Interesting Friday!

Today I headed out to a few sales here in the U.P.. Going to garage sales in the Upper Peninsula is no where near what it is like in southern lower Michigan where I live. At home, you can hit 20 or more sales all in one subdivision or neighborhood. Up here, you have to drive 20,30,40 or more miles just to find one sale!

I took the same route that I took last summer at this same time, and I was very excited to see some of the same places from last year were having a sale again this year! I even found a couple of flea markets and a place I visited last year called "The Junk Shop".

While I was at one sale, the couple running the sale were talking and the man said something and I thought he was talking about me. He said "She's from....." and it is where I live. I looked at them and asked how they knew that. They laughed and said they were talking about the lady that pulled out as I pulled in! We all laughed at that, and then they told me that they are from my town too and we talked about different landmarks around town. Isn't it a small world when you can be over 300 miles from home and run into people from your own home town?!?

Another thing I noticed today was a lot of the people having garage sales were or are dealers in antique malls or shops. They just used the same price stickers with their dealer numbers on them and the same prices for their garage sales! It got me thinking that maybe some day I'll be just like them. When I retire, maybe I'll move to the U.P. and sell all of my antique mall leftovers in annual garage sales!

I came across one sale that reminded me of a fairy in an enchanted forest.. It was on the side of a main road, but it was in the middle of nowhere. There was an older woman who had a couple of canopies set up on the edge of her yard which was filled very densely with tons of pine trees. You could only see a dirt track that was the driveway and no car or house in site. She had 4 long tables under the canopies and under the trees all set up with beautiful antique glassware, with carpet on the ground,  and she even had different pieces set out on stumps around the tents!

Her prices were wayyyy too high for my cheap taste, but it was a neat little adventure all in itself just stopping at her sale! I should have asked if I could snap a couple of pictures to share with you how enchanting it was. I am chuckling as I type this, because I never in a million years would have thought I would call a garage or yard sale enchanting!

My parents and I all took off in different directions this morning. My mom went south to help with something for my grandparents, I went West, and my dad went further south to Petoskey pick up a friend from Ukraine. My parents have gone several times to Ukraine on mission trips and the guy they work with over there (he runs the orphanage) is here in the states. He called yesterday and asked if he could come up here and stay with my parents for a couple of days to visit. His name is Igor. He seems to be a nice man who really has a heart for God and taking care of the orphan kids.

Since I am leaving tomorrow to go home for a couple of days (to pick up Eric from his mission trip and head back up for another week of vacation. I still feel like I should pinch myself that I actually get two whole weeks of vacation!!!), it worked out well for Igor to come.

My dad was teasing him at dinner time because he is so not used to American food. We just whipped up a quick salad some burgers and my mom just loves tater tots (I have never developed a taste for them)-so she made those too. My dad was trying to convince him that we grew the potatoes that way over here in the U.S.-in those little shapes. Thankfully, he knows how much my dad likes to tease, and he was teasing right back. Although he speaks English very well, it made for interesting conversation while he was trying to figure out if my dad was teasing him or not.

I did pick up a few things today...

Starting on the right...a stack of 12 chartreuse Moderntone dessert plates, a Rudolph Christmas ornament, a very old ceramic egg plate with handle (marked Davar Japan), a gorgeous vintage tablecloth with reds and blues, a candle Christmas decoration (my grandma had a million and one of these melty plastic decorations when I was growing up), a golden butterfly Pyrex fridgie with lid, a set of 3 Pyrex Verde casserole lids, (going to the left...an embroidered table runner, a couple of embroidered doilies, a set of 4 vintage Fiesta fruit bowls, and 6 vintage hankies-whew!

Now I'm heading over to all of your blogs to catch up with you and see all the fun things you've gotten this week! Happy weekend, and Happy 4th of July!