Yard Crawl Loot & Barking Babies

Every summer, we have a GIANT yard sale in our area. It's called the Yard Crawl and it consists of 43 miles worth of yard sales. It. Is. AWESOME. I actually live along the yard sale route so it gives me the opportunity to both hold my own yard sale and participate in the shopping. I thrifted my little heart out with my fantastic sister-in-law Sarah (of Five Camels) and my neighbor Anita. A certain somebody of Longbrake Living was *supposed* to come, but she had prior obligations.

Dear Mary Carolyn, 

Joseph was very sad that he wasn't able to have a barking conversation with Colton at the Yard Crawl this year. As soon as the date for the next Yard Crawl is set, I'm emailing it to you. You better put it on your calendar and come or we can't be friends anymore. The end. ;)

Caroline

Anyways, I had a very successful day of thrifting. At Sarah's insistence, I purchased 26 embroidery hoops for a whopping $3.

See, thanks to Pinterest, she knows that I have a slight obsession with using embroidery hoop and fabric to decorate my house...

credit

One of these days, I'll get around to it. First, I have to figure out which room and then acquire the fabric. But it is so going to happen.

I also picked up a vintage egg beater for $2.

I've started acquiring vintage kitchen gadgets to hang on the walls of my kitchen.

Last year, I picked up three 1930s Wonder Shredders. This year, an egg beater.

Next year? I'm going to aim for a vintage rolling pin. Or maybe a vintage bread bowl? One kitchen gadget per year. Perfectly reasonable, right?

 

credit                                                                                     credit

I grabbed 6 nice sized maps for $4.

I've got the Northern Hemisphere, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Soviet Union, and India. Added to the rest of my maps from teaching, and I just know that there is a wall covered in maps in my future.

One of my favorite acquisitions is a really, really old license plate with my town's name on it. They wanted $10, but I bargained down to $6. (I like bargaining. It gets the blood pumping!)

I couldn't leave this license plate behind because I could just imagine it on the back of the car in this post card of our home.

This license plate is going to be a part of my "History of the Sandwich Shoppe" wall display.

And it is going to look fantastic! All rusty and bent, just the way it should be.

Of course, this wall display can't happen until the Sandwich Shoppe is done, but I'm thinking along these lines:

credit

I'm going to blow up any pictures or articles I have collected that are related to the house history and I'm going to put it all on display.

Another acquisition that is going to be added to the display are these 1950s roller skates.

Remember how our property was listed as having been James Cox's Skating Rink in 1885? Well, I know that the 1880s roller skates looked more like this:

But, I figured the 1950s skates would look just as cool as a part of my display, even if they are from the wrong era. I'm still looking for the 1880s skates, but until I find some, these will do just fine.

They were listed as $10, but I also bargained them down to $6.

And I love them! Rust and all!

I'm tempted to try them out...

...but I'm afraid the straps won't be able to handle it. You'll be the first to see pictures if I do decide to do something so fool hardy. (Who me?)

And lastly, my favorite acquisition is this 1970s camera.

I'm really interested in photography (having sort of started up a little side business) and I love that the nails curio next to our house in 1946 used to sell camera film. So I just couldn't resist.

It was listed at $5, but I got it for $3.

After all, it was missing it's super macho flash...

But I like it better without the silly flash anyways.

I'm still on the look out for older cameras...

But for now, this one is making me very, very happy.

Maybe I'll even let my photography friends show me how to use it. ;)

I had loads of fun at the Yard Crawl this year. I kept to my birthday money budget and spent a grand total of $24. Which, as it happens, is exactly how much money we earned from selling chairs at the Yard Crawl from our front porch. Woohoo!

I can't wait for next year's Yard Crawl! Everyone is invited to stay at my house and come thrifting with us!