Amazing junking AND a new BFF!

See all those empty stalls???
Label this one "yuk!"

Some "inventory gathering" outings are just better than others.  Kinda like finding a man, where you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince.  With junking, you have to endure a lot of average and downright yukky sales to find a great one.  After all, desirable junk - and lots of it - can be so hard to find these days. . . .

To find one incredible sale is heavenly.  Two - in the same weekend - is bliss.  See that grin on my face?  We're talkin' bliss here. 

We three flea.o.logists met early this past Friday morning up in Centerville for a sale that turned out to be more fun than Disneyland for a five-year-old.  Enough stuff for all three of us and for new flea.o.logy dealer Rachael, whom we saw there.  I brought home four dozen vintage printed hankies, more antique post cards to add to the stash, a few pieces of vintage clothing, an enamel colander, and a few other bits and bobs that I knew would find good homes at flea.o.logy. 

While "up north" we stopped in at Just a Bed of Roses,
our friend Brenda's charming shop in Farmington,
where I found this.  Amazing, huh?

Sorry. . . it's going to live with me for a while.

And then, Saturday morning, it happened again.  Bliss again.  I started out at my friend Tamara's sale in Sandy, where I came home with bunches of delicious vintage sewing patterns and a few more aqua mason jars for those of you addicted to Pinterest. 


 

Giving Tam a hug I dashed off, with 11 more sales on my "to-do" list.  Which sale to choose???  There was one fairly close by with vintage furniture, vintage camping gear and a vintage dinette, along with pet items & stereos.  I don't think so.  I chose one farther away, in Sugarhouse, that promised to have "vintage, kitchen kitsch, rusty yard decor, and lots more."  Woo hoo - kitsch and rust!  Cross my fingers that it's as good as it sounds.

I soooo love it when I choose the right sale!  And wowsa, this was the right one.  Best sale I've been to in ages. . . maybe the best sale ever.  After scanning the outside stuff (quick! grab that awesome old window for Paula's garden house) I made a bee-line for the kitchen, with the promised kitsch still there.  I started filling my basket, then headed for the basement.  Found the yellow buoy on the stairs. . . loooove it!  (So did my neighbor, who saw it hanging up outside at home.  Sorry - already sold.)  A whole row of sad irons, I snatched up my favorite and let fellow antique dealer/friend Joan take the rest.  Head for the back room in the basement, FILLED with Christmas decor - some of it among the kitschiest stuff I've seen.  Woo hoo, amazing treasures everywhere I look!  And - enough of it to satisfy myself AND the other dealers and shoppers there.

My new BFF Julie, and her brother Jeff

My favorite part of this sale, however, wasn't the "stuff."  (Okay, so it was really great stuff.   But this sale had something more.)  My favorite part was the sellers - Julie and her brothers, parting with their parents' "estate."  They were endearing, approving heartily about what I was choosing.  We chatted about how much we love rusty stuff.  We chatted about a bunch of stuff - each time I surfaced with a new load of goodies to buy.  I got giddy when I heard one of the brothers say that everything in the back yard was for sale.  I made a mad dash for the back yard.  Found a few amazing galvanized tubs that'll find their way to flea.o.logy.  And an OLD child's picnic table with spatterings of red paint.  Her brother helped me carry the v.e.r.y.h.e.a.v.y thing out of the yard. 

Then, somewhere in the middle of a conversation along the lines of "Should we sell the drapes,?" Julie asked me for my opinion on the subject and subsequently declared me her new BFF. That's one of the great things about this junking business, the relationships we make. In the course of buying her vintage goodness, we connected.  

(BTW, have you seen anything yet that's going to be

your "Favorite flea.o.logy Find?" 

Be thinking about your favorite find from our last sale,

blog post about that coming soon!)

I've learned that you can always
trust someone who loves rusty junk!

I picked up these curly things for Jenn. 
I wonder what she'll make with them?
"Uncle Harry made them," Julie told me.
I could tell that it was important that I know this.

It took me three trips to Julie's parents' house to bring home everything I bought.  I think that's a record.  Can't wait to show all of it to you.  It was truly amazing junking, with a lot of fun & joking thrown in.  My son helped out on inventory-gathering-trip number two.  He wasn't too thrilled about helping to carry the incredible humongo cubby shelf that I rescued from the garage (once more - sorry, that one's going to live with me for a while, too).  On the way home he asked me how long I had known "those people."  Since this morning, I told him.  He was stunned.  He said it seemed like we had known each other for a very long time.

* * * * * * * *

I soooo love this business. 

You meet just the nicest people. 

Including new best friends. . . .

~ c a T h i E