I recently found out about a new web site that lists select estate sales. Unfortunately my favorite company doesn't advertise on that site but you know what? that's ok. I get their emails. It's all fine, right?

This wall was in the basement of a beautiful West Meade home that sadly had some structural damage and puddles in the basement (likely a result of recent storms and flash flooding). Still, it was a lovely old house with one of those attics made for storing out of season clothes and housing maids.

you know what else I love about estate sales in older, established households? Finding the pencil sharpener--because there's ALWAYS a pencil sharpener! Ours was in a utility closet. This one was upstairs in a cedar closet.

Pretty much every sale had records, one had a basement full (would've spent time there but some hipsters were poring through them so had to skip that). This house had tons of times, many were indexed somehow. Every X-Files taped on VHS, meticulously catalogued. Amazing!

Labels: estate sales, pictures

Ok, I'm giving up. I mean it this time! Giving! Up!

The day started in the 9am hour. of course I wasn't up late the night before. I actually got tons of sleep, but when a telemarketer (yes, I am on the Do Not Call list, so this must've been one of those loophole situations) called I was up. Might as well get going, right? And there were estate sales to be visited! One in a neighborhood I love, the other the estate of an antiques dealer. These would be great.

Oh no. The BD estate sale was in a great neighborhood, had great stuff, and I walk in the room and zero in on a table piled with old polaroid land cameras and equipment. This is my kind of thing, right? Only I look at the prices and gasp. They want me to pay $50 for a 210. Go look on ebay for a polaroid 210. HELL NO. I could tell it'd been in storage for a while as it had that weird scummy feeling to it. You know, kind of fuzzy and ever so slightly stinky? Right. No. They had a few movie cameras (8mm and the like) but the sticker shock I had from one ($100!)
left a sour taste in my mouth so I had to leave.

LeeAnn's sale was much more my speed. It was the antique dealer's house, and while I couldn't afford much of it (it was very nice stuff--yes, antique dealers do keep the best stuff for themselves) I did pick up a couple of books. It was crazy packed in there. I was happy for LeeAnn, bringing in big crowds. See, BD usually has the high profile sales but considering her recent turn to crappy sales with too-high prices I am on team LeeAnn.

I also found the time to stop at the triumvrate of rack shops--Ross, Marshalls, and TJ Maxx. I nearly fell to my knees in praise of the deity who smiled upon me; I found pants that actually fit! Also low top chucks and some cute slip ons. It's stuff like that that keeps me going and makes me forget the many times I've waded through polyester Bill Blass crap.

Meanwhile, Denny's getting clean. Dang time for it too, I forget how soft his fur is until he gets a good scrubbin'.

The night ends with a movie with the sister--Knocked Up. This was all we could agree on. We don't get to movies with each other much so I took it. I came home hoping for an SNL rerun. No such luck, so it was early bedtime for me and the dog.

Labels: estate sales, pictures

Yesterday we toured more churches. It was good times. We were studying rebuilding, expansion, and new architecture. As a result we visited the Catholic church a friend attended as teen. The remodling has added a few clever little chapels here and there, including one in honor of Mother Theresa. You can go to flickr to see the pictures, I hope to have them posted this afternoon. Anyway, with all the clever chapels I thought it owuld be lovely to light a few candles and leave an offering; a nice offering, I didn't have small bills.

I also got my first paper back. I turned it in early to get some feedback and maybe rewrite it but it's an A- paper, I feel revisions aren't necessary. A-, though!

Afterwards I was ravenous. take the new eating plan I'm on, consider I was in a rush and missed breakfast and had only two 100 calorie snack packs with me, this leads to the sort of hunger they talk about in old Snickers commercials. Not craving a snickers I went to a local cafe I'm nuts about on the rumor that they have poutine, a dish I've always wanted to try. It was incredibly salty and decadent, and I imagine that should I find myself in Quebec I'll give it a try.

After a fatty but properly accounted for meal I went to the estate sale. It gave me a peek into my own future--this is what my life might come to. Piles of hockey gear (substitute for my own derby gear), several Polaroid cameras of different age and speciality, a pile of handmade jewelry, knick knacks, and pop culture addict type things. That doll? That's Madonna as Breathless Mahoney in the beautifully designed but poorly executed Dick Tracy film (which coincided with my first and so far only trip to NYC--another story for another time). I walked away with a clever system for playing my ipod in the shower without destroying said ipod, a slinky dog (yes!), another polaroid camera, and a dog terrorizer.

Side note: The neighborhood of this estate sale was the same neighborhood my Catholic friend lived in as a child. I made a mental note to let him know about this...I was on the reverse tour of his life.

What is a dog terrorizer? Well, in this case, it's a remote control pig. Push one button it walks, push another it oinks. I got home, placed it on the ground, and the dogs had a minor spat over who got it (Flash won this time, you will be proud to know he's started standing up for himself and Denny's started backing off), and then gave it a try. I think Flash may have regretted his win.

Labels: estate sales

I mentioned the thin mint ice cream, right? well, a mere mention doesn't do it justice. to do it justice I would need to give it its own blog, myspace page, and shrine. it was oh so good. I pretty much keep thin mints in the freezer all year long--that line about how well they freeze is absolutely true.

So I can't remember if I blogged about the ice cream maker. If I did, then I'll do it again. At an estate sale some weeks ago they had one for sale. It was originally priced at $20. I was there on half price day and it was marked down to $10. I looked at it, determined it was missing a piece so I offered $5 figuring how expensive could the piece be? Well, it could be $30, and it was $30. It was a very integral part, in fact, it was the very part that made the ice cream freeze.

So anyway, I followed the recipe for plain ole chocolate. it didn't specify how long it needed to churn so I decided to let it go 30 minutes. At the appropriate time I added in the crushed, frozen thin mint cookies.

It was the lightest, fluffiest, most delicious flavor. Yes, I'm quite aware that Edy's makes a thin mint flavor during cookie season but that's just during cookie season.

So now it's gone. NExt up I'm going to try the same chocolate and mix in andes mint pieces. Heck yeah.

Labels: estate sales, food

Qu'est-ce que on dit? Vraiment.

It's been the season of the white elephant. I've been to TWO, third tonight. good times, right? Yes.

Thursday I recounted my misfortune at the department white elephant. Luckily the one that night was more fruitful. I walked away with a mexican marionette I named Pepito Calderon. Perhaps in a few days we'll have a vote for the official schmoovenet.com mascot (which is not Denny. Denny is a part of the staff here. if he had thumbs he'd have his own login). I then met the Nashville Rollergirls and Steve for a beverage (in that order). I am hoping to join the Rollergirls, I just need the bravery to go watch a practice and then the money to buy skates.

Friday during the day was drudgery. I managed to make my way over to Love Circle for an estate sale. Not just any estate sale, the estate was that of the vocal coach for *NSYNC. It was a bust. A total bust. No good.

Friday NIGHT was great times. I met Steve at the Mercy Lounge for Dr Dog (ok) and the Black Keys (rocked my FACE right off and on to the stage you see in the picture above left) (oh, and thank you again, Steve--if you had a nickel for every time I've said thank you you'd have, like, all these nickels). Someone of interest was there, Dr Dog pointed to them and made a comment. I don't know who it was, but whoever it was was standing not far from where we were. Apres, nous sommes alles a l'Hermitage, le cafe le plus bon, where I joined the clean plate club.

Late night led to late morning. Late morning was further latened due to the absolute worst headache I've had in some time. moving around didn't help, only made it worst. advil didn't help, 32 oz of water didn't help. Here's what I decided--I had eaten so much chocolate over the past few days that this could possibly be a caffeine withdrawal headache. See, I don't consume caffeine. I ate a few of the See's truffles and ta da! I was mostly headache free today.

Estate sale haul: Two small saccharine tablet bottles, a small book of etiquette, and some shuttles I hope to use to tat lace. One solitary doll hair.

Now I have to get ready for my hobo party.

Labels: drama, estate sales, music

I'm now officialy a polaroid camera collector. You, avid reader, are well aware that I spend most Saturday mornings exploring estate sales. THis morning it happened to be in my neighborhood and just so happened to be right behind my church. It was clear that the house hadn't had a lick of work done since the 1970s--we're talking shag carpet, retro wallpaper, and the musty smells that accompany these sorts of houses. Sure enough, I bought another 600 series polaroid camera. it's blue! plastic! Also a vintage hat and a very Sophia Petrillo handbag.

The coolest though was an Addiator Duplex. This is easily the coolest thing I've seen in ages. I couldn't get the subtraction mechanism to work but dang, those germans and their efficiency.

Labels: estate sales

I managed to fall asleep around 9pm last night and woke up around 7.30 this morn. SO I call my mom who wasn't expecting me to be awake so early and wasn't exactly ready to go yet. We eventually made it out and hit three estate sales.

The first two were on the same street. Nothing too exciting at the first--it was just a few rooms with a few things. I managed to get an ice cream maker that was missing a part (a part which will cost $30 plus shipping but that's cool, whatever).

Next was across the street and a door or two down. My friend Kate managed to make it to the sale the day before (and actually called, coincidentally, while I was there and asked me to put her name on something and what the price would be. I found two TWO polaroid land cameras, a J66 and a 4-something. One is a rollfilm camera for which I won't find film. The other is a relatively recent model that has a lot of plastic parts and a nifty timer for photos--it will take packfilm which is excellent as that's what I have. I tell SK about it and she says "so, what does this make, three?" I tell her no, five. She asks if I'm collecting polaroids, I tell her sure, might as well be.

Anyway. Also found a cute hat, a cute pink clutch, and a 1974 Vanderbilt Commodore (the annual). Why is this interesting, do you ask? Because I happened to open it to the page for the school paper and saw a picture of Mr. John Bloom, but you might know him better as former Monstervision host and writer Joe Bob Briggs.

Then to the last one, which had some neat old knitting and crochet patterns.

And next, to get this hair cut and these brows managed. My hairstylist is now in this cool salon in an office building where you kind of have to know it exists first. Her prices were also lower. It is nothing drastic, pictures to come. I wanted side bangs, hairstylist wanted those across the forehead straight blunt bangs. I mentioned this to Sally and she said she liked the blunt bangs, that I could pull them off without looking rockabilly. I told her it's too East Nashville and I've got to represent the West side. Know what I mean, bitches?

Labels: estate sales

Back to the same ole estate sale and a couple of garage sales. good times! scones!

Ok. So the estate sale wasn't on Electric Ave, but it was on the way sort of.

THis isn't the estate sale either.
I've never thought about whether or not it's cool to take pics at an estate sale, but it should be. I didn't get any pictures of the house itself. I bought some stupid crap, then on to other sales.

Then, good times, on to the zoo! I had to pick up my membership gift and then Dave and I headed straight over to the lorikeets!

I will name them Randal and Dante!


Sweet nothings.


Did you fuck my wife?
And giraffes and meerkats.

Labels: estate sales, pictures, zoo

It's my day off and I headed off early in the AM (well, relatively, it is a day off) to the East side for an estate sale that promised to be amazing. It was. This lady had obviously lived on the east side for years, likely seeing it go from being a nice neighborhood to a bad neighborhood and right back to nice again.

BUt you know what breaks a heart? Personal photographs at an estate sale. There were lots. I couldn't afford the older ones that were obviously priced for collectors of such things, but I could afford a snapshot of four young women improvising a kick line for the photographer.

And a trip to the east side means a trip to Sweet 16th for delicious baked goods. I happened to get a Heavenly Scone that was still warm. Oh dear, it melted in my tiny mouth.

Then off to a sale closer to home in Old Money Heights. The sort of home designed for those who enjoy entertaining, these folks obviously loved just that very thing. They even had a bamboo bar. Honestly!

Labels: estate sales

Heck, it's barely after noon even! Mom and I went to estate sales this morning, they looked promising but were busts for the most part. I did end up with a swift (the Patterson folks didn't know what it was so I explained it, but I still don't think they got it, as they've let me know in the past that they're not crafty in the least) and a cute old lady purse.

THe most valuable item I came away with today was the lead on an estate sale on the east side next week and some delicious scones in my belly.

Labels: estate sales

I'm going for the car, some of you will go for the Hammond organ, others for the hats, the rest of you will go for the ample street parking.

From Patterson estate sales. PATTERSON ESTATE SALES. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

Forest Hills Estate Sale
303 Mountainside Dr.
Fri. & Sat. Nov 10 & 11
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Check out pictures & directions at:

http://www.pattersonestatesales.com/sales.htm

Vintage Heywood-Wakefield dining, living & bedroom furniture, 60’s dinette set, 1974 Lincoln Mark IV (56k miles, original owner, kept in garage), cool vintage lamps, Hammond organ, sheet music, kitchen items, linens, tools, vintage “ironrite”, king size bed, chest & dresser, sofas, men’s & ladies hats, pool table, golf clubs, vintage refrigerator, riding lawn mower, desks, cedar chest, stereo, chopping block, old games, singer sewing machine, Franciscan “desert rose” china, crystal, kitchen table & chairs, swings, ladders, and so much more. Look forward to seeing you at the sale.

MC/Visa accepted!



Plenty of parking on the street.

Labels: estate sales