That's What She Said #5: Quantity vs Quality

Ann (of @magicsummervintage) is my Friday partner in crime. (Not actual crime, unless you count finding fabulous vintage items at incredible prices a crime.  If so, lock us up!) We go out on "the hunt" every Friday during the summer.  Estate sales, church sales, and even a garage sale or two are the hunting grounds.  We, armed with our trusty reusable shopping bags, are the hunters.  We know our prey, we stalk it well.  We move in at lightening speed!  Throwing elbows, dodging past other shoppers, we move in for the kill! We can smell a good find hidden in a tower of towels, or in a baggy of other crap.  At this point we almost have mutant powers that Professor X would be proud of.  (Not super sure how we could use a vintage set of knitting needles or a pair of vintage lucite earrings to fend off Erik and his cronies...but it could happen!)

This year we decided to do dueling blog posts for each of our adventures!

(Link at the end of this post)

This sale was a hoarder sale.  Stuffed to the rafters, underfoot, and all around the walls.  Tiny walking paths.  These kinds of sales are both fun (So much stuff to unearth!) and stressful (So much stuff, so many people, and so little room!) We were there on day two - 50% off day!

While we were waiting in line, my boss showed up!  I'm teaching him the ways of the Dark Side.

Eventually we were let in.  They couldn't let many people in at once because the place was so crowded with items.  It was day two, as I said, and the workers at this sale were cranky after being crammed into a hot, cramped shoebox with frantic shoppers for two days.  We felt for them and tried to be super upbeat so that they knew we thought they were doing a good job despite the circumstances.

I headed to the attic first which was where I had seen Christmas items in the sale photos.  Lots of the items I'd seen in the photos were gone, but there was tons and tons of stuff not pictured.  Just look at all these photos I took for you so that you could get a sense of the amount of stuff!

...

Yeah.  Well. Sorry about that.

There being tons of stuff at an estate sale doesn't always translate into me finding lots of stuff to take home.  I have a tiny home and need to be very choosy when it comes to my weekly vintage outings.  It does help that I sell lots of the stuff I find, and give some as gifts, too. I try to choose quality over quantity. (Or else I'll have to lose my spot on the bed because I'll be using it to store vintage stuff.)

This is what my basket looked like at the end of the day. 

(Minus one large flannel cape/poncho.)

Here are the things I I found in the attic Christmas area.  A hot pink strand of mercury glass beads, a composite sugar glitter pear, a string of metal foil dots, and a gorgeous glass lantern lightbulb that I will fashion a hook for and hang as a tree ornament come Christmas.

I also found these cute vintage planters in the attic.  The elephant and cat are for Heather and the pink shell is for my mom.

Back side of the shell.  Just because it's so pretty.

I also got this vintage bracelet for her.  She'd seen it in the sale photos and I was happy that it was still available when I got there on day #2.

I saw this funny hand made pillow, but passed it up.

As I was taking one final lap around the house, I spotted this crazy poncho/cape in a closed wardrobe on the porch.  My mom loves a poncho situation.  I snagged it for her for $1.50!  It's very thick flannel and reversible!

Plus, it came with this very cool vintage wire hanger.

Ann was dead set on getting a lute she had seen in the photos.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  Please don't make me repeat it. She was pretty hyped up about it, and actually said the sentence: "I could do so many cool things if I had a lute."  I'll just let that sit there for a minute.

I suspect that the job #1 "cool thing" she'd do would be to learn to actually play the lute, since she does not possess that talent at the moment.  Then I assume it would be on to  wander Renaissance fairs since that is my only idea about what you do with a lute.  At any rate, the lute was already spoken for when we got inside.  Someone else gets all the cool points, I guess.

I also had to talk her down from buying a serger.  Which, is a good tool to have if you are a sewer.  IF.

She also really wanted a couple sets of vintage knitting needles that she'd seen in the photos.  They were nowhere to be found once inside, however.  But then...enter Super Sarah, who sniffed them out under a giant pile of towels.  Sometimes people hide things in weird places so that they can come back on day two and buy them for half price.  But too bad for them, because I'm good at digging.  Getting the needles helped with the sting of losing the lute, a bit.

Ann also got some vintage gloves for one of her alumni who is sashaying into the world of drag.  It's very exciting!

After the sale, we were lucky enough to get invited to a gorgeous pool.  It was a hot, sunny day and there is nothing I like more than a float around a pool.  There we spent a lazy , contented afternoon. (Thanks, Stephanie!)

There was a tiny nightmare unfolding at the pool.  A huge spider caught and was fighting a bee whilst dangling from a single stand of webbing! I acknowledge that this is a terrible picture, but the struggle was real.  In the end the bee lost and was dragged back to the spider's lair, high in the poolside umbrella folds.  I felt like I had spiders on me for the rest of the afternoon. (IS IT ON ME!?!?)

To see all of the treasures that Ann amassed, check out her blog!

And find us both on Instagram at:

@thesnugbungalowshop

@magicsummervintage

Or if you have a hankering to get yourself some vintage treasures, visit our Etsy shops:

The Snug Bungalow Vintage & Design

Magic Summer Vintage