The Tale of the Sale

If you're old enough to remember the 70s or 80s, you might remember the Amish Friendship Bread craze.  For a while, everyone I knew had a batch of this bread growing in their kitchen.  You had to babysit this bread, dividing it every few days and baking it or giving it away or it kept growing and multiplying like some B-movie alien and took over your life!

I feel a little like that describes my life since the beginning of March.  Every time I worked at one task, the others I should be doing  (like blogging) suffered for the inattention.  I just looked back and realized that I haven't done a blog post since mid-April and I know that a lot has happened!

I've moved out of the mall and we had the 'mother of all yard sales', trying to get rid of all the stuff I'd accumulated to sell there.  I had a barn full of 'pinterest project' furniture and a basement full of an unbelieveable amount of inventory.  I knew what was there, but even I was shocked when it all came out of hiding!

I spent 3 weeks going through every bin, emptying every shelf, and finding all of the places where I'd stashed things for later sale.   I found lots of stuff that will sell on Etsy and lots that I wished I'd put in the booth -- it would have sold easily.  Everything, though, had to be priced, boxed and hauled to the barn for the sale, which was an overwhelming job.  My friend Bargain Hunter came over one rainy day last week and helped me speed through a mountain of smalls and linens.  In truth, she kept me on track and never let me just look at it all in bewilderment and say 'I don't know where to start!'  

When it was finally all assembled, there were over 30 boxes and bins that went to the barn, and that didn't count all the stuff that was too big for boxes!

I had to haul all of the furniture out every day to make room to set up the tables and price stuff.

Making room to price...

I really don't enjoy having yard sales, so this one had to be great -- I wouldn't want to do it again.  So I did some research online about how to have the best yard sale ever and most of what I read said this:
1) have good signs (recognizable, eye-catching and easy to read)

2) price everything, so people don't have to guess or ask for prices

3) price it low enough to be tempting

4) be willing to deal.  

An additional tip was to offer to take credit cards, which I was able to do because of Etsy's in-person sales app.  I only had 2 people take advantage of it, but one of them wouldn't have bought as much otherwise because her cash was limited.

Bargain Hunter loaned me her very classy, BIG canopy. That allowed us to keep some of the furniture outside overnight and made set-up easier.  It had the added benefit of being seen from the street and luring people in with the implied promise of lots of stuff to sell.

The canopy held a lot of furniture!

  Even with the big canopy, the furniture spilled out into the yard

The sale started Thursday and the weather was perfect -- sunny and 70!  I'd put it on Craigslist and Facebook and Bargain Hunter shared on more Facebook groups that she's part of...the word definitely got out.  We had big crowds all day Thursday and most of Friday, too.  Aprons were the big seller of the weekend...hankies, not so much.  It made me laugh to think that I couldn't even get people to buy my hankies at a yard sale (since they never sold in my booth)!  Most of the furniture left the first day, too.

The inside of the barn was packed

Mr. KV took two days off of work to sit with me and help at the sale and then even volunteered to man it all day on Saturday!  What a wonderful guy! On the last day, we had all picture frames, pictures and mirrors (I had too many of all of those) at half-price and everything inside the barn was buy-one-get-one-free, except linens which were buy-one-get-two-free!  Even with that, I have 2 bins of linens left over!  

Now comes the big job of deciding what will go into the Etsy shop, what will go to resale and what will be donated.  I won't feel free until it's all be taken care of and sent somewhere, but it's getting closer to that day.

In the meantime, do you know anyone who wants to buy some creepy 1970s Christmas yard art?

Bring on the Yard Sales!

Now that Easter's over, I'm ready for the yard sales to start popping up -- aren't you?  The weather has been so cold and rainy, though that there just haven't been many.  Last week there was only one local one -- ONE (not the best cure for cabin fever)!  There was the first church rummage sale of the year, though, so I headed out for that.

Here's what it looked like when I left for the rummage -- really foggy & chilly...

The pickings were slim, but I found a few little goodies.  Next I went to an estate sale that about 10 miles away and 2 miles down a wet dirt road -- what a waste of time.  It was WAY overpriced...most of the items were even higher than they would be at an antique mall.   I got there an hour after it started and the tables were full (no surprise there).  I did find a New York World's Fair souvenir glass and a really cool glass coffee table, though.

Very appropriate for a Catholic church rummage sale -- Jesus on the Mount of Olives

Not great finds from the rummage sale...plus the World's Fair glass from the estate sale

I think this coffee table is pretty cool -- it looks like it should be on a sun porch or with casual furniture, though.

Finally, I went to the only yard sale in town (and wished I'd gone there before the estate sale).  It was family run and the prices were all over the place, but the house had been decorated in the 60s and not updated since.  It turned out to be a day for wall decor, as I got several bits of 1960s plastic (Syroco-type) and some oh-so-lovely metal peacocks.  Not my taste, but I know that they'll sell.

Three seasons of a four-season Syroco set from the 70s

My big investment of the day (still not much)!  The frame is plastic, but these convex mirrors are always popular

Here are the beautiful peacocks!

Here are two things from the thrift last week that I forgot to share, and they were really sweet finds!

aluminum food tote

Red Regal aluminum cake carrier with a bakelite handle -- so cool!

It's been near 70 for the past two days and it feels (and looks) like spring!  Maybe the yard sales will be better this week -- I hope so!  I hope you have better sales where you live, too.

First Time Fun in the Thumb -- Michigan's Yard Sale Trail!

I had a new experience today and it was a great one!  My friend and fellow-junker Bargain Hunter asked me to go with her to the M-29 Yard Sale Trail... I didn't need to be asked twice.  The Yard Sale Trail runs along Lake Huron on the 'thumb' of the Michigan mitten (the Lower Penninsula).  The weather today was in the high 70s with a gorgeous blue sky and deep blue lake -- it was just a perfect day for this fun adventure!

This is a panorama of three photos, so it's a little dodgy...but the lake is still beautiful!

We left early and drove to Algonac and began shopping right away.  The first place we stopped was a frog (no bargains there) but #2 was a prince -- Pyrex gold mine!  It just got better and better after that.

Since I'd never done one of these sales before, I was just flat-out amazed at (and overwhelmed by) how many sales there were.  We did nothing but shop non-stop for the next 60 miles -- all the way to Port Sanilac, where we just ran out of time (and money...and energy) and we had only stopped at a quarter of the sales that we saw on the way and had only stayed on M-29 (didn't go down any side roads).  There was so much junk were so many treasures that I had to remember to pace myself.  What a great problem to have!

If you ever get a chance to do one of these long sales, don't miss the experience!  Wear comfortable shoes, pack some snacks and cold water and bring lots of cash.  You won't be disappointed.

Here are some of the pictures of the day.  I'll apologize in advance that they're not well staged and sometimes a little blurry.  They were shot almost on the run, with my phone.  Since I totally beat and my car won't get unloaded until tomorrow, there won't be any pictures of the treasures until then.

Picture 150 continuous miles of this.  Junking HEAVEN!

We saw LOTS of ships on the lake, but this was the coolest!  That's the Canadian shore in the background

I came home with this sweet 1980s kitchen for my little sweetie, Grace

This was one of my favorite sales, even though all I bought were two vintage hats

I knew I had to have Margaret's giant straw hat the moment I saw it.  This is one of the few pictures of me you'll ever find online -- I think I look really good like this ~

I really liked these pet beds and their furry models

This is the only antique mall we stopped at, which really couldn't rival the sales...

I wish I'd found this sink unit when we were redoing our kitchen.  I searched everywhere for a sink with built-in drainboard.  We had one identical to this in our first house and I loved it!

This was a sad sight out in back of the mall.  A dealer had lots of formica tables and matching chairs and was just spray painting chrome paint over all the rust without even trying to clean or restore them.  He scurried away when Bargain Hunter saw him.  

A big park with lots of booths, but only about half were vintage

Rows and rows of tables of bargains -- all 'price reduced'

One of the creepier things of the day -- the sad deer looking out of the shopping cart 

Picked up this large bag of feedsack for an amazing low price -- I can't wait to go through it tomorrow

A napkin doll, photo for Bargain Hunter

Here's the back of Bargain Hunter's car...
Everything you see is MINE!  (Kind of scary, isn't it?)

Tune in tomorrow for a peak at my finds!

A Soggy Start to Sales

It's been such a long, hard winter.  Everyone's been complaining about it and we all appreciate spring even more, now that it's finally here.  We can see grass on the lawn and the snow is down to just 3 feet high (not kidding) in my fern bed on the north side of the barn.  As the weather's warming up and the spring peepers starting to sing at night, I'm thinking about how much I want yard sales to start!

With that in mind, I went out last Friday to the only sales that were advertised -- a garage sale and two 'proceeds for charity' sales.  It rained the whole day with a chilly, almost freezing rain.  The pickins' were slim at the sales, too.  At one of the charity sales (which was supposed to be a 'donate whatever you want to for your items' sale), the cash-lady tried to get me to pay a ridiculous price for the only thing I bought.  When her friend looked at her and said  'Are you kidding?  That should be only $4 at the most', cash-lady gave ME the stink-eye because I paid only $4 for it!  I think she thought I should have insisted on paying $20...  If she hadn't tried to railroad me, I probably would have donated more anyway.

At any rate, I got a few things.

This cool Mad Men wine set was the find of the day

A couple of cameras and some books

Didn't everyone have a set of these insulated cups back in the day?

At the garage sale, I got a really dirty Remington Skywriter portable typewriter in a leather case.  I haven't taken a picture of it yet -- it's just too yucky to even touch.  I'll show it to you after it's cleaned up.

That's it for the soggy Friday sales -- I guess even a little bit is better than nothing!  There are only 2 listed for this week, too.  I hope this doesn't mark the beginning of a yard sale drought...

Community Garage Sale Finds

In my last post, I mentioned going to the community garage sale, but never had show-and-tell of what I got there.

I went about a half hour early and people were already shopping, so I got an early start.  That's both good and bad -- you get first-chance the good stuff that's out, but you miss the things that they haven't put out yet.

Anyway, I found some good things:

I love this cottage picture!  It reminds me of the Anne Hathaway house

1970s dollhouse with furniture and doll family

Cutwork wood shelf

Sunny Suzy play sink

Commodore mustard and ketchup

Commodore made these in response to the popularity of Holt Howard Pixieware.  They have spoons in the lid and are cute, but not as cute as the Pixies!

Mexican-themed tea set

A very sweet 1950s paper lampshade with cowboys

The lampshade is just perfect to top off the horseshoe lamp I got at auction a few weeks ago...

Here are a few other things I've picked up here and there...

Tortoise-shell card rack

1970s stagecoach, made from a kit

Loop weaving loom -- this brings back so many memories!  I may keep it for the grandchildren I might have someday

Mid-century cheese-and-cracker tray.  I'm thinking of keeping this, too