More yard sale finds

Saturday was a great day for me as far as "junking" goes!  I'm an estate sale and garage sale gal from the word "go" so I visit Craig's List daily to see what is available on any Friday or Saturday.  This Saturday proved to be a very good day for me as evidenced by my treasures below. 

 

Two pretty pink doilies (50 cents) that will go into my mom's old room with my dolls.

This is a Sunbonnet Sue doll quilt that came with the doll buggy that it is draped over.  The lady that I bought it from had it displayed in her guest room...that is exactly what I plan on doing when I finally start organizing my mom's old room.

Here is the beautiful doll buggy that I specifically wanted to buy at this particular yard sale.  As it turns out, I got up late and I was sure that the buggy wouldn't be available when I finally got to the sale.  However, I was the first person at the sale and the owner seemed disappointed that more people hadn't stopped by.  I didn't want the doll that was in the buggy, so she lowered the price by $10.00.  Not a bad deal for $25!  You can't touch these things for $25.00  I've looked on ebay and Amazon so I knew that this was a great deal.

I struck up a conversation with the owner of this buggy, and we exchanged names and phone numbers.  I didn't buy any dolls at the sale, but I might go back and take a second look at them.

For some reason I was drawn to this lamp shade!  If you've ever been to my house, you know that it fits with my decor.  I tried it out on a lamp in the great room but it didn't look right so now I'll have to find a base for it.  Not bad for $1.00

 

This little buggy was .50!!!!  At this sale, the owner was practically giving stuff away!

 

 

 

 These accessories will go in my doll room...eventually! They are so cute and together they were $1.00!

 

 

 These roses have nothing to do with sales!  They were from my husband for our 34th wedding anniversary.

An amazing afternoon for AZ Bloggers!

Today I had a glorious time at Meri's house making a Christmas wreath, interacting with old and new friends, eating a delicious lunch and participating in a gift exchange.  Meri went above and beyond serving as our hostess and opening her house for this spectacular event.  Meri was so gracious to all of us and encouraged us every step of the way in the wreath-making process.  Here are just a few of the photos from our delightful craft activity.

Meri had our name tags displayed in a little red basket on a desk in her entry.  Her house is already decorated for Christmas and the holiday warmth can be felt in every room.  Please visit Meri's blog for more in-depth photos of her wonderful crafting studio and home.


 

"Snow" on a window greeted us as we entered Meri's house.

 

A 1948 metal doll house that is displayed in Meri's studio along with some cute dolls.

 

 

 Vintage goodies abound!

Julie and Brian are an amazing and darling couple.  Julie left before the rest of us and Brian came to pick her up.  I recognized Brian instantly from reading Julie's fabulous blog.  Julie is one talented crafter so a visit to her blog would really be a treat.  Also, I could always count on Julie to leave a comment on my blogs even if I only write about a blade of grass!  She is such a doll.

 

Here's Julie with her wreath that isn't quite finished.  I wish you could see it in person as my photography skills aren't the best.  She has better photos of it on her blog.

Here is Gail busily working on her very pretty pink and blue wreath.  I'm glad that I had the chance to meet and visit with Gail, and I look forward to seeing her at another blogger luncheon.

This is a photo of Jen, Meri's sister, as she crafts her green and blue wreath.  It was very pretty.

This is Rhona's wreath with a Fall theme.  She was still working on it when I took the picture.

This is Joanne's wreath with its many colors.

 

Another photo of Rhona's Fall-themed wreath.

Sandy spent a lot of time perfecting her wreath.

 

       Here is Lin, Meri's other sister, diligently putting the final touches on her wreath.

Here is a photo of my wreath taken while I was still at Meri's house.  I had to glue and reglue several pieces because they wouldn't quite stick together the first time!

Jen with Dorie.  Dorie is the mother of Jen, Lin and Meri, and I had a wonderful time chatting with Dorie about my hometown of Rockford, IL.  It turns out that Dorie lived in Rockford for about 18 years so it was fun to talk about the times we spent in good ol' Rockford.  Dorie is older than I am, so we obviously didn't know the same people although she thinks she might have known one of my aunts.

A close-up of Gail's lovely blue and pink wreath.

Here is a photo of my wreath taken after I got home.  There is some symbolism in my wreath as evidenced by its colors and decorations.

This is the bottom portion of the wreath and you can see two vintage birds and a tiny pink "princess".  My mother had birds very similar to these on my childhood Christmas trees and the pink princess is for my granddaughter.  Lily, my granddaughter, loves pink and she's into princesses.  My mother also liked pink and burgundy (I used these colors for their 50th. anniversary party) so I put variations of pink in my wreath.

My grandson, Brandt, loves trains so I put a small wooden train on the wreath.  My mother loved to crochet and knit so you can see the lovely, white snowflake in the center of the wreath.  My mother also liked pearls which is on the snowflake. 

I included another pink princess as seen in the upper right part of the wreath.  I used mainly color variations of pink, light green and gold in the wreath.

The spoon at the top of the wreath is another symbol for my mother.  She was an amazing cook and saved many recipes that I put into a book for my grandchildren. 

Overall, it took some time to put this wreath together.  Once I got the hang of layering the ornaments, I was able to keep up a good pace.  Also, moving from the larger to the smaller ornaments, made a difference in the look of the wreath.  It's amazing how Meri showed us how to use ornaments and decorations as fillers for our bare spots.  I would never have attempted this on my own, but working at Meri's house under her guidance, made all the difference in the world.  Meri provided so much for us:  tons of various-sized ornaments, decorations, embellishments, garlands, ribbons, glitter, and the wreath ring.  Most of my ornaments came from a yard sale last year.  I stumbled (literally) over a box of vintage ornaments that were marked $1.00.  I scooped them up but didn't really know what to do with them until now.  I also found some pink and burgundy ornaments a few weeks ago at a yard sale so I bought them as well.

 

I still have my mom and dad's vintage ornaments from when they first started putting up a Christmas tree together in the mid-1940's.  I have at least two birds that they had and their old ornaments that look similar to the ones I used in my wreath.  I will hang this wreath on the door to my mom's old bedroom, and pass my parents' old ornaments on to my daughter and my grandchildren.  In the meantime, I put up a tree in my mom's room every Christmas and use their old ornaments as they would do.

I can't thank Meri enough for her generosity in sharing her home and her family (her husband helped carry stuff into and out of the house, and her daughter, Abby, was our photographer).  Meri is a true blessing and I'm so glad that I attended her luncheon.  Many, many thanks, Meri, along with tons of hugs.

Yard sales and Estate sales

I've been busy going to yard sales/estate sales and I've loved every minute of it!  There was a nice community sale near my house today and I found several things for my house and for my grandchildren.

This first photo is of "I can read" books along with phonics and kindergarten CD's for my grandson who is 5.  He started sounding out words when he was 3 thanks to "Letter Factory" and "Word Factory".   My daughter and I would use letter tiles to make 3-letter words and he would say the word for us. As a retired teacher, I always stress phonics with my grandson and, now that he is in kindergarten, we have him read simple books to us.  Therefore, I'm happy that I stumbled upon these books and CD's to further enrich his reading skills.

This next photo is of a Dora kitchen.  I found it today along with 100+ utensils, dishes, and play food.  It is spotless and just needs batteries to make sounds.  My granddaughter will be happy with my $10.00 purchase.

For some reason I was really drawn to these two shelves.  Too bad I couldn't take a decent picture of them!  These will go into the bedroom that my mother used before she passed away.

I thought that these two photo albums were cute.  I could use about 100 of these for all the photos that I still have to organize of my grandchildren.

 

This is a large spider web table cloth that I found at a sale while I was in Tucson.  I can use it as a table cloth, or repurpose it to make cute valances for the arches in my house.

These 3 wall hangings are so adorable!  I can't wait to put them in my granddaughter's room. They are larger than they appear in this photo and they are quite sturdy.  Not bad for $3.00 each!

I helped a friend organize her sale and I came across this 1969 LIFE magazine.  She told me to take it and I was more than happy to as my grandchildren will now have a great reference for the first moon-landing.  This magazine will be added to the historic ones that my father saved along with his original WWII newspapers.  My grandchildren will have history at their fingertips.

 

 

I found this wall sconce on Craig's List.  This lady was selling everything in her house so I bought this candle sconce for one of my entry walls.

I also bought this pastry holder from the wall sconce lady.  The plates and the pastery came with the holder and I just added some Halloween stuff to the top plate.

I went to an estate sale on a Friday and I bought a doll and an apothecary jar.  I returned on Saturday and I found this darling circular picture of a teapot and roses.  The person running the estate sale said that they had just found this piece and put it out about an hour before I got to the sale.  I'm glad that I returned on Sat.  This, too, will go into my mom's old room.

 

 

 

These two teacup and teapot pictures will accompany the circular picture when I organize my mom's room.

 

 

 I think that this is a reproduction Jumeau doll.  I could be wrong but I think it is either a Jumeau or Bru.  Whatever it is, I saw her at the estate sale and took her home.  I'm going to display my doll collection in my mom's old room as soon as I get organized enough to figure out what I'm doing!  As of yet, I have ideas swimming around in my head but I haven't actually put my plans in place.

 

 

 Close-up of the doll's face.  She has an open mouth with teeth showing which makes the original dolls very rare and very expensive.  That is why I obviously have reproductions!

Finally the apothecary jar!  This was at the estate sale and I'm still not sure why I bought it.  I will probably use it for holidays to display certain themes...I'm not sure yet.

 
I also bought 6 boxes of ornaments that will be used to make a wreath at an upcoming luncheon.  I'll post the ornaments later this week.

Lo and Behold

This is a photo of my daughter on her way to film a commercial for her place of employment. So many people think that she resembles the Duchess, Kate Middleton. I'm still not sure about that as I just see her as the child we raised and love dearly!



Sunflower Serenade

I'm participating in Alphabe-Thursday with Jenny Matlock and our assignment this week is the letter "S".  Since Fall is officially here, I thought that I would help usher the season in with some photos of sunflowers.

The first four photos were taken at Apple Annie's in Willcox, AZ (near Tucson) 2 years ago.  As you can see, the sky was a gorgeous blue and some of the sunflowers were still standing tall and majestic among others that had already lived a sunny life!


 

A lonely bee feasting at nature's table. 

 

Alive and waiting to be born!

 

Custer's last stand!

The last two photos were taken in my daughter's backyard several weeks ago.  My son-in-law planted pumpkin seeds, sunflowers and I don't-know-what in their new backyard.  The sunflowers suddenly came up and started dancing in the wind which thrilled my two grandchildren.

             Here I am.  Come look at me in all my glory.

 

            Stop by Jenny's blog today and visit other "S" participants.