It's March And We're Back!

It has been almost five months since our last post. Our intention was never to end this blog but we did take a break from it when we started to fall further and further behind. We were also frustrated that our camera broke in September and our backup camera was a big drop off in quality. Neither of us consider ourselves to be great photographers but we expect better picture quality than we were getting. We have since replaced the broken camera with the exact same camera. Anyway, we were so busy that we never had a chance to catch up...until now. Nothing has changed. We still have been adventuring through life, week by week, together; hand in hand. The only thing that really changed was that we didn't find the time to write about it and share our adventures. 

There are several ways to catch up. We could start where we left off. We could skip the past five months and just start with the most recent adventures. We decided to select a combination of both. We will blog about our most recent adventures and, as time allows (and we promise to do this quickly), create "flashback" posts that recreate the weeks that we missed on the blog. We think this offers the best of both worlds. Well, no more wasting time. Here we go...

The beginning of March arrived and we were, greatly, looking forward to spring. The end of February was unusually mild and we were hoping that the trend would continue into March. It did...for two days. By the time the weekend arrived, we were facing the coldest weather in a month with temperatures dipping into the teens and wind chills in the single digits. Cold weather is not our favorite but it wasn't going to stop us because we had sales on our list and, for the first time in 2017, there were plenty. None were standouts, but with five of them, we were hoping to find something good. We bundled up and off we went! 

Sale #1 was a moving sale that was very quietly listed. It looked to be a privately run sale and it was without any pictures. The phrase "jazzy power chair" told us that there might be old things here. The phrase "vintage sewing machine" gave us hope that there might be LOTS of old things here. We chose this as our first sale of the day because it was the closest to our house. We arrived to find ourselves without any crowd to fight and at a sale that was, as we suspected, run by the family of the deceased.

Our first area to search was the garage which turned out not to have anything of interest though we did like the handles on these old cabinets. 

There was not much to search inside the house either. The only things to capture Rob's interest were baseball cards which he once collected but no longer does (but still has over 110,000 cards to this day). He knew he had no interest in buying any but he does have a soft spot for Gary Carter, one of his favorite New York Mets of the 1980's, and there was a 1982 Gary Carter there selling for $1. We came home with that card but nothing else.  

After stopping for breakfast, we made our way to sale #2. It was run by a tag sale company that we really like and whose sales we frequent often. This was the first one of their sales that we have attended in 2017. They took some time off in the beginning of this year, ran some others that were "second helpings" of sales we attended in late 2016 and then ran some sales that were at least 45 minutes east of us that did not appeal to us enough to justify the time and fuel. This sale was described as "treasure chest" but there weren't any pictures that compelled us to go. It just had potential.

There was a pretty cool old bar downstairs and knotty pine aplenty, though there was nothing behind the bar. The floor was cool, too! 

The upstairs had a great dining room set and china cabinet

Here is a closeup of one of the chairs. Wow! 

The bathroom had one of those built in wall hampers that we are sure was original to the house. We love those! 

The tour of the house was better than the merchandise for sale inside. We left with just two books.

Sale #3 was another "quiet" sale that we also felt would be a small, privately run sale and it was. There were no pictures of the sale but it did list "antiques" and "knick knacks" in the description and we felt it was worth a look. There weren't many rooms to check and it was a quick stop but we did find two books and a ceramic elephant (which we believe is an ashtray). 

The coolest thing at the house was the tree outside the front window. It is a monkey puzzle tree which is now on the endangered species list. It is the national tree of Chile.

We loved this monkey puzzle tree! 

Sale #4 was another quiet sale without any pictures in its ad. It described having a "ramp" for sale and "antiques" and we were hoping to find a home filled with old things. It was the second day of this sale which meant that everything worthwhile could be gone but it was worth a shot.

It was a sale run by the family and there were several floors to search and it could, definitely, be described as a digger. We can only imagine what we may have missed! The basement had this great metal cabinet which, if in better shape, might have come home with us.

There were things to go through in the attic, too, and we spent out time digging through boxes and searching through shelves. By the time we left, it was with vintage Valentine's Day cards, a vintage birthday banner, some Christmas things and more. This wound up being our best sale of the day.

Our final sale of the day was run by one of our favorite tag sale companies. It was listed as a three generation home owned since 1937. Although nothing in the pictures spoke to us, we always try to stop by their sales when we can.

The main floor had this great old bathroom which, clearly, has many original parts from when the house was first built.

The basement was large and, at the sale's start, housed hundreds of old Life magazines on shelves. Both the Life magazines (bought, in bulk, by one person) and the shelves were gone when we arrived,

Ron was having a busy day but not too busy not to spend a few moments with us and telling us about the house. It was good seeing everyone associated with this company and we did leave empty-handed. Several baseball books, a few Pan Am items and a vintage greeting card came home with us.

Some books

Some baseball books

A 1982 Gary Carter baseball card

Pan Am items

A roll of pink toilet paper, a ceramic elephant ashtray and a vintage squeak toy. There's a story behind the pink toilet paper. At sale #4, we were talking to the family about old bathrooms and one of them asked if we remembered colored toilet paper and, of course, we did. The lady said that they had a roll still in its package and asked if we wanted to see it. We did and we gushed over it a bit. Knowing we appreciated it, she gave it to us. It is now housed inside of our poodle toilet paper holder in our bathroom! 

 A vintage birthday banner

Vintage greeting cards

A pair of old Christmas stockings, a ceramic candle holder (marked Holt Howard - Japan) and a cast skater from the 1940's.

It was a fun day of saling but the day was not over. It was birthday time! Our nephew, Peter, and our niece, Shannon, were celebrating a birthday! 

Peter's birthday cake, The picture on the cake was one of Peter's first toys and, feeling nostalgic, he chose its picture to be featured on his birthday cake.

Peter and his cake

Shannon's birthday cake

Shannon and her birthday cake

Shannon should have waited for a fork and knife

The aftermath

Shannon and Peter about to open their presents

Lenny, Shannon, Richard, Peter, Marissa and Dad at the birthday celebration

Sweetie was ready to party!

We spent Sunday, as we usually do, running errands, doing chores and spending time together. Life, sometimes, gets in the way of doing everything we want to do but it never gets in the way of spending our lives together, hand in hand. Life amongst the ducks is always so very special to us.