Three months of treasure seeking-all in one post!

I know it's been a while since I've posted...I just didn't realize it's been over three months!! I've thought about it, and I've thought about my blog friends. I've even visited a few of your pages to see what you've been up to, but I just haven't had time to show you what I've been up to!

Life has been very busy and very full the past few months. Throw in more physical therapy, extended family drama, a family member's passing, volleyball leagues, and extra responsibilities at work, and you have enough stuff to keep you busy round the clock!

Auntie and I have had more adventures in the past month than we've had since December! We both have had a lot going on, and not enough hours in the day to get out and play! Every once in a while we were able to take a random trip, either together, by ourselves or with our Mr's.

For the sake of catching up, I'll fill you in on what I've been doing since my last post, way back in December. In the fall, I took a sign painting class with my cousin and it was a TON of fun! It was $20 a person and it included the supplies. It was held at a local restaurant, in a private room and there were around 30-40 ladies who attended.

Fast forward to Christmas time, and I suggested that our staff ladies hold our own sign painting/potluck day. So, I shopped for the boards (drove Mr C R A Z Y by digging through every board at 2 Menard's to find the best boards, with the least knots!), created designs from clipart, and bought the  supplies.

We had a good turn out, and we ended up ordering pizza and salad, so no one had to cook! It was a lot of fun, and the boards turned out great! Maybe we'll try it again sometime with a different theme. I kind of like the Michigan things that are out there, we'll see if anyone else wants to join again. I was able to purchase the supplies for aound $4-$5 per person-a lot cheaper than the class I took, and everyone reimbursed me for the cost of materials.

Shortly after that, it was Christmas time! We had a really fun work Christmas party with several fun games. They were super easy and even those that didn't like games were joining in on the fun. We also split off into groups and went out into the community to spread Christmas cheer. Some of our groups were given gift baskets, and they visited some of our church congregants that were shut-in at home, and some other groups were given gift cards and sent to local shopping centers to look for someone (or a family) to bless.

The stories that came back and were shared at lunch were so awesome! I hope we do it again next year, and I hope we can go to more places and hand out more gift cards!!

The games were so much fun, I decided to plan some games for our extended family Christmas party! We had everyone jumping in and playing! It was such a hoot!! So much laughter, and everyone participated-no wallflowers allowed!

One adventure that Mr and I took was to visit Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills. I had read about it several times throughout the years, but never made the effort to visit it. It is a crazy, jam-packed arcade of sorts, with more coin operated games and machines that you can count! Newer machines and games, some very old games and machines and everything in between.

It was kind of crowded the day we visited, and since we didn't have any kids with us, we kind of felt out of place, so we hurried through our visit. It was fun to see everything! Some things were really odd, and almost disturbing, but all in all, it was fun to visit.

Also in December, I noticed that my Lucy girl's tail was bent at a pretty sharp angle toward the tip. After a quick trip to the vet, we found out that she'd probably broken the tip of her tail. More than likely, it got shut in the door when she was coming in and out.

There wasn't anything the vet could do for it other than pain meds until the swelling went down. I was very scared, thinking she might need to have it partially amputated! I always tend to think the worst! Thankfully, she is doing well, and the kink in her tail is only about half of what it initially was, and she seems fine.

In January, Auntie and I took off on an aventure to Jeffries in Findlay, Ohio. It is one of our favorites, but since it is a couple of hours away, we usually only get there twice a year. We went early on a Friday and it wasn't very crowded. We had a ton of fun wandering around and we both found a few treasures that came home with us.

These are the treasures that came home with me

Mr came up with an adventure in January for us. It was a visit to one of his favorite places, a surplus, resale store in the next town over. It wasn't a must see for me, but they had a ton of guy things! I don't see it becoming a regular stop for me.

I had a big milestone birthday in January. My parents came down and my west side kids came home and we went to dinner, and then the next day Mr surprised me with a surprise party at our church. I thought I was going in to play volleyball and after setting up the net, one of the maintenance guys came to the gym and told me my son (who is one of the maintenance supervisors) had cut his hand and he needed us to go to the front conference room.

Mr had a huge sandwich at our dinner out!

Since my husband is a nurse, I was willing to send him to the front while I stayed at the gym. I know, I know, not winning the mom of the year award there! I don't do blood well, and having a husband who's a nurse, I've not had to do blood. He convinced me to go with him, in case I needed to "call someone". As we were walking down the long hallways to the front, the other maintenance guys started coming out of the classrooms and following us.

I started to get sick to my stomach thinking that he must be really hurt, since they were all following us. Just as we got to the main room, everyone jumped up and yelled SURPRISE! How fun! Then all of the volleyball people came up from the gym!

One of my very dear friends cooked up a storm! She put out a buffet that would rival any restaurant. Unfortunately, in keeping with our regular routine, Mr let me make dinner and we ate it, because that's what we always do before we play volleyball.

There were about 40 people, and after we (they, we were full from our dinner at home) ate, we had a blast playing volleyball in the gym. They even had one of the pastors schedule the room for a "meeting" that night so it was on the calendar-to throw me off!

Auntie took me to a fun restaurant for my birthday, called The Laundry. It's in Fenton, and I've wanted to go there for a long time. We had a great time catching up and even did a little treasure hunting nearby in Holly.

I got an instant pot in January! Have you tried it yet? Oh-My-Gosh!! I love it!!! My oldest and his wife got one for Christmas and they had been raving about it, so I finally got one. I have LOVED every recipe I've tried, and I've joined several facebook instant pot recipe groups.

In February, I made some fun Valentine's "bouquets" out of movie theater size boxes of candy. I used bamboo skewers and taped fun-size candy bars to them for the "flowers". It was fun watching the faces of the people I gifted them to!

Mr and I took a trip to the Town Peddler Craft & Antique Mall, to beat the winter blues, on a sunny February day. I always enjoy wandering around looking at everything there.

This gorgeous cloth came home with me!

I had a Mrs. Beasley when I was little, except mine had glasses.

 

Yep! This one came home with me too!

This one too!!

The end of February was my daughter-in-law's birthday, and I wanted to give her a fun adventure. I saw an online ad for a place in Ferndale that was called The Detroit Cookie Company. I saw a cookie that was called the peanut butter volcano. A peanut butter cookie with a swirl of peanut butter on top, covered in chocolate!

I knew she would love it, so I started looking for a restuarant in the area to take her for lunch. I found the Flytrap. It was on Diner's Drive-ins and Dives, so I was excited to include that in our foodie adventure. My son took her to a historic mansion bed-and-breakfast in Detroit and to a Red Wings game for her birthday, so they were within 12 miles of where I wanted to take her, so it was perfect!!

We met there around 11am on a Sunday. Their website said their busy times on Sundays were earlier and then again after 1:00, so I thought we were good. Unfortunately, when we got there, the line was HUGE!! We ended up waiting 70 minutes!! Normally, we would have left, but there was no one to ask "how long", and since it was part of the adventure, and we were unfamiliar with the area, we stuck it out.

The inside was definitely a dive. The food was good, but not worth waiting for 70 minutes! After lunch we walked several blocks to the cookie place, and we all LOVED what we got! My DIL surprised me by skipping the peanut butter and going for a s'mores cookie. How fun! If it were closer to where we lived, we'd all have a lot more of us to love!

Did you see the new Easter Pyrex?? I got mine!! I can't wait for the Lucky in Love Pyrex to come out at Target! I've called two local stores three times and I've wandered through three times. They were supposed to be in the stores in March, but never made it. One of the managers told me that they were getting a new line in the store in April, so she thought the LIL would be in that group--fingers crossed!!

I took another load of things to Treasure Mart the first Friday of March and got a pleasant surprise that a good chunk of the stuff I brought in a couple months prior, had sold! Of course, I had to take a quick trip through the store, and ended up finding a couple things I couldn't live without!

Auntie went with me because that day was the first day of the Jackson indoor garage sale/flea market and we went on from there to Jackson. What a FUN day!!! We laughed a lot, and blabbed and blabbed! We tried a new restaurant called Roosters and had a great lunch!

Look at this display at Treasuremart!!! Can you guess what came home with me?

Found in Jackson...I wish I would have bought one of each!!

Auntie got the coffee canister

This came home with me...are you seeing a trend of my winter purchases?

Yep! Another one!

OMGSH! Amish Fry Pies at the Jackson Indoor Garage Sale!!!! YESS Please!!

Two, not old, quilts from Treasuremart, sewn together to make a king...they got separated and are much happier. I don't know why someone sewed them together...they didn't even match!

Once a Fiesta addict, always a Fiesta addict! This came home with me too!

The next weekend we went to the Monroe indoor garage sale and stopped at Swan Creek Candles in Dundee. They have antiques in their basement and on the upper level, and it is a usual stop for us when we are out that way.

I have a problem...I need a 12 step program for my vintage tablecloth addiction!! The following came home with me.

For fifty cents, I took a chance on this one...

An Alaska photo album, never used...great for photos from our upcoming trip!

As we were driving through town, we noticed a different antique shop! In all the years that we've visited Swan Creek, we never saw the other shop! Turns out there were two more shops within a block of Swan Creek, and they've been there for 3 or more years each! One of them had a little cafe/coffee shop where we got panini sandwiches. We will be visiting 3 shops now instead of just one when we head to Dundee.

Last Wednesday night, my team finally got our 1st place championship t-shirts! Our Wednesday volleyball league won the division way back before Christmas, but the shirts didn't come for almost three months! We've had a lot of injuries and sickeness this session and our team has gone from champs to chumps, according to one of my bosses at work. We were in first place, but with all fo the subs we've had, we are now one game out of last place. We are off this week, and next week is the last game before the play-offs. We could end up going down a level, if we can't pull off some W's.

Last Friday, Auntie and I went to LAO for their spring sale. I found a tablecloth and some Pyrex. I already had that particular dish, but after the sale price it was only $5...and pink Pyrex is one of my all-time favorites!

After I left, I washed my car and decided to stop at another local antique mall. Every time I go, I say to myself that I don't plan to ever go again...then the thrill of the hunt over-takes me and I go again...only to tell myself I won't go again!

Yesterday I had a bonus day off from work because of the busy-ness of getting a large church ready for Easter services, our bosses give us the Monday after Easter off to kind of recover. It was such a gorgeous day! Blue skies for miles and tons of sunshine! Even though I've been fighting a cold for the past few days, I knew I needed to get out and soak up the sun.

Mr was off too and he tagged along. We went to Collette's in Davison and then a little further north to Tony's in Birch Run for lunch. I've heard for years from several people that we should check Tony's out, and yesterday seemed like the day to do it.

When we got there, the line was HUGE, and it reminded me of the visit to the Flytrap. I knew how upset Mr was when we waited so long before, so I immediately asked if he wanted to go somewhere else. He said he'd be fine with waiting a little while, so we stayed.

I am glad we did! In less than ten minutes, we were seated!! To set the stage, let me tell you, as soon as we got out of the car, we could smell BACON. I didn't know Tony's was known for bacon, or huge portions, I just knew a lot of people had told me to check it out.

Their omlets are made with 12 eggs!! I saw a lady get an order of 3 pancakes-each the size of a dinner plate!! Their menu boasts that they go through up to 11,000 pounds of bacon a WEEK!!! Mr ordered a BBQ bacon cheeseburger and I got a turkey club. When we left, I took 2/3's of mine to go!

I felt like we had spritzed ourselves in bacon grease! The smell permeated our clothes and was embedded in my hair. I wasn't that impressed with the sandwich. The bread was awesome, there was at least a pound of turkey lunchmeat on it, but it was just, too much.

I think my boys would love it there, so we will take them. I think next time I'll try something not smothered in bacon, like a quesadilla. :)

These were my finds from Collette's

Did you notice a trend in my winter treasure hunting finds? I am shocked to see how many I bought! 24 tablecloths and 4 quilts-one a crib quilt, two were twins sewn together, and one full size topper. I also picked up a couple of vintage state hankies, but forgot to take a pic of them.

While I was adding some tablecloths to my cabinet in the living room, I bumped the shelf above it and knocked over a flo blue plate that was on a plate rack. When it fell over, it cracked in half-right down the middle! I'm going to plant each half in my flower beds this summer...if summer ever gets to Michigan!

Over the winter, I also bought a tablecloth reference book...it looked like a really good one...until I got it and found out I already had it-doh! Auntie doesn't have it, so she's gonna buy it from me-whew!

That's it! I think I need a self-imposed buying freeze from tablecloths!!! They are small and easily fit in my cabinets. I am working on another load for Treasuremart at the beginning of May, then I think all of the remnants of my booth will be gone. It feels good to clear that stuff out once and for all. Maybe then I'll start thinning out my tablecloths. I have a lot that aren't my favorites, that I could give up.

I hope you are all having a great winter! Who knows what's in store for the spring!! I can't wait to get out there and see what there is to see, and do what there is to do!!

Happy Hunting!!!