Estate Sale Filled Weekend

Hello!

I haven't been updating as much as I'd want...but I did give you a facepalming polar bear...you're welcome.

I know, I know. I haven't written in like 2 weeks. As I said before, I am simply awful about keeping things up. I was that one kid in elementary school that had about fifteen journals in my procession in an attempt to keep a diary and maybe wrote...one or two entries before using the reset of the paper as doodling paper.

But I digress. I haven't really decided what I want this post to be about. I mean, I have a few ideas lined up but it's all places I want to go and as I did that last time I feel that would be a tad bit boring. I've already talked about the vintage clothing stores I want to look at...and that's only some of them.

I suppose on a slightly off topic blog post, I'm going to tell you about this AMAZING estate sale I went to this weekend. I'll find a way to connect it to London, I swear! The house itself made me happy, and as I'm trying to keep this a happy place I might as well recount my story to all of you out there...wherever you may be!

So the story begins one fine Saturday morning at the crack of 9:00 AM. I am most certainly not much of a morning person, but boyfriend has informed me that if you want to get the best deals you have to get up early. As I am both a fan of boyfriend and good deals, I sacrificed my precious sleep time to get up early so we could get started at about 9:45. (Note, the intent was probably to get actually started at 9:30. However, when you account for getting ready and breakfast...the reality is we probably got started at about 10 ish...)

After a delightful breakfast and our local Arby's we were prepared for anything to come our way! Well, except an elderly driver deciding to turn when he was not in either of the turning lanes...but luckily Jennifer is the best driver ever and no one was injured in her fantastic car.

The first estate sale we went to was eh. When I go to estate sales I generally don't find much for myself. This is partially because I'm so picky and because I don't like to spend money on things. I generally prefer food, gas, and clothes. But every now and then I splurge on other things besides the necessities. I also really like getting to look at the house while I'm perusing. This first house was really cool in theory. According to Zillow it was built in 1949. Zillow also says 2 bedrooms and 2 baths which I am calling shenanigans on. Perhaps at one time this was true, but now it had an awkward bathroom situation where the shower was in the hall and then there was the sink/toilet area (I think as I didn't ever actually SEE a toilet). The bedroom was an okay size, but then there were two more awkwardly small rooms that looked as if Harry Potter's under the stairs suite had been transported in the form of two awkward rooms.

Don't worry Harry, this is how I'd look if I was sent to the awkwardly small space in the house as well. 

Not to say this estate sale was a complete bust. I did make one awesome purchase at this nice in theory house (or perhaps as I shall now refer to it as "The Party House").

These sparkly beauties cost me a small fortune of $2.50. That's right, you heard me correctly. $2.50. You wanna know the best part about these?

Clip-ons!!!! My ears aren't pierced, so I'm always on the look out for a good pair of clip-ons. The only problem is that even though I don't have my ears pierced, I am picky with my earring choice. I know, me picky? Never. But sadly it's true. I'm generally not much for too much going on, with any jewelry for that matter. I'm all about simple things. These are even pushing it for me, but they were sooooo sparkly and reasonably priced I couldn't say no. Jennifer and I also found a beautiful wedding ring set that we both failed to take a picture of in awe of its beauty. It was gold and simple (don't ask for more description as I'm bad describing clothes and accessories besides the idea that you wear them). I also don't like gold, so the fact that I loved the ring set was shocking. We both tried it on and took a gander at the price tag of $400 dollars and gave it back to the nice estate sale man on the other side of the table while I snatched my pair of earrings right up.

Bad selfie. But look how sparkly it is! So. Much. Love.

These bad boys will be accompanying me to the wonderful city of London this summer! I had almost forgotten that I had put them in my Mary Poppins purse after I tried to wear them straight out of the estate sale. Speaking of losing them, I should probably attempt to find a safe place to keep them until I bring them out for their debut appearance. See, I did somehow connect this all to London!

Our next destination was the one. We had thought the first one was going to be the one with fantastic finds, however we were all so very, very wrong.

Picture courtesy of boyfriend over at Everyone Goes to Mick's

Let me start off by saying, I'm generally not on the look out for a house. I have no intention of settling in small town feeling Texas by any means. But if I were to stay, I'd want to live here. It was a beautiful house! Built in 1926 with 4 bedrooms, 1.5 bath, and a garage apartment out back. Unfortunately we discovered that the house was going to be torn down to be made into a parking lot for the office behind it. 

Such a shame too, because as soon as I walked in I got this weird homey feeling. I began to imagine myself actually living here, which is weird...as my next step plan is generally set in a small mismatched apartment. After kinda searching through the house (as I was too overwhelmed to actually start digging) we went outside to the garage where there was one entire section FILLED with records. Tables full of them just waiting to be searched through and find a new home. How could I refuse? 

I must state that I don't even own a record player (...yet...cough cough) but I already had a small collection of records at my house. I will state that we went to this sale two days in a row. Originally Saturday and then a second time on Sunday. These first pictures are of my Saturday finds: 

In this first picture we have: A Chorus Line, An American in Paris, Guys & Dolls, 2 Frank Sinatra records, and the 3 MGM musicals, Good News, Fall in Love In The Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland, and Two Weeks With Love with Jane Powell. 

There's an inside joke about the An American in Paris one. Boyfriend and I attempted to watch it together, and I recall making it through the beginning of the ballet sequence (which takes up the whole other side of the record) and fell asleep. So when we can't pick a movie, we always threaten to pick An American in Paris, which promptly allows the one being threatened (usually me) to pick a movie quicker. 

I know it would never make it through the flight, but I'd almost want to leave the record at home and bring the sleeve with me and take a picture with it in front of the Eiffel Tower. We'll see. 

I'd also like to point out that the man who owned these records would place programs or playbills of the shows he had seen inside the record sleeves which I think is so cool! The one above is from a production of Good News from, I believe, 1974.

This next picture has: Candide, South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun, Mary Poppins, and On the Town.

The Candide program is from 1971. The pride and joy of this picture though comes in that top right corner...

Introducing my dog Corabelle presenting the Howard Keel South Pacific program!

Yes indeed, this man saw The Howard Keel live. On stage. In 1957! I can't even imagine!! I swoon hearing him sing in the movies, imagine what it must be like to have been sitting there listening to him...I can't. I just can't. It's too great for words.

Next I picked up a collection of records despite only really wanting just one out of the set. In here is a record with Frank Sinatra singing, I'll Be Seeing You. I've listened to it, it's marvelous. The other records in here I also think I will enjoy. 

I also picked up a Pillsbury's Cookery Club cook book for a dollar. I have a soft spot for old cook books, I can never not take them home if they're as reasonably priced as a dollar! 

Do you want to know what that all ended up costing me Saturday? I'm glad you asked. Including the dollar for the cookbook, my overall purchase for these goodies was.....$7.00! 

That's not even all! We went back Sunday with the intent of picking up the records we'd left behind the day before, and perhaps search for more goodies. I walked through the house a lot, as I figured it would be my last time to do so. We'll go ahead and start with the pictures:

Here we have: The Unsinkable Molly Brown with a complimentary Souvenir Program inside, Scottish Traditional Dances, Wonderful Town with Rosalind Russel, 2 MGM Musicals The Band Wagon and Kiss Me Kate, and Cole Porter's Can Can with Frank Sinatra.

I know...the Scottish Dances record is a bit odd...but the cover had men with kilts dancing on it...how could I refuse? And as the records were prices 8 for a dollar as opposed to the 4 for a dollar from the previous day I became a bit less choosy with my record picks. 

Next is: Elanor Steber sing Favorites from the Firestone Hour with Russ Case and his orchestra, a Judy Garland 45, a record about Queen Elizabeth II, another Kiss Me Kate (this one had my name on it...I couldn't not buy it!), and a record called Holiday in England with a cute couple cuddling and him pointing to the sky, perhaps to point at the blue police box flying by...

I'm super proud of the Judy Garland 45! Boyfriend was picking through a closet that had had records the day before, and I looked down and noticed the DECCA records peeking out from under some paper and picked it up. At first I figured that the record couldn't possibly be inside. Boy was I pleasantly surprised when it was indeed still on the inside! Boyfriend's bitter. But I gave him a Kiss Me Kate record in return...despite the fact I now have two as well...heehee. 

I also picked out the Queen Elizabeth II record because she looks so pretty in that drawing. And the Holiday in England one was really a no brainer. Once again I have managed to connect this to my trip to London! Aren't I a clever girl?

Finally we have: Cabaret (with Joel Grey!), A VHS of the movie Cabaret (which I'm excited to watch), high Spirits, 1776, and a Barbra Streisand record that I only got because it has the song People whcih is one of my favorites. 

On top of the records, I also delved into other foreign territories. You see, before going to this estate sale my mom had requested I search for a pot so she could attempt making homemade laundry detergent in. She handed me a 20 and sent me on my way. Well, I did find her a pot. I didn't take a picture of it. It was my way of justifying using her 20 that she sent me with. Honestly, she couldn't have thought an old pot would cost me more than a $1. Anyways, that's why I started to see what else I could find on this final day.

While Boyfriend was digging through a closet where things had just haphazardly been thrown in for the rest of an aluminum Christmas tree, he also tossed out this old  flight attendants bag! It's a little dirty, but after I clean it up a bit I think I might use it as my carry on for the plane ride to London. We'll see, but it's a very spacious bag! I also found two old travel brochures with pretty illustrations from Indonesia and Bali. 

Also while digging through the closets, Boyfriend found a rolled up sheet of heavy paper. When we unrolled it we discovered the spare wall paper left over from the room we were standing in. I really loved the wallpaper in this particular room...and I read somewhere that you could copy old wall paper and make new wall paper. I don't know how true this is, but I figured it was worth it just to bag it and save it for when I needed it most. The picture doesn't do it justice, it was really pretty! It also seems as if Boyfriend did most of the digging while I just stood there and took the things he didn't necessarily want. But that's not entirely true...just mostly true.

In the chair is a book called Lust For Life a novel based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh. I may or may not be secretly wanting to find mention of a particular red headed female towards the end. But if I don't that's okay too. I'll read it on the plane to London. 

And finally my personal prize: My comfy rocking chair! At first I doubted my actual want for this chair, but once I sat in it I realized that I probably wasn't going to be able to leave without it. But as I already had a handful and potful of things downstairs and in my hand respectively,  I decided to leave it upstairs in fear that I had already spent too much of my mother's money. 

Once I went downstairs and had all of my items counted up I totaled out at a whopping $4.00. Now, I generally try to resist buying furniture as I don't have a place of my own yet, but I couldn't let this chair go. Especially since it was only priced at $15 and everything was half off that day bringing it to a whopping $7.50. So worth it!

At the end when we were lingering on the front porch for the last time, the guy who was the keeper of the records in the garage came up and asked us if we were going to take the rest of the records off of his hands. We joked about it, but then he started walking towards the back with the prospect of a deal in mind. Well, as my group of friends loves a good deal, we naturally followed. He then offered us all of the records, approximately 1500 of them (and that's just the eye count, we haven't sat down and counted them just yet) for the low cost of.......$10.00!!!

How could we refuse? We boxed them all up, and with the help of Brandon and Boyfriend we loaded them up into our cars and took them back to my place to keep until we could designate a day to sort through them all. We're not exactly sure what we're going to do with them. I mean...between the four of us we might snag a few more records to keep. We'll probably end up selling them. I don't know though, we'll see.

I wish the house wasn't getting turned into a sad parking lot, but I'm glad that I now have a general idea of how I would build my dream house someday. Granted, I would make the kitchen a tad bit bigger and leave out the two extra front doors, but other than that I loved it! There was even a little breakfast nook that I pictured turning into a music room, with a piano and everything! 

Le sigh. It was a pretty house. We also ended up at another estate sale that helped me procure two cute scarves I'll probably bring along with me to London as well. I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into my weekend! As I have class in the morning, I think it's about time to wrap this one up. 

Thanks for listening!

-Pat