Where to Begin....

I cannot believe how fast the days have been flying by! It is just crazy! I thought things were going to be slowing down since all of my volleyball leagues have ended for the summer. I thought I'd be gaining 4 extra nights to do projects, or read books, or relax...hasn't happened yet!

Our trip to Florida went really well. the flight to Atlanta and then the one to Melbourne was uneventful-just how you want things to be when you fly! I felt bad though, because by the time we got to my in-law's house, I had such a horrible migraine! I ended up going to bed really early-some company I was after not seeing them for 6 months!

We left their house at 6:15 am Thursday. Our first stop was Walmart to get a car charger for my new phone, and some snacks and beverages for the road trip. The next stop was the Big Peach Antique Mall in Byron, Georgia- a little over 6 hours away.

I was thrilled to find the  bowl I passed up in November still there (just in a different booth/location) and Kevin was thrilled to find the Kevlar helmet he passed up was still there also. It was a nice place to stretch our legs for a while. I'm looking forward to visiting there again sometime.

We drove all the way to Berea, Kentucky before we stopped for the night. It was a long, hot day (the air conditioner was broken in their van and it was 89 degrees all the way through Georgia and mid 80's until we stopped for the night.

By the time I went into the hotel to get our room for the night, my ears were ringing/echoing and I wasn't hearing very well from having the windows open and the air rushing in all day. Good thing the clerk at the desk was patient-I had such a hard time hearing what she had to say, and she had to repeat it a couple of times. We both laughed about it, but it really made me feel old!

The next day started off with our free breakfast at the hotel-what a treat! Omelets  waffles, sausage and all kinds of other stuff. I even grabbed a couple bananas for the road.

We stopped at Jeffrey's Antiques in Findlay, Ohio-another great place to spend some time stretching your legs! I didn't realize how close Jeffrey's is from my house-only about an hour and a half! I will be going more often!

I added a few new treasures to my collections, and I was thrilled to stumble upon a chartreuse harlequin service water pitcher. It was priced higher than I wanted to go, but I kept hearing the words from Mike and Frank from American Pickers...the time to buy something is when you see it...(or something like that).

I've never, ever seen one in person in all the years I've been collecting and the one I did see online went for a pretty penny, so after a little talking to myself, I brought it home! I've been afraid to put it out with everything going on around our house though.

We got home Friday afternoon around 3:30 and before we even got our suitcases out of the car, Kevin was ripping apart our bathroom! The new shower we ordered had come in the day before we left, and he was anxious to get going on it.

So, ever since we've been home, we've spent every spare minute working on our bathroom. We got the new shower in and one coat of grout, and today I tiled out floor, and picked out the new vanity, faucet, mirror and cabinet. Friday, we grouted the floor, did a second grout in the shower, fixed some drywall boo boos and painted the walls. Saturday, we painted a second coat, put the toilet back in and the new vanity, mirror, faucet, light fixture and towel bars. the sink gave us some fits, but it is all good now and I LOVE it all!!!

We've been sharing a bathroom with the boys for a week, and it is glaringly obvious that their bathroom needs to be redone almost worse than ours did. Sigh...I'm so ready to be done. Maybe that will be a fall job...

Ready for May!

I probably shouldn't try to cram so much into my days/weeks/months! I am starting to get to the point of exhaustion. After church today, we went to Dealer Day to remove the April display stuff and set up for May. I set a new record for speed! We were out the door in one hour and 10 minutes. Not bad for a total overhaul, and loading in 4 bins of stuff!

When I got home, I had big plans for all of the stuff I was going to accomplish today. Instead, a rotten headache took over and sent me under the covers. I wasted a beautiful day sleeping! I know I needed it, because I was up at 4:30 this morning, and have had an insane pace for the past 5 months.

Everything should be quite calm now that volleyball is over. I'm not going to know what to do with myself with so many free nights now! My only commitment is an every other Thursday Bible study with my cousins.

Kevin was able to get time off work, so he is flying to Florida with me on Wednesday to bring back his mom and step-dad's car, so I'll be scarce for this coming week, hopefully I'll have a fun adventure to share when we get back.

I plan to stop at the Big Peach Antique Mall and Jeffrey's Antique Mall-looking forward to spending time in these two favorite places!


Hope you have a great week!

A New Project!

A while back, I saw something online that set me off on a quest to find a cheap old bowling ball. I found one late last summer at a garage sale and it was FREE!!! I got too busy to do anything with it then, but now that things are slowing down a bit, and the weather has warmed up a bit, I decided to get started.

 Thanks Marc, whoever you are for getting rid of your old ball, so I could try a new project!

 After a little white spray paint so it wouldn't be so dark under neath.

 Glass globs from Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Store.

 All set and ready for the next step!

This stuff is supposed to be amazing...the only problem...it takes over 24 hours to set/cure. This was kind of a long, drawn-out project!

But I LOVE, LOVE LOVE it!!!! A couple of glass globs fell off during the night a couple of nights ago and stuck to the carpet in the sun room-doh! I left it sitting on the carpet and not in the box-how dumb! It isn't really bad, but I know it's there...so does Lucy, she keeps scratching at it and looking at me, like "how dumb of you to put this here, get it off!"

I can't wait to get more bowling balls for more projects!!! I saw a house today with about 20 bowling balls all around in their garden-it was AWESOME!!!!

A whole LOT of driving!!!

Yesterday was a really long day of driving. We left home at 7:30 in the morning and went to Kalkaska/South Boardman for my grandpa's graveside service. The VFW post of Fife Lake did a superb job with the military service! My grandpa would have been so happy if he knew he was honored that way! I felt really bad that the American Legion post that he volunteered at for years and years, and was the commander for years and years, refused to do the service. Thankfully the Fife Lake chapter was more than willing to do it. Odd isn't it that he never had anything to do with that chapter, yet they took care of him...I can't express my gratitude to them enough!!

After the service, we went to a little restaurant called Yankee Boy for the luncheon. It is owned and operated by some of my family. Family that I haven't seen since I was little. It was so nice to have the luncheon there and to see them again!! They did a wonderful job with the food and the service-I hope I can stop in again sometime. I hear their homemade pies and onion rings are amazing...I should have tried them while I was there!!!

We had a wonderful time sitting with and chatting with my cousins, catching up on everything that has happened in the 8 or 9 years since we've seen each other. We only live about a half an hour away from each other, I am hoping we can get together more often, now that we've connected again.

By the time we got home last night, we were wiped out-how can sitting in a car make you so tired?? Good thing is was Friday-pizza night!

This morning, I woke up like a little kid ready for Christmas morning! Today was the M15 Community Yard Sale. Starting in Clarkston and extending all along M15 to Bay City-although, once you get to Vassar, it pretty much thins out and the sales are very few and far between, That is always the point where I turn and head for home, so I don't know if there are any sales past that or not...I might be missing out on the best sales, and not even know it!

I absolutely love this sale. It so reminds me of the World's Longest Yard Sale-but in a much smaller scale. Kevin rode along with me today, and he was the big winner as far as purchases go. He got a set of 15 wood turning tools for his lathe for $125. At least 4 of them in the box had individual price stickers on them from the original woodworking store for $131.95 EACH! So he got an amazing deal-especially since most of them have never even been used!

I piked up a few things here and there. It was fun to revisit all the fun sales I visited last year!! I even found the sale that had the metal children's shopping carts again, and they still had 4 left. I think last year they had around 10 or 12 and I only paid $10 for one, this year they were marked $25. I was so hoping they would be the same price, because I was going to pick up another one!

There was such a HUGE variety of things to look at-that is why I love this sale so much! Each sale had something different to offer and it was fun to see the tons and tons of people all garage saling together today.

It took us 45 minutes to get to our starting point, and by the time we were finished, we were only about an hour and 15 minutes from home-and we probably hit a good 30-40 sales, including a couple flea markets!!

I'd really LOVE to do the World's Longest Yard Sale again this year, we'll see...but for  now, I am thrilled that my wonderful state has the M15 sale and the M12 sale (in August). They both are wonderful sales to get your adrenaline pumping and your junk "fix" on.

I am typing this as I wait for my oldest's birthday cake to come out of the oven. He is 22 today! My how the time flies by!!! He is spending his day hanging out with his buddies doing what he wants to do-good for him!!

In less than an hour, I will be leaving to head to our volleyball tournament and potluck, I'm kinda worn out from all the driveways I hiked today, but I have to go because I'm running the tournament! It will be fun-it's our last night until mid September...almost bitter sweet-with everyone going their seperate ways for the summer! I always look forward to seeing everyone in the fall and catching up with them all!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!!! It is a little over 70 degrees, blue skies, lots of sunshine and a slight breeze-perfect day here in Michigan!!!

 Should I sell the frames separate? Or should I keep them with the mirrors? The mirrors are in pretty rough shape...

 I LOVE kiddie rockers,and I've lost track of how many I've sold in my booth-I'm always looking for something different or unique...this one is pretty awesome!

Kevin hit another jackpot for himself, a whole load of military canteens and a camelback military hydration bag. I got a little stool, a couple covered casseroles, an old tin, some kid leather gloves with gorgeous embroidery on them, a pile of hankies, some plates, an old embroidered dishtowel-picked it up for $2 at one sale, saw one very similar to it for $12! I also picked up a few vintage drinking glasses.

The BEST thing I got today??? A green Kitchen Kraft ceramic fork for $3!!!

I didn't fill the car like last year, but it was just as much fun "hunting" through all the driveways and parking lots-can't wait for next year!!!

Mark your calendar, Midland is less than a month away!!! Woo hoo!!!

Time to get the cake out of the oven and hit the road-have a great rest of the weekend! Tomorrow is Dealer Day-I'll be stocking my booth and re-organizing with a new theme...if I have enough energy tonight to put everything into bins for tomorrow morning!!! :)

Spring is in the air!

It was a bright sunshiney day today! It got up to 67 degrees! The birds were chirping, trees budding, and some flowers were popping up out of the ground. I took a walk around the yard to check things out, and this is what I found...

 Lilac!

 Forsythia!

 Crimson King Maple.

 Magnolia tree- an anniversary gift from my grandma.

 Iris-from my mom and grandma!

 Chives-from a sweet friend from church!
 Too bad the flower bed fairy, didn't do a very good job cleaning last fall!

 The view from my favorite place in my yard-my hammock!
Looking forward to seeing the leaves blanket the sky above me!

 Phlox-from my mom!

 My great-grandma's peonies are coming back-YAY!!!

Found this under some pine trees, it's been there all winter!

The newest member of the family!

LOOK what I found!!!

Oh,were you expecting something, or someone else?

Happy dance!

Hopping Day Today!

The Sale was great today! Too bad everything was half off, so they didn't make much money, but we got rid of a lot of stuff! They decided to open tomorrow from 9am-noon, and still do everything at half off. I never realized how tired you can get from sitting!

I am exhausted! I decided to not go to the retreat tonight, but stay home, with my family, eat some pizza and just chill. I can always go tomorrow-it's an all day thing tomorrow, tonight was just for a few hours and since its in-house (at our church) this year, it's close to home.

I really enjoyed my time at the sale, visiting with my friend's and their family, as well as people watching. I hope they do well tomorrow!

Happy Weekend!!!

I am such a jerk sometimes!!!

Today I met a very lovely, sweet lady at the sale whom I met yesterday, and my blabbing and rambling in my post yesterday, ended up hurting her. I never mean to hurt anyone with what I say, here on the blog, or verbally in person. Unfortunately, I did just that. The verse from Proverbs immediately popped into my head...Proverbs 10:19 "When words are many, sin is not absent". Yesterday's post was after a really long, tiring day, and I should not have said the things I said.

I am sooo sorry sweet blog friend that my stupid, un-thought through words hurt you. Please forgive me! I have removed a large section of words from my post from yesterday, and I hope you believed me today when I told you how sorry I was!!!

I'm sorry if I over-stepped my bounds when I gave you a hug too! I have been so upset with myself all day long-especially since I wasn't near a computer so I could change my post and apologize! I am supposed to be at a women's retreat at our church, tonight, but I decided to go late so I could race home first to take care of my many words.

I also would like to apologize to all the rest of my blog friends-for not being kinder with my words in yesterday's post. If I offended anyone, I sincerely apologize, and ask for your forgiveness.

One day down, one more to go!

Today was the first day of the estate sale I am helping my friends with. I arrived at the house about an hour and 15 minutes early for last minute set, up stuff, and I was about 15 minutes ahead of my friends. There were already 3 cars waiting, and when they saw me pull into the driveway, they got out of their cars. When I didn't get out right away they walked up toward my car and did the what's up, are you gonna get out or what thing with their hands.

I told them I was just a worker and they had to wait until 9 for the family to come and unlock the doors and I'd bring out the numbers then. They were fine with it, especially when the people with the keys pulled in right behind me.

We ended up with 15 people in line before we opened. I was hoping for 20 or more, but since they didn't place an ad in the newspaper (Craigslist only), I think 15 was a good number. It was steady with people until about 1:30, then it crashed. We had a few trickle in after that, but not much. We only made about half of what I was expecting to make-so I'm kind of bummed about that.

I was surprised at the number of people who came who didn't speak English! A couple of them even tried to use that (a ruse I think) to get better deals. Some people nickeled and dimed me to death! I felt the prices were very reasonable, and a few people even told me and my friends they thought our prices were good. After some people left though, I felt exhausted, just from dickering with them, and today was "prices are firm" day.

By the time I got home, I was starving and there was no way I was gonna cook, when 2 of my guys had been home all day, doing nothing. So we went out to a local favorite of ours that sells grinders. We were shocked to see they had downsized their restaurant by at least half, their pickle wedges got cut in half and each sandwich has gone up at least 70 cents. A sign of the times I guess.

Now, I'm just chilling in my sun room, enjoying the sun-feeling a little sad for all the sales I missed visiting today, and will miss tomorrow, but also feeling pretty happy for being able to help out my friends. I would just be a LOT happier if we could sell more stuff!!!

We sold a lot of things, but there weren't many dents made in the amount of stuff there.

Here is what it looked like this morning before we opened...

 The Heathkit stereo was the big hit of the sale, we could have probably sold it 4 or 5 times over today!

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes...wish us luck!!! :)