April!

April had arrived and just in time! On the last day of March, we had a surprise snowstorm that even caught the meteorologists completely off guard. There was no snow in the forecast but there was five inches of snow on the ground! By the afternoon, temperatures climbed into the 50's and most of the snow melted. Goodbye March. Thanks for the joke! 

Now that it's April, we can start to expect, when the weather allows, lots of signs for garage sales which present us with unexpected extra stops in our Saturday travels. This is always fun because it adds that little extra element of surprise to our day. Being that this was only the first weekend in April, we did not expect to see a lot of signs so we would rely on only the list we compiled from the advertised sales. The list was short...just three sales. Three is a lot better than none so, with hope in our hearts, off we went!

Although you couldn't tell from the ad, our first stop WAS outdoors, our first of this calendar year. It was one town away from us and we recognized the hosts right away. Last year, we had run a garage sale just to divest ourselves of things we no longer wanted. Our hosts today were amongst the first arrivals at our sale and spent over $75 at our sale; a significant amount considering almost all of what we sold was set at a price of a dollar or two. This sale was to get rid of some of the things their late mother had owned. There was not much there but they did have a box of Christmas items marked $1 for the entire box. There were eight vintage Christmas items that we liked and bought those for $1. It was a good start. 

We saw another sign for a garage sale in the area so we followed that sign and made an unscheduled stop. We were there 30 seconds. It was terrible. That's another good thing about garage sales...if the sale is terrible, you will know it right away. It doesn't take up a lot of your time!

Our second planned stop was 25 minutes away. It was described as "vintage to midcentury" in the ad. It was run by a tag sale company whose prices are sometimes a little steep. 

 The house showed many signs that the ad might just be right. Look at this great stove!

The dials on the stove were really cool! 

Look what we "saw"! There were lots of tools here but none that we needed. There was a great vintage men's bicycle that really needed a lot of work. They wanted $100 for it and that was about $75 more than Rob was willing to pay for it. Still, we did find a record, some vintage Christmas items and a few other things for a grand total of $5. It was another successful stop! 

Our third and final planned stop was about 40 minutes away. The flowers growing in this yard, around the corner from our final destination, spoke of a Spring that had arrived. The flowers were growing even if the grass wasn't. 

The outside of a house holding a sale described as "vintage, vintage, vintage"...and it was!

The basement bar was amazing! Look at those bar stools! Monica was very happy!

Behind the bar was this cool bar sink! It wasn't only the bar that made this basement special!

Look at the basement! A great floor! Knotty pine walls!

Another view of the basement. Imagine the parties that must have been had here in the 1960's! By the way, look at the cool metal chairs!

A third view of this great basement. The wall alongside the stairs has great shelves!

And Rob found his favorite basement floor design of all time...

...a clown!

The floor also had playing cards...

...and music notes

There were two pin-up cowgirls on the wall

Here is the other.

We had so much fun in this house and this basement is amongst our favorites of all time! We didn't leave empty handed either. We brought home a small vintage barkcloth curtain, some St. Patrick's Day decorations, some New Year's Eve noisemakers, a couple of records, some vintage warmers a few other small items.

Here are some of the things we brought home with us:

Some records

Some books. All of the bowling books are from between 1959 and 1963

Vintage atomic barkcloth curtains

St. Patrick's Day decorations

Vintage noisemakers. Many of them have wooden handles

A pair of vintage dish warmers

Some old lei's, a turquoise pearl necklace, some cocktail stirrers and some coasters

A "pep" pepper shaker (missing its mate) and a vintage glass. 

Christmas stencils and a Christmas stocking

Gurley Christmas candles, a plastic sleigh and some Mica houses

Snowman ornaments and sputnik ornaments

There weren't a lot of sales but they were fun sales. With Spring in the air, Rob's thoughts turned to hamburgers and we decided to go out to eat Saturday night at a hamburger place that is decorated to look like a vintage restaurant, although it is only a few years old.

We love the way it's decorated and we have been here a few times before. The food is good, the atmosphere is great...

...and, although the prices for the hamburgers are not 29 cents, it is a fun meal made more special because it is time spent together and that is always so very special. 

The Lion's Last Stand

It was the last weekend in March. Tuesday would be April 1st...no fooling! The battle between the lion and the lamb this month was no contest. The lion won on most days. The calendar said it was almost April. The weather did not. Although we did not get any snow in the last week, the temperatures were cold enough to deliver it if only Mother Nature would supply the moisture. Surely, this had to be the lion's last stand. 

Saturday called for temperatures in the 50's which would be welcomed. Unfortunately, strong winds and rain were also in the forecast so we knew that it would not be the type of day that would remind us very much of Spring. Still, we did have some saling to do and that was enough to brighten our day. By the time Saturday morning arrived, we had narrowed our list down to five potential sales; none of which looked spectacular but all of them showed potential. So, dressed a little warmer than the weather forecast would have suggested, we headed in the direction of our first sale of the day.

Our first stop was not too far away at all. It was located on the opposite side of our town. We have been to several sales run by this company and we have been successful at their sales more often than not. They have not had too many lately and we were looking forward to seeing what this sale would be like. It began on Friday (which we can never make because we work) so this was Day Two which was a negative. However, it was described as a "digger" and we hoped that much was hidden from the Day One crowd. We knew it would be great early on. The driveway was filled with boxes and, in those boxes, we found lots of vintage Christmas items. It was a great start! 

The inside was packed and there was so many places to search. This made Monica smile! 

There was a great television in one corner of the Living Room. It was actually a small television inserted into the skeleton of an older television!

The upstairs was great too! Look at this cool old bunk bed!!! We spent well over an hour at this house and came home with plenty of Christmas stuff, a small shadow box and lots of other great things. Even if we found nothing else the remainder of the day, we would still be happy with our findings! 

Our second stop (after getting some breakfast, of course) was a last minute addition to our itinerary. It was just listed Saturday morning and it was a privately run estate sale at "Grandpa's house". We were both pretty excited about the possibilities here (Monica looks very anxious for Rob to hurry up!) . This sale would be completely off everyone's radar since it was just listed! We would have an opportunity to search through Grandpa's lifelong stuff and it would all ours to search! Alas, Grandpa did not have much stuff. We came home with one cocktail stirrer and a pepper shaker that was missing its mate! 

Our third planned stop looked promising. This particular Tag Sale Company often runs the type of sales we like and the description of the sale, itself, gave us some hope. We used to go to their sales all the time but they did not have many over the winter. We were greeted with a smile as we walked in the door and off we went to search through the rooms.

There was a bar downstairs...always a good sign. Rob searched behind it thoroughly.

There was a pencil sharpener mounted on the wall of the basement...another good sign!

The bathroom was old and that, too, was a great sign! This was a great stop as we found some vintage Christmas things, a ceramic panther and some records, including a Colonel Sanders Christmas record...the holy grail of kitschy Christmas records! We were really excited about that find!!!! 

Our fourth stop showed only the slightest glimpse of promise based on the ad but it was on our list anyway. It was only four minutes away from the previous stop. This was the house we came to refer to as "the pink house"

So many of the rooms in this house were pink including this amazing pink bathroom!

Look at that incredible bathroom floor! 

The house had a great downstairs bar that would be serve, quite easily, as a Tiki bar! 

The walls downstairs were great. There were palm trees painted on the knotty pine walls and some great recessed shelving!

Another section of the basement. More palm trees and knotty pine walls...and a great floor too!

Look at the television set built into the wall! WOW!!!

The second bathroom in the house was pink too!

Another picture of that second bathroom. This turned out to be a really fun house to explore. There was so much untouched from so many years ago. And, oh yes, we found a few things to take home from here too including a vintage thermos, some records and some coasters for our next luau!

Our fifth and final stop was in our town and was only put on the list in case we had time to stop at the end of the day. Although the ad described the house as a "1950's/1960's time capsule", the pictures of the sale items told a completely different tale. Aside from a few old storage cabinets inside, there was little that matched the description of  "1950's/1960's time capsule". We picked up one new folding table for Rob's new laptop and a hard plastic duck. It was a quick stop on a day that turned out to be rainy, though filled with smiles. It was a really fun day! 

Here are some of the things we brought home with us:

Some records including the holy grail of Christmas records...Colonel Sanders on Christmas Day!

Some more records

Some 7-inch records. The Burl Ives record is a four record set of 7-inch records

Some Home Ideas magazines from 1965

Cookbooks, a road map from the 1960's and some other books

Santas! One blowmold and three identical creepy Santas! One is still in its package. All three made in Japan

A Santa head pitcher and some Santa head mugs. All made in Japan

Christmas things! A package of ornaments, a Santa and Mrs Claus salt and pepper shaker set (made in Japan), two knee huggers (one is a girl and the other is a lady elf, both marked Japan), some snowmen, an angel and a Mica house

Christmas candle holder (you hang small ornaments from the hooks), Gurley Christmas candles and some plastic Santas

More Christmas things!

A vintage Christmas apron for Monica

More Christmas things!

Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers and a lonely Pepper cat (with googly eyes) missing its mate. All are marked Japan

Die-cut turkeys, a New Year's Eve noisemaker and some birthday candles

An old Pelican thermos, an old plastic straw holder and a poodle toilet brush holder. The previous owner had painted its eyes gold. We have since colored them black and applied googly eyes

Old cocktail stirrers, souffle cups and sequins

Nut cups, Aloha plastic coasters and a package of "Pink Squirrel" cocktail mix

A ceramic black panther, a plastic duck (we rescue any we can find for 25 cents or less), a rooster mail (or napkin) holder and a pink butter dish. We already have a turquoise butter dish just like this. 

A shadow box we found in a bathroom. We will repaint it black

Great houses to search, great things for us to bring home and time spent together. The weather may not have been perfect but we didn't even notice. It was perfect enough for us!