How do you get to the point where making owl art out of any possible material seems like a great idea?

Really, dried beans? Hmmm. How about pinecones?

These were at an estate sale we hit on Saturday. Along with many other questionable items.

There was more out back …

… including this terrifying pair of clowns.

A friend of mine asked if they were clown glory holes. There’s a phrase I wish I’d never heard.

This sale was (obviously) not much of a winner, but Meghan did pick up a great pile of vintage sewing patterns. We’d also both grabbed some clothes, but had to put them back when it turned out they weren’t part of the “$2 unless marked” section after all. The people running the sale had used the worst price stickers ever — apparently our items had all been priced, but the stickers drifted away. (I did notice a bunch of $10-and-up price stickers scattered around the floor and walls.) I ended up buying a furry fuchsia hat (which truly was $2) and a demented-looking contraption: the Decoregger.

It wasn’t a big deal not to find much here, because we had both already gone a little nuts at a moving sale — we hadn’t seen an ad for it but were lured in by their jaunty signs.

Yes, that is rain. Can we not talk about it? Seattle’s summer has been … challenging.

The sellers were a really nice couple who were moving to New York and had recently closed a home-decor type of store. They were selling a bunch of its groovy leftovers, at way-cheaper-than-retail (if still higher-than-your-average-moving-sale) prices.

Among the items: many rolls of unused wallpaper.

This wasn’t vintage stuff — it was newer rolls from schmancy design companies like Ferm Living.

I love this kind of stuff (even though I have no practical need for it) and I knew that if I really started picking stuff up it could get bad. I kept circling around to the boxes, starting to look, then walking away. Eventually I gave in and bought a few of the smaller rolls with patterns I really loved. Meghan bought a few as well, plus a bunch of other miscellaneous items. As we drove away she realized she sort of wanted another roll and did something I don’t think we’ve done before: drove back to the sale and asked if she could do an exchange! They took back the storage boxes she’d purchased and let her have another roll instead.

Most of the other sales we hit were pretty blah. The only thing worth mentioning was that we got boxed in by a truck while trying to drive away from one sale and Meghan was inspired to sing a song to its driver (not that he could hear us): an upbeat little ditty with the lyrics, “It’s all about you — other people don’t matter!” I’m sorry there’s no audio of that gem.

Then at our last sale of the day, what did we find but the counterpart to last week’s “World’s Greatest Wife” mug!

It would be great if somehow those two end up together, but I sure don’t want them in my house.

All in all, we didn’t buy much, but we were pretty happy with what we got.