That sounds like a whole lot of fun! But it doesn't really reduce your "stuff", does it? LOL My guild used to do an auction once a year...people brought in quilty stuff they didn't want any more, and people bid on stuff. It was a fundraiser for the guild. The last year we did it someone brought in a treadle machine in the cabinet and it went for $15! I almost bid on it, then thought DH would have a fit at more furniture in the house. I told him about it afterwards and he scolded me for not getting it! Men. Donna

Love this room. I think the yellow is perfect. The shelf over the window is so cute. I'd swear you copied my daughter's room at our cottage, but I have never posted a picture. Yard sale and curbside finds make up 90% of her room, and I painted the walls yellow on purpose to match some of the finds and make all the white furniture pop. I even bought a yellow rug to lighten up the hardwood floors. Hope your daughter enjoys her beautiful room.

The Perkiomenville Auction is still going -- every Monday year round. There are still dealers and the auction part. There are far fewer dealers than there used to be -- I would recommend if you are going to have a far drive to go on a holiday weekend like memorial day or labor day as that is the only time the auction is really hopping anymore. (Though the first few nice Mondays of spring are also bound to be crowded.) The deaers also don't seem to start as early as they used to -- used to be most dealers were there and set up by dawn. Now if I get there at 7 or 8 it is still empty -- people are rolling in to set up when I am leaving at 9. Again, though, the holiday weekends are an exception -- best to be early those days. I did figure out the auction tables thing - yes, you can pick through things left behind. Technically, though, I think you are supposed to offer money to the woman collecting money for the auctioneer for what you take -- I have seen her yell at people. But there are always a ton of people taking stuff and not being very subtle about it (they bring boxes and tote bags and load up) and no one seems to pay. I'm pretty sure that what gets left behind gets tossed unless the consignor comes back to get it (and most of it is like mildewy clothes and moldy books, etc. that you know no one is coming back for) so I guess it is better that people take it than it goes in a landfill somewhere. I have also bid on things at the auction - it is exactly like I described above - a crowd of people standing around an unorganized pile of stuff, while the auctioneer holds something up. Bidding usually starts at a dollar. The winning bidder hands over cash and puts his new item in a pile -- by the end of the auction, there are piles of people's wins all over the place. I have seen some really nice furniture go for very cheap (most of the other bidders are dealers looking to buy low for a profit, so it is not hard to outbid them if it is something you want for yourself.) But I have also seen them auction TOTAL junk -- furniture that is moldy or falling apart, broken glass patio tables, etc. In fact one day they auctioned a plastic covered cat litterbox that still had litter and cat poop in it. No, I am not kidding and no it did not sell LOL! I think they literally load the truck up at a house cleanout and bring it directly to the auction as is -- thus the litterbox full of poop etc. At one point, I was waiting around to bid on one oak schoolhouse chair that matched my kitchen chairs. The lot before it was 4 kind of ugly folding chairs from the 40s. When those didn't get bids, the auctioneer added my oak chair to the lot. I was the only bidder and got all 5 chairs for a dollar. I had no use for the 4 folding chairs and when a guy next to me saw that I was planning to leave them behind, he asked if he could have them and I gave them to him. I ended up with another chair for my kitchen table for the sum total of $1 and he ended up with 4 free folding chairs. So anyhow, that might be more than you wanted to know but there you go.

:) several of the smaller nurseries around here started the same way- and at least one of them still looks like it, specializing in natives saved from the bulldozers (and then bought at a premium by the people who move in three years later) I'd way rather see my money go to them than Home Despot, that's for sure!