Look What I Got!!

This morning, my dear friend Anne (otherwise known throughout my blog as "Auntie"-because of her blog "Thoughts from the Chicken's Auntie") came to work and brought me a super FUN birthday present!

LOOK!

Aren't they COOL!?!?! I LOVE them!!!

I also noted that I've really milked this birthday thing for quite a few days! Lunch on Thursday with the girls from work, a super fun morning of thrifting and lunch with my sister-in-law on Friday, flowers from my boss and my parents delivered to me at work on Friday,my actual birthday and a banana cream pie (thanks Eric!) on Saturday, all kinds of birthday wishes coming through all day Saturday and Sunday on facebook and on my phone, and these beauties today! What fun! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends and relatives!! Thank you everyone!!

Making Progress...

Yesterday I was able to get the final coats of paint on the 3 display cabinets, and I LOVE how they turned out!

I was also able to get the last few items priced, wrapped up and into a bin (and off of the table and counter) ready to go tomorrow.

Kevin took the day off tomorrow to help us with the move-in. We have to go to Auntie's house and pick up the two display cases that she painted and then head out. Hopefully all 5 will fit so that we only have to make one trip to get them all there.

Once we get there, Auntie will be painting over the Thomas Kincaid border (it doesn't look very kitschy-it looks more sleepy) with black chalkboard paint. Once that dries, we are going to use chalkboard markers to put a bunch of multi-colored polka dots all over it.

Then we'll be loading in our junk stuff. I'm hoping we can get the lion's share of the stuff set up tomorrow because the weather forecasters are calling for 15" of snow tomorrow night! So traveling to the mall on Wednesday might not be an option. We'll see how it goes. I may be overly optimistic about how much we'll end up getting done-since I've never done this before and have no idea what to expect!

The deck/sunroom is also progressing, despite the windows being the wrong size. This is what it looked like tonight when I got home from work...

Tuesday is Almost Here!!!

Tuesday is February 1st...the day we move into our rented space in a local antique and collectibles mall!! I am really excited, nervous, and hopeful all at the same time! I've been busy the last couple of days painting 3 more display cases/shelves for the booth. I've put on 4 coats of paint and the wood just seems to be soaking it all up. At this rate I'll need another 4 coats!

I've also been pricing and packing up all of the treasures I picked up at the super sale with my sister-in-law, as well as a few things from Thursday's estate sale and Saturday's trip to Treasure Mart. Having all of the junk treasures and bins of treasures sitting out the past couple of days has really gotten old and has gotten on Kevin's last nerve. I think it is a combination of the new antique/collectibles mall adventure and the deck/sunroom adventure.

The booth adventure will take all of the stuff out of the house on Tuesday, but we will still be dealing with the deck adventure for a couple more weeks. It seems the sales person at the lumber yard ordered the windows with the sizes mixed up! We wanted them to be 5'X6' and he ordered them 6'X5'. The mistake was found on Friday when the builders got the walls all framed in and went to put a window in and found out it didn't fit.

Now we have to wait 2 weeks for the new windows. It would have been a lot easier if we could have just adjusted the openings and used the windows that are here, but they would only be a foot off the ground and in order for them to be up to code, they'd have to be tempered glass-which they are not.

Eric lost a chicken today. The one that has been living in our basement the past couple of weeks because it was sick is no longer with us. It was pretty hard on him-he's grown quite attached to his girls. It was a leghorn. At least she isn't suffering any more.

How was your weekend? Hope you had a nice, relaxing end to your week!

A Super Fun Day!!!

A while back, my sister-in-law asked me to keep January 28th free on my calendar and plan to spend the day and evening with her. Her community was holding a big winter festival and she wanted me to come out and enjoy it with her. She told me about a bunch of stuff that was going on, but I have to admit, I didn't catch it all. I just heard sale, ice sculptures, lights, and festival-sorry Dawn!

I wrote it on my calendar, but forgot about it until she emailed me to remind me. Today was the day! I left home at 8am, got to her house and visited with her for about a half an hour, and then we went to the community center where they were having a sale. She had never been before, so she had no idea what to expect. I just thought if it wasn't any good, at least we'd have a nice time visiting and lunch out-something we don't get to do very often.

The sale was HUGE! It was all donated stuff that was sold as a fundraiser for the community (I think-I'm not sure on all the details-I'm still in the pinch me I'm dreaming mode!). Almost everything I bought was a quarter, fifty cents, seventy five cents, or a dollar. I got LOTS of fun stuff for the booth, and I can't wait for next year! Both of us have already marked it on our calendar-and we are making a note to skip the half hour visit until after we take care of business! LOL!

I couldn't stay all day because I had to work the check-in for our youth group's winter retreat, so we had to make the most of it in a short amount of time. After the sale we went to a book sale at their library, then to downtown to walk the sidewalks and check out the ice sculptures. We ate downtown at a fun little 50's style diner.

I got really excited when she said the sale is twice a year! But after she dropped me off at her house so I  could head back to work, she went back for round two, and she found out it is only once a year and is always the last weekend in January. I don't think my heart could take this much excitement more than once per year! It was too fun!!!

Wanna see what $17.75 will get you? I splurged at the end (you think I would have learned from yesterday's end of the trip impulse fiasco) on a vintage Christmas tablecloth with napkins for $10. It has a few stains that are really minor (nothing that Biz can't take care of), and there aren't any holes...and I just needed another vintage Christmas tablecloth! ;) So my total was $27.75.

 My second Criss-Cross butter dish in two days!

 Some Pyrex casseroles with lids, an enamel dipper, a custard cup and a dozen corn on the cob dishes.

A giant cruet with a blown glass topper, a few vintage glass syrup containers... 

 My very first piece of Riviera, by Homer Laughlin.

 And two little Riviera dessert plates-I don't think I can part with the Riviera stuff-I've been wanting it for a long time-but just couldn't bring myself to pay the high prices. This stuff was $1.25 for all 3 pieces!

 A cute little pitcher and bowl set.

 More Pyrex!!

 A giant round glass bowl--Kevin says it looks like a space helmet-he even modeled it for me-I won't make you look at it though!

 A vintage clothespin bag still in the package.This and the woodland Pyrex came from a quick stop at a local Salvation Army store.

 This was a freebie from my SIL-she bought it, but doesn't want it...it still has cocoa inside!

 I've been wanting a Christmas card basket for a long time too-but this one is too new-I'd like an older one.

 A vintage child's apron.

Here is what the pattern looks like on the tablecloth and napkins...

This is the fun place we ate lunch-I think the name was Red Knapp's.

 Look at the size of those burgers! Good thing we split an order of fries!

The cool retro menu.

After lunch, we walked around downtown and saw all kinds of really fun ice sculptures. 

See if you can guess each one's name!

This was in front of a toy store-see Raggedy Ann in the window in the store?

When I arrived at work and walked into my office, my desk was buried in flowers!

 From my Mom and Dad, for my birthday tomorrow.

From my boss, along with a gift certificate to the antiques mall where we are booth renters!

Then when I pulled into the garage tonight, right in front of my car was this!

Kevin made us a corner shelf for the booth!

It was such a fun day-you'd think today was my birthday and not tomorrow! 

How about you? Did you do any thrifting today? Get any good deals?

The Thrill of the Hunt...

Since I've been putting in so many hours getting ready for this weekend's high school winter retreat, I got to leave work at 10am today!!  I flew out of there and raced to Flint to an estate sale that looked pretty promising. I knew Auntie had left for the same sale at 7:30, so I was really surprised to see her car parked along the curb when I got there.

I had to wait for about 15 minutes to be let into the house because it was so full of stuff and so full of shoppers-there was literally no room to move! Once I got in, I found some great things right away...figures I forgot my bag in the car-almost 3 blocks away! The house didn't look too big from the outside, but it went on forever on the inside! It had 3 levels and a basement. Coming down the attic stairs with my arms full was kind of scary-the steps were so steep, it was almost like walking down a ladder.

As I was waiting in line, I made an impulse decision to buy a vintage turquoise Fiesta gravy boat. it was marked $10-kind of high for what I usually spend, but it was the old Fiesta. Since my arms were about to give out, I snatched it up and didn't look it over very well...big mistake! After I paid for everything and was packing the stuff back into a box lid I had scrounged up in the basement, I noticed a chip on the bottom rim...ugh...then I noticed that the base had been broken off and glued on...ugh!

It gets better from there...when I got home and was soaking it in the sink, a mini Pyrex refrigerator slipped out of my hand and landed on the gravy boat...now there is a full crack in the main body--there goes $10 I'll never see again...kinda makes me a little sick to my stomach. Have you ever bought something on an impulse, and found out later that you totally wasted your money? Not fun-huh?

It will still display nicely-so I guess I'll add it to my collection. I was really hoping to sell it in the booth though. I got a bunch of stuff at the sale, the prices were like garage sale prices! It was weird to see stickers marked a quarter or fifty cents at an estate sale-you don't see that very often around here.

The most expensive thing I bought was the gravy boat, everything else was $2 down to a quarter. When I was done shopping, I saw Auntie back inside for another run through. We were going to meet up outside after, but I realized I needed to hurry and get back toward home, because a bunch of ladies from work were taking me and a two other January birthday girls from the office out to lunch to celebrate. I thought since I was one of the honorees I had better hurry and get there.

We both made it to lunch and had a fun time laughing and enjoying everyone's company. Wasn't that a nice treat?!? I thought so!

 I stopped at the local Salvation Army before heading home and got a few more goodies for the booth, and guess what I saw when I got home??? A builder's truck and trailer in the backyard and 3 guys working on the deck/sunroom!!! YAYYYYY!!!!  I felt bad for them-they looked miserable! It was snowing pretty hard and even though they were bundled up pretty good, they still looked cold. I offered them some coffee, but they said they were good.

Here's what I got today...

I had such a fun day today! Racing to the sale, getting some fun stuff and then racing back for a nice lunch with the girls was just a ton of fun! How was your day?

Yesterday VS Today...

So, the builder guy and his workers came out today. He called Kevin at lunch time and said the whole deck has to be ripped out-it's not level-we can't work with it. I'll get a new price to you later today...my question is-why is it not workable today, when it was workable a couple of months ago when we first got a quote from him and he agreed to do the job...why was it workable two weeks ago when we signed the contract?

They took the rest of the rails off and sorted through the materials stacks....and that was it!!

Yesterday...

Today...

Yesterday...

Today...

So frustrating! It would have been nice to have seen some progress today. I guess we kinda knew this was coming...the deck does sag in the back right corner (from all of the years of weight from our hot tub). I guess I just don't understand why he never thought of it earlier.

Day 3 comes and goes with nothing to show. Hopefully days 4, 5, 6, and so on go a little better!

Have a good night-I'm off for a little stress relief volleyball!