Category: garage sales.

And the award for most fashionable garage sale goes to …. drumroll please … MacGrove!

MacGrove is a charming neighborhood in St. Paul that includes Macalester College and St. Thomas University.  Yesterday some of my garage sale pals and I spent the morning there for their neighborhood garage sale. It has a very collegiate vibe.  They used to hold their sale in August, but for some reason they moved it to September this year.  The most noticeable change was the quantity of students that were milling about near the schools.

Once again, we had picture perfect weather, and we found some great things.  We also came upon the most fabulous garage sale set up of the season.

It was like a party!

And he had some very clever signage.

“These lamps don’t get paid … but that doesn’t mean they don’t work!”

We all enjoyed the festive atmosphere.  Here is the crew, Sue, Jan & Cathy.

I also found my best find of the season at this very same sale.  A fantastic vintage ice cream scale (who wants to weigh their ice cream?  not me!) in my color, aqua.

I will be finding a prominent location in the pantry for this bad boy!

Unfortunately, I was so exhausted when I got home that most of my pictures of the rest of my finds turned out pretty awful.  But here is a picture of a fantastic book shelf that Sue spotted for me, and I quickly snatched up.

Won’t this be a charmer once it is painted?  Those details down the side are just going to pop with a little paint.  I’m still contemplating what color I’ll use on it, but I know it will get milk paint.

Unfortunately, the pic is a little blurry and you can’t appreciate it properly, but the fabric that is folded on the shelf is vintage bark cloth with adorable farm scenes.  I just couldn’t pass it up.

Here, you can see the detail a little better in this photo of some vintage light sconces that I also picked up.

I did come home with a nice little pile of great finds.  Some will make their way into my own home, some will end up in my workshop to be revamped, and some will be headed to the Carriage House sale!

Yesterday my Carriage House Sale co-host, Sue, and her sister Jan joined me for a neighborhood garage sale near Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.  It was in East Isles, an absolutely gorgeous neighborhood filled with beautiful older homes.  We could have just driven around and drooled over all of the gorgeous houses, but as an added bonus there were also garage sales!  About 40 of them.

I didn’t come home with a giant haul.  Sadly, there was no furniture to be found at all.  But I did find a few gems here and there.  A sweet little child sized vintage wicker chair, another fab suitcase.  It seemed to be the day for original artwork also.  I came home with three paintings.  The one above has that mid-century Spanish feel.  I plan to paint the frame and sell this one at my fall Carriage House Sale (taking place Oct 4, Saturday only, exact time to be determined, pencil it in!)

And something about this painting of a chair just appealed to me.  Perhaps it is my obsession with furniture.

As for this modern geometric, nnK snatched it up as soon as I got it home. The colors in it are perfect for her house.

It was a picture perfect sunny morning with temps in the mid-60’s.  Blue sky as far as the eye could see.  Not even a hint of humidity.

And seriously, how cute is this little chair?

 It’s a little sad to realize that garage sale season will be drawing to a close in about a month.  We are already seeing signs of fall here in Minnesota; cooler temps, earlier sunsets.  It definitely is right around the corner.

Yesterday was the perfect day for a neighborhood garage sale and the stars must have been aligned in my favor because I came home with all of this.

We were in Highland Park, a neighborhood that runs along the side of the Mississippi River in St. Paul.  It is full of gorgeous old houses, many with really lovely gardens.  I should have brought my camera!

We filled up the truck before noon and then stopped off at Cecil’s Deli for lunch.  A true Jewish kosher deli.  It took me back to my days of living in Boca Raton, Florida which might have been the last time I enjoyed a legit east coast style Jewish deli.  I’m not at all sure what makes them so fabulous.  They always have the best pickles, and a fantastic selection of sandwich choices.  I had the “Nosher”; turkey, roast beef and swiss on caraway rye.  We took away some hamantaschen cookies to nosh on later.  Yum!

But … back to the goods.

I found quite a few pieces of pottery.

And I love these old metal glasses.  My grandpa used to make us root beer floats in these when I was a kid.  I can still remember how cold that metal used to get!

At an estate sale I found not just one, but two fab vintage typewriters.

I’ll confess, I didn’t buy the pair of shutters at a garage sale.  I bought them at a cute shop on Grand Avenue.  I loved their crackled paint, and I thought they would be perfect for either side of the window in the photo cottage.  And look, they are!

I grabbed this pair of vintage sleds because I think they make great decorations at Christmas time.

I’m debating painting on them like I did with this one last year.

What do you think?  Would people rather I left them alone?  Or added some fun wording?

I also brought home a couple of pieces of furniture that will eventually get a makeover.  The little mid-century nightstand is already sanded and ready to be painted, but the former owner gave up before the finish line.  I love getting these pieces where someone else has already done the hard part!  Unfortunately she misplaced the hardware, so I’m going to have to come up with some great replacement knobs for this one.

So, there you have it.  A productive day in Highland Park!

Are you headed up north for the holiday weekend?  Maybe to your lake home?  or your cabin in the woods?

If so, lucky you!  If not, you are also in luck because Sue is having a pop up vintage sale!

On a whim she decided to host a small sale at her house in her fabulous dining room … you remember her fabulous dining room right?

Well, now you have a chance to see it up close and personal with the added benefit of lots of lovely things for sale.

And I am guessing that you could easily take a quick spin around her garden in the back and she wouldn’t mind.

Need some ironstone?

Maybe some white platters?

Or perhaps some fabulous vintage linens?

This floral oil painting is simply gorgeous (please squint a little to try and ignore the reflection of me in my striped jacket taking this photo!)

There is some black to punctuate all of the white (and oh no, more of my stripes, clearly this was a bad clothing choice for taking photos).

And some lovely florals.

I even saw this guy poking his head out from a pile of stuff for sale.

The main reason Sue decided to have this sale was to offer up some of her gorgeous china.  The pieces are priced individually, so if you don’t want a whole set, but just some gorgeous plates to eat dinner on … or maybe a lovely set of dishes for serving just dessert, then this is perfect for you.  And omg, you can even see those stripes reflected in the platter!  Good gracious.

There are several lovely patterns to choose from.  Wouldn’t that small bowl be perfect on your dressing table to hold your bracelets?

 So, if you’ll be in town this weekend why not plan to swing by Sue’s house on Saturday morning?  I’m sure you’ll find something lovely to add to your home, and if nothing else just being near Sue’s gorgeous gardens and lovely home will inspire you!

Here are the details:

I’ve mentioned before that Sue and I work together, and occasionally we get called away to important breakfast meetings.  These mostly take place on Thursdays or Fridays in the summer, in other words, garage sale season.

We had one of these meetings this week.  It’s an annual sort of thing.  A small block sale just a mile or two from our office that we watch for every year.  We know what their signs look like, and Sue and I both drive right past the corner where they usually place one on our way in.  As soon as we got in to work, we both agreed it was time for an important breakfast meeting.

 One of the gals who participates in this block sale is an antiques dealer who is slowly selling off her inventory and getting out of the biz.  Her prices are always phenomenal and I manage to find lots of awesome stuff.

Wouldn’t this red and green tin be great at Christmas time?  It would make an awesome gift filled with cookies and bars.   And how much do you love that toy beater with its tiny red handle?  One could tie that on with twine to complete the gift.

The chair they are sitting on will be getting a chippy paint job for sure.

These old tennis rackets have the most fabulous patina.  For now I plan to keep them as potential future furniture photo shoot props.  If they don’t work out for that, they will likely make their way into my next sale.  They would be awesome hung on a wall.

I nabbed a pile of old buckets.  I love stenciling on these.  Some of these will get “French Market”, and some will probably get numbers.

 I also picked up some vintage ornaments to add to my collection.  You can’t really tell the scale from this photo, but the smaller round ornaments are about the size of marbles.  They will be great near the top of my tabletop trees.

And isn’t this “how to speak French” hankie cute?  I wish I was going to Paris, how fun to take this handy hankie along for quick and easy translation.  It would also be great tucked into a basket with a Paris guide book and maybe some French wine to create a fantastic bon voyage gift, if I knew someone going to France.

I did bring home a few more things that didn’t manage to make their way into the photos.  All in all, it was a very successful breakfast meeting!

Yesterday was the ‘ECCO Super Sale’.  At least that is what they call it.  You know, I have been going to this sale for years, but I have no idea what the extra ‘C’ stands for.  I know it’s the East Calhoun neighborhood, I think the ‘o’ at the end is for organization … but that extra ‘c’ … no idea.

And I’m not so sure about the ‘Super Sale’ part.  There were 58 houses participating this year, but I don’t know if it was super.  It poured rain the entire time!  Luckily my companion and I both wore fabulous rain boots.  We didn’t go around puddles, we just went right through them!  I haven’t been that soaked in a long time.  My raincoat turned out to not be so waterproof after all.  My ball cap was dripping wet by the end.  But we still had a great time, and even in the rain that neighborhood has some gorgeous houses, not to mention an awesome homemade taco stand.  Delicious!

Here is my tiny haul after a morning of slogging through the rain.

The table is quite rustic, in a good way.  I’m know I definitely won’t paint the top, but I’m toying with the idea of painting just the base.  I have another of these tables in the workshop at the moment, and I took the leaves off that one.  With the leaves off, one can use these as a small desk.  I’m going to have to study this one for a bit before I decide what to do with it.

I found a few nice glass pieces.  A large Pottery Barn bowl that would be great for serving salads or popcorn.  Another nice glass canister (Terri, do you need another one of these?), a square jar with a great green lid, and an awesome mid-century cocktail mixer.  I also came home with a pair of vintage green binoculars.  I’m thinking of keeping them as a prop for future furniture photo shoots.

This seems to be the year of the doll sized furniture.  In this case, a bow front china cabinet.  I don’t think it’s old, but is seems fairly well made.  I grabbed it mainly because I think it will be charming painted.

I love buying perennials at garage sales.  I have filled quite a bit of space in my garden with garage sale plants.  When you buy them this way, you can be fairly sure that they thrive in your climate, otherwise the seller wouldn’t have extras to sell.  Generally they also tend to be plants that spread for the same reason.  So, buyer beware, these things might take over your garden!  As might be the case with the Sweet Woodruff I purchased today.  I will plant it in my shade garden and hope it doesn’t take over too much territory.  And at 3 plants for $5, it’s hard to go wrong.

They look pretty cute in the tiny wagon I purchased, don’t they?

We called it quits a little earlier than usual due to being soaking wet, not to mention that I had plenty to do back here at home to get ready for the Carriage House Sale!  Here’s hoping that I have better weather for that!

There was a quiet little holiday weekend neighborhood sale in Minneapolis yesterday.  The Armitage and Kenny neighborhoods combined forces and there were about 45 houses participating.

It was a gorgeous morning, and because of the holiday there wasn’t much traffic or competition for the good stuff.

Although I didn’t fill up the truck, I did come home with some great stuff.

The blue motel chairs are perfectly chippy and fabulous.

I will paint the blue suitcase and the little wonky stool in front.  The vintage desk lamp will be great in future desk photo shoots.

I found a fun old Spartus 35 F camera, a fabulous old movie camera and some great vintage gardening books.

I’ve been adding stencils to old breadboards, and I found 3 good ones!

I’m hoping the glass shade will fit on a fixture I already have.

The chenille bedspread is a new reproduction (Martha Stewart in fact), and it is in great shape.  It’s always good to have extra white bedding.

We were home just a little after noon, and I already slapped some paint on the little stool.  First a coat of MMSMP in Flow Blue, followed by a thick coat of MMSMP in Eulalie’s Sky.  I wanted it to look chippy and old.

I popped it into the garden and took a couple of quick photos.  That host in the front is June.  I’m not sure what the little plant with the purple flowers is, I bought it at a garage sale!  Naturally.  It’s really looking gorgeous this year, covered in those purple flowers.  It will re-bloom later in the summer, but it won’t be as full of flowers as it is now.  Does anyone know what that is?

Can I mention that in the last week or so the garden has just popped?!  Stuff is up and blooming and looking fantastic.  I always love this time of year in the garden, before the slugs start eating the hostas, or a huge hail storm turns everything raggedy.  The fresh growth is pristine and beautiful.  Maybe I’ll have to take some more photos to share with all of you.

I staged the chippy stool with my new vintage garden books, and a fab vintage garden tool that I picked up at the estate sale while playing hooky.

I’m sure most of these items will make their way to the Carriage House Sale!

OK, I wasn’t exactly playing hooky.  It was a legitimate PTO day from the day job.  I had originally scheduled a couple of days off to extend the Memorial Day weekend and to get a bunch of stuff done before my upcoming Carriage House Sale.

But then, the forecast was perfect.  70 and sunny.   And to top it off, my new friend Michelle was willing to head out to the big city (Minneapolis, that is) with me to check out a garden center that I have always wanted to visit.  Furthermore, she’d spied an ad for an estate sale we could stop at on the way.  I was really playing hooky from a day planned for furniture painting.

It was so worth it.

The estate sale was fantastic.  A house crammed full of probably 75 years of stuff.  An attic to dig through.  And clearly Michelle knows how to dig!  Look at this incredible toy dresser she pulled out of a corner of the attic.

Those tiny glass knobs are to die for.

Michelle is going to use it in her shop, Rose Mille, to display ribbons and such.  First she will put her own touch on it by lining the drawers with some vintage wallpaper.  I can’t imagine anything more perfect for her.  Maybe Michelle will share an ‘after’ picture with us.  How about it Michelle?

After seeing this amazing find, I headed over to the same corner to see what else was there.  I saw a darling vintage metal toy stove and refrigerator, and a little toy sized carpet sweeper.  I passed on those items, but I had to have this little hutch.

Not nearly as fab as Michelle’s little dresser, but cute.  I knew I could up the cute factor with some milk paint too.

I wanted to keep the green and yellow vintage paper, so I decided on some MMSMP in Mustard Seed Yellow for the first coat, then a top coat of Linen.

Isn’t it sweet?

It’s the perfect spot to display a tiny little ironstone creamer and some vintage play silverware.

The base coat of yellow just peeks out around the edges.

I am sure that this sweet little hutch will end up at the Carriage House Sale and go home with some lucky shopper!