Memorial Day Barbecue Invitation.

Here is our Invitation for our Memorial Day(before) Barbecue.(with the address blocked out)  It is later in the day because our niece had a kiddie party in the day until 4pm or so.  It is just family and they already knew about the barbecue and I (Monica) just wanted to do it for fun! Rob gave pointers on what to add on the invite!

My new hat! (Monica)

On Pinterest and numerous blogs, there have been posts of the sunglasses hats.  Like this post on Modern Kiddo and my Pinterest board Topper.  The hats originated in the late 60's.

This hat is a Henri Bendel, 1965. It is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Even Kate Spade made a reproduction hat recently which retailed for over $75.00.  Other versions can cost $50.00 to $100.00.

Some other variations of the hat, this red one is from the 60's.

This one has hair!

We went to our favorite thrift store a number of times. I spotted a hat and left it there. I finally decided to buy it. The hat was plastic-lined and it really is a container for a plant. We paid maybe 25 cents or 50 cents for it. The hat was in the closet for the past 6 months untouched. Finally I decided to fix it up for our Memorial Day Barbecue. 

 Here is the hat before anything was done to it.

Plastic lining in the hat. It does have a tag that says it is for a plant.

 At first I went to Dollar Tree to look and see what they had. The craft store was just a couple stores away and I was going to run there next.  I stopped by the sunglasses and had an idea.  I will use cheap sunglasses for the hat!!!!! I bought a pair for a dollar and when I got home I actually found one I liked better in a glasses drawer of the jewelry box and used that one instead.  They were from a dollar store years ago. 

It was not fun or easy cutting the holes out.  A piece shot up and hit me in the eye!!  I glued felt in the inside so the edges of the cut holes would not poke me!

Then I used a glue gun to put the sunglasses on after I removed the plastic arms.  Rob said that I should add some type of sunglass arms on the hat.  I was not sure if they just went to the side or all the way around so I just put a ribbon around the entire hat.  Rob then suggested eyebrows.  We had fake mustaches all over the house so I just took one of those and cut it into two pieces.  They have sticky stuff on them and can easily be removed or re positioned if I want to.  Rob helped with the placement and size of the eyebrows (no Brooke Shields or uni-brows here!)

TA DA!!!!! The finished product!!!!!!!!!!!

Can not wait to wear it for the Memorial day Barbecue!!!!!

Visit Your Relatives Day...Nah!

Little known fact: May 18th is also known as "Visit Your Relatives Day"! It is a little known, but actual, holiday. Well, we decided to go to estate sales/garage sales instead because, well, this is what we do together on Saturdays! It's okay...we are hosting a family barbecue at our house on Memorial Day weekend so we will let our family visit us!

Once again, there were no clear cut sales to choose. None of the Tag Sale Companies seemed to be hosting the type of sale that would have the type of stuff we like so...we chose six sales that we thought had some potential and off we went!

Our first sale was an outdoor estate sale run by a family member and had several tables of things to choose from, mostly fairly new though. We did get two Christmas Pez dispensers, a vintage Valentine's Day handkerchief and a new deck of cards, all for 25 cents apiece. Rob LOVES vintage decks of cards but the deck he picked out today was simply for showing our nephew, Peter, some card tricks. 

The second sale was an indoor estate sale and had lots of records, some old furniture and not much else. We did get three records and a cool Christmas tree that plays music while it rotates and was marked "Japan". It was time to break for breakfast and then move on to the last four sales which were 30 minutes away.

 The sign outside of the third sale. There were a few items outside to look at first

And here was the house. It was a funny little house that was pretty cramped and there were a lot of people inside!

Rob searching the bar area, flashlight in hand!

Monica searching through an old trunk for treasures!

And there it was! The basement pencil sharpener. This wasn't mounted to anything but it was found in the basement. We laugh every time we see one! 

We got some more records here and a few other items. We were pretty happy to get out of there because it really was pretty crowded and pretty cramped!!! On to our next stop!

The sign tells us we have arrived! This was another family run estate sale with lots of things inside and out. The backyard patio had tons of records but they were very overpriced. We did find four records and Rob negotiated a much more reasonable price. 

The basement had a very cool tile floor with speckles! There was a lot of old stuff inside the house but nothing that we really wanted but it was the boxes of Christmas items in the backyard that were the best finds of the day. All of the open boxes and the ones near the top of the stack were newer items and Dept 56 village pieces. We dug deeper and the boxes on the bottom contained some amazing vintage Christmas items, some in their original boxes. We paid a grand total of $3 for all of the Christmas items we got here!!! :) 

The last two stops were horrible. Stop#5 had moved all of the items into the garage because it had been raining. There was nothing for us there. Stop#6 ended their sale early because of the rain and it was over before we even pulled up. That's okay...we did not set our expectations too high and came home with some great stuff!

Some of the items we brought home with us:

Some Christmas records...

...more records...

...and more records!

Some Christmas items. The "Candy Filled Boot" box contains ornaments but we LOVED the box. We were able to pick the 12 ornaments we wanted and switch out what was in there. For the second time this month, we got these stencils!!!

More Christmas items. Both the ceramic "Noel" candleholders and the "Yuletide Novelty Tree Ornaments" (ceramic bell ornaments) were still in the original boxes and made in Japan. The two ornaments on the left were from the "boot" box from the previous photo.

More Christmas items. The box on the left is filled with plastic garland; gold colored and shaped like reindeer. It is for the Christmas tree or for the fireplace and, as the box says "Safe For Children". Look at the cool graphics of the "safe" children. Monica liked the box more than the contents. Ha Ha. Okay, I will admit that I liked the "Candy Filled Boot" box more than its contents (Rob)  

Ceramic Pineapple Mugs made in Japan, some Trader Vic cocktail stirrers, a vintage Valentine's Day handkerchief and a blue plastic duck. 


It was a great Saturday out together and although the weather was not what it was supposed to be (it has rained since early Saturday afternoon), we did get to take a walk around our lake together on Friday night. 

Our Castle Revisited

Just a couple of pictures of the inside of what we call "our home" 

A clock on the wall

Coconut monkeys guard the stairs...

...while our mannequin (Sharon) greets visitors at the door.

Some pictures of our downstairs bar unit:

Views of our living room:

Indoor plants

The upstairs Hi Fi / Bar Set with various ashtrays and a phone lamp

Cool warming unit!

Some Wall Hangings in our living room:

In our kitchen:

Dining room shelves:

Some of our SQUEEEEEEEAK toys!!!

One Step Ahead Of The Rain

Another Saturday (yay!!)

Another day of saling (double yay!!)

The forecast called for rain most of the day so we knew that anything outdoors would be cancelled. There were not a lot of choices today on the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. Many Tag Sale companies want to run two day sales and Mother's Day means slow traffic to their doorsteps so many just simply took the weekend off. Still, there were a few opportunities out there and we made our list last night. Of course, as the morning came, and the rain, we crossed off our first stop which was a church sale which listed a "rain date" so we knew that would be cancelled. So...off we went to the second stop on our list...another church sale.

There was a big sign awaiting our arrival. It was May 11th. There was a sale!

 We picked up a few things at the church sale but this was NOT ONE OF THEM. We both looked at each other at the same time and said the exact same word..."scary". 

This was the location of the next sale. The "Estate Sale" sign had been blown down in the wind but it had now stopped raining and it was time to go hunting. This was definitely a "digger". There were some old cabinets and furniture in great shape (and  over priced) but we found a few vintage greeting cards, a great vintage barbecue book and a few other little things so the trip was worthwhile! 

Our next stop was another church sale and, thank goodness, was only 12 minutes away because it was the worst sale ever! We left quickly and went to our last "definite" stop which was about 30 minutes away. We always have a few "backup" stops in case all the sales are bombs and it is still early!

A nice friendly handmade sign to greet us in front of an older house! It was being run by the family. 

Look at the kitchen! What great cabinets and drawers!!!!

A cool stove built into the wall!

The back room...perfect for parties!!!

Another view of the back room!

We spent a lot of time at this last house and got a few great things. We decided to head back home (about 45 minutes away) after this last stop because the "backups" would have ended about the same time we pulled up to their houses! We beat the rain, found some cool stuff and, well, we had each other's company to share! :)

Some of the things we got today:

A hat for Monica! It was made in the early 1970's and has plastic strawberries on it. You just don't see many hats with plastic fruit on them anymore. 

An old red cabinet organizer. We already have ones in turquoise and white

Some barware, a pineapple ashtray from 1963, some holiday rubber ducks and a Santa troll doll from 1964, still in its package!

Some vintage jewelry for Monica! Sparkly!

A great barbecue book, some vintage greeting cards and an old pack of pipe cleaners

This is a picture of us from last weekend at the old Town Hall in one of their old jail cells. We are happily prepared to serve "life" together amongst the ducks.