Monica's Birthday Weekend 2016

We are still a few weeks behind on our posts. This post is for the third weekend in April. We will make a big push to get caught up within the next week. 

We try to take at least one three-day weekend a month, unless a holiday provides it for us. Taking the extra day before the weekend leading up to Monica's birthday seemed like a great idea. We had plans for Monica's birthday but we would also have some extra time to go saling. Fridays have become popular sale days so we added Friday sales to our weeklong search for saling opportunities. We came up with two and so, with that preliminary plan, we began Monica's birthday weekend.

Sale #1 on our Friday list was run by a tag sale company whose sales we frequent. Many of their sales are good but, unfortunately, they run many of them on Fridays and we are not available most Fridays. Today, we were and the sale was only fifteen minutes from our house. The ad listed this as an estate sale with older items. Our search inside was brief. Two floors filled with lots of stuff but none very old at all. We left without a single thing.

After stopping for some breakfast, we made a pit stop before going to the second sale. There is a thrift shop that we have never visited because it is never open on weekends. We decided to check it out.

We were not the only one checking out the thrift shop. This black cat looked like he was also contemplating whether to visit.

In the end, he decided to just hang out in the sunshine

We, however, decided to go inside. It was a very small thrift shop with one very packed room. The ladies who ran the shop were very nice and the prices were so low! We found a baseball book for Rob (a newer book) and a Pyrex bowl made in the late 1950's. 

Our final stop, on Friday, was at an estate sale run by a company that owns a vintage store and, occasionally, runs estate sales. This is only the second time that we have run across them. It was a house filled with "vintage things" according to the ad. Our fingers were crossed.

The basement was our first stop and it had an old bar designed with barrels. Rob searched it thoroughly.

This basement was big and had lots of separate rooms with many cool things inside including this great, old refrigerator. 

This mini turquoise oven was in the basement too!

This old crib sat in the basic and seemed to be in great condition. 

Look at the great design on the side!

One of the bathrooms was still in its original pink and blue design.

It had a metal hamper built into the wall.

The upstairs bathroom had gone through some changes but the toilet bowl, tank and floor hadn't changed since the house was built.

There was a lot to see in this old house including this creepy doll. The doll stayed behind but lots of cookbooks and books, as well as one record, came home with us.

From here, we went home to relax, sneak in a nap together and then get prepared for Monica's early birthday dinner. We had plans to go to one of our two favorite old Chinese restaurants (the other, Palace Of Wong, closed within the last year when the owner retired). We had plans to go to...

King Yum! 

King Yum has been around since the 1960's and is a real old style Chinese restaurant. Every time we go, we pose for a picture by the tiki waterfall. 

The Tiki Gods are always happy to see us!

We shared an exotic drink called "Tabu For Two", served in a scorpion bowl.

One Chicken Hawaii and one Singapore Mei Fun. We shared them.

It was a fun night and a great place to celebrate Monica's birthday. 

By the time Saturday morning arrived, we were ready to do some more saling. There were only two sales of interest but both of them showed a lot of promise and they were hosted by two of our favorite tag sale companies. There are never any guarantees but we were pretty excited about our chances. We just knew we would find some things we liked. With expectations running high, off we went! 

We arrived at the first sale just after its opening and found what we thought we would find...a line. It was sunny outside and it wasn't too cold so the wait didn't bother us too much. The sale was described as "a digger" and "vintage" and we were a little anxious to get inside. We were After a thirty minute wait, our digging began. 

After saying hello to our hosts, we began to search the house which was, as the ad described, vintage. We really liked the lining of these drawers...

...atomic starburst! 

It was definitely a digger, too. This bathroom had been overtaken by what could best be described as "stuff". Many of the rooms were diggers and that made us pretty happy. Those are the types of sales we like best! 

There were rooms to search and closets, as well, and we spent well over an hour inside this house. When we left, it was with lots of Christmas things, some records, a vintage badminton set and lots more. It was a great first sale that, certainly, did not disappoint us...and it was great seeing our friends who were running this sale.

After a stop for breakfast, we made our way to our second, and final, sale of the day. It was listed as "entire contents" and the hosts had already tipped us off that it was a sale that we shouldn't miss. The house had lots of small rooms and none were really our style but there were enough old things inside to keep us interested. It was great to say hello to our friends running this sale and they were right...it was not a sale that we would have wanted to miss. We left with several Christmas things, some records, vintage carousel glasses and more.

We still had lots of time to visit Monica's dad and then to go home and relax before going out, again, on Saturday evening for a second birthday dinner. This time, Monica's sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece came with us. It was a nice time and you can never celebrate Monica's birthday too much! 

Sunday arrived and so did Monica's actual birthday. Rob decorated the kitchen for the birthday celebration. There were plenty of flowers, too. There were roses from Rob, on the left, and flowers from Monica's co-workers, on the right.

We thought that our saling adventures were done for the weekend when we discovered a new ad on craigslist for a estate sale about twenty minutes away from us. It was the home of a 100 year old woman. Well, how could we pass that up?

So this was the house of the 100 year old woman. There was no one here when we arrived except the host (her son) and the two of us. As we mentioned, it was a last minute ad in craigslist and we were hoping that it was quiet enough to remain a well-kept secret. Apparently, it was.

Our first stop was in the garage which had nothing for us but showed great promise that the house might have some cool, old things. This vintage baby carriage was a good sign! 

The living room had this great, old television. 

The basement seemed pretty empty when we first descended the stairs. This Christmas tree, still decorated with vintage glass ornaments stood alone. We have more than enough vintage glass ornaments than we think we can ever use so we did not take any. 

The other side of the basement, while still fairly empty, had this little room and a plastic garbage pail filled with things to search. We found several things of interest down here including a few vintage dresses for Monica. 

It was the attic, though, that made our trip worthwhile. It was cluttered and it was a digger. Monica started the search on this side of the attic.

Rob started searching the other side which was just as cluttered and had a crawl space with lots of Christmas. Many of the things in that crawl space weren't all that old but many things were and each find was pretty exciting. There were also boxes and boxes of vintage greeting cards. We spent almost an hour just sorting through those. It was a great stop and, aside from the vintage dresses, Christmas things and greeting cards, we also left with many other great things! 

Sunday's weather was the nicest of the year, so far, and we stopped at one of our lakes to take a short walk and visit the ducks. 

Ducks and geese all swam over to say hello

Since we had gone out to dinner the previous two nights, Monica wanted to spend her actual birthday night at home. We ate leftover Chinese food from Friday's dinner and went out to get some birthday ice cream (Monica's choice)! A birthday candle, a birthday wish and some off-key singing by Rob were all part of the festivities! 

Three days of saling brought us the following items:

Some 12-inch records

Some more 12-inch records

A pair of 7-inch records

A 7-inch record. The sleeve is torn in the corner but we liked this anyway!

Some books and pamphlets

"How And Why" books from the 1960's

Sports books. The second one is a newer one but the other three are pretty old.

Cookbooks

More cookbooks

An old T.V. antenna. We got this at the Sunday sale for $1. We saw the exact same one on Saturday which was pretty beat up and the asking price was much higher.

A hat for Monica

A vintage dress for Monica

Another vintage dress for Monica

One more vintage dress for Monica

Rob got a wool ski mask in case he decides to become a professional wrestler! 

"The Six Million Dollar Man" board game

A vintage badminton set. It was never used and everything inside is still in its wrapping.

Carousel glasses (1950's), a pair of ceramic cats and a pair of ceramic ladies. The four ceramic items are all marked Japan.

A ceramic flamingo, a Pyrex bowl (1950's), a Valentine's Day clown and two ashtrays. The flamingo and the clown are marked Japan. The turtle ashtray is marked Treasure Craft.

Vintage greeting cards. One is for Mother's Day and one is a Get Well card

Vintage anniversary cards

Vintage wedding cards

Vintage Father's Day cards

Vintage christening cards

Expectant parents-to-be cards

Vintage Valentine's Day cards

Vintage Easter cards

More vintage Easter cards

Vintage baby cards

More vintage baby cards

Some more vintage baby cards

Even more vintage baby cards

Small vintage baby cards and gift tags

Vintage birthday cards

More vintage birthday cards

Some more vintage birthday cards

A few more vintage birthday cards

Vintage Christmas cards

Some more vintage Christmas cards

More vintage Christmas cards

A few more vintage Christmas cards

More vintage Christmas cards

Some more vintage Christmas cards

More vintage Christmas cards

A few more vintage Christmas cards

Eight more vintage Christmas cards

A few more vintage Christmas cards

Still more vintage Christmas cards

More vintage Christmas cards

Six more vintage Christmas cards

The last of the vintage Christmas cards we found

Vintage cake picks. Most are for Christmas.

An old Christmas tree skirt

A giant Christmas card tree in its package

A plastic Christmas tree (marked Japan), an old Santa candy holder (marked Germany) and old inflatable Santa

Musical Christmas decorations marked Japan

An old plastic Christmas hanging, a ceramic Santa with his reindeer (marked Japan), some Christmas Gurley candles and one old glass ornament.

A Christmas record, a small creepy musical Santa (marked Japan), a pair of giant elves (marked Japan), some old plastic angels and a plastic Christmas wall hanging

It was a great three-day weekend spent celebrating Monica's birthday and spent making beautiful memories together...memories that we will cherish for a lifetime spent together.