Yard Sale Weekend...The Day After!

We had a four day weekend, highlighted by our yard sale on Saturday and all the preparations beforehand (see the previous post for details). One day left...Monday...a day we both chose as a vacation day. A day for just us.

With no estate sales in sight, we started off the day going to Thrift Shops. This was our first stop and one we go to often. We did not get anything here today but we did empty our car of six boxes full of donations. The ladies who work here are all so nice and are very excited to get donations (believe it or not, some just don't want donations at all!). We still have another six boxes or so and we will donate those to another Thrift Shop in the near future. 

This was our second stop, another Thrift Shop located right next door to the first one. We sometimes find things here but not today. 

Our third Thrift Shop, another one we go to sometimes. We got a Christmas record, a cookbook and a Darth Vader cake/jello mold pan!

It was pretty hot outside but we live on Long Island and there are lots of opportunities to drive down to the shore to cool off! 

Another Thrift Shop we browsed in. There was nothing for us here. We stopped at several others before and after this one. Many were closed on Mondays! :(

Time to cool off again! We stopped at a park that we go to sometimes. Pretty scenery, a small lake, lots of birds and some shade!

Ducks on the move!

Geese and ducks at rest!

Goose and duck in one! A Duck Duck Goose!

He behaved like a goose

The ducks didn't seem to care. They had seen his kind before!

A little carving on a fallen tree to let people know we had been there

One more Thrift Shop to visit. They rarely have anything but they did today...two records.  This one is in town. We love to walk through town on nice evenings and is just a three minute walk from the lake we visit often...the one we like to call "our lake". 

We walked through town, got an italian ice and then posed with Nipper, The Plesser's Dog. Yes...he has eyes but I guess we covered them! 

After a late afternoon nap together (we were still a little exhausted from the Saturday yard sale), it was time to get some food from one of our favorite places, All American Drive-In. It has been there forever and we try to go a few times a year!

All American Drive-In!

Lots to choose from the menu!

Burgers and fries for each of us. A chocolate shake for Rob and a Root Beer soda for Monica! 

All American makes us happy! 

We stopped at the docks closet to our house on the way home. It is only about 2 miles from our house. The docks had been pretty heavily damaged during Hurricane Irene in 2011 and then destroyed during Hurricane Sandy last year but they have been fixed and are better than ever! 

One of the houses across the docks. Many were very, very seriously damaged during Hurricane Sandy. You can still see the work-in-progress on some of them.

Another boat that The Professor won't be able to fix!

Beautiful evening clouds! 

Enjoying the view with the wind in our hair!

Visiting the wooden fisherman that sits along the docks!

The day was exactly what we planned it to be...a day for us to share together...amongst the wooden fishermen...amongst the geese...and always amongst the ducks!

Oh...and here is what we picked up thrifting today:

Some records and a book...

...and a Darth Vader cake/jello mold pan! We will use him to make a "Luke, I Am Your Father's Day" dessert next year!!!

Yard Sale Weekend!!!

Hmmmm..."yard sale weekend". That could be a description for almost every one of our weekends but this was OUR yard sale weekend! Since last July, we had been planning on getting rid of some stuff that we no longer wanted and no longer needed. Some of it was household items or old clothes that we no longer needed and some were items we actually found at garage sales years ago that no longer held any value to us. For whatever reason, we just never found the time to have the sale or, when we did, the weather forecast told us that our timing was not right. Well, finally we decided to do it. Saturday. One day only! We had boxed up enough items to bring to Monica's sister's house (about four blocks away which is where we would hold our "multi-family" yard sale) and took vacation days both Friday and Monday to extend the weekend so we would still have time for "us"  We advertised on craigslist and created a few signs for the local yard salers out there and we were ready to go! But first, we had Friday!

Since Saturday was OUR garage sale day, we decided to look for any estate sales that were happening on Friday. We were very, VERY good not to look at Saturday's ads at all! We did not want to think about what we might be missing! We found two sales on Friday in neighboring towns so that made our hunting a little easier! 

This was the sign for the first sale. We knew the Tag Sale Company as we have been to several of their sales and we sometimes find things and sometimes we don't. Aside from some records (we got 12 albums), there was nothing for us. 

The sign for the second sale. It was another Tag Sale company that we knew and there was not a whole lot here but we did find a few items including an old scrapbook from the 1930's with lots of greeting cards and gift tags lightly attached to the pages (we both LOVE old greeting cards and gift tags). The scrapbook, alone, made the trip worthwhile!!! 

There were several scraps of material with designs on them in the second sale. Monica was holding up one of them being a clown for the camera! ha ha!!!

We spent the remainder of our day running errands, doing the food shopping and laundry, stopping at a Thrift Shop (we couldn't resist...it was on the way home),putting the final touches on our yard sale preparation (including hanging the signs) and picking up some Chinese Food for dinner. We did have to wait until early evening to hang the signs because of a passing shower but once the showers passed, the weather would be perfect and the rainbow above our house told us so!

The rainbow! 

  

Here are some of the things we found on Friday:

Some Christmas records...

...some more Christmas records...

...and some MORE Christmas records. Well, we had these already but they were in such great shape (better than the ones we had)! And then we got...

...some more records! 

A few more items including some cocktail stirrers (the plastic ones are wedding stirrers from 1949 and have a martini glass design at the top), a Siesta Ware mug from Storytown in Lake George, NY (where Rob went with his parents when he was a little boy), an unopened deck of cards with the "Hills Supermarket" sticker (the supermarket where Rob went with his parents and grandmother when he was a little boy) and old Christmas card display clips in its unopened package.

The scrapbook from the 1930's, filled with greeting cards, gift tags and pictures they cut out from magazines!

Here are some of the greeting cards inside the scrapbook! 

We got up early on Saturday, brought the remaining boxes to Monica's sister's house and started setting up at a time that we thought would be comfortable and unrushed.  Lo and behold, the early birds set upon us about an hour before the start of the sale. Although we were still unpacking, we did not turn them away. Our goal was to get rid of some unwanted items and make a little money. The early birds are usually good buyers anyway so, although this added a lot of pressure,  we let them search and one couple spent about $70. We had one small group of people in the early afternoon that we actually caught trying to steal from us (they put an item in a pre-packaged $1 bag and tried to hide it from us). Rob took over all the remaining negotiations with them and held firm on every price we gave them, choosing to let them walk away rather than accommodate the thieves. They did give Rob the price he asked for on a few items after they tried to negotiate and walked away from other items. As they left, Monica heard them say they would return after the sale had ended to get the items they wanted for free (thinking we would put them out on the curb at day's end). We did not. We are donating the leftovers to local Thrift Shops. In the end, we made almost $300 and got rid of some unwanted stuff but it was a busy, busy day...so busy that we completely forgot to take any pictures!!!! Our next yard sale will be...um...never! It was a long day and a lot of hard work! Maybe we will forget the stress by next year! 

On Sunday, we spent Father's Day at Monica's sister's house with family. It was fun! 

Rob and Monica's dad listening to doo-wop music on Youtube. Monica's dad knows just about every doo-wop song ever and has so many of the original 1950's records on vinyl. He even has the concert programs from all of the Alan Freed shows he saw (and other shows) including shows with Buddy Holly!  

Three our of the four days from our four day weekend completed. We saved the last day to just have fun, enjoy the weather and each other's company. More on that later! 

Two Lions...Two Tigers...Two Chupacabras...Thing One and Thing Two...All Accounted For! Set Sail, Noah!

Rain. Lots and lots of rain. Over 4 inches of rain fell on us between Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning. That's a lot!! When we woke up early Saturday morning, the rain was in the past (except for the puddles) and the sun had come out. So.........off we went on our day's adventures

Our first stop was a tag sale at a church nearby. As with all church tag sales nowadays, it could be great or it could be terrible. The fact that it was associated with a Thrift Shop that we frequent gave us some hope.

Lots of tables but not much of interest to us. We did find a Tupperware container from the 1950's for 50 cents so the stop was worthwhile. Our next stop would be to get some breakfast.

Our second stop. It was an estate sale run by friends of the family. The people were very nice and we found a few great items here and they were dirt cheap!!! 

 Our third stop had a very familiar sign. We go to their tag sales a lot and, since Hurricane Sandy,  they always seem to hold them in houses that were ravaged by the storm and, often, do not even have electricity. They are always a mess and we LOVE to find sales where we have to dig and uncover the hidden treasures.  There's Monica on the right, looking through the clothes...

...and Monica, inside, starting to dig. We spent over an hour at this house and found LOTS of great things and came away pretty dusty and VERY happy with our finds! We even found the drinking glass holder from the 1954 Tupperware Millionaire's line with the burping seal and three of the five glasses, all in spectacular condition! 

Our fourth stop was run by a Tag Sale company that was new to us. It was a terrible stop. There was very little inside. They did have a mid-century modern kitchen table, just not our style. We came away with two sealed Halloween treat bags (one of Rob's passions) that were just a couple of years old and only cost us 50 cents. Time to move along.

Our fifth stop was an hour away but we liked what we read in their ad and it was a beautiful day for a drive so off we went. This was another estate sale run by the family. There was a huge basement and a garage but we did not find much we liked. We came away with two records, an old plant book and a Mrs Beasley doll in great shape! She had her apron and her glasses and we got all four items for a grand total of $5. Monica still has her Mrs Beasley doll from when she was a little girl! 


This, we thought, would be our last stop. Home was about 45 minutes away and it was a long day so far! About 5 minutes away, we saw a really nice lake with ducks and geese and decided to stop. It was a beautiful day for that!

The geese did not seem alarmed by our presence...

...and we found a rock with a face on it! He looked a little scared so we took him home and placed him in our garden!

Just a few more minutes up the road, we ran into a street fair. There were two church outdoor sales and free food. Rob had a cheeseburger AND two hot dogs. Monica had one cheeseburger and some popcorn. Monica is holding up an item that we did not buy but we did get a set of six vintage Starburst drinking glasses for $2 and an old cookbook for a $1. At the end of the sales, they were just piling all the old books by the dumpster :(  We were talking to one of the volunteers who was discarding the books and told him what we bought. He came back a moment later with a vintage cookbook he was told to throw out and he gave it to us for free!

Here are some of our finds this week:

A few books

A few records

A vintage pocketbook made In England, some Starburst glasses (we got six of these) and some vintage party invitations

A great vintage bar lamp (just put a light bulb in his nose and he lights up), an old box of chalk with great graphics, Tiki salt and pepper shakers (made in Japan), a clown ceramic cookie jar (also made in Japan) and some rubber ducks!

Mrs Beasley. She has her apron AND her glasses! 

The 1954 Millionaire's Tupperware Glass Holder with the burping seal and three of the five glasses, a Tupperware container from the 1950's, an old mustard spice canister,  several old Halloween picks and a few newer items for our decorating needs. 

Some vintage greeting cards with the box and some vintage wrapping paper on the bottom right.

Some Christmas items, most made in Japan.

More old clip-on Christmas birds. A full package of three! 

After a long day, and a much needed nap, we set off for the Italian Festival in town where we enjoyed some pizza and a nice walk together on a beautiful evening! :)

It's June 1st - Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit!!!

When Monica was a little girl, her mom used to always call up the stairs on the first of every month, "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit". Saying this on the first of the month (as early in the day as possible) is supposed to bring you good luck the whole month through! For the record, Monica didn't think it was such good luck when her mom yelled this up the stairs and she was still sleeping! Nonetheless, it still means good luck and now Rob says it too, using the alternate version, "Rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit"...but he knows enough not to say it until Monica is awake! Well, we both said it and hoped that the rabbits would bring us good luck in our day's saling!

Our first stop of the day. Note the sign.."HUGE SALE". It was a tag sale run by some guys that clean out houses for a living and, while there was some stuff there, it was not our type of stuff. There were some cool, old kid's bicycles but all we came away with was one tie for Rob at a cost of 50 cents. We had a wedding to go to Sunday night and Rob thought the tie would look great with his dark blue suit.

The sign in front of our second stop was a familiar one. We have been to many of their estate sales and they are either great or complete busts. This one, unfortunately, was a complete bust with nothing that captured our interest at all. On to the next stop...

This one was a tag sale being run by someone who, we believe, just collected things and was ready to say goodbye to the things she collected. There were so many things that we wanted but we did not come home with everything we chose. Some of the items were very reasonably priced and some were definitely overpriced. Rob said the negotiation was one of the toughest ever and he had to pull out his entire toolbox of psychological ammunition. In the end, she came down in price on a lot of things and we passed on the items that still did not meet our price expectations. We came away with some records, many vintage Easter decorations (there was the "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" at work!) and some other miscellaneous things including a complete Ice Bird flavored ice maker. Monica sings this around the house a lot and Rob joins in on the singing but it is always Monica that starts it. Ha ha! The one thing that we did not get that Rob really, really wanted was a pair of Santa head blow molds that were made in the early 1960's. The lady wanted $25 for the pair and we were not close enough in what we would pay to even enter negotiations on those. :(

Our fourth stop was about 30 minutes away and was an estate sale run by the family. It was advertised as having "83 years of accumulation" and that might very well have been accurate. It had become brutally hot by the time we got here and we felt a little bad that they were outdoors in the sun all day. We found a few little items here and the people were very nice.

After a quick stop for Slurpees at 7-11, we made it to a fifth stop, a church bazaar/white elephant sale. We really don't know what to call this sale. There were definitely church volunteers running some of the tables but there were vendors running others. Some tables were outside and some were inside. There was not much here at all and even going inside was not great relief from the heat. We did take a brief walk down the street alongside the church, after leaving the sale, because there were several garage sales there but nothing sparked any interest in us at all and we spent a grand total of 25 cents at this stop. 

Well, we DID see some nice flowers outside of the church in full bloom!

The sign outside of our sixth and final stop of the day. This was another estate sale run by a really nice family. The first few items we saw were extraordinarily overpriced. Not even the friendly "Make us an offer" offered much hope but we were in luck (thank you again, rabbits!)...everything else was VERY reasonably priced. We got a lot of records here (22 records for $15) and some vintage birthday decorations and some other great things! 

By the time we left this last sale, we were exhausted and ready to go home into our air conditioned house (about 45 minutes away) and take a nap. To our great surprise, it was probably about 20 degrees cooler by our house. We get a great breeze from the ocean which is only a couple of miles to the south of us. We felt refreshed! We felt more comfortable! We napped anyway!!! 

Here are some of the things we came home with today:

Some books including a "Love Letters to The Monkees" paperback from 1967. The two Charlie Brown books are first editions from 1968 that Rob had as a kid. He negotiated the price on these to $1 apiece rather than the $2 apiece that the lady wanted.

Some Christmas records...

...some more Christmas records...

...and even more Christmas records

More records including The Partridge Family, Sesame Street (original cast), Mister Rogers and Birthday House!

A Patti Page record and some children's records....

...and lots more children's records

Miscellaneous items including a vintage clown planter, some cat salt and pepper shakers (made in Japan) and that Ice Bird flavored ice maker set that Monica always sings about!

An old "Misfits" game, an old pink plastic shower curtain (still in its package) for our future pink bathroom and lots of old birthday cake decorations.

 And finally, lots of vintage Easter decorations including a blow up Easter bunny and a really creepy plastic Easter bunny (top right). Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!