Yard saling is a dangerous sport

This past Saturday I went yard saling. I have not been able to get out as much this year as I did last year mainly due to the incredibly wet spring we have been having. Saturday was absolutely beautiful, the perfect spring day and I was determined to hit the ground running. As I was coming home from the gym, after teaching my 8:30 Body Pump class, I spotted a whole house moving sale. I drove home quickly, changed into clean, non gym clothes and went right back out.

As I was walking up to the sale I saw it. The perfect chair. The chair that I have been searching for for the much needed extra seating in our family room. Now, I have to say here that the woman hosting this contents of home sale had extraordinary taste. All of her items were priced pretty high, and with the majority of them being from Pottery Barn, I knew why. Because of the pristine condition of her items I bit the bullet and mentally prepared myself to shell out some big money.

I found someone who looked to be in charge and I inquired as to the price of the chair. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that it was only $20. "I'll take it," I said without a moment's hesitation. I reached into my wallet, pulled out a $20 dollar bill and as the money was hanging in the air, the seller's helper reaching in slow motion to take my money, a woman came at us screaming, "THAT'S MY CHAIR! THAT'S MY CHAIR! IT'S MINE!"

We both turned to look at the woman, who was still screaming.

"I WANT THAT CHAIR! IT'S MINE! I SAW IT FIRST"

The seller's helper looked at me, and then back at the lunatic chair lady. She calmly asked, "Did you pay for it?"

"No," she began, "But I went inside to ask the owner how much she wanted for it, and it's MINE!"

"Well, this lady was just about to pay for it" she said nodding her head toward me and my still flapping in the breeze twenty.

"I DON'T CARE! IT'S MINE, AND I AM NOT LEAVING WITHOUT IT. THAT'S MY CHAIR!"

At this point, everyone at the yard sale was staring at the lunatic chair lady and me. I was mortified, and finally said to the seller's helper, "Just give it to her." Frankly I was afraid that she was going to come completely unhinged if I didn't relent and give it to her. I also felt like it was some kind of practical joke, like at any minute a man in a gorilla suit was going to come running out of the garage and smack me in the stomach with a banana. It was crazy.

I ended up buying a ceramic rooster and a teal ceramic plant stand. I went home, quite upset, and began calling every one I know to inform them that I was practically accosted, over a chair, at a yard sale and I may or may not have self medicated with Twizzlers, I can't remember.

I tried to go about the rest of my day, but I was really upset over the chair incident with the garage sale wacker. Because of the confrontation I left the sale sooner than I wanted to and did not look at everything. I decided to go back around 2pm. I loaded Joe up and headed back up the road. The owners were still there, and as I had suspected, were lowering the prices to get rid of everything. HA! Take that garage sale wacker!

The owner and I struck up a conversation, and I asked her if she had any rugs left. In addition to a chair, I have been searching for a jute rug to go under my dining room table. She did not have a jute rug, but she had another rug in the living room, and would I like to see it? You betcha, sister. When I entered the living room I saw it. The Pottery Barn rug that would match my living room in the most amazing way. She told me that she wanted $50 for it. I explained to her that I wanted my husband to see it because $50 was more than my credit line approval. I told her that he was taking down a tree and could I bring him over in about an hour.

"He does tree work!" she exclaimed. "I need some dead branches down out of that tree in the backyard" she explained as she turned and pointed to the offending hulk of a bush.

My wheels began turning. I quickly called Kevin and he, thankfully, answered the phone. I pleaded with him, in my damsel in distress voice, to come and look at this tree because a rug is on the line. In true hero fashion he showed up inside of 15 minutes and surveyed the situation. He gave the homeowners a price and the lady was so happy that she...wait for it...gave me the rug. For free! Well, free for me, Kevin has to scale the tree and clean it out.

So what began as a tsumani of confrontation ended up as a major score.

When I arrived home and laid the rug out I was pleased as punch to see that it blended perfectly, and- oh, my!- how it looks with my window mistreatments.

You can also see there in the corner the teal planter. Something about that corner is not working and I need to tweak it a bit. I love the teal, and the pop of color over there, but, meh. Ideas for that space? Anyone? I am going to paint that table white sometime in the near future, too.


Notice the pristine condition of the cream color areas of the rug. Major score, garage salers, major score!