Saturday, April 16, 2011

Garage Sale Season

One of my favorite annual neighborhood sales began yesterday. It's a large, upscale neighborhood with beautifully mature trees and gorgeous landscaping. It is a true pleasure to drive through the neighborhood in search of garage sales: lots of quality merchandise, often (but not always) low-end prices, pleasant people. I love it when the husband is given charge of the sale and he takes just about any price offered.

What did I find?A wire basket for my garden gloves in the garden cupboard: 50 c
A toy drum for the Grandma box: $1
2 antique kitchen gadgets: 50 c each
A large French chocolate sign: $1 (thanks to the husband left in charge!)
8 Irish linen napkins, one never used: 50 c for all

The label on the new linen napkin

And one utilitarian item~a rice cooker: $5

I have never owned a rice cooker. And until 2 1/2 years ago, I had never really noticed that they exist. When Heather and Jared moved in, Heather wanted to keep her rice cooker in my kitchen because Jared loves rice. I thought such an appliance was a space-waster: after all, a saucepan cooks rice just as well. And then I ate rice cooked in one. It is far superior in flavor and texture; I was hooked. They moved into an apartment last week and there went the rice cooker. So all is well now that Heather found me my own at a garage sale yesterday.

I'm linking to Rhoda's Thrifty Treasures party.

9 comments:

big sis said...

Ahhh, 'tis the season. Makes me want to go, too.

Carol Noren Johnson said...

Love my rice cooker also. My husband had it when I married him eleven years ago.

Got some items for our $50 popup camper from the Goodwill, but basically am not into yard sales any more. Four women in the camping group actually left the state park to go to garage sales this weekend, missing the beautiful opportunity to enjoy nature!

However, I am taking up couponing to save money. Would love to read about your couponing philosophy and miss your monthly postings on the savings. With gas prices going up, couponing might help with the budget.

Stop by my Plant City blog when you get a chance.

Carol

Fairfield House said...

Wow! The wire basket, Irish linens and (my favorite) the chocolate sign all for $2.00?! You could be arrested for stealing! :)

Deborah

Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality said...

THose are beautiful napkins, I'm a sucker for IRish linen too. They would be gorgeous monogrammed. Good for you on the rice cooker, I've heard that are great gadgets. THanks for linking up!

Yvonne@StyleBurb said...

Those are great finds! It's funny what you say about garage sales and husbands. At our last garage sale, my husband gave a lot of our stuff away for free- I don't know why we bothered pricing things! Can't wait for garage sale season to kick in to high gear! Hope you find more great treasures.

Sue said...

Nice deals on the linen napkins and the wire basket. I have a thing for linens, so I'm always on the look-out! I must have a dud rice cooker, because the rice I cook on top of the stove comes out much better! LOL Visiting from Rhoda's party.
~ Sue @ Sullivan and Murphy

Southwest Cottage Designs said...

Nice garage sale finds! I love wire baskets. You definitely found great buys.

Marj Swierenga said...

Had not heard such good comments about rice cookers before. Do they work well with brown rice?

Adie said...

Marj, I don't know how brown rice turns out in a rice cooker because I'm not a fan of brown rice. Just can't get past the gumminess.