Looking Forward to Tomorrow...

I haven't been doing much thrifting lately. I've been busy with life! Since my last post, my youngest turned 21, had some major changes at work, been crazy busy at work, finished out another volleyball league with a tournament and dessert potluck, and just life in general.

Today, after work, Mr. and I went to Costco. It wasn't overly busy, but when we got to the cashier area, it was packed! They hurried and opened every lane and were rushing people through. The lines were huge for paying and for getting out of the store.

As we were waiting to get out of the store, a man walked up to a manager and asked why we were all getting kicked out of the store. Neither Mr. or I had heard anything, so I eavesdropped to find out what was going on. The manager said they had a potential situation, and they were taking precautions. While we were walking to our car, we saw people walking out and the entire staff walked out. They walked the full length of the parking lot as far away from the store as they could get.

The tire place closed all of their garage doors, and the overhead doors to the main warehouse were closed. Then the parking lot emptied out. It was all very calm, and very smooth, everyone seemed fine, even at ease.

We saw the police cars when we walked in, and we saw a couple officers at the check out area-toward the employee breakroom and bathroom area, but there wasn't any tension that could be felt in the air. The cashier was even joking with us. It was all very normal.

When we got home, we found out it was a bomb threat. They brought in the dogs and cleared the area. I heard there were helicopters flying overhead, and they stopped the school busses from driving through that area. I have to give a lot of credit to the management of our local store for the calm way they handled the whole situation. It could have been really ugly, instead it was very calm-in my opinion.

We did stop at an estate sale on the way home. Actually, it was two estate sales, in two houses, across the street from each other, owned by the same man. One house was on a lake, and the other was across a small dirt road from it. Prices were waaayy high, and there wasn't a single thing I was interested in. I did enjoy wandering through the houses though. It was a first too, two sales, in two houses for the same person-I bet that won't ever happen again.

Tomorrow, I'll be heading up the M15 sale route. It's an 80 mile route from Clarkston to Bay City, with garage sales all along the route. It is officially open on Saturday, but I found a bunch of sales advertised for tomorrow, and Saturday is the Davisburg Antiques Festival...I can't miss that!!!

Saturday evening is the end of another volleyball league that I'm in (run),and we're having a potluck and tournament for that too. So I've got a busy couple of days coming up, and after that I'll only have one night a week for volleyball, and things will slow down considerably. I've never said that before-LOL!

I'll be back with pictures and more stories after this weekend's adventures. Sunday will be cake day-I'll be attempting an Adventure Time cake for my oldest-he LOVES that show-and his birthday is Monday. It's going to be a surprise for him, and for me if it actually turns out!

First Spring Flea

Today was the first flea market of the season at Mega Mall. So after church, Auntie and I took off to hunt for treasures! We got there about a half hour after it opened and there were TONS of shoppers! It wasn't a sold-out flea market, it seemed quite a bit smaller than the last few I went to last year. It could have been that it was the first one of the season and the weather in Michigan in April is always iffy. It was supposed to be a rainy day, but the rain held off and should be coming later this afternoon. I know I wouldn't want to go to all the effort of hauling and setting up my junk treasures to sell and then be rained out.

There were two garage sales, right across the street from the antique mall, which made it convenient for the homeowners. I'm sure they got a ton of shoppers that they wouldn't have gotten if it wasn't flea market Sunday. We made a quick trip through all of the flea vendors and then wandered around the mall for a while too.

I bought an 8" round cake pan at the flea market for $1-just in time to bring it home, wash it and put cake batter into it for my youngest's birthday cake. He's going to be 21 on Tuesday!!! Auntie asked me if that made me feel old. I said not as much as knowing my oldest is turning 24 in two weeks!!! Where does the time go?!?

When I got home everyone was busy doing their own thing. It was fun to have everyone home at the same time and all together in the main part of the house. With everyone's busy schedules, we are very rarely home all at the same time.

Mr BHTS and I decided it was time to put our screens in, so while he putting them in the sunroom windows, it reminded him to check the trail cam to see what happened last night with the live trap. It was upside down this morning with nothing in it, and all the tuna from the can was gone. He still hasn't gone to get the Little Debbie's yet...he thinks he's going to do it his way. The guy I work with said he caught 9 skunks one spring around his house with the Little Debbie cookies, so I'm wondering why Mr doesn't want to try it. Although...this skunk is proving to be pretty smart-at least smarter than the three guys living in my house.

The newest part of this critter adventure, is now we have found a hole going under our front porch. So, we either have a second critter, or the one under the sun room is tired of being hassled and is moving to the front of the house. We all cracked up when we were scrolling through the pics from the trail cam, because you can see a second animal in some of the shots, and it looks like a raccoon! Oh, the joys of living in the country!!

Now the live trap is staked to the ground and ready to go for round 5. I'm sure we'll have more laughs,and hopefully no one gets sprayed in the coming days!!

Here are pics of my day...

I've actually kept this alive since before Easter! The weather better hurry up and get warm so I can plant it outside, I'm running out of luck the longer it takes to get it in the ground, the less likely it will survive. I have never had a green thumb.

My youngest bought and planted a bunch of tulip bulbs last fall. Only one came up.I didn't even know he did it-what a nice surprise!

I'm loving this cork board that I saw at Mega Mall today.

A great idea for my bi-fold door and linens.

Love this little canister!

Still hoping to have Mr make me something like this some day.

My treasusre from inside Mega mall. It's something in my collection that I never thought I'd find the complete set of original colors. Now I only need red and ivory and the set is complete!

Here are some fun trail cam pics of our resident smart skunk and one of his or her "friend" who came for a visit. notice the skunk on TOP of the wire live trap-trying to get the tuna out. ;)

 The newest member of our zoo.

Garage Sale Fever!

The weather is finally turning to spring in Michigan. Yesterday was THE perfect day! Blue skies, lots of sun, and 69 degrees! I've been dying for garage sales to start up again, and yesterday was a perfect day for being out and about. I drove around with my windows down all day!

I went to 4 sales. I only bought stuff at one sale. It was run by a woman around my age. She was cleaning out her in laws house (it had been sitting un-lived-in) for over a year. She was planning to move into it with her family so they were getting rid of everything. I got a few things for other people. I will keep one thing for myself. and I got some divided Pyrex to trade.

Last night was a busy night around our house. The park next door was hosting a local community's marshmallow drop and Easter egg hunt. It was the make up date, since it rained out the Thursday before Easter. It was also the night of my cousin's Mary & Martha party. You can Google Mary & Martha party to see what that was all about. It is kind of like a Christian home decor party-similar to Pampered Chef and Tupperware parties.

Since I love to take pictures of the marshmallow drop every year, and I wasn't going to be home for it, my youngest agreed to take some pics for me. This is what I missed out on.

After the helicopter leaves, they let groups of kids in a simlar age range run out on the soccer fields to get marshmallows. Anyone who gets a peep, or colored marshmallow gets to turn it in for a prize.

This is our little girl, looking sad the other day when everyone was leaving.

New finds...

404!! Set is done!! If only the red 402, sunflower 441,& butterprint 441 were as easy to find!!

 Garage Sale finds...

Gift from a couple of friends after a really stressful week...

Now I've got the fever-to get out and get to more sales for more treasure hunting!!!

Hope you are having a great weekend!!!

An Unwelcome Guest

A couple of weeks ago, one of my guys noticed a large hole in the ground going under our sun room. If you are a long-time blog friend, you may remember that we turned our deck into a sun room a while back. It is closed in on the bottom with treated plywood and then we put cultured stone on the plywood to finish it off.The stone and the plywood stop at the dirt level. The rest of the house has a basement.

Being concerned for the safety of our little Lucy girl, they immediately set up a live trap to try to catch whatever was hiding out under there. They were using veggies at bait. After not having any luck, or even seeing what the critter might be, my youngest decided to toss in a big wad of lit firecrackers one day. Still no luck.

Mr. tried to bait the box trap with a piece of chicken. The critter ate the chicken through the wire-it was gone the next day. So that started an online search for a place that could get wire snares here the cheapest and fastest. He tried putting a big stone over the hole, but it was moved out of the way and the hole was bigger the next day.

After the snares were ordered, they decided to put out my youngest son's trail cam to see if they could see what they were up against. They were thinking racoon because it was so smart in getting the chicken out of the wire box trap, and it was smart enough to move the stone.

The first night, the only pictures that came through were of a tail, and with it being black and white, dark and very grainy, it was kind of hard to really tell. So they cleared the pictures and set it back up the next night, and this is what we saw!

It's a very small, dark picture, but can you see right in the middle...they eye reflecting, and the...white stripe down the back!?!?

I'm soooo glad the firecrackers didn't scare it, and I'm sooo glad the snares haven't gotten here yet!!! Could you even imagine the stench coming into our house?!? How long would that smell last? My eyes are watering just thinking about it! I wonder if it had babies under there...ugh!

So, now we've been told to put Little Debbie oatmeal sandwich cookies in a medium sized box trap, they seem to prefer Little Debbie, and the smaller sized trap will keep it from being able lift its tail. That's all great advice, but my question is what do you do with it once you catch it?!?! If it were to die, wouldn't it release the odor?

We've also heard cat food works. We only have a dog, so Mr tried dog food and a can of tuna. He wired the can to the bottom of the trap so it can't tip it and get it out without going in, but the past two nights, the tuna is still sitting in the can. I think we're going to have to break out the Little Debbie's.

Weekend Adventures

I started the week with an extra day off (Monday), and I ended the week with an extra day off (Thursday). I think I could get used to only working 2 days a week! It almost feels like a vacation, or what I assume retirement must feel like. Now I am super jealous of Mr BHTS who only works 3-12 hour shifts a week-he has 4 days off to do whatever he pleases. I know 12 hour shifts are long, but he usually only works two in a row. Sometimes he gets every-other day off. I think I'd like that!

I didn't do much on Thursday. Just some groceries and errands for the house. On Friday I went to my first church rummage sale of the season-walked out empty handed. I also went to an estate sale, and two garage sales-nothing there either! Then I went to a couple of thrift stores. One of them has an 80% off room in their basement that is always fun to look through. It's the same place my youngest found the happy pumpkin Fiesta candle holders and shakers for me right after my surgery.

I was getting ready to head up the stairs, because nothing was jumping out at me, when I found a vase. It looks art deco-ish, and is only marked USA on the bottom. I found a couple in online auctions that are listed around $30. I'll keep my eye on them, this one was $2.12. Even if I end up giving it away, or keeping it, it was pretty cheap. I'm not sure if I bought it just to keep from being skunked all day, or if I really like it...it's ok, but not my usual style.

After I got home, my guys agreed to go with me to Ann Arbor. I've been wanting to visit Cost Plus World Market ever since I found out they carry a Jadeite-ish cake pedestal. As it turned out, my oldest needed to drop some paperwork off at his work anyway, so he was happy to tag along. I really enjoyed wandering around the store. So much to see! Lots of new,old-looking stuff. Most of it was way out of my price range,but a lot of it gave me great ideas to watch for the vintage real deals at estate and garage sales this summer.

I bought it. They were out of the smaller size-I would have bought one of those as well.

This morning, Mr wanted to go to Harbor Freight again, and wanted me to ride along. If a Harbor Freight ever opens closer to us than 30 minutes, I know where he will always be! We decided to go to the store in Ypsilanti today, since we've been to Livonia and Flint recently for other adventures. Of course, I mapped out a couple sales to visit and an antique store.

Our first stop was at Salt City Antiques in Ypsilanti. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this store!! So much vintage eye candy. I felt myself grinning ear to ear as I was walking through taking it all in. There is one bad thing about being a collector for many years...your list of gotta-have-its gets smaller and smaller!

I saw LOTS of things I'd love to take home with me, but nothing that I just had to have. I did take some pictures though, so I could share the vintage awesomeness with you. If you ever get to Michigan, or southeastern Michigan-take a quick trip to Ypsilanti (pronounced: ip-sil-anti) and stop in at Salt City. You will be glad that you did!

We tried our luck at a garage sale and an estate sale-no luck. The estate sale was in a sub with huge houses-not my usual type of sale, but the pickings have been very slim, this winter, of sales worth visiting, so we thought we'd take a chance. It was a beautiful house, and the sale was run by my favorite estate sale company...but both of those things didn't make it into my kind of vintage-goodies sale.  I picked up a certificate frame at the estate sale for $1.

After pretty much striking out at the sales, we went to HF. As we pulled in the driveway of the strip mall, I saw a sign for Ollie's. We've seen commercials, but have not been to an area where this store has been, so we didn't know what type of store it was exactly. I announced I was skipping HF, and going to Ollie's. Mr. didn't want to miss out, so he went to Ollie's with me. The best way to describe it, is kind of like a Big Lots on steroids. It was full of all kinds of closeouts. Discounted even lower than when they were clearanced out of the regular stores. We got a few things, and he was able to get what he was looking for at HF before we headed home.

I put an old hanky in the certificate frame and decided to pick up a few frames from the dollar store to see if I could put together a collage of hankies on the wall. The frames I'm looking for need to have a minimal frame, with glass, and they need to be really cheap, because I'd like to have 15-20 on a wall. I found some, but instead of being picture frames, they had pictures in them already and they were called "wall art". I bought them with the intention of taking the backs off, removing the "art" picture and replacing it with a hanky.

Easier said than done! The "wall art" picture was glued in! I got a utility knife and got one apart and put the hanky in, but as soon as I got it all back together, the frame broke. It is a super cheap, flimsy plastic that wasn't meant to be moved around. The second one, I slipped with the knife and cut a big chunk out of the plastic frame. So I gave up on cutting the "art" out. I tried stretching the hanky over the whole thing and taping it to the back, but I could still see the "art" through the hanky. Plus I like the look of the hanky under the glass. Oh well, at least I tried. Tomorrow, I'll be returning the leftover "wall art" things. and at least I know I tried. I'll have to add document frames (metal ones) to my garage sale shopping list for this summer. That frame worked out beautifully for the hanky idea.

 Metal frame-very sturdy-easy to use.

 Dollar store "wall art"-not such a good idea

For dinner I tried another new to me idea, something I saw online. Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches (those are not new to me) with the bacon woven together and baked in the oven (that's the new to me part). It was very easy and it turned out just like it looked online! I was pleasantly surprised. Some of those wonderful looking online things are disappointing. I cleaned out my flowerbeds and did a few things around the house, it was so nice to be outside today!! Blue skies and puffy white clouds-the temperature wasn't too bad either!

Hope you have a great weekend!!