A few weeks ago I wrote about some of the clothes that I found at a recent garage sale. If you missed it, you can find that post here. I wanted to share some more fun stuff that I have come across in recent weeks.

Jim and I really like old glass like depression and milk glass. I am actually starting to run out of spots to put it all so I think I need to slow down, but I have really found some pretty stuff for really good prices.

The pink bowl/plate was 5 dollars and the green plate, which is apparently the sandwich glass, was 2 dollars.

These are some different cocktail glasses that I have found. Since we started doing Fun Fridays, we realized that we really needed some new drink glasses. This is something I always find at sales so this was a fun challenge for me.

The brandy snifters are really pretty and I think I got six of them and paid two dollars a glass. They are Mikasa and in a store these would retail for about $20 each. They are really pretty and quite heavy. The martini glasses were a quarter each. They are very nice, but not anything real special. Probably like something you would find at Crate and Barrel. The shaker was also a quarter and it’s pretty solid and works really well. The utensils don’t really go with this picture but I happened to buy them on the same day. Since I send hot meals in with the girls about once a week to school I always seem to be missing spoons. I found these Pfaltzgraff spoons and knives for a dime a piece.

The cosmo or martini glasses were a great find. They are really heavy and the glass has pretty little bubbles in it. I bought the whole set for 5 dollars and there were eight of these.

This next piece is milk glass and I use it as a fruit bowl (which I guess is really what it is supposed to be.) I love this bowl and it sits on my countertop all of the time with bananas or apples in it. It looks really nice with some red apples:-). I paid 10 dollars for this.

These are my pool bags that I have used this summer. I paid a dollar for each bag and believe me, I have gotten my two dollars worth with these.

Vera Bradley bags. The brown bag I paid 13 dollars for, but it’s a nice big duffle that was hardly used. I love this brown and teal pattern. My daughter has a lunch bag in the same pattern. The backpack and the little purse I think I paid 3 and 1 dollar for respectively. My daughters really like Vera Bradley purses because they are so colorful. They probably have about 4 or 5 bags like these that we have picked up at sales.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did! I think one of the keys to getting the most out of garage sales is to find good quality items that are in good condition (and at a good price.) I am pretty picky about the sales that I go to and the items that I buy. I have gotten some amazing items at sales and I will do some more posts in the upcoming weeks with more of my finds. I am saving my favorite items for a post that I will have in a week or two. When I do, you will be amazed at some of the things that I have come home with and the prices I have paid. Just wait:-)….are you as excited as I am??????

If you read my “About” page you will see that I love going to garage sales. It is honestly one of my favorite times of the week.    My daughter and I get up bright and early every Saturday morning, grab some Starbucks and head to the  sales near our house.  We are usually out the door a bit before 7.  I look at Craigslist on Friday night and figure out where the sales are and I figure out a route based on the ones I want to hit.  We have a great time together and it has really become our little ritual.  My youngest daughter usually sleeps in and calls me on my cell phone at about 8 and asks me to get her a doughnut.  We always try to find something to bring home to her and I leave it to Ella to pick something out.  We usually arrive home between 9 and 10 and unload all of our fabulous finds.

As Ella will tell you, sometimes we have a great day and sometimes we hit a lot of duds. We have even developed our own “garage sale code.”  We came up with these one day when we were talking about all the different sales and how we can tell if one is going to be good or not.  Ella thought it would be a good idea to come up with these so that we can indicate to the other one how we feel about the particular sale without hurting the owner’s feelings…or without letting them know how excited we are about the finds and thereby ruining our negotiating power:-).

NWG- Not Worth the Gas

HTJ – Hit the Jackpot

RTL – Ready To Leave

We live in Apex, North Carolina which is a nice suburban southern town just south of Raleigh.  Apex is right next to a town called Cary which has some relatively affluent neighborhoods.  The garage sales here are incredible.  Sure, we will hit some duds – hence the “NWG” code, but there are also times when we totally HTJ – “Hit the Jackpot.”  These are the sales that get me up every Saturday.  These are the sales that have me addicted to garage sale shopping…..

I had an HTJ sale this Saturday and I thought this would be an opportune time to do my first garage sale post.  I literally get a shopper’s  high when I find sales like this one.  A mother was selling these clothes for her daughter who used to work at Nordstrom.  The daughter had recently moved to NYC and left these clothes with her mom and that is why they were for sale.

These shirts are all from what I think of as designer labels.  I think that she purchased them all from Nordstrom (with the exception of the Banana Republic coat) although I am not sure if you can still get Lacoste (at least women’s clothing) and Michael Stars there anymore.

Polo’s typically retail for about 80 dollars and I purchased for this one for $2.50 in new condition.  I love how these shirts fit and I just like the preppy look.  Unfortunately, I don’t think they are made in France anymore – not completely sure.  I have  bought about 10 Lacoste shirts between Jim and I at garage sales or thrift stores so I am starting to have  a collection.  Haven’t paid more than 5 dollars for any of them.  We also have  a few that we have paid full price for – oh well:-)

Michael Stars shirts typically retail for about 65-70 dollars and I paid $2.50.  This shirt would look great with a tank underneath and a pair of skinny jeans and some heels.  It is a loose-fitting shirt – very cute.  It even has some shiny threads running through it so you could wear it out or to the office.

BCBG tops range anywhere from 78-188 dollars retail at Nordstrom and this was another $2.50 shirt – in gently used condition.  I wore it out today with a pair of white jeans and it looked great!

This is a Halogen trench and this picture does not do this cute jacket justice.   If I get some time this week I am going to wash it and iron – it’s really in perfect condition.  It’s a light, but waterproof trench coat and its longer than the picture in the link, which is on sale for $98.  I bought this one for $5.

This is a  new, hardly worn Banana Republic Lambswool/Cashmere blend coat.  The mother told me that she bought it for her daughter when she moved to NYC but the daughter said it wasn’t warm enough for New York City winters.  It is knee-length on me and it’s extremely soft and luxurious feeling.  I think she paid about $200 for it and it has hardly been worn.  I have a camel colored BR coat that I bought probably about 9 years ago and I imagine that this will be a coat that I will wear for years as well.  I paid $15 dollars for this one.

I LOVE this denim jacket and as I am looking at this picture, I think that the shirt would look super cute under the jacket!  The Jacket is Classiques Entier Atelier and it is in new condition. This brand retails anywhere from $89-$298 and I paid $5 for it.

The shirt is another BCBG and would look great with a pair of skinny jeans and some high heels.  I paid $2.50 for it.

I have no idea where this shirt is from.  The brand is Love Notes and I actually got this at another sale and just thought it was really cute.  I paid a buck for it so it was worth it no matter where it came from!

So wasn’t that fun??  I love finding new clothes at garage sales because there is nothing like raiding someone else’s closet.  I’m always amazed at what people want to sell and when someone just really wants to get rid of something they usually will sell it for a good price.  Sometimes people gain or lose weight and sell off perfectly good and stylish clothes. Then there are times when people  buy or are given an item and decide later that it just doesn’t look right on them.  I am very often affected by the sellers when I buy their clothes.  If they smoke and seem  kind of messy, I usually won’t even look at their clothes.  However, if they seem  clean and their garage sale is well-organized (or their house and yard is nicely maintained,) I will look closely at their clothes.  Sometimes I can even tell as soon as I drive up whether its going to be a good sale or not.

I have a lot more garage sale posts to write so I hope that you will enjoy reading about this on my blog.  I have some similar clothes from Nordies that I bought for Jim that I will put up and  oodles of posts that I can do for things around the house or stuff for the kiddos.  I will even do some general posts about garage sale and thrift  shopping.  Hopefully you will find this interesting and maybe even inspiring enough to get out and check out the garage sales in your area as well!