Twelve Posts In Twenty-One Days: Episode One - Cinco De Mayo Weekend And Just One Sale

We have fallen so far behind in our postings! Our lives have been so busy lately (though not too busy to go saling) that we just haven't found the time to post! Well, we are making a concerted effort to catch up so we have set a goal to be totally caught up on our posts three weeks from today. That means posting about the ten weeks we have missed plus the next three weekends. We know...that adds up to thirteen and the title of this post says that we will have twelve posts. As it turns out, one of the weeks was so bad, in terms of saling, that we are going to combine that week with the one that followed. Twelve posts in twenty-one days. Wish us luck! 

With the first week of May comes Cinco de Mayo and that means hosting our annual Cinco de Mayo party! The party rarely falls on May 5th because we always host our party on a Saturday night. This year, it would fall on May 7th, the Saturday after the real Cinco de Mayo. We finished all of our preparations, in advance, and all that was left was some last minute cooking. This would leave us plenty of time for some Saturday saling. 

On this particular Saturday, there were only two sales of interest to us and both were two counties away from us. Luckily, they were only fifteen minutes from each other so, once we made the one hour ride to get into the area, going to both sales seemed like a reachable goal. We chose the better of the two sales first. It made the most sense, especially since it started thirty minutes earlier than the other. With a nice early start, we headed westward to begin our saling day! 

We arrived ten minutes before the sale opened to find the dreaded line! We shouldn't have been surprised. The sale was described as a packed, vintage house and the company running the sale described it as the best estate sale that they hosted to date. That really appealed to us. That also appealed to the fifty or so people in line ahead of us. 

This was a view of the house from the side. It was a really, big old house with lots of charm. We were ready to search inside but it looked like it would be awhile.

This beautiful old tree was standing on the front lawn and had been here for decades. We had plenty of time to look at it. It was over two hours before we finally got inside! It wasn't a wasted two hours though! 

First of all, we had a chance to look around that dumpster in the background. There were several large boxes lying beside it and in one such box, buried below several others, were vintage greeting cards. Lots of vintage greeting cards! Two hundred twenty-three of them! They were destined for the trash until we rescued the. They were now ours. Free! Rob walked the box to the car and we continued our wait on line.

Secondly, we watched several people arrive after us and one of them was a fellow saler we run into a lot. He went to the other sale on our list first. It was packed with some amazing and valuable vintage toys and some people had traveled from other states to go there. The report was that everything desirable was already gone. This did not break our hearts. We are sure that we would have been in line behind those that wound up doing all the buying (big time vintage toy collectors and dealers). It was a relief to know that we could focus on this one sale without the pressure of running through the house too quickly. 

Finally, we made it inside and went right for the upstairs. Another fellow saler let us know that the Christmas stuff was up there and those two yellow bags on the floor were filled by Rob within five minutes of entering the room. There were several floors and so many rooms to search. There were lots of shoppers inside and we just didn't have the opportunity to take any other pictures in this house. The two hour wait on line was worth it! We spent an hour and a half inside and left with many Christmas things, some vintage Halloween decorations, lots of cookbooks and pamphlets and so many other things.

We stopped for a quick lunch on our way back home where we had to get busy getting ready to host our 2016 Cinco de Mayo party!

First, here's a peek at what we brought home with us from that one sale:

A Hawaiian record

Some cookbooks

Some more cookbooks

Cookbooks and party books

Some old books

More old books

Some more old books

Vintage birthday cards

More vintage birthday cards

More vintage birthday cards

Some more vintage birthday cards

Even more vintage birthday cards

And even more vintage birthday cards

Some more vintage birthday cards

And a few more vintage birthday cards

Vintage Easter cards

Some more vintage Easter cards

A few more vintage Easter cards

And a few more vintage Easter cards

Vintage Valentine's Day cards

More vintage Valentine's Day cards

Some more vintage Valentine's Day cards

More vintage Valentine's Day cards

A few more vintage Valentine's Day cards

Vintage "Get Well" cards

A vintage plastic soccer set and some old birthday candles

A tiki mug, a clown party pick, a "Johnny Guitar" bottle and can opener in its original box and a vintage greeting card box (just the box). The tiki mug and Johnny Guitar were both made in Japan.

Old Halloween decorations and a vintage Halloween card

Vintage Christmas cards

More vintage Christmas cards

Some more vintage Christmas cards

A few more vintage Christmas cards

Some more vintage Christmas cards

Even more vintage Christmas cards

And a few more vintage Christmas cards

Two old Christmas records, Christmas Santas, snowmen and elves (all marked Japan) and an old Christmas cake topper

Old plastic Santas, sleds and reindeer. The reindeer and one of the sleds were once part of a bigger Christmas piece which was broken. We are salvaging the reindeer from those pieces.

Christmas candy dishes and candle holders. All marked Japan.

Several ceramic salt and pepper shakers, a ceramic Santa on a rocket and some old plastic Christmas decorations. All of the ceramic pieces are marked Japan.

An old Christmas stocking, a Santa on a fireplace, a plastic Santa candy holder, a deer, a pair of Christmas booklets (one from 1956 and the other from 1962) and an old Christmas card box (empty).

Lots of elves. All are marked Japan

There was just one sale but it was a really good one. We arrived home with a few hours before our Cinco de Mayo party and we were able to get ready just before our family arrived.

The food table was decorated and set up. There had to be sangria, right? I

Everyone was ready for the party! 

Mariachi ducks...and a Manchester United duck in the middle. Rob insists that he remains out at all times! 

Everyone seemed to have a good time!

Everyone played Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass songs on kazoo. 

Lenny was born to wear this hat!

Lenny being goofy!

Rob thought he was a luchador! 

We made pinata cupcakes. They had candy inside! 

We had a great weekend together. We always do! 

We received this in the mail on that Saturday. You can't imagine the amount of postage required! We'll make sure to stay in touch with all of you much more often. We promise not to be so distant!