Twelve Posts In Twenty-One Days: Episode Ten - A Wild Goose Chase Followed By A Three Day Weekend

We're really close to catching up on our blog posting. We set a goal of twelve posts within three weeks of July 11th and we are almost there! This is the tenth "episode" and it is for the first two weekends in July. 

You would expect the weekend after a Fourth of July weekend to be filled with sales. At least, we did. A week of searching for sales proved us wrong. There just were not many sales out there and almost none for us, at all.

We saw this beautiful piece of furniture in the ad for one sale but the description in the ad was pretty clear that all that was up for grabs was furniture and, quite frankly, we don't have any room to add furniture.

The only sale that made our list was one run by a tag sale company that runs sales once or twice a month. The pictures for the sale actually didn't look very good at all but there was one picture that caught our eye. It is the one above. We know you see it, too. Three pieces of the Holt Howard pixieware set! We hoped that there would be more at this sale but even if there wasn't, getting these would make the trip worthwhile. We set the alarm to get up early and, hopefully, be at the front of the line. It was our only sale of the day. We were hoping for the best! 

We arrived at the sale one hour before its 10am start but were not first on line. In fact, the numbers we received were #4 and #5. The person who started the list, #1, was there. She had been there since 5:30am or so she said. In making small talk with her, she told us that she kept a few things but sold a great deal of what she bought on eBay. Our hearts sank a bit. We wouldn't know what brought her here so early until 10am.

The weather was nice and the wait was not uncomfortable except for the dread we felt inside that what we wanted was also the reason why customer #1 was here so early. A peek around the corner provided us with a glimpse of this old gate. We love old fences and doors with letters on them! 

A few minutes before we were actually let inside, we could see the Holt Howard pixies sitting on a table in the kitchen. We knew that customer #1 would, too, but maybe that was not what brought her to this house so early. We hoped! By the time the doors opened, we were now #3 and #4 as two of the people who took numbers before us did not return but customer #1's husband arrived and he accompanied her inside. They went straight for the table and the Holt Howard pixies were in the box they brought inside with them. Oh well!

There was a mounted pencil sharpener on the wall leading to the garage but, for once, it was not a good luck sign for us. We found nothing of interest here. The Holt Howard pixies were it and they escaped us. It was a wild goose chase that left us with nothing at this sale and nothing for this weekend.

We would have loved to get them but, even if we had, they would have been duplicates. These are ours which are displayed in one of our living room shadow boxes. For now, they will remain without being joined by any more of their kind.

The following weekend, the third weekend in July, was a three day weekend as we made Friday a vacation day. We do this a lot throughout the year to extend as many weekends as possible. 

There were no interesting estate sales on Friday so we decided to visit a couple of thrift shops. Along the way, we encountered a tremendous gathering a cyclists riding for a cause. 

This guy was, by far, the most interesting of the cyclists. He wore a hat adorned by lots of flowers. We noticed that none of the other cyclists rode that close to him. 

We discovered this thrift shop inside a church a few months ago and it was only our second visit there because they are only open on Fridays. We didn't find anything here but we did donate a lot of Monica's mom's pocketbooks and clothes.

We went to a few other thrift shops, too, including this one which is also not opened on weekends.

Monica found a Pokemon and she wasn't even playing! It did not come home with us but, for the day, we did get a small ceramic baby baseball player, a small ceramic Easter bunny, a Christmas tie for Rob, one old plastic Christmas decoration and a few dress shirts for Rob. After our thrifting, we went to the new "all-you-can-eat" Asian buffet in our neighborhood for a combination lunch/dinner. We each had a full plateful of sushi to start and then went back for seconds to try a variety of other foods. By the time we were done, we came hope to nap (more like hibernate) for two hours after that big meal.

Saturday would be, as usual, a saling day and our list included nine sales which was a much bigger list than we have created in many weeks! We hoped to make as many as possible and we were hoping for better luck than last week. It wouldn't be very hard to beat last week. With a big list and big hopes, off we went!

Sale #1 was in our town and a mere five minute drive from home. It was described as a garage sale with vintage stuff. Well, aside from the vintage women's bicycle (we are looking for a vintage MEN'S bicycle), there was nothing for us. The best part of the the visit was seeing these hedges. 

Sale #2 was listed as "Grandma's attic". It turned out to be a garage sale (see that sale in the background?) and, although we didn't find much, we did not leave empty-handed. Two vintage Christmas cards and one rubber duck came home with us for a grand total of 15 cents.

Sale #3 was described as a multi-family garage sale with "ghosts of Christmas past". As it turned out, this was the home of a fellow saler who we know and who also sells at the local flea market. The "multi-family" garage sale was actually a few of her fellow dealers who we know and who have been involved in running estate sales. It was like a mini flea market! We brought home a few Pez dispensers. 

Sale # 4 was run by a tag sale company that we like. It was described as "loaded" and we knew it was an old house. We have seen this house for years. It sits in between a 7-11 and a small group of stores and it was obviously there long before they were built. This was our chance to walk through this old house.

The owners of the tag sale company told us, as soon as we walked in, where the Christmas stuff was. We walked into the bluest room EVER! WE searched the room and the two crawl spaces attached to the room. Most of the Christmas things were newer but we did find a few things here.

The basement was a very searchable area, too, and we spend some time digging through the rubble. By the time we finished searching the house, we had added a few Christmas things, some bathroom items and some other stuff to our lives. 

Sale #5 was run by one of the biggest tag sale companies in our area (they run 3-4 sales every weekend). Many of them are not our style but this one, "diggable and loaded" and filled with pictures that showed potential, was worth a look.

The first room we searched was the kitchen simply because it was near the door that we entered. It was cluttered and messy but, most importantly, it had boomerang countertop! 

The lower level was where we spent about 45 minutes digging through boxes and piles of stuff and searching through closets as Monica is here. This sale was as diggable as advertised. When done, we left with records, lots of vintage Valentine's Day cards, some Christmas stuff and several books and magazines. It was a really good stop.

Sale #6 was at a church in Monica's hometown. We go to their annual Christmas sale each year but this is the first time we knew of a summer sale. We went and found one Pez dispenser, some Flintstones' change purses, some speakers for our iPod and a Family Guy DVD. 

Sale #7 was also in Monica's hometown and was advertised as having records, antiques and collectibles. When we pulled up, we realized why the address sounded so familiar. We were here a few weekends before when a tag sale company ran a sale here. This time, the family was trying to get rid of a few more things. We searched a little more to see what may have been unearthed since our first visit and we found two more books to bring home.

We didn't make the last two sales on our list. We, instead, decided to visit Monica's dad and spend some time with him before heading home to relax. This would not be the end of our weekend saling. There was one sale that we liked on Sunday and we planned on going! 

Sunday's sale was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies and we last saw them...the day before. They told us that this sale would be a good one for us and we knew, at that point, that we would be here. It was described as "packed" and the pictures in the ad showed that it would be a digger.

The basement was the best part of the house and this bar was the highlight. Monica posed behind the bar in oversized hipster glasses. They did not come home with us.

The countertop of the bar was sparkly! 

The wall had a pretty cool clock but we have enough clocks (at least that is what we were thinking on this day)

This is a bigger view of the downstairs with the bar to the left and a great, old tile floor running the length of the entire basement. Not in this picture was a large bookshelf that had to be explored. That took some time. There were also a main level and an upstairs. When our search was complete, we went home with some vintage poodle bookends, a ceramic pineapple, an ashtray, some records and some books.

From a saling perspective, this was a much better week than last week! Here is what we took home over the weekend:

Some books and magazines. Rob was really excited that we found this 1970 issue of Famous Monsters Of Filmland. It was his favorite magazine as a kid and he still has some of his old issues. He would love to find a boxful one day! 

A Sports Illustrated with Willie Mays on the cover and some early 1970's baseball publications

More books

Old drink manuals

Magazines and brochures

Some records

More records

Some more records

Vintage Valentine Day cards (some will show duplicates in the following pictures. There were a good number of duplicates in the batch) 

More vintage Valentine's Day cards

Some more vintage Valentine's Day cards

Some more vintage Valentine's Day cards

A few more vintage Valentine's Day cards

Even more vintage Valentine's Day cards

More vintage Valentine's Day cards

And more vintage Valentine's Day cards

A few more vintage Valentine's Day cards

The final group of vintage Valentine's Day cards

Vintage Christmas cards

A pair of old bank giveaways advertising their Christmas club

Pez dispensers, some Flintstones' change purses (a 1970's cereal giveaway) and a ceramic baseball player (marked Japan)

Ceramic poodle bookends (marked Japan), an ashtray, an old clown cake topper, a bowling rubber duck and a vintage netted candle.

An Easter pez, two Easter knee huggers and a ceramic Easter bunny. Everything except the pez dispenser is marked Japan. 

Lots of Christmas stuff

This was a really great weekend for saling and our finds made up for the prior week. We were on the run most of the weekend and we needed another day off but Monday was a work day for us. Fortunately, we had another vacation day coming up on Friday and we were looking forward to it. Every extra day off means more time spent together! 

This was our tenth post since we set our goal of twelve posts in twenty-one days. We have two posts left and three days in which to post them. One is for last weekend and the other is for this upcoming weekend. We are almost there!