Dig This Treasure!

After the new year, I met my friend Sarah in nearby Chelsea to check out a local antique store that neither of us had been to before. You may recall that we hit up another place in Chelsea a few months ago, and we ended up going back there, but first let’s talk about what we found at Chelsea Antiques. 

They had a nice variety of items, and most everything seemed to be decently priced (on the high end but not the highest I’ve ever seen). 

The really nice thing was that items were arranged well so that like things were together. They had a LOT of antique postcards which were fun to sift through. 

Sarah found that one and we could not stop giggling about it. What the hell does it mean?! 

I am certain that this is what goes through Adam’s head every day. 

I love seeing books like this. I’m sure the stories are full of hunting, sports, and farting. Right? 

They also had a few “new” items mixed in with the antiques. I liked this Autumn Mouse, preparing for winter: 

I also saw this cool thing that looked like something Erin would like, but $40 was too risky to take a chance. 

Good thing I didn’t buy it for her, because she told me it looked a little too Buddhist for her tastes. 

I did end up buying a few things. First, I found some postcards that I liked. They were all individually priced between 3 and 8 bucks… but I splurged. I can’t show you a few of them because they are gifts. I thought this image was so weird and creepy. I had to get it. 

Same with this one. 

I also found this cute wooden Russian girl for $12. 

She fits right in with my other wooden carvings. 

Before checking out, I noticed a bunch of jewelry by the counter so I started sifting through it. I found these cute vintage dog earrings:

…and then a pair of sterling native american earrings. The sterling ones were a little pricey ($20) but I really liked them. They were pretty tarnished but I was ok with that. When I went to check out, the woman asked if I wanted her to polish them for me. I said no at first but she insisted it would only take a couple of minutes. I reluctantly agreed, and she pulled out this tube of the most toxic smelling stuff ever. I stood there patiently while she polished them, wondering what the horrid smell was doing to my insides. When they were done they looked nice and sparkly, but I’m still not sure it was worth the brain cells lost due to the odor. 

When we left the store, we decided to hit up the antiques mall again because it was just down the street. I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that Baked Big Boy was still representin’. 

I did buy one item here but I’ll save that for another day. 

-Sarah

You might remember my family’s trip to Holly, MI last year.  It was full of Dickens characters, steampunks, and Skookum dolls.  This year, we all returned to Holly and it was noticeably less full of all of the above.  Despite being advertised as the annual Dickens festival, there were very few Tiny Tims and Jacob Marleys.  It might’ve been because it was cold as, well, the Dickens.

Zach suited up in the Baby Bjorn because Holly isn’t suitable for strollers.  All of the stores are mega cramped.  

The baby seemed to love the bar, which is both adorable and unsettling.

I drank a fancy candy cane martini since Everett was eating formula this day.  I was very pleased about this.

Timmy, Lindsay, and I did end up antique shopping.  Holly really brings it hard when it comes to antiques.  They have some of the coolest stuff around.  

For some reason, there is a TON of Native American stuff.  All of it high quality.

Those moccasins remind me of that time I got in a fight with an auctioneer over moccasins.  Seriously, curse that dude.

I did buy a Native American item, but it is a Christmas gift for someone and therefore I cannot disclose it yet.  I’ll be sure to blog about it after the holiday.  

I really want one of these old German paper mache rabbits.  One day I will pony up and buy one.

Ok, so you should also know that Holly is apparently haunted.  So while I was shopping around for cool antiques, I kept running into this group of people who were ghost hunting.  This was frustrating for many reasons.  One, it was the middle of the day.  Ghosts do not come out and say hello in the middle of the day.  That is like Ghost Knowledge 101.  

And like I mentioned, the shops in Holly are super tiny and hard to maneuver.  I kept trying to look at things in glass cases inside the antique stores, and all of a sudden like 4 people are in the way trying to take photos of the cases because “you can see a ghost’s reflection in them!”  No.  That is a lie.  There is no ghost face reflection in these cases, just old sh*t that I am trying to look at and possibly buy.

The crowds tired me out, so I didn’t buy much.  I did get Timmy a baseball bank for Christmas, which I am disclosing here because he accidentally caught me buying it.  It kind of looks like this (I forgot to photo it before wrapping).

-Erin

Update from Sarah: First of all, Everett doesn’t EAT. He only drinks. Second, why did you not buy that Rasta Santa? He even has a sunburn from his most recent trip to Jamaica, mon. 

Oh my gosh. I know it will be hard to top Everett’s debut on the blog, but we have to keep things rolling here. Right?…

OK, FINE… I’ll show you ONE more picture of him… 

Squeeeeeee!!!!! 

Ok, back to our adventures in Grass Lake a few weeks ago. So, after Sarah and I left The Copper Nail, we decided to drive to nearby Chelsea and hit up the Chelsea Antique and Collectibles Mall. I tend to forget that antique malls are places where I might find cute things, so I was glad to have the opportunity. There were actually a lot of cool things at this place, one of which I already blogged about–my adorable pose dolls! Here are some other cool booths & things: 

Below you’ll see a little Cairn Terrier figurine that Sarah spotted. She has a Cairn Terrier so she was interested in this little guy but he was priced outrageously. I just looked online and it seems these are fairly abundant on eBay, so Sarah–go get one! 

Even though this sign includes improper punctuation, I loved it. There were a stack of these small signs for sale but again, they were priced $15 or $20 each, which just seemed to steep for a piece of paper. 

I LOVED this baby quilt but it was also priced a little high and even though I’ve bought things for my non-existent baby in the past, I couldn’t really bring myself to do it here, but now I sort of regret it. 

I really wanted this book but figured I could find it cheaper online. I think it was marked $12. Turns out I was wrong about this one! The cheapest one on Amazon used is $23. Whomp whomp. 

If you look close at the prices, you can see this is a baller collection of mason jars. I was just taking note the other day of the fact that hipsters enjoy drinking things out of mason jars, so maybe this is where you go to get a jar that is different from other hipsters’ jars. 

Sarah was interested in learning more about old things and what draws me to specific items. I gave her a perfect example of something that is tempting to buy (cute, cheap, different)… 

….but that I need to start training myself not to purchase. In this case I did ultimately decided that I did not need to purchase a miniature figurine of a beagle wearing a dress, playing a harp. You’re welcome, Adam. 

There were lots of funny things to see here, but I’ll save that for a rainy day. But before I go, you want to know what I came away with, right?!

I couldn’t resist this mug–since I love hounds and love coffee. The sexist rating scale on the side sealed the deal. 

I got this little piglet for my miniature shelves. He’s cute and weird. 

I also got another vintage baby blanket but I forgot to take a picture of it. 

Oh I forgot to mention the best part about this place–it’s connected to a bowling alley!

Fun here for SURE! 

-Sarah

There have been a couple times on this blog that we caught some flack for using humor in regards to items at estate sales, and for taking photos inside of sales. Some readers have found our blog intrusive or insensitive. Sarah wrote an amazing post over a year ago, explaining that we are in fact not heartless.

We get it. Estate sales can be super sad. We’ve been to many sales that made us wonder WTF happened in the house. Those links are just a few examples. We’ve always acknowledged how sad and uncomfortable these sales made us.

Never has the sad aspect of estate sales been more evident to me than today. I helped my parents run an estate/garage sale at my grandma’s house. My grandma had been living with my uncle in the home, when he passed away unexpectedly and tragically. My grandma, who has severe dementia, is now living with my parents.

Kudos to Timmy who has been over at the house for weeks cleaning it out. None of us realized how bad of shape the home was in. The volume of stuff in the house masked the bad condition of the structure itself.

What was astounding to me at the sale today were people’s attitudes. I cannot tell you how many people walked up to me and before saying “Hello” instead said “Who died?” I wanted to strangle all of them.

It made me realize that there is this weird dynamic happening at estate sales. On the one hand, it is a totally natural thing for people to die. And sometimes they leave behind a lot of “stuff.” And really, it’s just stuff. This detached perspective is what lets us find humor in all the weird stuff we see at sales.

But sometimes “stuff” is more than just stuff. It’s memories. And the family selling all of it is painfully aware of this. My mom had to pull numerous items out of the sale today because they were so sentimental to her. A couple of times, I caught myself trying to rationalize with her that the items were just stuff, and it was important to sell them to get money for fixing up the house. Really, we’re both right.

I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with all of this. I do want to share with you guys this short documentary I worked on a few years ago about this issue. Sarah encouraged me to share it a long time ago and I never did. It’s all about our relationship with inanimate objects, whether we see them as strictly utilitarian or as something more symbolic.

You will probably all like it because it features Timmy.

And while I’m at it, here is another short doc about my personal relationship with “stuff.” It’s about hunting down a girl who stole my favorite stuffed animal over 17 years ago.

Basically, I just wanted to vent here that today was tough for me and my family. And I think I am not always aware when Sarah and I are out at sales how hard things are for those families. It is tough to reconcile the natural circumstances of life with all of the emotions that come with those circumstances.

So again, know that when we write this blog, we get it. There is both humor and heartache in the things we leave behind in life. All of which, is okay.

-Erin

P.S. Just to make sure I don’t leave you all terribly sad, here is a photo of Timmy accidentally imploding a snow blower today:

You might remember my trip to Canada last year, and if so, you will be pleased to know that Zach, my parents, and I made the trek again last weekend.  Again, let me reiterate that I LOVE Canada.  I love the people, the Coffee Crisp bars, the weird fake play money they have, the accents, and of course, the antiques.  For some reason it seems like I see the same ol’ treasures at antique markets here in the States, but as soon as you hit the ones in Canada, you see all sorts of things you never knew existed.

Before I tell you about our trip, I should mention that Zach almost ruined it for us.  Since I got pregnant, he vowed not to cut his hair or beard until the baby came.  As a result, he looks like a serious crazy person…at least customs thought so.  In Michigan we get enhanced drivers’ licenses that let us visit Canada.  This apparently wasn’t enough to get Zach in.  They asked for extra identification and his birth certificate, which he didn’t bring along.  They then grilled him about ever living in other countries (he hasn’t).  You could tell the customs dude was profiling him pretty hard, maybe assuming the beard meant he was Middle Eastern.  Anyway, Zach got asked a million questions about where he was born and such and such, until finally they let us through.  Thanks a lot Zach.

Here is a reference photo of Zach, just for good measure.  (He found this hat at the Duty Free shop later that day.)

So on we went with our trip, our first stop just outside Grand Bend at Dale’s Antiques.

Pregnant lady crossing.  Move it or lose it:

There were a lot of interesting things here at Dale’s, but I actually didn’t buy anything!

Mellow Man Ace was Zach’s nickname in high school.  Also, are those cigars in that dude’s pocket?  They look like blood test tubes. 

I actually LOVED these pigs, but I knew they would probably freak Zach out.  Plus we are low on wall space in the house.

I also liked this rubber-faced chicken.  I thought I could probably sell him on ebay.  The guy selling him though wouldn’t barter at all, and so I passed on him.  Plus he was a little dirty and someone had cut off the felt crest from his head.

What do you guys think?  Should I have bought him?

Our second stop of the day was at a place called The Pinery.  It is much bigger than Dale’s but is more flea market than antique market.  If you need healing crystals, butter tarts, and wolf t-shirts, this is your place.

Or if you need “little nugget coats” apparently.  Also, WTF is a nugget coat.

I did find two things to buy here.  The first was this soldier for Zach.  He’s just cruising along in his big wheeled military vehicle.  It kind of looks like a monster truck.

This soldier had a price tag of $10 on it and when I went to buy it, the seller was all angry because he said it was mis-marked.  He said it should have been priced $45.  I just kind of stood there dumbfounded with a $10 bill in my hand.  After a quiet standoff, he took my ten dollars and I slowly backed away.

The second item I bought was this knit baby sweater, which is clearly not antique or collectible.  It was however made by a grandma, so that makes it old by proxy.

Here are some things I did not buy:

Seriously, more wasp nests.  Is there a secret cult of people who collect these?  I really don’t get it.  What’s the buzz all about?  Har har har.

I’ve always loved these old horse racing games. This would look so nice on a pedestal and with a glass dome over it.  

No one else really found anything to buy.  I think my mom bought some Zucchini bread.  Zach bought some booze at the Duty Free Shop.  And Timmy, well, he bought us all lunch.  Thanks Timmy.

-Erin

A couple of Fridays ago, we were out and about again.  The sales looked just alright, but actually turned out to be pretty good.  I was determined to find some stuff to sell on ebay because I have had quite the dry spell.  I can’t remember where the first sale was, but I’m thinking it was Dearborn or something.  It had lots of cutesy vintage stuff.

There were a ton of these placemats made from pieced-together magazine clippings.  Super cute.  

Anyone know what these weird old glasses are?  The clear glass parts separate out from the colored metal bottoms.  But the glass parts cannot stand alone, so I am not sure why they separate out.  They look to be from the 1950s or 60s.

Guns guns guns.  These were cool but really pricey…I think like $40 each.  

Here’s something interesting I learned about selling cap guns on ebay.  Remember last week when I bought one to resell?  I listed it on ebay in the vintage toy section and clearly labeled it as a cap gun.  However, ebay instantly pulled down the listing because it looked too much like a real gun.  To sell a cap gun on ebay, you have to attach an orange tip to the barrel, so that it is obviously a toy.  I don’t know where to buy such a tip, so I am thinking of photoshopping my photos so it looks like my gun has the orange tip on it.  Blargh.

Anyway, Sarah found this cute apron thing to wear when she cooks, except that she doesn’t cook…so maybe she will wear it while sorting through vintage photos and slides (more on this later).

My first find were these tiny gold spoons, perfect for feeding a baby.  I texted Zach and asked if we needed gold plated baby spoons and he responded with a “YESSSS.”  At $15, these were a little steep, although they are real gold plate.  Only the best for future baby I guess.

I also found this Captain Hook marionette to resell.  I thought he was just so cute.  However, when looking him up on ebay, I couldn’t find anything similar.  Turns out, I was searching for “Captain Cook” instead of “Captain Hook.”  Some lady walked by me and said, “Oh cute!  Captain Hook from Peter Pan!”  and that made me realize my mistake.  I saw that these could sell for decent money on ebay, so I snatched him up for $10.

When I got home,  I realized he was missing his hook!!  Oy!  I am hoping he still sells.

Also to resell are these Ohio State glasses from the 1960s.  They were $3 each so definitely worth the risk.

So I check out and am ready to book it out of this place because it is getting increasingly hot and crowded.  I see Sarah and it looks like she only has a couple of things to pay for, so I figure our time here is almost done.  Sarah then informs me that she has just decided to purchase a serious megaload of old photo slides, and that said slides are IN THE BASEMENT.  For pete’s sake.  

Sarah’s still wearing a boot from her broken toe and I am a giant melon belly, so carrying slides up stairs (and doing so in multiple trips) sounds like a real sad time to me.  I immediately started sulking.

Luckily, the people running the sale helped us, so we each only had to take two trips up and down the stairs.  Maybe Sarah made more…I just know I made two and then gave up on helping.  YOLO.

That’s the backseat of Sarah’s car packed to the brim with slides.  At some point, she said to me, “I don’t know how I’m going to get these in the house without Adam seeing.”  I wished her luck on that, as she would surely need help from a magician or magic elf or strong sedatives to use on Adam.

We hit one other sale that was in a cute farmhouse, but I don’t think I bought anything.  It was pretty picked over.  

That blue stool caught my eye, but I realized I don’t have a place for it.  When I got home though, I remembered that I specifically want a stool to use in “Ebay World” where I photograph and list all my ebay stuff.  Ebay World has a high counter I usually stand at, but since I hate standing now, I could really use a nice stool.  Darn! 

After this sale, we went to a Middle Eastern bakery that is pretty famous in Dearborn.  Sarah can fill you in on the name because I don’t remember.  All I do remember is that we stood in line for 45 minutes because it was so crowded.  Worth it though, because the treats were pretty fly.

-Erin

Update from Sarah: For the record, I never even asked Erin to help me with the slides. I just told her she was going to kill me because there were so many and it was going to take a while to get them out of the house. You saw the backseat–there were a lot. No lying there. The reason I warned her is that when it gets over 70 degrees and she has to wait somewhere, Erin acts as if she’s in the Sahara wearing a snow suit, without water. Also, she was wearing LONG SLEEVES AND JEANS that day. I know we had quite the cool spell in MI but come on! Anyway, here’s what she looks like when she’s too hot: 

I found some cool stuff at this sale and actually went back the next day. The guy was a retired math professor and had all sorts of math-y sh*t in his house, so I knew Adam would be totally down with it. I did buy him a few things–the coolest of which were these Ford Motor educational posters. 

I also purchased a few things for myself but I’m cleaning out eBay world and can’t find some of them. Good sign, I know. But here’s a very cute cross stitch from the ‘30s that I bought that Adam was super thrilled about. 

I want to make a cross stitch wall somewhere in my house. Workin’ on it. 

So Erin left out the best part of the day, which was stopping at the Dearborn Farmer’s Market. While we were there we spotted a beignet truck that had a sign out front that they had CRONUTS. Now all you sassy hipsters are probably not impressed by this but we don’t have stuff like this in SE Michigan, and Erin’s been wanting a cronut forev. Here she is, losing her cronut virginity. 

My car was covered in powdered sugar by the end of this because we both kept laughing while eating them, which would blow it all over. 

At the second sale, I found an old Chorus Line tshirt from the '70s. 

As Erin mentioned, we ended the day at Shatila Bakery in Dearborn, which is pretty famous. One of our student assistants at work is from Jordan and he told me to go there. I wasn’t disappointed! Here I am later at night, displaying my treats. 

Each of these things only cost $1.50. The only downside is you have to wait for 45 minutes to get them. Also, never had better baklava in my LIFE, yo! 

Zach and I took a short trip to New York City this weekend.  We wanted to sneak in some freedom and fun time before the baby comes in October.  NYC has got to be my favorite place on Earth (Zach’s too), and even though we only had a couple days there, we made the most of it.

We spent our first day visiting Rosie Pope Maternity (shout-out to Bravo TV fans), perusing fake goods in Chinatown, and going to the bar with friends.  Sunday, however, was dedicated to treasure hunting.  We started the day at a street fair near our hotel.  I bought some of these embroidered pillow shams (a zebra and giraffe).  Supposedly they are handmade in Kashmir, but that is probably a lie.

You might remember that last year Zach and I visited Brooklyn Flea.  This year, we decided to check out GreenFlea in Manhattan.  It wasn’t as large as Brooklyn Flea, but ended up having really great treasures.

Zach spotted David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine fame.  This was actually the first of two celebrity sightings, as Zach inadvertently found a seat by Andre 3000 later this day at the airport. 

David Fricke wears flip flops.

Some of the best things at GreenFlea were:

This INCREDIBLE Skookum doll.  I actually missed this when walking around and Zach brought me over to it.  When I saw it, I hoped so badly I was going to get an amazing deal on it.  So far, I have never paid more than $30 for a Skookum.  The woman selling this though wanted $200.  

These silver and bakelite bugs.  The old man selling these actually makes them himself! They were each around $200, which was out of my price range.  I would have bought one in a heartbeat though, as I am always looking for nice pins for my Fall jackets.

These shadow boxes.  SUCH A GOOD AND SIMPLE IDEA.  This person buys old lead figurines (just like Zach collects) and then mounts them in shadow boxes.  Very cool.  Here is another one, but with old razors:

This giant metal horse head.  The woman selling this said it came from a kids’ ride-on toy from the 30s.  I would have liked to buy this for the nursery, but it was $75, which seemed steep.

This HERWI nodder made in Germany.  Clearly this is really old, but does anyone know if it is valuable?  I couldn’t find anything on ebay.  Asking price was $40.

We ended up buying only a couple things.  First was this super old Santa figure.  It seems to be carved out of wood, or some sort of chalkware type material.

It was $5. Also $5 was this lead soldier Zach found:

Zach also found the last two items we bought.  First was a cool Andy Warhol card from the 80s.  We haven’t found out much info on the company that put this out, but it seems to be some sort of super tiny, independent erotica place.  I’m only saying that because there is stuff on the back of the card about sex.

The last purchase was this old business card.  Zach couldn’t pass it up because of the hilarity.  When he asked the price, the man selling this said, “Hmm, I don’t know…it could be valuable.”  That is always THE WORST thing to hear a seller say, especially when something is clearly not worth much.  Zach bartered him down to $1.

Eleanor was real sassy.  Just like David Fricke and his flip flops.

I should also mention that at this flea market I ate the best treat of my life.  It was a waffle with nutella and ice cream.  Seriously so boss.

Until next time New York!

-Erin

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.