Dig This Treasure!

Last week we gave you a little tasty taste of our trip to Charlevoix, MI.  When we left off, I was dead of heat stroke while Sarah and her family were perusing an antique shop in Petoskey.  At some point though, I drank a slushie from an ice cream hut and then came fully back to life.  Just in time to meet this dude:

We hit a few antique shops in Pellston, MI.  They were all pretty neat and the prices seemed fair.  

I’ll let Sarah share with you her finds, which I think included a really amazing Vernor’s cooler.  I didn’t buy anything.  This cooler could have come in handy the next day when we went back to Petoskey.  We bought some beer to bring home for our husbands but then realized that it would have to sit in a hot car for hours while we shopped around.  Sarah had already unloaded the cooler into the house, so we drove instead to a Walmart and bought one.  Anyway, the beer was from Beards Brewery, which has a really nice logo, and these cool hats:

Also in Petosky, I bought a Zuni fetish.  I’ve wanted one of these for a long time, and was happy to have this rabbit now in my possession.

Sarah found a fetish too, but it was this onion ring in the shape of a dinosaur:

The last day there, we went to Traverse City. While we were there, we hit up that huge antique mall from last year’s trip.  This is where I found some of Zach’s lead soldiers I wrote about recently.  This place is the best.  Some of the prices are high, but it varies booth by booth.  

I wanted this paper mache Easter rabbit, but Sarah vetoed it.  I usually try to ignore her, but I texted Zach a photo and he was also disapproving. 

I think they thought it was “scary.”

This Skookum doll was THE BEST.  But he was $195.  Whomp whomp.

$195 was out of my price range, but $40 sure wasn’t for this gnome head.  And yet, I still didn’t buy it!  I’m kicking myself for this.  It would be great for Halloween.

Again, Sarah will fill you in on all her treasures.  Until next time, Northern Michigan!

-Erin

Update from Sarah: I need some Crest White Strips.

While Erin was recovering from heat stroke, I was looking at this huge hand-painted Joan Walsh Anglund Christmas scene. Of course it was too giant to buy, but pretty cool anyway! 

At this store, I bought a small crib quilt for a chair at home. I spent too much on it but that’s ok–it’s very nice and in excellent shape. And I love this color of yellow. 

There were lots of cool things to look at at the bigger antique shop in Pellston. One of the first things I went through was this huge group of old portraits. I was of course looking for dead people but would have been cool with anything interesting. I came up empty handed. 

I did find this funny picture of a baby, though. 

There were also lots of books in the basement of this place.

I got excited, but they turned out to be pretty bad. 

In the end, I only ended up with an ornament and a very cool Vernors cooler. As I’ve mentioned, I love Vernors. 

It’s in excellent shape and was only $49, which I feel is very reasonable. I am not quite sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’ll figure it out one day (no eye rolls, Adam.) 

The next day in Traverse City, I saw a lot of cool things, but didn’t buy much. Here are some of the funnier things I saw. 

These little buddies love frenching. 

Ok this isn’t funny–it’s cool. I absolutely loved this clock, but it was $75. So awesome, though. 

In the end, most of the stuff was out of my price range, or something I felt I could find online for a bit cheaper. I just bought a small cast iron bear and two photographs. Still, lots of fun things to see! I would go back in a heartbeat. 

On Sunday, Zach found some nearby sales that looked interesting, so we rushed out to visit them.  The first sale was in a condo, which is often disappointing because the smaller space typically means less treasures.  However, this condo was pretty full and had lots and lots to look at.  

I was immediately excited to see a Zuni fetish necklace, which I have blogged about wanting before.  They had a price tag of $50 on it, but since it was the last day, the woman said she could do $25.  It was immediately clear that the woman had no idea what this necklace was, because as I looked at it, she said, “Yeah, such a strange little piece, huh?”  I told her that it sure was, and that I was interested in it, but for $20.  

Of course I bought it, and of course I was thrilled.  There was actually a lot of Native American pieces in this sale, but some of it was more common touristy type stuff.  In what I shall call a true miracle, I was reunited with this guy, who I had seen at “best sale ever” and stupidly did not buy:

He cost me $1, which is probably THE BEST $1 I have ever spent.

So Zach and I headed onward to the next sale, which was run by the lady who once made me wait in line holding a 30 pound box while she talked on the phone with her friend.  Despite that whole debacle, I have come to like this lady (Linda), as she is generally pleasant and has fair pricing.  When she doesn’t have fair pricing, she will say frankly, “Fine, then what do you want to pay for it?” and then you tell her and she says ok.

So as soon as we walk in, it is clear that Linda is being bowled over by some mega bargain hunters.  Everything at the sale is already 50% off, but these ladies wanted even more, and possibly, they wanted blood.  The bickering was overwhelming and awkward, and Zach and I shuffled out of the way of the conflict.  

We head in the basement, and there is another fight down there!  Let me break this down…when you go to a sale and the seller says they will give you a discounted price on a whole pile of stuff, that price is therefore only applicable if you agree to go ahead and buy that whole pile of stuff.  

You cannot do the following:  Get a price on a whole BIG pile of stuff (let’s say that price is $15) and then ask the seller, well how much is just this one pan in the pile?  When the seller says, well that pan is marked $10, you cannot then say, “Well fine, I’ll just buy all the rest of this stuff for $5 then.”  

I hope that all made sense.  The bottom line is that there was a man in the basement YELLING over pricing at one of the women running the sale (not Linda, who was busy being slaughtered upstairs).  When this lady walked away from him, he followed her and continued the charade upstairs.  He engages Linda in his rampage and every time she tells him a price that he doesn’t like, he throws the item down on top of a jewelry display they have at checkout.  

At some point, he knocks over a piece of dishware and Zach decides to step in.  Of all the things to say to an angry man, I think Zach chose wisely.  He simply looked at the man and said, “YOU NEED TO RELAX.”  Truer words have never been spoken, except for what Zach said next, which was “AND YOU NEED TO PICK THINGS UP WHEN YOU DROP THEM.”  Yes, right on.  I married a smart man.

The grump ignored Zach and things escalated when we ran into him outside as we were leaving.  Zach called him “a rude person” and a “f#cker”, which I support as a harsh but fair assessment.  The man walked away, but looked back at Zach one more time before we got in our car.  Zach then proceeded to do the most terrifying point and stare maneuver, which I have forced him to recreate here and now for this blog entry:

That man was surely shaking in his boots.  Or flip flops.  For all I know, that jackass was wearing flip flops.

This was probably the worst I’ve seen people at a sale, except for THAT ONE TIME when Sarah and I were in the eye of the storm.  I just don’t get the logic here.  Throwing a fit will definitely NOT make someone lower the price for you.  You gotta be nice!

Alright, anyway, I bought one thing at this sale, which is a fabric applique art piece known as “mola.”  It is made by the Kuna Indians in South America.  It is hanging in our bedroom now and cost me $30, a super discounted price that Linda gave me FOR BEING NICE WHEN ASKING FOR A DEAL.

-Erin

So Sarah and I are up in the Traverse City area this week on vacation, and besides eating deep fried Oreos, we are also busy treasure hunting.  We’ve found many blog-worthy things up here, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, I saw a “holy grail” item in person today that I will be thinking about for a long time…

While in Leland, MI we saw this tiny store called Tampico.  It turned out to be my dream come true, which Sarah was certainly thrilled by.  She finally left me at the store to go venture elsewhere because I had basically set up residence.  

The store was mostly Zuni jewelry which I am obsessed with, as well as Mexican old pawn pieces and newer Michigan fossil jewelry.  I was chatting with the owner about Zuni earrings when he mentioned a super rare Zuni fetishes necklace he had in the back.  

I had seen Zuni fetishes before, and was actually looking at some in this store.  I had never seen a fetishes necklace in person though.  Ok, so before we get into that…

Zuni fetishes are little carved animals (out of fossils, mother of pearl, corals, rocks, etc.) that represent guardian animals and important tribal icons.  They are cool and adorable.  The necklace this man had was owned by an important member of the Zuni community, and it was made from fetishes collected for years by her family.  He bought it out of her estate for an undisclosed amount, although I saw a price tag on it that said $980.

I obviously cannot afford this necklace so it will remain a holy grail for now.  However, while in the back of the store looking at this, the owner mentioned some other Zuni jewelry he purchased out of this estate.  He had yet to sort and price it, but agreed to show me anyway.  I instantly fell in love with some handmade sterling and turquoise earrings.  He offered them to me for $70, which is a steal.  I’ve seen smaller and less impressive Zuni earrings for about $125.  

Here they are:

They’re larger size, about 2 inches long each.  And they look very cool on.  After I bought them, I kept telling Sarah that I was “happy as a clam.”  They really made my day!

-Erin