Sunday, March 25, 2012

One of the Worst

I always enjoy editing my photos.  For one thing you can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  And, of course, it brings it all back, whatever the experience.  I drove to Golden, Colorado, yesterday for the twice-a-year community garage sale called the Beautiful Junk Sale.


























It's held indoors at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall which is nice because it doesn't matter what the weather is like.  Yesterday, however, they could have had it outside.  It was an absolutely perfect day as you can see from the sky.  Perhaps a little hot for my taste--80F degrees in Denver, so probably the same in Golden--but who can complain after the temperatures I experienced here in Eldora all winter?  I was over-dressed, which is usually the case when I go down to the lower altitudes, but also because all of my summer clothes are still in storage.  Since I want to go down and get some "stuff" out of storage to take over to The Wild West Mercantile Co. in Rollinsville this coming week, I'll try to locate at least some of my lighter weight clothes at the same time.

But back to the sale.  I believe this is the third one of these I've attended and it was the worst.  Of course I found some things...I always can find something...but generally it was like the worst of Walmart ten years ago.  I wonder if the poor economy is keeping people from donating...Better hold onto the stuff, we may never be able to afford anything else....or maybe a lot of people paid the extra $20 to come in early on Friday and took everything worthwhile.

Or maybe I was just in a mood.  This one woman seemed to have been drafted to be my nemesis the entire time I was shopping...


































Wherever I went, she and her little pink cart on wheels, tethered to a rope, went.  And her little pink cart would get caught in the wheels of my shopping cart, which one of the volunteers had nabbed for me after she saw I was kicking my purchases around in a box.  When I would try to get around the Pink Cart Woman she would race ahead as if we were at a high-end antique fair competing for true valuables...but we weren't. 

The highlight of the sale seemed to be this bed, which apparently had belonged to President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty.

























This sale has an emcee.  I don't know whether he's a volunteer or is hired, but he sees himself as a stand-up comic.  He kept announcing this bedding and telling us that, although it was sold, we could all go back and smell it because it smelled "presidential."  I tried to quell thoughts about Gerald and Betty's odors, individually or co-mingled.

Here are some shots of the operation.  Each table had a nice label and the merchandise was well-organized.  In fact, I think it was too well-organized.  At the previous sales, there were lots of boxes stuffed with merchandise under each table that were fun to dig through.  None of that here and most of what was out was similar to what you'd find at a neighborhood garage sale.  Your junk is my junk.

























I'm really pining for two dozen mugs emblazoned with a company logo...

























Uninteresting costume jewelry...

























The contents of everyone's knife drawer...before they clean it out...


























If you weren't sure what is "out" in interior decorating, this is the place to look...
























They were over-loaded with books, but I don't have a place to store books and am finding the library the solution, so this was not a lure...

























They always have a lot of Christmas stuff and this sale was no exception...except most of it was stuff I also would have given away...


























Remember when these Santas first came on the scene at the craft stores and were so expensive?  Now they are inexpensive even when purchased new.  I didn't check the price on this one.  He's actually in pretty good condition...


...I think, based on the bar code and the internet address, that this packaging may be reproduction vintage.  If not, this might have been a collector's item. 


























Bad or mediocre embroidery...


























I have lots of keys like this...


I don't think so.  Someone's sexy lingerie got into the Vintage Linens.  They really were in this section.  I didn't stage it.  When I was taking this photo some up-tight woman came by and didn't see the humor.


So, that was it.  At lot of junk, very little beautiful. I'll photograph what I did buy this afternoon.  It's warm, but overcast, so I can take the photos outside and actually see what's in my viewfinder.

Did you find a good garage sale this weekend?  Teddee

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