May Arrives

May has finally arrived and the weather has been great. April was slightly warmer than the normal April and, on two occasions, the mercury topped out at 75 degrees. We have had just the right amount of rain to keep the flowers interested in growing while not dampening our spirits. In short, it has been a great start to springtime! The first weekend of may looked to keep April's weather trend and we were looking forward to a beautiful weekend which would start with, of course, saling! 

A week long's search of the ads produced a list of five potential stops. Three were in a cluster about 20 minutes from home. The other two were about an hour from home. We decided to start with the local ones and see how things went. With a game plan in mind and hope in our hearts, off we went! 

Sale #1 was a privately run estate sale described as having "60 years" of stuff. It was in Rob's childhood hometown so he knew exactly where this was. 

There was a basement and a main floor to search. The basement was our first target and we found this pencil sharpener mounted to a table downstairs. That's always a good sign! The basement had lots of boxes to search and search we did! There were hundreds of records and many boxes!

The main floor was not as packed as the basement but it did have this great starburst lamp! The price was right and it came home with us. We also brought home a few records and a couple of Christmas things.

Sale #2 was a few minutes away and was described as a vintage garage sale. We were greatly disappointed when we pulled up. We were here last year too. There were plenty of vintage things but all were at dealer prices because this was a dealer sale. We left with nothing.

Sale #3 was listed as a multi-family garage yard sale with vintage items. Actually, it was three separate yard sales on the same small street. We found a vintage Christmas tray. Although that might not seem like much, it felt good to go to a few outdoor garage sales and we enjoyed the stop.

After a bite to eat, it was time to move onto the second leg of our journey. There were two stops left and they were 45 minutes away. It was still early so, without hesitation, we went.

When we pulled up to the house, we were greeted by familiar faces. J.P. (in the truck) owns a furniture business in Brooklyn and we see him at least twice a month at sales. He usually gets there before us and he always tells us where the vintage Christmas things are. Ron (outside of the truck) is the owner of one of our favorite estate sale companies. He was helping out at this sale. He also tells us where the vintage Christmas things are at his sales. They know. They all know. 

After exchanging pleasantries, it was time to go inside. The sale was run by a tag sale company that has sales once or twice a month and we have been to some of their sales. The pictures in the ad showed a starburst light fixture like the one we found earlier in the day, only bigger. It also showed some old metal cabinets and a downstairs bar. We wondered what else might be here! 

This great metal cabinet was in the basement. It was a little rusty and, in our opinion, not as nice as the one we already have but it would be a good find for someone.

The downstairs bar was great. We loved the bar stools!

There were lots of great mounted cabinets too!

This little cabinet was also pretty great.

There was a very Brady light fixture in one of the upstairs bedrooms. This was not the light fixture that we wanted to see. That starburst light fixture was long gone by the time we arrived. We would have liked to see it but we already got one earlier in the day (plus, we have a smaller one that belonged to Monica's parents in the 1960's).

Look at the great oven built into the wall!

The house was great to stroll through but there was nothing bought here. That was okay...we still had one more stop.

Our last and final sale should have been six minutes from the previous sale but the GPS kept sending us to the wrong location and it took us 25 minutes to get here. When we got there, we found that it was being run by a tag sale company that rarely has sales but we have met them before. The garage and backyard was our first stop and, immediately, we found a few things that we liked and the price was dirt cheap! 

There was a pencil sharpener mounted in the basement. That was a good sign! 

The basement had an amazing floor. Look at those musical notes!

More musical notes! 

The basement had a great bar too! 

We are glad we got past the navigational issues. By the time we left, we had some Christmas things, some records, a great football doll, two bar bottle opener guys and some more things!

Here is what we brought home with us:

Some records

Some Christmas records

A souvenir book from the circus. From 1937.

Two old bottle opener bar figures and an old Holy Cross football doll.

Some old Santa wall hangings...six of them.

An old Merry Christmas banner

An old plastic Santa, an old Christmas tray, a mistletoe pixie and a light up Santa pin. 

We had a great Saturday and we spent Saturday night at the carnival a town away. It got chilly at night, as it does this time of year, so we did not go on any rides but we had a great time just taking in the atmosphere and, most of all, just spending the night together. 

We spent Sunday doing a million things at home. We completely cleaned the garden and we have our annual Cinco de Mayo party planned for next Saturday and there is always a lot of work involved with that. We were happy with our productivity and celebrated by going out to dinner at the local Red Robin (we only have two on Long Island). Whether our time is spent relaxing, adventuring or working hard at home, it is time spent together and nothing could ever be more precious than spending our time with the one we love. We remember that every moment.