The Lion's Last Stand

It was the last weekend in March. Tuesday would be April 1st...no fooling! The battle between the lion and the lamb this month was no contest. The lion won on most days. The calendar said it was almost April. The weather did not. Although we did not get any snow in the last week, the temperatures were cold enough to deliver it if only Mother Nature would supply the moisture. Surely, this had to be the lion's last stand. 

Saturday called for temperatures in the 50's which would be welcomed. Unfortunately, strong winds and rain were also in the forecast so we knew that it would not be the type of day that would remind us very much of Spring. Still, we did have some saling to do and that was enough to brighten our day. By the time Saturday morning arrived, we had narrowed our list down to five potential sales; none of which looked spectacular but all of them showed potential. So, dressed a little warmer than the weather forecast would have suggested, we headed in the direction of our first sale of the day.

Our first stop was not too far away at all. It was located on the opposite side of our town. We have been to several sales run by this company and we have been successful at their sales more often than not. They have not had too many lately and we were looking forward to seeing what this sale would be like. It began on Friday (which we can never make because we work) so this was Day Two which was a negative. However, it was described as a "digger" and we hoped that much was hidden from the Day One crowd. We knew it would be great early on. The driveway was filled with boxes and, in those boxes, we found lots of vintage Christmas items. It was a great start! 

The inside was packed and there was so many places to search. This made Monica smile! 

There was a great television in one corner of the Living Room. It was actually a small television inserted into the skeleton of an older television!

The upstairs was great too! Look at this cool old bunk bed!!! We spent well over an hour at this house and came home with plenty of Christmas stuff, a small shadow box and lots of other great things. Even if we found nothing else the remainder of the day, we would still be happy with our findings! 

Our second stop (after getting some breakfast, of course) was a last minute addition to our itinerary. It was just listed Saturday morning and it was a privately run estate sale at "Grandpa's house". We were both pretty excited about the possibilities here (Monica looks very anxious for Rob to hurry up!) . This sale would be completely off everyone's radar since it was just listed! We would have an opportunity to search through Grandpa's lifelong stuff and it would all ours to search! Alas, Grandpa did not have much stuff. We came home with one cocktail stirrer and a pepper shaker that was missing its mate! 

Our third planned stop looked promising. This particular Tag Sale Company often runs the type of sales we like and the description of the sale, itself, gave us some hope. We used to go to their sales all the time but they did not have many over the winter. We were greeted with a smile as we walked in the door and off we went to search through the rooms.

There was a bar downstairs...always a good sign. Rob searched behind it thoroughly.

There was a pencil sharpener mounted on the wall of the basement...another good sign!

The bathroom was old and that, too, was a great sign! This was a great stop as we found some vintage Christmas things, a ceramic panther and some records, including a Colonel Sanders Christmas record...the holy grail of kitschy Christmas records! We were really excited about that find!!!! 

Our fourth stop showed only the slightest glimpse of promise based on the ad but it was on our list anyway. It was only four minutes away from the previous stop. This was the house we came to refer to as "the pink house"

So many of the rooms in this house were pink including this amazing pink bathroom!

Look at that incredible bathroom floor! 

The house had a great downstairs bar that would be serve, quite easily, as a Tiki bar! 

The walls downstairs were great. There were palm trees painted on the knotty pine walls and some great recessed shelving!

Another section of the basement. More palm trees and knotty pine walls...and a great floor too!

Look at the television set built into the wall! WOW!!!

The second bathroom in the house was pink too!

Another picture of that second bathroom. This turned out to be a really fun house to explore. There was so much untouched from so many years ago. And, oh yes, we found a few things to take home from here too including a vintage thermos, some records and some coasters for our next luau!

Our fifth and final stop was in our town and was only put on the list in case we had time to stop at the end of the day. Although the ad described the house as a "1950's/1960's time capsule", the pictures of the sale items told a completely different tale. Aside from a few old storage cabinets inside, there was little that matched the description of  "1950's/1960's time capsule". We picked up one new folding table for Rob's new laptop and a hard plastic duck. It was a quick stop on a day that turned out to be rainy, though filled with smiles. It was a really fun day! 

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

Some records including the holy grail of Christmas records...Colonel Sanders on Christmas Day!

Some more records

Some 7-inch records. The Burl Ives record is a four record set of 7-inch records

Some Home Ideas magazines from 1965

Cookbooks, a road map from the 1960's and some other books

Santas! One blowmold and three identical creepy Santas! One is still in its package. All three made in Japan

A Santa head pitcher and some Santa head mugs. All made in Japan

Christmas things! A package of ornaments, a Santa and Mrs Claus salt and pepper shaker set (made in Japan), two knee huggers (one is a girl and the other is a lady elf, both marked Japan), some snowmen, an angel and a Mica house

Christmas candle holder (you hang small ornaments from the hooks), Gurley Christmas candles and some plastic Santas

More Christmas things!

A vintage Christmas apron for Monica

More Christmas things!

Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers and a lonely Pepper cat (with googly eyes) missing its mate. All are marked Japan

Die-cut turkeys, a New Year's Eve noisemaker and some birthday candles

An old Pelican thermos, an old plastic straw holder and a poodle toilet brush holder. The previous owner had painted its eyes gold. We have since colored them black and applied googly eyes

Old cocktail stirrers, souffle cups and sequins

Nut cups, Aloha plastic coasters and a package of "Pink Squirrel" cocktail mix

A ceramic black panther, a plastic duck (we rescue any we can find for 25 cents or less), a rooster mail (or napkin) holder and a pink butter dish. We already have a turquoise butter dish just like this. 

A shadow box we found in a bathroom. We will repaint it black

Great houses to search, great things for us to bring home and time spent together. The weather may not have been perfect but we didn't even notice. It was perfect enough for us!