Anniversary

This is my third anniversary. Marriage? Job? No, it's been three years since I bought my first vintage sewing machine that sparked this whole adventure that has turned into a business. Not a profitable business yet but still a whole lot of fun. This past weekend was just proof so here goes the story.

Friday night after work, my hubby picks me up and we go to a school fund-raiser plant sale. This is big time: they use the Grand Stand of the state fair so it takes up a huge amount of space. We are all maneuvering our carts and peering over signs and pots when I get a phone call from my son-in-law Eric. Since this is a rare occurrence, I answer even though I can hardly hear him within this huge hall. Can we do a Craigslist favor for him? They need to have a large clock picked up only a half mile away from our house tonight. We say sure and start to calculate the order of events for the rest of the evening. Once in the car and only a few miles from home I hear from another Craigslist inquiry: the Singer 185J can be mine but I will need to come soon. Too bad we hadn't heard earlier because it's located right where we had come from. Now the logistics get trickier but we manage to make up a quick supper before I run out the door to pick up the clock and sewing machine.

The clock was in a huge box, looking more like a door in corrugated cardboard, but we fit it into the car and I dash back into town to find the address for the Singer 185J. She was having a garage sale and this was more of a pre-sale and I already knew I had a buyer so timing was important. The first caller didn't show so I was up next and couldn't waste any time or it was going on that garage sale! Imagine this: I walked up to the door and it was opened by someone with a familiar face. She cried out "Karen! It's YOU!" as I madly searched by mind for where I had seen her before. Well, it was Susan who bought a wonderful Kenmore earlier in the spring. We got caught up like old friends and she showed me this cute little green sewing machine that was clean as a whistle (after Susan cleaned it all up for me) and would run just fine when I put a new belt on it. I meet the nicest people while buying and selling sewing machines and Susan just proved it. The machine came home with me (glad it was portable because not much else would have fit in the car) and I finished "detailing" it:

Singer 185J all cleaned up!

Hard shell case with cleaned up brass fittings

This would have been a nice weekend in  itself but on Saturday we were going to a neighborhood garage sale extravaganza, involving more than 200 families. I was hoping to find a few good sewing machines from people who didn't care to sew and just wanted to get it out of the house (translation: cheap prices). We sure did, many times over, so stay tuned as I write about each one over the coming week. I hope you are ready for a vintage sewing machine treat.