WELCOME TO THE 127 YARD SALE 2016!

It’s that time of year again—I am off to the 127 yard sale!

For those of you who are new to our blog, for the past nine years I have been searching for treasures along The World’s Longest Yard Sale that runs along Highway 127 starting in Gadsden, Alabama and ending in Addison, Michigan (about 690 miles). It’s a crazy journey (we start our drive from Southern California!) where everything is up for grabs, the heat is unbearable, the bourbon is delicious and where you might be able the find the perfect thing you never knew you wanted. What has started out as a one-time “bucket list” trip has turned into an annual adventure where I now shop for others as well as myself!

In years past, I am usually so proud of myself and my organizational skills in packing and preparing for the trip, but as you might have heard on our podcast, I’ve been a little busy lately. I was working around the clock at Alta Baja Market preparing to be gone for two weeks so I literally didn’t start packing until 8pm on Friday…and we were scheduled to leave at 3am the next day! Let me just say that you should go back to the post from 2014 and read that because this is what the car looks like (a hot mess) this year!

I did manage to bring my portable office though with all of my favorite supplies and it’s actually been amazing to spend 15+ hours in a car heading to Louisville because I have been able to actually get some work done! Here’s a picture of my little set up (and yes we are trying to dehydrate some chiles from our garden on our dashboard).

Fortunately having a market allowed for us to at least prepare with some tasty snacks! In addition to sandwich items we got from Trader Joe’s, we picked up cheeses, crackers, organic candies, Have’a Corn Chips, and these AWESOME new kale chips from the shop! I even managed to make a pasta salad made with some deli items from the shop too. Now if only I could have remembered to take more than four items to wear!

We will also be making a few stops across the Southwest picking up items for the shop—it’s going to be a busy two weeks!

THIS YEAR’S ITINERARY:

Louisville, KY

Frankfort, KY

Harrodsburg, KY

Albany, KY

Crossville, TN

Chattanooga, TN

Albuquerque, NM

Chimayo, NM

Estancia, NM

Hatch, NM

Tucson, AZ

Phoenix, AZ

Last year, I had a couple really great finds (the orange German beer garden picnic set and some really beautiful bar sets) and this year with the store and a few requests I am expanding the shopping list—let’s hope for the best!

Vintage meat/pig inspired décor: My neighbors at Alta Baja, Electric City Butcher are awesome whole animal butchers and do some pretty amazing things in such a small place (it’s a MUST visit—you’ll be hooked)! They asked me to find old meat/pig/cow items…I think I might be able to find a bacon press or two!

More bar sets: fun glass sets and other trinkets.

Cool serving platters, baking dishes and Pyrex! 127 is basically the retirement capital for Pyrex…you just can’t get away from it. I never really bought that much in the past—I was more into Descoware (enameled cast iron cooking items from 1960’s) but we now prepare a number of items for Alta Baja Market and I think it would look amazing to have cute vintage dishes to serve them in.

Cast iron “corn” cornbread molds: we make blue cornbread at the market and I can’t imagine how much more popular they will be when they look like little corn cobs! The problem isn’t going be finding them but rather getting the best price.

Vintage watercolor/art sets: for Craftcation presenter Courtney Cerruti’s beautiful Oakland store Long Weekend.

Glass double boiler: a request from Victoria who works at Alta Baja Market with me!

Still searching for: 1920-1950’s porcelain sink (I will never give up!) and a podium or book stand for Craftcation 2017 and that Pyrex oven mitt that I saw years back (every year I hope to see it again)—lesson is learned, if you want it buy it because you may never see it again.

You can follow the trip here on the blog or on Instagram.

P.S.: I would love to hear what you would be looking for if you went on the 127 yard sale!

XO-Delilah