World's Longest Yard Sale -Short and Cheap Edition

With the retirement of my Hubby and our poor memories the World's Longest Yard Sale slipped up on us. Since we didn't have plans we just jumped in the truck and spent one day on the Alabama end of the sale. We got to Gadsden at bout 6:30 Saturday morning and drove until we found some early sales. Within an hour things began to get more crowded but the clouds kept the temperature down in the morning so it was nice!
We were picky and cheap on this trip so it was slow at first, but the truck was full by the time we headed back home. I didn't take pictures of most of the electronics which is not my thing- but is the bread and butter of Hubby's sales every month.

This is a gun cabinet for his booth. The glass is gone so it is a "project"- he has sold these well. The watering can and rusty tool boxes are for my booth!
This old stool is a project for me.... can you see my vision?

The clock is his. The other stuff is mine -trays, books, wood pieces , more molds and the pink planter....

Isn't it sweet? I have already moved it to the mantel in the dining room in hopes that I will "forget" to sell it....at least for a while...

This little table has a date with some chalk paint. The 2 shabby jewelry boxes
already had a makeover today.

I got the bottles to alter for Halloween, and the Japan stacking mugs will join some we have in the booth. I think I will spray paint the metal sconces.

There are a couple of other boxes that I have not unpacked yet with more small things. I was really tired after that 17 hour ride!!!!

On another note - my Mom made me this cute table runner. It was waiting for me in the mailbox. I was not too tired to play with it!

It is made from a dropcloth. The directions were in Country Living a couple of months ago!

World's Longest Yard Sale

The World's Longest Yard Sale runs from Michigan to Gadsden, Alabama in August. At the last minute my Hubby and I decided to take a couple of days and see how far we could get. Since I had done this once before with a girlfriend I knew there was a little town, Mentone, that is a good rest stop. We made some reservations at 2 different Bed and Breakfast since things were booked up at this late date!

We drove up Wednesday night to stay at the Mentone Springs Hotel. It was built in the 1880's.

We had a small room with a fireplace and a shared bathroom- which turned out OK since we only had to share it with one other couple. We had a huge breakfast (steak, grits, eggs, biscuits) on the wrap around porch.

We headed up to Lookout Mountain, but the yard sales were few and far between.

It picked up a little after Chattanooga but rain and getting lost wore us out. We decided to turn back to Mentone where we were spending the night at Crystal Lake Lodge.

We were so tired that we fell asleep before dark and slept to the sun was up in the morning!

Our room was the "Forest Room"- it was huge. The bathroom was so cute. It had an outhouse and a waterfall shower.

It was like being at Disney World!

Breakfast was wonderful- pancakes, bacon, coffee cake, fresh fruit grown on the farm. We will be going back- there was a lot to see- llamas, a fishing pond, trails- but we were off on the treasure hunt-

This is going to keep us busy on ebay and etsy for a while!!!!

Tale of $5 Chair

My Hubby and I went Yard "Sailing" this weekend. He was a good sport and gave up his Saturday morning to drive me around. There were some hits and misses. It was windy and not quite as warm as I like it! This poor little $5 chair was my favorite hit. We spent most of the weekend together doing a makeover!It was sturdy, old and had some cute details. The plan was to make a slip cover for the seat. I have been considering slip covers for the dining room and this could be a good practice. Look at the cuteness of the back of the chair!

The leopard was not what I had in mind and the cording was falling off. This was not a professional job!!!

Underneath that.....even worse!!!!!

At one time it had a caned seat under the stripe. The caning was broken. It could have been replaced, if they had not put so many nail holes in the wood when they put a seat on it! So I covered the seat with a piece of toile I had. Much better already!

I got out the big linen dress that I got at a thrift store recently (to make pillows out of) and made a slip cover.

My favorite part are all the little pleats. They took a long time ....maybe I'll reconsider doing slip covers for the 6 dining room chairs!!!!

And here it is - in the hall- with a new/old needlepoint pillow! Cute!

The pillow was a needlepoint canvas I found at Goodwill and finished 8 years ago! There were four of them. I made the first one into a pillow. Then the others went to the pile of unfinished projects. I found this one when I was cleaning the sewing room. It had a few moth holes :( but luckily I had more of the yarn. I repaired it and made the pillow this week...now if I could only find the other two!!!

The World's Longest Yard Sale

I learned that it is best to go to this event with no expectations of finding a certain thing. It is all serendipity! You find unexpected things in unexpected places while chatting with unique people! I did want a table to put a lamp on- it was the first thing I bought!

A and I drove up to Gadsden, AL on Friday morning. It took about 2 and 1/2 hours with our trusty GPS guiding the way! The GPS died then. But, we were good because we found the start of the trail! I didn't carry my big camera so all pictures are from my phone. I didn't take that many pictures because it was all so overwhelming ! Overall it was VERY HOT! I live in Alabama...I know hot ...I love hot...but this was the hottest I've ever been! We laughed a lot-just fun girl time! It was wall to wall yard sales in Gadsden. We had to pick and choose, because you could not do it all. We learned to drive by and scan for places with parking, several booths that we could walk to, and vintage stuff rather than new or stuff that we just sold at our own yard sales!

The route was not marked as well as it could have been, we got lost a couple times and the 2nd GPS was not that helpful. It just wanted us on more direct routes!!! GPS #2 died the second day!

We got a little worried about lodging for the night since we were going through small towns (no hotels, McDonald's, few gas stations) so we decided to hit the highway. We also found that hotels along the interstate had no vacancies! Headed up to Chattanooga, TN and luckily A's hubby was able to get reservations for us in a beautiful Marriott in Downtown Chattanooga that was right where the Yard sale route cuts through town! We got cooled down, fed and clean so we felt human again!

Saturday we were up early and hit the road going back South. We drove through Lookout Mountain where the yard sales were few and far between until we got back in Alabama. The scenery was beautiful! We learned how to pump gas the old fashioned way and how to find bathrooms rather than port-a-potties! Thanks go out to the volunteer fire departments along the way who opened their bathrooms!
Our final misadventure was a missed exit on the way home. We were talking away when we noticed the Georgia state line! So we took a little detour through Roopville, GA to get back to I85 then back home!

A bought more than I did, I'll have to get some pictures of her stuff! I am proud that I did bargain down some prices, although she became very skilled at it! I will write more about how we counted our blessings along the way and met some colorful people later!

Here is a picture of my junk....more later!

Yard Sale Update

The yard sale was successful! We had 6 families take part and what did not sell was donated. Here is my yard as we put things out about 6:00 AM! We agreed to not buy each others stuff- but we did trade a little. I only ended up with one new piece of pottery, made by one of the other yard salers!

The great thing is that it is all gone- one way or another- and I am about $200 richer! When you think about it that is a lot when most things were $.25 -$.50 ! I did sell a couple of larger items- a chair that I had painted and a huge framed tapestry that came with the house. It was the right style for the house but it was TOO big! It was hanging in the dining room and it was behind a door! That was the only wall big enough for it! I am glad it found someone to love it!

Yard Sale

For once I'm not going to a yard sale...I'm having one! I've spent much of the last two weeks dragging junk out of closets and the attic...in July...in Alabama...
We have been stuffing the attic for 8 and 1/2 years with our trash. They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. I feel sure that this is every man's trash!!

The rule is once it goes in the yard -it does not come back in the house. DH will be loading up the truck at the end of the sale and heading to the thrift shop to donate the remains. At this point I would pay someone to make it all go away!

I have found a few things that will be repacked up- some sentimental toys of the kids and a book or two that I can't quite part with. But most of the stuff is useless and I just have to get it out! Some of the interesting finds were- my Junior prom dress, 2 Bridesmaid dresses 1979 and 1984ish, the outfit I wore for my school picture in 1995 (which was 4 days before I got pregnant with youngest son- needless to say - I was never small enough to wear it again!) , daughter's Easter dress from 1995 (loved that dress-keeping it) when she was 7, matching sweaters that I knitted for sons 1 and 2 when they were babies, son #3's cowboy boots from when he was 3 or 4 and everything the baby (who is 13) has ever owned!

Lulu has decided she wants to keep the basketball!