PINK FLAMINGOS AND CANDLE JEWELRY

I'm sure some people think the hallmark of living in southern California is being able to go around in your shirt sleeves most of the year, or having plants bloom in the winter (not to mention needing to mow your lawn), or having Disneyland on your doorstep. Yes, all those things are true, but you and I know that the really amazing thing is going to yard sales a week and a half before Christmas!

Most charming moment of the morning: the seven year old girl still in her flannel jammies & slippers singing a Christmas carol. I think it was Hark the Herald (almost typed Harold!) Angel Sings…but it might have been O Little Town of Bethlehem. Let’s put my lack of memory down to excitement over the goodies I came home with rather than a pure senior moment. (My senior moments are beginning to merge into senior days and weeks.)

Most gratifying moment: I paid the good old boy lounging on his wooden chair fifty cents for a small bowl, and he handed me back a quarter. “That's for being nice,” he said. Now, whoever said being nice didn’t pay? Okay, it doesn’t pay much, but still!

Several items came from a sale run by two women. Maybe sisters, couldn’t tell for sure. They had a bunch of new nick nacky things that I liked, and I asked if they had been gifts. Of course they were, so I got to haul out our “If there were no gifts there would be no garage sales” line. Talk about reliable material—that always gets a laugh, often a rueful one. I asked who had given them one of the things I bought. “That was from my ex-boyfriend’s mother.”

Nuff said.

I saw another amazing vehicle parked in a garage where I was perusing goods on the driveway. Not as large as the 1951 Bentley from a few weeks ago, or even the vintage Mustang convertible, but this one gets points both for classiness and creativity.

They started with a regular canvas-covered kid’s bike trailer and rebuilt it, complete with tiki god on the back. I love the contrast of the cute six year old with the pin-up girls on the fabric! Now that the kids in the family are getting too big for the cart, they plan to retool it once more—for the family dog.


I spend $8.75 and brought home:

The last of the wine glasses I need for our open house next weekend. (Next weekend? Sheesh, I'd better get busy!) If there’s enough room in our boxes of Christmas stuff (can’t remember how full they are, they’re still in the attic—told you I needed to get busy!) I think I’ll wrap up and keep all of this year’s party glasses instead of donating them after Christmas.

This cute bowl (from the good old boy who thought I was nice) is Spode—perfect for some small nibbles at the party. He asked me if he was going to see this on Antiques Roadshow and I said no, just on my blog. I checked the price of these puppies when I got home—he sold me a bowl that retails for about $30 for 25 cents. Guess the wages of niceness are better than I thought!

BTW, that’s not a crack on the lower right, just a stray dog hair I didn’t notice until I downloaded the pictures!

A pile of acorns. These appear to be real but have been preserved somehow. I just like acorns.

These four little votives are absolutely gorgeous—deep saturated color on the outside, shiny silver inside. Can't wait to try candles in them.

I figured these picture holders might be fun as tree ornaments. But maybe I'll use them on the table at the open house to hold cards describing some of the food.

Now, this is the perfect example of gift giving run amuck. Candle jewelry. Candle jewelry, for heaven’s sake! Brand new, the Kohl’s price tag is still on the back with the $12.99 price scratched over with a pen. I thought these might be fun tree ornaments too. But when I opened the package I realized they are on posts exactly like earrings without the little back that slides on and heck, I've got plenty of those. My candles will have to fend for themselves. As far as I'm concerned, this is three pairs of festive holiday earrings!


The one thing I really wanted to find was something to wrap a couple of gifts—DVDs and CDs. I’ve heard of using thrifted scarves, so I figured something like that or even a piece of clothing with interesting fabric would be fun. And there it was at the first sale—the pink flamingo skirt.
Further down the road was a sale with lots of bows and ribbons—perfect match!
I think some flamingos in sunglasses will be a welcome relief from all the Santas and reindeer and snowflakes on everyone else’s gifts. I'm kind of hoping there will be a bit left over so I can make a holder for my fuschia pink mp3 player!