This past week, I went to an auction. I often go with two guy friends, but they were out of town. I went anyway because I was looking for some glassware that a close friend favors. It was there, but just as the auction began and I sat down in my front row seat, I noticed a scrap of fabric hanging out of a box under a table on the front row.
The number on the box indicated the lot was for two bread boxes.
Yikes, they were two dirty, banged up old bread boxes. Rusty, beaten up and missing an awful lot of paint.
But they were sitting on this:
It's a vintage silk and velvet quilt, log-cabin style and obviously handmade. In fact, there isn't a machine stitch on this piece. It's beautiful, isn't it? It's actually a good bit prettier than the picture shows, but this was quickly snapped for a friend. It's absolutely breathtaking in person.
It was so gorgeous that I fell in love. It was item #16 out of some 400 things being sold. I sat on that front row and waved my number. Within minutes, it (and the two dirty old boxes) was mine.
I also bought the glassware. I packed up both lots and made an early night of it. Oh yeah. I think I dropped one of the bread boxes out by the car. I'm such a klutz.
I got home and unpacked my treasures. The quilt is amazing and I got it for a good price, but I could see why. The silk is so old that bits of it are falling apart. It'll make lovely pillows that I'll offer on Etsy.com, but what to do with those bread boxes?
First, I cleaned them up. A bit of dishwashing liquid and some Comet Cleanser, gently applied. Then I added a tiny bit of furniture oil. And I situated each, in turn, on the quilt for a little modeling session.
Click! Click! Went the camera.
Click! Click! Went the posts on Etsy.com.
I also wrote a little paragraph about each. Detailed their sizes. And I mentioned they were dinged up and rusty.
Then I went off to bed.
By the time I got up this morning, both of these boxes had been snapped up by an attorney in California.
I'm sort of thrilled because it makes this seem so easy and fun. Of course, I'm sure it's all beginner's luck.
I priced them nicely because the goal was to get them gone and because I wanted to get a sales history going on etsy.com, which I now have succeeded in doing. But wow, at less than 24 hours? (I checked and it was more like 4 hours) That was fast.
But no complaints. Just a thought: I better get going on the rest.
