Random, Pop Up Adventure

If a friend sent you a text message that asked if you could be dressed and ready to go in one hour, could you? Would you? Even if your friend said, "Trust me, you'll like it."? That's what I did to my friend Auntie on Friday. We've both been working really hard lately and haven't had much time for fun, so I decided to go on a spur of the moment adventure, and I invited her along!

She was very brave and trusted me enough to go along for the ride, and I think she had a blast! I had a great time myself, even though I didn't get anywhere near the fun things that she got! You  can see her version of our adventure on her blog.

We ended up visiting some sales in Dearborn, and Dearborn Heights. One of the sales was the best I've been to in a while, and it was the second day. The estate sale company putting the sale on was top-notch. Very helpful, very organized and the prices were reasonable. I'll definitely keep an eye out for more of their sales!

I got a great tablecloth, a couple of hankies, some thread and a couple of tiles for my flower bed. When I was paying for my finds, the cashier told me that she sold 35 tablecloths the day before, like the one I bought! I guess that is what my estate sale will be like when I'm gone-lol! Maybe a few more though.

We've had a busy week around our house. Last Tuesday was the start of our summer sand volleyball nights at our house. I was pretty bummed when only one guy showed up and we couldn't play. The guy that showed up is my oldest son's best friend so it was great to chat with him and catch up on all the details of his upcoming wedding. That part wasn't discouraging. The lack of players was what was discouraging. I asked God if our season for this was over, and if we should turn the sand court back into our yard.

The next morning while I was in a staff meeting, I got a phone call and a voicemail message from my cousin's husband. He NEVER calls me, so I was extremely concerned that something was wrong with one of my family members. I couldn't leave the meeting, so I snuck a quick text to him to tell him I'd call him as soon as the meeting was over.

He texted back asking if we could use 30 yards of pure beach sand for our court---for FREE! I guess that was my answer to whether or not we are done opening up our yard for sand volleyball every week in the summer! The sand was delivered within a half hour. I had no idea how much 30 yards would be! No idea! My best guess was about a third of what we got.

My youngest and I spent about 4 hours trying to haul it with a wheelbarrow and spreading it out over the court. Then I texted my cousin's husband asking for recommendations of people to hire to spread it out. He owns an excavating company and his voicemail says they are booking 4 months out, so I knew he wouldn't be able to do it.

He texted back that he'd have someone there Friday afternoon! Sure enough, Friday afternoon, two guys came and in about 1 hour had it all smoothed out, and the court all squared up. It was incredible to watch the guy in the machine. He was crazy fast and crazy good! Then they raked out the high spots and it was laser leveled-crazy! I would have been happy to have half on one side, half on the other so I could spread it better.

They had extra sand from a job site that needed moving right away, that's how we got it for free, and he asked us to take him and my cousin out to dinner as payment for the guys spreading it out! How cool is that!?!?  So, now I'm eagerly waiting to see how this court is going to be used this summer. We are considering changing it from Tuesdays to Thursdays...a lot of people are telling me Tuesdays aren't good days. We'll see what happens, if we get a small crowd, I'll change it to Thursdays for the rest of the summer.

Here are some pics of my week...


Flowers in the flowerbed that I walk past every day going into work

This is what 30 yards, or 3 dump trucks full of sand look like

This was after 4 hours of shoveling and hauling with the wheelbarrow, plus a little goofing around by the youngest.

This was the first sale Auntie and I visited last Friday!

New in box, never used, only three bowls though.

LOOK at this awesome car!!! We came across it at another sale about 10 minutes away from this sale.

In the basement of the first estate sale

Fishing gear pics sent to my youngest to see what he wanted me to buy for him

Bought this, and then found one the next day at a different sale, close to home, for $3-oops!

Sent this pic to Auntie's son to see which one's he wanted

Bought the middle anchor

This was Auntie's haul-she got some great treasures!

My haul...I should have bought more thread...it was only a quarter a spool and there were hundreds of spools!

Happy mail package--this set now only needs two more to be complete!

This was taken about 5 minutes into the guys spreading it out. I would have been happy to have it just to this level, then I could have spread it out the rest of the way. They insisted on finishing.

It looks pretty much exactly like what we had, minus about 17 years of cracking leather. Can you believe they scheduled us for delivery between 9pm and 12am??? How crazy is that?!?!? They arrived at 10pm, so that wasn't too bad, but I felt bad for the 3 other customers who were scheduled after us!

Saturday was a busy day spreading mulch, and putting down 24"x24" cement pavers at the base of our deck. Sunday we shopped for the new furniture and when we went to move the old stuff out, my back decided it was done with all of the hard work and decided to cramp up and spasm like crazy, and has kept on spasming for the past couple of days. I've spent the last two days on pain meds and a heating pad...getting older stinks! 

Thanks for your prayers for my little cousin, she is doing well! :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Today I went to the flea market at Greenmead in Livonia with my newly retired boss and fellow treasure hunter. I knew there was a big chance for rain. I was hoping we'd get in and get out before it hit. I forgot my rain jacket at home. I forgot the cheap little clear rain ponchos that I always have stashed in my car-at home. I forgot my umbrella in the car. What was I thinking?!? Obviously. I wasn't!

It was blue skies and sunny when we got there. I dropped my friend off as soon as I pulled in, because the line was all the way to the road, and it wrapped around a good way parallel with the road. When I parked and locked the car, I turned back to grab my sunglasses, it was that sunny.

We got about 1/3 of the way through and it started to pour! Vendors were covering everything up, and the only thing we could do was to look for someplace out of the rain. All of the places with tents were packed with shoppers with the same idea, so there was no room at the inn, so to speak. So, we ended up under a tree-not the best place, since it started to thunder and lightening! Thankfully, it only lasted a couple of minutes and we were free to start hunting for treasures again.

The sun came back out and just as quickly, the rain came again! We missed a whole section in the back because of the rain, but there was a set of vintage aqua couches that were seriously calling my friend's name and we had to head back to see if they were still available.

She did a good job haggling, and got them a little lower than the asking price, and after paying the dealer, we headed back the the back section to see what we missed when it started raining the first time. We got to exactly the same spot and it started raining again! We kept wandering in the rain and it stopped very soon after it started.

Just as it stopped and it looked like we were going to get to see things, we heard a gut-wrenching scream from a mother who lost her 6 year old son! She was asking people to help her find him, and describing what he had on. She was screaming out his name, and almost on the verge of hysteria. My heart went out to her, and I felt sick to my stomach and got a little teary-eyed every time I heard her cry out his name. The whole thing only lasted about a minute, two at tops, but it was scary!

We heard a big cheer when he was found and we watched his mom hug, and hug and hug him. Later as we were leaving, I saw that same mom with two of her three boy's hands glued to her hands and her husband right behind her with the third son's hand glued to his.They weren't taking any chances this time! I'm so happy they found him so quickly and that he was alright!

Since the vendor with the couches was very close to a gated driveway (that had 2 police cars sitting in it) we decided to ask the officers if we could pull up in the driveway to load the couches. They were nice, but firm with their "no", so we had to come up with plan B. We figured the booth was a good 2-2 1/2 blocks distance-wise from the entrance, and we weren't thrilled about hauling them ourselves.

In years past, there has been someone riding around on a gator helping people haul stuff to their cars, so we went up to a woman driving one to ask for help. She told us they no longer haul stuff for people and it was between us and the dealer to figure out how to get it out of there. We couldn't drive in to get them until 4 pm and it was only around 12.

We walked around some more, looking at things that had been covered up our first few times around, and guess what?!? It started to pour again! We took shelter under a tree again and it passed very quickly. Then we decided we were done, so we dumped our bags in the car and went back to start one of two treks through the mud, puddles and crowds of people  to bring the couches to my car.

We heard a lot of people exclaiming about the couches as we went. Everyone was glad someone bought them because they were so cool! We left the first one at the entrance and brought the second, then I went to get the car. Just as I was hopping in, it started pouring again!! I was trying to quickly drive to the entrance, but people were streaming out trying to get to their cars and out of the rain, so my friend and her awesome couches were getting drenched! We huffed and puffed and struggled a bit, but we finally got them in and the doors all closed!! I totally forgot to take a pic of the back of the car-I just wanted to get in out of the rain!

After a couple high-fives, we headed back to her house. We laughed so much and had a great time today! We were totally soaked, but it didn't matter. We had fun and we both got some things that we were very happy with!

It was kind of weird hunting for treasures without Auntie and with someone else! Don't worry, Auntie and I are still treasure hunting buddies, she had other plans today, and she was at Midland yesterday (I'm so jealous!I had plans yesterday, so I couldn't go with her). We'll be back to hunting together soon. I bet our twosome becomes bigger this summer now that my former boss is retired. She and Auntie used to hunt for treasures long before I came into the picture. They actually took me to my first Antique Festival at the Ann Arbor Saline Fairgrounds, many years ago. They introduced me to the egg sandwich! FUN times!!

So, are you dying to see the couches?? They're pretty awesome!!

They will go in her "woman cave" in her basement!

Look at the bags on the table. Each one was filled with yo-yo's. Two bags were sewn and one was just cut circles. $18 each bag.

What are these?

We saw this early on, and again when we were leaving when it was being carried out-SOLD!

We saw a LOT of this today-rain, rain go away!

These were the best jewelry displays I've ever seen, and so simple too!!

This is what I got...because...you know...I don't have any... ;)

Hope you're having a great weekend!

 If you're a praying person, please keep my little cousin Zoe in your prayers, she had major hip surgery on Friday and got to come home today. She's been having a lot of pain...her mom is very exhausted. It's going to be a long haul-six weeks non weight bearing then 6 weeks of PT. Thanks in advance for lifting them up! :)

Parking Structure Garage Sale!

Sunday was the annual Warren's Greatest Garage Sale. It is a massive garage sale, held inside a parking structure in Warren, Michigan. There is a $1 admission fee, and at least 3 levels of garage sales. Each vendor has between 1 and 4 parking spaces-just to give you an idea of how big it is.

We've been to this sale many times before and it's always fun to hunt for treasures and people watch. This year there seemed to be a lot less vintage and antique sellers, as compared to years past, but the whole overall sale seemed bigger. The farmer's market just outside of the garage sales is always a fun addition.

There were a few vendors with Pyrex, but nothing that I didn't already have. I found a great vintage California tablecloth...until I opened it up...it had several holes and one patch that was about 2"x3". When I asked the price, I was told the sticker was on it. The sticker said $49. I quickly folded it up and handed it back.Then I was offered it for $25. As I was almost to the next booth, she offered it to me for $9. I didn't bite. It was in really rough shape. I'm not afraid of stains, but holes I will pass on every time.

I did find a Fisher Price baby and nursery set for Auntie and a toy set of Pyrex primaries for me, so it was worth the trip!

Here's the Fisher Price nursery set-$8 not bad!

Just checking my bag to be sure I really just bought what I thought I bought! $7 for the set!

I LOVE it!!!