Deal of the Century....

Well....Maybe not the century....Maybe just the year. Each year Desert Sky Methodist Church has a rummage sale that lasts the first Thursday, Friday and Saturday of November. I told you about it last year and the year before...

I am never disappointed. Mostly I just buy odds and ends, but they are good odds and ends.

This year I spent a whole 16.85 and The only reason the it was that high was one item that I just had to have. We'll get to that later.

First of all, some of the things that I got. Two large wooden boxes. One is a wine box and I am not sure if the round one was for cheese or something else. Both will make good mini scenes or storage. Total for the two...$3.oo.

On the right, there is a small Japanese chest, covered with origami paper. It sits atop a sewing box. It's not very old, but the top is like a picture frame and can be replaced. There are spindles inside for 6 spools of thread. That one needs a bit of work.

In the front row, left to right, There is a huge bag of cocktail swizzle sticks. Whomever collected these went drinking all over the world. The person was a long time collector. There is even a red propeller with TWA embossed on each end. It seems to me that maybe those were around when I was a kid. Very old.... Then there is an old glass jar with roses on the lid full of pins. The kind that they used to make that were so big that they left holes in the fabric....But they never bent.

The only minis I found was a bunch of Mexican pottery. A whole bag full for a buck. Below that are two pair of really nice embroidery scissors...I have a weakness for scissors and can't stand to see them orphaned.

Next to that, top to bottom a bag of plastic rings for tatting, a small Mexican dish that matches some bowls that I have. At the bottom, two key chains that are oval photo frames.

Tessie is sitting on a large pile of fabric for embroidery. All of that added up to 10.85. One of the pair of scissors costs that much new. Imported from Germany.


Back to the swizzle sticks...Tessie made me dump them into the wine box and she went to work. We haven't sorted them all, but they will all get used, one way or another. The plain ones make great glue sticks.

The tops on some of them are figural. There is everything from ship's wheels to a couple of different sizes of swords. I noticed one to the right of Tessie's head that is a pick axe. Maybe Zar can start mining for his own uranium...

I will let you know if we discover anything else in the box. Poke the photo and enlarge to see some of the ones that I laid out in the lid of the box.

Now....The piece that I couldn't resist....I got a new laundry bag! I know....Most people don't get that excited about laundry. This one is made of ecru linen and embroidered.

From the shape, fabric and design, I would guess that is is probably from the 30s or maybe even earlier. The nice thing about it is, I don't think that anybody ever put their laundry into it. If they did, they took really good care of it. The stitches look like new. I am going to carefully launder and iron it and hang it someplace where I can look at it for a while.

Anyway, that was what I spent the other 6.00 on.

Someplace in the first photo is a bracelet made of tiny wooden beads. I forgot to mention that. It will probably get torn apart and the beads used for something else.

For now, I am just going back and help Tessie sort swizzle sticks.

See you tomorrow.