My Good And Beautiful Buy

this summer i was turned on to a local auction by a friend of mine. alright, turned on to it is the understatement of the century. let's be frank (or bob or steve even) and say that i'm addicted. it's a good thing that it only happens every tuesday, so that cuts down on the time i can spend there. and also, i have prior commitments two tuesdays a month so that reigns it in even more. but on those tuesdays i am free, come hades or high water (ok, actually, i don't go if it's raining because the parking lot floods), i am there. sometimes until late...like 11 pm. but these early mornings have stopped that part too. but anyway, this auction is super dee duper. in one barn they have a small animal auction, but i don't venture over there because, well, who needs more critters. the other barn has a plant sale at one end and a produce/boxed food/whatever else people bring in auction at the other end. in addition to all of this the place is huge with a farmer's market, other businesses and tons of other people selling random stuff. now if that's not a winner...i don't know what is. anyway, back to the auctions. i spend most of my time at the plant auction. i have been trying gradually to get our new yard decorated to the hilt for a fraction of a dollar. and so far it's been working.i purchased all this loveliness for around the mailbox about two months ago at the auction. the hostas were two bucks each and the mexican heather and whatever that other yellow flower is were between fifty cents and a dollar per flat. they were tiny plants when i got them and i can't believe how well they have done out there.of course since i got them by the flat i also used them other places around the exterior of the house. the huge boulder in front of the mailbox came out of our back yard when we were putting up the kids swing set. that's part of the reason why we have no grass to speak of. the entire back yard is full of the stinking things. and what isn't boulders is pure clay. rumor has it that the builder hauled the topsoil out of here by the truckload while they were building the place. yippee for us. the crabgrass really seems to like it though. i would buy something to kill the crabgrass but then i'm afraid we wouldn't have anything on the ground.this huge pot of mums was one of my purchases last night. and the best part...it only set me back three buckaroos! it is possibly the biggest pot of mums i have ever seen.these are the other two pots i picked up for the front porch. i paid five dollars each for these. ok, i admit that was still a super buy for pots of mums this big but what can i say? i'm quite the tightwad. my husband always jokes with me by asking, "is it cheap enough?" but how could i say "no" to this awesome color?they are not just your traditional yellow, white or red. and well, it just thrills me to no end to finally be living in a place where i can put something on my porch and it is still there in the morning. at our old house these would have been gone the minute i turned my back to walk inside. did i ever tell y'all about the eight azalea bushes i planted a few years back on our exterior wall (it was an extension of the back yard, still housing dirt, but not enclosed in the fence...strange i know...but work with me). anyway, i bought eight azalea bushes and spent the time one evening trying to not fall off of this wall to plant them. early the next morning when i came out to go to the gym i thought something looked strange up there. sure enough. they were all gone. every last one. and you could see the shovel marks next to each hole where they were dug up. talk about low blows. anyway, i am envisioning these spending a beautiful fall on our new front porch.

so there you have it...my new addiction. and i didn't even tell you about the flats of grapes and strawberries i've purchased for a dollar at the other end of the barn. maybe next time. :)