Hello November!

November has arrived. November means so many things in our little corner of the world. It's the first month, since last winter, where we can expect it to be at least a little cold every day. No need to check the weather report to see whether we need to wear a jacket...we do...every day. The trees are beautifully adorned in all the colors that Mother Nature can imagine but, by month's end, the trees will be bare. In the retail world, Christmas season began the day after Halloween. Yes, there is still Thanksgiving and there will be some Thanksgiving decorations for sale tucked away in some small corner of a few dollar stores or perhaps set up to trigger an impulse buy at the checkout counter, but make no mistake about it...it's Christmas season. It started November 1st. While we LOVE Christmas, we still understand Thanksgiving. We took down all of our Halloween decorations and put out our ceramic, die-cut and honeycomb turkeys this weekend where they will be proudly displayed until the day after Thanksgiving. It is November. The turkeys deserve their time.

One thing that never changes, regardless of the season, is our desire to go saling and, with Saturday upon us, we researched the sales and we were making our list and checking it twice...oh wait...that sounds too much like Christmas. Let's just say, we found some potential sales and off we went!

Our first stop was at a church not too far away from us. They were having a flea market. We have been to their thrift shop and, since that was open too, it was a double bonus stop. We found three records from the 1980's at the flea market and old Christmas children's boot in the thrift shop. We will use the boot as a Christmas decoration, perhaps with a peering Santa emerging from the top.

Our second stop (after a hearty breakfast) was at another church nearby. It was a quick stop. There was nothing of interest.

Our third stop would be our first estate sale of the day. It was run by someone who operates an antique store and, we guess, occasionally oversees estate sales.

 It was a very interesting house with lots of rooms and a very unusual basement that had an oil coal storage room. Monica's grandparents had a similar room. It also had about the scariest staircase ever. One misstep to the right and a small child could have fallen, through a space between the staircase and the wall,  ten feet down to the basement floor! We found several items to take home from here including some vintage glassware that the lady in charge referred to as "swanky swigs"!

After this sale, we drove 30 minutes away to where two sales were located in neighboring towns. The first sale did not show a great deal of potential but we stopped by anyway since we were in the area. It was a quick stop and we left empty handed. 

Stop #5 was a pretty good one. It is always good to see a "Grandpa's Attic" sale because we know the owner and he usually only gets old houses to liquidate. His sales don't always yield a spectacular booty but they are usually interesting and we usually bring home something.

The house had a great old basement with this REALLY COOL wallpaper! Every few months or so, we see really cool wallpaper that we would love to have for our future basement. We always look for those "leftover" rolls of wallpaper hidden in some corner of the basement. We have yet to find one. 

There was a really cool bar in the basement and Rob searched it thoroughly. We spent about an hour here and came away with some old paperback science fiction books from the 1950's, a record rack, one record and some cocktail stirrers.

Our last two stops were 40 minutes away and we enjoyed the view of the beautiful autumn foliage on the ride.

Our second to last stop was at a church sale and we arrived just 15 minutes before the end of the sale. Amazingly, we found a few vintage Christmas items and some old, unused Rubbermaid cabinet organizers that still had their tags on them!

Our last stop looked promising from the outside. The house was old (though re-sided in the recent past) and the house next door was really cool! 

And there it was...the mounted pencil sharpener! Seeing one of these always makes us smile. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the house that made us open our wallet. We did like an old blue princess phone but it was hardwired (and still hooked up) and was not for sale.

Here are some of the things we brought home with us:

A Cugat record

Some science fiction paperbacks from the 1950's plus a Peanuts book from 1968

Some vintage glassware plus a Bugs Bunny glass from 1973

An old circus banner with a creepy clown

A record rack for 45 rpm records

A pair of Rubbermaid cabinet organizers from the late 1950's / early 1960's that still have their tags attached.

Some Christmas items

Some Burger King giveaways from 1980, a vintage Easter card, an old New York City street map, some cocktail stirrers and other things

It was a great day of adventuring on Saturday and we spent Sunday running errands, changing the holiday decorations and doing housework. We did find time to take a nap together in the afternoon and to make lasagna together for dinner. It may be getting colder outside but there is always plenty to do and always something to enjoy about every season and each moment is always made more enjoyable spent with the one you love.