Annual City-Wide Garage Sales

Every year, on the first weekend in June, a neighboring community holds their city-wide garage sales starting on Friday.

This is one of two annual events that I look forward to, stashing away a dollar here, five dollars there, all year long, knowing that I'll find great treasures!

For as long as I can remember, my mom and brother have come with me, on their own quests for great cast-offs!

Our day started early on Friday. After dropping the kids off at school, we packed up a yummy lunch of vegetarian roll-ups, gala apples, and cold water, and made the trek up to the small, sleepy little town of Litchfield about 15 miles away.

A lot of sales are within walking distance of each other. Here my mom and "little" brother are walking to the next garage sale down the street {I'm walking just behind}.

We found lots of vintage and antique wares and items like these GREAT old bicycles . . . 

I just LOVE that little trike!

We live in a community which has a large Amish population, so buggies and cars share the streets . . . especially on garage sale days! Amish love good deals too, and women with bonnets, and men with straw hats are busy finding wares to put to good use in their homes.

A majority of my finds came from one sale. An antiques dealer holds her annual garage sale on this weekend and I ALWAYS buy LOADS of great stuff {very reasonably priced} from her.

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After 5 1/2 hours of garage-saling, we headed home to unload all our treasures. 

{Most of my treasures lined up on the front lawn}

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Two of my favorite finds were these two matching ice cream shoppe chairs . . . for $3 apiece!!!:

 . . . and this printer's drawer used to hold old types for printing newspapers, ads and such:

Here's what I picked up on Friday {for less than $50}:

2 ice cream shoppe chairs . . . . . . . .    $6.00

3 rolling pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $3.00

assorted vintage biscuit cutters . . . . .  $2.00

printer's drawer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $2.00

milk glass mixing bowl . . . . . . . . . . .   $ .50

watering can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $3.00

assorted linens . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.75

vintage lunchbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $1.00

Little House on the Prairie DVDs

     three seasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $15.00

pair of shoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.00

2 children's games . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $2.00

gently used backpack . . . . . . . . . . . .  $2.00

antique butter pat . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $ .50

stack of unused cloth diapers

  {my earthy sister is having a baby} . .  $1.00

blouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.00

pants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ .25

3 vintage sewing patterns . . . . . . . . .  $ .75

vintage china bowl with rose pattern . .  $1.00

baby towel and robe . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $2.00

GRAND TOTAL:       $49.75

My mom ended up purchasing a baby crib for my sister, a bookshelf, some "new" clothing for herself and my kids, and various other treasures. My brother's best find was a pair of old "steampunk-style" green glasses.

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Our day ended with a taco salad dinner, conversation around the dinner table with our family, and my eight-year-old playing one of the games I picked up earlier that day. :)

Overall, it was a long, but fruitful day!

Here's to the beginning of treasure-hunting season!

Fondly, Kate