There's NOTHING like a good GPS!!

Yesterday after work, I took off for an estate sale in a very old farm house. It was a long drive so when I got out to my car (at work) and found that Kevin still had my GPS in his car, I didn't want to go all the way home to get it. I had Adam's GPS in my car from a month ago when mine was acting up. I grabbed his one day just as a back-up so I wouldn't get stranded somewhere.

I didn't get to the sale until around 1:30 and it was very well picked over. I wish I would have been able to get there earlier!! For the most part the prices were pretty good, some things were high, but you get that at just about any sale. 

I saw an old iron Victorian style full size headboard for $20 in the garage. It was pretty rusty and it didn't have the side rails or foot board, so I decided to think about it while I walked around the inside. I found a couple of small things inside (the house was packed with people shopping), but almost everything I saw had either a "hold" or "sold" tag on it. When I went back to the garage, the headboard was sold! Snooze-you lose-right? Oh well, it wasn't that big of a deal for me, so I won't lose any sleep over it.

This is what came home with me...

 This is a rocking chair that I dug out in the basement-it was only $3-needs a good cleaning, and it is pretty stable!

 This is an applique quilt that has been started-it's full of pins-ouch! Found that out the hard way-$2.

Yes, sadly, another tablecloth came home with me...the only thing I can say is, I don't have one in this color?

I got back in the car and set the GPS for home. It is a really old, cheap GPS that doesn't say street names, or tell you which side of the road your destination is on. It was also really off on its measurements. It would say 800 feet when it was more like 80 feet. I got about 5 miles from the sale (which was in an area I'd never been to) and the screen went black and it started making a very loud grinding/clicking sound. I kept pushing the power button, but nothing happened. I had to put it under my leg just to silence it enough to not go crazy!!

I had to rely on gut instinct to find my way to the expressway. The GPS was taking me home a totally different way than it took me to get to the sale and I was out in the middle of no where. I finally found one expressway that eventually led me to an expressway that I know. 

I stopped at a consignment store (that I love) in Fenton on the way home and was hoping the GPS would wind down on the battery and stop the awful noise while I was shopping...no such luck! It was still going strong when I came out. I did score a vintage Fiesta relish tray base while I was shopping and it was only $13!! Guess that means I will be adding the inserts to my wish list now!

I almost did a happy dance right in the aisle when I found this!!!

I drove most of the way home, but decided to stop at the grocery store--to get away from the terrible noise the GPS was STILL making! It sure has a long battery life! When I got home, I left it in my car clicking/grinding away until Adam got home from school. It was going off for over 4 hours by the time he got to it!! He told me to toss it out the window when I was driving (I had called him to ask if he knew why it was going crazy-but he had no clue either)! He found a pin and pushed the tiny reset button and it turned off and back on and was perfectly normal-I'm glad I didn't toss it!! Why didn't I think of that???!?!?

Last night I had made up my mind that I was going to stay home today. I never even thought about running out to Kevin's car to grab my GPS I had no need for it because I scanned all of my favorite estate sale/garage sale/auction advertising companies and didn't see anything worth the drive. But...when I woke up, my mind kept going back to an auction in Lansing. I didn't see a ton of things I was interested in, but I did see some great looking quilts, and a few other things that would be good buys if I could get them cheap enough.

I ended up with Adam's GPS again since I didn't think to grab mine. It worked fine until I got into a bunch of one way roads...then it got me all turned around. Thankfully, I was able to call Adam and he walked me through it and got me to the hall where the auction was. I was only 20 minutes late too!

Twenty minutes late might have been 2 hours late, as I soon discovered! They had been selling quilts left and right and by the time I registered and got in the swing of the auctioneer's call, I had missed out on all but 3 quilts!!! UGH!!! The lady in front of me had a HUGE pile of them and she kept winning more! I was able to snag one, but it was the second least desirable one. It was really cheap, so I don't regret it. Who knew 20 minutes could make such a big deal!! Usually when I go to auctions, I sit (or stand) and wait, and wait and wait for the stuff I am interested in to come up!

Not gorgeous-but not a total frog either.

Notice the empty card....wahh!

I liked this auctioneer. He was quick and didn't do a lot of dilly dallying around-he sold a TON of stuff in the hour and a half that I was there. I bid on a few more things but they all went for way more than I was willing to pay. I decided to scoot out and try to find some thrift stores and make a stop at Mega Mall on my way home. The one thrift store I was really anxious to check out--Vintage Palooza--wasn't even at the location it was supposed to be at. It must have went out of business but Google is still picking it up when you do a search for vintage thrift. It looks like it is a restaurant now.Bummer!!

I did find the Mega Mall-in a kind of round about way (that crazy GPS again!). I've been wanting to check out the Mall since I've heard there is new management and a lot of new dealers. It was a great day to go, it was their "Cabin fever" sale. A lot of the dealers were having sales that ranged anywhere from 10%-75% off. Even at 75% off, I couldn't find anything that I couldn't live without or resell. Almost every booth was full, and some of the older, dirty booths have really been cleaned up-yay for new management!!! I did find one thing in a 50% off booth...

This is a picture I borrowed from the internet, I left mine out in the car and I was
too lazy to run out and get it-besides...it's cold out there!!!

After I got home, I had to run a meal over to some friends who recently had a death in the family, run Eric around to find a new backpack (his ripped and it's too bad to fix or even use anymore)-do you know how hard it is to find a backpack in the not back to school season?!?!? What a pain!! We did eventually find one--after a LOT of running around! 

Now we are just vegging out, after our Friday night pizza. It's nice to be home with no where to go!!! Now I think I'll head over to your place to catch up on what you've been doing this week-I can't wait to see what you've done, where you've been and what you've found!!! 

Happy Weekend!!!

Would You Buy it Wednesday...

A couple of weeks ago, I came across this really heavy, really dirty dresser...

If you saw this would you buy it?

What if it was free??

Bet you can already guess that it came home with me! I'm linking up to "Would you Buy it Wednesday" at Junker Newbie-stop by and post your would you buy it finds and see what other fun things people are finding!!

All Decked Out for Valentine's Day!

Today was dealer day at our antiques and collectibles mall, so that meant it was time to deck it out for Valentine's Day!! Since our early church service was changed to start a half hour later, I am usually a half an hour late getting to dealer day so Kevin has been going with me to help me load stuff in before the mall opens for customers at 12.

We worked our tails off today, to get done in time. He even ran the vacuum! I don't think I've ever seen him do that at home!

Here is what it looked like when I left-all red and white and Valentiney!

Weekend Finds...

This was a great weekend to be out and about searching for junk treasures at estate sales! The weather here in Michigan is more like end of March/early April weather and not February. There has been plenty of blue skies and sunshine to enjoy with the mild temperatures. I could get used to these kinds of winters!!

On Friday, I got to hang out with my friend and co-worker the Chicken's Auntie from the blog Kitschy Vintage. We used to go junking together almost every Friday, but haven't been out together for several months. Boy did we talk, and talk and talk, and talk some more!! It was great to catch up-even if the sales weren't that great.

We went to a few sales that looked way better in the pictures that they turned out to be in person. The first sale, the one I was hoping to snag a vintage Fiesta pitcher and tumbler set from, ended up being super high prices, so I only walked away with a couple of vintage paper items and an old peanut butter jar.

The next couple of sales were frogs, and definitely not worth the gas to get there, but we had the talking and catching up to keep us occupied!  The last sale of the day was a digger sale. We got there about an hour and a half after it started and there was still a line! There was probably about 20+ people in line in front of us! Isn't that crazy!?!

We waited about an hour to get in, and I enjoyed talking with the other junk hunters in line around us. I even saw the older lady who outbid me at the auction in Gregory on the boxes of swanky swigs, at the end of summer! I never expected to run into her again-especially at a place that was probably about 100 miles in the opposite direction of where I saw her the first time!

Once we got in the house, it was stinky-so I was hoping for some great junk. I've been getting lucky at the stinkies lately, but my lucky stinky streak ran out! I spent about $20, and I got a few things, but I don't think it was worth waiting all that time for in line. I most definitely don't think it was worth the drive-but all the talking and catching up was worth it!

Here is what I picked up-besides filthy dirty hands and a stink embedded in my clothes and hair! As soon as I got home, everything I was wearing went right into the washer!

 Kevin and I went to a sale on Saturday that was listed as "MASSIVE", but it was a tiny little frog of a sale. It was family run, and I think they were very overwhelmed with having to have the sale, so it probably seemed massive to them. I felt bad for them because an old man went off on them because he went into a room that was off limits and tried to buy something that wasn't for sale. He was a jerk and her really rattled the lady taking the cash. Her husband came in when he heard what was going on and sat down next to her they very patiently waited for the old guy to run out of steam and we all laughed about it when he left-kind of relief/can you believe that-type of laugh.

 

We stopped at an Entenmann's Outlet and loaded up on bread and donuts! Two boxes of donuts were devoured before I got everything out of the bags and onto the table! We are going to be sooo rich when these two moose boys finally move out!!!

All of the extra bagels and loaves of bread are safe and sound in our new refrigerator (freezer). Yep! The fridge died last week...we're taking bets on which appliance is going to die next month! I say dryer, and Kevin says dishwasher-wanna get in on the bet? There's still the stove and microwave!

I was (and still am) thoroughly impressed with the delivery guys! The just used two giant canvas straps and carried out our old fridge and brought in the new one. They didn't use a dolly, and they parked at the bottom of our driveway (which is at the bottom of a hill)!

Tyme Well Spent...

Today my boss took me out to lunch to celebrate my birthday. She took me to a beautiful old Victorian house that had been converted into a tea room and antique shop. It is called Tyme Well Spent and it is located in Hartand, Michigan-in the old downtown area. 

This is just inside the front door-it's actually behind the door when you open it.

You are standing at the foot of these gorgeous stairs when you come in the front door.

This is looking in front the entryway into the main dining room.

This is standing on the stairs looking down into the entryway and the first dining room.

This is a shot looking into one of the three dining areas.

This is one of the tables.

First, they took our order for tea. It was $2.50 a pot and they had a HUGE full sized menu selection of teas We tried a vanilla pear tea (that was wonderful), and a chai vanilla, cinnamon tea (it was good, smelled like Christmas!). They served the tea in tea pots that sat on a base with a tea light candle warmer.

After the tea, they brought us pumpkin bread with a fancy dollop of butter and an orange slice on  a pretty red plate.

Next came the salad-served in a wonderful pink depression bowl. It was mixed greens with dried cherries, fresh strawberries, walnuts and raspberry vinaigrette. 

The menu was very small, only 6 or 8 choices listed as titles without any description. The ladies at the table next to us got the chicken pot pie and it looked incredible! I ordered that, but they were all out, so I ordered the broccoli bacon quiche. It was very good! It too was served on depression glass. See the silverware??

The rooms were all decorated with antiques, the wood trim and doors were amazing! The baseboards had to be at least 9" tall!! I LOVE that look-I wish our house had baseboard trim like that!!!

After we ate and paid, we went upstairs to shop! The whole upstairs is filled with antiques that are for sale!!

This was at the top of the first landing.

This is at the top of the stairs. I turned right a little ways. the white wicker table with the hats is at the very top of the stairs. To the left of where I am standing is the railing for the stairs and they had old chenille bedspreads draped over it. I had to wipe away the drool when I saw them!

This was the first room. I only had my phone, so the picture isn't the best.

This is the second room and you can see the third room just beyond the second. For some reason, I forgot to take pictures of the third and fourth rooms.

Even the bathroom was decorated beautifully!!

Lunch was $10.95 each plus the tea. It was relaxing and wonderful to be surrounded with all of the antiques. I'm so glad she picked that place to take me today!!

I really like this place!! If you happen to find yourself in the Hartland area, make sure you call ahead to be sure they are open and make reservations-you won't be disappointed!!

Down but not out...

Last week Eric was really sick! Tthis week, I have something that I just can't kick! It's not as bad as what he had, but I just can't stop the headache, and queasies. I've stayed home from work the past 2 days, and I feel exhausted! Yesterday I slept until 3 in the afternoon and slept through the night starting at 8pm. I have bags under my eyes and I'm wiped out! I've been cold one minute and hot the next--I sure hope you or your families get this!!!

I did get a bright spot of happiness delivered in the mail though...

I'm hoping to get back to work tomorrow...I know the work is piling up!!!

I finished it!!!

I finished my first rag rug!!! It's not very big, and it's not perfect, but I made it and I couldn't be happier!! I am so creatively challenged that I'm thrilled that this turned out!!! It was very easy too-so easy-even I could do it!!

It's the perfect size for in front of my stove!

Local Antique Store --Sale Alert!!!

If you live within reasonable driving distance to Whitmore Lake, Michigan you're going to want to mark your calendar for a BIG sale!!! I stopped and visited Mart's Treasures and they told me they are moving into Hamburg so they are having a BIG sale March 10 and 11. Anything left in the front of the building will be half off, and anything in the back room will be just $1.

I enjoy visiting this little shop, I'm sure you've seen my posts in the past about it-I can't wait to see them all set up in their new shop!! I'm glad I found them-I think it was on Craigslist-I've visited at least 4 or 5 times now and their inventory keeps getting better and better!! So, if you're nearby-stop in and check out their sale!!