If you know me, you know that I love yard sales.  I also love flea markets, antique shops, estate sales and generally anywhere I feel like I could snag something unique and awesome.  You might even remember that I collect vintage pottery, and those finds always make me the happiest.

Well the last few weeks there have finally been some good sales around, plus last week we managed to oversleep and missed church (whoops!) and went to the Columbus Flea Market, where my in-laws had a table.  So while Marc and the kids hung out with his parents I actually had a few minutes of uninterrupted shopping time and it’s not an exaggeration to say that it was heavenly.  I didn’t manage to buy a ton, but this is what I ended up with from the flea market:

The pot on the left is a Hull brown drip bean pot– I am trying to cheaply amass a collection of Hull brown drip pottery so we can use that as our everyday dishes.  Yes, people like to make passive aggressive comments about how “seventies” it is, but I love it.  I spied this lid-less pot on a very bored man’s table and I asked him “no lid?” and he said “no, but you can have it for a dollar.” Ding!  I was furiously digging out a dollar and then he looked disappointed like maybe he should have asked for more.  Booyea!

Then, I walked around a few more tables and found that brown drip cookie jar and loved it.  It only has “USA” marked on the bottom.  It’s definitely not Hull, and it’s also not McCoy, I don’t know what it is.  But they wanted $10 for it, and I managed to haggle my way down when I commented on how it “really doesn’t match” the pot I just bought, and then the seller said “well how much did you pay for that?”  And when I told her $1 I guess she realized I wasn’t going to pay $10.  Bing, $5!

While I was walking around I found this really awesome huge drum:

But the sellers wanted $75 for it, and that was too much for me.  They told me how they used it for a coffee table, and that’s naturally what I was thinking of using it for, wouldn’t this be cool as a playroom coffee table?  But, I didn’t get it.  It was pretty rad though.

So just when I thought we weren’t buying anything else at the flea market, we were on our way out when we spotted this:

I thought it would be really cute for our entryway, where we currently had this little telephone table.  Marc wasn’t sold right away, and the guy wanted $50, but after he agreed to take $40 we got it.  On our way out everyone was oohing and ahhing over it and I think that helped boost Marc’s opinion of it.  Now it’s in our entryway and looks really cute.  Plus it’s the perfect size for putting laundry baskets on (does anyone else make their husband carry up the laundry?  I might just be really lazy).  It needs a new coat of white paint, but I love it.

Flash forward to this week and there was a large community yard sale near us.  Last year we were pretty unlucky with this particular town sale, but we thought we’d give it a try, mostly because a friend was having a bake sale and I donated some lemon cookies and thought we’d stop by and support it.  We turned out to find some cute stuff and it was all for less than $20!

We have been on the hunt for a chair for a sweet little desk Rayna has in her room that my sister gave me.  I painted it bright green and it’s adorable, but it just needs a chair.  You’d be amazed how hard it is to find the right sized chair, at a decent price.  They had this for $10, we got it for $8 and now it’s another project for me to paint.  I think we’ll paint it dark pink.

My picture is lame, but this wood & silver tray is really cool.  The lady who sold it to us (for $3) told us that her mother in law used to store decanters on it.  I don’t know what we’ll do with it, but it looks cool.

This is another purchase that might suggest that I entertain more often than I actually do, but for $1 I couldn’t pass it up.  It is mid-century pottery at its cutest: a leaf tray with three little condiment jars (only 2 spoons, womp womp) and my favorite part–a little flower bud toothpick holder.  I love this, and hey it was $1.

At our last stop, which was a big church sale (thank God for them–no pun intended–because 5 year olds can really put a damper on a big yard sale day when they “just can’t hold it anymore” and the church is offering potty facilities) there were tables and tables of pure junk.  Like hideous mugs, ancient and now useless kitchen tongs, etc.  and then I found that brown mug, which might look hideous to you, but I love it!  It is an old pottery type called Mar-crest daisy and dot, and as you can see I already have that bowl (and some other things) and this mug was just yelling to me for a quarter!

So while I regaled Marc with my quarter find, what to my wondering eyes should appear?  A dirty little McCoy vase for a buck!  I washed it up & promptly stuck it on my shelf:None of this stuff is “worth” a lot, even the McCoy is a Floraline vase, which is generally worth much less than my usual ones, but they made me very happy.   I hope this has inspired you to get out and start trolling some yard sales, or at least not make passive aggressive comments about my dish choices

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