good. but creepy.

With friends Sara and Melissa by my side, I ventured to the world’s largest textile garage sale on Saturday.  Was it everything I hope for and more?  Eh.  It was good but I will admit between the photos of the event leading me to think it would be larger and the fact that I scored no buttons-to-cover, I was the slightest bit disappointed.  That, however, does not mean that I nor Sara nor Melissa left empty handed.  I paid $8 for this pile of fabric, nearly all indicative of my current love of gingham and plaid –

There are easily three yards of the yellow/orange/green plaid home decor weight – fabric that would cost about $9/yard at full cost and the type of fabric that is ideal for making grocery totes.  The gray gingham is also home decor weight, and as I unwrapped the taped bundle, I discovered that half of the bundle appears to be a finished table runner.  So now I guess I own a gray checked table runner?  And a shirt sleeve.  Do you see the yellow striped shirt sleeve?  It was inside of another bundle of fabric.  A tad creepy?  I think so.  [At least it was just the shirt sleeve and not, like, the arm that was in the sleeve.  Dan Brown, get out of my head!]

As we left the fabric sale and as we drove off, we saw orange estate sale signs.  “Do you want to go?” I asked.  Sure.  Sara and Melissa were ready and willing for further adventure.  [The best kinds of friends are the ones always up for an impromptu adventure!]  I’d never been to an estate sale but have heard many times it’s the place to score mighty cool things.  We walked up the stairs to an old home and were greeted with a horrid musty smell the moment we stepped inside the front door.  The place was dingy and dark and smelly.  In one word – creepy.  Live there I would not.  We scouted the goods for sale from room to room with both exclamations of excitement and general confusion.  Examples of the creepiness?

Further creepiness?  As we neared the room to check out with our purchases [I bought my Banana Christmas gift for this year from amidst the creepiness.  muahaha.], an older woman in a fur coat approached us.  She was not one of the employees administering the sale, as they wore aprons, but yet didn’t appear to be a shopper either.  “Would you like to see a secret drawer?” she asked as she pointed to a dresser in the corner of the room.  “Sure?” we responded.  Certain enough, there was a secret drawer in this dresser, as she found the latch to press and pulled it open.  “For your jewelry,” she told us.  “You don’t have much now, but you will later.”  Was this woman the owner of the home?  Was she present as all of her things – from a clown mask to old handwritten letters to gorgeous blue plates – walked out the door in the hands of other people?  Extremely strange.  And, as Sara pointed out later, she kinda looked like the woman Harry and Hermione encounter in Godric’s Hollow.  You know, the one that turned into the giant snake.  I’m glad we left when we did.