That may sound like a strange title, but it’s true.

You see, usually when I go yard-saling (is that even a word? probably not, because it’s underlined with a red squiggly line.), I just drive around looking for signs. I live near lots of different neighborhoods, so my method usually has pretty good results. This past Saturday, however, I decided to do a little more homework. I went to GSALR and input my info, then actually made a map of places I wanted to go – some of them had baby things, some had home decor items, and then there was one I was especially curious about – it advertised “Candle making supplies – sold at a huge loss.”

Now, I have never made a candle. Well, unless you count that one time when I was a kid and went to a pioneer event-thing at school and made one of those ugly dip, dip, dip candles. (you know the kind I’m talking about? a big long wick with a candle on each end?) Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty and it didn’t even have a nice scent. My mom, though, being the nice mom she is, I’m sure she kept it and said it was very nice. Thanks, Mom. 😉

Anyway, despite my rocky beginning to candle-making-fame, I decided I would like to look into this yard sale and hopefully find some amazing candle supplies.

I suppose from the title you can guess what happened?

All I found there were several candles – I asked the lady if they had candle making supplies and she said no.

You mean I dragged myself out of bed for THIS??? o boy… well, I did buy a dress for my little girl:

It was $1, so it wasn’t a steal, but I liked it and it will be fun for fall and winter. 🙂

I was thinking of just going home after that big disappointment, but there was 1 other yard sale in that community, so I decided to stop by just in case I found anything.

Wow – I am so glad I did!!! The guy there must have been the same size as my hubby because I found lots of clothes that were exactly his size!

4 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of pants, and a long-sleeved, collared shirt – all of them either $.50 or $1! The shorts and pants are all either old navy, express or structure brand. Nice. And they all fit my hubby perfectly! What’s even better…he likes them. 🙂

I also found this jacket for him:

and notice the tag – pointed out so beautifully by my red, chubby looking fingers:

The lady there had some cute clothes too, but she definitely was not my size. Size 2 and size 0? Ummm…I don’t think so. However, I did find some fun accessories that she threw in for free:

However, one of the first things I noticed when I walked up was this ancient toilet-looking thing:

haha – don’t worry, I know it’s not an ancient toilet. Although that is the way I found it at the yard sale, so it didn’t look very nice to begin with. 😉

Anyway, I recognized it as something I had seen in some of Ballard Designs’ catalogs…kinda like this:

It’s called a Garden Seat and Ballard sells them here for $139. Yow.

Well, walking up to it, I knew what it was and knew I would like to have it. However, I wasn’t super sure where I would use it, so I mentally decided I would pay about $5 for it.

I know. I’m cheap.

I asked the guy how much he was selling it for. He said $20. I said thanks, but no thanks, and went on to find those awesome clothes I just showed you.

However…the lady at the house was milling around and I decided to ask her. Sneaky. 😉

Our convo went something like this:

Me: “So, he said you were selling this for $20?”

Lady: “Yeah. It’s actually supposed to be like this {turns it over}, so it’s really nice.” [slight pause] “I would take $10, though.”

Me: “Would you take $5?” (inwardly slightly embarrassed I’m asking this question)

Lady: “6?”

Me: “I’ll think about it. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do with it, so I just don’t want to spend a lot on it.”

as I type that out, I have a hard time believing I actually said that last part. haha…well, it was true, though. And my hubs is constantly reminding me we don’t want to fill our house up with stuff just because we have extra space, so I didn’t want to completely disregard his concern and bring home something I didn’t know what to do with.

Anyway, I kept looking through the clothes and this older man came behind me and started looking at the garden seat. Horrors!!! Sometimes all it takes for me to realize whether I really want something or not is to imagine someone else taking off with it. As soon as said older man walked by, I grabbed the seat, decided $6 was good enough, and put a pile of clothes on top of it.

And you wonder why nobody yard sales with me? 😉

When I told the lady I was ready to pay, she looked at my pile of things and said, “Wow! You’re getting a lot! I’ll give the seat to you for $5.”

Wowie…now that is what I call a SCORE!!!

Here are some more pics of my ancient toilet:

the top:

the side:

and the other side:

At the moment, he is residing in our guest room – notice the beautiful color behind him? 😉 I haven’t decided whether to paint him or leave him as is. It’s very Asian and I’m not necessarily decorating “Asian” but I think it’s beautiful as is.

On the other hand, if I ever decide what accent color to use in the guest room, I think this would look FAB spray painted one solid, beautiful color. And I know it can be done because I saw Myra do it with amazing results.

Thanks, Myra, for the inspiration!

While I was taking pics of my yard sale finds, my little girl was eating cheerios and crackers. All of a sudden, she started asking for cheese. But when I offered it to her, she didn’t want it. I finally realized she was saying “cheese” for me to take her pic.

Cute little ragamuffin. 🙂

So, that’s my story about false advertising. It was pretty disappointing to not find those candle making supplies. But super exciting to find those clothes for my hubby and that awesome garden seat!

Any thoughts on painting my seat? Should I leave it as-is or paint it a gorgeous accent color? I’ve been thinking yellow as an accent color in that room, but recently I’ve been drawn to green instead. Green would be more calming. Yellow would be invigorating.

Thoughts?