Cambridge, Illinois Auction

Cambridge, Illinois is a one-hour drive from Princeton,Iowa. It's a beautiful part of the world -- rolling hills, corn fields, now the occasional gigantic windmill. Anyway -- the big claim to fame is a WONDERFUL, classy auction house -- Stenzel's. They have an auction two or three times a month. Usually on Sunday. They get a good crowd, they set everything up in a very organized way -- and they usually run two sale rings at a time.

On this particular beautiful summer morning -- Bert and I started off with breakfast at Brother's. A family-owned restaurant in Port Byron, Illinois. YOU WILL NEVER SEE A BETTER BREAKFAST!! OMG. The most extraordinary thing is the giant plate of thick, juicy, bone-in ham. I AM IN HEAVEN. What a delicious way to start our day...


Bert and I were WAY OVERDUE for a catch-up visit. The last two months been so crazy -- Bert started a new job...I worked on a fabulous fund-raiser...Mary and I were in Beaver Dam...it's BEEN A VERY BUSY SPRING HERE. So we NEEDED a big breakfast on this day...


By the time we arrived at the auction, the sale had been going on for several hours. So who knows what we missed...

The outside area had row after row of outdoor stuff -- garage items. Gardening tools and equipment...tractors, lawn mowers, snow blowers, ladders, a pick-up truck. Well, you get the idea...

Inside the auction house, there was the usual assortment of FURNITURE. Lots of furniture. Sofas, bedroom sets, desks, flat screen televisions...Boxes and boxes of kitchen stuff, linens, sewing stuff, fabric, etc.




The unusual thing about this sale was that every single appliance had the original BOOK to go with it. Really? Imagine -- a 30 year old blender with the original instruction booklet!! Very impressive, eh? There were five or six sewing machines -- and my friend Linda P. is looking for THIS model...so I sent her a picture from my phone...and she told me I could bid up to $50.

However -- it sold for $65. Bummer, Linda...maybe next time! AND then I saw this box full of fabric. Look at that print!! A cotton duck, I think. Or maybe one of those old barkcloths...

THAT IS MY FAVORITE COLOR YELLOW...my signature yellow....HOLY COW....it was sold by the time I saw it. And I never did find out how much it went for...


The way I look at it -- I was saved. ANOTHER BOX OF FABRIC, RITA?? really?? I can hardly move in my basement the way it is now -- even after paying over $100 to have my cleaning lady bag up FIVE BAGS OF t-shirts and FABRIC to go (back) to the Goodwill store...

But that's okay. The way I look at it, it's a simple matter of re-prioritizing. And it's okay to change my mind. And sometimes, things just don't work out. And -- I LOVE THE COLLECTING. And my cleaning lady has to make a living, too.

SO IT'S ALL GOOD.