Fourth Of July Weekend

Fourth of July weekend! Happy Independence Day! It is a lot better when it falls on a Monday or Friday and it translates into a three day weekend! We were looking forward to it all week long and the work week went very slowly. Finally, it had arrived and we were ready!

It rained most of the day on The Fourth of July and our blow mold Uncle Sam had to stand indoors this year. We also had to cook our hamburgers indoors instead of on the grill but they were still good and we spent most of the day doing a few indoor chores and relaxing. The rain stopped by 6 pm and the fireworks displays in our neighborhood did not suffer because of the daytime rain. When darkness arrived, we walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and enjoyed the pyrotechnics show.

Having a three day holiday is good in almost every way except for finding estate sales. With many people having plans and it being a popular time to start vacation, there were very few sales at all this weekend. We found two that showed the slightest potential and we set our sights on just those two. We could look for garage sales and maybe visit a thrift shop or two afterwards. With a very modest agenda, off we went!

We really liked the looks of the first house. The sale was described as "indoor contents of house" and "antiques". It was an intriguing combination especially since there were so few places to go. 

We loved the old hardware of some of the mounted cabinets. They were in great shape which was more than you could say about a lot of the house. It took on four feet of water during Hurricane Sandy and much was damaged. 

Look at the groovy floor! 

Monica posed behind these great looking shelves in the kitchen. Unfortunately, this house is scheduled to be demolished in a few weeks. The damage from the storm was too much. The property has been sold and will change hands in a few weeks at which time the demolition of the house will take place. It was a very fun house to visit and we're glad we had a chance to see it before it becomes a memory. There was little for us to take from the house but we did get a great Thanksgiving salt and pepper shaker set with a matching sugar bowl. 

After getting some breakfast, we made our way to the other stop on our list; a sale described as having "vintage items from several households". This is what we found...a small garage sale. It had a couple of older items (with very high prices) but nothing for us. 

Our list was complete by 11 am and we had all the time in the world. We looked for garage sales but saw very few signs. We stopped at a thrift shop and found two dress shirts for Rob and a pair of Capri pants for Monica. We even stopped at a shoe store so Monica could get new shoes for work. We may not have found all that much but it was definitely a productive day.

Aside from some clothing, this is all we brought home on Saturday: 

A pair of Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers and a matching sugar bowl; all marked Japan

It was a slow day for estate sales. In fact, it was a slow weekend for estate sales. We rarely go on Sundays but we looked at them. There was nothing that showed potential. That was okay. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had time to do lots of other things that we enjoy together

We barbecued both Saturday and Sunday. Rob's famous shish ka-Rob's on the grill on Saturday...steak on Sunday!

We took a long walk through town Saturday evening. During the summer, the streets are always adorned with planters filled with flowers. Of course, we stopped for ice cream during our walk

 We have flowers at our house too. We try to do a little gardening each weekend

We also grow some vegetables. We don't have a lot of room to plant them but we make the best of what we have. We harvested plenty of beans which we ate Sunday night with dinner. We also harvested some radishes and peas. The tomatoes have a long way to go but there are plenty of small green tomatoes on our plants so we know we will have some!

We even had a chance to put up these living room curtains which we have wanted to do for a few weeks. 

It may not have been a great saling weekend but that's okay. It is the time that we spend together that really counts and three days spent together is always reason enough to smile.