found something cool by accident today...

i was lucky enough to be the first responder on a pretty $15 mirror listed on craigslist yesterday!  i checked the right listing at the right moment for a change.

so i arranged to meet the woman selling the mirror this morning.  she works out of a cute house in a downtown neighborhood, about a 5 minute drive from my house.  i drove down to meet her at 10AM and found a sea of cars and people at the mansion next door and a giant ESTATE SALE sign.

omgomgomgomg.  :)

i bought the mirror and visited with my new craigslist friend, veronica, for a bit.  she was incredibly sweet with the cutest german accent, and she was telling me some of her crazy craigslist stories.  apparently she's moving back to europe, so she's been slowly liquidating a lot of her decor and furniture.  she's having a garage sale this weekend, so i'll probably stop by.

she told me a little bit about the old couple who used to live in the mansion next door.  apparently she was friendly with them, and she said it was very difficult for her to watch people walking in and picking apart their estate.  this made me feel a little guilty about being so excited to go poke around, so i at least managed to keep from salivating all over her driveway as i pondered what i might find.

we said goodbye, and i waited until i was sure she'd gone inside to beeline towards the estate sale.

this had to be the coolest estate sale i've ever been to.  i was a couple hours late, so i missed a lot of great deals on giant outdoor urns and whatnot, but there was still a ton of outrageous pieces to drool over.  unfortunately my house is smallish and on the full side as far as furniture goes (i'm looking for a buffet, but that's about it), so i had to walk away from the gorgeous chairs and claw footed tables i saw.

i found a heavy glass cake cover for $10, and now i'm super excited to try and build a cake stand to go with it using a platter and a candlestick holder.  i saw that idea on someone's blog here that i follow, but for the life of me i can't find the bookmark to properly reference it here - sorry!  i did a quick google search though, so here's a link to the basic idea.  so, so cute.  time to hunt down a platter and candlestick holder i like!

also, one or both of the previous owners were apparently artists because there was a mountain of beautiful watercolors to choose from.  i plucked out a couple of small beachy paintings to frame and put in my bathroom.  i'm going to try michael's for a couple of simple black frames to put them in.

and then, in the back corner of a shed, behind a dusty box of old LP's, i found this little gem with a $5 sticker on it:

I LOVE IT.  i was carrying it through the house as i kept browsing, and half a dozen people made comments about it.  it is obnoxiously filthy.  i'm sure it was sitting in that shed for a long time, so i'm going to have to put some serious elbow grease into cleaning it up.  i think it would look super cute on a buffet table, but since i haven't found one yet, it might have to take up temporary residence on my dining room fireplace mantle.

also, and i really, really, REALLY wish i had thought to take a picture of it, but i was too busy scraping my jaw off the floor along with everyone else walking through, these folks were serious liza minnelli lovers.  borderline mental even.  they had an ENTIRE UPSTAIRS ROOM dedicated to the woman.  i'm talking all four walls, covered with framed pictures of her.  it was super creeptastic.

i'm sad because after i got the craigslist mirror home i realized it wasn't big enough for the space i had in mind.  i think it's going over the guest room dresser instead.  but hey, if i hadn't bought the mirror, i wouldn't have found the awesome estate sale!