My sister and I always kick off the neighborhood garage sale season with Bryn Mawr. This sale is always held the first weekend in May and they seem to have incredibly good luck with the weather (which definitely can be dicey this time of year).
This past Saturday was glorious. Ideal garage sale weather. Sunny and in the 60’s. And this year my niece was available to join us as well, so it was the perfect day.
I have to admit I don’t usually find much at Bryn Mawr. It’s far too popular, and thus the competition for an amazing find is steep. Check out some my past year’s finds here: 2015 and 2016.
Once again this year I didn’t find a lot, but I nabbed a few gems.
This rustic wooden crate with a handle was $4. I didn’t love the muddy green color it was painted in, but I knew I could fix that. And I already have. I whipped out my Dixie Belle paint in Midnight Sky and quickly painted it. It only took one coat to cover the green. I added some stenciling, sanded lightly to distress and finished with black wax.
Ahhhh, so much better, right? And so easy to do. If it feels familiar, that’s because this is the same paint color and stencil that I used on my piano.
It was the handle that made me decide on black. I definitely wanted to keep that ‘as is’ because it has the most deliciously aged patina.
I couldn’t fit the entire stencil on the front of the crate, so I used part of it on the sides.
I just love the delicate flowing font of this stencil. So perfectly simple, yet it has a massive impact.
I also grabbed this antique child’s rocker.
It’s in great shape and the price was right. The seller had lowered her price twice already because it just wasn’t moving. It’s in great shape and will look amazing with some milk paint.
I couldn’t resist the vintage hardware apron from a lumber shop in Milwaukee.
These aprons were featured in the March issue of Country Living magazine.
So I snatched it up. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet, potentially just clean it up and sell it.
I’m giving ‘find of the day’ status to an adorable collection of vintage handmade wooden pull toys. One of the pieces is signed on the bottom and says it was made by Uncle Karl in 1943.
Believe it or not, I paid $1 for the set and it includes the horses and wagon shown above, an elephant whose head goes up and down as you pull him, and a truck with a trailer. Those last two pieces have already headed over to my handyman/neighbor Ken’s workshop for some minor repairs. Once that’s done I’m going to paint them. I’m just not loving that dull red and green. I have some fun ideas for turning these into gorgeous, unique decor pieces that would be perfect for a nursery. You’ll have to stay tuned to see how they turn out.
In addition to a ‘find of the day’, it seems like I always have a garage sale regret too. Maybe I need to add a ‘regret of the day’ category as well.
As I was lying in bed Saturday night trying to fall asleep, I couldn’t help but think that I was a fool for passing up another dress form. It was marked $45, but when the seller offered to let it go for $40 I still passed on it. Why didn’t I snatch that up? What was I thinking? I could have easily made another of these …
Have you had some garage sale regrets? If so, be sure to share them in the comments so I don’t feel like I’m the only one who has walked away from a good deal!
q is for quandie 
You found some wonderful treasures! I love all of them and don’t think I have a favorite. And yes, I agree, the dress form for $40 was something you should have picked up. It would easily sell for $100 after you ‘Quandied’ it. But that just means you’ll find another one soon. Looking forward to more neighborhood garage sale finds!
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I know, right? What was I thinking?!
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I passed on a dress form as well because it didn’t fit in my friends car. It was only 5.00!!! I could have paid for it and returned later to pick it up. Regrets! Regrets Regrets!! Now I offer to drive when yard sailing and take my truck so that I have plenty of room for treasures!
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I have been known to buy pieces and come back later to pick them up. You take a bit of a chance that they won’t re-sell it to someone else in your absence, but that has never happened to me. With furniture, my trick is to take just a drawer with me and come back for the rest later.
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Garage/yard sales were everywhere here on Saturday as well. But I had already committed my time elsewhere. Note to self 1st weekend in May is prime picking time.
Love the crate because of how you Quandized it. Using black because of the handle was spot on. Those toys – all I could think of was how much time it took to originally make them. Look forward to that reveal. The dress form? That’s definitely a what were you thinking? I just love how you transform those.
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I know right?! What was I thinking?
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Great finds! Some day I hope to make it to the Bryn Mawr sales – I need to plan ahead!
I have to know which lumber company in Milwaukee the apron is from? My dad worked for a lumber company in Milwaukee when I was a little girl. I’ll head to your shop!
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I’ll look at it when I get home from the day job and let you know Suzy!
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My husband is an avid garage sale guy! He once passed up two old baskets that had straps so you could gather things in it and carry it around like a back pack. We were at an auction Saturday and one sold for $110.00, and not in great shape. He could have gotten the ones at the garage sale for $100.00 for both in excellent shape with great
Patina!!!! Uhg!!! He was kicking himself Saturday!
Also, we drove our small SUV to the auction Saturday, and there were some great deals!
We should have taken our truck, it was too far away to come back and the stuff had to be taken that day! Missed a lot of good deals! Ugh, again!
Gotta be prepared to haul! Lol
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It seems like Murphy’s Law of garage saling is that when you bring the big vehicle, you don’t find much. But when you take the smaller one there is too much to haul!
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Great finds. Love the makeover of the wooden crate.
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Thanks Maureen! I knew that crate had some potential!
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Wow Miss Quandie! Once again I’m in jealous AWE of the stuff available at yard sales in your area! Just none of that good old stuff out here in West LA……it’s all been offered to antique shops first! Our yard sales are mostly Little Tykes ride-ons and record albums!
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It’s really just a numbers game sometimes. We have sales with that stuff too, and lots of other junk. It’s a matter of going to the max number of sales in order to find the handful that have some gems. It’s a lot easier when you’re in a neighborhood with 50+ sales in a small area.
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Those are good finds Linda! Now you have me wondering who Uncle Karl was, and who was the lucky recipient of those wooden toys as a child😍
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I was thinking that since it was war time, maybe handmade toys were all that was available that year for Christmas (I think I neglected to mention the full date, which was December 23, 1943). I bet it was fun to find them under the Christmas tree.
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Always enjoy seeing your garage sale finds. Such a good eye. I believe your crate with handled that you found is an egg crate. I have a cleaned up polyed version that came with egg liners. That crate held a lot of eggs at one time. Fun to see how you transformed it.
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Oh, I bet you are right Andrea. It does seem to be about the right size for that!
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