Monica's Birthday Weekend

This post is for the three day weekend beginning Friday, April 17th which means we are REALLY behind! Hopefully, we will catch up by the weekend! 

Monica's birthday was coming up on Friday and we took a vacation day to make it a three day weekend. Why should Monica have to work on her birthday? We would celebrate her day!

Monica's birthday celebration began a little early. We had dinner and, then, birthday cake at Monica's sister's house on Wednesday with her family.

35th birthday?  Hmmmm...

On Monica's actual birthday on Friday, Rob made sure the kitchen looked festive so that Monica knew how very special the day was! 

Of course, with a day off and sales in the area, we began our day with saling adventures. There were four potential stops which we considered great for a Friday. The sales began fairly early and so did we!

Sale #1 was run by an estate sale company that we like a lot and we were looking forward to the sale. We often find great things at their sales at a great price and we were hoping for more of the same.

We were greeted by this great old screen door that led to the main entrance of the house. We considered this a great sign!

There weren't a lot of rooms but the rooms that were there were good for digging and that's what we enjoy! 

In the back of the house, there was another old screen door and another room ready to test our digging skills. It was a good start to the day and, by the time we left, we were not empty-handed. We left with a great plastic bubble lamp, a volcano bowl, a record and some Christmas things.

Stop #2 was a church rummage sale which is always hit or miss. We were hoping that a Friday sale would give us a chance to find some hidden treasures before the masses arrived.

The rooms were big and there was plenty to sift through. The birthday girl was happy. Although there were quite a few people there as early as we were, we managed to find some great things. A few records, a great cocktail glass and some salt and pepper shakers came home with us.

Sale #3 showed some potential. It was listed as "overloaded" and its pictures painted a portrait of a house that might have some old things. It really wasn't overloaded and we did not spend all that much time here but we did find some records, some Christmas things and a tupperware key chain.

The last sale on our list was run by a tag sale company that is very active. Some of their sales are out of state and some don't appear to be our type of homes but, when we do visit their sales, we are pretty happy with what we find and with their prices. They are really nice people too.

There were three floors and the basement was the first floor that we searched. It had this great fake fireplace that reminded Rob of the one his grandmother had.

These basements metal cabinets were great too. We wish we had room for these! Although they did not come home with us, several other things did. We brought home a great shadow box, an old pumpkin blow mold, some cookbooks, some Christmas things and a few other things and...they gave us a free plant!

It was a great day so far and there was more to come! After a cozy nap together, it was time to get ready for Monica's birthday dinner. We decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants. It is about an hour away from us but is always worth the trip simply because...

...it's King Yum!

King Yum has been around since the 1960's and not much has changed since then. From the moment we arrived, the tiki gods watched over us.

They has exotic drinks. Monica chose the Boco Loco (served in a coconut) and Rob had the Mona Loa which was served in a volcano bowl and had a flaming shot of rum. Of course, we shared them with each other.

The food was great, too, and the company, even better! 

The tiki gods were glad we came and bestowed good fortune upon us. We will be back soon!

Saturday would bring us more saling opportunities but we had to pick carefully. We had a family obligation midway through the day. We narrowed our choices down to two and hoped that we would have as much success as we did on Friday. Off we went! 

Stop #1 was a quietly listed sale that just felt like it could be a good stop. It was privately run and, while we weren't the first to arrive, there were not a lot of people there before us either.

There were two floors to search and, as is our preference, we went straight to the basement. This amazing wallpaper covering the walls leading downstairs.

Here is a close up of that wallpaper...vintage Hawaiian! 

There was a bar downstairs and some boxes to sort through...and we did. It was a fairly quick stop (because we worked quickly under our time constraints) and came up with some good finds. We were the proud new owners of a starburst clock, an old magazine rack, some vintage pins and some Christmas things.

Our second and final stop on Saturday was at a sale that was almost an hour from home. It was run by one of our favorite estate sale companies and we try not to miss any of their sales. 

There were many rooms and so many things to search. No matter how quickly we worked, it would not be a quick stop. We slowed down just long enough to take a few pictures.

The entire basement looked like this. It was a digger!

We were not alone in this very cluttered basement either. There was a crowd and it was not that easy to move.

Our host, Ron, was having a good time too!

We spent over an hour here, digging through three different rooms in the basement and searching several rooms on the main floor too. By the time we finished, we had several vintage Christmas things, some records, some ceramic things and much more!

Although, we were pressured by time, we took a few moments to enjoy the scenery just down the street from that last sale. The weather has been getting nicer by the week. If you look closely, you can see the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

Here are some of the things that came home with us that weekend:

Some 7 inch records

A 10 inch record

Some 12 inch records

Some more 12 inch records

Some 12 inch Christmas records

Some books

Some more books

Some vintage pins

Some giant plastic tiki utensils

Cocktail stirrers and bottle openers

Playing cards, a sparkly pink light plate (we have another), a New York Mets pin, some vintage ballerina cake toppers and a tupperware keychain

The Rock Flowers doll case, a ceramic poodle, a ceramic squirrel shaker (missing its mate), a pair of cat salt and pepper shakers, a small ceramic volcano bowl and a rubber duck. All of the ceramic pieces are marked Japan. As for that squirrel, we were sure we had the other shaker and that this would complete the set. Well...we came home to find that we had the set and NOW we have a mismatched set. 

A vintage Las Vegas tray

A pair of vintage glasses and a ceramic starburst vase

A vintage magazine rack

A 1960's bubble lamp

This great vintage cocktail shaker

Here's the glass from another angle. It reminded us of something. Hmmmm...

Oh...yes. It perfectly matched this basement wallpaper we saw while saling a few years ago.

Take a look...it's an exact match! 

This vintage Christmas / New Year's apron

This great starburst clock...

...and it came with its original key! 

This old shadow box...

...and it has a starburst pattern!

Some Easter things

Some Halloween things

A pair of ceramic turkey salt and pepper shakers and one without its mate (all marked Japan) and a pair of old plastic turkeys

Some old New Year's Eve noisemakers

A dream pet donkey and two ceramic donkeys (all marked Japan) and an old pair of maracas; all for our Cinco de Mayo party

Some mistletoe elves (and one pixie) plus lots of knee hugger elves. All are marked Japan.

Christmas reindeer

Miscellaneous Christmas things

A mini ceramic Santa head mug, a Rudolph teapot, a Rudolph sugar bowl (missing its lid), a Holt Howard mini Santa mug and a Christmas tree shaker (missing its mate). All are marked Japan

Spare panels for our color wheels. You never know when one could break! 

We spent Sunday relaxing. Well, maybe we ran a few errands. It was a great weekend filled with fun adventures, great finds and, most importantly, time spent together.

The birthday girl had lots of smiles...and that alone made it a great weekend!