Digging Out and Around After a Big Snow...

We finally got some snow!

Here it is February, and we really haven't had much snow here in Michigan. We got about 8 or so inches yesterday and last night and had the first snow day of the year. Since I don't have four wheel drive and live on a dirt road with only one other home, and we are usually the last ones to get plowed - I decided to stay home and take the day off work.

I got caught up on, and inspired by all my favorite blogs, snooped around on Ebay for a while, did some laundry, and had a pretty lazy day.

As I was thinking of people digging out from all of the snow, I thought about digging around in my cabinets to take a look at some long stored away treasures.

This is what I found:

Here is my buffet cabinet that I inherited from my parents. They actually bought it along with a matching china cabinet and table from my Dad's cousins. They bought the table first. And once they stripped all of the antiquing and paint off and saw how beautiful it was, they went back and bought the buffet and china cabinet. When they retired about 8 years ago, the set wouldn't fit in their new home in the U.P, so we are the lucky owners now!

What could be behind the first door?

 WOW! I had no idea that it was so precariously stacked in there! I'm lucky nothing fell out when I opened the door and that everything was still intact. When I put it all back, I did a much better job.

 

When you see how much came out of this tiny little spot...

All of this was crammed into that tiny little cabinet in the buffet!

The sherbet cups in the back as well as the relish dish and the green plates, all belonged to my Dad's mom. When she passed away, I was in 11th grade. After the rest of the Aunts and Uncles went through her stuff, all that was left was her dishes. I remember sitting in her house all by myself, carefully wrapping boxes full of dishes and thinking, I don't know why I am doing this, I don't even like this stuff! Little did I know then, that my curiosity would get the better of me about 5 years later. I stored the boxes in my parents basement until one day, I took a better look and absolutely LOVED what I saw. That was the beginning of my love for glassware. Since then, I have collected many different things-old and not so old. The handled dish was a gift from my mom last year. I'm not sure if it is old or not.

 

All of the green dishes came from my Grandma, except the reamer. I bought that at a flea market, and experienced my first "as is" moment. It was one of the first pieces I bought, so I was pretty naive, and thought I had found a great treasure for $4. I didn't look it over very carefully and missed the huge chip on the rim. It wasn't until I got home and washed it that I noticed the words "as is" on the tag and the chip. I was disappointed, but I really like the piece.

Here are a couple pieces of my much loved plum Fiesta, and a bag with a broken dinner plate (I am hoping to someday make a cool mosaic with the broken pieces) in the same plum. It was my first ever broken item from Ebay. The pink pitcher and vase were from Grandma, the platter was a gift from my friend Cindy (it was her Grandmother's).  The creamers and sugars were from my early collecting days when I was drawn to them like a moth to a flame.

What could be behind door number 2?

WOW! Almost as much stuff as the first cabinet.

  

How did all of that fit in there?

The relish tray and the boopie glasses were from Grandma, the rest I've collected over the years or it was given to me. See, another creamer in the middle?

The green is Grandma's the tea cup and saucer a gift from Mom & Dad, the rest, I've found here and there.

The big basket is from my Mom. she bought it from an estate auction for her Aunt when I was pretty young. I know she paid $15 for it, and at the time, Dad wasn't very happy with her for spending so much. That was about the only thing she could afford as a keepsake though from her Aunt's estate. The smaller basket was given to me for selling some household items for a friend of my parents in a garage sale when his wife passed away. You can't really see the detail on the funky little retro cup and saucer-but it is pretty neat! It was a gift from my sister-in-law.

The amethyst creamer I bought while we were on the World's Longest Yard Sale. It looks really old, but so far, I haven't been able to find anything out about it. I don't think the reamer and measuring cup is very old. Then there is the amethyst Moroccan-LOVE it!!!

I couldn't resist a chance to show a picture of  my vintage Pyrex mixing bowl set! I have small pieces of the pink foam insulation in each bowl to lift them up (thanks Anne for the tip!) so I can see all of them at the same time. Underneath is a Pilgrim glass vase (from my friend Anne) that I got for a gift (a second one I found for a couple of dollars), and a Blenko crackle pitcher that was a gift when I left my position as the Special Events Coordinator in the Children's Ministry Department at my church. I don't really like this display, it doesn't flow together, but for a couple days...I'll leave it like this so I can enjoy my bowls!

I've looked over all of the upcoming Estate Sales in my area for this weekend, and none of them seem worth the drive, so I will probably stay home...who knows...maybe I'll dig through some more cupboards and show you some more of my collections!

Finally we made it to the World's Longest Yard Sale!

I had wanted to check out the World's Longest Yard Sale for a while after seeing a show about it on HGTV. If you have never heard of it, you can check it out on the official website (www.127sale.com). It is always the first full weekend in August. This year it is August 5-8.

The first time I thought about going was for the 2007 sale, but couldn't find anyone to make the trek with me. So in 2008, my husband decided it would be fun for us to go as our anniversary present to each other (it was our 20th anniversary on June 4 of that year). Most people we know take exotic trips or cruises for a landmark anniversary-not us! I guess that does make us true "Bargain Hunting Treasure Seekers"!

After a lot of research and planning, we decided to start in Crossville, TN, which looked to us to be about the half way point. That way we could work our way north toward home along 127. Most everything I read said that you would never get to do the whole sale in the 4 days, so we figured that the halfway thing would work out pretty well. It actually worked too well! We were home by Friday night! I'll get back to that later though.

The desk clerk at the hotel we stayed at (just outside of Crossville) told us that it was too bad we didn't go further south. She said it is usually a lot better more towards the Alabama border.

On Wednesday morning when we woke up, the whole hotel was without power and without a back-up generator. Luckily, it came back on in time for us to shower before we left. We decided to check out the route a little bit to see where a good place to start would be-kind of scope it out and get a feel for what we were getting ourselves in for. We saw some vendors all set up on the side of the road, and people were already shopping! (I had read that most vendors will let you shop while they are setting up, or they will come early to set up to catch early shoppers). That began the fun!

We started out just stopping at every sale we saw big or little. Then we decided to skip the single sales (sales that were just one house per stop) and only stopped at areas where there were fields of vendors set up, or where there were a few houses right next to each other that we could stop at and walk to them all and take in at least 3 or 4 sales.

The best deals I got were... First, a dinner sized plate in the Miss America pattern from Anchor Hocking in clear or crystal (this pattern was produced from 1935-1938). It had a sticker of $2 on it-so trying to be a good bargain hunter, I offered the man ( who looked to be about 85 or older) $1. He said he couldn't take that, because that plate was really old, and his wife would have his hide if he just gave everything away! That was the first purchase of the trip and it was a good one! Second, was two place settings of Hazel Atlas Moroccan for a steal, and then a 4 piece set of Anchor Hocking Savannah bakeware (this isn't an antique, but it has been discontinued for several years now and I just love it). Other things I picked up were, a plum pyrex pie plate (to replace the one that dropped out of the fridge when someone opened the door too fast when it was full of taco dip for a party that day), a really old amethyst creamer ( I haven't figured out the maker or the pattern or the age of it yet), a set of salad plates ( to match some other pieces I've found at garage sales), and a Moroccan salad set.

Kevin got a neat antique ship's compass and an antique adz. The later he proudly displays in his woodshop.

Of course, we got a few of the souvenir t-shirts, and some unique treasures and lots of fun memories. I also got the bug to do it again someday--hopefully really soon! If you get a chance to go on the WLYS, make sure you stop at the Jeamestown Chamber of Commerce and buy your "official" t-shirt!

...Remember when I said starting at the halfway point might have been too good of an idea? Well...we kept on driving and stopping, and driving and stopping and before we knew it, we ran out of yard sales and decided that rather than stay another night in a hotel room, that we would just drive that last few hours of the journey and sleep in our own bed that night (that is how we ended up home on Friday). Even though we seemed to go at a pretty fast pace, I think we both were happy with the amount of things we got to see and purchase along the way! oh yeah, we never ended up needing the car top carrier-so it stayed in the car the whole trip-LOL!

The inside of this place was packed with more glassware!

All of my treasures from the trip (including the scarlet Fiesta for my friend).

I found my store!

Tobacco fields.

Neat General Store on the route est. 1892!

One of many stops along the way.

Yard Sale headquarters in Jamestown, TN.