Christmas in August!

 First of all, thanks to our latest followers, Eibhlin,Maka Jarra,and Daisy Ferrell,who have joined us in the past couple of weeks. Welcome!
 I went to an estate sale today.

That's a whole set of Greek style trays at the bottom,with a vintage Redball Jets shoe box,)My favourite childhood shoes!), and a vintage Q-Tips box.

Estate sales can be great because it's usually a lifetime's worth of stuff, and the stuff can be old too. But that's also the reason I find estate sales so sad. It's somebody's whole life, or even a couple of people's lives, going up for sale. It's awful to watch someone's precious possessions being ruthlessly dug through by a crowd. Things that meant so much to someone are just crap to be shoved out of the way while they look for something 'good'. I can't understand how the family of the deceased can watch as people paw through their loved ones things.
  The sale we went to today was being run by the kids of a lady who had passed away. Her husband had died before her, so her children were clearing out her house and putting it up for sale. We dealt mostly with one son, and we were there for ages, so we got to know him a little. He was telling us how he didn't keep things from the past. He was past that point in his life. But his siblings had been going through his parent's  things and saying,"Oh! I have to keep that! Mom and Dad loved that!" He had been encouraging them to let things go.
  When we got there alot of the stuff still wasn't out, so it hadn't been gone through yet. He let Ken help get the tubs of Christmas ornaments out for me. I was trying not to spend a fortune, but it wasn't easy! The ornaments were mostly from the 60's, which is my childhood,with some things a bit older. I took about half the ornaments in one tub,but when the guy said $40 I whittled it down. He still said $30, so I whittled it down some more. When I was whittling down the last time one of the other siblings came by and spotted an ornament that meant a lot to her; a chubby cloth angel that she said frequently sat atop their Christmas tree. She asked, "Oh. Is this something that you're taking?" Well, no. Not if it means something to her. I can live without it, and she should keep it.
  After my whittling I got the ornaments and a 10" tall feathered angel, (I think it's by Holt Howard.), for $15.

I have some vintage ornaments that match her. They're a bit like the little ones in front of her, only with heads like hers.

They look like those knee hugger hillbillies, but they have pointy ears. My favourite of these guys is the goofy looking guy with the blonde forelock. Love the cuckoo clock too!

The ceramic Santa and Mrs. Claus are candle holders for very small candles.

I love the 'children of the world' type doll ornaments the most out of all of the ones I got, except the feather angel.On the left are some nursery rhyme themed ornaments. In the middle are 4 raggedy Ann and Andy ones.

The nursery rhyme ones include Little Boy Blue, Jill,the old woman who lived in a shoe,Old Mother Hubbard,Jack(who jumped over the candlestick),Little Miss Muffet,and even Old King Cole, way down on the right.

Some vintage kid's books,including some first editions, and a cool tray with coffee sayings on it.

The nesting baskets on the right are very delicate. They all have lids. Underneath everything is a damask table cloth and matching napkins.

  When we first walked up I thought I wasn't going to find anything! We ended up being there so long it was the only sale we got to! We left our house at 10:15 and it was at least 1:30 when we left the sale! From there it was lunch, because we were starving, and then to school to pick up Ivy. Ken was glad to get home because he hates parting with money! Hey Ken, there's still tomorrow!