Pick me! Estate sale finds from August 24th

Saturday is Estate Sale day here in Pittsburgh. Anyone who has ever gone to one first thing in the morning knows how intense serious pickers can be. My very first sale was just last year, after we bought our house, and I wanted interesting things to fill it. I think we hit four sales that morning, and right off the bat I got to see some people get into a shouting match over stereo equipment. If you like to people watch, this is a goldmine. The line usually starts forming down driveways well before the set opening time, and the nicer the house, the bigger the line (and belief that you will find that amazing thing you never knew existed and now cannot live without). Some people make a business out of selling their finds, but I'm just in it for my own sick need to hoard as many fun things as I can. Or so it seems; I'm really trying to decorate my house and turn it into the amazing space I can see it becoming in my mind. It's eclectic, classy, and completely me. So of course it will never be finished. 

I don't know if it types, but it Dings!

This Saturday I had to work, so I didn't really feel up to fighting the masses beforehand. I slept in, and it was fantastic. I checked the website just to see if there was anything I was going to kick myself for missing, and there it was. A sale that lasted till 5. That never happens. Of course I had to give it a once over on my way home, and I fully expected it to be bare bones that late in the day. Usually in the afternoon everything gets marked down half off the ticket price, so you can get some great deals but the selection is limited. You want the good stuff, you've got to stand in line with the crazies. I have no idea what the house looked like in the morning, but my guess is it was overwhelming. There was sooo much still there! I think I walked around for half an hour in a daze, just imagining what I could have found if I'd just not been so lazy. As it was, I still found a really fun typewriter, several apothecary bottles, unopened DVD copies of Funny Girl and Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth style-how did I not already own this?), and an unopened 'appreciating classical music' type lecture on CD (it was practically free, don't judge).

Apothecary bottles in my yard.

In my head, my house will look something like a cross between the library from Beauty and the Beast and Dumbledore's office. I already have an old upright piano that I rescued from Goodwill (and will someday get around to having fixed up a bit). It's not badly out of tune, there are just a couple keys that are broken. And no, I don't play...I plunk. I'm working on it. Pretty much if it's old and looks a little worn (but interesting) and is currently unloved, I'm going to want it to come live with me.

Squill Root? Squirrel Root? 

For a sale that I had no real expectations for, I think I did pretty well! The typewriter did hide out in the back of my Jeep for a few days till I could clear a temporary home (and sneak it inside without having to explain why I'm again buying old things that don't work), but it's going to look so good in the living room on a weird table next to the sofa that I don't have yet either. Priorities. I've clearly got them.