Saling To The North Pole

We are, once again, a little bit behind in our blogging. It has been a very busy couple of weeks. This post is about the last weekend of May. We will catch up soon!

Almost every week of the year, we have a few sales lined up for our Saturday adventures. We don't always make all of them. In fact, we rarely do. We tend to make the list a little longer in case most of the sales are duds and we wind up with extra time to try to find that winning sale. Often, we are not sure what sales have the best potential. We look for hints in the description of the sale but the description isn't always accurate...nor are the pictures. Sometimes, we see pictures of a few pieces of great old furniture and hope there is more to offer. When we get there, the pieces are gone and, as we soon find out,  those were the only vintage items that were ever there. This week, we had a few potential sales on our list and one that really, really, REALLY stood out. We, typically, don't want to get to a sale at the opening because we really don't like waiting on lines (it takes away from our actual saling time). We made an exception this time. We would get there on time. We would hope that the pictures were indicative of what we might find. We were ready so...off we went! 

This was stop #1. It was about 30 minutes from our house. We arrived just after the opening and, as expected, there was a line. There were already people inside and we would have to wait until people left in order to get our opportunity to search the house. Monica went straight to the back of the line (while Rob snapped a picture) which formed on the left side of the house for entry through the side door. 

You had to take a number. We were #24 which, coincidentally, was approximately the number of minutes we had to wait. It really wasn't that bad because the weather was nice.

What really made the wait tolerable was that there was a garage that could be searched without waiting...and we did. We took turns searching the garage while the other waited on line. We managed two trips in the garage apiece and filled two small plastic bags before we even entered the house! Finally, our number came up and we were inside.

This is one of the pictures we saw in the ad. Christmas items and they looked pretty old!  When we went inside, our first stop was the basement. As soon as we got downstairs, we saw that this is where the picture was taken

This was another picture from the ad. This, we found, in the dining room. There were a few old salt and pepper shakers in this picture of the hutch. 

This was the picture in the ad that really caught our attention. Look at all those great Christmas things! 

From the moment we went down the stairs to the basement, we knew this would be fun. The basement was packed with stuff and we had to be thorough without sacrificing speed. There were about twelve other people in the basement and it was just a little cramped. We typically use one bag and share our findings with each other before putting things in the bag. Today, we were forced into a change of strategy. We noticed an older couple filling a basket with vintage Christmas items...the same sort of things we were trying to find. We also overheard them talking. They were not getting this stuff for them. They were re-sellers! We wanted these Christmas things to get a home where they would be loved. It was our duty to find these things first! So...it was a race. We each grabbed a bag and searched separately (though in the same room). We were two people working strategically to bring the North Pole home with them! By the time we were done in the basement, we had two more bags filled and, while not everything was Christmas stuff (this house had so many fun things hiding away), we had plenty new things to add to our December decorating! On to the main floor before the competition!

It was a small house (but it was filled with charm) and there was an upstairs but it was closed off to the public. So...we were done with the basement and had just one more floor to tackle. The first room we entered on the main floor was the living room...that beautiful living room where the cabinet that housed all of the great Christmas items was located. We stood before it and almost everything in the picture was still there. We were almost moved to tears!   

Needless to say, our hands were inside the cabinet and we were adding things to our bags quickly. Not everything in the cabinet was great but we took what we liked! A quick search of the rest of the main floor yielded some more things and the last room we entered, the dining room, had the hutch with the salt and pepper shakers. Some were gone but there was enough left inside to add to our treasure. We waited in line another ten minutes and, in short time, we were back to the car with a crowded back seat. We worked hard and smart and we knew our strategy paid off. We never even took any pictures of our own inside of the house. There was no time for that! 

Our next stop was breakfast. We were at the first sale for about two hours and had worked up quite an appetite. We were excited and we talked about how much fun we had. At some point during the conversation, we realized that neither of us, individually, knew everything that we actually had. While we did fill some bags together, we also filled some separately. The more we thought about this, the more our curiosity grew. It was, at this point, that we changed our plans for the remainder of the day. We had five more potential stops and none of them looked all that promising. We decided to go to the Church Sale that was nearby and then head home. We were very anxious to see what we got at the first sale! 

The Church Sale was outdoors and most of what was for sale was clothing. Monica is holding up a very ugly 1970's jacket which we did not buy. We spent about 30 minutes here and bought a few records, two popcorn Easter decorations and two pieces of clothing for Monica. We added them to an already packed car, pointed the car in the direction of home and, shortly thereafter, pulled into our driveway, emptied the car and spent the next hour smiling while looking at the day's loot. 

Here are some of the things we added to our home this week:

Some records

A Fred Waring Christmas reel- to-reel tape and a few books

Some old shot glasses. The two shot glasses on the right are from the Jerry Lewis Theatre in upstate New York and have a caricature of Jerry Lewis on them. They appear to be from the 1950's

Fred and Dino (Fred is from 1972. Dino is new), plastic dwarves, old squeak toys, a ceramic dog and a toothpick holder for our annual Cinco de Mayo parties (made in Japan)

A Duncan Cobra Yo Yo from the 1970's, an angel pull string musical hanging (made in Japan) and a vintage package of Party Booty Bags

Salt and pepper shakers. Some are missing their mates

Easter decorations

Halloween blow molds and a newer Halloween Pez dispenser

Halloween die-cut decorations

Some old New Year's Eve noisemakers

A metal Christmas tree stand from the 1950's

A pair of light up Santa wall hangings from the 1950's/1960's

Some creepy Santas

Bottle Brush trees and wreaths

Santa pitchers, decanter and mugs (all marked Japan)

Christmas lights, a stocking, ceramic candy dish/ash trays and a Santa hand puppet. The ceramic Santas and the hand puppet are marked Japan

Christmas cardboard decorations. The three identical Santas on the top left were bank giveaways. The Santa on the bottom row is a 78 rpm record from 1948.

A few Santas with his reindeer, a pair of Christmas squeak toys and a ceramic boot with Santa hanging on (marked Japan)

Small Santa blow molds and lots of old plastic Christmas magic

An old Christmas card that folds open to hold Christmas cards, some pine cone Christmas decorations, a plastic Santa candy holder (and an extra head), some reindeer, Santa Gurley candles, a prone ceramic Santa and a pair of ceramic Mrs. Claus candle holders

A ceramic Santa candle holder, a plastic Santa push button puppet and some other miscellaneous Christmas things

Some more miscellaneous Christmas decorations

A package of Twinklers, an unopened package of small bottle brush wreaths (made in Japan), a honeycomb Christmas soldier, some vintage Christmas pins for Monica and other miscellaneous things

Some small Christmas decorations. Monica will be using a few of these to enhance her Christmas corsages. 

Christmas salt and pepper shakers. Some are missing their mates. All are made in Japan except the pair on the bottom left which are marked Hong Kong

It was a very productive day of saling and we were very happy with what we found. After dinner, we went to annual Greek Festival near our house. It was a beautiful night and the walk over there was nice.

The festival, by and large, is all about eating and rides. Two years ago, we rode the Ferris Wheel but they have not had one since then and there were no tickets bought. As for the eating, we had come straight after dinner so we were not famished but we did have room for loukoumades (fried Greek donuts). Yum!!! 

Rob made a new friend. His name is Zircon and when Rob petted him, he climbed up his arm and sat upon his shoulder!

Although we did not stay long, it was nice taking a walk on a beautiful night. The sky was beautiful! By the way, that brown spot in the middle of the picture is not anything ominously hiding in the clouds. Rob had a speck of dust of his camera lens! 

Sunday brought with it the arrival of June. Those balloons that were hung for our Cinco de Mayo party in early May had seen better days. We, unceremoniously, removed them.

 We spent the latter part of Sunday at Monica's sister's house to spend time with Monica's family from Florida...her other sister, brother-in-law, nephew, niece and our new great nephew! He was born this past January and this brief visit gave us our first opportunity to meet him face to face! It's always great to spend quality time with family!

And at the park, earlier in the day, the geese enjoyed their time with their family...

...as did the ducks. 

It was a beautiful weekend spent together.