little things=happiness

Last weekend the kids stayed with their cousins for a few days of fun. While they were away- we had a low-key weekend of our own. Rented movies, espresso, dinner at Red Robin (the hubster got his birthday burger dinner & sundae), a tiny FREE Slurpee @ 7-11, and a few garage/estate sales. I *SCORED* at the sales.

The hubster spied a brand NEW tripod for me and dickered down to $5! It still had the tags on it and everything! It's not high-end but it'll do JUST FINE for me for quite a while.

At the Estate Sale we did what we always do when we attend them... walked around, gaining glimpses of this persons life. This woman had lived in the same house for over 56 years, per one of the handlers. The house was on a quiet street downtown- it looked tiny on the outside and inside it was HUGE! There was a basement that ran the entire length of the house with a fireplace upstairs/downstairs, just like our old rental in Lebanon. We wove in and out of each room and level of the house, commenting on the accumulation. The collections. The interests/hobbies. The entertaining/holiday decor. The family room that made you feel as though you had walked back in time...the bright green shag carpet. Green & gold couches and matching recliner. Old, OLD board games and coloring books stacked. An OLD. HUGE t.v. in the corner turned to a t.v. station that plays old shows/movies... there was an old b/w western flick on... It was just WEIRD but in a cool way. The basement was full of fishing/camping gear in one nook. A nook created to be a little shop with tools and a workbench. Two ping pong tables set up. TONS of holiday decor in one corner. The coolest thing? Dusty, faded old penants tacked to the wall from all the places they must've traveled to/from. I would've taken a picture but it was pretty crowded down there.

When I go to these, I feel sad-- here I am, amongst a crowd of people, picking over someone's things. Paying a price for pieces of their life. Part of me wants to buy EVERYTHING-- I feel like I'm rescuing it from being dumped. And I get completely sentimental (can you tell?! *laugh*) looking at their things and imagining the sort of person they were.

I ended up walking away with a coffee mug from a coffee company in the Black Forest in Germany for a quarter, a tiny vintage trinket for a friend and THIS! (happy sigh)... I *adore* it!







I need to clean her up a little bit. She's been lovingly used and I'm not certain it's still functional. I think just having it sit in the corner of my kitchen counter, making me smile, is enough.

XOXO
~S