Thursday, October 1, 2009

Under the pile, I found a treasure




Last year I ventured out to an estate sale. First of all, the parking was a bear, but I came prepared to walk far and hard. I was wearing my lucky Keds sport shoes. God I love these tennis shoes. I should do a commercial about keds tennis shoes. I wore these things all summer. OK, back to what I was going to say. Anywho, I had to walk about a block. The house was big and beautiful. It sat in one of the upscale areas in St. Louis. There were as many people in the house as there were items. I decided that I wanted to venture upstairs to look for linen. To my surprise there were not as many people there wanting to look through the piles of linen. Under one of the pile of linen I found this beautiful old lace tablecloth. I loved it. There was no tag on it, so I decided to hang on to it. When I asked the lady how much she wanted for it, she said $15. At this point I knew I was going to do some bartering with her. I said, "There are a few holes in it, how about $5". She said, "OK". I was happy to have this tablecloth for my table. I was smiling like a cheshire cat. She did say that it was really old and that her mother had it for awhile. She said that her mother had passed away. I asked her if she was sure that she wanted to get rid of it since it was her mother's. She said that she had no problem with getting rid of it and she was sure that her mother would want to see it being put to use instead of never being used at all. I knew I had a good deal and decided to leave the holes in the cloth. I just simply left it the way that I bought it. It made the cloth seem so authentic and old. I do put the tablecloth to use. It comes out every fall and stays on the table until the spring of the following year. I also bring it out on special occasions. I treasure the tablecloth and the story of where I got it from. Something so simple and beautiful for only $5. I got a great deal. Remember, when you go to these estate sales, sometimes the seller just want to get done, and may come down on the prices. Never be afraid to go low. Until next time, be frugal and live like a queen!