Weekend Adventures

Last Friday, I took off on an adventure to Saline, Michigan. My main destination was Baker's Nook. A friend from work makes amazing candy and chocolate covered cherries at Christmas time, and I wanted to try my hand at the chocolate covered cherries. I could have ordered the molds online, but would have had to pay shipping, and wouldn't have had a reason to explore a new area.

I stopped at a few thrift stores and an antique store on the way to Baker's Nook-which by the way, is an amazing shop!!! Not only do they sell everything you can imagine for baking and candy making, they are also a bakery (I think just wedding cakes and specialty cakes), so as soon as I stepped out of the car, I was enveloped in a dreamy baking cake smell-YUM!!!

I took my time and wandered around the shop for a while, not wanting to miss anything. The workers were really friendly and very helpful. I will definitely be going back!! Actually, I need to go back, because the chocolate covered cherry molds I bought are too small. I picked the small size, thinking the large would be too much chocolate.The small size isn't big enough for the chocolate, cherry and fondant-oops!

I found a few things at the Saline Goodwill store that I couldn't live without and a few more things at a big resale store called Nu 2 U. Both places are places I plan to return to some day when I'm back in the area. I enjoyed visiting both places.

I stopped at Treasure Mart in Ann Arbor on the way home. It was PACKED with people!! I've never seen so many people in there at one time! They had a bunch of Pyrex, Jadeite and even a few pieces of Fiesta, but nothing that I didn't already have.

On Thursday of this week, when I arrived at work, I saw a giant pink gift bag on my desk. Inside was a really sweet thank you note and 4 vintage dish towels and a vintage Arizona state tablecloth. It was a thank you present from some friends from church that I helped with setting up an estate sale for their dad.

On Friday, I set out for Novi with my youngest son. Our destination was One World Market-a Japanese grocery store. My oldest son got a rice cooker at Christmas and he and my youngest have been making sushi like crazy, so we wanted to see what kind of sushi making supplies they had. We went up and down every aisle and ended up buying some nori (seaweed sheets), chopsticks, wasabi powder and a couple of tiny trays of fresh sushi.

After that we went to one of our favorite fast food places-Culver's in Wixom. For two purposes, one to get a great burger and two, to see how far along construction is coming on the new Menard's.

We made a quick trip to Knightsbridge while we were in the area. There was only one other couple in the whole store while we were there. I got a kick out of watching my youngest wander around and every once in a while I heard, "that's so cool!" when he found something that was new to him or interesting. Out of both of my boys, I'd say he's the one who has the junkin gene-it's just not fully developed yet, but one day-I bet he'll be scrounging estate sales on a regular basis.

This morning I went to an estate sale in my own town. It was by my favorite estate sale company, and the online pictures showed some things that piqued my interest. I've been going to their sales for years.They are always very well organized and the prices are very fair.

I was thinking with the single digit temperatures and snowy roads that there wouldn't be very many people crazy enough to go to the sale. Boy, was I wrong! I got number 28. They said on their website that they were only allowing 15 people at a time in the house since it was so small. so after I got my number, I went back to my car to sit in the warmth until the first wave went in.

After a while, I wandered into the garage since it was open separately from the house.It was too packed to see much, so I went to the front door to wait. There was NO ONE in line. I stood there for a while and another couple came up behind me.They were number 26. Shortly thereafter, the door opened and the guy said he could take two. I asked him what number he was on and he didn't have a chance to answer, because the #26 people said they were going in and went on in.

After they were in, people started coming from their cars. Their numbers started at 17 and went  up. They were not happy and tried to get in, but the guy manning the door wouldn't let them in. They asked him what number they were on, and he told them he wasn't going by numbers any more just whoever was in line. Some people left because they were so angry. So when he opened the door again I was first in line, but I felt bad because a lot of people were there before me and had lower numbers, so I asked him if he was going by numbers again or if it was first in line.

He took one look at the group of freezing, irritated people and decided to go by numbers again, Good choice! He looked new to me, I have not seen him at any of their estate sales before. I tried to explain to the upset people in line that this company is usually very organized and very fair, but I think it fell on deaf ears.

Someone was there early handing out street numbers, but this company doesn't honor street numbers-they use their own numbers. Some of the car sitters got street numbers, but didn't know they wouldn't be honored. They sat in their cars until just a minute before the door opened, and when they got the the line, they were very angry to learn their number didn't count. They grumbled in the line for a while, and weren't interested when I explained about street numbers. They got so upset they just walked away, and said they'd never shop a sale from this company again.

Eventually I made it in, but all the things I'd seen in the online pictures was already snatched up. It was an interesting house. Very narrow and steep stairways, and very small rooms. The basement ceiling was so low, I had to duck! The furnace was so huge, three adults could have held hands in a circle and probably wouldn't have been able to reach all the way around it.

I did find a few things, that I could have lived without, but they were really cheap, and I can always find a use or place for them, so I bought them and came home. I'm almost thawed out-two hours later,

Here are some pics of the last couple of weeks of adventures...

 I got this at Nu2U-we are going to use it for our TEAM ZOE shirts for this year's spina bifida walk. 

 A refrigerated reach-in at One World Market. Notice the quail eggs on the right?

 The vintage tablecloth has flattened and bent silverware hooks sewn onto it. It was used as a curtain. At least they didn't make any holes in the tablecloth!! I got the tablecloth and hooks for less than the price of what the tablecloth is worth! The scrapbook punch is for my mom for her stained glass projects. 

 A Thirty One storage basket. I know they cost more than $2 when you buy them from their website.

 I bought this at Knightsbridge...and found out my wish list spreadsheet wasn't totally up to date-I already have this size. It's in better shape than this pic shows-my phone is having focusing issues.

 The base to this looks to have never been used.

 Purple, pink and gray-vintage tablecloth in great shape!

 A stack of vintage dish towels from the thank you gift. 

Vintage Arizona tablecloth. I think I'm going to keep my eyes open and try to collect one for each state. I'm sure it will take a long, long time because I am really cheap, and these tend to go for a lot!

I'm home for the rest of the day-although the sunshine and blue skies is tempting me to head out for some fun...