Dirty Martini Queen's Musings: April 2011

Well estate shop is what I say! I hit 3 estate sales today and only bought at one of them so Mark should be really happy. I lucked upon this one where the woman collects David T Smith furniture and I know some of you are going....who's David T Smith and why is that important? He's a genius at designing kitchens, cabinets, furniture, ect to fit in with a historical look. Just google him and prepare to be amazed at his skills but don't look at the prices. Anyhoo, I got this gorgeous salt box for $20 and the small crock on it for $1 at this woman's sale

She also collects baskets and a lot of high quality antiques. This home is a $2M home even in this estate mess that Atlanta's in. I was talking to Mark when I pulled up and I told him that I didn't think I was gonna go inside because things would be way out of my price range. So happy now that I changed my mind. She's got this Windsor bench that is huge and also a David T Smith. The guy hit me with a $395 price tag then dropped it to $295 before I left. I'm going back tomorrow to see if it's still there because I'm gonna see if I can get him to come down just a little more. It would be wonderful in the upstairs hallway beneath my samplers. What do you think?

He's been such a great sport lately hauling me around to all these estate sales and sometimes they work out and others not so much. Oh well, you can read about some of those in earlier posts. Last weekend, I drug him over to one not too far from home and it was this great home owned by a 95 year old woman. Her gardens were amazing and she had these little outdoor "rooms" that I could have just wandered in her yard for days and not even looked at her sale stuff. I'm so not a yard person but she inspired me especially when I ask her what she's miss most about leaving her home and she said her gardens. She wished she was 40 years younger so she'd have more time to putter in them....I just got choked up. I bought a great rag rug in blues and reds that she said was hand loomed somewhere in North Carolina and she was thrilled that I loved it ($4.00) then I saw a little red wagon with removable red slat sides which I bought for the front porch ($15.00). Mark exhaled thinking that he got off pretty cheaply but then he antique baskets caught my eye. She didn't even have them marked other than "make me an offer". I was just too afraid to do that because I might insult her so we left. I just kept thinking about those baskets and talking I guess non stop about them 'cause we went back on Sunday so I could make sure they had been sold to someone. But there they were in all their glory, just waiting on me to come back. I got the lady off to the side because her family was packing up and I asked her about the baskets. We talked for maybe 5 or 10 minutes before I worked up the nerve to make her an offer. It turns out the baskets were made in Kentucky and when I told her that we had lived in Bowling Green, she got all excited. She went to college in BG and had gotten her teaching degree so then we started talking a little more and made the offer....she turned me down flat because she said they were worth so much more. I reached deep into my jeans and pulled out all the cash that I had $128 and offered again.....she again told me no. So I'm standing there rather awkwardly and I remind her that I bought the rug yesterday and she starts smiling. So I'm thinking ok maybe there's a chance now and she tells me that I can have the largest basket for that price and I begged her to throw something else in since my hubby would kill me for spending all my cash on 1 little old basket so she threw in 2 blue mason jars. I was so excited then Sunday nite I started kicking myself....all that money on 1 basket when I could have done so much more with that same amount at the thrift store. But I'm over that now and still looking for just the right place to put this basket in so it'll be perfect! For the record, Mark did almost strangle me and he's charging me 100% interest per day until I give him his $100 back that he loaned me that day.

But I oh so redeemed myself this weekend with my major prim estate sale! OMG! The sale was in Social Circle, GA which is about 1 1/2 hours from home so quite a trek but so worth it. Just the preview pics of this home had me drooling! This lady's estate was entirely primitive everything! I wished to high heaven and back that I had dropped my camera in my purse before I went. I was just in awe walking thru all her cherished belongings and to see everything that I had only seen in magazines in such abundance. Now keep in mind that I was there day 3 which was to have been the final day and there was so much stuff still there and I was loving it all. I missed buying any furniture since I was there the last afternoon but some of the pieces were still in place so I could pet them at least. I started gathering things up and figured I had somewhere in the $200 range when one of the ladies running the sale told me everything was 50 to 75% off since it was the final day. OMG! I started going thru that house again and again picking up loot. The house was jammed full still of really great prims.

Now I know someone's wondering what she's gonna do with half of a wood bowl so I'll tell ya....make a shelf out of it with some old boards to put in the kitchen to hold dish towels

3 crocks just made my day until I saw the firkin and I was head over heels in love

Now I know some of you...ehmmm....Mom (not to mention any names) are thinking she paid good money for all that junk but trust me when I say It's GREAT Junk! I was just so totally thrilled that I rushed home to tell Mark what a wonderful day that I had. I must have looked like a kid at Christmas because I was jumping up and down, rambling more than normal and just so excited and he could certainly tell. He said later that he hadn't seen me this excited about anything in so long that it was good to hear my ramblings. Did I mention that he's really a good guy? One of the ladies casually told me that someone would be at the house Sunday morning for a few hours trying to wrap things up and I guess I told Mark that when I got home. Sunday morning I was puttering about and he told me to throw my clothes on because we were going back to that sale. It's 1 1/2 hours from home but I sure scooted around and was ready to leave in record time. I was tellinghim about that house all the way there and what goodies I hoped were still available.....then we pulled up to the house and there was only 1 truck there with a large trailer so my heart sank. I had driven all the way back over and the sale was done. They had sold everything left to this guy but he agreed to let me walk around to see if I wanted anything. I made about 10 trips back and forth....Mark came in to look around....and I started my pile in the corner. I gathered up about $150 worth of stuff and I asked him if he'd take $50 for it all. He studied what all I had laid out and commented that some of the things that I picked up were really of good value so my heart sunk. Then he and Mark started talking about "guy stuff" and the next thing I know he said yep $50 is good with him. I wanted to hug him but instead just beamed while they packed my treasures in a box for me. Here's day 2: