City Wide Shopping

Every month we have a city-wide garage sale. It's not like it sounds, I spent a good number of years in this town before I realized that I would actually like the City Wide garage sale. I didn't start going regularly until I met CollectoratorOne (http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/), and for the past 10 years you can count on one hand the number that we've both missed. It's aisles and aisles of collectibles that change monthly, a Collectorator's dream shopping venue. It used to be held in the old city coliseum but they tore that down for no reason other than to build a bigger, and probably more insulated, venue to host such events. I miss the coliseum, it was a perfect old dusty venue for dusty old items . I especially miss digging through the piles of clothes the Miracle Man would bring, vintage clothes $6 each, "It's a Miracle!". He'd pile up the clothes up the bleachers and we'd slowly but surely move the entire pile up or over just a little so we could view each piece. And believe me we saw each piece. I think I owe 25% of my wardrobe to the Miracle Man. Now, he still comes, but the clothes are on tables and try as we might, it's just not the same. Nevertheless, the City Wide each month brings all sorts of treasures. We were really hoping our favorite new vendor would be there this month but no luck. I did manage to snag a few fun items though.

The find of the day has to be this 1940's McCoy (hopefully not fake) Bird of Paradise statue. It's the right measurements but you never know. The reason I say this is because I obtained it for a mere $6, "It's a Miracle!" Either the people did not know what they had, or it's a fake and/or reproduction. Either way given I love birds (if you've seen my flickr site you know this already, http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratortoo/) a $6 bird statue is still a find in my book any day!

I also scored two frilly nightgowns from the 1960s. Nothing makes me happier than frilly nightgowns (except maybe birds!). A nice yellow Vanity Fair one with a matching peignoir robe and it turns out it was more of a score than I thought. I bought it because it was the right size and yellow, a color I do not have. BUT, I have been searching for awhile now for the kind that has this goddess like train from the middle of the back. I have no idea what this style is called (I wish I knew!), but I love it. I first saw Samantha on Bewitched wear one and then one of Don Draper's many love interests on Mad Men. I coveted one. Now I have one! I'll post a picture of it soon. It's incredibly difficult to photograph such things with the proper justice. The other one I scored was a pink Munsingwear one with cute little flowers on the bodice. No robe with this one. super cute. It's pictured here below.

CollectoratorOne indulged me as well at the end of the day by letting me dig through the Miracle Man's pile of aprons. Much easier to dig through than the table full of clothes. I am obsessed with finding cute aprons of every color AND I am trying to amass an entire holiday collection. I got a step closer with a nice blue one covered with stars. It'll be a great one for Fourth of July! Ok so it doesn't have RED in it but it'll work... I did also find a 1940's half apron that DOES have red and white stripes but no stars. I guess I can wear both and satisfy ALL of the 4th of July criteria....Warrenton is up next... stay tuned....