out to the garage sales

I have mentioned it before, but my kids love to garage sale. They love looking through other peoples stuff and getting junk for free because they are cute. We found some fun things today. The woman at one house had free kittens, we almost fell into her trap! There was crying on the way home when we left without one of those precious little guys!

I paid $2.50 for this old singer. It's rusty in some areas, I bet it sat in someones garage here, that happens in FL. I contacted singer and because it had a serial number, they were able to tell me some information about it: Our records show that serial # K18462 belongs to Singer model 27 manufactured on Jan 16, 1902 in Elizabeth New Jersey. I should have asked the seller what she knew about it. She was pushing the kitten thing pretty hard though and I was hard pressed to leave. It is a treadle machine which means that it was powered by a foot pressing motion and a leather belt. It also means that it was at one time housed in a wooden cabinet. I think this old machine has seen hundreds of yards of fabric. My only clue to that is that the worn parts in the painted design are right where your hands would had held onto the fabric to guide it and on the wheel where you would have turned it to position your needle. I'm going to work on the rust part. I have a friend who may know just what to do.

The kids have been wanting some Barbies, but I refuse at this point. Our friend has one and my kids- both of them- play with it like crazy when we see them. I told them that if they found some in very good condition for a good price at a garage sale, I'd buy them each one. Bee and Lou spied this set of princess dancer barbies and they were only 50 cents a piece. The 13 year old selling them said that she only ever had them on display. They are super clean and still had all of the little rubber bands holding the ribbons in place, etc. No 4 year old has been playing with these. I bought all 8.

The woman with the sewing machine sold me this box of cloth napkins for $2.00. I was hoping to pick up just a few more napkins. When I got home and counted them, there were 75! I will be giving most away.


I couldn't resist this jar. It's really big, I don't know why anyone would need that much mayo. I don't know what I'll use it for yet....