Saturday, October 16, 2010

Yard Sale Finds

Recently I've enjoyed visiting yard sales again. Last Saturday, my friend Cece called me while snooping around some garage sales because she had discovered tons of rubber stamps that she thought I might be interested in. So I headed over - that lady had a huge amount of Stampin' Up stamps. Wow! I got several sets for a song.


So today the whole family joined the hunt. We had checked out the garage sales section in the local paper and planed the route. This doily was sold by a German woman and it reminded me so much of my childhood when this kind of doilies was quite popular. I've always hated them (they represent small-mindedness for me), but when I saw this one I thought what a cool pattern it would make on a paper if I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist! The little shells - well, I love shells, and I can alter the box they came in.


Of course I always look for books. On several blogs I had seen altered cardboard baby books, so I will use this one as my first try-out. Eric Carle is one of my favorite childrens' book authors; "slowly slowly slowly" could be my mantra. The other old childrens' book will be gorgeous for several projects and the big book on the left has blank pages of really good paper - an ideal base for an art journal!


Next - a real, used washboard. I hadn't seen these things in a very long time. While living in Taiwan in the early eighties I had to wash my clothes using a washboard because there were no washing machines, and boy! did I hate that. I didn't need any other workout beside doing laundry. This washboard here will be turned into decoration for the garden.


Finally, I found an unused, good-as-new Römertopf, made in Germany (of course). I'm dreaming up flavorful meals, roasted chicken with peppers and onions, a pot roast... mhm...


Talking about food, we had a German meal again a few days ago. Our neighborhood grocery store makes its own sausages, and this is a beer bratwurst. Of course we had to try it, with mashed potatoes and caramelized onions. It was good, although I found the sausage way too salty and also too spicy. However, at Trader Joe's I discovered Nürnberger Rostbratwürstle, I will give those a try and let you know.

10 comments:

Molly said...

You found some wonderful bargains! I am particularly jealous of all those terrific stamp sets.

Cindy Adkins said...

Wow, love your finds and the food looks delicious!!! Hope you're having a great weekend!!
XO

La Vie Quotidienne said...

My goodness...what a treasure trove! I have one of those pots and I love it! I am envious of your washboard, it will look so cute in the garden.

Marianne said...

The stamps are a great find, but I would like the Römertopf and the doily. Oh and the fly away birdie is sweet.

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
just popping in to say thanks for visiting my blog. Been looking through yours and I love your art and photography!
Cheers,
Cate

Diana said...

What a delight to visit your garage sale finds. My mom gave me a ton of doilies, (who uses doilies these days). I still have some. The bratz look wonderful...thanks for the trader joe tip. Only recipe besides stolen that I make is rouladen. It's a good fall recipe and the family likes it.

Kathy said...

Thank you for visiting my blog the other day - sorry I'm so late returning the visit, but I'm quite glad about that or I might have missed seeing all these wonderful things you managed to get your hands on - wow, weren't you lucky?

Silvia(Barnie) said...

Wow, was für tolle Garagenverkaufsfunde - das sind richtige Schätzchen und Schnäppchen. So einen Römertopf habe ich auch noch in den Untiefen meiner Schränke stehen ;)und das Kochbuch dazu kommt mir doch sehr bekannt vor. Ich wünsche dir schon jetzt gutes Gelingen :)

amy friend said...

I need to go yard sale shopping with you!

Sheila Dalgleish said...

Oh, I'd so love to go to your yard sales! We don't have those here, and anyway, I suspect yours have a far better sort of stuff than ours would if we did have them! Very envious of al the stamps. And I so agree with you about the doilies, they represent such stuffy childhood memories. But they are great for spraying dye and paint through, sometimes I buy paper ones just for that!