Cheryl Butts In: A Weekend Not Doing What I Was Supposed to Be Doing

I'm lucky enough to have not one, but 2 guest posters this week.  First, Cheryl took pity on me one more time and sent me this wonderful post and second, Di at "Cook The TV" sent me an awesome recipe post that I will be sharing with you on Thursday. (I love the name of her blog and her recipes are so good!)  Me?  My friend Judy is here helping me with some last minute details and I'm getting ready to move!  In the meantime, please welcome Cheryl In Wisconsin once again!!

In my last post I commented on the arrival of spring in a place where we so desperately need it.  Nature has furthered her momentum, the signs are everywhere.  There are robins outside.  (The photo above is of an old stained glass window I had placed on my front porch – last year the robins built the nest there and hatched out three rounds of robinettes.  I’m just waiting for them to reclaim it as a sanctuary.)  I can hear the roar of Harley Davidsons.  And my mother called me to invite me to go to a Garage Sale.

**blink      blink blink blink**

My aunt had called my mother and asked her to let me know about this particular sale.  She promised that there were things that I would like, and the prices were reasonable.  I briefly considered this weekend’s to-do list and seconds later agreed that a garage sale is exactly where I should be.   (It’s important that I mention here that much of the to-do list consists of eliminating things from my house, not adding.)

So, at 8 a.m. Saturday morning we headed to the tiny town where the sale was being held.  It was hostessed by a fascinating woman who was in the process of moving into the little farmette and needed to downsize.  Please allow me to share my haul with you:

First, this old wooden crate, a wine box?  It had aged beautifully.  I can picture this with caster wheels and used in my living room.  I modified it a bit by using a sharpie and an antique stencil I had purchased on eBay from a seller in England:

I could not resist these croquet balls, complete with basket.  I’m not sure how I will use them yet.

This sheep baaa-ed at me from its spot in the sale.

It stands guard on my front porch, greeting visitors.  (Please do not look too closely at the chippy paint on my porch posts.  I LOVE chippy paint, just not actually ON the house.  Painting porch posts is one of the entries on that elusive to-do list.)

A wooden pig cutting board, advertising McMillen’s in St. Paul.  I want to hang this guy up somewhere in the kitchen.

“A&P Bread Contest Winner

W.F. Rogers

1937”

I adore it.

This small tureen came with the original ceramic ladle.  I wonder what kind of stories this would tell if it could.

These gallon jars are not old, you can still pick them up new.  However the price was fabulous and I bought four of them.  I already owned two, they sit on my ‘craft table’ holding door knobs and misc. metal parts.  Can’t you just picture a grouping of all six?  These four may hold doilies, silverware, croquet balls, whatever.  Visual storage.  Form AND function.

The most incredible part of this story?  I paid TWENTY DOLLARS for the entire lot.  Blowing off my chores to visit this sale was a good decision.  Plus, I got to spend some quality time with my mom.

Sunday was a to-do list bust also.  Michael Perry is an author who writes about life in rural Wisconsin.  He is hilarious, when I read his books I laugh out loud.  He made an appearance at our local theatre, an anonymous donor had paid to have him here, admission to the event was a donation to the local food pantry.  He regaled the crowd with his stories and it was an entire audience laughing out loud.  This man offers such a gift to his readers.  I recommend his books to anyone who enjoys a bit of humor about the human spirit.

So, here I sit with a messy house but the enjoyment I got from this weekend’s activities was worth it.  There’s always next weekend, right?

Danni, keep on keepin’ on, girl.  Your to-do list is much more impressive than mine.