A Hoarder's Sale

My cousin told me they were running an estate sale that was over an hour away from where I live.  I started to tune him out when he said these magic words, "It is the home of a hoarder."  Oh my! My very favorite kind of sale is one where you have to dig to find treasures.  I love hoarders because they have the oddest and most unusual things and everyone else is too turned off by the dirt and piles to dig.

As usual, my husband and I headed out on Saturday because that is when my cousin marks everything half off.  The sale was in a small musty lake cottage.  My heart started racing when we walked up and could see boxes, chairs, furniture and all kinds of things spilling out of the garage into the yard and driveway.  When I hit the house, my cousin's wife handed me a box. (Boy does she know me!)  I plopped my husband down on a chair with that box and got to work.  It took two boxes, but we left with this

 How awesome is this little green desk lamp...$2.50 worth of awesomeness?  You bet.  I put it into the box.

 Blue Mason jars are a funny thing.  You can find them at any price from $2 to $5 per jar.  I paid $1 for both of them.  Now they were coated and filled with dirt.  Thrift Chick was sure there was something living in one of them!

 This isn't vintage or antique or anything.  It probably came from the HSN.  I just really liked it and could imagine tulips spilling over the top at Easter time.

 This was the most expensive thing I bought at $10.  I tried to look it up on the internet to see it's history, but couldn't find it.  I knew I should buy it when my husband says, "That's really cool."

 These are melamine measuring cups.  My brother and sister-in-law were at the sale and my SIL looked at me and said "Really?"  Sometimes the kitsch factor overrides anything else.

 Thrift Chick can't understand why I like the opal pyrex.  I think because there is so little of the true opal pieces out there.  This divided dish was sold from 1959 to 1967.  It is almost 50 years old and look how it still glows.  (Well it too was filthy when I picked it up...i knew there was a gem in there.)

 Thrift Chick wanted to sleep in and did not make the trip with us.  It was her birthday so I bought her what she would have bought...a vintage camera and and old book.  She loves books period.  However, she has a thing for books with ornate covers.

 A rusty can, an old scrabble game and a seriously cool fly swatter.  Several people expressed dismay that I had gotten to the fly swatter....that is how you know you got a good deal.

 This is not pyrex.  This is Fire King which is almost as cool.  I seem to be branching out a bit.

 The cookie cutters were in a box and I was digging through them selecting the ones I wanted.  My cousin offered me the whole box for a great price...so while the above are the ones I am keeping....

 ... I have a ton more so if you have a need for cookie cutters, let me know...I have a bunch you can have.

Here is the weirdest purchase of the day.  I paid 50 cents for it.  I was joking about it with my SIL.  We thought we would get it for my other SIL who has a lake cottage as a gag gift.  I threw it in the box.  It is actually a cooler!  When I was leaving, a lady told me she had hoped to come back today and get it.  My kids thought it was the absolute best thing I bought!  It just goes to show you that you never really know what is valuable to someone else.

Literally, it was the most fun I have had in ages.  I can't stop thinking about the other things I wish I would have bought.  In the end, I bought two boxes of treasures and my brother bought a weed whacker and a decoy duck.  Seriously, some people have no imagination!

Patty