White Elephant Sale

So I'm pretty much failing at keeping up my flea market and flea market-related posts in a timely fashion, but I also don't want this to be an entirely flea market-focused blog so I have been attempting to intersperse my flea market posts with other things which means I'm a little behind. Anyhow. A couple weeks ago I went to the Oakland White Elephant Sale. This is an annual event that started in 1959 to raise money for the Oakland Museum.
The sale is held in a gigantic warehouse in the, uh, giant warehouse section of Oakland.

We arrived just before the doors opened on Sunday, ready to rummage. There was already a big line of people.

Just another gorgeous Bay Area day.

That's his game face.

The warehouse was seriously huge but everything was organized and categorized and labeled and there were lots of helpful volunteers available for answering questions.

There was quite a VARIETY of stuff....

There was also checkstand where they would hold your stuff until you were ready to leave.

This was a good thing because we managed to find a few things we liked....

We went on the second day of the sale which meant that nearly everything was half off the marked price, except for the book section where you could buy a grocery bag for $5 and just fill it to the top.

I think we spent the most time in the book section and the bric-a-brac section.

That candy dish was probably the most expensive thing I bought at $5.
We also got some planters.

Now, I believe I have mentioned that KC's family likes to give each other joke gifts? Gifts that eventually get blown to pieces by shotguns out in the desert? Well he bought these for 25 cents (total) specifically for that purpose. He also pointed out that the White Elephant Sale is a good place to look for White Elephant gifts, and I had to agree.

He also bought this which I believe he intends to put up in his apartment.

I found some old classic videos and a game that looks to me like a more fun version of Jenga.

I also picked up this little dollhouse thingy. I'm thinking I'll attach some brackets on the back and hang it up as a shelf (or, rather, I'll get a handy gentleman to do that FOR me).

That little green box? It contains a teensy nativity scene.  One of Joseph's arms needs to be glued back on but it was only 40 cents. I had been wanting a nativity scene to round out my Christmas decorations even though, yes, I do realize that this is March and Christmas is not coming again for many months. The bric-a-brac section had a whole subsection of holiday decor. I don't make the rules, people.

I'm also going to need my handyman to put up this key rack for me. I mean. Not that I can't DO it. I just would rather somebody else did.

For awhile now I had been wanting a set of furoshiki in order to be more eco friendly when I wrap gifties but I hadn't pulled the trigger yet. The sets I've found have all been a bit too pricey for my liking, plus there's going to be that awkward moment of "So can I, uh, have my wrapping sheet back?" So when I saw these pretty (and inexpensive) scarves I decided they would work for that purpose.

Ooh, this is probably my favorite thing that I bought. It is a Christmas decoration box... thing. I think it must have been somebody's Christmas craft. All those little figurines are glued in place and I believe the box itself is also glued together. I don't know why I love it SO MUCH but I do.

And now I have to wait a whole year before the NEXT White Elephant Sale.