A Really Ugly, Creepy Frog Day...

Well…today was the highly anticipated antiquing trip to Holly. What we were hoping would be a prince of a day…turned into a very creepy frog day!

It turned out to be a sleepy little town that on first glance, seemed to have lots interesting older homes and buildings downtown. We got a great parking spot, right across an alley from an historic hotel (which isn’t an operating hotel anymore, but a high scale restaurant). It had such a great exterior and was on a really cool little alley with a bunch of little shops, I couldn’t wait to explore!

As we got about 20 feet from the entrance to Arcade Antiques, Chicken’s Auntie, casually pops out with, “You know this place is haunted don’t you?” What? No, I hadn’t heard that…are you joking? She wasn’t joking! She went on to say that some people have even said they have felt what feels like the skirt of the woman that haunts the place to brush up against them when they are in the back rooms looking at the antiques. GREAT…now I really want to go in - - - not so much!

When we went in, it was a little different, but we kept going. The farther back we went, the darker and creepier it got. The lighting was really sparse, and the facades that they built for the outsides of the rooms that was I’m sure, meant to be charming, seemed to me, to be just plain creepy! The guy working there was very friendly, and fun to chat with, but I couldn’t get over the creepy feeling. I’m pretty sure, that even if Auntie hadn’t dropped that bombshell on me, I would have still felt it was creepy!

We walked to the end of the alley and out on to S. Saginaw and saw this really neat building across the street-I just had to take a quick snap of it! I didn’t even realize that I got the Holly Hills Primitives sign in the shot.

Our next stop was Holly Hills Primitives. It was a quick walk through for us. Neither of us are very big fans of primitives. I’m glad we stopped though, because you never want to wonder, if you missed your prince because you didn’t stop.

We walked across the street to Holly’s Main Street Antiques. It was quite a bit less creepy- brighter lighting, and more open spaces.  When we went upstairs, a little boy (I am assuming he was either the son or grandson of the owner), came upstairs after we did, and hopped on an antique tricycle that was for sale, and was riding it around up there while we were shopping. It was kind of weird-in a creepy sort of way. We both thought the prices seemed very high, and neither of us ended up buying anything.

 We asked the owner for advice on a good place to get lunch and he recommended the place next door called Bittersweet Café. It was a small little place with only about 10 or so tables, and what seemed to be a walk up counter with the menu on the wall behind the counter. We walked up to the counter, not sure if we should seat ourselves or order at the counter and take it to our seats ourselves. We stood there for a few minutes, with the workers buzzing around just to our left in the kitchen area. I know they all saw us, but no one made an immediate attempt to say hi, or try to help us. That should have been a clue as to what to expect…

When finally a waitress, (the only one in the building apparently) asked if we needed help, (after I’m assuming she overheard us asking each other if we just seat ourselves or if we order at the counter). She told us to seat ourselves and asked what we wanted to drink. After she brought our iced tea, she left and went to another table and stood and talked with them for quite a long while before she came back to take our order. Auntie got split pea soup and half a ham sandwich. I got a chicken quesadilla. We waited so long for the food to arrive, that we were wondering if they had forgotten us! When it came, it was pretty good but, I think we were both so hungry at that point, that it could have tasted like sawdust, and we would have still scarffed it down. Looking around, the café was a really neat older building with a tin ceiling, and exposed brick wall. The inside was pretty charming-and not creepy at all…too bad the service wasn’t that great.

When we left the café, we walked across the street, and for some reason, I forgot to take a snap of the outside of the next shop on our list (and now I can't even remember the name of it). It was a mixture of mostly new stuff with a handful of antique furniture thrown in. I took a snap of a patio set that I really liked. It had purple toile!!! I really loved the chaise, but it wasn’t for sale…bummer!

 

 

The next stop was the Holly Water Tower Antiques Mall. I had seen this place on line and was pretty excited to stop. Their parking lot was so tiny! I think it only had 6 or 7 spaces! When you first walk in, there are a lot of locked display cases. I was kind of bummed, because it has been my experience that the stuff in locked cases is usually priced way more than I want to spend. Plus, when I am shopping, I like to be able to pick the items up, look them over really good, hold them up the light, and just feel the weight and quality. If I go to a shop and see a lot of locked cases, I usually skip right by them. 

There were a couple of things that caught our eyes…a Harlequin creamer, a chartreuse pitcher and a couple other small things, but in the end, we walked out without buying anything.

Our next stop was Balcony Row Antiques. It looked interesting from the outside. When we went in though, it was really creepy. It was very dimly lit, and was a very old building with lots of little rooms just filled with really old creepy stuff. They were playing really creepy classical music and I was glad I wasn’t in there alone! By the time we got about half way through, I was ready to go! The creepy-ness was getting to be too much for me. One little room we looked in even had a skull on the counter! I couldn’t wait to get out of there!

Off to Spinning Jenny’s Antiques in Clarkston. I wish I would have read the online review before we went! It was a small place, with stuff that looked like it had been there for a long time and prices that were really high - another frog in our search for our prince today.

We ended up being only about 5 miles from Dixieland Flea Market, and since Auntie had never been, and I knew the Fiesta lady was there... I kind of talked her into going. I figured what’s one more creepy stop on the creepy train!?! It fit it with the rest of the day’s stops quite well.

We saw some neat stuff, lots of people and actually liked the Betty Boop ladies room. I got a purple Pyrex mixing bowl set (that I think is actually called cranberry, but looks more purple than red to me) and a chartreuse Fiesta charger, and then it was time to head for home. We made a quick stop at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in White Lake, but didn’t find anything there either.

So…overall, I’d say it was a really ugly, creepy frog day! I think we need to find a prince and soon! If for nothing else than to chase the creepies away!

 

In keeping with our rating system (frog for not so great, and prince for great), today was an ugly, creepy frog day!