Summer Has Officially Started!

My updated goal for the blog was to post twice each month and I am just getting in under the wire. So much has happened since Mother's Day! The flowering trees have come and gone, the lilacs are on their last leg. My niece was married in a beautiful ceremony and I saw my stunning daughter deliver a great speech as her main of honor (Mckenzie and Kelsey are pictured). All of these reminding me of how fast the time is moving along.

Memorial day is the kick off for summer and all the great things that go along with the season; BBQ's, graduation parties, weddings, trips to the cabin, gardening, farmers market AND estate sales. I have actually been to a few already and I am slowly moving away from the intrigue of priceless antique or a diamond ring forgotten in an old purse. The last few that I have been to I have begun to feel more like an intruder than a shopper and I wonder if this is a sign... of getting older.

All of the sales we went to a few weeks ago were in little old houses where it was clear the person had spent the majority of their life. When you walk in you realize there is so much left of a life that it seems nobody wants. So instead of going in to hunt for treasure I enter the home as I would enter a sacred place, very quiet and a bit somber. Every room I enter I think, this is where the kids were little, this is where she did the laundry, here is where he kept all his tools. I usually find one, simple item to buy, an item I believe this person used often and held wonderful memories to take home and make more memories.

I have decided to start thinking about my own "estate" sale as I look through the drawers in my kitchen and the overflowing closets. I believe it is a fact of our consumerism that we leave a lot of stuff behind, so I am not going to try to change that, I like all my stuff. But I did come up with a unique marketing idea for my sale.... I thought it would be interesting to have someone video me and have it playing at the sale saying helpful things like, "you should buy that, it will look good in the family room." Or, "you break it you buy it". How about, "why did you put that down? It was one of my favorites!" Would that be creepy?