What Were We Thinking?!

  Cathy's son who still lives near Chicago told us that his neighbor was having a garage sale and sent her a few pictures of the table.   All of the items were vintage, they had been this gentleman's mothers things.  The gentleman had racks and racks of clothing in his home.  His mother was a traveler and loved to buy clothing.  He did not know what to do with all of the clothing in his house.

  We offered to purchase the clothing based on what we had seen in the photos of the garage sale, and the gentleman agreed.

  Cathy's husband drove up to Chicago and visited some friends and family since that is where Cathy and her husband moved from in July.  He then rented the trailer and he, our sons, daughter-in-law and Grandsons all loaded up the trailer and the back of the SUV.  He then drove back to Southern Illinois where Mary, her son and Cathy awaited his arrival.  He is such a good sport!

  We were so excited thinking of all of the clothes and how we would list them.  We even bought a form to put the clothing on to photograph.

  When we opened the back of the trailer there were bags upon bags of clothes, coats on hangers, skirts and dresses on hangers and our jaws dropped!

  So much work to do!  We started sorting which took days and ended up with about 22 bags to donate.  Still we had tons of clothes.  We could not imagine owning that much clothing, even both of us combined.

  We started washing what was washable and using Dryell on the dry clean items.  Yes, some we ruined (Cathy did anyway) lol.  Then on to ironing and photographing.  Cathy had an iron that was very vintage and very heavy so she went out and got a new lightweight iron.  Ironing is just not her thing!

  This all started right before Thanksgiving and all are not listed as of yet.  Even working on it every day has been a challenge.  Some items went in the washer just fine, and came out with hems that came loose, lace that fell off, or a stain that just would not come out.  Even on a gentle cycle.  Those items we salvaged the buttons to sell but kick ourselves for not thinking of the buttons sooner in the 22 bags we donated!

  So as excited as we were about the whole idea, it has been decided that we will never buy sight unseen again. Such a learning experience.  It has become a bit of a joke between us now.

  We've tried on some of the clothing and hats and imagined where they were worn. Was it Italy, Japan, a special dinner, church, or a wedding?  We realized vintage clothing sizes are not the same as today's sizing standards because that dress certainly should have fit LOL.  So this was our learning adventure without a doubt which is where we've use the words "what were we thinking?"

      Every day is an adventure of one kind or another. Embrace it.   Live, love and giggle!