Yard Sale Groove

The other day my husband had a hankering for a bookcase so off we went to an estate sale.

On the way there, we happened upon two elderly women parked on the roadside selling things on the grass and sidewalk. They just picked a well-traveled spot to set up shop. Their sale was a funny mishmash of things--half home office supplies and half gifts never used and some odds and ends (that doesn't add up to 100% does it?). I picked up a wooden office in-box, packages of unused post-its (almost time to buy school supplies), two pads of paper, and a very tarnished silver meat fork. My total investment was about $5 in 5 minutes.

On to the estate sale. The house was an adorable modified Cape Cod and needed a little TLC. It turns out that a 92-year-old widower recently moved into an assisted living facility and he didn't need the house or its contents any longer. Somehow I tend to think of Mufasa's voice from heaven in The Lion King talking to Simba about the cycle of life, but then I stop feeling wistful and get on to the goods!

Here's what we picked up (minus the bookcase-we found one, but it dwarfed everything else):This house had lots of books. Scary topics like calculus and probably quantum something (note my earlier math problem). I gravitated to topics I understand, which is why I bought the homespun and painting by Churchill books. Yes, the PM was a painter. We found a very nice linen runner with faded pink embroidery, a large roll of ivory ribbon, ironstone butter pats (I should have bought all of them), a couple of mini vases, etc.

Feeling good about finding the bookcase and our other finds, we headed home. Not two miles from the estate sale, we came across a yard sale. Hit the brakes! That's where I found the red flowered cross between a hat and a headband from the 1950s. The woman said it had been her grandmother's. Instead of asking her, "why are you selling this," I asked, "how much?" Sold for one dollar. Truly, one woman's trash is another woman's treasure (for crafting in that case).

A successful estate sale stop is one thing, but a street-side sale and a yard sale to boot? That's what I call Yard Sale Groove....