My friend opK and I held a garage sale marathon this past weekend.  We hit the sales on Thursday and Friday, and then on Saturday my sister joined us as well for the Bryn Mawr neighborhood sales.

Thursday dawned cold and rainy.  opK and I gathered up our rain gear and a list of addresses and headed to North St Paul.  I’d say out of our list of 25 or so sales, only about 10 of them had braved the weather and opened up.  We then headed to our hometown of Oakdale, and it was more of the same.  In desperation, we headed to Cottage Grove next.

All three of these towns were allegedly having their city-wide sales, but we found few sales.  Since the forecast for Friday was sunny and a high of 70, we figured most people had decided to hold off on opening up on Thursday.  I can’t say that I blame them, it was fairly miserable outside.

Here is the meagre pile of goodies that I brought home on Thursday.

That is nearly my entire haul.  I also purchased some peony cages for the garden, a set of old casters and a tall lantern that isn’t pictured, but that’s it.

The ‘find of the day’ from Thursday would have to be the little cast iron stove (it didn’t have much competition).

Isn’t that fun?  I thought it was possibly vintage until I looked it up online and discovered you can buy it at Walmart.  LOL, well, I only paid $1.50 for it, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

I woke up on Friday to glorious blue skies.  The Tangletown neighborhood in Minneapolis is one of my favorites, and that’s where we were headed.

I had to stop and get a picture of this gorgeous terraced hillside garden full of tulips that we spotted while twisting around on the Tangletown streets.  My photo doesn’t do it justice, it was gorgeous.

We also had much better luck with the finds in Tangletown.

The chair on the right was from a ‘free’ pile.  The cane seat is ruined, but that’s OK because I’m planning to turn it into a planter chair.  I’ve done a few of these in the past (check them out here).  My only regret is that I didn’t take more of the free chairs that were in that pile, there were several to choose from.  What was I thinking?  I could have made multiple planter chairs!

I also brought home a vintage Joy of Cooking, a nice globe, and an ironstone chamber pot.

Obviously no one needs a chamber pot for its original use these days, but they are lovely filled with flowers.

I also picked up this pretty amethyst colored glass bottle on Friday.

I thought the color was pretty, and I was drawn to the ‘antique’ look of it.   But don’t be fooled, much like the cast iron stove, this one isn’t authentic either.  I found info online that says it’s a 1970’s reproduction and only worth between $3 and $5.  Lucky I only paid $1.

I picked up this small enamelware tray and have already added a simple re.design with prima transfer to it.

I also found a couple of possible additions for the art wall in my q branch (a.k.a. my home office) starting with this pretty little mountain scene.

I’ve already found the perfect spot for it on my wall.

I’ve decided the 2nd oil painting I brought home is just a bit too bright for me.

This one came with a story.  The woman selling it said she bought it at a charity auction when she lived in Washington D.C., and supposedly it originally belonged to one of the Kennedy’s.  I can’t quite read the signature at the bottom, so I haven’t been able to find any pertinent information about it online.  Was someone just spinning a yarn to earn more funds for the charity?  I guess we’ll never know.

There were three good candidates for ‘find of the day’ from Tangletown.  First up there was the St. Francis statue.

You gotta love a good garden statue, right?  I plan to give him the rusty treatment using Dixie Belle’s patina paint.

There was also the Japanese maple tree.

I’ve been passing these by at the nurseries for years because of their high price tag.  I rarely see one for less than $100.  And they are an iffy proposition in my formerly zone 4b, now zone 5a garden.  So I’ve never wanted to spend a lot of money on a plant that may or may not survive the winter here.  But this one was $20, so I snatched it up.

Sure, it’s small.  But I’m going to try growing it in a pot on the deck.  That way I can move it to a more protected area for the winter.  We’ll see what happens.  If it dies, I’m only out $20.

I did also pick up a few other plants in Tangletown, but I’m going to share more about that in my ‘sunday mornings in the garden’ post this week, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

In the end, I have to give ‘find of the day’ status for Tangletown to this little cupboard.

That’s a beveled mirror in the oval, FYI.  This is going to be a fun one to paint up!

As for day 3 of our garage sale marathon, we were back to cooler temps and rain as we headed out to another of my favorite Minneapolis neighborhoods, Bryn Mawr.  But I’m going to share more about that one in my next post, so be sure to stay tuned!

But first, let me know, what would you have picked as ‘find of the day’?