Bryn Mawr calls their neighborhood sale the Festival of Garage Sales, and with good reason.  There is definitely a festive atmosphere.  They have food trucks and porta-potties, which both say ‘festival’ to me.  They also have LOTS of people.  Even in the rain.

Parking can be a challenge, so our strategy is to bring some foldable carts with us, find a spot for the car, and then walk the alleys.  My sister employed her step counter and we logged just under 10,000 steps.

We managed to fill up our carts more than once, and here’s most of what I brought home with me.

My ‘find of the day’ is missing from that photo, but I’ll share that in a minute.

But otherwise, as you can probably see, I ended up with some more potential art for my gallery wall.

I really love this next watercolor, but I may have to hunt down a frame for it.

I also found a set of four mid-century prints by Jan Korthals.

Korthals was a Dutch artist, but these 4 prints feature London landmarks including St. Paul’s and Big Ben.

I also brought home a lovely set of poetry books.

The covers on these are just gorgeous, as are the colors.

I also nabbed a nice tacklebox.

I love the muted aqua colors on the little circular label on the front.

It’s even already a pretty blue color on the inside.

So now I’m torn.  Do I paint this one?  Or would someone buy it ‘as is’?  That is a pretty dull gray on the outside.  What do you think?

Speaking of ‘should I paint it?’, after the last sifter that I painted turned out so pretty, I decided to grab another sifter to paint.

After giving it a good cleaning, I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Mint Julep, followed by a topcoat of their Big Mama’s Butta.

How perfect is it as a succulent planter now?

While I was at it, I also painted the postal scale that I picked up.  It was a very dull grey color originally, let’s call it ‘government gray’ since it’s a postal scale.  After giving it a good cleaning, I gave it two coats of the Mint Julep as well.

No more government gray!

For those of you who don’t know, I retired from my government job 2 1/2 years ago, so there’s definitely no more government gray for me.

I’ve already added some apothecary labels to the pair of amber bottles that I picked up.

I liked the simple lines of the silver pitcher that I purchased.  It will make a beautiful vase for peonies when they start blooming, but for now I filled it with some faux hydrangea that I also bought at Bryn Mawr.

I typically no longer pick up Ball jars unless they are either priced really low (I did get a pair of them with original zinc lids for 25 cents each in North St Paul), or they are unique in some way.

This one says “the Mason” on it, and it has some nice bubbles in the glass.  I’ll be adding it to my own non-collection of mason jars.

I’ve saved my ‘find of the day’ for last, and coincidentally it’s also the last thing that I purchased.  We were literally back in the car heading out of Bryn Mawr when I spotted a concrete dog garden ornament out of the corner of my eye.

Isn’t he handsome?  And he is also solid, ie. heavy, concrete.  I had to get my sister to help load him.  I was surprised that no one had snatched him up earlier in the day, and I can only conclude that he was just too heavy for anyone to tote around.

It feels great to be back out garage saling again!  I’ll be out again this Saturday at another of my favorite Minneapolis neighborhoods, Linden Hills.  So far the forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 71°, wish me luck!