Lightning Strikes Three Times

Labor Day weekend is a great time for yard sales around my Los Angeles neighborhood.

First up, my neighbor had a yard sale. She owns a cute vintage shop in town and has a great eye, so her garage-sale stuff is really nice. I snapped up this big silverplate wine cooler for $10:

I love its classic shape. A wine cooler is terrific for holding a potted plant, or for filling with something more unusual, like long-handled utensils in the kitchen. Or paint brushes in the craft room. Or rolled-up hand towels in the powder room.

I'll probably go old school and stick a plant in it.

It makes me laugh that on one side it's engraved "January 10, 1981"--one day off from my birthday! (The date, not the year. Heh.)

And on the other side, it says, "Carl and Monte." Makes me wonder; who were they? A gay couple? An award-winning dog and owner?

I also picked up this nifty rolling slicer for $2. Not sure if it's for mincing herbs or cutting noodles. Either way, it's made in France for Williams-Sonoma, so good stuff. I'm giving it to Lovely Daughter #1.

When she's not studying for medical school, she loves to cook. And she owns a pasta-roller attachment for her Kitchenaid standing mixer. So, roll out your dough, babe, and make us some fettuccine!

 While out walking the dogs, I came across another yard sale and picked up this cutie:

It's a cocktail shaker with the names of drinks engraved on the top:

You rotate the outer cup so the arrow points to the drink you want to make, then little windows line up to tell you the ingredient amounts, etched on the inner cup. This cocktail shaker isn't particularly old--if it were it would be silverplate, not stainless, I think. But it's so darned cute, and it was only $5...

...that is, it was $5 for the cocktail mixer and this:

A 6-inch-high rose bowl, by Waterford, in a pattern called "Seahorse" that was introduced in 2003. It sells for between $110 and $140 on the Internet:

Holy hand-cut crystal, Batman! I can't believe people don't know their Waterford from their junk. It is a glorious piece of work--heavily faceted, beautifully made. And this is the third time in my neighborhood I've stumbled across Waterford crystal being practically thrown away.

The first time it happened, I bought a Waterford bud vase and a WHOLE bunch of other nice things for $12 (the sellers wanted only $3 for the lot, but I refused to pay them so little!).

The second time it happened, I found two Waterford candlesticks literally thrown away in a pile of trash. I never thought lightning would strike three times like this.

Never say never, I guess.