And now to share a few finds from this year’s Rummage, and to illustrate the fact that this is no mere garage sale. Check out this king-size blanket for our bed:

I love that kind of dusty, subdued blue. It’s not too girly or too manly.

Here is the whole pile of bedding I purchased from Linens, which includes a lovely white queen-size blanket:

Not to mention these fabulous pillows:

I’m told they’re hard core, made to last, and can be hosed down if necessary.

It’s time to begin our bedroom make-over and turn it from a hideous, mismatched pile into some kind of peaceful haven. Of course, this may take years–but this is a good start. If I can bring myself to lug all these goodies down to the laundromat, of course. It’s not a task for the fainthearted.

I made the decision to become more of a bracelet person when I encountered this:

And this–I love the inlaid pearly-colored stuff:

And finally, these–these final two were $1.75 all together:

I also snagged these delicate little earrings for $2:

Another area that I hit hard was the handbags/purses/wallets department. This purse was $6–or was it $4?

Considering my current purse is on its second round of superglue where the straps keep falling apart, I believe this was totally justified. Of course, it doesn’t help that I carry multiple books, sheet music, paper, pens, sunglasses, a wallet, a camera and about a million other things in it on a daily basis. I am not gentle on my purses.

This purse was $8. It’s yellow! I love the lining inside:

Soon these handbags will learn that their job is to carry any and every possession I may or may not need during my day out in the city. These bags ain’t no ‘accessory’–they’re my workhorses, man.

Of course, I can’t even attempt to show you all the clothes–blouses, dresses, shorts, cardigans. But here are a few things I absolutely love:

For a couple bucks, you can’t go wrong. Especially when it’s a black silk Banana Republic tube top that fits like it was made for you.

And don’t worry–my sedentary office job doesn’t affect my upper body bulk one bit . . . unfortunately. So this perfect fit should stay perfect for quite a while. But dang it, why does the bulk always go down below?? It would be quite welcome in (ehem) Other Areas.

When I find items like these for so little cash, I cackle like a rooster. Then I do the hokey pokey and I turn it all around, ’cause that’s what it’s all about–whooo! Or wait, is it ‘I do the hanky panky?’ I can never keep those two things straight.

Hokey pokey, hanky panky, hardy party (or is it party hardy?). We live in a confusing world.

I’d also like to state for the record that I am not (as some family members believe) averse to color. Here is my proof:

I figure there’s just more black, white and grey stuff on the market, eh? Like these two lovely summer dresses:

Please ignore the disastrous-looking closet there in the background. These pictures were taken at the beginning of a reorganizing effort in which I welcomed in the new items and got rid of the old. The closet is now looking like a perfectly decent place as opposed to a landfill of fabric. Here’s a bag of old things to be tossed, halfway through the reorganizing process. By the end, I am please to say that the stash of “out with the old’s” doubled.

I think I’m going to write a song called “Two years ago I was a Size 4. Now I can’t get those pants past my friggin’ upper thigh.” It will have a heavy bass line and a sharp piccolo in the background that sings out my pain with its flutey little voice.

If you come to Rummage looking for really high-end labels, you can bypass Blouses and Sportswear and Dresses and simply head to what they call ‘The French Room.’ I didn’t have time to make it up there this year, but it houses marvels untold. Here’s a picture of it from Aunt Jacquie’s active camera:

So–who’s coming next year??