Town-Wide Yard Sale Loot

Several weekends ago I hit up a local annual town-wide yard sale that is always one of my favorites. This year we made it a family affair and were out and about for over five hours! The loot was decent. So here we go...

I ended up with a decent stack of books (and some flash cards) for the kids, which you can see here on top and in front of the $5 like-new toaster oven.

"There was an old lady who swallowed a horse. She died of course."

The toaster oven is basically what we have now but bigger and new. As in perfectly clean, never used. (And yes, I follow my own advice. I plugged it in at the sale to verify it works.) I don't really need a new toaster oven but they don't last forever, and why not upgrade in the meantime? For $5. When it comes to things like a fridge and stove, I'd prefer stainless steel, but for counter-top appliances, white is A-O.K. for me.

Hubby also scored a LOT of books to add to his personal library, named in memorial honor of his beloved cat. I never loved that cat. I married into the existing relationship between my husband and HIS beloved cat. How many times did I come to bed to find that cat on my pillow and I'd start freaking out and hubby would just reply, "Hey, he has squatter's rights!" I don't miss him. Sorry, I digress....

Another book I got is called In The Womb, featuring photographs of David Barlow's award-winning models that look SO REAL. (Pardon the sideways picture - it won't flip for me so I give up.)

I loved the look on my girls' faces when they were thumbing through the book and I was explaining the ages and sizes associated with each picture. I wish I'd had this book when I was still pregnant to follow along on with the kids. Oh well.

Sort of related to books - I got four of these small lined notebooks/journals. They were beautiful and they had birds on them and they were 50 cents each. I can gift them, use them as note paper...whatever. Did I mentioned they had birds on them?

When it comes to kids games (which yard sales are LOADED with), I usually only bring home the classics. This week it was Boggle (Jr.) and Charades (for Kids).

Turns out, Boggle is a fun way to sneak in summer spelling practice on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

We also picked up a fun new craft which my six year old couldn't wait to get working on.

Memba those?? Huh?? :) Grandmothers and aunts may or may not end up with home-made potholders as Christms gifts this year. ;)

I couldn't go wrong with a bucket of Tinker Toys for $1.50. How'd we survive without that classic construction toy until now?

I survived just fine all this time not picking those pieces up from all over the house, that's for sure. And as with any construction toy, God forbid you break apart and put away their masterpieces at the end of the day. On second thought, maybe the $1.50 was a rip-off.

Here is a wooden hanger for scarves with the 75 cent price tag still proudly displayed.

Have I mentioned that yard sales are great places to pick up scarves? My best scarf-score ever was a really cute green and white floral Vera Wang for $1. I'm not exactly sure where it is right now or I'd show you. Then again I'm not sure where most of my scarves are - which is why I need something like this to keep them together.

I also picked up a few clothing items for my nephew and a couple of plain tops (25 cents each) for myself. I wasn't going to bother taking pictures of the clothes because they were pretty boring and basic...until I uploaded the picture of the scarves and was like, OOooooh, wait!  One of the boring pieces was a yellow tank top which happens to go so nicely with two of the above scarves - combinations I'm not sure I would have thought to put together if not for this blogging process.

This first scarf was actually a gift from a friend.


This next scarf was a yard sale (or maybe Salvation Army) find. But I better hurry up and wear it because I'm guessing the 90's watercolor floral come-back is not likely to last more than a season.


For $1, I picked up this white row of pegs on driftwood. There is something about the way I found it that I like - it sort of has a boating vibe. But it would need a makeover someday if I was to ever incorporate it into my home decor. However, this is the one thing I came home with that I'm having doubts about. I could have done without this but I'll figure out something good to make the $1 worthwhile.

I found yet another old garden rake for uses I have not yet disclosed but I didn't bother to take another picture of the same thing so click on the link if you're curious about that.

For the following, you're probably either going to love them or hate hate. I love them of course. I think I will spray paint the frames white and try to work them into one of the girls' rooms. How sweet are these?

I love that vintage look. And for a total of 50 cents, they are worth a try.

On a side note I'm considering how to work the color black into the older girls' room decor while still maintaining a vintage feel and I just noticed the black accents in these pictures. Hhmmmmm.....

The following is my second favorite score of the day - a never used electric roaster and buffet server. Perfect for hosting big meals, which I'd like to do more of. The woman selling it wrote the manuals for stuff like this so she got it for free from the company but never used it. The price tag - $10. And yes, I tested the power on this before buying too.

Last but not least, my favorite treasure of the morning, the one that really makes me smile - a gigantic framed map of the ancient world for $7.

That proud look on my daughter's face pretty much sums up how I feel about it too. :) I almost bought a large rolled up map of the world at the local annual homeschool convention in April but I decided to put it back and wait till we move to see if we'll have a place to display it. Little did I know I'd stumble across this rare find of a frame to fit it. At this point, I'm feeling fairly confident I'll end up with a homeschool room, so I decided to get it. I'll probably end up buying a new map eventually since this one is a little wrinkled under the frame. And I'll definitely paint over the honey oak (barf!) frame.

Well I think that's all. For a town-wide sale, it was an okay day. Could have been better, could have been worse. No super-fun home decorating finds, but that's good because I'm not supposed to be decorating this house any more!!! (SO. HARD.) I'm supposed to be un-decorating. Cleaning out. But I can't go all summer and not do any yard saling!  I thought I was slowing down, that this would be my last hoorah before taking a break to buckle down on house projects. But I've since had a couple of most lovely treasure hunts that I can't wait to share. At the rate I'm going on posting here, it could be another two weeks before you are privy to any of the details. So stay tuned but not with bated breath.