After about a month away from yard sales it was time to get back in the saddle last weekend! On Friday I went to craigslist to do the usual list-making routine, happy that it was July and the weather looked nice and thus there were plenty of sales to be had. For some reason, there seemed to be a rash of ads with really odd photos in them … here’s one example. (The ad pretty much just said “Grandma is downsizing!”)

That wasn’t quite as strange as this picture, inexplicably added into an ad listing “BEADS BEADS BEADS … AND A PROPANE DEEP FRYER (FOR THE DUDES)”:

Okay then! As it turned out, at our first sale I found an item that, now that I think of it, sort of fits in with both of those pics: Tarot of the Cat People. I purchased this for my cat-loving daughter, not realizing how wacky it truly was (when I looked closer, I learned that it’s set “in the fantasy world of the Outer Regions, where the Cat People live”). Somehow Meghan began singing a song with the lyrics “Tarot of the Cat People” … yes, it’s sad that we don’t have audio, but whatever you are thinking is probably pretty close.

We cruised around our area for a while, passing up two different estate sales with lines out front in favor of random yard sales that were open for biz. As often happens when nearly a week passes before blogging, many of these have blended together in my mind … thankfully, we took pics of lots of odd items that pretty much speak for themselves.

But wait! There’s more …

Yes, Confederate Cannon Ball appetizers. (They’re tangy AND subtle!) We did spot signs for a garage sale that really should have been listed as DOLL SALE.

It was here that Meghan and I discussed that maybe we should have better hand signals when trying to sneak photos, since she was motioning me to stay put and I thought she wanted me to move out of the way.

It was late enough that we figured the estate sales would be less crazy, so we went back to the one that seemed most promising, listed as “time stopped in 1970 digger sale.” The first thing we saw when we walked in? This amazing Spin Art sign.

There were more signs strewn about — several carved into wood plaques. It seemed like someone had some carnival type business going on.

The wood signs were priced at $12, which seemed high, though now I am half-regretting not purchasing “Adults $1.00, Minors .50.”

Calling this a digger sale really seemed like a stretch. Compared to your typical jam-packed estate sale, there just wasn’t that much there.

I did ogle the pile of vintage curtains and fabric, although I have long since stopped allowing myself to randomly purchase this sort of thing.

After quickly perusing the upstairs, we headed to the basement. Yes, we used caution.

It was very tidy downstairs.

Apparently the guy had been an engineer.

I guess he liked to bring his work home with him.

There were a few signs of hoarderiness, but it was pretty under control.

Though this was a bit disturbing to see.

I didn’t end up purchasing anything, but Meghan grabbed this old Sunny Jim can based purely on the fact that it is really strange to see a peanut with a Hitler mustache.

Driving away, we laughed at this tiny little sale sign on a stop sign pole. Can you read it? Neither could we.

We went off to a block sale, but it was bad. Half the houses seemed to have just given up on their sales, with stuff on the lawn but no one in sight.

We drove off to this “Awesome” sale (that wasn’t) …

And then spotted these eye-catching “jumble sale” signs.

This turned out to be a sale that we we had been hitting on a regular basis a few years back with vintage textiles, clothing, and miscellaneous cool stuff. The seller reads this blog (HI!) and it was nice to see her again, even though this time neither of us bought anything.

We headed home, talking about a sale I’d seen an ad for that based on the location, we figured was this awful “perma-sale” that had been going 24-7 (literally) for the past ten days or so … leaving their stuff outside around the clock, even through a few rainstorms. We planned to stay away, but when we drove past we saw a separate sale at the house next door. Their sale actually turned out to be pretty cool. The people were friendly and they had fun stuff.

Meghan kind of loved these antlers, but they were asking something like $75 so she passed.

I thought this humongo sign was pretty great.

That was it for the day. And I realize now that I have barely talked about anything we actually purchased … though as you can see from the trunk, we did buy a few items. The only thing I will mention is that Meghan bought a couple of L.A.M.B purses that seemed to have never been used for $40 (from a lady who was nice, but a bit odd, and seemed to practically have a mental shutdown when I tried to pay for a $2 item with a 20-dollar bill). When she got home, she found that inside one of the purses was ANOTHER purse, which still had its Nordstrom price tag on. It had been purchased for around $200. Score!

Not the greatest day, but not bad — and as far as I can tell, the earth did not collide with Nibiru on Saturday, so that was a bonus.