My mother is a yard sale maniac, and I steadfastly refuse to go with her. She once bargained a person down on a five cent item, "It's not worth a nickel, I'll give you three cents," and I quietly change the subject when she talks about going "yard saling" on a particular Saturday.
Yesterday, was Mother's Day here in the US. We got to my Mom's at 11:30 a.m., to take her to brunch and give her gifts. Because I have bead-sniffing radar, I immediately spotted an absolutely filthy strand of Swarovski beads on her countertop.
"Mom, where did you get those?" I immediately asked.
She waved her hand blithely and responded, "Oh, I found those yesterday at a yard sale. You said to buy any decent looking beads I found if the price was right, so I decided to splurge a quarter and got them for you. Can you use them?"
Yeah, I can use them - a double strand of round graduated light sapphire AB Swarovskis, ranging from 6 mm to 14 mm, with clear faceted spacers inbetween. I took them over to Mom's kitchen sink and gave them a quick swish with dish soap. The facets and the glimmer told me that these beads can't be anything else - definitely "faceted Austrian crystals."
They're in remarkably good shape for a yard sale find - the only damage I could find (and they were very carefully examined, believe me) was a slight scratch on the AB coating of the largest stones. Not too shabby for a quarter. To be doubly sure, I went online last night to find the article numbers for the beads, and these match some now discontinued cuts and colors.
I told Mom that she can buy me such yard sale items any day. :-) I feel like I got a Shirley find - for those who are new, our own Shirley Shone goes to jumble sales all the time and gets these amazing finds for almost nothing.
Kathy N-V