The Imminent Demise of Pie

This is another in what will probably be an ongoing series of oldies, as I attempt to restore missing pictures from the past. And also, there are some pretty fun posts back there!

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“Here you go, this is just what you need!” the man said to his wife.

I looked up. That’s a statement that can go so many ways. Could be a gag, or sarcasm, but in this case was sincere. He thought she needed it: a pie divider. “For your pies,” he added.

“Mmmm, pie,” I said. “Let me know what time it’s ready!”

“She makes great pie,” he assured me. “You know, people just don’t make pie anymore.” Well, I said modestly, I myself do bake pies. Not sure he heard. “Nobody bakes or cooks. People our kids’ age have no idea how to make pie.”

This struck me as a bit of a sweeping generalization. I see enough food blogs to convince me that at least a few people still cook (besides me and his wife). “Sometimes these things skip a generation,” I offered. “Maybe your grandkids will make pie.” “No! They won’t even know what real pie is!”

So now we know: pie is going to disappear from America in the next generation. Dang. But we’ll still be having it at our house; stop by for a piece one of these days. Though you should know in advance that the pieces won’t be precisely equal, because those other people got the ten-cent pie divider at the yard sale.

This yard sale, in fact.

Judy and KK and I had a great Friday morning. Our first stop was here in the ‘hood, at the house where Judy paid for her own sweater last year. Judy replenished her wardrobe again, and I found some pieces for upcycling, including Irish linen

and some cotton pieces to combine.

(I’ll show you a couple of completed upcycles below.) As we were about to leave, KK spotted an item laying on a table and we all paused, trying to figure out what it was for. “It’s a hat,” I said authoritatively. (Yes of course I make things up. I’m a writer, it’s what we do!)

I tell you, I have the most fabulous friends. She immediately donned it, and by gosh it sure looked like a hat.

I think she looks like a high-ranking official from one of the Star Wars movies. The 9 year old girl helping with the sale piped up, “It’s for a baby’s car seat.” Some sort of head bumper thingie. They gave it to KK who has a new grandchild coming and can use it for the car seat. But I still think it made a great hat.

There was no doubt about this being a hat. Doesn’t it look lovely with the coordinating clothes brushes?

At another sale there were a bunch of boxes waiting to be unloaded. They had priced everything for their sale and then packed it all away until the sale day. I asked the young woman unpacking things onto an already-crowded table if she minded me looking through some of the boxes. “Go right ahead!” she invited, and before I knew it we had the boxes spread out and several folks were finding items. I scored some summer socks

an old favorite book

a couple of hand towels

a Vera Bradley bag

and (my fave) a cute license-plate purse.

Plus this crocheted tablecloth, intended for upcycling into some kind of garment.

Though it’s not bad as a tablecloth, or for the cat to make himself comfy on.

Even the free boxes did not disappoint, yielding a wall sconce

and a hand-knitted flamingo. Don’t find these babies every day!

I find the legs irresistible, with the knot-knees and shaped feet.

Okay, the upcycling. Still having a ball with remaking things. The latest is a couple of pieces for my SIL. She wears down vests during the winter, which gave me the idea of a summer vest. So I took the sleeves off a couple of short jackets        

used them as side panels, et voilà!

This looks like printed fabric, but it’s actually embroidered on a linen background.

Cute vests!

The Practical, the Delightful, the Bottom Line

Genie was kind enough to leave a comment on my last post which included a request for the 2023 spreadsheet report, which reminded me I’d never done it! I realized during the year that most of my finds fall into two categories. They are either practical (Pragmatist is my middle name. Hmmm, would that make me Queen Pragmatist of Fifty Cents?) or I find them delightful.

I much prefer the word ‘delight’ to the word ‘joy’; it seems to carry less responsibility, less necessity to work at maintaining it. Delight can be ephemeral and yet no less delightful, and as long as I still view something with that sense of delight I will keep it. If the delight fades, I tell whatever it is goodbye. Makes it easier to pack it off to the Humane Society Thrift Store, where I hope someone else will experience delight. Which of course brings up my donations category – 30 items I bought didn’t make the long-term cut. $44.25 spent…but hopefully will bring in more than that and feed some puppies and kitties.

The single most lucrative category (best return on investment) surprised me because it was such a small one – reselling. I bought only two things to resell, paid a buck and a half for them, and after all expenses they made $60.71 on eBay. I wish all my investments were that robust. Sheesh. What were they, you ask? A vintage bar of soap 

and a silk Citron Santa Monica dress.

Household goods had the next best return on investment – found 13 items for $17.55, worth about $390. As you’d expect, these are things that fall squarely in the practical camp. Fifty cents for a 3-way lightbulb that retails for $12. (Twelve bucks for one lightbulb! Lord have mercy.) A $2 jug of laundry soap that lasted 3.5 months. Nearly new king size all-cotton sheets for a dollar each. You would not believe the thrill I get making the bed with a beautiful blue sheet that cost a dollar.

One of the best household things I found all year is both practical and delightful – a fireplace screen. But wait, you say, there is no fireplace in your house. True, but this is the best doggy gate I have ever used. Never, ever thought of using one this way before.

I found several useful pieces of clothing, the cream of the crop being three Land’s End turtlenecks from a free box. I wear t’necks constantly in the winter, and these are the good heavy ones that are hard to find these days. I bought 12 pieces of clothing and accessories for $12, including this classy vintage purse that’s been fun to carry.

The category in which I found the most items was yard stuff. I saw an article in a (garage sale) gardening magazine about someone who used fancy vases upside down on stakes in their garden. Once you embrace upside-down-on-a-stake, you find all kinds of possibilities on driveways. For both the fancy part and the stake – curtain rods make great stakes, often with interesting finials. My favorite concoction used a $1 curtain rod (originally white, I painted it with copper spray paint) with a $3 pair of glass pendant shades. 

I had an open garden in June, and visitors had a lot of fun spotting all my décor.

Altogether I had a pretty darned good year – spent a total of $310.55, with an estimated value of $4826. It still pays to shop on driveways!

 

Judy in Hats

 Those of you who have been thrifting with me for a while probably remember that my friend Judy is a SUPER good sport about modeling hats. We've seen a gazillion hats of every possible description at yard sales, estate sales and thrift store. Judy has always been willing to pop them on her head and let me take a picture.

She came over the other day and we were looking at pics on our phones, and I realized ow many shots I have of her in hats. So just for fun, here's a look back at Judy in Hats.

Summer is A-Coming In…

Sing it with me…At last!! Yes, finally, a pretty darned good garaging weekend. I know we tend to blame a lot of stuff on the pandemic, but it really did seem like once that hit, garaging was one of the victims. It was only to be expected in 2020, we felt like we were taking our lives in our hands by leaving the house. Which we possibly were. Goodness, what a year – remember the great toilet paper panic? Go and Google ‘toilet paper earrings’ for a giggle.

I tried to convince myself that garaging has been pitiful ever since because so many people decluttered while they were stuck at home so there’s been no ongoing backlog of unwanted possessions. Thrift stores did seem to be extremely well stocked for a while. But given how many conversations I've had lately with folks who say they desperately need to clear things out, I'm not sure how valid that reasoning was. Not to mention all the reality shows about decluttering and organizing.

But summer is now upon us and I got to indulge in a full weekend of garaging. Only ended up spending $11 so I'm happy to report I didn’t lose my head, but it was just so nice to hop in the car, turn on the GPS, and head out looking for treasure and conversations on a sunny morning.

As it happened, my actual best finds were on Thursday, when I went to only three sales. The first was an estate sale, with the too-common ridiculous estate-sale-prices. It was in a smallish house in a golf course neighborhood, and the real marvel was how in the world they had managed to cram so much furniture into the place. The only thing I saw that might have been of interest had the price not been $25 was a chinois, or china cap strainer – one of those conical things that sits in a stand, and you use a wooden pestle to puree food through the holes. A friend has been wanting one for ages, but at that price she could have a new one.

Next stop was super fun, and I spent a whole $3.50 there. Two sisters about my age were selling off a lot of their over-the-top Halloween decorations, things they had made for the lavish parties they threw. They told me they are pretty much through with big parties, but not to worry they still had a bunch more they were keeping. My need for giant spiders and life size skeletons is minimal, but fortunately they were decluttering a few more things. First find was part of an old chandelier that I plan to use somewhere in the yard, for the base of a gazing ball or something.

Another find was this fun bottle that has also become a yard ornament. 

I've got my eye out for at least two more glass pieces (perhaps vases) to keep it company.

A nondescript box on the lawn turned out to hold fabric. Two yards of this screen print, 

and almost 2 yards of good quality faux fur 

that I will use one of these days to refurbish Millie and Stanley’s cat tree.

Last stop was a fund raiser to send kids to camp or some such, and my goodness what a lot of stuff. I've seen church rummage sales that were smaller. And one of the first things I saw was another chinois – and this one was three bucks. You can bet it was in my hands in a flash, and it was a huge hit with its new owner.

Wandered over to the clothing, much of which was on hangers. Lots and lots of clothes packed tightly together. The way to deal with this scenario is to first look only at the fabrics. When you see something that looks like good quality material you can pull it out to learn more, but you just let your eye pass by all the polyester. And the first thing my eye landed on was a silk Citron Santa Monica tank dress. 

Not my size, but I've got it for sale on eBay and hopefully will make a few bucks. It's a pricey brand that resells well; this dress probably originally went for around $250. Then I spotted another likely fabric, which is a J Jill dress that I’ll be embiggening into a tunic to wear. 

Hard to see, but there are little self-covered buttons and fabric loops all down the front. Not a simple detail to construct, and this piece probably was originally at least $125.

Friday I headed to the south part of town to a large neighborhood that has an annual sale. I've gotten good things there in the past, including my incredible vintage MCM chandelier by Italian designer Gaetano Sciolari that I got…for free. (Still can't believe it. If you can find one for sale online expect to shell out more than $2K.) 

Alas, this neighborhood sale is feeling a bit played out. I think maybe everyone indeed did major decluttering in past years. Had some enjoyable conversations and managed to spend another $1.50 on a DVD and a curtain rod to use – yes, again! – as a yard ornament. I remade my fun napkin-ring stake with half of it.

I was going to stay home Saturday but the promise of another neighborhood sale convinced me otherwise. And my dog park friend Pam came along for the first time which was great. We hit three or four other sales before getting to the neighborhood one, including a fun one where she bought a beautiful silk kimono and some other things and I splurged on a very artsy floor lamp. The couple having the sale are selling everything including home and two Teslas and embarking on a 3 year around the world cruise.

And then wouldn’t you know it, when we got to the neighborhood sale it was nothing. I bought a denim shirt for a buck, and we only found about three sales. Pooh.

When I got home I went to get my lamp out of the SUV and discovered it was way heavier than I could manage. The seller had put it in the car for me, and I'd noticed there were cut wires sticking out of the bottom. I pointed it out and he said he’d fix it. Pam and I chatted with the wife some more while he did something, then closed the car and said all done. Off we went.

I called my ex to come by and help me get the lamp out of the car, which he did. And we discovered that the guy had wrapped tape around the cut wires and there was some rigamarole with a dimmer and no way to plug anything in. Basically I had splurged forty bucks on a cool artsy lamp that didn’t work. Grrrr. (I was too annoyed to even think of taking a picture of it.)

We loaded it back in the car and I drove back across town. Pulled into the driveway. The husband asked me why didn’t I just fix it, which left me speechless for a moment. Probably a good thing because anything that might have come out of my mouth would have been very rude and probably profane. I finally stammered something like, I wouldn’t know how, and I thought I was buying a working lamp and it isn’t. He hauled it out of the car and walked off, and the wife handed me forty bucks back and chatted in a friendly manner for a minute. I went away feeling I'd be okay on a three year cruise with her…but not him.

Besides, there would be no yard sales on a cruise ship!