Dig This Treasure!

Sarah and I have been hitting up estate sales and garages sales pretty regularly.  Finding the time to blog, however, is another story.  We have been active over on Instagram though, so if you haven’t followed us already, please do!  Here’s Sarah at a garage sale describing a butterfly she saw:

She’s still kind of salty about me secretly recording that.

Anyway, to make Sarah feel better, here is a tale of my absolute stupidity…

We visited a sale a few weeks ago that upon entry seemed promising.  Everything seemed old and I figured many treasures awaited us.

And this bird mobile?! Omg so cute!  Why didn’t I buy this? I should have bought it.  The better question is why didn’t Sarah buy this? It looks like something she would totally buy. 

And how come we didn’t buy this beauty of an art piece:

I have lots of questions.  Why is this person wearing like a wig of white hair over top of their regular hair?  Or is that an aura? Or reflective light?  Why is this person wearing a jacket with no shirt underneath? Why does that microphone seem very very small? And who is this? Bonnie Raitt?  I’m not good with music stuff.  I once thought John Popper was the singer of Meatloaf.  Turns out that the singer of Meatloaf is Meatloaf.

It started to become clear that this house was just full of “things.”  Not treasure-type things, just things.  Lots and lots of things that had fallen into the bottom of a closet for years or were stuck in a junk drawer.  I have things like this too, so I don’t mean to judge too harshly.

There were also lots and lots of homeopathic medicines and supplements, which was kind of heartbreaking.

Ok, so where does my stupidity come in?  Since this sale was a bust, we headed to another one.  This time, the house was a little more upscale and organized. They had a lot of art and books.

There were still lots of great vintage items.  Look at this dining room set!  Love it.

Like look at this adorable bathroom! I love this adorable bathroom!  If I could’ve bought it I would have. Except for that filthy rug.  Eff that.

Alright, so here goes…at this sale I found this amazing piece of embroidery art.  I loved it so much.  It brought me joy.  Look closely at it and really take it in:

Now I want you to guess what this is an image of.  Even a general guess will do.  Think hard and lock in your guess before you scroll down…

Got it?

Think you know?

Well let me tell you what I thought this was…

I thought this was a picture of mermaids.  I THOUGHT THOSE WERE TAILS. 

I took the picture over to Sarah and was all, “Look at these mermaids!”  She about died.  Apparently this is some sort of Jewish art.  (I am not Jewish so how should I know.) Apparently this is obvious.  Apparently I should have known this was religious in some way.

I mean, I guess I see it now.  I was just super distracted by those adorable mermaid children to even notice.

I left empty handed. Well, except for shame.  I left with some of that.

-Erin 

As mentioned, Sarah and I hit the road last week for a mini vacay up in Traverse City, MI.  We were sure that many antique stores, yard sales, flea markets, and more awaited us.  It turns out though that most of the antique stores in Northern Michigan have gone out of business.  And for whatever reason, there wasn’t a single estate or yard sale!  What a true bummer!  

We did manage to find some treasures though, as well as wacky things that I’m sure Sarah will blog about at some point.  

One antique store we did find was in downtown Traverse City, and was 4 floors of high-end collectibles (including antique gynecology tables.) Unfortunately for us, we arrived there 10 minutes before they were closing.  Before being kicked out, I spotted some old chocolate and ice cream molds:

Of course, I particularly liked this rabbit one, but it was too pricey.

Having a glimpse at this store made us plan a special return visit.  A couple days later we made the ½ hour drive back to Traverse City (we were staying in nearby Cedar) to find us some treasures.  When we got there, the store had closed early BECAUSE OF A PARADE.  Usually I love parades, but not when they ruin our fun.  We were so disappointed.  

I convinced Sarah that we should hike our way through the parade and its crowd to another antique store nearby.  Luckily, it was open.  They had some neat items, particularly this giant bear skin rug:

I was also pretty obsessed with this bird basket, but it was expensive.  I also don’t have any birds to put in it.

I ended up buying a sterling silver rabbit ring.  I think Sarah bought some earrings.

No one bought these little mermaid cat statues though.  Whomp whomp.

-Erin

Update from Sarah:  I was very bad about taking pictures everywhere we went, but Erin summarized our disappointment fairly well. What the “antiquing” experience did affirm for me is that I love estate sale-ing and don’t really care for antique shopping. It’s so hard to get into it when you see the prices on stuff that we normally see at sales for about a 10th of the price. 

I did purchase a cute pair of sterling silver heart earrings and a copper piggy bank. The earrings were totally overpriced but I hadn’t really purchased a lot for myself on the trip, which is abnormal for me. So I splurged. 

In a day or two, I’ll give y'all an update about one “antique store” that found in Northport that contained countless gems. In the meantime, check out this treasure that Erin decided to pass on: 

Me, Erin, and my mom had an extensive argument about whether this was a beaver, squirrel or chipmunk mask. Feel free to weigh in.