Christmas Everywhere!

We've fallen a little behind on our blog again but not too far! This post is for the second weekend in September.

It was a short workweek after the previous Labor Day weekend but it seemed to take a long time to get to Friday. When it arrived, we were ready to begin our Saturday with saling. We had four potential sales on our list and a couple of them looked really good but the one that looked best was on Sunday. That would have to wait. First, there was Saturday and with lots of hope, off we went! 

Our first sale was about 45 minutes from home and was run by one of our favorite tag sales companies. Despite their sign, this was the only day of their sale and we got their not long after the doors opened. The description of the sale read "hoarder alert", "old stuff" and "lots of ephemora". We were hopeful! 

Our first stop was the basement and this is where the description "hoarder" came in. There were tables full of stuff and most of it was old. This floor would take some time! 

 Yup. This room would take a lot of time and concentration which explains why Monica didn't even know that Rob was taking a break from searching to take a picture.

Aside from the areas that required a great deal of searching, there were other things to look at like this great, old cabinet for the sink and the very unique set of lights on the right. We spent at least an hour down here and it was definitely worth our time! 

The upper two floors did not have as much too search but we did still find a few more things to take home. This really cool, old Nutone intercom/radio was in great shape and the radio worked! It did not, however, come home with us. 

This mug may be the scariest thing we ever saw! It also did not come home with us but some vintage greeting cards, a few Thanksgiving things, some vintage Christmas things, some unused vintage scrapbooks and several other things did. It was a good start! 

Sale #2 was run by another tag sale company that we like and who, frequently, has good sales. This one was listed as an "overloaded house" and listed "vintage Christmas" amongst the items there. That sounded pretty good to us!

The kitchen cabinets were in need of repair and some new paint but they were great! 

Look at the cool old stove and the chrome tiles behind it! 

This was a fairly quick stop as there were not all that many rooms and the search through each one was quick. We did leave with several vintage Christmas things and this became another worthwhile stop. 

Sale #3 was closer to home and the only reason we didn't choose it as our first stop is that its start time was much later than the first two sales. It was a sale run by the family of the deceased and it was described as "two floors of unique items". Although there was nothing we were specifically targeting in the pictures of the sale, we could see that it was a house was old items. It was worth a look.

We decided to search the basement first and there it was...a mounted pencil sharpener! That is usually a good sign! 

The basement was great! Look at the floor! Look at the knotty pine walls. How could we not find something here?

This old sound system was built into the wall and it looked mighty cool! 

The upstairs had several rooms to search and we actually spent a good amount of time in this house, too. When we left, it was with some vintage greeting cards, some vintage Christmas things and a few other holiday items.

Before going to the last sale on our list, Monica wanted to stop at an open house that was just two blocks away from our house. We like walking through these old houses just to see the inside, always hoping to see an old basement bar or an old pink bathroom or maybe both! 

The bathroom was, unfortunately, "updated" but there was a great basement with a bar and an old floor and knotty pine walls! There is more to this story than the basement. As it turns out, upon entering the house, we introduced ourselves to the realtor and then Rob saw something out of the corner of his eye. There, on the mantle, was an old ceramic spaghetti trim Santa bank, clearly made in Japan. Rob took a walk over to it and remarked how cool it was. The realtor said that it must have been left behind a couple of weeks ago when the owner had a garage sale and mentioned that she thought they were having a second one on Sunday. Rob said that we would try to be there. He also mentioned that there was a price tag on the bottom and it read "$3". The realtor said we could have it for $2 and it was ours. That's not where the story ends though. When we went to the basement, Rob found a small, old blow mold Santa and brought it upstairs with him. Just moments later, it was ours for $1.

As we were walking to the car, Monica shook her head and said Rob was the only person who could walk into an open house and have the real estate agent sell him the owner's stuff. Rob simply said, "It's a gift". Those two Santas, pictured above, came home with us! 

We skipped the last sale since it was getting late and the last sale was now at the tail end of its second day and didn't look all that great anyway. We would go home and rest and get ready for Sunday's sale which is one we were excited about all week.

We got up extra early on Sunday, showered and left in plenty of time to make the one hour trip to Sunday's sale and to arrive an hour before its start. Monica was excited that no one was there and we would be first on line! Rob knew better and within seconds of leaving the car, a guy brought us our numbers. We were #16 and #17 on line. We had plenty of time to go get some breakfast and return before the doors would open. We hoped to be in the first group to get inside.

This was what the front of the house looked like when we returned with customers #1 through #14 ready to get inside before we would. The sale would be worth it. It was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies and the pictures in the ad showed lots of old stuff including lots of vintage Christmas things! We hoped that no one ahead of us would be interested in the same things. When the doors opened, we were in the first group and our hostess told us exactly where the vintage Christmas stuff could be found. We were the first to it and filled up some bags very quickly! 

We found an old mounted pencil sharpener in the basement but we already knew we were in the right place! 

The basement had an old bar but any vintage barware that was there (and we are sure there was based on the description in the ad), it was already grabbed by the other salers roaming around the house. This sale was everything we hoped for and we found all of the Christmas stuff that was in the pictures. We also brought home lots of vintage Thanksgiving things, other vintage holiday things, some records and more. 

Everywhere we went this weekend, vintage Christmas things awaited us but we found lots of other things, too! Aside for the two things we managed to buy at the open house, here are the other things we brought home this weekend:

Some records

Some cookbooks

Vintage postcards, mainly from Niagara Falls

An old laundry service tag, an old roadmap, an old Howe Caverns pamphlet, a book of matches from the old Astro Motel, a 1959 "You'll Die Laughing" card, a 1960 Fleer football card and old old envelope from Storytown in Lake George

An old book cover from Bond Bread (we got three of these)

A vintage paper placemat (we got three of these)

Some vintage unused scrap books. We also got an unopened package of extra pages for them! 

Vintage anniversary cards

Vintage birthday cards

Vintage Valentine's Day cards

A vintage Valentine's Day card for baby's first Valentine's Day

Vintage baby cards

More vintage baby cards

More vintage baby cards

Vintage Christmas cards

An old plastic football player, a dream pet donkey(or burro) and a ceramic burro with cart planter. The burros will be used as decorations for our annual Cinco de Mayo parties. Both are marked Japan

An old Easter decoration, a knee bugger Easter Bunny, a ceramic Valentine;s decoration and a ceramic St. Patrick's Day mug. Everything except the first bunny is marked Japan.

Halloween items: a honeycomb pumpkin, a vintage Halloween card, an old metal jack o'lantern and an old plastic scarecrow

Thanksgiving items: a ceramic turkey tureen, a ceramic turkey sugar bowl, a pair of ceramic turkey candle holders and four Gurley candles. All of the ceramic items are marked Japan

Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers. All are marked Japan

A pair of very tall gangly Santa marked Japan. We grabbed them in such a hurry that we didn't see that the one on the left was missing a leg. We will have to create one for him! 

A vintage Christmas potholder, a hanging Santa head (marked Japan), some old Christmas cake toppers and an old Christmas stocking

Christmas records, some old plastic snowmen and Santas, a old Santa super soaker and some old bottlebrush Christmas trees

A creepy Santa (marked Hong Kong), three ceramic Christmas bells (marked Japan) and a set of ceramic "Tumbling Santas" in their original box (marked Japan)

A Christmas book from 1951, some ceramic Santas (including another spaghetti trim bank that is almost identical to the old we got an the open house), an old plastic Santa and a Christmas pixie. Everything except the book and the plastic Santa is marked Japan

Lots of ceramic Christmas things including a Holt Howard bell, candle huggers and napkin rings. Everything is marked Japan

More Christmas things: reindeer, pixies and a plastic Santa in the back row. A ceramic Santa, a Christmas angel bell, a Mrs. Claus salt shaker (missing her mate) and a ceramic Santa in a chimney. Everything except the reindeer and the plastic Santa are marked Japan.

It was a great weekend of saling where Christmas was found everywhere! The saling was great but, as always, the time spent together was even better!