Vacuuming in high heels & pearls

While I was visiting my folks last week I thought it might be fun for my dad and me to hit an estate sale (or perhaps even a garage sale, if the weather held) so I popped on Craigslist to see if any had been listed. Out of curiosity I also checked the 'collectibles' section, to see if anything interesting was posted for sale. I did find a listing for a few days previous for a collection of Jadeite that a woman was asking $125 for. I checked it out, but figured that since it had been a few days it had probably already been spoken for.

On Friday morning I checked again and there was a new listing for the same Jadeite, but this time the seller had brought the price down to $100! The listing was for 20 pieces of Jadeite, so that made each piece $5--a bargain, considering the prices I'd seen on the Jadeite items at the antique mall the day before.

However, we had guests coming and I didn't have time to contact the seller until after lunchtime when they'd gone home. I was just sure that someone else had beat me to it but I called the seller anyway to check. To my surprise, it was still available! My mom and I loaded Maren into the car and ran to the ATM to get cash, then headed down to the seller's house.

The seller was a sweet woman named Lynda who lived in the coziest little pink and green apartment. I can see where her Jadeite collection fit right into her decor! She told me that since I had spoken to her, she had found a few more pieces of Jadeite that she would add at no additional cost. In fact, as I was leaving she spied a vase on the table, pulled the flowers out of it, and plopped it into the box in my arms! We visited for a few minutes and I told her how tickled I was to find this collection. She told me that she could tell it would be going to a good home, and I assured her that was definitely the case.

So, do you wanna see what I bought?

And this isn't everything! It's just what I could manage to stuff in a carry-on to bring home with me. There are still 4 or 5 large bowls, a drippings jar and another small covered jar that I had to leave behind at my parents' house until one of us drives to visit the other. I thought I was going to have to leave it all until a few minutes before we had to leave for the airport when I had a flash of inspiration. I dumped all of Maren's clothes into my suitcase so that I could pack hers with my bubble-wrapped treasures, which I then carried on to the plane.

I love, love, LOVE my new collection! I've been looking for Jadeite for a long time but have never found anything. I take that back--I once found a chipped dinner plate at a thrift store but I didn't buy it because of the condition, and even then they wanted several dollars for it. Now I have an instant collection! I love that there are a variety of shapes and sizes of items. I think my favorite is probably the large pitcher--won't it look gorgeous with flowers in it? I also love the shape of the small green vase. Now, I have a suspicion that some of the pieces might be reproductions. I'd have to do some research to find out for sure but even if they are, I don't really care! They're for me to enjoy, not to sell, so market value is irrelevant.

If you want to see some closer photos of the items, you can find them on my Flickr page.