Christmas In February

This post is for the weekend of February 28th and March 1st

The end of February was on the doorstep but the end of winter still seemed so far away. The temperatures were brutally cold this February in our neck of the woods. Historically, the daily temperatures range from a high of 38 degrees to a low of 23 degrees to begin the month and then end the month with a daily range of 45 to 28 degrees. Not a single day in February exceeded the average daily historical high. On twelve days, the low temperature was in the teens. On ten other days, the temperature dropped into the single digits. Wind chills put the real feel temperatures into sub-zero range on many days. It was cold. It was brutally cold. It was also snowy. It seemed to snow every two to three days. It seemed as if we would not see anything resembling grass for a long time.

The last day in February had arrived and the low temperature would, once again, be in the teens. It was a Saturday and that meant it was time for saling. There were four sales that showed some potential and that was more than we had considered for a long time. With a longer list than we had written in a long time, we got an early Saturday start on our saling adventures.

Choosing our first stop was an easy one. The sale was listed as "vintage" and "overloaded" and, in the pictures, we could see vintage Christmas decorations. The sale began at 8:30am and it was almost an hour away from our house so it required an early start. We set our alarms, showered and left the house in plenty of time to encounter thr dreaded line. Well, it was not as if we didn't expect it.

After a wait of about thirty minutes and after watching lots of people enter the house before us, we got inside and entered the living room. There were plenty of Christmas things here and we spent the first fifteen minutes in this room. The mica houses were way overpriced but all the other Christmas things were really cheap. We filled a bag before even leaving the room. 

There was a basement and, in that basement, was an old pencil sharpener mounted on the wall. That's always a good sign! The house provided us with four floors to search and search we did! We found more vintage Christmas things in the attic including a giant electric Santa head that we saw in one of their pictures (though it won't be pictured in this blog. We forgot to take a picture of it before putting it away in our attic). Luckily, it seems as if none of the people who entered this house before us had any interest in Christmas things at all! We also found some vintage barkcloth fabric and a few other things. It was a great first sale of the day! 

Our second sale was just six minutes away and its pictures also told of a house that hadn't changed much since its original owners first bought the house.

We loved the old screen door!

The living room had that great vintage room divider but we didn't need it. We already have this exact same one!  

There were three floors and they all some great old things. Look at this old television. It even had a rabbit ears antenna!

The basement had a great old stove and a great old refrigerator! We didn't get any appliances or furniture here but we did find a few more Christmas things, a couple of records, some books and pamphlets and a few other things. 

By now, we had spent a lot of time at the first two sales and decided to skip the third sale on our list which was, by far, the least interesting. We were anxious to get to the last sale on our list and it was forty minutes away. We stopped for lunch first and then made our way to the last sale of our day. 

Our third and final stop was at the home of Anita Darian, a singer and actress who just passed away on February 1, 2015 at the age of 87. She was an opera singer, an actress in many plays and was the soprano was on The Tokens 1961 #1 hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Monica was ready to go explore the house! 

The sale was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies and its owner, Ron, was very happy to see us. He posed for a picture

The front door mat told us what Anita called her home...The Sand Castle.

One more diversion before we take you into the house...this pirate was standing on the front lawn of a house around the corner from The Sand Castle. He didn't let us stand around too long. He asked, "Well...arrrrrrrrren't you going to the sale?"

We felt very welcome in the home immediately. Anita seemed happy that we had come for a visit.

There were many floors to search and search we did! It was cold inside the lower level but Monica was bundled up.

There were lots of old things inside like this old television...

...this old yellow bathroom...

...and this old green bathroom!

Like the stops before, we spent a lot of time in this house and found some great things. We took home some more Christmas things, some Pyrex bowls, a record, a poodle radio and a few more things. 

We loved looking through the inside of this house but we enjoyed looking outside its walls as well. Through every window, this is what we saw:

This house was on the water and the view was beautiful. It was spared any damage from Hurricane Sandy by the dunes. It was exactly the view we needed after a long winter. It was reminder that better weather was, hopefully, right around the corner.

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

Some records

A Fannie Flagg record...

...signed by Fannie Flagg. She must have been friends with Anita Darian

Some books and pamphlets

Vintage barkcloth fabric. One is a curtain. The other seems to be a cover for a decorative pillow

A vintage Hawaiian dress for Monica

Vintage Pyrex bowls

A poodle radio (marked Japan), a rubber duck, an old metal souvenir Empire State Building thermometer, an "Indian Red" crayon and an old Starburst wall-mounted candle holder

A 1970's Natasha glass from Pepsi

Some Christmas things

Lots of Christmas reindeer

Lots of old glass bird Christmas ornaments. Two are missing their tails and a couple are missing their clips but we have some spares and will restore them to their original glory

Some old bank giveaway cardboard Santas, some old gift tags and an old box of Christmas ornament hangers

A felt Christmas mail holder marked Japan

Sputnik ornaments and an old glass ornament with a duck and a clown

An old Christmas light candolier in its box

A few more Christmas things. All are marked Japan

It was a great day of saling with lots of great finds and lots of fun spent together. In other news...

One of our Mexican jumping beans hatched. You can see him in the upper right corner. Two of our jumping beans hatched last year too. When we were kids, neither of us ever had any hatch (nor did we expect them to hatch). They do not eat as an adult and only live a few days as a moth. It is still much too cold to let him go outdoors so we let him go in the downstairs level of the house so he could enjoy his remaining days. We named him Chicharito. 

So the snow remains behind and, because we have gone almost a week now without any fresh snow, the snow along the main roads looks ugly and black. There's no need to worry though. More snow was on its way but we'll save that story for the next post.