Musings from the Monster Sale

No, no, there weren’t really any monsters for sale.  Well … OK maybe there were, but in this case I just mean gigantic, humongous etc.  It is time once again for the annual Unitarian Church sale.  This church has the biggest most organized sale EVER.  They start on Thursday, so we even take time out of our schedule to hit it the first day.  It never disappoints us.  Both in treasures for us, and not so treasured items for our blog.

Just to give you an idea of what it looks like on the outside:

This is just the free pile on the way into the sale!  Imagine how much is inside.  We never have a good shot of the whole place, as it covers several rooms, but trust us, it is BIG.  Plus, we are too busy shopping to look for a really good angle.

Our favorite item from the whole sale just has to be this waffle iron:Seriously, is this not the kitchen appliance to make every housewife swoon?  OK, maybe not, but is sure is the prettiest one we’ve ever seen.

 

Notice it even has engraved decorations.  See the little arrows on the rightmost picture?  So much attention to detail on this little thing; it’s a delight.

For every good thing, there has to be a balance in the universe, and I think the following more than makes up for the waffle iron:

Even Deb, who has a huge soft spot for poodles, thinks this one should go meet its maker.  Oh wait, that is who caused it to look like this in the first place!  More of those crafts gone wrong.  Just put the crochet hook down, and no one gets hurt.

After the poodle, Deb was delighted to see this pair of lamps.  I could just see her wrestling with the urge to give them a new home, but just call her The Champ, as she totally resisted:

I think it was the shades that sent these rocketing skyward in our estimates.  Have you ever seen Chinese Pagoda shades?

It would have been totally worth recovering the shades, but it might have made a grown woman cry to try it.  Oh well, a last longing look:

Remember that cosmic balance thing?  Yep, here it comes again:

Nothing like big ugly gold candles to put you off your feed.  These brought us down to earth with a giant gilded thump.  Ouch.  Even the cherub wings couldn’t elevate our mood.

We even found a couple of dolls at the sale.  There is just something so charming about a well done apple face doll:

We thought she was sweet, but it is always a good thing we only collect certain types of dolls, or she might have hitched a ride in our shopping bags, along with these Russian dolls:

They were awfully cute, made of fur and leather.  We hope someone adopted them, and gave them a good home.

Now this purse, no one should adopt:

Really, it’s OK to stop before the entire item is covered an inch thick in icing-like decorations.  It doesn’t even have the grace to be edible like a wedding cake.  Well, I have had some wedding cakes that weren’t very edible, but we would like to think they all are.

I want to finish up with some fun photos a terrific loyal reader sent in to us.  Her thrift store finds included this mama bear playing the guitar.  Really, an apron to rock out?  Someone better update Mick Jagger on the latest fashion statement:

She also found this set of musicians made out of peach pits.  I guess the maker got brownie points for recycling:

It’s a good thing I didn’t see the musicians, as I might have been crazy enough to bring them home.  I already have one band living on my shelf,  Wooden Mardi Gras Band  What’s another one going to hurt, right?  That crazy folk art thing gets me every time.

We want to thank our reader for sending in her photos, and invite anyone else to send in their fun thrift store finds!  Thanks for joining us on our ramblings.