is it garage sale season yet??

Anyone who knows me well knows I LOVE garage sales. It is my favorite past time. I love the hunt, the bargaining, and coming home with new old things. My parents used to make me go when I was little and I HATED it....what if someone I knew saw me? How embarrassing! Now, I can't get enough. Not sure when that changed. Probably around the time that I decided it was ok to buy my clothes at Target. AKA....when I started paying for myself.

So this post is dedicated to SOME of my favorite things I have collected from garage sales through the years. I say some because I would say over 50% of the things I have in my house are from garage sales, flea markets, and auctions.

 I have about 7 of these old crates I use as cat beds. They LOVE them, so I put them all around the house. And, they are much cuter than cat beds. Most of them I've gotten for around $3-$5...in most antique stores they are around $25.

This is my favorite possession. I bought this a few years ago for $12 at a garage sale...it's much brighter and more beautiful in person and you can tell has been around many lifetimes.

 I wish I had a picture of what this dresser looked like when I bought it...it was powder pink with old linoleum on the top in pieces. The lady I bought it from (in her 60s) said it was hers when she was was a little girl. I bought it for $5! Then just some repainting, distressing, and new knobs made it the perfect place to store my etsy materials.

Everything on the top is from garage sales too...except the A (spray painted from hobby lobby) and the picture frame (Also from hobby lobby...). The serving tray holds all the pretty vintage earrings for the middle of the flowers.

 This was an ugly gold that I painted purple, and had it on my table as a centerpiece for a while. It collected a lot of dust and was too big of a pain to move so I hung it, and it fits perfectly on this small wall in my kitchen.

 This is an old window I used a special spay paint on the back to make it look like an old mirror, and we write our grocery lists on the front. I bought this window for $3!

 I found this old mantle in a barn....and paid $30 for it. WAY more than I wanted to or normally would, but I'm glad I did because I love it.

These old brooches I bought together at a garage sale for $15 for the set of 5, and put magnets on the back so I can enjoy them all the time!!

 I love old bottles. This fish was 25cents! I couldn't resist. He loves holding the flowers from the yard in the summer time.

 I bought this frame to hold my favorite puppy picture, made out of old barn wood and repainted it to match my bedroom. I don't remember how much I paid for it...but I'm sure it wasn't much.

This old chest was $10 and is the perfect spot to hold our blankets and sheets!

I bought the mantle at a flea market and repainted it and added the middle...and got all the bottles, glass birds, and the old mirror behind it at garage sales and barn sales.

 I bought this old cedar chest for $10 and repainted it and antiqued it. I hate the way I have the decorations on top...I'm looking for something else to go there for this garage sale season. Here it was When I bought it....UGH.

 Everything here I have bought at garage sales except the clock...That table was $3!!!!!!! One of my best finds ever. However, it was in HORRIBLE shape when I bought it. I had to strip it, sand it, fill cuts and holes...I have pictures of the before below. I bought the frame and cut a piece of plywood inside and stenciled a pic of my black cat on it. The old window is a cork board now....The little stand was an ugly oak when I bought it.

Those were deep cuts. It was a lot of work but I love the outcome!!

 I bought these corbels at the same place I bought the mantle shelf in my livingroom. I wasn't sure what to do with them...I tried to put them up on each side of my living room ceiling beam, but it didn't quite work. I had the idea to make them into a shelf in my bedroom and love it.

 I bought that old window for $2 to put pictures of our wedding in, and those little architectural pieces of some sort I bought for $5 with no idea what to do with them. Still not really sure, but I love them sitting on the shelf.

This is my dresser I found with a FREE sign on it around 5 years ago...I repainted it and distressed it and it's  still holding up and working perfectly!!

So, those are my highlights. I plan on having MANY more blogs this summer of my garage sale finds. Stay tuned!!