"A garage sale is basically when strangers come to your house
and examine your personal belongings with undisguised contempt."
~ Dave Berry, Homes and Other Black Holes
Yep. But they came in droves on day #2 like they had on day#1 in spite of the deterioration in the weather, and bought most of our contemptible crap. :-)
We had thunderstorms all during Friday night, with thunder so loud and lightning so plentiful and bright that it woke me around 11pm in spite of my exhaustion (BW slept through it all!), and I wasn't able to get to back to sleep till about 4am. So I went through day #2 with even more sleep deprivation than I had the day before. The weather that morning was still so ominous we briefly debated whether to set up our sale at all. I guess this full rainbow that greeted us that morning from our front yard, like the one the evening before in our back yard, was an auspicious sign! The clouds finally moved out and the we had stiff breezes rather than the strong gusts they'd predicted, thankfully...
The rainbow's left side to our south,
and its right side across the street to our west
We sold everything except for a box of books we donated to the library, three boxes of miscellany we donated to a local church thrift shop, a box of equine supplies that we gave to the folks who board Mocha, and one small box of items we'll keep for now. All our new clutter-free space feels wonderful! Our yard sale partners did very well too - together our four families made almost $1500, so I guess we can put up with a few derogatory comments about our possessions for that. ;-)
It was too hectic to take photos - the sale was supposed to start at 8am, but people were arriving not long after 6:30 when we'd barely begun setting up! (Why do some people always show up that early? It's obnoxious, for one thing, and they end up only seeing about 1/4 of the merchandise!) Our sale ended at noon Saturday, but folks were still stopping by as late as 2:30 when BW and I were packing up the last of the stuff to haul away. But even that wasn't the latest of the "late birds" - our doorbell rang at 6pm, and there stood a woman wanting to know if we still had the computer desk! Nope, Robyn's desk is now available for purchase at the church thrift store! I mean, really.
Anyway, as I was saying - it was too hectic to take photos during the yard sale, but I did notice as we were closing down that our rose bush had put out its first bloom! So, proud plant mama that I am, I had to snap a photo...
Meanwhile, the amazing and indefatigable Robyn invited us over for dinner and margaritas later that evening, to show us her garden and enjoy a slightly belated celebration of BW's birthday. I don't know how she managed it, and I figured I'd fall asleep in my margarita after the first sip, but buoyed by our successful yard sale (and knowing how delicious Robyn's food is), no way were we tired enough - or foolish enough - to decline. So that evening found us touring Robyn's lovely yard and garden, and admiring her newest addition - this sweet faerie cart she bought at the local greenhouse, in part with a gift certificate we'd given her for her birthday...
We thought it was adorable and especially love the disco ball for boogying faeries!
And then we got to enjoy a Christmas present I'd given her this year, this festive string of margarita lights she'd put on her deck...
But what fun are margarita lights without any actual margaritas? Robyn had found a recipe for pomegranate margaritas she wanted to try, so she made it for the first time that night and it was a huge hit! We all loved it - it was a perfect, flavorful combination of sweet-tart. Pretty, too! (I've shared the recipe at the bottom of this post)...
And check out this colorful spread of nosh! Robyn had made a pasta salad and also put out fixin's for a delicious "Spicy Chick'n Taco Salad" with her homemade "fiery sauce" (in the bowl to the far left), and for BW's birthday she'd made the indescribably delicious Coconut Lime Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World...
Robyn had made these and several other flavors of vegan cupcakes for her daughter's Hawaiian themed wedding reception last spring and asked us to be taste testers for her. Though they're made with some unhealthful ingredients we typically avoid (margarine, oil, shortening, refined white flour, powdered sugar... yikes!), we thought it would be bad form not to help out a friend in need. ;-) I swear I gained at least 10 pounds passing judgement on those amazing cupcake samples, and this sublime flavor (teehee) was one of our absolute favorites.
This one's still in its paper baking cup so you can't see the "cake" part, but it has a lovely soft green hue with little flecks of lime zest through it. I don't have the cookbook or the recipe, but I found it online. They are beguilingly pretty and deliciously vegan, but they are also epic sugar-and-fat-bombs that are highly addictive! You've been warned... :-)
Pomegranate Margaritas
Ingredients:
1 cup tequila
1 cup triple sec (or orange liqueur of your choice)
3 TBSP agave nectar* (optional)
1¼ cups pomegranate juice
¾ cup fresh squeezed lime juice
4 cups ice
Directions:
Mix the tequila, triple sec, and agave nectar. Stir in the pomegranate and lime juices and ice. Serve and enjoy!
(We had ours without salt on the glass rim, but that's certainly an option. Update: Also optional is the agave nectar, we've since discovered! They're equally delicious without any sweetener).
I also found this very similar recipe (minus the sweetener but adding the salt) that just serves one... in case you prefer to drink alone or don't need to make a vat of it to unwind with your lushy friends after a grueling two-day yard sale!) :-)
We didn't get to bed till midnight, so we took it pretty easy on Sunday, BW's last day of vacation. One thing we did was take the girls to visit Mocha and go on a hike, and I got a few fun photos during that outing that I'll share in my next post. See you then! :-)
