An All-Town Tag Sale

I don’t remember why we missed last year’s – you can read about 2011’s here – but I’m so glad that DH and I were able to go to this year’s all-town tag sale. We were at the first sale site long before eight – You know you’re ‘there’ when you see a long line of parked cars on an otherwise empty street. –

and we shopped steadily. . .

until almost two. What a fun, satisfying and tiring time we had!

Maneuvering through tag sale traffic can really frustrate and slow you down. . .

unless you think to drive your golf cart like this young woman did! lol.

Everything was hectic – so many people, so many cars, so much ‘stuff’ strewn on people’s driveways and lawns! It was nice to pause for a moment just to look at this meadow blanketed with pale purple wild violets. . .

Aaaaaaah. . . . . so delicate and lovely.

After a short respite we felt ready to dive back into tag saling, how about you? I haven’t even started to tell you about what all we found. . . or didn’t find. Well, we didn’t come across any wire fencing or a single metal fence post, both items high on our wish list, but we did see a weaving loom early in the day! It’s the first loom I recall ever seeing at a tag sale, at least the first that wasn’t a potholder loom or a toy.

PHOTO – loom

Yup, that’s the spot where it’s photo belongs. lol. It didn’t occur to either of us to take a picture. But you can imagine a sturdy wooden elementary school student’s desk with a four harness loom bolted to its top; that’s the major idea. Unfortunately, the loom was an ‘antique’ so they wanted $260 for it. Boo-hoo.

Don’t worry, I’m not about to bore you with descriptions of every item we saw or bought. I’m so good, I can probably do it (bore you) with just the highlights. lol.

It was a great day for finding critters to go with my ripple blankets for the foster kids.

About half were 25 cents each and the rest were 50. I got seventeen in all, plus three soft balls, 10 cents each. Just think of the fun and cuddles these will bring!

All this yarn came tightly twist-tied in three translucent grocery bags.

I bought without even bothering to peek inside cuz they were only 50¢ a piece. Only after we got home did I discover what interesting yarns I’d gotten! In no particular order, the royal blue is Melody, an Italian mohair/acrylic blend from Bucilla and the pink/grey feels like it might contain some mohair too. The Purple is Bulky Bouclé by Caron, 100% Orlon.

There’s a delicate metallic wrap of pink, blue, copper and gold on the fine black yarn at the bottom. There’s not much of it, probably enough for a few accent strands in a handwoven scarf.

There’s over 5 1/2 ounces of this finely crinkled orange. A burn test says it’s mostly synthetic.

I don’t know what I’ll put with it to dampen the effect of Orange, but I think it wants to become a woven scarf too.

I’ll set all this aside for Christmas Ripples,

well, except for the Caron Cotton Tales.

It’s 95% mercerized cotton with a metallic gold wrap. Maybe it’s destined to become  Christmas dish cloths? I suppose the metallic strand would be helpful for scrubbing dishes. lol.

It was late morning when I was offered this stack of Procion Dyes for a quarter. . . just to get me to take all six of them. The woman was very determined to sell Every Thing that she’d hauled out to her driveway!! lol.

Today I found out this stuff goes for over $3 a package and they’re smaller packages now too! Hmmm, an eighteen dollar value for 25 cents. . . Don’t you just love tag sales?

I found a couple of things for our house too. Remember the blue plastic trays we put our wet/dirty shoes on under the deacon’s bench in the new entry way? Oh, yeah. I never showed them to you because. . . although I was thrilled to have gotten them for only 50 cents each at a thrift store, they are Bright Blue! lol.

Well, at least they protected our floor until I found something a little better. I got two of these larger black ones on Saturday for just a dollar a piece.

Now even DH’s BIG shoes can easily fit. – No more excuses DH. Shoes go completely in the tray, under the bench. ‘K? –

and, obviously, I’m very happy that they’re not Blue!

Just as soon as I paint the frame burgundy, I’m going to hang my ‘new’ 50-cent cork bulletin board over the work table in my craft room. It will replace the old fabric covered one that DH and I made several years ago.

As for personal finds, DH got a like-new LowePro Rezo 170 camera bag for $5.00! He’d seen the very same one in Best Buy for $52. Yee-ha!

And, of course, the fun Laurel Birch bag is mine. It was tagged $5, but after I returned the pair of reading glasses I found inside, the owner let me have it for $3, proof that it pays to be honest. lol.

You know, we used to see lots of hot-air corn poppers at tag sales, but I’ve noticed lately that they’ve been replaced by an overflow of George Foreman grills in several different sizes. I wonder why so many people are getting rid of them?! We bought a little one at a tag sale several years ago and liked it so much that we wanted a larger one, even went so far as to buy it at a real store! lol. Do you have one? Do you like it/use it?

Oh yeah, we saw quite a few lava lamps too, a sign that particular retro fad is officially over.

P.S. Maybe you wonder why we choose to shop at tag sales and thrift stores. Well, it’s not because we have to or because we’re cheap. O.K., so maybe we are cheap, lol; we were raised by frugal parents who lived through the Great Depression after all. But that’s not the only reason. It’s fun! And it’s incredibly easy to find most of the things we need or want in excellent or nearly new condition, often for a tiny fraction of their full retail price. By spending less in the areas most easily met by treasure hunting: clothing, craft supplies and home accessories, we can funnel more into other areas, like charity giving, healthy eating, saving for our future and the occasional splurge. . .

like the Handwoven CDs that arrived in the mail just the other day, a wonderful, if slightly belated, birthday gift.

You may not hear from me for a while; I have eleven years of Handwoven magazine to go through!