June3rd-"Cheating" with the Websters

Weather: mostly cloudy and hot

Remarks: we often joke that when Joe and I go saleing alone on Saturdays we are "cheating" on Gail and Mick. Well, today we went cheating with them as a special treat for all. They picked us up shortly after Gail finished working at noon, and we headed for Bellvue with the idea of stopping at all the sales we saw along the way. This was the weekend of the annual Quail Hollow neighborhood (in Ft Collins) garage sale, a huge event that G + M have attended for many years, but it was only scheduled to run until 2pm, so we figured at best we would just catch the tail end of the event. We started with a couple of sales in Loveland and then slowly made our way through Ft Collins to Bellvue. There were still some sales open in Quail Hollow when we got there, and we got some free and greatly-reduced bargains as people were closing up. One of the sales we stopped at was a fund raiser for a cat-rescue shelter in Ft Collins. It is a new venture started by 2 women working as vet-techs at the South Mason vet clinic. They have a tiny facility (450 sq ft) that is already filled to capacity with 17 cats, hopefully they can make a go of it. They had 2 males about a year old and a very young calico kitten inside the home where the sale was held, hopefully to inspire some adoptions. Sure hope they can make a go of it, it is a very ambitious (and very needed) endeavor. Yes, we shopped their sale and no, we didn't haggle at this one!! Once we got to Bellvue we went to Vern's for dinner and then over to G+M's to see the progress on their new building. I apologize for not taking any pictures of the building, I had intended to--even remembered to bring my camera this time--but just didn't get around to taking any. Much progress in the 2 weeks since we were last there, flooring on the 2nd story and outer walls had been added, as well as the stairs, so we were able to go up on the upper level. Very, very nice. Gail and Mick should be very proud of what they are building, it is first class all the way. We watched the sun set and then sat on the porch (of the house) and enjoyed a magnificent summer evening.

Amount spent: $420

• 2 large glass bricks-$2 each
• photographer's light stand (amazingly, it fits the light we bought on 5-21 (click here to see it) perfectly. Joe had been looking into modifying a broken tripod to hold the light; this is a better solution) the arm extends a few inches beyond the top of the picture and 2 of the 3 feet are visible under the table-$1
• white wire storage baskets-free
• Monopoly game-$4 (high, but we have been looking for one for awhile without any luck, so...)
• wire-bound sketch book-free
• pastry cutter-free (better picture below)
• iron holder (clamps onto ironing board)-50 cents
• box of 12 white china marking pencils-25 cents

A better view of the pastry cutter. It is like 7 pizza cutters mounted on a scissoring-assembly allowing the width of the strips cut to be adjusted--and consistent! The outer cutting wheels are slightly bent but Joe says he can straighten them.

• nice soft sided cooler with cup holders in the lid-$1
• "Atticus-proof" trash can for the office-25 cents

• Chinese Appetizers & Garnishes-softcover-50 cents
• 4 Blondes-softcover-50 cents
• Colorado Narrow Gauge softcover book-25 cents
• German cookbook(auf Deutsch)-hardcover-$1
• 2 German/Austrian softcover cookbooks (also auf Deutsch)-50 cents each
• Coyote Stories (Navajo fables published for Navajo education)-25 cents
• (not pictured) Lando by Louis L'Amour-50 cents

A very interesting modern-style chandelier. We don't know how it is assembled exactly, we will have to play with it to figure it out. The smoky beveled glass panels and the rings of glass rods obviously hang on the hooks, we'll just have to figure out the placement. Hopefully all the pieces are included, helps with puzzle-solving. Not sure what we will do with this, our ceilings are really too low for hanging style lamps, but it looked interesting and full of possibilities-$5 (haggled down by Joe from $10)
**Ta-Dah!** The big purchase of the day (month; year): a commercial sewing machine!! This is a large, heavy machine (slightly under 50 lbs) mounted in a huge industrial table (weighs about 140 lbs!). It is a zig-zag machine (also sews straight stitch) with all kinds of marvelous features like a knee control that controls lifting the presser foot and regulating the zig-zag stitch width (allowing the operator to keep both hands on the fabric constantly). Top stitching speed is 2000 stitches per minute... I've never had/sewn on anything like this. The woman selling it said she used it for about a year to do contract sewing on children's clothing for a year to allow her to stay at home with her kids. Because it is such a huge, heavy piece and we were in the van on the way to more sales and then Bellvue, we made arrangements to pick it up Monday night. The seller has also promised to give me an orientation and some operating tips then. This is a stock picture of the machine from Singer's page, I'll add actual pictures and some more info after we get it home.-$400
Because I couldn't figure out how to photograph it. It is a red-tinted mirrored piece of metal that came off the front of a refrigerator. It is one of 2 pieces that Gail bought at the last sale we stopped at, in Bellvue. The seller had lots of interesting stuff, and these pieces were standing on the ground, leaning up against some equipment, and the metal bowed enough to create a "fun-house" style effect that reflected a very tall, skinny image back to the viewer. Wow! Magic Mirrors! We saw these as we were getting ready to leave and just fell in love with the images they were reflecting. The seller (an older man who was quite a character) told us that all the mirrors in the Queen Mary were made with a special rose tint so that the reflections would insure people didn't look greenish from seasickness. He pointed out that this idea just added to the magic of these mirrors. Gail bought both and gave us one. We'll have to figure out how to recreate the bow when we mount them....Very cool, but I couldn't catch it in a photo.

CUUH CLOSE-UPS:
featuring a closer look at interesting items from this week's haul

The book we got on Chinese garnishes is spectacular! Incredibly intricate garnishes accompanied by instructions in Chinese and English and great photos--enough information to actually reproduce some spectacular pieces! This book is a real GEM!!! Every wanted to make a little basket out of a tomato? Or a rooster out of a daikon radish? The creativity showcased in this book is wonderful!