Saturday, February 3, 2018

Climb Every Stairway

If you go to sales, you’ve probably noticed that there’s often a theme through the morning. At every sale you’ll see some particular item. Could be clown stuff, or a particular brand of china, or marble ashtrays from the Sixties. Once I remember a run of Backstreet Boys posters; all those teen fans had grown up and left home.

This week is was…stairways.

KK and I went to five sales, and every single one had stairs to climb.

Before we headed to the last one, I said I hoped there would be no more stairs this morning, and KK agreed wholeheartedly. So what did we find? A very steep driveway to trudge our way up, and then stairs to the door!

Fortunately we found some fun deals to make up for all that unwanted exercise. Like these tablecloths from our first stop, an estate sale of a former antique dealer.




At least they said he was an antique dealer. I think we may have been in hoarder territory, there was such a jumble of stuff. Part of KK’s loot included some large vintage fabric samples, which she had thought were tablecloths. She didn’t want samples, so she gave them to me.




I just had to add this Dutch boy with pails to the Funny Little People collection.


Those round breeches are irresistible!


Another stop (and more stairs) was the sale with sewing stuff. One lady was comparing two of the $5 sewing machines to get for her nephew, who wants to learn. I think she ended up taking both, since the price was so low. I spent my fiver there for some fabric (3 yards of heavy cream cotton, some black wool felt, and black velvet – none of which make for compelling pictures), a bunch o’ notions, 


and my favorite find of the day, a hand printed tablecloth from Sweden.


Just about everything I could find about the designer 


was in Swedish (Google’s translations are amusing at times, but very handy!). I finally found a reference to this particular piece on a Japanese museum website. It’s called Christmas Party and dates to 1964.


The downtown church book sale (with stairs) netted a couple of pieces of entertainment.


And that last stop (with the stairs AND the steep driveway!) is where I found this cute bowl.


From Japan, I think.


Perfect for my bit of yogurt and granola in the morning.


Later in the day the phone rang. It was KK telling me she had gone back by the first sale on her way to the dog park and found a few more things. Then she told me what her main find was, and I admit it – I'm hideously jealous!

A little digging turned up a signed Charley Harper serigraph from 1979 of his picture of a squirrel hanging on a bird feeder. You can get one too, if you want to spend $200. KK’s price?

Three bucks.

She wins!


6 comments:

  1. What wonderful things you (and KK) found today!
    I would be jealous too - that serigraph!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, right? I'll get over it soon though, and I AM excited for her!

      Delete
  2. Yep! KK won by a landslide and then some! Now, she has to frame it, which would put it in the neighborhood of $300! But, she still has bragging rights! We love Charley Harper at our house.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She's definitely planning to frame it! My only piece of Harper art is one of the designs he did for the National Park Service. Check them out, very reasonably priced!
      https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/alpine-northwest-poster

      Delete
  3. Whoaaaaaaaa Hot deal! Yeah!
    Ruth in Oxnard CA

    ReplyDelete

I really love your comments. Thanks for coming along on my thrifty adventures!

 
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