So as you might know from my incessant chatter about it, Shara and I sold at a Holiday Bazaar on Saturday. I took all of my holiday projects — the signs, the trays, and the caddies. Foolishly, I had the thought “I hope I don’t sell EVERYTHING because then I will have to make a whole bunch of new stuff for the open house at the flea market!” Well, Jesus granted that wish, as I sold exactly three things: one sign, one set of letter blocks, and the pair of wire angels I thrifted some time back. After I had paid my share of the booth space, I took home $8.
Now, this would be a tragedy, EXCEPT for the fact that it allowed me four hours of uninterrupted Shara time. WORTH IT! Plus, they had a hospitality room, where they had Little Debbies in the shape of Christmas trees. I haven’t had those in years. They are SO DELICIOUS.
The primary problem was that the organizers fell down on the job when it came to publicizing the event — I would guess we had maybe a hundred people come through in the four hours we were sitting there, though that may be optimistic. It was a LITTLE demoralizing because, not only did those few in attendance refrain from purchasing my stuff — they barely LOOKED at it. I mean, they just walked on by with nary a second glance. Shara got a ton of lookie-loos and she sold more than I did, but, you guys, you should have seen how great her stuff was — she should have sold a LOT more than she did. We decided our stuff was just too awesome for the attendees to handle. You know, similar to the way your best friend in high school told you the boys weren’t asking you out because you intimidated them with your beauty and intelligence. I forgot my camera so I don’t have any pictures, which is just as well, because who wants to post a photo of such an abject failure?? — but if you hop on over to Shara’s blog I’m sure she’s going to post some pics of her space. Which, again, was AWESOME.
The fact that I had the bazaar on Saturday morning did not, of course, stop me from stopping by the estate sale from last weekend, where they had promised more attic stuff to peruse. To tell you the truth, I didn’t see that much new stuff, but of course that didn’t stop me from buying more crap.
I have been wanting a brownie for display for a while.
I think this Bates cowboy blanket is going to go at the foot of Jack’s big boy bed. It was a dollar.
These little ceramic fruit tiles, made in Japan, were mounted on the nastiest background — a flocked blue fabric that had seen better days. I pulled it off and used some of my favorite polka-dot fabric to make them a little cuter. They are tiny, about three by three inches. They were a quarter each and are now hanging in my kitchen. Which is going to be painted soon, I hope, as it is a very 1990s red.
The only new things I saw were some tablecloths, which I grabbed up left and right without examining them as they were all priced at a dollar or two. Every single one of them has at least one stain, which is disappointing, but I would have bought them anyway since they were so inexpensive. I’m hoping Kristie will give me her prize recipe for vintage linen soak because she has lots of luck getting everything clean.
This is tied for my favorite. That’s a little bee hive on there! And it’s pink!
This is my other favorite. It is in BEAUTIFUL shape, still crisp, but has ONE stain on it. Fingers crossed that I can get it out.
This one is beautiful, and very 1960s.
Lovely, but this one is pretty damaged.
Shara and I were just talking about how we love seeing tablecloths that had been patched. This one has careful patches in two different places. We used to “reuse, recycle, repurpose” a lot more fifty years ago than we do today, no matter how trendy that phrase has become.
This is a cute apron with chickens embroidered on it. It’s not old, but it’s nice, and the tag proclaims that it was Made in France. TRES FANCY.
I also found two pieces of barkcloth, but they’re tiny pieces, nothing to get too excited about. Good for crafting, though.
Thursday I helped Kristie and Bailey with their estate sale. I can’t remember if I’ve written much about it on the blog, though I should have. It was incredible — furniture, silver, china, etc. from the 1700s and 1800s, including three samplers done in the 1800s by the same school girl. They even found the journal of this little girl who had completed the samplers. Beautiful antique duck decoys that were in gorgeous condition. SO much stuff. They’ve been working on it for nearly two months and just kept finding more and more stuff, each piece better than the one before it. Their work on estate sales is exquisite, and their clients get so much for their money — they take things home and launder them, iron them, repair them if necessary. Their research is METICULOUS and they are determined to price everything, down to the smallest item, fairly to both the client and the consumer. EVERYTHING is priced and labeled. Get on over to Facebook and Like them immediately if you’re anywhere in the Northwest Arkansas vicinity — Bailey is great about posting photos and updating their page when there are specials and sales. They’ve got a storefront space that is packed TO THE GILLS with fabulous stuff and they’re trying to get that sale scheduled within the next month or so. You will not want to miss it, NWA peeps!
And now, let us gaze upon my favorite purchases from their latest sale.
I saw this when they first started getting ready for the sale and I could not stop thinking about it. I don’t think a picture does it justice. I love the poem — I was a HUGE fan of the Bright and Beautiful books when I was a pre-teen and it brings back such good memories. And the illustrations are BEAUTIFUL. This will eventually hang in a place of honor in the twins’ room as soon as I get it decorated. I’m waiting for them to go to their big-kid beds before I crack open a can of decorating in there. And, if I have my way, that will be about the time they turn SIX.
This milkglass compote is from the 1800s. Can you see the cool basket weave on the pedestal?
What’s that you say? I don’t need any more mixing bowls? Well, YOU JUST TAKE THAT NEGATIVE NANCY TALK ELSEWHERE. You CAN be too thin and too rich but you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT have too many vintage mixing bowls. Especially when they’re McCoy nesting beehive bowls.
This isn’t all I purchased, but at some point, I have to stop taking pictures and actually write a post, so that’s all I got today.
Oh, and a new sign! Too bad I didn’t have this on Saturday, as people could have NOT looked at it and NOT purchased it! #bitterseller
And that’s all I got for you for now. I’m going on Thursday morning to pull my booth apart and put it back together with a whole lotta Christmas going on inside of it, so you better believe I will take pictures of that. The Open House is Friday, and I am so sad I will miss it — I was planning on coercing my sister-in-law into going to it with me once the husbands were home to stay with the kids but I just realized I have a testing shift that night. Doggone.
Oh, and one more thing — I was planning on taking the great metal cabinet with the curvy legs to the booth for the open house, but then you guys started putting all these fancy thoughts about “powder coating” and “sand blasting” in my head and now I think it’s going to have to sit in my garage for a while while I mull over my choices. THANKS A LOT, INTERNET PEOPLE WITH GREAT IDEAS.
by Lara Jo
16 comments