As with most school years, we had one staff-only conference day before students return. With a shocking disregard for my estate saling needs, my school district scheduled it for the Friday before Labor Day. Which meant that Sarah (@thesnugbungalowshop) would be going to estate sales alone. Fortunately for me, our favorite estate sale company often opens their sales on Thursday, and they had one listed that looked very interesting.
I was eager and a little nervous (I don't go to these things alone! And on the first day!). Because there were a lot of dresses pictured and I had a list of things to check out for Sarah, I decided to go earlier than usually to get a good number. I turned onto the street and saw this:
A feeling of foreboding came over me.
Yup. 31. THIRTY. ONE. I got there at an early hour for me and THIRTY people beat me there! Still, I rarely have competition for dresses so I wasn't really worried.
Like nearly every day this past summer, it was a chilly one, so I headed back to my car to wait. I passed this beauty on the way and stopped to give her some love. Her name turned out to be Daisy, which is the name of the estate sale company. I couldn't decide if this was a good or a bad omen.
Lucky for me, two friends turned up at the sale too! I was so happy to not be waiting alone. Andrew was decidedly less excited about the mandatory selfie.
I finally got in and the lady who runs the sale (actually named Andrea but I enjoy calling her Daisy) said "oh, you'll want to go upstairs". Because they know me here. Apparently I am memorable. I'm not sure if it's the piles of dresses I tend to carry out, or the noises I make while discovering them. Best not to speculate.
I went into the first bedroom to find that it had been relieved of all of the good dresses. There was one in particular that I wanted and I recognized the spot from the picture, but it was gone. I was surprised and disappointed. I moved into another room and saw a pile of dresses. I started to go through them and a lady standing nearby said "Oh sorry, that's mine!"
I did not recognize this lady, but she was clearly getting in between me and my God-given right to all vintage dresses at all sales I'm at. If you haven't heard, I WIN AT DRESSES. And this woman had BEATEN ME. I wanted to hate her. But darn it, she was so nice. She offered me things she was deciding against and pointed out that one skirt that I was holding had some fading. Stupid nice lady, not letting me hate her! I took a picture of them to send Sarah. You can see how I felt about the situation in my expression (and my frazzled hair).
I kept inspecting closets for treasures they may have left behind, and I was rewarded. I got just enough lovely things to make me happy, and not feel overwhelmed. So they honestly did me a favor. I started to feel less cranky and resented my lack of dislike towards them a little less.
I also felt more relaxed and spent some time investigating things for Sarah.
This was a pile of Christmas (among other things) that someone was hoarding. I felt sure that all the stuff on my list was in there somewhere. (It wasn't. More on that in a couple of pics).
She sent me after one creepy plastic faced animal. Don't know why she wouldn't want another! She didn't, though.
I found this! It wasn't on her list and I KNEW she would want it! I was SO damn proud of myself for this. If they gave out awards for finally figuring our your friend's taste in Christmas, I would have won it. I earned it.
You might recognize these from her blog post about her trip to the same sale the next day! They were priced higher than she wanted to pay, so she gambled and waited and won!
She was over the moon about this one.
I went back upstairs, determined to check all the fabric piles that I'd passed over in case they contained cute clothes. I found a lot of vintage lingerie and took home a few pieces. There were 2 other ladies (not the ones from earlier) who were going through the same room and were such happy, friendly ladies. They were showing each other items, commenting on things the other was looking at and started to include me in the fun. They offered me things I might like. They banished what was left of my earlier crankiness and agreed to pose for a selfie with me!
I was in such an improved mood, in fact, that when I ran into one of the two ladies from earlier, I struck up a conversation with her. She told me that they were from Toronto and were under a time crunch for a vintage show of some sort so they had come all the way to Rochester (*cough cough* to invade my territory and steal my treasures but it'sOKIforgiveyoubecauseyou'reawesome *cough*).
I finally got out of there (and I'm telling you, that was no small feat as I had a million things to carry and it was CROWDED in there) and headed to Sarah's work to give her the things I'd grabbed for her and to show off my hard-won treasures.
It's not the same as adventuring together, but it will do! *Not pictured: the stuff Sarah got for me the next day when she went, because I haven't seen it IRL yet!*
Here's a little video of my finds! Some of these will be staying with me (the gray beaded top, the red top, and we'll see about some of the others) but the rest will be showing up in my Etsy shop. If I ever manage to get caught up! I'm drowning in vintage at the moment.
I'll see you all after my next Friday off!
