Downward through the evening twilight,
In the days that are forgotten,
In the unremembered ages,
From the full moon fell Nokomis …
Yep, that’s the Nokomis that the neighborhood we garage saled in on Saturday is named after. It’s also the neighborhood where both of my parents grew up. And last Saturday it was the site of the most fantastic garage sale jackpot this year!
Where do I even start? The fabulosity was just overflowing!
Our party included myself, my sister and my friend Mary Kate who I have garage saled with since she was just a wee lass. The forecast called for heavy rain and thunderstorms, but we are not daunted by such things. We’re practically professionals, wink. We just went into it assuming we’d end up drenched. And the day did start out rainy, which makes things a little trickier because everything is tucked away in garages. You can’t manage the ‘drive by’, where you look from your car and then just keep moving if all you see are bright plastic kid’s toys and piles of baby clothes. We hadn’t gotten much yet when we came across an alley sale where the proprietors flagged us in. They had a parking spot all ready for us and no customers, which made us a little nervous. As I strolled into their garage, I saw Mary already standing over a pile of something with a look of pure disbelief on her face. This was the find of the day for sure! A whole pile of vintage cameras.
The story that went with them was priceless. The seller’s mother had been a camera collector. When she passed away, the seller had sold two big boxes of cameras to an antiques dealer and she thought that was all of them. But while cleaning out the closet to get ready for her garage sale, she came across a third box that she didn’t know she had, so she threw them out for the sale.
Holy garbanzo beans batman! Just look at them! Clearly it was fate!
So many cool cameras! Some for Mary’s collection, and some for mine.
The fun did not end there folks! I had all but given up on finding great furniture at garage sales this year, but this time I came home with this gorgeous bed.
And a fab pink dresser.
I love the green and white on this wooden melon crate, and found an awesome green jar, a green McCoy planter and a pretty little ironstone pitcher.
Mary purchased this fabulous ceramic hand at my urging. It will make a great place to hang her jewelry once it’s mounted on the wall. She also picked up some art supplies.
And last of all, I hope you didn’t miss Uncle Leon’s suitcase!
Yep, the gals that sold me the suitcase said it belonged to their Uncle Leon and he used to travel with it all the time.
You know it was a good day when a fab suitcase gets barely mentioned at the end!
What can I say? Garage sales can be very hit or miss, but every once in a while you hit the jackpot!
q is for quandie 
OMG you hit the Mother Load! Lucky you and lucky us to be able to see the transformations and eye candy!
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I know, right? It was amazing!
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I CANNOT believe you found all those cameras in one “dig”. I have no poker face at all. I am sure the price would have tripled as I stood there in a comatose state drooling. That alone was worth trapsing around in the rain. What a fantastic find! Kudos for pulling up that alley girls – y’all got some kahoonas going on. Love the entire haul. I would seriously consider using that suitcase – maybe not on a plane but it’s really handsome discovery. Now we, the reader, are left wondering what color will she paint the pink chest and/or will vintage wallpaper be involved be in the after version???
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Mary and I tried hard to be casual. As in, “oh, how nice, some cameras. I guess we’ll buy a few.” 😉 You’ll just have to stay tuned to see what I do with those furniture pieces!
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CAMERAS, CAMERAS, CAMERAS. WOW. Good for you & Mary!!
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Believe it or not, we even left some cameras behind! I’m not sure what I was thinking when we did that, but we did.
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Amazing finds. I want to be your garage sale buddy!
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You just have to get up really early, be impervious to the elements and have a bladder of steel 😉
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I’ll remember that! lol
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Gorgeous! Is this the Nokomis in MN? I travel there a couple times a year to visit with shoe stores for my work work (Nokomis Shoes). I love the little neighborhoods around there. I love your blog….awesome finds!
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Yes, the Nokomis neighborhood is in south Minneapolis, just north of the airport. It was very apparent while we were there they they are directly under a flight path. But I can remember visiting my grandparents as a child and listening to those planes fly over and thinking about how much I wanted to be on one and traveling somewhere exotic. So for me, the airplane noise is very nostalgic. Next year try to schedule a work work trip around the 3rd Saturday in June and you can check out their neighborhood sale too!
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I definitely will try to work that angle! I love all your finds and work….gorgeous.
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Amazing finds! We didn’t make it over there until noon and it was a bit sparse, but sunny! Everyone came away with at least one thing 😉 Did you do the Minnehaha Mile? We started at Junket and loved it! and worked our way through 6 other shops that were a mix of vintage, re-purposed and re-painted finds. Really great!
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I always find it difficult to go ‘real shopping’ after a morning of garage sale prices. So no, we didn’t. Instead we went to Wild Onion on Grand Ave for some lunch. Then we made the mistake of popping into Anthropologie! Now there is some sticker shock. The complete opposite end of the pricing spectrum. They had some darling faux vintage painted globes that were on sale at … wait for it … hold on to your hat … $89.99. On sale! Yikes!
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Holy cow, you hit the mother load! I wish my garage sale-ing would be half as fruitful as that! Great additions to your camera collection, I love finding them, too. Can’t wait to see what you do with that beautiful bed!
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I’m still thinking about that bed. I keep looking at it and trying to decide what color to go with. Hopefully I will be struck with inspiration soon!
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