Yard Sales
I'm tired but too lazy to go to sleep. I'm at my Mom's dog sitting and we have to leave super early in the morning so Arthur can get to work by 7:30 (Mom lives almost an hour away). I have to wash the dishes and tidy up before my feeble few hours of sleep and I just can't muster up the energy. Which basically means the hours are closing in on time to get up. Blah, a part of me wants to pull another all nighter, but it's so boring here. I don't have my craft stuff, no paint, no decent movies, I'm waaaay too beat to attempt and read. So I've been sitting here looking at Etsy watching Boomerang all night. I ordered some really essential supplies tonight. Stuff I NEEDED to make any progress, some decent vintage chain, the craft store crap just doesn't cut it, some findings like brass bails, filigree settings, clasps and crescent loops for layering, and most important a decent bust model for taking pictures. I ordered one a few weeks ago and I fucked up the measurements, it ended up being reeeally small. It's nice, but it makes my jewelry look huge, lol. Ridiculous. I KNOW the one I picked this time will be perfect.
Today I went yard sale shopping. I hadn't done that in a long time. It's always awkward when you come across a really bad yard sale. You know the type, the ones where all people have are a broken lawn mower, their hurricane glass collection and maybe 5 other hideous miscellaneous items spread out on a table. It's even more awkward when you're the only person at the yard sale, you can sense their frustration that they haven't sold anything, and almost feel guilty for leaving empty handed. I hit about 6 yard sales making very sparse purchases. I went to one that was being held by the local libertarian party, it was somewhat awkward because nothing there was worth buying and everyone there were my peers, thankfully a friend there pointed me in the direction a flea market I'd never been to and I ended up finding a bunch of prog jazz and 80's funk records. I also talked to a clocksmith whose going to put together some miscellany for my coggling. But the BIG find of the day was at the OTHER flea market. A guy sold me a box box of junk jewelry for $12. Super tacky stuff. It all belonged a teacher and I swear, it must have been one of my teachers, as a lot of it looked familiar. But I seem to remember that all public school teachers, especially elementary school, seem to have a uniform of bad costume jewelry. I think my hatred for seasonal (Christmas, Halloween, Easter) jewelry is because I always hated that crappy teacher jewelry, or just because seasonal jewelry is ugly. So it wasn't ALL good. I think the guy wanted more for it but shit, this stuff has Dazzle Wear* written all over it. It NEEDS work. But there are lots of colorful gem covered gold brooches and giant earrings, I am up for this challenge.
Going to those yard sales and making that find reminded me of THE BEST YARD SALE EVER! I have relived that day over and over again, not to mention I still enjoy my findings all the time. It was a good day. Late spring 3 years ago. I woke up early and noticed a Yard Sale sign by my house. It was pointing to this trailer court down the street so I went to check it out. It was surprisingly good. The kind of tacky stuff you dream about finding at a trailer yard sale, a giant gold unicorn clock, a big psychedelic looking ash tray (I still smoked then), and tons of costume jewelry. I tried calling Katie but couldn't get through. Finally after several tries I did and she told me that she had been trying to call me too, not only that, she was calling me beacuse she was also yard sailing and found the greatest one on the planet. I told her I found a good one too, so she agreed to pick me up. I took her to the one near my place, she agreed it was good but then she said "you just WAIT!". ANOTHER trailer court at the other end of the County, tucked away nicely where it seemed like this yard sale was just for us. This lady had spent her entire life collecting amazing cute vintage stuff, the type of vintage stuff you want to find! Cute animals, pretty vases, everything was just right. Not only that, she was a crafter! She had craft stuff for sale! Knitted throws with daisies on them, the coolest lamps I've ever seen (I still have my tacky 70's lamp with asian dolls in it). Everything about this yard sale spoke our language. We bought soooo much stuff. Katie had already been so she really loaded up, I spent $50 easy with one walk through. She had had costume jewelry too, but gooooood costume jewelry. The best kind imaginable. Most of it I still wouldn't alter or mess with. We chatted with her and she said that after her husband died a while ago she devoted her life to crafting and improving her trailer, she had young adult kids who I guess had recently moved away so she had decided to sell her trailer and move too. We loved her style so much she gave us the tour of her garden of tacky delights. I wish I had my camera on me that day.
Imagine if you can:
AstroTurf, big ornate fountains that she had painted bright colors! Pink, Yellow, red! Big bouquets of brightly colored plastic flowers everywhere! On top of all this, she added food coloring to the water in her fountains so it was toilet bowl blue and pine sol green. This was a place where unicorns live. The unicorns of my imaginations! It was wonderful! I was so happy to be there. I wished I could live there at the time. I'm always hoping I'll come across another yard sale like that but I doubt that will ever happen. A yard sale like that only comes around once in a life time! I'm just glad Katie and I got to enjoy it! I'll have that fond memory forever!
On that not, I'm going to sleep for a few hours and dream of tacky jewelry and astro turf gardens.
*Dazzle Wear is a local store ran by and for Red Hat Ladies, who I hate and consider the future anti-me. The store is dedicated to brash tacky glitz over priced costume jewelry and of course, red hats.
Today I went yard sale shopping. I hadn't done that in a long time. It's always awkward when you come across a really bad yard sale. You know the type, the ones where all people have are a broken lawn mower, their hurricane glass collection and maybe 5 other hideous miscellaneous items spread out on a table. It's even more awkward when you're the only person at the yard sale, you can sense their frustration that they haven't sold anything, and almost feel guilty for leaving empty handed. I hit about 6 yard sales making very sparse purchases. I went to one that was being held by the local libertarian party, it was somewhat awkward because nothing there was worth buying and everyone there were my peers, thankfully a friend there pointed me in the direction a flea market I'd never been to and I ended up finding a bunch of prog jazz and 80's funk records. I also talked to a clocksmith whose going to put together some miscellany for my coggling. But the BIG find of the day was at the OTHER flea market. A guy sold me a box box of junk jewelry for $12. Super tacky stuff. It all belonged a teacher and I swear, it must have been one of my teachers, as a lot of it looked familiar. But I seem to remember that all public school teachers, especially elementary school, seem to have a uniform of bad costume jewelry. I think my hatred for seasonal (Christmas, Halloween, Easter) jewelry is because I always hated that crappy teacher jewelry, or just because seasonal jewelry is ugly. So it wasn't ALL good. I think the guy wanted more for it but shit, this stuff has Dazzle Wear* written all over it. It NEEDS work. But there are lots of colorful gem covered gold brooches and giant earrings, I am up for this challenge.
Going to those yard sales and making that find reminded me of THE BEST YARD SALE EVER! I have relived that day over and over again, not to mention I still enjoy my findings all the time. It was a good day. Late spring 3 years ago. I woke up early and noticed a Yard Sale sign by my house. It was pointing to this trailer court down the street so I went to check it out. It was surprisingly good. The kind of tacky stuff you dream about finding at a trailer yard sale, a giant gold unicorn clock, a big psychedelic looking ash tray (I still smoked then), and tons of costume jewelry. I tried calling Katie but couldn't get through. Finally after several tries I did and she told me that she had been trying to call me too, not only that, she was calling me beacuse she was also yard sailing and found the greatest one on the planet. I told her I found a good one too, so she agreed to pick me up. I took her to the one near my place, she agreed it was good but then she said "you just WAIT!". ANOTHER trailer court at the other end of the County, tucked away nicely where it seemed like this yard sale was just for us. This lady had spent her entire life collecting amazing cute vintage stuff, the type of vintage stuff you want to find! Cute animals, pretty vases, everything was just right. Not only that, she was a crafter! She had craft stuff for sale! Knitted throws with daisies on them, the coolest lamps I've ever seen (I still have my tacky 70's lamp with asian dolls in it). Everything about this yard sale spoke our language. We bought soooo much stuff. Katie had already been so she really loaded up, I spent $50 easy with one walk through. She had had costume jewelry too, but gooooood costume jewelry. The best kind imaginable. Most of it I still wouldn't alter or mess with. We chatted with her and she said that after her husband died a while ago she devoted her life to crafting and improving her trailer, she had young adult kids who I guess had recently moved away so she had decided to sell her trailer and move too. We loved her style so much she gave us the tour of her garden of tacky delights. I wish I had my camera on me that day.
Imagine if you can:
AstroTurf, big ornate fountains that she had painted bright colors! Pink, Yellow, red! Big bouquets of brightly colored plastic flowers everywhere! On top of all this, she added food coloring to the water in her fountains so it was toilet bowl blue and pine sol green. This was a place where unicorns live. The unicorns of my imaginations! It was wonderful! I was so happy to be there. I wished I could live there at the time. I'm always hoping I'll come across another yard sale like that but I doubt that will ever happen. A yard sale like that only comes around once in a life time! I'm just glad Katie and I got to enjoy it! I'll have that fond memory forever!
On that not, I'm going to sleep for a few hours and dream of tacky jewelry and astro turf gardens.
*Dazzle Wear is a local store ran by and for Red Hat Ladies, who I hate and consider the future anti-me. The store is dedicated to brash tacky glitz over priced costume jewelry and of course, red hats.