Run-Away Vacation

My husband has recently started his own business. Which is hard. It's hard on him; he's been putting in 13 hour days 5 or 6 days a week now for months.  It's hard on me; he's not around much anymore. It's hard on our marriage; see previously mentioned reasons.

Now don't get me wrong. So far, his business has been quite successful, and I am very proud of him.  We're just adjusting to a new reality.

Anyhow, with Monday's Columbus Day holiday, I had a long weekend.  AND hubby can set his own schedule.  We found ourselves Saturday morning, staring at each other and both desperately wanting to take work and shove it... so we did!  I got on hotwire and found a great deal on a hotel room in a small town on the other side of Lake Michigan from us.  A three hour drive later, we found ourselves far enough away from home to call it a vacation and the perfect reason for hubby to abandon his cell phone and computer.

We had NO plans.

NONE whatsoever.

And it just so happened that right near the hotel was an antique mall. And in that antique mall was a map that the local antique dealers had put together called "The Antique Trail."

I was able to bat my eyes and smile sweetly, and a good portion of our weekend was spent visiting antique mall after antique mall.

I had so much fun, and hubby tolerated it. Thankfully, all the malls had a good selection of "Man-tiques" in the form of militaria, weaponry, industrial tools, and unrecognizeable jumbles of cast iron and wood.

I made quite a few finds, and assuredly paid too much for several items.  On the whole, though, I think I got a good deal.

I am WELL aware of the fact that antique stores are not the place to buy stuff if you're planning to re-sell. They aren't my first choice of purchasing locales, as you're paying pretty close to retail there.  I much prefer estate sales (I checked, they didn't have any that weekend) and flea markets (again, I checked, none in the area.) Good deals are to be had at Antique Stores though, if you're willing to dig!

And dig I did!  I found several verified Juliana pieces that were marked WAY below retail (very surprising), some great thermoset pieces, and a Whiting and Davis bracelet.  I have the necklace and earrings that match so now I can put together a full parure!  I was also able to pick up several other fun and funky pieces!

Vacation Photos!

You can tell that I'm a vintage jewelry collector at heart.  I was in Utah and California for a combined total of almost 2 whole weeks and every day, I wanted to find another antique store / flea market / estate sale to go to!  As it was, I was only able to go out and buy jewelry 4 days out of the 12.

Not a bad haul, huh?

Anyway, my first trip was to an antique market in Springville, Ut called "Treasures Antique Mall."  It has two huge buildings and is right off of I-15. In the time that I had, I was able to go through only 1 building. I had hoped to go back for the other one later, but that never happened.

This is me making a pouty face. :(

Anyway, I was able to find some great deals! And one of my sisters-in-law found a multi-stranded freshwater pearl necklace worth a couple hundred dollars that was marked $30.  The staff was incredibly helpful and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

Here's a better picture of the haul from Treasures:

The next day, I was talked into going to Deseret Industries, Utah's version of Goodwill or Salvation Army thrift stores.  We went to three "DIs" before I found one that had jewelry.  Unfortunately, they were all bagged together in mini lots, so I felt I was taking a risk, and I didn't come out with much.

The "good stuff" were a couple of Coro / Corocraft necklaces and a funky purple glittery beaded necklace, as well as a bunch of beaded necklaces that I'm selling as a "lot" on Etsy. 

After 5 days in Utah, I then flew out to LA to visit my brother and his wife.  I had a marvelous time there.  One day, we went to six estate sales, and I got a load of great jewelry!  Seeing the different architecture there was really neat too.  We were in Playa Del Rey, Venice, Santa Monica, and Marina Del Rey. I found an incredible beaded purse from the 1920s! I also picked up some great cameos and brooches.  The brooch in the middle is a Weiss! 

Another day, we went to a prop liquidator who sells off stuff from closed down theatrical productions, TV shows and Movies.  They had all of the jewelry from the "One Life to Live" soap opera.  I was able to pick up 6 vintage necklaces.  Unfortunately, the would not provide any proof or documentation that these pieces were on the show, so I cannot resell them based off of that information.  However I can add it as a neat story.  Supposedly the copper necklace on the bottom right corner of the picture was worn by the character "Dorian."

The whole reason for this trip WASN'T to buy jewelry, I can't forget that.  So here's some of the real reasons!