Neighbor's Estate Sale

 You may remember that I had neighbor who died from complications from surgery for a brain tumor this spring. She was a single lady, a retired school teacher. I had known her thru involvement in the literary club. I served election board duty with her one year, too. She volunteered for Grace Village to deliver the announcements and internal mail to the condo mailboxes for several years. More recently, I would see and greet her as I walked past her house.

Her family hired an estate sale company to clear out the belongings from her house that they did not want to keep. The sale started this morning at 11 a.m. When we came home from church we drove by and could see a fairly large crowd of people. The street was parked up with vehicles. We decided to go ahead and eat our Sunday dinner.

Around noon I walked over to the sale. I had looked at the company's website (given in the ad) and was interested in getting one of the glass paperweights shown in a picture. The site did say that they would only be allowing small groups of people to enter at a time. 

I had to sign my name on a list of people waiting to go inside. They were at number 80 when I arrived and I was at about 130 (the overflow pad was unnumbered). At 12:50 they announced that the rest of us could go inside (maybe 40 people). I didn't see the paperweights, but was happy to find some placemats and kitchen towels marked $1 each.

These two mats still had the manufacturer's sticker attached. Had never been used.

Only one of this butterfly mat but I may use it to place decorative items on.

There were two of these autumn leaves placemats. One has a slight stain which I think I can spot clean.

Two autumn towels just in time for the coming fall season. I noticed while waiting in the yard that a tree a few blocks over had already turned red. I am noting undertones of yellow in other trees.

 I bought a very nice Vera Bradley eyeglass case for $3.

The top red diagonal line trims a pocket in front of the glasses section. Perfect! My old case with a pocket was fraying and getting dingy. Now I have a new case where I can store my cough drops and clip a pen to the edge. Not sure I will use the pen much now that we are attending a different church that has no bulletin on which to make notes. Always good to have a pen handy though, and since I need the glasses for reading I carry the case in my purse.

 The potpourri jar was an impulse buy as I stood in line to pay. The line circled back through the living room. I might use it to display sea shells if I find many on our 2022 Florida winter trip. 

 Then I spied what I had really wanted: a little blue paperweight. I had totally missed it the first time through the house (or it was moved from some other location). This would make a nice lasting memento of Judy. 

Do I need this stuff? No. But they brightened my day. The towels and placemats will wear out, but the little paperweight will be around a long time.

Tomorrow the sale continues with half off of the prices. I thought most of the things were reasonably priced. I did see a little reading lamp that I might go back and seek out. My cleaning lady won't finish until 10:30 so it will probably be 10:45 or 11 before I get over there. There were some lovely furniture pieces, but I don't really have room for those. I might look through the box of needlework kits. I didn't want to pay the full price, but at half off I might find something to keep me occupied during colder days.