

Even though it's been dark and cold enough to make me prefer sleeping to any other activity, I've forced myself to go to an estate sale or two.

I was lucky enough to have a sale companion ( @magicsummervintage ). We were #'s 18 and 19 at a second day (half price) sale.  Very exciting.  We had to wait until the second wave to get in.  It was a very small house, and very cram jammed with stuff.  Even on the second day!

Turns out it was worth the wait.  Because:

.MUPPETS.

And not just any Muppets.  Vintage Muppets.  A game I wasn't even aware existed, in phenomenal condition!  All thanks to @magicsummervintage who casually said, "I grabbed this in case you didn't have it already." 😱

These tiny delights were found on the floor of the basement.  Underfoot.  I looked to see what I was stepping on and was rewarded with a tiny Scottie dog and a aqua flamingo! Thank you basement floor! Plus, the Fisher Price Muppet puppet stick, which has become part of my personal collection.

I also found some fun jewelry and a black (Except it's not actually black, it's really really dark purple.) vase for Halloween decorating.  Man, those neon pieces get me right in the heart.

After the estate sale we wandered to a church sale.  It was pretty sparse.  But, I did manage to get something.  I hope you are sitting down for this.

Holt Howard Starry Eye Santa Pitcher.  75 cents. LESS THAN ONE DOLLAR!  Shut uppppppp!  If you only find one thing at a sale, you want it to be something like this.  So stinking adorable. He'll look just right with all my other Christmas ceramics.

Tomorrow is the Spring Ronald McDonald Sale.  Of course I'm very excited and have sharpened my elbows accordingly.  The only crap part is that the high is supposed to be in the 40s.  And we have to wait outside in line for an hour.  So, we got that goin' for us.  I'll report back after the deed has been done!