And the stack grows higher: tips for library book sales

Ooh, it's my favorite time of year: book sale season! I've been to several good ones in the last month. But last night was the best; it was "friends' night" at my very-favorite library book sale.

Just get a look at this room! This is only half of the "non-readers" room, which also spills out onto a table in the hallway. Everything in here is 50 cents. And though the line to get in the sale was huge, when I entered this room, I was the only one in there.

Here's my stack. It's a very modest one this time! (I've bought so many books over the years, I'm getting pickier and pickier.) Here's my system:

-Head straight for the children's books. They're the best bargain around--cheaper than anything else, but you'll read them again and again and get both art and text--so the value is unbelievable!

-Bring several big huge tote bags. Put anything that looks at all appealing into the bag. Don't preview it yet, just put it in there and move on.

-Keep your book list in mind. I keep an Amazon wish list going of all the great children's books I've ever wanted, and seeing them there keeps covers, authors, and illustrators fresh in my mind, so I spot things easily.

-And yet, don't have a goal. The lady next to me was pawing through boxes, looking for "Thomas the Tank Engine" books, passing wonderful book after wonderful book! (I desperately wanted to offer advice!) Be open to the discovery of something new.

-When you're all finished looking, find a nice quiet corner to review your stacks. On closer inspection, I usually put back about a third to half of the books I picked up. I'm looking for great art, wonderful language, and, often, the innocence and beauty of vintage books (though modern ones find their way into my bag, too).

Here are a few of my favorite finds from last night's sale. (There's more over there on the right, in my librarything.)

As I described the books I'd found to Lucy, she said "the old science books are for you, Mama." Yup. She knows me well.

Are you finding any treasures this book-sale season?

Books for my bird-loving babe

Writing about books yesterday reminded me that I never gave you a closer peek into my recently-found treasures, as promised. Here's a start.

I have a bird-lover in the house. Lucy and I have spent tons of time watching our chickens, the turkeys at the farm, the sparrows outside the window by her potty, the crows in the compost bin. She can identify a "dee dee" (chickadee) by its song. She nightly asks for "story: birds" as I put her to sleep. So when I spotted this book at the book sale, naturally, I snatched it right up.

It wasn't until I brought it home and took a closer look that I recognized it. A few years back, I'd had it out of the library at the school where I then taught, renewed and renewed and renewed for a group of children who were interested in learning how to paint birds. We'd used its large, simple illustrations as models for many of our own paintings.

Lucy loves them, too. Most of the birds are ones we've seen, and it's become routine for us to discuss on each page "Mama know? Me know?" (In other words, do you know that bird, mama? Do I?) At the moment, we just look at the pictures, name the birds, and talk about our personal connections to each one. Later, we'll enjoy reading the text.

And then, I spotted this one. Oh, was I excited! Pretty much, if it's by Brian Wildsmith, it's going into my bag. But this had the added bonus of being about birds...

...and fascinating vocabulary. (It gives the language for groups of various birds, as in "A wedge of swans. A sedge of herons.") We love looking at the gorgeous illustrations, and repeating the intriguing words.

Lucy particularly enjoys this illustration of turkeys, which reminds her of those at "our" farm.


One of the things I love so much about vintage books is their beautiful, artistic illustrations. So many of today's books are super-realistic (photos) or condescendingly cutesy-cartoonish. Books like these respect children's intelligence while offering up artistic inspiration. Lucy and I can't get enough!

Let me know if you enjoy these reviews. If so, I'd love to share more of my finds with you.

The shelves are groaning

And speaking of books...

I got a few more at a recent library sale.

All my spare computer time has been going to cataloging these (thus the lack of posts).

Oh, my goodness, what treasure! It was painful to leave behind the hundreds and hundreds of children's books I didn't buy. Several closing elementary schools' libraries were there, and I felt like I had to rescue these books! As soon as I'm finished getting the heaps out of my dining room, I'll post about some of these vintage goodies.

Because surely I needed some more...

...I went to one of my favorite book sales with a friend this weekend. Oh, did we have fun! As is our habit, we scanned the tables, pulled anything that looked tempting, stuffed it into a bag (two giant tote bags just for me!), and then sat in a corner weeding through the piles, trying to make ourselves put some back. I was good--my put-back pile was as big as my must-have pile. But still, I came away with this many new books. Oh, did I get some treasures! I've just barely started really reading them all, but so far, I'm very excited about:

Fairy Tales by e.e. cummings. Really?!? Who knew? And they look fabulous.
A beautiful edition of Pinnochio.
That Pablo Picasso book on the right above, to add to a series I've been slowly collecting at book sales for the studio.
An Anno book I didn't yet know.
Our Friends in Spain--a learn-Spanish book with fabulous vintage illustrations (right now, my group of kids includes one whose mother is from Spain, and another who recently lived in Spain for 4 months).
A book that's been on my wish list since being recommended by a favorite blogger.

There's more, more, more; I'm off to take a closer look at them and get them cataloged on Librarything. I've got to hurry, because my absolute most-favorite best-ever sale is coming up very soon!

Dressing my baby for the 1960s

I almost forgot about the Sewing and Craft Exchange at the church around the corner, but luckily, we drove by at the right time, and I was able to run in for a few minutes. The first table had boxes and boxes of patterns for 10 cents!!! I wanted to just pick up the huge box of children's patterns and take them all home, but I showed great restraint and only bought 80 cents worth. (Oh, how I'm mourning those I didn't buy! But I have to be realistic about how much storage space and sewing time I have.) Look at these darling treasures:

I'm hoping that some day, I will be a good enough seamstress that I can make a coat, like that little yellow one up there. And that tulip hat to go with it? It's almost too cute--cheesy? But I like it.

I just love the sweet innocence of vintage baby clothes. Babies were allowed to be babies, rather than tiny teenagers.

I thought this top looked simple, comfortable, and versatile.

I love the side buttons on this one. I think that blue dress would look great as a winter jumper in wool or something else cozy and warm.

I love the little inverted pleats and the round opening at the back on this one.

That yellow dress with big pockets looks like a great layering basic to me. And that cape? Love it.

And, seriously. Lucy needs this chicken dress. She'd be thrilled. It has a chicken! And an egg-shaped pocket! (And a chick on a string to put in the pocket, but I think I'd skip that part.)

Independence Days challenge: enjoying the last of the strawberries

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. A few black-cap raspberries. A couple peas.
And this is why I need a farm share! Here's one day's "harvest" from my yard:

Now, granted, this was unusually small (and I could have added some greens, but it was farm pick-up day, so they were certainly not needed). But we don't get a whole lot more even on good days! Still working on that. In the meantime, our "harvest" comes mostly from local farms. At our CSA this week, we picked the last of the peas (not nearly as many as I'd have liked to, as we were on toddler-at-the-end-of-the-day time). And we returned to the berry farm and picked 6 more quarts (would have liked to get more, but the pickins were slim this week). While there, we also gathered some red clover growing in the blueberry-field paths.

3. Preserve something:
Dried 1 pt. red clover and 1 1/2 pts. strawberries. Froze 1/2 pint garlic scape pesto, 1 1/2 qts. veggie stock, and 4 pints snap peas.

4. Waste not:
I seem to always skip this section, because we don't do anything noteworthy, just what's become habit. But maybe it's worth mentioning some of it anyway. What comes quickly to mind: all kitchen scraps go to the chickens; everything we can is recycled (not much, as I try to limit purchases, packaging, plastic, etc.); glass containers are re-used for storage of dry foods and leftovers; kids' wading-pool water is emptied with kid-sized watering cans to water the gardens; "craft supplies" lining the studio shelves are actually beautiful stuff saved from the trash; all laundry is line dried; we use hankies, cloth napkins, rags, cloth pads, and cloth diapers rather than disposables... That's some of it, anyway. I think we do pretty well with this.

5. Preparation and storage:
Did some tag-sale and thrift-store shopping this week and found a few basics: cotton sheets, a brand-new pair of shoes for Lucy when she's bigger, a muffin tin to replace my worn-out one (the old one went outside for the kids' mudpie play).

7. Eat the food:
The kids ate strawberry "pops" for snacks this week (the biggest strawberries, stuck on a stick and frozen), and strawberry-spinach smoothies. We ate lots of coleslaw, salads, and rice with stir-fries (mostly greens). And more radish-butter sandwiches on yummy local bread. Oh, and a strawberry cuppa-cuppa-cuppa. We've pretty much been eating strawberries for every meal.

Friday's Flowers: simplicity

One hydrangea bloom, all alone in a creamer.
Simple...perfect for summer.
...
That's my "new" strawberry tablecloth, there, too. I had a recent lucky day in the linens aisle of the thrift store. I was looking for sheets, and found 2 lovely, crisp, white, heavy cotton, vintage sheets, old but looking unused. A wash and a day on the line and now they're spotless and fresh and perfect! I also found a great floral vintage sheet and pillowcases set--the pillowcases, with a new white sheet, have made my bed all summery this week. But the best find of all was this tablecloth. Hung inside-out on a hanger in the sheets section, marked as a "full" sheet, it still couldn't hide from my vintage-tablecloth sixth sense! (And this particular store has started pricing vintage tablecloths at $15, but sheets are only $5. Score!)

Aiming for a junkier garden

I used to think I hated garden ornamentation. Gnomes and shiny silver balls and most especially, junk as "art," cluttering up the yard. But then I moved to Massachusetts, where the garden is dead and barren for most of the year, and you're eager for a spot of beauty. And I began to see examples of garden objects, even junk, done well. And I started to appreciate it. Even to want some in my own yard.

But I'm not very good at it. When I put things in my garden, they look lonely, out of place, odd. So I've been studying gardens as I meet them, trying to figure out why they work. And for the past year or so, one of my main tag-sale and thrift-store missions has been to find good garden "junk."

On Easter, we went to a party in the yard of a friend who's a master at artfully arranging objects. Her home is a work of art, and I'm so in awe of the beautiful vignettes she sets up all throughout her life. I took some photos of her garden for inspiration (unfortunately, my photos do not do it justice. Trust me when I say it's much more beautiful in person.)

After wandering around her garden, I returned to my garden this week with new eyes. I've been rearranging the furniture, so to speak, moving the bits of things I've had in my garden for years and giving them new homes and new friends. It needs work yet, but I'm liking it so far. I'll share photos soon.
...
Outdoors today:

Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players -lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy

Another pile of books added to the stack

There's a library near here that has an amazing book sale twice a year. I've become a "friend of the library" just so I can get into this sale on the first night--it's that good. I work my way around all the dealers with their hand-held computers looking for books of "value," and go to the back-in-the-corner room where all the books cost 50 cents and have far more value to me: the picture book room.

Oh, how I love picture books! But I showed restraint. I considered bookshelf space (there is no more). I "only" brought home these:



Oh, and look what I discovered inside You're the Scaredy Cat, by Mercer Mayer:



What a treasure!

This book sale has become a sort of standing date with some friends of mine. We go together, grab any book that looks tempting and stuff it into our bags, then find a corner where we sit and look more carefully, whittling down our piles to a more manageable size. We ooh and ahh over each others' discoveries and help each other with the difficult decision of which books to keep and which to let go. Then we go out to dinner (this time, we brought our books right into the restaurant for a closer look). To me, that's the perfect night out!

Vintage Swap goodies sent off to Pennsylvania

My partner, Lorena, has received her (super-late) Vintage Swap package, so now I can show you what I sent.

The swap started with a questionnaire, which I found so helpful. When I read Lorena's answers, I got an immediate picture in my head of just what sorts of things I would get for her. I printed it out and kept it in my purse, and had so much fun going to all my favorite thrift shops over and over on the hunt. But it turned out to be much harder than I expected to find what I wanted! (I'm sure I'll find tons of stuff now that it's over...). Each time I entered a store, my mind would recite the litany of hoped-for things: "green, brown, orange, paper ephemera, tins, pyrex, fabric, crochet..." Slowly, a package started to come together. I was delayed by sickness and over-busyness, which gave me a bit longer to find things to include. So, in the end, I sent:

--A vintage sheet (because she said she liked vintage fabric, but found it hard to cut into. Sheets are easy, because they're so plentiful!) The funny thing is, I have the same sheet. I've made an Itty Bitty Baby Dress, some bloomers, a 4-year-old's dress, and a skirt and headband for myself from this sheet, and still have some left over!

--Some rick rack and trim from my stash, tucked into a little appliqued fabric pouch.

--A vintage postcard of the courthouse in our town.

--A brown and yellow scarf.

--Two volumes of Stitch by Stitch. These are from the late 80s, which just doesn't feel "vintage" to me, since I was in high school! But I've read about them on blogs described that way, with good reviews. If you can look past the horrible 80s fashion and styling, there's some really good info in there about crochet, knitting, sewing... I had a hard time passing them on!

And my favorites...

--A pyrex mixing bowl with those lovely handle/spouts I find so handy when baking:


And these fabulous vintage knitting booklets:




I was so nervous putting this package in the mail! I sent it the day I received my package, and I so hoped she be as pleased as I was. It sounds like she was, thank goodness!

Thrift shopping: the next generation

Saturday, my friend Tim and I hit the thrift stores with Lucy. She's been thrift shopping with me since birth, first in the sling, then in the cart, and as of this weekend, on her own two feet.





The girl knows what she likes: books and baubles. A girl after her mama's heart.

Unexpected treasures

Andi came home from work the other day with a big bag full of...what's that? Lovely wool and cotton yarn and tons of crochet hooks? What a wonderful unexpected surprise! A gift from a friend, who knits and knows I've begun to crochet. Thanks, Melissa! My crochet class was canceled last week due to (ridiculously-over prepared for) snow and this week to school vacation, so I'm itching to get back and find out what I might be able to do with this new treasure. I'm so excited to have a "stash" of yarn and hooks! (If you knit, you'll definitely want to check out Melissa's blog. She's made gorgeous things for Lucy, and she's got a book coming out soon!)



Another surprise came at the thrift shop, where I'd gone to look for potential treasure for the upcoming Vintage Swap. Naturally, as soon as I promise to swap some great stuff, I find nothing; I've been to several thrift shops in the past few weeks and walked away empty-handed--unheard of! (Sorry, Lorena! But don't worry, I'm still looking...) But I did spot this, which somehow found its way into my cart:



It's not well-made, or even old, but I like it all the same. I've got this vision of someday having a collection of old and new globes in all different sizes and colors (now we have 3). Already, I've overheard one precious after-nap conversation (the new globe is in the library, where the children nap), including this 4-year-old analysis: "The real earth is much bigger than that. It is bigger than a tree. It is bigger than a house. Way back when dinosaurs lived, it had to be bigger than they were!"

Tidbits and mud

I have been doing some blog-worthy things lately. Really I have. There's been a wee bit of thrift shopping:



And a good deal of baking:



And I'd write to tell you all about it, but at the moment, I'm buried in a pile of laundry. Why so much laundry, you ask?



Well, it may have something to do with the way we spend our days...

Book Barn Booty

So I promised I'd share the books I got on our road trip this past weekend. I think I showed great restraint. This is all we bought:



In the foreground is a pile of what we call "beach reads" (appropriate for our January beach day, right?). We're exhausted mamas these days, and reach for easy reading most often. You can see I cracked one of them right away (and can't put it down!)

And then, of course, there's the real treasure--the kids' books. Kids books get read over and over and over again, so I have to love them! I got some great ones. Those Little Golden Books are really exciting to me, because I remember them fondly from childhood. Eloise Wilkins pretty much defines my early childhood book memories, and that kindergarten book looks to me just exactly like what kindergarten should be: singing and playing and fingerpainting and napping (not the pushed-down academics it's become). I have 4 kids heading to kindergarten this fall (no, not mine!) and I'll love sharing this book with them. And Rabbit and His Friends! For years I wondered what was that platypus book I remembered from childhood, and finally, Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves gave me the answer. She's also the one who inspired me to get Plenty of Fish. I love how it shows a kid finding answers to his own scientific questions. And I got The Tomten and the Fox for my chicken-loving, fox-loving, predator-and-prey-stories-loving kids. And a Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka book for me because something about their sweet old-fashioned innocence appeals to me so. There's more in there, too, but I guess those are the ones that excited me the most.

Treasure at the Goodwill

I'm not finished making Christmas gifts yet. Nope, not even those that are getting sent to Virginia. Yeah. I'm a pretty horrible procrastinator.

So, I had to go to the Goodwill today, for some raw materials. Here's the heap that came home with me, which throughout the rest of the day (and late into the night) got transformed into gifts (I'll show those soon).



While I was there, I spotted a big box on the floor. "Children's encyclopedia $5."



My first thought was "where will I put them?" (I have a bit of a children's book problem...er...collection.) My next thought was "who cares?...I need them." They're not an "encyclopedia" like you'd expect. It's the 1947 edition of the Childcraft How and Why Library. The first volume is full of poetry and lovely illustrations. There's one with folk tales. One with songs and art ideas. One with information about plants. And on and on. I can't wait to explore them! (No time now; must sew, sew, sew! But after Christmas.) And I can't wait to share them with Lucy. Here's a cursory peek (I didn't even need to look at this much to know I wanted them. And the man who sold them to me agreed. He was so glad I was buying them. He said they're not supposed to sell encyclopedias, but he'd insisted on this one, because it was so cool. He said he wants to show people what they can do with kids besides plop them in front of the t.v. My kind of Goodwill guy.)








After that, my whole day was spent crafting, in the midst of the giant heaping mess that was once our office. It was not a safe place for Lucy, but boy did she want to be there! What do you do with a baby while you're using the rotary cutter? I did this: