Garage Sale Goodness

We’ve lucked into some great estate sales lately. I love this time of year. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we stumbled upon an amazing neighborhood by way of following hand-written garage sale signs, but didn’t really get into the what we found and bought at the house itself. We left after spending $17.10, which is really quite a garage sale splurge for us, but we could have spent 20x that if we had splurged on any of the Danish contemporary chairs, tables, and the green leather 6′ long mid-century bench that would have looked so (so, so, so) good in my house (it was $50, and I’ll forever regret quitting my job and not being able to responsibly splurge on the spot).

It really was a crafter/maker/mid-century moderist’s dream.

The home itself was stunning, with huge glass windows and contemporary design aesthetic, albeit a little outdated. I still woulda moved in and rehabbed it in a heartbeat though; the lot went way back up a fully-wooded hill and the homes were set reasonably far apart from one another. The folks that had sold the property (yielding a need to clear it out estate-sale-style) had lived there since the home was built, meaning that they had the space highly customized and jam packed with goodies which suited their hobbies.

Tsotchkes, blankets and books aside, which I didn’t buy into, they had a huge basement full of tools and raw materials from their jewelry making and metal-smithing workshop. For instance, they had boxes of shells, rocks, and glass, some of which I bought; I don’t even know what I’m going to do with these huge pieces of glass (just some of the pieces we found), but they’ll be wonderful paperweights until I figure out what they’re intended for (any jewelers out there interested?).

Oh yeah, and FYI, the little green one is the size of my fist. The others are considerably larger, kind of the size if I hold my two hands together like they’re clawing at eachother. Have a nice visual of me doing that?

Pete found lots of random things like paint scrapers, J.B. Weld, sanders, nails and bolts and nuts, and lots of little clamps and a framing square, which are always nice to have, especially now that I started my little frame making biz (surprise!).

I also picked up this basket because I liked the shape and it was in good condition. I don’t really need any more baskets but I think with a little sprucing up (ex. removal of that gold stripe) it will look nice next to the fireplace holding driftwood. Just an idea.

Other odds and ends included this antique blue glass jar with an original porcelain-lined lid, and a little mod polka-dotted cup that might soon be a new home to our toothbrushes.

I was also won over by this pretty little trivet, which according to an etching in the underside was made in Israel. Loving the ornate detailing. Also, I found myself a little pack of metal pushpins that are just infinitely covetable, and this little container of odd things stored… tiny pine cones, dried branches, and two of the tiniest starfish I’ve ever seen.

I can’t even decide if these are real dead starfish. They are SO SMALL.

I also picked up two more carbide glass drill bits (since they’re $10+ each retail). You’ll understand why I want after you see the post I’m planning for tomorrow.

P.S. A second post will be coming this afternoon because HomeRight offered a giveaway for readers of Merrypad! I’m excited!