Twelve Posts In Twenty-One Days: Episode Twelve - Four Local Sales in Just One Saturday Morning

Our goal of catching up on our blog postings is complete! Our goal was to write twelve posts within three weeks of July 11th and today marks our twelfth post and right at the deadline. This post is for the current weekend!

This was a two-day weekend. We hadn't had one of those in several weeks. The workweek seemed really long but, eventually, Saturday arrived and, when Saturday arrives, it means saling. We had four sales on our list and all of them were fairly local. The first began at 8:30 am and was only five minutes from our house. We decided to be there before the doors opened so it was an early start for us. We got up early and got ready quickly. Off we went! 

We arrived a little early and found a line. This sale was described as "mom was a collector. It was her home for over 60 years". The sale was run a small tag sale company whose owner told us about this sale when we attended another one of her sales last week. We were #16 and #17 on line. Fifteen minutes later, we were inside the house with the first wave of salers.

This picture of three creepy babies and a pair of fish on plaques greeted us as we walked in. None of these would come home with us. It was a small house without a basement to search and our visit inside was not too long. We did not leave empty-handed. We left with a framed picture, a vintage greeting card and a cookbook.

Sale #2 was run by one of the area's busiest tag sale companies and one of our favorites. It was a "collector's estate" with "overloaded treasures". It sounded really good but this was the second day of the sale and we were not sure what would be left.

There were a lot of cool things in the basement like this old radio

This old chemistry experiment lab in a metal box was pretty cool, too.

The basement was dark and cluttered but Monica had her flashlight (well, a phone app for "assisted light") ready!

There was a very tacky statue of Adam and Eve for sale.

Upstairs, there was this great Perry Mason Game but the box was the only part of this that was in good condition. The inside of the game had almost completely deteriorated.

The house had belonged to an antique dealer and it was filled with antiques throughout the house. Most of the items were not our style though several things came home with us. The radio, the chemistry set, the Adam and Eve statue and the Perry Mason Game did not make the cut. Instead, several squeak toys, some old astronaut buttons, two Christmas things, a pink elephant drink book and some other things did. 

Sale #3 was simply listed as an estate sale but it was in the neighborhood we would be in so it made the list. Most of the contents inside were new but we did find two records here so the trip was not wasted.

Our fourth and final sale was listed as contents of a house just purchased with many items from the 1940's and 1950's. This sounded very familiar and when we got there, we found out why. This sale was run by a guy that buys run-down houses, many with the contents inside, and flips them for a profit. This is the third time he has had a sale of the contents he "inherited" inside a purchased house and we have been to all three of his sales. This time, we found three old plastic deer, a pineapple toothpick holder, a hula mug and a Mexican salt shaker (missing its mate).

By noon, we were done with our saling for the weekend and had the rest of the weekend to ourselves. Monica's dad would not be home so we, instead, went straight home where we had plenty of time to relax, run errands, do chores, relax some more and look at what we found. 

This is what we brought home this weekend:

Records

A pair of books and a vintage Valentine's Day card. The Peanuts book is from 1958

A very old wooden portable baseball game (it has a drawer that pulls out where the accessories are stored), a pair of old astronaut pins, an old baby rattle with a clown and a pink elephant drink mix book in its box from 1958

An old Donkey Party game

Inside the Donkey Party game was this second board, a pin the tail on the lobster game along with the tails. The game appears to be from the 1950's though the restaurant did not close until the 1970's

This framed cat picture. It was hard to get a good photo of this

A pair of ceramic Thanksgiving candle holders, a ceramic pineapple toothpick holder, a ceramic hula mug by Orchids of Hawaii, a ceramic Mexican salt shaker and some old squeak toys. Everything, except the squeak toys, are marked Japan

Three old plastic deer and a pair of snowpeople (marked Japan)

Our blog is now completely up to date! It took twelve posts in three weeks but we did it! We'll see you all next week! 

Twelve Posts In Twenty-One Days: Episode Eleven - Stew Leonard's And Two Worthwhile Stops

Our quest to catch up on our blog postings by writing twelve posts within three weeks of July 11th is almost complete! This is the eleventh "episode" and it is for the third weekend in July which was just last weekend!

It was another three day weekend as we, again, took a Friday vacation day. We have twenty vacation days to take and we try to extend as many weekends as possible. Maybe next year we will go for a weeklong trip. For now, extending weekends is our plan. There were no sales of interest on Friday but there was one thing we were interested in seeing...the new Stew Leonard's. It is a very small chain of grocery stores that first opened in Connecticut in 1969. Up until this year, there were four locations and all were located in Connecticut. This year, they added their first store out of state and it is on Long Island. Known for the interactive, fun shopping experience, it was our turn to check it out on Friday.

We arrived at Stew Leonard's on Friday. It is a really big grocery store! There is a giant neon sign in that middle window that is lit up at night. One day, we will have to drive by to see it at night.

The Stew Leonard's cow greeted us at the entrance.

We knew we were in for a treat when we saw that the outdoor garbage pail was a giant ice cream cone! 

This duck was displayed on the floor and we were grateful for his direction, if needed!

Stew Leonard's are known for their interactive animatronics. All you have to do is press a button and they come to life. Who doesn't love singing chickens?

Another one of the great animatronic displays was this dairy band who sang and played their instruments once you pressed the button to activate them...and believe us, we did! 

Stew's Naked chicken singers...another animatronic display that came to life!

There were so many more animatronic displays that we didn't post but we had to post this one. This was our favorite...the singing Chiquita Banana. We pressed the button numerous times! 

There were a lot of flipping characters. This sock monkey was just one of them. There was also The Incredible Hulk, Yoda, a stormtrooper, Spiderman and a lobster.

Shark attack! This giant shark called attention to the seafood department

There were even novelty beers here...one for each major presidential candidate

You could buy hot lunch (buffet style), pizza, sushi (with genuine sushi chefs) or ice cream here. It is much more than a grocery store. We loved our trip through here though we didn't buy anything. Everything is a lot more expensive than we can find elsewhere. Still, it is a great, interactive shopping experience! 

For dinner, we decided to go to a Chinese Restaurant nearby whose coupons we get in the mail. When Monica discovered that they has tiki mugs, it was only a matter of time until we went. Tonight was that night.

We got one Zombie and one Mai Tai and, of course, shared them. The restaurant isn't exactly vintage but it has some longevity (opened in the late 1980's) and the dining room looks like how so many Chinese restaurant dining rooms looked like in the late 1970's. We had a really nice time.

Saturday, as always, is saling day and we only found two worthwhile sales amongst the sea of sales out there. Neither were too far away and, when only going to two sales, that seemed, somewhat, important. We weren't sure what we would find but we were excited that there was opportunity to go on our saling adventures together. With a very short list in hand, off we went.

Sale #1 was described as a 1920's home filled with treasures. It was a "one day blowout" but there were no pictures in the ad. We weren't sure what to expect. We weren't here at the opening so there was no line. Upon entering, we saw that the sale was run by someone who we don't see all that often but who runs some pretty good sales when she runs them. She told us that she had taken a break for a short time. Despite the size of the house, there were not all that many rooms to search. Still, it was a worthwhile stop and we left with a few Easter items, some records, a Pyrex dish and a few other things. She also told us that she would be running a sale next week that would be worthwhile. We planned to see her again soon.

After stopping for some breakfast, we made our way to our second and final sale of the day. It was run by one of the more prolific tag sale companies in our area although many of their sales are not our style. This one was described as a "trip back in time" and, although we didn't see much in the pictures in their ad, we did see two tiki mugs in one of the pictures. Those were our target.

This old dishwasher was in the kitchen. It might be the first dishwasher ever! 

The basement was huge and well worth searching. We found a few cool things down here.

This sports ca racing game was great. If only it were in better condition! 

We saw this mounted pencil sharpener on an upstairs desk. We should have known. It is, almost always, a good sign that we would find good things in the house and we did! 

Interestingly enough, the two tiki mugs we saw in the picture were nowhere to be found but we found two other tiki mugs, a wooden tiki and a pair of tiki salt and pepper shakers here. We also found some records, some posters, some party things and some other things.

We had plenty of time so we spent extra time visiting Monica's dad before coming home and looking at what we brought home. Here is what we saw:

Some records

Some more records

Some 10-inch records

A 7-inch record

Some Mad magazines from the early 1970's

Another early 1970's Mad magazine and some other books

An old Long Island Railroad "Dashing Dan" button and some cocktail stirrers

An old birthday banner

An old Herb Alpert poster

An old Don Ho poster

Some old New Year's Eve noisemakers

An old Whirly Bird game...endorsed by Warren Spahn! 

Ceramic Easter decorations, both marked Japan

Mini Mexican hats (for our Cinco de Mayo parties), a 1958 Pyrex promotional dish and some old birthday hats

Tiki salt and pepper shakers and tiki mugs. All were made for the Hawaii Kai and all are marked Japan.

A wooden tiki idol with jeweled eyes

Sunday, we had to mentally prepare ourselves for the reality of a full five-day workweek after having three four-day workweeks in a row. We got our errands and chores done and found time to relax too.

We'll get through the full workweek knowing that our next weekend together is only five days away and knowing that each day, as the workday ends, that we will come home to each other. Nothing could ever mean more to us. 

This was our eleventh post since we set our goal of twelve posts in twenty-one days. We have one posts left and one day in which to post it. It is for our saling adventures today! It looks like we have caught up!