Estate Sale Craziness

Fall is trying to sneak its way into Colorado’s back door.  We both love fall, but it means a decline in garage sales.  So far, we are hanging in there, but it is only a matter of time before we come to rely strictly on the thrift stores and the occasional estate sale.  Sigh … a happy/sad time of year.  Oh, well, you can cheer up, because a couple of weeks ago, we hit an estate sale that was the mother lode of bad photos for the year!  You have no idea how elated we were.  Gosh, we are easy to please.

Some items were fun.  Take this adorable little stand mixer:

Cute as a button, and I bet it still works like a champ.  It was amazing how well these old appliances were built.  I love my big ole Kitchenaide, but if I didn’t have one, this would fill the bill.

And some items were not so fun:

Are you kidding me?  Bad ceramics and smoking seemed to go hand in hand.  I have a hard time believing any self-respecting country club let this past the front door.  Maybe it was the booby prize for shooting the most double bogeys in a round?  (I just noticed, this might have been a Goodwill find, but it would have fit right in with the estate sale, so we will just pretend.)

This closetful, I know, came from the sale:

These were ALL peignoir sets.  Every color of the rainbow and then some.  We were pretty sure this gal had a major shopping addiction (We should talk!) as she had more than one of just about everything.  We wonder if she rotated these on a daily basis, or let lover-boy choose which color he wanted tonight!  We often wonder just how much of this stuff really gets sold, and if it doesn’t where does it go?  We sometimes see some things at the thrifts that we recognize, but not all of it.  It must go live with the lost socks from my dryer.

Again, we sort of liked this funky patio set:

With the right color cushions and the right mid-century modern house, it would look very festive.  Just ready for those outdoor bar-b-ques and dry martinis.  The plastic cactus in a pot on the table DOES have to go, however.  For gosh sakes, why do you need fake cactus?  How hard is it to grow a real one?  Even most folks with black thumbs can handle that one.

We were worried about this sock monkey cowboy:

Who is going to take something that homely and give him a good home?  I find many sock monkeys a little on the creepy side at the best of times, and this one is right up there.  He is not improved by the western outfit either.  I am just going to give this one a “she probably worked hard on it” and give it a rest.  [Deb here:  I know Kathy will roll her eyes, but I thought he was pretty funny and I almost bought him for a friend.]

This next item pretty much takes the prize:

I think this is going to have to go right up there with some of the worst things we have ever seen.  The lights didn’t work anymore (drat); although I had a strong urge to take it home and rewire it just so I could see it in action, I resisted.  While chortling and attempting to get a photo of this (it was in a dark basement; we are glad it had been festering down there instead of hanging in the living room), we attracted the attention of one of the ladies working the sale who was so kind as to hold it up to the light so we could get a better photo.  She was chuckling right along with us, and totally understood the need for a photo and not to buy it!  We also wondered what was supposed to go in the little basket holders down at the bottom.  Here they are a bit closer, so you can see better:

I guess some pink plastic roses would look right at home, and hey, how could they make it any worse?  Glad to see the crystal drops on the lamps show up better in this photo.  You wouldn’t want to miss those.  Wonder if it came with red velvet for the background as well?  OK, I have to stop.

Same sale produced this super-duty blender cover:

She seems a bit too cheerful, just because she covered her blender.  The only reason I can think of, is she was hiding the pitcher of margaritas she just mixed, so she could have them all to herself.  I have decided in my mind that this is just what the lady of the house looked like, as she stood in front of her closet contemplating her peignoirs.

This last item really had us puzzling:

We found it at Goodwill in the record area, and just assumed it was a record cover, but on opening it, we found this:

It seemed like a fancy program, and while we were pondering who the littlest angel was, the guy beside us came up with the boy who played Jody on Family Affair.  OK, we got that, now what else?

Looking on the back cover we see:

A whole plethora of well known actors of the time, including Fred Gwynne, Cab Calloway, and Connie Stevens.  It was originally aired on TV as a Hallmark Hall of Fame show.  Somehow, we missed it, but it won awards and everything.  What do we know?  We are still not sure where the program came from, but we learned something new, I guess.

Well, it’s time to get back to those fall chores, the painting is not going to do itself, and soon it will be time to put the garden to bed, and then spend the winter … looking for more estate sales!

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