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!
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Salt City Antiques looks like an amazing store! And I totally understand about the hunt being harder because our lists are shorter. I jumped for joy a while back because I found a piece of Horizon Blue Pyrex that I didn't already have. This doesn't happen very often!
ReplyDeleteErica