The end of the official junking season

 Our quaint little town transforms for one weekend a year when it goes from cute little tourist town to something else entirely.

The hoards arrive.
We have a city-wide yard sale every September and it attracts people from far and wide. Folks come to sell or to buy or both and it's a crazy festive weekend. But be careful where you park. Just sayin'.

This year it started on Friday for the first time and although the majority of vendors wouldn't be set up until Saturday, I decided to get a head-start. Plus, I'd been sick for almost a week and had cabin fever BAD.

Here's an email I sent to a girlfriend about Friday:

She says she laughed and laughed and read it to her husband. Huh.

After the aforementioned hill-climb my legs were jelly. I didn't realize what a toll that little escapade had taken on me. I walked back to the main part of town on quivering legs that were wanting to lay me out flat on the sidewalk. I amused myself imagining various scenarios: 

I'm at the Gate and Saint Peter is looking at his book:

Saint Peter: You're early.

Me: Yeah. Sorry.

Saint Peter: What happened?

Me: There was this garage sale being billed as an estate ..........

Saint Peter: GAH! Not another word! ACK! Get in there! I don't want to hear about garage sales!

(Typical man.)

The first thing I did was look for a cane so I could make it to my car without drawing attention.

I found an unassuming brown one.

When I got home I decided to jazz it up a little.

I'm thinking of painting some canes to sell. We're a nation of baby-boomers and canes will be the fashion accessory of no-choice, right?

Saturday I went back to the sale with Mr. Bad and my cane and we did a fairly quick tour. We had a commitment for mid-morning so we couldn't do even a quarter of the sale.

None the less - we found some interesting stuff.

I painted the plant stand and bird cage stand before I thought to take
a group picture.

Here's the hand-chopping fan - love those old guys - and the smallest metal cage I've ever seen.

 The clock turned out to be not working but cleaned up it will be a cute dust collector. I'm thinking the cage was for transporting small critters from pet stores way back when? Anyone know?

 

 This poor shade plant got cooked in the hot sun. It's perking up now but I still have to cut off all the black leaves.

An old drawer with casters. There were 4 sets of 4 casters in there. Usually it's only 3 of each so I was dancing my happy dance. With a cane.

I have no idea what these cup things are. The woman selling them didn't either but she told me they were lead. I think they're zinc but I'll refrain from licking them until I know for sure.

Sedums! Succulents? And the coolest metal lampshade. It looked better before my dog knocked it into the gravel. I put it on the lamp between my old black typewriters and it looks fabulous there.

Oh yeah, and the bookcase. It will be part of a paint display. It has nice lines and will sit on top of this when they are both finished:

Someone bought my other display furniture so I'm using my stand-in until this project is done. I hate putting items in my booth that are not-for-sale so I use a smallish unpainted hutch for backup should a display sell.

Jacksonville's next big event will be in about 4 weeks when we get the fall colors. It's lovely!
(This view is across the street from the one above.)

David Gibb Photography

Looking forward to it! Fall is my favorite season.

Linking to:
wow us wednesdays
furniture feature friday
party junk