Wow. We haven’t done an update since August. OUCH! Jenny has been taking a break from sales, I have been going very sporadically and we are just a little flakey. Over a month ago we did hit some sales while my friends from Lennox Head, Australia where in town (the same ones who took me to some Australian garage sales a couple years back.

Jenny was the navigator and we tried to find a few good sales for them. About seven or eight sales in we hit one that this woman was having in her garage and part of a shipping container filled with books. As I was looking around I saw a hat that recognized, because I had made it. In 1990 Seattle had a huge snowstorm and my sister and her two children all ended up being stuck in Ballard for 4 days. In that time we crafted for hours just to keep busy. We made jewelry and Christmas stockings, and I also made a couple of hats. One of which was now here.

I asked the woman, “Can you tell me about this hat?”

“Oh, sure. I have had those for years. I purchased them at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Do you know about that festival?” Well, no I don’t know jack shit about that festival, but how do I tell this woman I made that hat. I mean really. WTF?

Jenny leaned over and said “I think that’s Women with a Y.” So, I just said I knew nothing about any “Womyn’s” festival, but I made that hat.

Here is the real kicker. She had the other hat I made too. She purchased both of them in Michigan and brought both of them back to Ballard — 15 blocks away from our old house! She wanted to know how long I made hats for and how long I sold hats for. I HAVE NEVER SOLD A HAT IN MY LIFE.

I had to call my sister right away, since the sale was 10 blocks from our old house. INSANE.

We did hit a few more sales, including this sale that had the most insane table built on a shopping cart – janky.

I picked up an old movie canister that is really cool.

I honestly don’t remember much else that happened, but we had a nice time and we each bought at few things. Here is a little blog about Brett and Jenny’s trip to the USA, which includes a rare photo of us styling the trunk.

Last week my mom came for her yearly Seattle Garage sale visit, sadly without my aunt in tow this time … with the two of them together the hijinks are at a much higher level. My mom had a plan: “to buy a ton of stuff.” Um, okay.

One of our very first sales wasn’t open at 9:00 and we vowed to try to get back to it, since it looked like it could be good. It was a woman clearing out her whole house (more on her later).

As we drove away from her house, we happened to drive right past a house as they started setting up. Sure the sale doesn’t look that great, but she was selling all of her folks’ glasses and dishware that had been in boxes for years. My mom purchased a huge box of stuff, I found a really nice green and blue vintage Blendo cocktail set.

Her daughter was selling snacks and made this pretty great sign.

At one of our next sales we saw this (and one other) vintage doll house.

Of course my mom needed to inform the ladies running the sale about how my grandfather made me a doll house that I pushed against the heater in our house in 1976 and it almost burnt our whole house down.

Now, I realize when folks sell an entire box of one color bandanas that they don’t probably know anything about “hanky code”. But that doesn’t make it any less funny to me.

By about 9:30 we already had to do our first unloading of the car! We did hit a ton more sales over the course of the next 4 hours. Including a couple of hipster sales.

During this time my mom and I had a conversation about her carrying around her money in a banking envelope. This had come up a few years ago and I even purchased a nice wallet for her, which she informed me she is using, but it’s in her car. My worry was that she would leave her envelope of cash at a sale or a store.

We finally made it back to the sale that we tried to hit early on. She had this cool King Tut mural.

I picked up a ton of vintage games for super cheap. The woman was really nice and she was selling everything to move to a warmer climate.

We both picked up some great stuff at this sale and left for one last stop. Starting out, the stairs were scary.

The house itself was filled with stuff.

Nothing that I really needed, but my mom cleaned up buying all of her cut crystal stemware.

After getting back to my house, my mom realized she had left an envelope with $400 at the sale where we picked up the games. WTF MOM?!?!

We drove back to the sale just talking about how the money would definitely be gone and you know what? The woman had found it and returned all of the cash! Wow! My mom was very lucky.

And here’s one of our two full trunks!

Neither Jenny or Karl have been able to hit any sales, and because of that I lose a bit of my steam to blog. I will still go out, but usually nothing will happen that I can make fun of alone. Or I can, but no one is there to bust up laughing.

This weekend I started looking at the listings and it just didn’t look that good. I hit couple of sales on Friday morning before work, one that was super odd, since it was an estate sale filled with kids toys and shabby chic projects that no one completed. Plus, it was dark and cold, because they didn’t have any power on in the house. Classy!

I did see one ad that looked really good on craig’s. The photos looked interesting (and usually they don’t) and the listing sounded great. Plus, they didn’t try to call it an estate sale.

Huge moving sale (or, the estate sale we would have if we were dead). Leaving 2800 square feet and moving to one bedroom! Mid Century house filled with mid century. Furniture – including DWR, West Elm, Vintage “Tank” desk, armoire, etc. Pottery – McCoy, Fiesta, USA, California, Syracuse, Holt Howard, Metro, etc. Linens: Pottery Barn, vintage quilts and table cloths. Household: Crate and Barrel, vintage. Includes china sets, vintage pitchers, old kitchen tools, etc. Tools: both vintage and newer. Garden tools and containers. Vintage planters with plants. Vintage Globes! Anatomy Chart. Midcentury art. Original art. Everything priced to sell. Large free box!

It started at 10 AM, so my plan was to hit an 8 AM sale, get some more coffee, hit the bank, and see was going on at this crazy sounding sale.

I ended up getting there so early there wasn’t a single person waiting. They had a little sign-in sheet and I was the only person to put my name on it. Then I headed back to wait in my car instead of stalking their front door alone. At about 10 til 9:00 a woman came out to my car and gestured me inside. Yeah! First one into the sale and no one else around.

The house was amazing and they did have great stuff and I wouldn’t say it was dirt cheap, but it was good enough that it didn’t matter. I loved the two ladies. They told me they wanted to downsize and had purchased a one bedroom condo on one of the islands. If this is what they got rid of they must have had some great stuff that they kept.

I was busy checking stuff out and making a large pile, so the only photo I took was of this folk art baby doggie painting. It’s amazing, right?

When folks started to crowd in, I realized that I’d better pay for my items and get them to the car before someone started to take stuff out of the pile I had. My pile was $65 and then I spent another $10 when I went back through for a second pass.

My trunk shot is so crappy … see what happens when Jenny isn’t here to style it for me?

So, I did lay everything out on my couch for a photo where you can see it a little better. McCoy, Fiesta, Bauer pottery. 2 quilts, a couple state glasses, 3 50s table cloths, one ladies Pendleton and a few more things.

And I was home by 9:50 AM.