A Great Find At the Auction on Saturday!

This past weekend we loaded up on Saturday morning and headed out to a couple of auctions. The first one was in Yankton, South Dakota, the sale had already started when we arrived, so we proceeded to look through the items for sale. There wasn't very many things I was interested in but some old clocks, so we waited until they came to them and I got them ALL. Once we got the clocks we decided to head out to the other sale which was about 30 minutes away. Boy am I glad we decided to go......

These are the dishes I have been collecting for about 20 years now. I usually only find one piece at a time and next to never do I find a piece of dinnerware. As you can see from the photo I have salt and pepper shakers, bowls, pitchers, a few cups, and now remember I have found these ONE piece at a time....

Serving bowls....

The pattern is called "Bittersweet" and the pottery company is Ballerina which was later sold to Universal Pottery Company. Some of the pieces are marked with "Ballerina" and some with "Universal".

I have two of these bubble pitchers......

Now for the rest of the story..... so when we arrived at the second auction I started looking around and was I surprised to find a box of dinnerware that matched my dishes that I have been collecting for 20 years!~~~~Sooooooo, I watched carefully until the box came up for auction, there were 6 boxes and you had choice..... there was a guy next to me with a long braided ponytail and he starts bidding against me........ I showed no fear.........but he wouldn't stop...... I stopped because I thought there must be something in one of those other boxes that he wants, but it couldn't be the DISHES, right?......... WRONG....... The first box he takes is the dishes... now imagine my heart sinking...... but only for a moment..... as he picked up his box I followed him......now don't worry, I wasn't thinking of bopping him on the head and taking the dishes and running.... instead I went up to him and asked him if he wanted the dishes with the red flowers on them because there where some other dishes in that box too, so I was hoping that those were the ones he wanted. He looked at me and said, "You want those, I don't want those, there are some Homer Laughton dishes in the box that I wanted. I'll sell them to you for $10."

Now was I excited or what, I tried not to show to much excitement as he boxed them up for me into an empty box and I paid the man $10!!!!!!!! I quickly picked them up and loaded them into my car, almost skipping as I went. When we got home it was the first thing I got out and washed all the pieces, I then counted them........ I got 41 pieces if dinnerware, including dinner plates, dessert plates, cup and saucers, small dessert bowls, and more bowls.

I now have enough dishes in my set to be able to set a whole table now!!!! How exciting is that?

It is by far my best find yet this year at auction. So remember.... even if someone buys what you wanted, at least go and talk to them and try to do some side buying, they may of wanted something else in the box besides what you wanted and will be willing to sell it to you and make back a little money on the thing they wanted, if not they will just say no.

Cammie(:

Whistle Stop's "Lazy Days of Summer Sale"

The Whistle Stop Country Store had their "Lazy Days of Summer" sale this weekend. I made the 3 hour trip to Elkhorn , Nebraska, where I dropped off some things for her sale. Laurie has owned her shop for over 20 years now. I use to attend her sales 20 years ago before I knew Laurie, loved her style then as much as I do now.

Their cute little sign on the side of the building. This building use to be a train depot. It is a quaint little shop with lots of character and history.

Laurie had this great basket hanging on the fence to greet me when I arrived!

Meet Laurie and Robert, they are the proud owners of the Whistle Stop. Laurie runs the shop and her husband Robert is the furniture maker/painter. He is very creative as you will see....

There are handmade items throughout the shop, check out the flower pillow and the springy bumblebee!

This is one of the cupboards Robert made, he used an old screen door for the front of the cupboard.

Laurie's displays are wonderful, gotta love this old scale.......

Americana everywhere.........

Laurie makes and paints these slices of watermelon, they look good enough to eat....

This flower was created out an old oak barrel slat, also painted by Laurie.....

This is an old piece with new handles, that was redone by Robert......

They do lots of old chairs and paint them different colors, don't you just love the finish.....

Here is an cupboard made with an old shutter as the door. Robert's work is perfection!

I love this piece, it's a maple wall cabinet that they painted black, I absolutely love the finished product, this too is an old piece given new life by the paint finish that is famous to Whistle Stop.

Saw lots of yo-yo's throughout the shop, I made some of these one time, they are very time consuming. Here Laurie made gift tags of of them and used a little old button for the center of the flower.

Next time you are in the Elkhorn, Nebraska area stop and check out the Whistle Stop.

They will be open on the 27Th of June for Elkhorn Days. Laurie has occasional sales throughout the summer with the next big event being on July 25Th, but makes sure and check her website for all the details. I'm sure you will have a good time, it will be worth the trip!

Cammie(:

Another Auction --- This One Was Better Than The Last One!!!!!

Early Sunday morning I woke everyone up, made breakfast and informed them we were going to an auction, so anyone going must get ready to go so we could head out. It was a short drive only 45 minutes from home but the parking was 1/2 mile away from the auction because there were so many people there already! You could hardly get up to the stuff they were auctioning to see what it was they were selling.

Tables and tables of misc items from a to z.......

Again, another auction with beds, which looked similar to the last auction. These were really nice iron beds, very ornate.

Old vintage strings of lights.....

Of course when the auction started it was close to chow time for the boys so they found the food wagon and a comfortable place to have dinner.

There was even stuff in the three car garage.....

Meet Tom and Lavina, they found a place to share conversation and put their feet up while they were at the auction.....

A cute "Tip and Mitten book.....

An old vintage Pepsi serving tray......

Now I was hungry, so I went to the food wagon and ordered a tea and a chili dog, I have never seen a chili dog with this much chili on it for $2... WOW!!!!

A really cute old vintage globe calling my name.......

More tables of "stuff"......

This lady had more white and cream wicker that I had seen in a long time all in one place and it was vintage and perfect!!!

More white merchandise.........

People had used some of the furniture to rest on while waiting for the auctioneers to sell what they had their eye on, this way they would know if they really liked it and if it was comfortable.

Buyers.......

A cute little side stand......

The beds.......

Now doesn't this look interesting? Yeah, it was!!! Just as I thought the sale was over my husband said they had a building out back that was full of junk that they would be auctioning off, so I ran to the back 40 and low and behold there was heaven!!! I ended up buying this whole half of the building for one single bid!!! Now there are many things you can't see that are in this building, we made two trips to get it all home. Wait till you see what I got out of this barn!!!

Maybe this will spark some interest....... let's just say there was a whole house worth of architecture stashed in this shed.

It rained on and off all day long but nothing was going to stop the auctioneers or the junkers from buying their treasures to take home with them.

I will post later some of the things that came out of the barn...the only down fall was there must have been an inch of dust on top of everything, so you can imagine how much washing I have been doing the past couple of days, I think I have bubbles coming out of my ears but it will all be worth it in the end!

Cammie(: