custom house: Yard Sales, Estate Sales -- An East End Bonanza!

Tuesday already.

Annie is back at her apartment in New Brunswick.
Josh is back in Los Angeles; he got a 5AM plane out of Newark.
Alida is still here with us, but is visiting old friends this evening.

It's just us chickens -- me 'n' Howard 'n' Dion -- home tonight.
I may not cook. Sshhh. . . Howard doesn't know that yet.

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I've been itching to show you my estate and yard sale treasures from our weekend trip
to the North Fork of Long Island. (Story here.)

The East End has always been a rich source of other peoples' castoffs; I think most of the furniture Howard and I started out with came from my mother's scavenging of yard sales out there. We still use the coffee table she bought us for $3.

Anyway, at an estate sale in Cutchogue my lustful linen loving soul yearned
for these -- a large old tablecloth and 12 matching napkins.

The right side of the embroidery and cutwork
(which looks a lot like Norwegian hardanger):

I used to teach embroidery in NYC; I always check the wrong side,
or as they said in Brooklyn, "The left side."

Get it? Right side. Left side!
Yeah, it took me awhile to figure it out.

Very nice, neat work. I love the deep tan of the perle cotton.

This is the tablecloth, which measures 70 x 100-something inches.

The napkins have one corner with heavy lace:

and are hand rolled and hemmed with tiny drawnwork stitches.

The lace on the tablecloth is in very good condition:

There are two stains on the cloth -- those yellowed age stains -- which I hope to fade with Oxyclean and sunlight. Any hints on how to best do this without damaging this old cloth? It was starched the last time it was laundered, and is quite stiff. I want to get the starch out of the fabric before I handle it any more.

I made an offer -- $30 for cloth and napkins -- and it was accepted. I can't wait to use it!

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In Cutchogue, the village just to the west of Southold, there is a museum complex of several old houses, dating from the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. On Saturday, on the Green where these houses cluster, was a yard sale.

So many vendors, so little time!

I got a summer gift for my sister, which I won't show you until I give it to her just in case she looks at the blog.

I got a darling little hand thrown pottery vase, a squatty little fellow with wonderful warm maroon-y colors:

The potter signed it.

It's not old, but I love vases with low profiles, especially lovely round squatty ones.

A third thrifty find, at the yard sale, was this:

It's an original painting, probably acrylic. I was always in awe of bloggers who
found original artwork for just dollars at garage and yard sales, and so excited when
I found one in Cutchogue on Saturday. I feel like I'm one of the cool kids now.

Yes, children -- I paid $5 for this painting. It ain't great art, but it is perfect for the pink bedroom at That Old House. I will probably do something to the frame; not sure what yet. Antique white maybe?

We did get a few other things, and my darling family went out early Saturday morning to the Congregational Church yard sale in Southold, and bought me presents! But, the minivan, packed with 5 people, one dog, bedding, clothing, food . . . well, it just would not stretch to accommodate everything, and some things got left behind.

Including these: