A New Trunk Sale!

This past week has been a very emotional week, so when Saturday got here, I was ready to head out to do some treasure hunting and forget about life for a while. I was planning to hit a couple of garage sales and maybe an estate sale, but they really didn't seem like there would be anything worth getting out of the car for. More or less, they were just something to do. I decided to take one last scan online and I came across an ad for a one day Trunk Sale. 

I figured I could work in a few other places, and maybe even tempt Mr. into joining me by tossing in Menard's and Harbor Freight. So while I'm scurrying around trying to get a quick shower and get out the door, I decided to send Mr a text so he could have time to get ready if he did want to go.

I used voice to text because I was trying to get my hair dryer out with the other hand. I said, "I'm going to Livonia, do you want to go?" What came through was "I'm going to live alone, do you want to go?" Without missing a beat, he replies, "You go, I like it here."

Maybe you had to be here, but I really got a good laugh out of that. Especially since I've had back luck with voice to text in the past, and I promised myself I wouldn't use it again because the last time was so embarrassing

We visited the trunk sale. It was the second annual and was pretty good sized.There wasn't much that I was interested in, but it was fun to look. I think it will keep getting bigger, the more word spreads about it. 

I did pick up one thing. It ended up being the only treasure I got all day. Our trip not only included Menard's and Harbor Freight, but also an estate sale, two antique malls, Sonic, Gander Mountain and Home Goods.  

It was fun to get out and forget about the junk so many people that I love and care for are going through right now. It's so hard to watch people you love going through hard/painful times-especially when all you can do it pray for them and their circumstances and maybe help a little. I wish there were more that I could do

This came in the mail while we were gone...two down, two to go!!

Fun Times, Fun Treasures!

Last weekend, I was really feeling the need for a treasure hunting fix! I was thinking of going to an estate sale in Jackson on Thursday, that advertised over 300 pieces of vintage Pyrex and Fire King, but with it being so far away, and not knowing if I'd even get a good number, or how the prices would be, I decided to skip it and try some local sales instead. My junkin buddy Auntie met me and we took off.

We didn't score any physical treasures to speak of on our outing, but we did catch up on each other's lives and laugh, and blab and laugh some more-which is worth so much more than any "thing" you could buy!

Mr and I went to a few sales Friday morning. We ended up in the Waterford, White Lake area.We only found two sales out of about 6 or 7 that had the kind of junk we were looking for. One sale was an estate sale in the garage. I was getting ready to walk out when I spotted a badly damaged, fired-on bowl with a metal bracket laying inside of it. When I picked it up, the woman running the sale said if I wanted the bracket, I could have it for free. It was part of a three piece set, and someone dropped the smaller bowl, so she was just wanting someone who could use/appreciate it to have it.

I also bought a couple of solid wood picture frames from her, for another project idea that I have-more to come on that, as soon as I have something to show!

Auntie and I  had so much fun on Thursday, that I texted her the Saturday morning to see if she was feeling like a trip to Lake Odessa. We both have been wanting to go back, and I really didn't fee like doing laundry or dusting (it never goes away, so what's one more day-right?), so we took off on another adventure.

I'd forgotten how long of a drive it is to Lake Odessa! It was fine though, because we are never at a loss for words! We wandered through all three shops there and although we didn't find a lot of things to bring home, we saw a lot of great pieces. I don't know about you, but the hunt is probably more fun that the actually purchasing and owning. I love to wander through shops, just to see what I can see. Buying something that catches my fancy, or something from my wish list, is just the cherry on top, or the icing on the cake. I'd be perfectly content to go, and return home with nothing, and I have,many times!!

I picked up a couple of license plates for my stash for my giant Michigan project, and a pitcher that just seemed to call to me...saying, "lemonade would taste so much better..." Other than that, I kept my money in my wallet for another day.

If you are in Michigan, or are planning to travel to my beloved state, take a trip to Lake Odessa. There are three shops all on the same street that are worth checking out. Be sure to check their hours online before you go though. They are only open three days a week!


LOOK at this lovely old dresser with hanky boxes!!! This one is for sale at Fratz Consignment in Fenton.

I found these for Auntie on Friday. The woman running the sale said they were her ex-husband's and his sister's and he's 71 yrs old.

 I also found this for her.

She also had these three bottles of beach glass. She collected it from the ocean in Boston. She sold all of it to me for $5. I was thinking that was a little high. She didn't value the glass, she based her price on the jars.

 My Mom and I now have tons of ideas for projects-more to come soon-I hope!!

 A friend of mine collects beach glass and she was giddy with excitement when I showed her my pictures. She just about fell over when I told her $5. She says she sees it all the time for sale for $1 per piece!!

See the stopper top in the lower right corner?

 There were even a couple of red pieces and some pottery pieces.

 White Fiesta isn't really my color but when it's in mint condition and less than $5...

We also stopped at the Birdcage Antique Mall in Howell (on M59) and I saw this on the wall in one of the booths!!! I loved the look, but as I looked closer and read the words...I grew up in New Hudson, so did my Dad...he worked on that farm when he was a teenager!! I know I could have made something like this myself-I still have windows in the basement waiting for some project or other, but I'd never be able to find the feedsack-unused. It now sits on my mantle shelf. I sent my Dad a picture of it and he said it brought back lots of memories for him.

 Here is the free bracket. I know this isn't the set it goes to, but I had to try it! Don't mind the dust...the dusting fairy has been spending too much time treasure hunting and not dusting lately!!

 Look at this really cool puzzle, embedded in a game table! It's for sale at Bonanza Antiques in Lake Odessa-in the basement.

 Look what the puzzle is depicting!!!

I'm on the hunt for one of these! My friend Marie uses them to store her Christmas cookies-what a great idea-huh??

Doesn't this just make you think of icy cold lemonade?!?

These are the license plates that I have so far. I'm looking for more in the colors that I don't have. I plan to cut them to fit on a 3-4 foot shape of the state of Michigan and U.P.. I'm just trying to decide if I want to have one piece in place for each county, or just go freestyle...decisions, decisions!!

On Monday I had a doctor appointment in Northville. After I got checked in and had been sitting in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, the receptionist came over and whispered that my appointment wasn't for 2 more hours!!! I thought my appointment was at 1:30 but it was at 3:00 (I was a half hour early for 1:30 because I didn't know how traffic would be). She seemed worried that I'd be upset...I just smiled and knew immediately what I'd do for two hours! I went down the road a couple of miles and wandered around Knightsbridge Antique Mall!!

When I went back for my appointment, my doctor's nurse apologized for the confusion on the appointment time. I laughed and told her what I did with the time, and she was excited to hear about a new to her antique mall, and was already making plans for a visit!!

These are my treasures from Knightsbridge. They were having a sale, so I got super great deals on everything!! 

Yes, Auntie...I know I told you I'm done with soap flake pitchers...because three is enough...but this one is different from the other ones...and it was priced too low to leave behind!!!

Unfortunately, I didn't have service in the mall, and I couldn't pull up my wish list...I ended up with a bowl I already have!!! I've now got a new way to see my wishlist so I won't have to rely on cell phone service again. So hopefully, I won't end up with duplicates. I'm not too worried though, I'm sure I can trade it for something I really want.

This was last night at the park next door...

This makes me so happy! This is the Hydrangea that Mr was supposed to dead-head, but ended up chopping it to about two inches from the ground. It came back to life and is so beautiful!!!

These two other pieces came to live with us this week--totally unexpected, but totally welcome!!

Hope you're having a great week! I'm off to meet my cousins for our weekly walk and read night. We are reading "What Women Fear" by Angie Smith.

Time to Spruce Things Up!

My Pyrex wall is getting too full! I love all of my treasures and I'm not quite ready to release anything from my vintage kitchenware foster care system, so it's time to rearrange and straighten things up a bit.

I'm not thrilled with how it turned out. Some aspects of it I really like, and some, eh, not so much! I'm still hoping to find the rest of the rainbow stripe bowls, a full set of the 400 series in yellow, a good condition red 402, the green dot and yellow dot, a balloons dip bowl, spacesavers and some of the rarer pieces, but that's part of the fun-the hunt!!

I'm pretty much done with vintage Fiesta-only a few select pieces-that if they ever came up for sale near me for dirt cheap-would I get them. I still have a few (very few) pieces of Federal bowls that I'm still looking for-most especially the orange daisy to replace the one that broke in shipping. I have it glued up and sitting in the stack as a space saver-for that "some day" but it's been forever since I've seen an orange one, so I'm starting to give up hope.

Then there's the ever elusive Fire King tulips smallest bowl and red dots-the two smallest.While I'd like to complete the sets, once they are complete, I won't have anything left to look for!! Although, I seem to keep finding things that interesting and intriguing and with my super cheap budget, I don't have as much as you'd expect invested in my fun.

The biggest problem now is trying to fit it all in-and to have room for the elusives IF I ever find them!

Those doors on the bottom right are the doors for the bottom outside sections of the cabinet...still waiting for Mr to get the glass to finish them...it's only been a few years...

The newer Pyrex set on the top shelf left side was a wedding gift from my grandma-too funny that it's "vintage" now-I sure don't feel old enough to have a wedding gift from my wedding be vintage!! Oh well, when the next rainy day comes, I might work on it again. For now, I'm all about enjoying the sun and being able to be outside-it's going to be over before we know it!!

School Parking Lot Flea

Saturday was our local, annual school parking lot flea market & garage sale. I've been a shopper for years, and last year I was a seller for the first time. I had planned to be a seller this year, but after my garage sale, I donated or gave away everything! I never paid attention to the date of the sale, so when I found out it was last Saturday, I was so relieved that I didn't have anything to sell!! I could have never pulled it off with our vacation being so close!

Last week just flew by! I can't even tell you what we did.I have no memory of what kept us so busy. I think it was just getting settled back in after being gone and catching up on laundry and household things.

I was very happy to be able to shop the local parking lot sale, even if I wasn't a seller. Mr and I got there about 10 minutes before it officially opened, and we were late to the party-there were at least 100 cars already parked in the lot, and all those people were shopping.

My first find was a cobalt, round covered butter dish (a coworker collects them and she always has me on the look out for them for her.) I saw it on a table, saw it was $5, and whipped out a five and gave it to Mr. and told him to pay while I moved along. He was a good sport and took care of it for me. By the time the older ladies wrapped it and bagged it for him, I'd already visited 5 other booths!

It was a great day for a sale, and there were a lot of vendors, a good mix of vintage antique and newer stuff. Prices for the most part were really good--except for one elderly lady. She rented at least 3 car spaces, had zero tables, and lined up her stuff on the lines of the spaces. She only had enough stuff for maybe 2 tables. It would have all easily fit in just one spot. She was super friendly, and super nice, but her stuff was super spendy. So much so, that I felt bad for her. I'm afraid she priced herself right out of the flea market! I hope she was able to sell some stuff, but I can't imagine anyone paying the prices she was asking.

I went around to all of the booths 3 or 4 times-just to be sure I wasn't missing anything. I found a fun little promo Pyrex piece from 1959 for only $2! It originally came as a set of two with a rack-I'm happy just to get one!

I got some free old hand saws, I'd like to get 3 or  more and display them on the side of the barn in a starburst type shape...Mr. thought I was nuts taking them, until I explained my reason. He has a woodshop in the barn and he kind of liked that idea.

When I got done, I stood waiting at the car for him for more than ten minutes! He may say he goes to the sales just for me, but he secretly likes them too. We visited a few garage sales and an estate sale on the way home. Then we had a fun dinner with my SIL & BIL a Chinese feast! We ordered a dinner for 5 (my oldest went too) and we really had enough for 7! We all picked and entree and we shared, so we all got a taste of everything. I loved it!!

Here are my pics

This is a purse! Made out of a Michigan license plate! It was marked $5, but I got it for $3. I've shown it to a few people and they mostly were asking why, and were convinced I'd be nuts to carry it. The more I look at it, the more I'm thinking of using it as a purse-at least for the rest of the summer. I think it's fun!! It came with a certificate of authenticity!

It's lined with black felt, and there was a lot more than $3 worth of effort put into it.

I'm planning to hit the Michigan Yard Sale trail in a month, but that's too far away-I don't think I can wait that long to do more treasure hunting. I'm hoping to find some sales on Friday morning-wish me luck!!

Vacation Part 2--Michigan's Upper Peninsula!

After coming home from our Eastern Adventure, we had just enough time to do a few loads of laundry, repack, sleep, and get on the road again. This time we were heading north into familiar territory-Michigan's Upper Peninsula. My parents live there, and as a child, every summer vacation was spent there.

I picked up a shirt on this trip that says "Up North, My Happy Place"-and it really is. Every time my car gets on the Mighty Mac Bridge, my heart just sighs in contentment and I feel at peace. I think it would be the same even if my parents didn't live there. I fell in love with it when I was a kid and there really is no other place I'd rather be.

Our first two days were spent just relaxing. No pressing plans and no travelling! It felt good to not have our rear ends glued to the car seats for a couple of days after all of the driving we did the days before.

On Monday of that week, we had a date to catch up with some of our oldest and very dear friends. My mom and my friend's mom were timing my mom's contractions (for me) while they were playing Yahtzee. My friend is a little older, and when I think of my childhood, I remember spending Sunday afternoons, after church hanging out at their house. We'd watch old movies, play games, ride bikes,and at dinner time, we'd make tacos or Appian Way Pizza (the dry dough mix in a box). Those days are forever embedded in my memory as something I'll cherish forever, as well as the people who shared those times.

We had a great time catching up, and I'm smiling as I type because I warned my friend in a FB message that she might just catch the vintage treasure hunting bug. She's so far gone-there's no might about it any more! It was fun talking with someone who "gets it", if you know what I mean.

I've learned over the years, that people who don't "get it" will ask about treasure hunting, but they are usually just being polite. There comes a point, usually pretty quickly, when their eyes glaze over and they just hear you say, ,wah, wah, wah wah wah. I've actually stopped talking mid-sentence at a dinner party after someone asked me about treasure hunting or my collections, and the people I was talking to never even knew I stopped mid-sentence! That didn't happen at our lunch that day-we had tons to talk about, and it was so nice to see them and catch up!!

I've really been blessed this summer to have had time with a few old friends! I'll cherish those lunches and those friendships forever!

After lunch, we even went to the local Goodwill and Habitat, to see what we could find. I wish she lived closer (she's moved to TN, but was in town to see her first grandbaby!) I have a feeling we'd have a blast treasure hunting together!!

On Tuesday, we loaded up my parent's truck and camper and headed a little further north to Tahquamenon Falls. We got the camper all set up in the campground and got back in the truck to go even further north to the Two Hearted River, about 35 miles north of Newberry. Mr has been there several times in his hiking adventures, but we had never been there.

It was a very chilly, rainy day, so we didn't last very long. It was a beautiful area, and I'd love to see it on a sunny day! We parked in the public parking just off of the campground and took a little suspension bridge over the river to the shore of Lake Superior. The mouth of the river comes out at the lake.

We brought buckets and old coffee cans for stone hunting. The camp hosts, from the campground, were walking the shores as well and they were giving us tips on what rocks to look for. My mom was looking for agates. I was looking at all of the potential Pinterest craft projects!!

We picked up a few and were so frozen, that we decided to head back and go to the falls before we made dinner over the campfire. We had a great visit to the falls, but it was still raining, and we were not only frozen, we were soggy too. So we decided to go into town to try to find a restaurant rather than be miserable at the campfire.

We ended up at a little bar/restaurant that seems to have a ton of great reviews. I wish our experience could have been even close to what the reviews were saying. They were severely understaffed that rainy, cold day. No one there to greet incoming customers except for a patron in the bar, only two servers (who were great, but spread too thin), It took forever to get seated and it took forever for our food to come out. It was served on a little plate that looked like a slice of a log. While it was clever, it wasn't big enough for the sandwich and fries, so the fries came in a drinking glass...not impressed. The food was mediocre at best-definitely not worth the prices or the wait.

The next day, we packed up and headed to Sault Ste.Marie, Michigan to camp at the Aune Osborne Campground. It's just outside of the hustle and bustle of town right on the banks of the St. Mary's river-just down from the Soo Locks. We got to watch freighters pass by so close, you could see the crew if they were on the deck! If you are ever in the Soo area and camping-this is a great campground!! Super clean restrooms, showers and park. Not many trees, and the sites are really close together, but the views of the ships are amazingly close and super awesome!!

My dad has an app on his phone and he was able to check to see when a ship was scheduled to go through the locks and then about 15-30 minutes later, it would pass by our campground. We weren't lucky enough to be right on the water but the spot we had was very good.

We also visited the Locks, wandered through a few souvenir shops and had lunch at Karl's Cuisine Cafe and Winery. The food was super delicious, and even though they were very busy, they were very well staffed with an excellent staff. I highly recommend this cafe.

We did brave the high winds for our campfire dinner, but didn't hang out very long by the fire pit once dinner was done. Since it was Canada Day, we got to see great fireworks on the Canadian side of the river. I may or may not have been all curled up in bed by that point...sleeping in strange beds catches up to you after a while!!

We had great times with my parents, cooking dinner out on their pontoon boat, fishing, floating around, preparing for their neighborhood 4th of July golf cart/bike/four wheeler parade, a potluck dinner and fireworks! It was a lot of fun, and our guys were able to come up and join us for the last weekend of our visit.

This is how Lucy does camping!

We got home last Sunday, in time to do some laundry and get ready for work  the next day. I honestly don't know where the week went-it went by in such a blur, that I don't even remember it!


Here are some other pics of our time in the U.P.: