Do you drive past garage sales because they don't have much stuff spread out on the lawn or driveway? I do that all the time, but maybe I shouldn't. Because I never ever would have stopped at this one if I hadn't seen the Craigslist ad with a box of what looked like old cross stitch kits with "$3.00 Each" written across the front.
And I would have never known what I missed out on.
There were several boxes of kits. The ones for three bucks each, the ones for five bucks each (supposedly because those were more expensive kits, but I couldn't see a rhyme or reason to which was where), and the ones for fifty cents each. Those are the ones in the top picture.
In the box of five dollar kits was a plastic bag full of little kits. I could see one of the Mill Hill Halloween kits and what looked like a bunch of the smaller beaded kits. All for five dollars. (That worked out to thirty-five cents a kit, in case you're wondering.)
I looked through the boxes of three and five dollar kits and almost bought one before realizing that it was embellished cross-stitch, which isn't my style at all, and then bought the stuff from those first two pictures, all for ten dollars, and went off to do the grocery shopping.
All the way through Winco and Costco I kept thinking about the yarn. It was a dollar a skein, which is probably the least expensive way I'll ever be able to try that ruffled novelty yarn...and the sale was due to end soon, so maybe they'd be negotiable on the prices. The ad did say "Everything must go!"
When the lady saw me looking, she said I could have the yarn for two bucks if I took the whole bag. At that point, I wasn't even sure any of the ruffled stuff was left, but for two dollars I'd happily knit scarves for the library's annual mitten tree.
And then she told me that the kits were marked down to two dollars each...
Instead of asking myself what I was absolutely sure I'd get around to stitching I went through and picked out all of the kits that even sort of fit my taste. Did I mention that none of these have been opened?
The whole haul only cost me twenty-six dollars and I doubt I took half of the kits they had, not to mention whatever was there on Friday. I doubt I'll ever stitch them all, but I can always pass them along or resell them or, for what I paid, use the fabric and floss for something else.
As for those other sales I've driven past.... I doubt they had anything like
this!
How about you? Do you judge yard sales from your car window?