As Tammy told you last Tuesday, Ken and I stopped in Nashville for a visit with Tammy and her husband, Joe, on our way home from a trip to North Carolina. My favorite part of the trip was getting to meet Tammy’s precious little grandson. I even got to give him a bottle and rock him to sleep. So sweet!
After a delicious taco dinner, we had so much fun playing games with Tammy’s whole family. As she said, we laughed and laughed and made some great memories.
The next morning, Tammy and I went garage sale-ing. We found a couple of neighborhood sales with some great deals and just had a blast!
Here are my treasures “before”:
And here’s what I did with those items.
My favorite find was this lamp for $2, complete with a working LED light bulb. I removed the ratty old shade, Ken spray painted the frame for me (with a can of red paint we found at a garage sale a while back) and I replaced the shade with pages from an old violin music book also found at a garage sale. I’m thrilled with how it turned out and I’ll be writing a post soon about where this lamp ends up in my house.
Keeping with the theme of red paint, this little red chair was only a dollar!! For now it’s in my office as a plant stand but it may be pulled into service when all the little grandkids are at our house.
This little $2 bird house seemed like it was just made for our screened porch.
Tammy and I both bought books for our grandkids for only 25 cents each. And Tammy dropped another quarter on this rubber ducky soap dish, which I’m told will make an appearance in another friend’s house, part of an ongoing prank involving rubber duckies. (But shhhh…don’t tell!)
A few more photos from our time together. Tammy was remembering garage sale-ing with a friend in her younger days and we talked about how we both saved so much money when our kids were small finding toys and clothes for a fraction of the price…and having fun in the process.
See that cookie with a candle in front of me in the lower right photo above? Tammy extended my birthday celebration with a big Happy Birthday banner and delicious chocolate chip coconut cookies! Everyone sang the Happy Birthday song in gorgeous harmony! Tammy’s daughter-in-law is a professional singer, and Tammy and her entire family have beautiful voices too.
Are you or have you ever been a garage sale-er? What is your favorite thing to search for at yard sales and flea markets?
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What fun that was having you guys here! Thank you again for coming our way and for all the laughter and fun. And garage sale-ing! I love what you did with that little lamp (sorry, Tav, LOL!).
Haha! Tavia was NONE too happy that I ended up keeping that lamp. 😉 Truly, we loved our time with you. And can’t wait for you and Joe to come OUR way!
Great pictures! I love seeing and hearing about your friendship!
I have never been a garage sale-er; just don’t have the vision. But I love seeing yours. Thanks for sharing!
Awww, thanks, Betty. It’s fun to share!
Loved these pictures of your time together!
Thanks, Becky. It has been such a bonus living closer to Tammy!
This post made me smile. I love thrifting and it’s even better with a dear friend. When my kids were young, thrifting was how I clothed them and decorated the house. I have the sweetest memories of thrifting with my daughters. Thank you for sharing this heartwarming post. Love you, Deb. ♥️
Love you back, Paula. And yes, thrifting was one thing that helped me stay home with the kids. I think my youngest sister decorated her entire house—and BEAUTIFULLY—with garage sale finds. My other sister is a great thrifter too. They taught me well. 🙂
You have the best yard sales! Lately, our yard sales are not so good. And yes, yard sales really helped when our family was young! The thrill of the hunt!!
It’s a thing: the thrill of the hunt! And I hate to compare, but I do think Wichita had MUCH better garage sales than our current area of Missouri. Even so, I’ve found some great things here. And the ones in Tennessee were good, especially given that we were shopping on a Saturday and the sales had already been going at least one or two days.
I’ve said it before, Deb, but you really need to do a book about decorating and revamping and all the things you do to make your house look so cozy. You have such a gift! DO put it on your calendar, please!
Awwww, that’s SO sweet, Angie! Especially coming from you, whose decorating style I love!
I agree!Love your decorating ideas, Deb!
Thank you so much, Betty!
I love going to garage sales. This weekend, I got two heart baskets, 2 necklaces and a bunch of fake cotton bolls for four dollars. The baskets and cotton will go to our crafting group to make arrangements or to hold our crafts to sell them.
Sounds like some great bargains. Isn’t it fun?!
YES! My mom and I love going to garage sales! We’re blessed because the little town we live in has an annual garage sale event that draws in hundreds upon hundreds of people and there are garage sales EVERYWHERE! I’m typically looking for toys to use with the kiddos I nanny as well as even more books, even though my bookshelf cannot hold many more. Haha, one can never have too many books! Thanks for sharing, so glad there are other garage salers out there like me 😀
How fun that you and your mom go garage sale-ing together! And you are SO right: no such thing as too many books! 🙂
We garaged sale a lot when our girls were young. Now that they are 35 and 32 we rarely go. We used to go to the church sales at the end so we can get a bag full of stuff for $5 or so. Most of the time it’s books. Sometimes we are told to take anything books we wont for free. I’m trying to stay away from these sales now. We don’t have enough room in our apartment to add more books.
Yes, I can relate! I have to have a strict one-in-one-out rule. 🙂
I love seeing how you use these garage sale finds! Garage sales, where we live, usually start on Friday mornings so most of the treasures are gone by Saturday when I am off work. So I peruse thrift stores and flea markets for my finds. (Although most of what I bring home are books.) If only you and Ken were “for hire” to come shop and decorate my house. LOL!
Thanks for sharing your pictures with your time with Tammy. I can tell you gals have a blast when you’re together!
Hmmm…If I ever need a second career I could garage sale for other people! Great idea, Jennifer! ♥️
I’ve never been a garage-saler but I love seeing all your finds. Keep the posts coming!
It’s fun to share them. Thanks for coming along for the ride, Kelly!