One Last Day of Fun-Before it's Back to Work!

I was thinking about going to the Gibraltar Trade Center today for their Garage Sale Extravaganza, but it's well over an hour away, and when I looked at their pictures online, all I saw in them were clothes. I'd hate to drive over an hour just for clothes.

So then I convinced myself that I really needed to stay home and finish pricing and packing up stuff for the booth for dealer day tomorrow...then I started thinking that this is my last free day before I go back to work on Monday, and back to a hectic, crazy, busy life-I'm gonna get out there and have an adventure!

I coerced my junkin buddy Auntie from Kitschy Vintage to get out and have some fun too. She was going to stay home and work on stuff for Etsy and her booth too, but I talked her into shirking her work for a day of play!

On the way to her house, I almost got run over by a bunch of turkeys crossing the road! What a FUN start to my adventure!

We started at a new to us place in Ypsilanti called Salt City Antiques. I found them on Craigslist when I did a search for Fiestaware, and their pictures in their ad really hooked me! This is a really fun, funky, retro place with all kinds of vintage goodies and all kinds of newer Fiesta. It was like eye candy for me! Forget the male models, I drool over Fiesta and vintage goodies every time!

 

 This is the cabinet I saw on their Craigslist ad that hooked me into making the trip!

 Hazel Atlas Cris-Cross in red! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!

 Even the stairway is filled with vintage and antique goodies!

Everywhere you turned there was more gorgeous Fiesta brightening up the place!

While it was fun to look, we both felt the prices were too high for our taste (because we are used to finding things much cheaper at estate sales), so we both walked out empty handed. The sleeve of my hoodie may or may not have been a little damp with all the drool I had to wipe away as I wandered through the store though!

After narrowly escaping a fender-bender, we got out of Ypsi, and headed for Blissfield. Another one of my favorite places to hunt for vintage goodies. I was soo disappointed! Their little downtown area used to have 4 wonderful antique shops, and I'm sad to report that when we got there today, there was only 1 left!!

OK, so it takes up a whole city block pretty much by itself, but the rest of them will be very sadly missed! I couldn't believe how many people were out antiquing today! I've been going to Blissfield for years, and I've never seen so many people in there-YAY for them for the increased business!!!

 LOOK!!! An old storage jar with the SAME decal that I am going to put on my new jars!!!

 I almost peed my pants when I saw this!!! 

This summer, I plan to try my hand at making some of these for my flower beds!

At one point, there was a steady stream of people waiting to check out at both cash registers-maybe people are spending their Christmas money, or maybe cabin fever is setting in, but whatever it is, it was AWESOME to see people out shopping for antiques and vintage goodies!

We ate lunch in the little Mexican restaurant in between the two halves of the building and I think we were both very impressed with what we got. We both got a chicken quesadilla and they came out on Fiesta platters!!!  On top of that, it was real chicken-not canned, the green peppers and onions were not over cooked and soggy, you could tell they were freshly made and not some mass produced after-thought. It was very reasonably priced too.

They had me with the Fiesta, then I tasted it-YUM!!!

So when in Blissfield, stop at the little Mexican restaurant between the two halves of the building-you won't regret it!!

We made one last stop at Swan Creek Candle in Dundee, they have antiques in the basement and kind like a  garage sale/flea market up on the second floor. I love shopping there, but the smell of the candles from the candle shop on the main floor is so over-whelming! It really hits you when you walk in. I don't know how the girls who work there can do it-the air is so thick with candle scent that after just a few minutes I could feel my throat getting sore, and now the smell is embedded in my hair! It's not a bad smell, just really strong.

We spent about 5 hours gabbing, blabbing and junking-it was FUN!!! Much better than sitting at home, missing out on the bright sunshine, and sticking prices on stuff for the booth!

I got about half of my stuff priced, and needed a break-already. I'm just about ready to go in again and finish-but I couldn't wait to share my day with you!

Starting Monday, I'm back at work, back to volleyball 3 nights a week, and back at all of the usual wife/mom stuff I usually do so there will be less time for adventures...but never fear, I'll ALWAYS make time for hunting for vintage goodies!

Here is what I got today...

 Too cute to pass up-especially at $2!

 My second chamber pot-and my last-but just wait til you see what I've done with them!

 A Maid of Honor fridgie in red and a Fire King fridgie in all white!

 I plan to use this for displaying stuff in the booth.

Honey Whip fired-on glass jar-I've never seen one with the lid so bold!

I also picked up another vintage yard stick-I met a couple at the check-out counter and the guy collects yard sticks! He has a giant crock by the door of their home and he has if filled with old yard sticks! If I never get to make my table with them, I have a fun way to display them now that I met them!

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend so far!

Sunny Saturday Road Trip...

Since our volleyball league is taking a break until after the first of the year, and we didn't have a match today, I decided to take a trip to Blissfield to visit their antique stores and my favorite Fiesta seconds store. I pulled in a little after ten am...and parked right outside the store that my heart was pitter pattering for all the way down. When I turned the car off and looked up, my heart sunk...the store was empty, there was a "for rent" sign in the window and the sign was painted black to cover up the store's name.

I was seriously bummed. The last time I took a trip to Blissfield, it was specifically to visit just that store and only that store. When I got there that time, I saw a sign on the door saying it was closed due to vacation! Good thing I just happened to be in the area for a funeral and didn't actually drive an hour to get there only to find it closed.

I continued on and caught up with a co-worker and her son who had already been antique shopping in Adrian and were hitting Blissfield on their way home. I could tell I was a butt-insky, so I kept wandering around on my own. I ran into them a couple of times and we talked a bit about what we were looking at, but we ended up going our separate ways.

I did find that the Fiesta seconds lady is renting space inside another store-right next door to her closed store! It was a tiny little booth and her inventory was seriously depleted, but I still managed to find a couple of things.

 A lemongrass plate and a discontinued heather pitcher.

After I left there, I made a stop at Swan Creek Candle and Antiques in downtown Dundee. I love that place! They have great prices and there is always something that I just can't pass by when I shop there! The candle smell can be a bit lot over powering though.

 A vintage Harlequin creamer and a vintage Fiesta bowl.

Some vintage Christmas bulbs, a vintage pork bellies sack (to make into a dishtowel), and a snowflake plate-that will be just perfect to give away filled up with Christmas cookies!

It was such a sunny and bright day, I decided to type in "antiques" into my GPS to see if maybe all these years I've been missing out on some quaint little shops that might be out there off the beaten path. I was really excited when a close one in Dundee showed up-so I followed it...right to someone's house!

After that, I decided to check out the shop of a company who has an antique shop as well as an estate sale business. Auntie and I have been to a few of their sales and they seem to have reasonable prices and are pretty organized. They were closed! What antiques place is closed on a Saturday?

The next stop was to be at Treasuremart in downtown Ann Arbor but there were way too may people and not one parking spot within a 3 block radius-so I abandoned that idea after circling the block 3 times and headed toward home- thinking I could stop at a new, local consignment shop that Auntie and I tried to visit on Thursday. It was closed the day we went. It was open today so I stopped. It was a tiny little place with a huge emphasis on clothes, purses and furniture. Very little in the way of glassware and no antiques, only a couple of vintage items. On the way out, I grumbled to myself that it wasn't even worth parking the car and getting out and walking in!