Occasionally, I’ll actually leave the house for a fun activity in my fair city. Last weekend, I trekked across town to attend the Oakland Museum of California’s annual White Elephant Sale. I had heard about this massive rummage sale before, but truly didn’t understand its epic proportions until I walked through the doors of a 96,000 square foot warehouse.
They must spend all year preparing, because for a giant room full of all kinds of junk, it certainly was organized. Every single item was tagged and priced, from a cruddy old mug to the table of pristine vintage sewing machines.
I saw tons of incredible needlework, including the lovely but grammatically incorrect piece above.
There were linens galore, all neatly folded. One of my favorite things about this sale was how low the prices were; I walked out with a bag full of books and patterns, some knick-knacks, and a Bakelite-handled saw, and it only sent me back ten bucks.
We arrived near the end of the weekend, so a lot of areas had been picked over, like the button rack above, but I used my thrifty eagle eye and managed to score this sweet needle set for a mere fifty cents.
So many patterns, so many books! It was hard to choose what I absolutely needed to take home. There simply wasn’t room in my arms to carry everything I wanted to buy. Guess which book I had to decide against? Perhaps it will be waiting for me next year.
