It was a beautiful autumn day in the quiet town of Walkersville, MD, and in a church basement, ten women laughed, cried, ate, and traded their junk. It was a glorious day.
The women who attended were Brittanie, Holly May, Candace, Sarah, Karen (The Graphics Fairy)...
...another Karen, Holly, Stephanie (and her husband), and Jamie, who somehow managed to dodge my camera.
We had yummy boxed lunches from The Corner Bakery and even yummier cake bites from Snickety Snacks made by Brittanie. (I ate three of these and brought four home. Two are in my fridge, but they're calling my name. Brittanie assured me that these were like eating a forkful of cake, so it was okay to eat a bunch!)
This was an amazing group of women. We hugged, we burst out in laughter, and Holly was crying about ten minutes into our lunch conversation. I told her I was going to blog about that and she was lucky I didn't grab my camera! :) We were talking about the blessings of children and her heart spilled over. It was like getting together with a group of old and very dear friends. It was nourishment for my soul.
Not only were these girls awesome, but so was their junk. Junque, rather.
Pyrex bowls, a wooden crate, an amazing grocery scale that Sarah found on FreeCycle (I'll get back to this in a minute)...
...a desk by Karen, my two tiered table, a great pillow made by Lynette...
...and a very cool collection of goodies from Candace (a former antique dealer with fabulous taste)...
...a bird cage...
...a shutter, wood table, milk glass vase...
...a basket of vintage and antique linens...
...and lots of other great pieces of furniture that needed just a little bit of love.
This jelly cupboard was meant for me, but Brittanie took it. I would dislike her, but she makes really good cake bites, so I forgave her. This once.
We also had a wonderful assortment of giveaways, so everyone won at least two things. Thanks to Frog Tape, Mitzi's Collectibles, Eco Natural Soaps, Snickety Snacks and my fellow vendors at Wild Rose.
So, back to the grocery scale. If you read my blog, you know I love scales and balances. Sarah posted about finding this scale on FreeCycle! Can you believe it? She didn't know what to do with it, so I suggested she bring it to the swap. I was totally kidding, but she showed up with it! Could this scale be coming home with me? I drew pick number three from the brown paper sack. I held my breath through the first two picks. The scale wasn't chosen. It was mine. I made a bee-line for the scale and picked it up in triumph. Then, I heard a gasp, a moan, an "Oh no!" Stephanie had her heart set on that scale and I had just dashed her hopes. I paused. What to do? She's pregnant. She's hormonal. I might make her cry if I take this scale. She might write nasty things about me on her blog and start a feud. All over a scale.
I'm just kidding, I really didn't think those things. My thought was that I have one grocery scale already and there was another piece that caught my fancy. I couldn't handle the thought of knowing that she left disappointed. I told her she could have it as long as she really, really loved it with all her heart. She said she would. I will forever hang it over her head that I sacrificed that scale...sniff...for her. Excuse me. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it.
Don't feel too bad for me. I left with two awesome pieces. Which two pieces? Well, that's for another post. I'm off to eat the two cakes bites that are calling my name.
