sleeping in on a saturday? pssshhhh....

a few weeks ago, a local church hosted its bi-annual church bazaar on an unseasonably sticky saturday morning. i would encourage you in this moment to take every image of a church bazaar that you can conjure up in your mind and multiply it by about 200. this particular sale is the largest of its type that i've seen. it is hosted both inside and outside the church and this year required not one, not two, but three police officers to help direct traffic. there was a silent auction for the really good items, an entire tent of activities for kids, a bake sale and a concession tent, an extremely large "check your purchased items here" area, a room so full of books for sale that i had to just walk away, and several decent vehicles on the auction block. i do not attend this church, but i am very curious to know what kind of fundraising profit they make. it is incredibly well organized (this coming from the most critical of organizational nazis) and chock full of good deals. here are my treasures...

almost as soon as we walked in, i spotted this cool like-new bird pillow with a removable cover and knew it needed to be on my couch for the fall. ordinarily i wouldn't buy pillows at a yard sale, but this one was in perfect condition and the cover was washable. then, about ten minutes later, my friend rebecca spotted the second pillow of the pair. i walked away with two for $2 and my fall living room looks super. (more on that in a post soon!)

mom and i each scored one of these great decorative urns (is that what you would call this?) for $3.

this little guy makes watering my (mostly dead) plants way happier. i love him. $1.

these brass deer ($2) stand about 10" and 6" high and have no place in my home at this point. but someday i will be inspired to make them look cooler than they do currently. they're rather tarnished, but have tons of great potential. should i modge podge them with old book pages or some pretty decorative paper? spray paint them a cool color? rub-n-buff them? help!

my recent obsession with chunky chains and bracelets was satisfied (at least for a while) when i found this silver necklace for $1.

in the fellowship hall, there were more clothes than the goodwill. i got this very-now cropped sweater for $2. and to think i had almost bought a nearly identical one at marshall's a few days before.

this skirt obviously needs a trip to the dry cleaner and a serious date with the steamer machine, but it is talbots and it is way cooler in person than it looks in this photos. it's kind of chiffon-y and will look good styled several different ways. i can't wait to wear it! $2.

and then, following my trip to the church bazaar, i refueled with a pumpkin spice latte and then hit up one other yard sale and the new (awesome) local thrift store grand opening where i scored these fantastic finds:

ann taylor loft 100% silk slouchy gray blouse. gray is my absolute favorite color lately and i love the pretty bead detail and raw silk edges. $2.

this talbots belt is stretchy, flattering, genuine leather and still had the $24 talbots tag attached. i much prefer to spend $1.99 on my belts.

and, finally, my favorite find of the day. i nearly knocked over a couple of other customers when i spotted this talbots pencil skirt (i'm sensing a theme here?) peeking out a few racks over. not only does it look completely and totally anthro and fit me absolutely perfectly, but it still had the $99 price tag attached. i paid $3.99 and i still can't believe how much i love it.

moral of this story? getting up at the crack of dawn on a saturday is completely, totally worth it.