Mini-Vacation But First...Saling

This is about our adventures on October 4, 2014. We hope to catch up soon! 

The day that we departed on our mini-vacation had finally arrived. All of the packing that was possible (all except the every day toiletries) was completed by Friday night. We had both made up lists of things that we needed to bring and then combined them to make sure that we didn't miss a thing...and we didn't. We knew we could not check in until at least 2pm and it was only a ninety minute drive to our vacation destination. We knew we had our Saturday morning free and that could only mean one thing...saling! 

Under ideal circumstances, all of the sales that targeted would be in the direction of our afternoon travels. That, of course, was not the case. There were a lot of sales out there but only a few which captured our attention. All of them were west of us which was the opposite direction of our vacation destination. We made a list of five potential sales and started our Saturday journey a little earlier than usual. With the excitement of our mini-vacation in our hearts, we took off for an abbreviated saling Saturday.

 Sale #1 was an "indoor tag sale" which hinted at older items. There was nothing specific that drew our attention to this stop other than a feeling that we might find something here. The sale was run by a tag sale company that we did not know. There were many rooms to search and we did (though at a slightly quicker pace than usual). They were a little expensive but Rob managed to negotiate a more palatable price and, when we left, we were the proud owner of a few more records, a ceramic elf, a ceramic tea bag holder, some cocktail stirrers and some vintage cookbooks.

Sale #2 was the most promising sale of the day. The pictures we saw in the ad showed great possibility that we might find things of interest. The tag sale company that ran this sale is a very active one but one that we only visit occasionally. They are very well run sales and very nice people but many of their sales do not fit into our area of interest. This one was an exception. With a basement, main floor and second floor to explore, we searched as quickly as we could without sacrificing thoroughness. By the time we left, we had added records, vintage glasses, an Orchids of Hawaii "bamboo" tiki mug, cocktail stirrers, Halloween Jack O'Lanterns and some old plastic holiday plates...all at a price that was incredibly low. 

After getting some breakfast, we re-evaluated our list of stops in consideration of our time constraints and narrowed our list down to two more stops; both of which were in the same town. The first of those turned out to be a bust. We arrived to find that there was no sale. The ad said nothing more than "vintage" and, based upon our observation of some items hidden beneath tarps on the side of the house, we suspect that it was supposed to be an outdoor sale. It had been raining for a few hours now. The sale was rained out.

  Our last stop was just a few moments away and was at the house that one of Monica's co-workers had grown up. His mom passed away a few months ago and he was presiding over the disposal of the items in the house in preparation for its eventual sale. Another of Monica's co-workers was actually running the sale (she has experience with this sort of thing) and our stop there was really just to say hello. John had spent the first few weeks, following the death of his mother, cleaning out the house of things that he considered junk...clothing and miscellaneous items. This was despite Monica's advice not to throw out ANYTHING other than personal paperwork. You never know what will sell! His mother was in her 80's and many of the things he discarded were old. We suspected that much of what normally catches our attention may have been gone before the very first customer had arrived. 

There was a mounted pencil sharpener on the wall which is always a good sign... 

...and a pink bathroom! 

There was a lot of nice furniture here and lots of glassware, etc and it was a beautiful house but there was not a whole lot for us. However, there was a great spaghetti trim Santa bank (made in Japan) and a few small Holt Howard Christmas things that we found and they came home with us!

Here are some of the things we found on Saturday morning:

Some records

Some Christmas 7 inch records

Some more 7 inch records including three space insert records

Some cocktail stirrers

Some more cocktail stirrers

A New York World's Fair guide and a deck of cards

Old plastic Easter plates and an album filled with vintage cookbooks

Some old plastic blow mold Jack O'Lanterns

Vintage glasses, a "bamboo" tiki mug made by Orchids of Hawaii (and marked Japan) and a tea bag holder

Christmas things...old plastic Christmas dishes, three Holt Howard Christmas pieces (all marked with dates between 1960 and 1962), a spaghetti trim Santa (marked Japan) and an old Christmas elf

It was a great day of saling but only the start of our four day weekend. We knew that the best part of the weekend was yet to come. Our vacation was just hours away. We have been looking forward to this for months. Alone together for three days...our little slice of heaven together.

More on this in our next post!