The Cottage is Open

This weekend was definitely the one we should have had last weekend for the holiday. It was sunny and a very comfortable temperature in the low 20's (Celsius) for working indoors or out, the lilacs and the tulips are in bloom and smell divine, and the road to the cottage was graded this past week and good for driving on as a result, compared to the pothole obstacle course that was last week's experience!

My sister and I spent half of yesterday and most of today cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. She did her usual wonderful job of getting the water running and after that, we got busy scrubbing down everything and washing all the dishes and cutlery that had been sitting idle for the past six months.

The start of cottage season also coincides with the beginning of garage/yard sale season. We didn't go up to the cottage until early afternoon yesterday because we were busy checking out the sales - within a two block radius of my mom's house, there were no less than six sales, plus my mom had a table in her driveway of her own!

One of the sales was held by our long time neighbour and family friend, Diane, who is moving in a couple of weeks (it will be very sad to see her go, even though she is only going to be a couple of blocks away, she has been living across the street for more years than I can remember and before that, lived across the street from my parents in our first house when my brother and I were just wee). Her three daughters were home for the weekend to give her a hand and there were lots of wonderful "vintage" things on offer. I picked up a rotary dial phone for just $1 - at that price, it will be worth keeping it around in case of a power outage. One of her daughters is a jewellery maker like myself and was selling some of her bead stash, so I picked up some goodies from her as well.

By far, my best purchase yesterday was a lovely, sturdy purple bookcase. It was a steal at only $6.00. The owner asked me to make an offer and I wondered what to say, not wanting to offend her by offering too little. Finally she said, "how about $6?" to which I replied, "SOLD!" I had been just about to offer her $10, so I was quite pleased. :) I'm going to keep the rest of my bead stash in it, so the funky purple colour will do quite nicely. Now all I have to do is figure out where to put it!

Here's a photo of the bookcase, with Carly nearby, waiting for a snack.