Our Adventures Amongst The Ducks: December 2015

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

One Week Until Christmas

We are still a little behind on the blog but just a little. This post is for the week ending December 20, 2015. We are almost caught up!

Another three day weekend and another chance for an extra day of saling but...there were no worthwhile sales on Friday. So, we ran some errands, did some chores and found some time to relax together. It was a nice day and it allowed us to free up our Saturday to attack the few sales that there were. There were only two sales of interest but they were in the same general area which was nice. We didn't expect too much but were hopeful, as always. Saturday morning arrived and off we went!

The first sale was run by an estate sale company that we know and was described as a "picker's delight" and "a vintage estate sale". We were hoping for the best.

There were lots of rooms but it was the basement that turned out to be the most interesting. It was there that we found the Christmas stuff. There wasn't a lot of vintage Christmas amongst this stuff but we did find a few things. We also took home some records and vintage Tupperware salt and pepper shakers.

After a stop for breakfast, we made our way to the second sale. It was a sale of "vintage and antique" items. There was an old blow mold snowman on the lawn but it was not for sale. The sale was run by the family of an elderly woman who moved to Florida.

In the basement, we found this vintage dehumidifier built into this wall unit which was pretty cool.

We also found this old escape ladder in its box. The graphics on the box were great. It did not come home with us but some old cookbooks did.

On the way home, we stopped in at this thrift shop which we have not visited in a few years. We came away with several records.

Here are the items we came home with that Saturday:

Some Hawaiian records

A record with songs by The Beatles performed by 101 Strings

Some Christmas records

Some old cookbooks

Vintage Tupperware salt and pepper shakers

Some Christmas things...all marked Japan

We realized that this would probably be our last saling adventure of 2015. It is not likely that there will be any sales the weekend of Christmas. It's okay. There are so many things to do to prepare for Christmas and, together, we know we will be ready to celebrate a beautiful Christmas.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

December Marches On

This post is for the weekend ending December 13, 2015. We will be caught up soon!

It was another three day weekend for us. It would be this way through the end of the month. Every Friday off. We would love to be taking advantage of these Fridays by going to estate sales but there just are not that many good estate sales on Fridays in December. They always slow down in December, even on the weekends. Still, we did find one on Friday that was of interest to us and, of course, we went.

The sale was located just twenty minutes away. It was described as the estate of a 94 year old and that it was a "40's/50's time warp". We thought it was worth investigating! When we arrived, we found that it was being run by one of the flea market vendors who occasionally runs estate sales. He, often, has good stuff.

The basement had this very cool bar which, we were told, was built by the original owner.

The basement floor was faded but great.

There was a very old can of Black Flag down there. look at that label!

The windows in the back of the house were, clearly, the original old windows. There were many rooms to check and this did turn out to be a worthwhile stop. When we left, it was with several old cookbooks, some records and a great pair of vintage metal shelves.

With most of the day remaining, a quick stop for breakfast was followed by a trip home to work on our Christmas decorating. We were almost done but had some final touches to make. By day's end, we were done...unless we found more things on Saturday. Our saling list for the weekend was also very short but we were going to make the most of it...and so we did!

Our first stop on Saturday was at an estate sale that was clearly being run by the family of the deceased. It was a quiet ad without pictures but there was something in the description that told us that this was worth seeing. Since it was just twenty minutes away and since there was not much else, it was an easy decision.

The living room had this amazing vintage piece that opened up into a bar unit. It was marked "sold" before we arrived but the woman running the sale told us that her brother actually decided to keep it. We would not have had room for it anyway.

This light fixture was pretty amazing too. We already have a couple of these so we were not buying this. It was in the garage and in the basement that we found what we wanted. Several vintage books and Christmas things left with us.

Our second stop was at a thrift shop nearby which we haven't visited in almost a year. They moved from one building into this building (on the same property) since we were last there. It was a good stop as we found some 1950's Hazel Atlas mugs, a set of Christmas trivia cards (a la Trivial Pursuit) and a few pieces of clothing for Rob.

Our third, and final stop, was at another thrift shop. We were lucky enough to arrive on the same day as their cookie sale. Although we found nothing inside the thrift shop, Rob left with some cookies...and a big smile!

Here are some of things we found that weekend:

Some records

Cookbooks

Drink books

Old children's books

Vintage Tupperware with lids. Rob just laid the lids on top for the picture

A pair of vintage metal shelves

Lots of Christmas things. The book, in the back, is from 1956.

On Sunday, we made our annual trip to Hicks Nurseries. We both used to go here around Christmas with our families when we were kids. It has been around since 1853. This year, we brought Monica's sister and her family with us.