Saturday, September 7, 2013

Garage Sale Days

Every year, I look forward to this weekend in September, when the neighboring town of Media, PA, holds their Garage Sale Days.  We park our car anywhere, and find ourselves within walking distance of scores of garage and yard sales throughout the community.
My husband and I can measure the changes in our lives by the Garage Sale Days:  we started out going on our own, then moved on to pushing our babies in strollers, and now we find ourselves grabbing hands and calling out "wait!" and "just look...don't touch!" and "move over; let those people by on the sidewalk!"
But the efforts are worth it, for the chance to see all kinds of great loot--from junk to kitsch to vintage.  Most people price their things to sell, though some clearly mis-take their garages for antique shops and attach hefty price tags to the items they are supposedly trying to unload from their homes.  I picked up two little baggies of buttons to purchase, nearly missing their $12 and $25 price tags.  Needless to say, they went right back into their basket.
Another great side benefit of the Garage Sale Days is a chance to get a good look at the interesting architecture around town.  My husband and I have daydreamed about living in Media since before we settled in our current home.
And what is the nearly universal appeal of doorways and gates?  It must be some primeval symbolism that we are all innately drawn to!
We were hoping to teach our children some principles of money management by taking a dollar from their piggy banks that they could choose to spend however they wished.  That would have worked out great, but people ended up offering them most items they showed interest in for free!  The girls each came home with a bag of loot that they spread out in the family room to inspect.
And what about Mommy?  I did not come home empty-handed, of course.  I am the happy new owner of a small, wood shadow box, purchased for a dollar, and ten new glass bottles, a dollar apiece.  Score!
I hope your weekend is as sunny and gorgeous as we are enjoying around here!


9 comments:

Anne said...

You must be right about entrances -- I have a whole folder of "door" pictures!Good score on the bottles because they're hard to come by. Glad you all had fun.

Cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com said...

Looks like fun!

Patty Antle said...

I love garage sales. I would love to find a friend who enjoys them too. Hubby would never go to them with me. I love old bottles. Are you going to alter them?

scrapwordsmom said...

Oh how jealous I am looking at these pics. You live in a beautiful place and those yard sales look like heaven...lol!!!

Janet said...

The Garage Sale Days sounds like heaven! Nothing like that where I live. I'd be there in a heartbeat. I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend than by doing some garage sale shopping and coming home with lots of goodies for only a little money. LOVE those bottles!!

Adriann said...

Ooh I see a configuration box in your wooden box. Nice haul!

Sue said...

No paper craft treasures? I have a friend that enjoys yard/garage sales too and it is a fun thing to share with someone. What catches our eyes. She likes linens and kitchen items. I still look for rubber stamps and things I can use in my card making creations. Glad you had a nice time!

Parabolic Muse said...

Okay, this idea of having a neighborhood garage sale is about as brilliant as possible! So easy to see all, getting through everything in one day, and be able to compare when there are duplicates of things! And, yes, sometimes garage salers mistake their events for 'estate sales'.

Maria Ontiveros said...

What a fun day! I love the architectural details you photographed.
Rinda