Of Mud and Men

Last weekend, Doug was up in the Poconos taking pictures of his stepson, Jesse, who was running an event called the Tough Mudder. This is Jesse, who looks so cute and happy before the event started:

This is Doug and Jesse afterwards. As Doug found out, you don't have to complete the event to find out why it's called the Tough Mudder:

 Anyway, while Doug was away, I decided to play.

After rearranging as much of the house as I could on Friday night, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision on Saturday morning to go to a township sale up in Chadds Ford, PA. It's an annual event that's a cross between a yard sale and a flea market. Some of the vendors are just home owners getting rid of outgrown children's toys and clothes, while others are dealers from local shops.

I got there right when the sale opened and decided to do a quick run-through to make sure I didn't miss anything like maybe a vintage picnic tin for $2. Yeah, right.

As it turned out, the booth that attracted me the most was run by the owner of Brandywine View Antiques. She had some great vintage stuff, and she was in a selling mood. She saw me admiring a painted wooden tool tote that she had priced at $44. You can have it for $35, she said.

Sold.  It's now home to four pink geraniums on our deck (it has a divider in it, so I ended up filling the larger end with a rectangular pot and the smaller end with a round one, all sitting unused in our shed):

As I was walking away with the tote, I saw a quilt that looked like it could work with my new bedroom decor. It was marked $35. I wasn't that sure it would work, so I was about to walk away when the vendor spotted me debating. Twenty bucks, she said.

OK, I'll take that too. When I got home (and washed it), it turned out to be just perfect with my new chenille accessories:

Almost time to go--I had just $8 cash left.

Then I passed another booth, where I saw a white enamel bowl that was a perfect match for a pitcher that I had bought at GW several years for $3. The bowl was $5. I grabbed it to pair with the pitcher--it's perfect in our upstairs bathroom, which is home to more furniture than any powder room in the mid-Atlantic region:

My day ended with some entertainment at Home Depot when I went to get the geraniums. I brought the tool tote with me so that I could make sure the flowers would fit right.  When I had everything on a rolling cart, I got in line to check out. An older woman in front of me, who was missing a few teeth and looked like she smoked a few packs a day, eyed the tool box and told me how nice it would be if I painted it.

"And you know," she said, "there's a place just down the road where you can get custom decals made. You could get one made with your name on it." I thanked her politely and said I'd check it out.

Some people just have no appreciation for things like vintage tool boxes with chipped green paint.

But it gave me a story to share with Doug when he got home that night. Of course it's tough to compete with the stories of a photographer who took one for the team by lying in the mud to get finish-line pictures. You win this time, Doug, and I hope you're OK with the new arrangement on the bed.