A Tight Circle

We are still a week behind on our blogging. This post is for the weeknd of July 18th and 19th. We have no doubt that we will be caught up soon!

A week long search through the ads for sales netted very few sales of interest. Unlike last week when our list was longer than time would ever allow, this week's sales of interest numbered exactly three. The good thing was that all three sales were in a pretty tight. None were more than twenty minutes from our house and we had complete confidence that we would make all three with plenty of time to spare. We were ready to search them all. And so, off we went.

Our first sale was listed as "antiques to vintage" and was run by a tag sale company that we know well. The pictures in the ad showed a couple of old Christmas things and that, alone, was enough to sell us on coming here.

The basement was packed and there was plenty of places to search.

The basement was really, really packed! 

We spent over thirty minutes in the basement and found a few great things at a very low price. Unfortunately, the rest of the house was not quite as packed and we moved through the main floor and upstairs quickly. By the time we left, we had some Christmas things, an old baseball game, a book, an old blow mold pumpkin and a few other things.

We moved along to the second sale, making sure not to disrespect any traffic laws. We remembered not to make a turn on Fred.

Our second sale was described as "a hoarder's house" and a "picker's dream". Unfortunately the claims were overexaggerated. 

It was an outside sale where all of the items for sale were dragged outside except for the contents of an old abandoned sunroom at the back of the house. The door to the entrance was a great old screen door.

The sunroom had not seen the light of day in many years and it was packed. We had to climb over things to conduct any type of search and so many of the items were in very bad shape.

Still, we spent twenty minutes within its cluttered confines and our search paid off. We left with two old Pyrex casserole dishes and one old set of glass grapes.

Sale # 3 was non-existent. We arrived to find a sign on the door that said that the sale was cancelled. We were home early and that was okay. We took a nap, did a few chores and then Rob barbecued. We then spent a nice relaxing evening together which is always nice!

We originally planned to stay home on Sunday but those plans changed pretty early that morning. We had considered going to a sale that was 45 minutes away but we were not greatly excited by it and decided to skip it...that is until Rob read his emails that morning. The owner of the tag sale company emailed Rob that he found some vintage Christmas things in the attic and that we should come. So...we showered, got dressed and off we went to a Sunday sale.

It was a very, VERY hot day and our trip here was slow because we got caught in the beachgoers traffic but, after an hour, we made it.

We first searched the garage which had some cool old wooden crates and some old license plates. We were not interested in either but they were cool to see. 

The owner, Ron, was happy to see us quickly showed us the way to the attic.

There was a mounted pencil sharpener by the entrance to the attic. That was a good sign! 

The attic was huge and there was plenty for us to search. On a cooler day, we might have spent an hour up here but, as hot as it was outside, it was even hotter in the attic and we were dripping wet in a matter of minutes!

We worked quickly to get a quick look at everything, pick what we wanted and then return to the cooler floors.

The other floors had a few cool things like these old dolls which are not things that we wanted but were still cool. By the time we left, we had found some old Christmas things, an old sewing kit, a poodle mail holder and a few other things. It was worth the trip!

We took our time going home, stopping to get pizza along the way. We even stopped at the flea market just to walk around.

Years ago, we would go here more often but we are only here once or twice a year now. There are still some great old things but the dealers get many of the things at the same sales that we frequent and they have marked them up quite a bit. Still, we did manage to find a couple of hardstock beer coasters on this trip.

Despite being out a good part of the day, we still managed to get our errands and chores done and to barbecue again before the day was through.

Here are some things we found over the weekend:

A pair of records

A book from 1948 and a sewing kit marked Japan

A set of glass grapes, an Elmer Fudd glass from 1973 and a poodle mail holder (marked Japan)

A baseball board game from 1968 and a pair of Rheingold New York Mets beer coasters

A pair of Pyrex casserole dishes

Some old Christmas photos which made us laugh

An old Christmas tablecloth

A pair of old plastic Christmas dishes and an old snowman decoration

We try not to buy any glass Christmas ornaments because we have more than we could ever use but we have a weakness for stencilled ones and we loved these. The ceramic pitcher and the mugs are marked Japan.

Some more Christmas things. The ceramic Christmas girl, the elf decorations and the mica house on the right were all made in Japan

There may not have been a lot of sales for us but the ones we went to were fun and we managed to be productive at home and have fun together all weekend long...and that will always mean more to us than anything else ever could.