The Fourth Weekend In June

Well, we were a little more than a month behind in our blog posts until a little over a week ago. We posted four times in that span and we are almost caught up! There's no time to rest now that the present is almost in sight! 

The fact that it was a three day weekend would give us an extra day to find saling opportunities but, alas, it was not to be. Like most weekends this year, there were plenty of sales but few that were of the type that we like. Our only target was a Sunday one and so we set our sights on that one. It's not that we wasted the time off. We had plenty to do around the house and we did plenty that Friday and Saturday which allowed us the freedom to focus on nothing other than saling on Sunday and so we did. But, before we even got to the weekend, there was this...

On Friday evening, Keith Hernandez was signing copies of his next book at a book store near us. We saw him a little over a year ago at this same place and he was signing his newly released hardcover version of this book then. The line was wrapped around the building during that first signing but we got there early enough to meet him about 90 minutes into his appearance and he couldn't have been nicer. Now, we made a second trip to meet him again and get the paperback version signed. We were there early and the line was not long this time. We got to see him about 20 minutes into the signing this time.

There we are with Keith Hernandez and we was friendly and pleasant as he was last year!

Keith's latest book...

...signed and personalized for us! 

On Saturday night after spending most of the day doing errands and chores, we went down to our lake for the first time this year. After all, we have had a lot of rainy weekends! It is a special place for us and a great place to relax. The geese, the swans and the ducks agree.

This monument resides in Argyle Park where our lake is located. This monument commemorates the site where the first professional African-American baseball team was born. The Cuban Giants were formed in 1885 in a hotel that once stood here. Neither the hotel (demolished in 1904) nor the team (disbanded after the 1914 season) have been around in over 100 years. 

A closer view of the plaque

On Sunday, we were ready to go saling. The sale was run by an estate sale company that we really like but which doesn't conduct all that many estate sales. In fact, we see the brothers who run the company more often as fellow salers than as hosts. Their advertisements are a little quieter than most of the major tag sale companies so we were hoping to get in with the first group. As #10 and #11 on line, we did.

We did not know what we would find here as the description of the sale was modest though it was described as a digger and it was. The first thing that greeted us as we entered was this old intercom system mounted on a wall as bright as you can imagine. We should have kept our sunglasses on when we entered the house.

The basement had lots and lots of clocks and clock parts. We found out from the hosts that the house was owned by a retired clockmaker. 

We're not sure who this is (it wasn't Marilyn Monroe) but, evidently, the former homeowner did.
(***We have since been told that this is Jean Harlow by an unknown reader. Thank you!***)

Ah! The mounted pencil sharpener. That was a good sign! 

The house was packed as advertised. There is an old stove buried amongst other things.

The upstairs was the place to be because, inside the dozens of boxes we encountered, were lots of great Christmas things (and more). 

The other room upstairs was packed, too, and had lots of posters as Monica clearly noticed! 

We spent about 90 minutes in this house and were very happy with our finds! After this sale, we had breakfast, visited Monica's dad and then stopped at our old friend's garage sale (someone we have known for 35 years). We even picked up a few things there which he insisted on giving us for free (a vintage hair dryer, a vintage ceramic Easter decoration and a refrigerator magnet.

The weather continues to be great and we spent a little time in our garden to look at what was new. 

Some daisies

Queen Fabiola flowers

We even met a dragonfly who hung around the garden with us

Later that night, we had a chance to look at what we found. This is what we saw:

A pair of records

Some books

Some old Mad Magazines

Lots of old giveaway rain bonnets (and one sewing kit). Monica loves these things!

Some old matchbooks. Rob has fond memories of LILCO, our old electric company, as their iconic main office was just a block away from Rob's childhood house. Monica has fond memories of Gouz which was a store located near her house when she was a kid.

Vintage fabric to make small curtains

Vintage calorie counting cards, vintage jewelry and a pin for Monica and some old "Frigid bags".

Vintage wall decorations which will be perfect for our annual Cinco de Mayo parties

An opened box of vintage spoons with starburst design, a pair of vintage Hawaiian girls and an old plastic elephant; the second one we found this month.

An old refrigerator magnet from our friend's garage sale

The box from the vintage hair dryer that our friend gave us.

The hair dryer has never been used! 

Two ceramic Easter decorations made in Japan. Our friend gave us the one on the right.

Vintage Christmas gift decorations

A pair of old Christmas stockings

Lots of Christmas stuff. Honeycomb Christmas decorations, an old red reindeer, a Christmas corsage in box, two ceramic Christmas chimneys, two boxes of Santa head candles, three pairs of ceramic Christmas salt and pepper shakers and a ceramic Santa head mug. Everything except the honeycomb decorations and the reindeer are marked Japan.

It was a great weekend spent together and we couldn't wait for the next weekend to come but we would have to wait five more days. We would get through it, as always, together.