Closing Out May

This post is for the last weekend in May. We are still a week behind on our blogging but...we will be caught up soon! 

Memorial Day was early this year so, even after Memorial Day was in the rear view mirror, there was still one weekend left in May. So many people refer to Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial start of summer but it just doesn't feel like summer yet. The trees were not in full bloom until a little later than normal this year because spring took its time getting here. Although temperatures were pretty normal for May in our area, there was only one day where temperatures soared into the 80+ degree range to give us that early taste of summer. It still feels like spring. 

One sign of the warm weather, however, has been the return of the garage sale. Every weekend, countless signs adorn trees, telephone poles and street corners with an invitation to come visit. It's good to see them. They are always a backup plan in case we finish our Saturday saling a little early. On this particular Saturday, we had complied a list of five potential sales, none of which looked spectacular but they were the best of the bunch. We were hopeful. We always are. We got ready and off we went!

Sale #1 was about twenty minutes away from home and neither of us were sure why we chose to go. There was something about this estate sale ad that told us that there might be something there for us. As it turns out, our intuition was off a bit. There wasn't much here for us at all except for a couple of records which we did take home.

As we drove to sale #2, we saw a front lawn garage sale that seemed to have a lot of stuff. We stopped. If you were a Jimmy Buffett fan, this was your kind of sale. There was lots of Jimmy Buffett memorabilia and Jimmy Buffet themed things for sale. Alas, we are not Jimmy Buffett fans and we found nothing to our liking.

Sale #2 was an estate sale in a 150 year old farmhouse. The words "Christmas" and "ephemera" were mentioned in the ad. That made it worth a look.

There was not only a house to search but two barns as well!

The kitchen had a some mighty cool cabinets!

The basement had a mounted pencil sharpener...always a good sign! 

This sale was run by the only of an antique store who was friends with the decedent. There were three floors to search as well as the two barns mentioned earlier. We spent a considerable amount of time here especially since the ephemera collection was considerable. Many of the items were priced as a bundle and at antique store prices but much of it wasn't and we managed to find some very old greeting cards, some books and pamphlets, a couple of records and two Christmas items for a very, very low price. It was a worthwhile trip.

Sale #3 was a garage sale advertised as having "50 years of stuff". This was the same garage sale that we attempted to visit recently but was delayed because of rain. This stop was a major bust. It did have some old stuff but everything was junk in poor condition and was run by a dealer just trying to get rid of stuff that he could not sell at a flea market. We didn't waste more than three minutes here.

This last stop was in Rob's hometown and just a block away from the pizza place that Rob used to go to for lunch while in high school. It is run by the original owners and has changed considerably in appearance but not in quality. It was Monica's first time here. She rated the pizza a "10"! 

With our stomachs now full, we made our way to sale #4 which was run by a fairly new tag sale company on the scene, We like them. They are nice and have good prices. The ad had some pictures that pointed towards an older house and we were anxious to see what was there, even though it was the second day of the sale.

The garage had this really cool pink refrigerator...

...and there was a jukebox in the backyard.

The house was not that large and there were not that many rooms to search. Still, it was a decent stop as we managed to pick up some cool shot glasses, some books and a vintage sweater for Monica.

Our final stop was at a garage sale that was around the corner from Monica's childhood house. We were here last year, too, and found some great things. This year was no exception. This time, we brought home several vintage Halloween items, some old Easter picks and a few pamphlets.

After this stop, we visited Monica's dad (since we were just around the corner) and then went home to nap. It was a long day! The annual Greek Festival was that night and, although it is not that great, we do stop by every year for a little while. The highlight of the night was eating gyros there for dinner! 

Sunday was spent running errands and doing things around the house. We were very productive. Oh...and we did spend a little time looking over our new things again. 

Here are those new things that entered our lives this weekend:

Hawaiian records

More records

A Christmas record

A Laugh-In record

Some 7 inch records

Some books

Some pamphlets

Some vintage Valentine's Day cards

Some more vintage greeting cards

Some vintage Christmas cards. Many of the vintage cards that we found dated back to the 1920's and 1930's! 

Honeycomb birthday table settings (all marked Japan) and some old birthday invitations.

An old pair of plastic salt and pepper shakers and an old package of Easter party picks

A vintage sweater for Monica

Some hardstock coasters from 1957, some cocktail napkins from the New York World's Fair and some vintage shot glasses

An old Halloween die-cut decoration, some old Halloween party invitations and two old unopened packages of trick or treat bags

A glass Christmas ornament, a Christmas mail bag with the tag from its original package (marked Japan) and an old plastic snowman.

Despite not having a strong feeling about any of the sales at the beginning of the weekend, we found some fun stuff and we spent the day together which will always be the most important part of any day!