A Little Luck At The End Of The Day

Saturday was the first full day of Autumn and, perhaps, the last day of the earth if you believe the doomsday prophecy that the hidden planet Nibiru was on an unavoidable collision course with our planet. If the world was going to end, it was certainly excellent weather for it! The sun was shining, the temperature was in the mid-80's (vying for a record high for this date in our area) and there was neither a cloud nor the shadow of an onrushing planet anywhere to be seen!

There weren't a lot of sales of interest to us. We really had only two choices and they were, logistically, mutually exclusive. We could drive an hour to our west to go to a sale that showed some potential but was run by a tag sale company whose prices are historically high or we could drive an hour to our east to go to a tag sale that showed some things of interest to us in their ad. Unfortunately, that tag sale company sometimes had prices that were to high too. We opted for the trip to our east which provided a better chance. We even set the alarm for an early start so we could be there before the sale began. If we were making the commitment to drive an hour away, we were making the full commitment. With caffeine in our veins, we started that drive according to schedule.

Our tag sale was in a pretty rural area and we had to drive down a few private roads to reach our destination. 

When we arrived at the house, we encountered the inevitable line but it wasn't too bad at all and, on a beautiful day like this, it would not be too painful at all. We had no other place to go and, quite frankly, if it was going to be our last sale while the earth was still around, we could wait patiently and enjoy it.

Here is another view of the property as we waited to get in. The sale was described as 100 years of treasures and the pictures in the ad supported the claim that there was old stuff inside. 

We liked this tire swing in the yard but we didn't have time to admire it for very long. No, the world didn't end at that moment. It was simply our turn to go inside just ten minutes after the sale began.

This old stove was really cool. We are not sure why there was caution tape around it. Maybe it was there to indicate that the stove was not for sale. We weren't in the market for this anyway.

There were lots of old ceramic things as seen in one of their pictures from their ad. We have cat head salt and pepper shakers similar to those on top of the box. We would have considered getting these, too, but not at $12 for the pair of them. 

We also liked these chalkware anthropomorphic pepper wall hangings but not for $10 each.

Chalkware mermaids! We have plenty of them including the bubbles. We could always use more! Who couldn't? At $35 for the lot of them, we left them for someone else who might show interest.

There canisters are great and we did not see them inside which means that someone may have gotten them or they were pulled by family members just before the sale (which, unfortunately, occasionally happens). We have these though they are missing the red handles. Our set belonged to Monica's grandmother. 

We loved these ceramic chefs. Some are salt and pepper shakers. One is a grated cheese holder. We have a smaller set of the salt of pepper shakers and we have a ceramic chef toothpick holder, too! We also have a chef grated cheese holder. Would it have been nice to add a few more chefs to the mix? Yes. We don't believe that too many cooks will spoil the broth. Once again, these were pretty pricey and we left them behind.

The sale was a disappointment because there were only a few rooms open to us despite the size of this house and everything we liked was overpriced. The only ting we bought was a $2 New York Mets Spring Training program from the 1980's.

It was going to be a beautiful ride home and, after stopping for some breakfast, we took the scenic route home so we could stop at a few thrift shops along the way. 

We stopped at five thrift shops including the two pictured above which we don't get to visit to often. Thrift shops in our area are not what they used to be and we never find too much. Between the five of them, we took home one record and one book.

We were glad we decided to go to the thrift shops because, as we pulled up to the last one, we got lucky. We saw a sign for an estate sale just down the street. That sale turned out to be our best of the day. It was solely outside and there were tables of stuff all along the driveway and in the backyard. We didn't find a lot but we did find some great vintage Christmas things and they came home with us. 

Here is what we brought home this past weekend:

A record

A 1980's Mets Spring Training program and a book

Vintage Christmas! The metal Christmas card list file was an interesting find because we had been looking for one for many years and finally found one a few weeks ago. On this day, we found second one...the exact same one that became ours just a few weeks ago!

The two of use have been having some recurring problems with our cell phones. Texts have been delayed for hours and internet speed has slowed down considerably despite having 4g service with unlimited texting, calling and internet use. Our phones are over 2 1/2 years old and that is ancient nowadays. We both bought new phones on Sunday and, in between food shopping and doing laundry, spent much of the day getting used to our phones. 

It was a great weekend. Despite not finding much, we had fun taking a long drive on a beautiful day and, of course enjoyed our time together.

Oh yeah! We almost forgot! It was also nice not to be obliterated. 

Flashback: Christmas Decorations and Christmas Day, 2016

In mid-September, 2016, we took a break from blogging but not from adventuring together! We resumed our blogging in March, 2017 and, in between current posts, we have been attempting to recapture the memories of those weeks through "flashback" posts. Thus far, we have caught up on the remainder of September, 2016 and all of October and November, 2016. We are almost caught up on December, 2016, as well. This "flashback" posts covers the period between the third weekend of December and the last weekend of that month.

There were no sales between the third weekend of the month and the weekend that closed out the year. That was no surprise. There hardly ever is. We did finish our Christmas decorating during the third weekend of the month and we were happy just to sit back and enjoy them!

 We decorate most of the house and the downstairs is no exception. It takes us a week to pack everything away that is there during the rest of the year. Only after that is done can we start the Christmas decorating (all vintage). Not everything gets put away. Much of the furniture (tables, etc) is covered with Christmas tablecloths. The cats, in the background, are not put away either. We simply include them.

Elves, snowmen and stockings all find a place downstairs.

Our downstairs shadow box is filled with Christmas.

Large creepy Santas and a creepy snowman.

This shelve unit is filled with as many things as possible.

Ceramic Santas

Lots of elves

More elves

Reindeer and a couple of stockings

More reindeer. We only put out about 25% of the vintage reindeer that we have.

Small blow molds

A blow mold Santa and two blow mold deer.

Our mannequin, Sharon, gets in the Christmas spirit and she has some creepy Santas to keep her company.

Blow mold Santas line to stairs that bring up upstairs.

We love decorating our living room. The shadow box is filled, the lamp provides a great vantage point for some old Santas and most of our walls are covered with Christmas.

We try to leave no space un-Christmased!

As we said, we try to make use of whatever space we can find.

More Christmas. You can see the top of one of our silver trees on the right. We have four aluminum trees but never put out more than two per year. This year, we only put out one aluminum tree (and one green tree).

Our stockings were hung by the fake fireplace with care.

We select a few records to display in a tension pole record holder.

Plastic Santas!

More plastic Santas and some plastic angels and choir members.

A few more plastic Santas.

Plastic snowmen! 

We have a 1950's metal cabinet in our kitchen that we fill with Christmas things.

The bottom two shelves of the metal cabinet.

The top and top shelf of the metal cabinet.

Some of our Christmas salt and pepper shakers.

We even do a little decorating in the bathroom. The pink octopus toilet paper caddy gets a Christmas hat and we bring out all of the Christmas rubber ducks.

We were glad that the decorating was all done. Next year, we promised each other that we would find a way to get it done sooner! 

Christmas Eve always begins with dinner at Monica's sister's house. This was their beautiful tree. 

The kids get to open some of their presents.

Later, we go to Monica's dad's house where we await Santa's visit each year. He has been coming to Monica's childhood house since she was a little girl.

Dad and Santa! 

Christmas Eve family photo - 2016 version! 

Santa driving away until we see him again next year! 

Our Christmas card for 2016.

We hope you had as great a holiday season as we did. Although it is now September, we hope this gets you all in the holiday spirit a little early this year!