Owl be seeing you

I mentioned that I went to an off-the-hook estate sale a couple weeks ago—a total shrine to one woman's owl obsession. I'm disappointed that I didn't take more pictures; I was a little overwhelmed. For starters, I had the whole fam with me. They are very distracting. And when we arrived there was a crime unit truck parked out front and police tape across the door—it seems the home had been robbed the night before. That also threw me off my game. What owl treasure did the burglars make off with? The only thing I know they took was a special kind of collapsible wastebasket that the estate sale staff had brought with them. They were very broken up about it. Apparently, these collapsible wastebaskets are very handy.

So, right. This place: stuffed with owls, including stuffed owls, one of which my five-year-old made me buy for her, despite my rule against buying used stuffed animals. Most of my estate-sale rules crumble if that buys me a little more time to buy stuff.

The place was small, and sad, and stuck in time. This is what the wallpaper looked like:

I bought a bunch of craft materials and vintage books and ephemera that had nothing to do with owls. The only owl paraphernalia I purchased, apart from the aforementioned stuffed owl, was a very excellent owl planter. Somehow, I was not tempted by the walls decked with owl decoupaged plaques, nor by the owl-covered tables crammed into every room.

I also did not consider this deeply dusty and ancient owl pinata even for a minute. I'm pretty sure this guy is the Wise potato chip owl, right?

But I did buy a sack full of these little feathered owls, the kind with wires affixed to their feet so you can place them on wreaths or odd pieces of driftwood for owl-centric centerpieces. That could happen. As of now they're still in the bag.

I'm off to the hurricane-lashed homeland tomorrow, for a week of holiday carousing and possibly thrifting capped by the kids' first time seeing the Rockettes. Should be awesome. Dispatches may be sporadic, or nonexistent, but you can always find me on instagram and now etsy.