Ah, garage sales!

Friday finds - pre washing

I love garage sales, estate sales, and thrift shops. I know many of you do too.

There was a wonderful piece in the New York Times about a super garage sale in New York City last weekend at the Museum of Modern Art. It would have been wonderful to see. I loved how Randy Kennedy described Martha Rosler, the creator and proprietor of the garage sale:

Her fascination with garage sales — as portraits, through possessions, of the people who hold them; as economic end runs engineered mostly by women; as suburban sacrament and social gathering — goes back to seeing them for the first time after moving to California in the 1970s. 

“I grew up in Crown Heights, and nobody would have ever thought of putting their things in front of their houses to sell,” said Ms. Rosler, 69. “Your neighbors would have thought you were crazy. It would have been deeply embarrassing.” Stoop sales, now common in New York, are what she calls a “back-formation.”

So! Another good thing left by the recession, thrift continues to be IN.

I had a wonderful day Friday, hitting my favorite thrift shop in Kansas City (Grandview) and an estate sale here in Lawrence. I picked up a box all wrapped in saran wrap. Masking tape on the top said $1.50. Inside were:
4 silk scarves, 2 penguin dishtowels, a very goofy bit of trim, 2 odd textiles from Romania, and these beautiful placemats. WOW.

Box contents

I also got the Indian textile pictured above and a wonderful men's shirt. A note: I take a deep breath and toss them all in the washer. If they are going to fall apart, it might as well be now. I can happily report they all came out intact, ready to wear and use.

If you're in Lawrence today or tomorrow, be sure to stop by our guild's annual garage sale, tonight at 7 and tomorrow morning at 9:30. Guild members have tables full of goods at bargain prices. We all sell and buy and hope we bring home less than we brought in. It's a fun event - at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vermont. See you there!