Out with the Old and In with the New

I am insane.  We've spent the past 2 weeks cleaning out my stash piles, unfinished projects and re-purposed furniture.  We spread everything out in the driveway and had a huge garage sale on Thursday and Friday.  We were planning on having it on Saturday too, but it ended up raining us out.  So we did clear out a bunch of stuff, and what was left got donated to Goodwill, the church for a rummage sale, and all the books and dvd's went to the library.  Whew.  It's nice to have the house cleaned out and we made a little extra money in the bargain.

So here's why I am insane.  My husband shook me awake at 6:00 am on Sunday and suggested we go to the Flea Market.  And I said yes.  Hello..... didn't I just say I wasn't going to any more sales and buying any more stuff?   That thought just literally flew right outta my head.

We got dressed and went over to Wolff's Flea Market in Rosemont.

It's a huge Flea Market around here. This weekend they had around 600 vendors.  There were probably thousands of people there milling about and who do we run into walking in?  My dad - how random is that?  One of my sisters and her husband were there someplace too but we never saw them.

I couldn't believe how much junk   treasures were piled up in this truck.  People were just picking through it all....

It was a cloudy, overcast morning and I was glad we got there early because it wasn't crowded yet...

Rosemont is right next to O'Hare airport and the landing planes are so close you can practically touch them.  It's very loud and another plane lands every minute....

That's the Allstate Arena in the background and where we go to see most of the concerts around here.

We walked around for about 2 hours and I really reined myself in.  I didn't buy a single thing, altho Louie bought 2 brand new pairs of shoes for a good price.  Then we left and I roped him into buying me breakfast at IHOP.

We were headed home and Louie suggested I look on my phone and see if there were any geocaches in the area, so we ended up grabbing 4 of them and then I got sidetracked by a sign for a garage sale.  Now I knew I was in big trouble because I just cannot drive past them.  I get reeled in like a big bass.  So we stopped at a couple and I was doing really good - I didn't buy anything.  Until I saw the sign for an Estate Sale and then my heart sank.  Because there isn't much that I like to do more than poke around somebody else's house looking for crap.

Once inside, Louie and I split up,  I always head for the basement first, and then the kitchen.  I picked up a vintage Better Homes cookbook to sell and a cute Coke bottle opener.....

I headed  up to the second floor where Louie was standing and waiting for me at the top of the stairs.  He grabbed me by the arm and steered me into the master bedroom.  "There's something in here you're going to want," he said.  And of course he was right because he knows me so well and because he's the most awesome husband in the world even if he does feed my junk buying habits.

I just fell in love with this desk the second I saw it and even tho I said "Oh, I can't buy that.  I'm not refinishing any more furniture," I knew I was lying thru my teeth because sure as shit that baby was coming home with me.

Look at the lines.....  the cool decorative pieces.....  the awesome Lion drawer pulls - which I will keep because I am a Leo after all....

I didn't care how beat up she was, this desk was coming home with me so I could refinish it and use it as my jewelry making desk.  She is so strong and sturdy - a really solid piece of furniture.  The woman holding the sale told me it was her dad's desk from when he used to work at Kent State University, and he had brought it with him when he moved back here.

I love, love, love it!  She had a price of $ 25.00 on it and I talked her down to $ 15.00.  She asked me if I could move it out of there by Monday and I asked her if she was crazy??  I wasn't leaving there without it.  That's one of the advantages of having a truck!  When I walked outside I literally did a little dance and clapped my hands - I was that excited!

It's already in my garage, as you can see, and I've already pulled out the drawers and cleaned her up.  I hope I have a light work load today because I want to start sanding her.  Stay tuned because I'll have an update soon.

It was a pretty darn good day - Flea market, pancakes at IHOP, geocaching, estate and garage sales and a new refinishing project.  And all before noon!   So what if I fell off the wagon.  We all knew that wasn't going to last anyway, didn't we??

Linking up with....

Let's Talk Vintage # 47