American Pickin'

So what have I been doing when I'm not working, but should be? Well, sneaking off to a Flea Market or perhaps off to a series of fantastic Saturday rainy day yard sales with my favorite boy...

You see my eldest(and I), have recently been quite enamored with this little show on the History channel called American Pickers. Now I know that's a weird name for a show that conjures up all sorts of strange, even gross images, or at least it did for me but it's pretty cool, check it out. He even considered being one of these guys for Halloween. I love it! Anyhow, we had us some good clean fun last weekend! Here's a few of our "picks" some from the Flea Market and some from yard sales the week before. This Happy Halloween guy is one of six from a vintage -looking tin garland I first saw in a Disneyland window display almost two months ago. I asked about purchasing it and was told it was only for "display" (since when does Disneyland have something only for display...) anyhow I saw them at this booth of vintage Disney stuff at the Long Beach Flea market when I asked the gal if it was for sale... she said Yes.Ten bucks!Very cute.

Next up was this gorgeous old St. Francis of Assisi statue.
My Mom has been searching for a St. Francis for her patio for quite a while now. She's looked in garden stores and all the usual fountain stores, but none of them seemed right. The coloring and the face is very important. :) So when we saw this in Long Beach we had to stop. He was just perfect. Pretty big too, almost 3ft. tall and 9 1/2" at the base, solid cement all the way through. I'm not actually sure how the boy and I managed to get Francis into my car, but we did. I won't tell you how much, just in case Mom reads this....but know it was a great deal for it's age and the quality. And just look at his sweet, sweet face. My Mom's gonna love him!

The day gifted us with lots of other small treasures along the way, but prepare to view my crown jewel of recent yard sale finds... the Leather Ottoman!Oh! and I'm obligated to mention that this was found at the last sale of our rainy Saturday, the one I didn't want to stop at, the one the boy pleaded for, saying "oh come on Mom, just one more..." so there it was hiding underneath this musty quilt on their driveway. The leather was firm, but supple and had lots of dirt and grime in the tooling , especially on the top where people either sat or propped up their feet. There seemed to be spilt milk or something on most sides and the bottom was stained wet from sitting outside in the rain/ mist for most of the morning. But I could tell this tooled all leather ottoman was beautiful and just needed to be cleaned up and loved again. I asked how much and the gal said $25.00, quick to follow her price with a firm "I don't want to sell it, but my husband hates it..." my hesitation came only from the fact I knew I had only $10.00 cash left. I asked her if she'd hold it for my ten $, while I went to get more. I gave her the ten, and we left for the ATM. As we got into the car Danny smiled at me knowing that it was his stopthat filled me glee. Staring at me with this"I told you so grin" I validated the boy's natural instinct of the hunt, with a "thank you" for making us stop. I spent the better part of that Saturday cleaning it. First I used an exacto knife to dig out the grime, dangerous I know, but I was careful and nothing else would work in the tiny crevices. Then I used a leather cleaner, dish soap and a toothbrush, leather cleaner again and finally, buffed with leather polish. It did take a long time....but I certainly think it was worth it. Oh! I almost forgot, stuffed inside the bottom of the stitching was this little tag... good "pick" huh!