Adventures in Mt Clemens and Rochester HIlls

This past weekend was a fun weekend! On Saturday we left bright and early and went to The Indoor Garage Sale at Gibraltar Trade Center in Mt Clemens.Thanks Marie for the heads up about this! I've never been to the Trade Center, and I've always wanted to go.

It's a long drive, so I don't know if I'll ever go back, but it was a fun adventure, and something new to do. From what I observed, it looks to be an indoor market that has permanent booths/vendors with a back section for special functions like indoor garage sales, gun & knife shows, etc.

We walked through half of the building before we found the garage sale. It was packed with dealers. It was also a Mom 2 Mom sale,so there were LOTS of strollers and lots of Moms. Sometimes the aisles got clogged up with strollers, and motorized scooters. It was fun to people-watch too.

I got a few treasures, and one of my finds was so exciting, I'm still smiling about it!

Here are some pics from our time in Mt Clemens:

After the Trade Center, we went to visit my SIL & BIL and the Fire and Ice Festival in Rochester Hills. We had a great time hanging out with them, playing Mexican Train Dominoes, and eating dinner, and then we had a great time walking around downtown Rochester looking at the lights, the ice sculptures and all of the festivities associated with the festival.

Here are some pics from the Fire and Ice Festival:

I feel bad because my back was hurting (probably leftover from last Wednesday's great vball games) and walking around was making it worse, and Mr. got crabby and didn't want to see the fireworks. He's funny like that, he thinks once you've seen some thing, it's always they same so why bother. He is more of a get to the point kind of guy and sometimes misses the beauty in the journey because he's worried about the destination, or crossing the task off his list. I'm the opposite, I love the journey and all that comes with it. So, to make a long story short, we didn't' stay for the fireworks. I know my SIL was bummed, and I feel bad. I really wanted to see them too!! Maybe next year! :)

Here are my finds for the day:

My birthday present from my SIL and BIL-isn't it great?!?

Super cheap and bright hankies

 Black snowflake Pyrex. It has some issues, but for $2...the lid alone is worth $2.

I also picked up a Madrid round covered butter dish for a friend. New old stock in the original box for $5. My friend was THRILLED!!!

A whole LOT of driving!!!

Yesterday was a really long day of driving. We left home at 7:30 in the morning and went to Kalkaska/South Boardman for my grandpa's graveside service. The VFW post of Fife Lake did a superb job with the military service! My grandpa would have been so happy if he knew he was honored that way! I felt really bad that the American Legion post that he volunteered at for years and years, and was the commander for years and years, refused to do the service. Thankfully the Fife Lake chapter was more than willing to do it. Odd isn't it that he never had anything to do with that chapter, yet they took care of him...I can't express my gratitude to them enough!!

After the service, we went to a little restaurant called Yankee Boy for the luncheon. It is owned and operated by some of my family. Family that I haven't seen since I was little. It was so nice to have the luncheon there and to see them again!! They did a wonderful job with the food and the service-I hope I can stop in again sometime. I hear their homemade pies and onion rings are amazing...I should have tried them while I was there!!!

We had a wonderful time sitting with and chatting with my cousins, catching up on everything that has happened in the 8 or 9 years since we've seen each other. We only live about a half an hour away from each other, I am hoping we can get together more often, now that we've connected again.

By the time we got home last night, we were wiped out-how can sitting in a car make you so tired?? Good thing is was Friday-pizza night!

This morning, I woke up like a little kid ready for Christmas morning! Today was the M15 Community Yard Sale. Starting in Clarkston and extending all along M15 to Bay City-although, once you get to Vassar, it pretty much thins out and the sales are very few and far between, That is always the point where I turn and head for home, so I don't know if there are any sales past that or not...I might be missing out on the best sales, and not even know it!

I absolutely love this sale. It so reminds me of the World's Longest Yard Sale-but in a much smaller scale. Kevin rode along with me today, and he was the big winner as far as purchases go. He got a set of 15 wood turning tools for his lathe for $125. At least 4 of them in the box had individual price stickers on them from the original woodworking store for $131.95 EACH! So he got an amazing deal-especially since most of them have never even been used!

I piked up a few things here and there. It was fun to revisit all the fun sales I visited last year!! I even found the sale that had the metal children's shopping carts again, and they still had 4 left. I think last year they had around 10 or 12 and I only paid $10 for one, this year they were marked $25. I was so hoping they would be the same price, because I was going to pick up another one!

There was such a HUGE variety of things to look at-that is why I love this sale so much! Each sale had something different to offer and it was fun to see the tons and tons of people all garage saling together today.

It took us 45 minutes to get to our starting point, and by the time we were finished, we were only about an hour and 15 minutes from home-and we probably hit a good 30-40 sales, including a couple flea markets!!

I'd really LOVE to do the World's Longest Yard Sale again this year, we'll see...but for  now, I am thrilled that my wonderful state has the M15 sale and the M12 sale (in August). They both are wonderful sales to get your adrenaline pumping and your junk "fix" on.

I am typing this as I wait for my oldest's birthday cake to come out of the oven. He is 22 today! My how the time flies by!!! He is spending his day hanging out with his buddies doing what he wants to do-good for him!!

In less than an hour, I will be leaving to head to our volleyball tournament and potluck, I'm kinda worn out from all the driveways I hiked today, but I have to go because I'm running the tournament! It will be fun-it's our last night until mid September...almost bitter sweet-with everyone going their seperate ways for the summer! I always look forward to seeing everyone in the fall and catching up with them all!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!!! It is a little over 70 degrees, blue skies, lots of sunshine and a slight breeze-perfect day here in Michigan!!!

 Should I sell the frames separate? Or should I keep them with the mirrors? The mirrors are in pretty rough shape...

 I LOVE kiddie rockers,and I've lost track of how many I've sold in my booth-I'm always looking for something different or unique...this one is pretty awesome!

Kevin hit another jackpot for himself, a whole load of military canteens and a camelback military hydration bag. I got a little stool, a couple covered casseroles, an old tin, some kid leather gloves with gorgeous embroidery on them, a pile of hankies, some plates, an old embroidered dishtowel-picked it up for $2 at one sale, saw one very similar to it for $12! I also picked up a few vintage drinking glasses.

The BEST thing I got today??? A green Kitchen Kraft ceramic fork for $3!!!

I didn't fill the car like last year, but it was just as much fun "hunting" through all the driveways and parking lots-can't wait for next year!!!

Mark your calendar, Midland is less than a month away!!! Woo hoo!!!

Time to get the cake out of the oven and hit the road-have a great rest of the weekend! Tomorrow is Dealer Day-I'll be stocking my booth and re-organizing with a new theme...if I have enough energy tonight to put everything into bins for tomorrow morning!!! :)

Second visit and a pile of picked vintage goodness!!

After church today, I decided to take a trip to the first estate sale to see if anything was left. Kevin went with me so he could go to Harbor Freight. We got there between 1 and 1:30, and there was barely anything left! I was shocked! The house was pretty much emptied out!

I found a fun little metal cabinet in one of the bedroom closets, and since it was half off, I wrestled it out of the tiny closet, out of the bedroom and to the check-out line. Then I had to go back to the bedroom, and pick up the little pile of dishes and tins I left on the closet shelf so I could grab the cabinet!

Thankfully, no one who went into the bedroom and looked in the closet was interested in my little stash and it was still there. On the way out, I found two fold up chairs that were part of a card table set for $2 each, so I grabbed them too!

As I was in line, I saw a huge stack of folding chairs folded up and leaning against the wall with a SOLD sign on them. In the stack was another chair that matched the two I already had. Then I noticed the 4th chair was at the check out table and the worker running check out was sitting on it!

I got my hopes up that I could talk the person with the sold sign out of the one mismatched chair, but he wouldn't budge! Who in the world would want a ton of mint green folding chairs and one black one? Well, he got it, because I wasn't going to argue with him over a $2 chair-let him have it. So, I only bought the two.

When we went to Harbor Freight, Kevin went to shop there and I went a few doors down and walked around Walmart. It was a really weird and different experience. 95% of the ladies in the store (other than employees) were wearing burquas. I had forgotten that I'd experienced the same thing the last time we went to this particular Harbor Freight & Walmart.

I felt really self-conscious, almost like I shouldn't be there without a head covering. Probably similar to what a lone person might feel if they were in a store with 95% of the people not wearing a head cover.

We had a fun evening visit with Kevin's sister and her husband. They stopped by to bring me the stash of goodies that she had picked up for me when she was my picker. She got me all kinds of vintage goodies!!!

Here is what I picked up at the estate sale on my second visit

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Here's a better shot of the pink chairs that I got the day before.

This bucket is from the day before too.

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Here are the goodies my SIL picked up for me...

Fourteen half aprons!!

Eight crocheted hot pads & ten hankies!

 Vintage creamer pitcher, and cookbook!

 LOVE the bottle-this is going to live here for a while! 

 A couple of vintage lawn chairs in excellent condition, a kiddie chair and side table.

Vintage tv trays in near mint condition!