Spring?

Spring? Well, not quite but it was getting closer. After a few more inches of snow during the week, the mercury started to rise and we hit 50 degrees on Friday! Couple that with the rain we got the day before and the great, big snowpiles finally started to shrink. Here it was Saturday and the forecast called for sunny skies and more of that 50-degree weather! It may not be spring yet but there is hope that this long, cold winter may finally be nearing an end! 

Saturday morning arrived and we had our list of stops prepared.  We only saw two that we liked so we pointed our car to the east and off we drove!

We arrived at our first stop, a privately run sale by the new homeowner who had already applied for a permit to demo the house. He was going to build a new house on the property and everything inside was up for grabs.

No, Monica was not saying "Look what's behind door #1". She was merely pointing out how great the old screen door was! When we went inside, the floors of three rooms were soaked; the result of a steam pipe break that occurred overnight. The new homeowner did not seem that concerned. The plan was to demolish the house anyway! 

The bathroom was pink and virtually untouched since the 1950's! Look at the great vintage starburst hardware on the sink cabinets! 

The wallpaper was cool!

A close-up of the hardware on the sink cabinets...

...and a view of how they looked once removed from the cabinets. Rob asked the homeowner if these were for sale and he said yes. Screwdriver in hand, Rob removed all seven. He had to break two of the drawers in order to get the most stubborn of the knobs off but the homeowner did not care! They are now in our house, saved for the future.

Another picture of the bathroom. Even the toilet was pink! 

This was what the floors looked like in one of the drier rooms. The pink theme continues! 

There were many rooms to search and a shed and a garage. We moved them quickly as the house had a damp, moldy smell to it and we could see that there was not a lot here for us. Still, we took hard the old bathroom hardware, a nice leopard coat for Monica and  a few other small items.

After getting some breakfast, we drove to our other stop. It was about 40 minutes away but we were cautiously optimistic that this would be a good one. It was described as "vintage" , "packed" and a "picker's delight".  We like these descriptions. 

We arrived at our destination and really liked the look of the house...

...and by the number of signs out front, we knew we were at the right place! 

As we approached the house, we saw who our host would be at this sale and it made us pretty happy. It is a small Tag Sale Company that doesn't have sales every week but we have had success at his sales. Plus, he likes us and everything we find is usually dirt cheap for us. The last time we saw him, he told us he had finally chosen a name for his company and now he will advertise with this name included in the details. That's good!

There were several rooms to search and so much of the inside was old. Monica really liked that! 

The garage had some old Christmas decorations. We immediately chose to take home an old snowman blow mold but his companion, this poor Santa, had a break in the back of his head. Our host gave him to us for free so he is now ours and we will repair him as best as possible. 

 Amongst the items in the basement was a six pack of Schmidt's beer. Monica's grandfather used to drink this beer in this very same style of bottle when she was a little girl. It immediately reminded her of him and we knew we would take one bottle home to display on a shelf in the garage in his memory. We researched the company and discovered that they went out of business in 1987.

For the very same reason, we already had this old tab top can of Rheingold which reminded Rob of his dad whom he lost over ten years ago. The Schmidt's and the Rheingold can will sit beside each other; a tribute to two very important people in our lives. 

Aside from the Schmidt's Beer and the bathroom hardware, here are the other things we brought home:

Some records

Some Christmas records

A vintage (and very pretty) apron for Monica

A vintage Styrofoam Santa head and an old cellophane wreath. A few weeks ago, we bought two old boxes of cellophane wreaths at a sale and one of the wreaths had disintegrated inside. Looks like we found its replacement! 

A few more Christmas items

Some more Christmas items. The items in the foreground are vintage Christmas corsages. Rob was especially happy about the Christmas clown. He is marked Japan

Christmas blow molds

Vintage holiday candles

A wiggling hula girl (made in Japan), a New Year's Eve noisemaker, a squeak toy bunny for Easter and a small set of silverware. The silverware are additional pieces for the starburst patterned silverware that we currently use. 

An pink plastic vase. These look exactly like some lamps that we have

A colorful pole lamp

A cool hassock!

Monica modeling her new leopard coat

Our mannequin, Sharon, wears a similar coat all winter long!

Only two sales but they were productive and fun. A few items and a million smiles together and the weather was giving us hope that maybe spring would eventually arrive!

We know that March is just around the corner and the weather will get nicer soon. Our flamingo feels it too!