The First Two Weeks Of March...No Reason To Get Alarmed!

March is still too early for outdoor sales in the northeast. The transition from winter to spring is a constant battle between the lion and the lamb. We have been fortunate this winter. We only had a few days of snow even though one of them was a blizzard. Our winter, when looked at as a whole, wasn't too bad at all. Except for a few days of extreme cold in late January and early February, it was a milder than normal winter. We're not complaining. The lion is fading. The lamb is emerging. Garage sales are just around the corner and, with garage sales, the saling days become loner ones. We're ready.

The first Friday in March was both Monica's nephew and niece's birthdays. Two birthdays equals double the celebration! 

Peter got his cake

Shannon got hers. Both of them had a very elaborate candle.

After the cake, Marissa and Peter got very emotional.

We had fun with the dogs...

...and Sweetie who is a party animal! 

We didn't mind taking our time at the party Friday night because we had no sales to go to on Saturday. That's right...none! There were sales out there but none that showed even the slightest potential. This is where garage sales would have come in handy. Instead, we went to breakfast and then to some thrift shops where we hoped we would find something.

This was the church associated with one of the thrift shops we visited. We love the look of this church. It screams 1960's architecture!

By the end of the day, we did not find much. One ceramic dog and one clown salt shaker that was missing its mate. Both are marked Japan.

We finished the weekend by catching up on our chores and housework before tackling the new workweek on Monday. It was a good weekend together but we were hoping that the following weekend would be better for saling. Spoiler alert...it was! 

We got through the working week and Friday night seemed to arrive in no time. We compiled a list of potential sales and were excited at the possibilities. We wanted to get an early start so we went to bed a little earlier and set the alarm to wake us at 7am. We would be awoken by a different alarm much earlier. 

We all receive constant reminders to change the battery in our smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors whenever the clocks are changed. This was the weekend that we would move into Daylights Savings Time so this was the recommended weekend. 4am, however, was not the recommended time. Nonetheless, at 4am, Monica woke Rob up, startled, saying she heard something. Rob was already half awake because he heard it, too. We both seemed to recall the word "battery" spoken in a woman's voice. It didn't take long for that voice to speak again. This time, we heard the whole phrase..."Battery low". It was the smoke/carbon monoxide detector. This thing would shout at us every 60 seconds until we did something about it. Time for action.

Rob grabbed the kitchen stool and proceeded to climb it so he could reach the increasingly annoying smoke/carbon monoxide detector. It took only ten seconds to find out that it was hardwired so removing it for the night was not an option. He pried open the device and pulled out the battery. We figured that would be the end of our problem. Rob climbed down the stool and it collapsed, trapping his leg like a helpless animal. He removed his bloody shin from the stool and uttered a few choices words appropriate for the situation. At least, the stool wasn't damaged. At 4am, Rob could be excused for not fully snapping it into place before climbing. We thought the worst was over. We thought that all we had to do was stop the blood coming from Rob's shin and then go back to bed. We were wrong. In that same loud, obnoxious voice that originally woke us up, we heard, once again,"Battery low".   

Monica could hear more choice words from Rob as he went into the bathroom to attend to his leg while Monica searched for a 9-volt battery. With a bandaged leg, Rob went into the garage and got the ladder while Monica, successfully, found a replacement battery. Rob decided that he was done with the stool for the night. Climbing the ladder, he, once again, pried open the detector. He slipped the new battery in, closed the device, came down off the ladder and we waited. We didn't have to wait very long. "Battery low". More grumbling, more climbing, more prying. He removed the battery, inserted it the opposite way and remained atop the ladder, daring it to speak again. It didn't. It was satisfied. We went back to bed until the right alarm woke us up at 7am. A little groggy, yet determined, we drank our coffee/tea, showered, dressed and off we went to start our saling day.

We arrived at sale #1 before the opening and found a fairly long line awaited us. It was what we expected and were ready to wait. The sale was run by a tag sale that we like and it was described as "a packed house filled with antiques and treasures". We hoped it would be worth the wait. There were several things in the pictures in the ad that we wanted if the price was right. We were #30 in line. We hoped that none of the first 29 people got to the things that we wanted before we did!

The line moved quickly and we were inside within fifteen minutes. The first place we visited was the basement and we fell in love with this bar. Look at the bar stools! Look at the music notes on the top of the bar! Look at the records attached to the ceiling. That is a great idea! 

Look at the cool wallpaper behind the bar! 

We found a mounted pencil sharpener in the basement. That's always a good sign! 

In the basement, shelves were built to house their records.

On the wall, beneath the staircase, a fish tank was built into the wall. At one time, fish probably lived in it. Now, snow globes lived in it.

We may have found the long lost portal to Greg Brady's room! 

This wasn't just a sightseeing tour. There was some serious finds awaiting us. This area of the basement was filled with Christmas stuff. 

The other side of the basement had old, mini appliances...an ice box and a stove.

The upstairs had an old pink bathroom! Look at the starburst hardware on the cabinets! They were easy to remove and they came home with us. 

This was a great first stop and, aside from some old ceramic pixies that someone got to first (except one, which we got to first), we took home everything we were eyeing in the ad pictures...and more! 

While on line at the first sale, someone told us about a thrift shop just a few blocks down the street. It seemed like a good second stop. We had never been to this thrift shop before but, since it looked a bit like a castle, we felt good about stopping in.

Once inside the church, we had no problem finding the actual thrift shop. It was big and had lots of stuff inside and the volunteers there were really nice. We didn't find a lot but we did bring home a couple of records, a cookbook and a shirt for Rob. We were glad we went.

Planned sale #2 was just five minutes away from the thrift shop. We had heard, from someone on line at the first sale, that it wasn't very good but it was on our list and it was nearby. The ad listed mid century furniture, LP records and Christmas amongst the items available. It was worth a shot. The sale seemed to be run by people having some knowledge of what they had but we don't think that they were a tag sale company. 

There was a cool bar in the basement but, other than that, there were very few items of interest here and what was here was overpriced...except a dream pet reindeer (marked Japan) which we got for $1. We also picked up an old Big Top Peanut Butter jar from the 1950's. It was missing its label but the lid was in great shape. It was being used to hold nuts and bolts. For a $1, we will use it for the same thing.

Our third, and final sale, was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies. It was described, simply, as an estate sale - entire contents. The pictures in the ad showed what appeared to be older Christmas things and that made this worth a shot. 

One of the main floor rooms was furnished with leopard furniture

Look at the shape of that chair! 

The basement had a great floor and some really cool furniture! 

The basement also had a really cool bar. All three of our Saturday estate sales had cool basement bars! What this basement also had was Christmas stuff. We found a few cool Christmas things to bring home from here as well as a great vintage three-tiered serving dish and one record.

After a great day of saling, we visited Monica's dad for a couple of hours before heading home to enjoy a relaxing Saturday evening at home. We, of course, looked over what we brought home and here is what we saw:

Some records

Some more records

And some more records

Some cookbooks

Cookbooks and more

This great pair of vintage shadow boxes. This was one of the things we had our eye on at the first sale. We will repaint it black and turquoise...or, maybe, black and pink. Hmmm...we have a decision to make.

A large plaster poodle bank dated 1962

Some small old Easter die cut decorations, a pair of vintage starburst cabinet handles (from the bathroom cabinets at the first sale) and a 1960's New York Mets patch.

A ceramic elf (made in Japan), a 1950's Big Top Peanut Butter jar, a plastic vintage soap dish, an old Halloween cake topper, a ceramic clown (made in Japan) and a vintage ceramic three-tiered serving dish.

Some Christmas things. The snow globe on the left is marked Hong Kong. Everything else (except the sleigh cake topper) was made in Japan.

A few more Christmas things. Most are unmarked but the Santa (second from the left) is marked Japan.

On Sunday, we did what we needed to do around the house and for the house but we also found time to relax. The time change threw us off a bit as did the surprise battery change early Saturday morning. We'll adapt to the change and we'll enjoy the ever increasing daylight each evening...and we'll continue to enjoy our life together...always with each other...and always amongst the ducks.