Transformation

Attic Gal Alysa says:

Don't you love transforming things especially when it is easy? While I was busy having my garage sale, Rachelle hit the garage sale trail and found me this bird to go with my new birdie shower curtain. Wasn't exactly my taste but we saw beyond the exterior to the inner beautiful bird that wanted to emerge. "Set me free of my ugliness, tweet, tweet!"




I grabbed a can of spray paint that I already had in my garage and transformed the little birdie.
I took a few minutes from my garage sale to paint it, let it dry, went back and did another coat while the sale was slow, let it dry and then finished with one more coat. Spray paint is my new best friend. What can you transform with a can of spray and five minutes of your busy life? Let us know.

The Ides of March are Lucky Indeed!

Whoever said 'Beware the Ides of March." wasn't a garage saler. The Ides (or middle) of March is a pretty lucky time for us. I think the Leprechauns know this. At least fortune seems to smile on us this time of year. You see, March is high season for garage sales around these parts. It is a combination of the great weather (70s to low 80s), and everybody spring cleaning that almost guarantees some great finds.

Wanna see just a few of the treasures we found just in the last THREE WEEKENDS?

Two weeks ago.

Rachelle found these:

A darling old kitchen scale, still in working order, for $20. That is big money in garage sale terms, but look at it! I just couldn't pass it up. Love, the blue and white enamel tray on top!

We couldn't quite figure what the white thing was at first. It was sitting on the ground and looked like a small bench, a very small bench. A little too small for anybody really, so we decided it was a shelf that sat up on and old buffet or something. Neither one of us knew what we could do with it, but for only $10, I decided to take a chance on it. I'm glad I did!

After trying several different places that simply didn't work, I found the perfect spot on top of my craft room dresser (aka the Pink Room, the studio, the Ladies' Lounge). It barely fit. If it had been just 1 inch wider it wouldn't have fit. We think it was destiny! What do you think?

The scales look great on the counter with her other garage sale scales. Three old black scales. Now it is a collection!

Alysa found these:

Okay, I know I probably don't need any more chairs but hey, who can pass up these adorable ladderback chairs. These have serious ladders to their backs, don't they? $2 a piece, can't beat it. Still need to find the right spot for them...

Last weekend.

Rachelle found these:

A darling vintage tablecloth to add to my collection - just a buck at a church rummage sale! There were a few yellow spots, but nothing a good soak in Oxyclean won't fix. Nothing makes us giddy like a lovely old printed tablecloth, especially one with sweet colors like these!

Then, at another sale I picked up a whole stack of really, really old sheet music. Some of them are more than 100 years old! The music is terrific in itself, but also graphically a treat for the eyes!

I'm not sure what to do with it, besides play it. Yeah, right! Any ideas?

Any guess on the price for the whole stack? Yep. A whole dollar. What a treasure.

Included in the stack was this adorable booklet "How to Care for the Baby", presented by "Eskays Albuminized Food for Infants and Invalids." Isn't that hilarious? It is complete with advice for caring for baby, pictures of healthy babies and testimonials about Eskays Food, and a place for the parents to record baby's birth date, weight, and important dates in every baby's life like "First Creeping" (crawling?) and "First Short Clothes" (?). The parents had proudly penned in their baby's statistics:Albert Beck Shoulen - September 18, 1907. Fascinating, huh?

Alysa found these:

I've been wanting to find old license plates for quite some time. Lucky for me Rachelle passed these beauties up. $.25 a piece? Love garage sales! Can't wait to cut them up and show you what I come up with for these cool pieces. Check out the one on the upper right hand corner. I looked it up on the internet to find out more information. It is a 1915 Pennsylvania license plate made of porcelain with an authentic seal on the side. I love it!

This weekend.

We were crackin' up, because when Alysa hopped in Rachelle's car this morning we realized that we were both wearing our pink hoodies, and Lucky jeans. Our "saleor" suits. You also can't go saleing without regulation saleing purses.

The fun find of the day was this VERY OLD megaphone that Alysa scored for $3. It is so cool, made of rawhide, we think, and right down Alysa's alley. She was a cheerleader you know. Just kidding. Betcha can't wait to see what she does with it? Can you say G-A-R-A-G-E-S-A-L-E? What's that spell? Garage Sale! Hip, Hip, Horray!

Alysa also found:

Actually I think this piece is pretty cool even though I'm going to paint over it for another project. I'll keep you posted. $5.


And who can pass up Thomas the Train? Especially since I got 7 buildings and 30 trains plus tracks for $15. Needless to say, my children were stoked! Should I do something crafty with these? Just big messes coming my way...all worth it. (Since this was all on my floor I decided to go back and count each piece of train. There were 82. 82! Oh my goodness. I got a deal!)

Rachelle was only having a little luck:

I found the fun Christmas and Valentines purses that the lady had knitted and felted herself. We love purses, but it is gonna be a long wait to use them.

I also found reversible tolie place mats ($1), a glass bottom tray ($1), that I'm going to have fun fancifying (Maybe with some of that old music!), and a whole stash of envelopes (when your a stamper and you find envelopes, you've struck gold!).

I was getting a bit anxious that I hadn't found something absolutely cool yet. Alysa had to attend a few basketball games, so said her good byes. Not feeling complete, I decided to drive over to the next city to check out a few sales there. On my way over, I found a fortune cookie in my hubby's car. Being starved, I cracked it open, and read this:

"YOUR HARD WORK IS ABOUT TO PAY OFF"

I drove a bit faster, knowing that a lucky little leprechaun had surely left me something as the next sale. It was a good sale, lots of fun stuff, but nothing to get excited about. Oh well. It was only a fortune cookie. As I was leaving, I took one last glance at the sale, and under a pile of rainbow colored hats saw this:

A very cool old trunk! No, it wasn't filled with the leprechaun's gold, but just this morning I told Alysa that I was dying to find and old flat top trunk to use for a new coffee table in the living room (my glass-top coffee table broke this week when a saxophone fell on it), so it was a real treasure!

See. March is lucky!

Behold the Ides of March!

Set in Stone

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

Several months ago I bought four different natural stone floor medallions this this at a garage sale for $5 each.  They were all different, and all very pretty.  I bought them in hopes of having them installed in my floor of my entryway.

Then, a few weeks ago I found 3 more at a totally different garage sale for about the same price.  What luck!  I wasn't sure what I would do with 7 medallions, round and square, but I thought we could put them somewhere, IF we could get the backing board off.  They were cemented on pretty good.  We had a few different tile guys look at them, and they said they couldn't get them off the board without damaging them.  But I have learned that when someone says something can't be done, you need to ask someone else.  Sure enough, we found a guy who was able to get the backs off no problem, and install them too!

At that second garage sale, I also found this 24" mosaic stone medallion.  It was only $25.  I found the exact one online for $350!  It is absolutely beautiful.  Anyone who knows me well know I am an Italiophile, and I have always wanted to have a mosaic floor in my entryway.  Now I have one!  Ready to see?

Before

After

I absolutely Love it!  See how it matches the existing tile work perfectly.  Not bad, huh?

Well the medallions also look great too.

This is the medallion we installed in the master bath.  I just love how it looks in there.

And look at how well it matches the existing stonework border!

Perfect

We had two matching medallions, so we installed them both in our hallway.

The rest were installed in the floors of my hubby's beautiful office.  He is thrilled with how classy they look.

Two were installed in the waiting room.  Please note: the beautiful leather chairs, the half-round hutch, the plant, and the sphere were all garage sale finds!  The handmade vase was won at a charity auction.

We installed the last one in the break room.

I am so excited about this garage sale find!   I paid a total of $60 for all the stone medallions, and another couple hundred to have them installed.  Not bad.  And what an impact.  I just love it when I put a fun find to good use.  Another project done. 

Remember when you come across something like that at a garage sale, use your imagination, take a chance, and when someone tells you it can't be done, find someone who can do it.  You just might be thrilled with the results.

Set in Stone.