Rummage Sale Season

Today is the unofficial start of what spring is really all about in Saskatchewan -- garage sales. This weekend the Anglican church, the Catholic church and the Preschool all have their annual rummage sales. I generally hit all three. I try to be at the preschool one early or right on time becuase it has lots of toys, and I try to get to the other two earlyish on the first day (they last two days each). This year it was totally worth it on all fronts. Here's a gander at my scores:
The red is a very big, old ladies'pants suit. But it is 100% red silk, which I'm sure I can find a use for. The brown cords are probably to wear (those of you who knew me in BC will remember my other brown cords) but might be to make a bag out of. The purple cords are becuase I"m planning to make a crazy courdoroy / driving mat quilt. The sweater is 100% wool, so it will be felted and turned into a bookworm for our children's librarian to say thanks for a great year of story time.

I got this chalk board, plus a new badly damaged barn (to replace the other one I bought full of plastic animals that finally fell apart) at the preschool sale. How can anyone not want a five foot long black board to hand in their basement? Seriously. I am going to get so much more sewing done with this thing down there. It does need some touching up, however, so I may need to find some chalk board paint and the frame definitely needs sanding and repainting. Still, I was super excited to find it.At the catholic sale I scored these three lovely pieces of fabric. The two that are the same are about a third of a metre, which is great. I think I'll use on to trim a linen blouse I'm thinking o fmaking and the other will be used in something lovely when I or one of my friends has another girl (I think my long-distance-keep-in-touch friends and I are collectively 7:1 on the boys:girls front).This was my best score, though. This whole castle set, which can be completely taken apart and re-built when Andrew is older and up to that, plus four knights, a throne, two beds, a table (no chairs, oddly), a treasure chest, a cannon (anacronistic unless we are in Turkey or China), a crossbow, a catapult with chunks of logs that go together and then come apart to be shot out of said cannon, axes, swords, sheilds, armour, flags, a drawbridge . . . and some other odds and ends I haven't even checked out yet . . . wait for it . . . was $10. Yes, $10. Andrew, being an intense sort, was so excited about this castle. I bought it while he was in story time, since the Catholic church is right next to the library. Since we had walked, we had to walk back balancing it on the stroller. He wailed all the way home because he couldn't play with it immediately. But then he refused to take the short cut through the field in case the castle should be knocked over and broken. Then he played with it non-stop until Aaron woke up (I don't think this castle can handle 15 month old love, and at this point I don't think Andrew could bear to let his brother steal pieces and trail them all over the house -- there would be some serious altercations), then I let him keep out the knights. The knights stayed with him all afternoon. They ate lunch and supper with us (they are very shareful and all ate out of one bowl -- yes, their own bowl -- and gave Andrew their black olives, which are his favorite), took a bath with Andrew and are now happily sleeping next to him in bed. Apparently the three knights (the fourth one was given to Aaron so as to avoid world war three) are named Jacob, Jon and Noah. Jacob is the best fighter, Jon is the biggest and Noah is the smallest. I think the castle is a hit.

The only downside to the day was that I bought a bag of chocolate chocolate chip cookies at the preschool sale and ate almost all of them before I got home. But then, Andrew was in such a state that I had to carry him while pushing a sleeping Aaron in the stroller for 4 blocks, so I think I deserved them.