Things are Getting Back to Normal Around Here!

The booth is up and running, the volleyball leagues are up and running, my Dad has had his surgery and is safely back home in the U.P., and we went to a couple of pretty good estate sales this week. I got a lot of stuff at the first one, and almost everything was a quarter or fifty cents each.

The one we went to today was HUGE! So huge, they rented a hall (a small hall) just to get it all in. It was very overwhelming because there was so much stuff! They made us leave our bags at the check out table, so it was really difficult to carry the things around that we wanted to buy. I did find a handful of hankies, a couple of tablecloths that are soaking in Biz right now and a couple of pieces of pottery.

I was really excited about my finds until I got home and looked at them. Once again, I was in a hurry, in an over-crowded place and I got a couple of things that are iffy. One of the tablecloths has a reddish stain by one of the flowers that looks like either old grape juice or blood. I'm going with grape juice-and hoping it comes out.

 I actually got these awesome trays on Ebay...they just arrived yesterday! There are 6 trays, so I think I can keep a few and sell a few!

 My Dad told me about this little oil can. I wasn't sure what it was. It was really interesting to find out it is what they used to use at the gas stations when you needed oil for your car. They would go over to a big drum of oil, and pour a quart into it and then pour it right into your car.

 A wooden tool box, made with old wood, but put together with a pneumatic stapler.

 A pair of old skates.

 A little corner shelf.

 This is a HUGE vase!

 Don't you just love the bright colors on the drink shaker? It even has recipes on it for all kinds of mixed drinks!

 A pink melmac serving bowl.

 An old wire chicken shaped egg basket.

 A Pyrex platter-can't have a good day thrifting without some Pyrex!

 There was one more of these little ornaments, but Adam's thumb went through it.

 Thinking about painting this mug tree turquoise and sanding some of it off...what do you think?

 A couple half pint milk bottles-from Dunn Brothers Dairy Howell, Michigan.

 A little chicken timer.

 A Christmas tin and a bunch of plate holders for the booth.

 Hankies...

 Tablecloths soaking in Biz.

 A nut chopper in really bad shape, but it was a quarter!

 A mini syrup bottle.

 More linens-waiting to be soaked.

 A little white shelf and a Christmas tree candy container.

Last but not least...a Fiesta water pitcher-it has some small chips around the spout-I'm keeping this for me!

Best of all...one of the sales was just in the next town over-so I visited it twice! The seller (who was also the daughter of the homeowner) said she was bringing more stuff in from her personal collection and some stuff from a friend and they will be having another sale in 3-4 weeks. You can bet I'll be watching Craigslist for her ad! Her sale was the one that had the super low prices that had a lot of these ¢ after the numbers.

How about you? Did you hit any sales today? What did you find? I'll be stopping by your blog in just a few minutes to see the treasures you found!

More Fun in the U.P.

The days have just been flying by since we've been up here! It is sad to think that we have to go home tomorrow! Adam and his friends have kept us laughing-they are a great bunch of guys, and it's been fun to share our vacation with them.

My mom and I hit the road on Friday and made a day of visiting garage sales and antique shops. We went to Curtis, Germfask, Blaney Park, Naubinway and Manistique.

 Cute little shop in Curtis. They hold a flea market all summer on the weekends in their parking lot. This was the first day and only one vendor showed up-an Amish or Mennonite man with lots of baked goods. We bought some blueberry and cherry fry pies. They were like turn overs and they were really yummy!!

It was a fun day, but a LOT of driving!! We both enjoyed all the things we saw-some things brought back a lot of memories and some things were things we had never seen before. I am still kicking myself for passing up a cat faced string holder that was $2 at one of the sales. I picked it up and showed it to my mom and explained to her what it was, and set it back down because cats just aren't my thing-even though it was pretty cute. Later on, we saw the same string holder in an antique shop in Blaney Park for $50!! Sigh...live and learn-huh?

I got a few great bargains and so did my mom. This is what I got:

This little table has hide-able leaves on each side and a drawer in the middle. It was too heavy to lift out of the car by myself-I want to do some work on it too. I'm not crazy about the green paint-it looks like it was originally white under the green paint so I plan to return it to the original colors.

When we got back to the house, my mom took me downstairs to look through a bag of linens that had belonged to my dad's mom that they have kept since she passed away in 1985. She gave me a German tablecloth and a doily from the bag-to have just because they used to be Grandma's.

Friday (Rainday) Finds...

For the summer of 2010, I think we here in Michigan should rename Fridays to Rainday. It seems like almost every Friday since April has been a rainy one! Not always the whole day...just when I am getting groceries, stopping at a few garage sales, or when everyone comes over at 7pm to try to play some sand volleyball.

I stopped at a church rummage sale first thing this morning after P.T. and got these linens.

 2 tablecloths and 3 tea towels for $3.60.

Then we headed to Ypsilanti to visit Pam's garage sale and all the sales in her sub. We got a bunch of music cd's for 50 cents each at one of the sales, and at Pam's house we got a load of black mulch for FREE!  She ended up with more than she needed so she had a small pile in the driveway and a huge sack of it in her garage. We took the driveway pile and loaded it right up on the tarp into the back of my car. The sack in the garage was easily 3-4 times the amount that we took. There was a guy there just waiting for us to pull out so he could back in for the rest. 

This looks really small in this picture, but it is a pretty good sized pile. That's a kitchen trash bag full, sitting to the right of the picture.

At one other place, I found this enamel pot to use with my $1 chair from last week to plant flowers in. I just need my DH to help me secure it in the chair seat.

After we left there it felt like we went on a wild goose chase around Ypsi and Ann Arbor looking for several sales that either were non-existent, or the trail went cold because the signs disappeared. 

So, other than the first couple of stops, today ended up being a frog of a day.