HGTV Was Listening....Ya Think?

Tonight at 8pm EST on HGTV is the 2011 Endless Yard Sale Special.  Apparently the powers that be at HGTV took my advice and ditched the "decorate a room" challenge format and kicked it to the curb.  Hallelujah!!

Here is what HGTV has to say about tonights special:

Three teams of shoppers have two days and approximately $1,000 each to bargain hunt at the world's longest yard sale. They must complete 4 challenges as they shop for valuable treasures and haggle down the price. At the end of each challenge, estate sale expert Cari Cucksey will appraise the items and award the winning team additional spending cash for the next challenge. Host Kim Myles keeps us up to speed on the teams' progress and strategies, and provides design tips for viewers on how to separate the trash from the treasure. At the final appraisal, Cari will value each team's entire haul, and the team who found the best bargain prices will win the cash difference between Cari's appraised value and how much they actually spent purchasing their items. At the world's longest yard sale, the difference between purchase price and appraised value could be thousands of dollars.

Sounds better, but I don't know about that last bit about the difference between WLYS prices and appraised value adding up to thousands of dollars.  You wish!

I'm looking forward to seeing Cari Cucksey on the show, I like her.  I wish that my estate sales here on the penninsula of Virginia were half as organized as her sales in Michigan.

I will reserve judgement on Kim Myles until I have seen the show. 

No doubt the show will trigger fond memories of my trip last year with BFF Beth to TN and KY to travel the WLYS.  Good times, good times indeed :->

Wrapping It Up & The HGTV Special

Our big trip to the World's Longest Yard Sale is but a fond memory now. 

Beth and I both agree that we had a fab time.  It was great just being on the road together and having all that time to really bond.  We've been friends a long time, spent a lot of time together but this trip was special.

We are both so glad that we made it happen, we will treasure the time spent together always.

Would we go to the WLYS again?  No.

We live too far away and we have yard sales right here in Virginia you know.

Would we go if we lived close?  Of course.

If we lived within a 2 hour drive of Route 127 we would definitely go every year. 

This past Sunday, HGTV aired their special about the sale.  Let me sum it up in one word.  Lame-o.

Too bad they have continued their theme of making the show really a show about home decor.

This year's show was so bad, the teams they picked were so lame, so lame in fact, they had to tell them half way through to stop buying stuff that was "made in China".  (in other words, from Walmart)

This year Elyse Luray returned as the appraiser and new to the show was Kim Myles, the decorator.  Ugh.

Even the coaching from the hosts could not get these 3 teams of women to pick out some cool vintage finds.

I was just reminded by one of my readers about the tires.  Oh yes, one of the three teams of friends who are from Detroit bought 4 used tires to make a chair.  That is the moment right there, when HGTV should have kicked those losers to the curb and just grabbed somebody else off the street and started over.

In fact, they did such a poor job of shopping, at the end of their shopping time the host Kim Myles surprised each team with a "gift" for the rooms they were decorating.  She picked out something vintage and useful for each team's room.

Hey HGTV, how about a show that is about the cool vintage junk people are selling and buying.  Show us the ladies making the fried pies and the churches serving up BBQ on the side of the road.  We want to see what folks have bought and what they think was their best score or favorite purchase.

Oh wait, that sounds like a show for the History Chanel, right after American Pickers comes on :->

THE END

My Favorite Purchase at the WLYS

Day 2 Cont. of the World's Longest Yard Sale Project

A bit more of my random video clips from the trip. 

The Treasure Hunt is Over

My treasures have all been unpacked and distributed around the house now.

The dishwasher is full of all the vintage planters that I bought and they should be scrubbed clean soon.

The washing machine is working away on a small pile of linens, hopefully they will be less stained today.

The vintage christmas ornies are packed with many others now, I will be starting on my christmas crafting soon.

My garden is happy to have some more rusty crusty adornments.

Here is a shot of the whole lot.

The entire haul!

We shopped our way to the WLYS, and we shopped our way home from the sale.  We both found treasures at the sale and along the way.

I was really hoping to find boxes and boxes of vintage christmas ornies but that just wasn't the case.  What I did find was decent though.

I found a few nice pieces of old jewelry but I wish I had found more.

I really practiced restraint when it came to vintage linens.  I need more vintage fabric like I need a hole in the head.  Truly.
So that is a quick over view of my treasures.  I will brag   blog in greater detail about what I got in the next few days and I will let you know what my absolute favorite find was.
I know that Beth is planning to do the same, so stay tuned.

The Kentucky Lottery

Hello, Friends!~~~

On day two of the WLYS 2010, Suzy and I found the Central Kentucky Agricultural Pavilion in Liberty, KY.

This huge covered arena was temporary home to lots of antique dealers, yard sales, and various other types of sales. Finding a diamond in the rough among all of the offereings was like winning the Kentucky Lottery!

We did find some very nice goodies to load into the car, but I would like to show you what we passed on.

This toy tractor was $700! Yikes!


If I had more disposable income I would have popped on these $500 Beatles bobbleheads!


I love this tin car, but not the $100 (firm) price.


This trunk was way cool but TOO big to bring home!

Stay tuned for more highlights of our journey on the 2010 WLYS!~~~XXOO, Beth

Day 2 of the World's Longest Yard Sale Project

Day 2 was a total marathon.  We made it all the way to Danville, KY which was the goal. 

Along the way Beth and I went in to "american pickers" mode.  Beth was Frankie and I was Mike.  We "popped" on a few things, but in the end neither of us made as many purchases as we had anticipated.

It was an exhausting trip, so enjoy my little video and we will be back soon with more pictures and the reveal of all that we bought.

Day Two and a Short Post

Hello, Friends!~~~

We are completely exhausted from Day 2! I can't imagine how anyone could do this for more than two long days! It has been a thrilling journey and we took lots of pictures and video, but it is late and we are ready to call it a night. We will be posting all throughout the coming weeks with photos and text to help you plan your WLYS journey or to take you along virtually! Anyway our journey through Kentucky on Route 127 was a fun one and we'll share it after we get home and rest up.~~~XXOO, Betg

Day 1 of the World's Longest Yard Sale Project

I messed up the title a bit.  You can see we had a fun first day.

Day 1: From Crossville, TN to Albany, KY

Hello, Friends!~~~

We are on Day 1 of two day and about 150 miles of traveling the Route 127 World's Longest Yard Sale! Here are ALOT of photos of this wonderful day!
This is a little north of Crossville, TN. There are quite a few clusters of vendors in this area and easy parking in grassy areas or on the side of the road.

This vendor had lots of white painted furniture and pretty high priced but nice linens.

Here is Suzy making a purchase!

Here is my very first purchase! Glass and plastic buttons and a few pink birthday cake candle holders!

This cluster of vendors is on the grounds of the Cumberland Mt. General Store in Clarksrange, TN. You can see Suzy searching intensely for the special treasure!


A little north of Clarksrange we found FOOD! Not the vendor above who we saw at Cumberland Mt. Gen. Store but a fabulous and AIR CONDITIONED bar-b-que place called appropriately the Barbeque Shack. Great food at great prices! We were desperate to take a mid-day break as the heat and humidity was brutal!
Here is one of many individual road side sales. This one is heavy on the "mantiques."


And this sale while in the shade, which is a bonus, had little to offer us.


We passed on this "monster lawn tractor" too.



Before we made it into Jamestown, TN we encountered RAIN!

But the skies eventually cleared and the sun peeked out and thankfully the temps went down. Isn't this a lovely mountain view north of Jamestown, TN?


This is a beautiful park in Pall Mall, TN the nome of the famous Sgt. York. There was a wonderful cluster of sales here.
This vendor has wonderful chairs!

This is driving north on Route 127 into Forbus, TN near the Kentucky border. There is a nice old general store here with fudge!

Near the Kentucky border the road gets hilly and little winding. We stopped at one sale but didn't find anything other than this ancient and heavilly laden pear tree!

That's it for Day 1! Tomorrow we head north and will stop in Danville, KY, about 70 miles from where we are this evening in Albany, KY. We will show off our many purchases, and there were MANY on day one, on our individual blogs after we return home on Saturday. But please stay tuned to this blog for more photos and video!~~~XXOO, Beth