A post in which much shopping is done

I saw Terry off to work this morning, had some brekkie, and took a wee nappie.

When I woke up it was still only about 9am. I debated on going to the flea market. It was overcast, but not raining. Since I had no plans for the day, I went on over. I need veggies anyway. I didn't find any glass at White Horse, so I drove on down to Anderson to have a look around. There was nothing to be found today. There were people out there selling, but I have found holiday weekends to be poor flea market weekends. People are off vacating, not staying home cleaning out grandma's attic for me as they should be.

I was having a hard time getting into the flea market today, frankly; and that's just unheard of for me. I'm missing M. Now that I've had a bit of sleep and can think about anything but lying down, I miss him something awful. I had friends in last night and enjoyed myself, but today just seemed lackluster, even though I was off work and have plenty of fun stuff to do this weekend. It just felt less fun. And last month I would have been perfectly content to be there by myself. I sent him a text, but he probably wasn't carrying his phone today either. And that's really OK. I'm glad he's off having fun.

While I was down there, I picked up a few odds and ends, and called Justin to see what he was up to tonight. Turns out he and Amanda were planning a thrift store/antique place run this afternoon, and he invited me to come along.

They picked me up and we headed for Easley first. We did a couple of places there and then had a spot of lunch at an interesting country buffet. I was disappointed when we went in because I thought it was a Chinese buffet, but Amanda and Justin were all about the country food, and I was ravenously hungry. It turned out that the food was really good, even if the salad bar sucked. Some of the best fried green tomatoes I've eaten in a long time. They also had charming little signs on the napkin holders that we figured the owners' kids had drawn. We ate until we could barley move, and then headed out towards Pickens.

As we were going out that way, I had him stop at a store out there that is in an old jail. I had been out there at Christmas but they weren't open. There were several cool things there, but Justin pointed out a Fire King bowl that matches my old kitchen stuff I'm collecting. Book value on it is $28, but it was marked down to $20. That's nearly a third off, so yeah, I had to have that. After an interminable wait to be checked out by the very nice lady who ran the place (she was visiting with a bunch of women of a certain age who were out shopping together), we headed back to Easley.

"Philbe" 10 1/8" Utility bowl in Sapphire Blue by Fire King, circa 1942 - 1950s

In Easley, we went into a little shop that Justin frequents. In a sale shelf of odd glasses, he found a little flat Knife and Fork juice glass. It has a gold stripe around the edge, which I hadn't seen before. It was on half-price sale for $1.25. Book value on the plain juice glass is $13. The more I get of that pattern, the better I like it. Even in clear. At the same store, Justin found this cool deco samovar/coffee percolator. It was on sale, and it had the cord, original coffee basket and all. He was dying for it, but was out of cash. I loaned him some money. It was just such a perfect thing for him, he couldn't be without it. He says he's going to get rid of his other percolators now.

Colonial "Knife and Fork" 3" 5oz flat juice tumbler in crystal, by Hocking Glass Company, circa 1934-1936. I couldn't find a picture of one with a gold rim. I had never seen one like mine until today.

In the last store, Amanda found a set of silver-plated flatware she fell in love with. It was pretty, and had a great deco box, but it was $120. A pretty good chunk of change. But Justin and I went with her to talk to the man that owns the shop, and he was very nice. She ended up getting the set for $100, and was just tickled to death with it. Also nice, since I have been looking for one forever, was that she didn't like the pie server that was in the box. It was silver plate, but didn't actually match the set. So I bought it from her. I finally have one.

Amanda's silver

While we were there, I also decided I had to have the Old Cafe mint dish they had. I don't know why that piece is so fascinating to me. I bought a Ruby Red one at the beach with Mom last fall, but it turned out to be sick glass and I was so disappointed. But this one was really nice. I paid $15. Book value on it is only $12, but I really wanted it and didn't mind spending the three extra dollars to get it. Justin found some banana splits that are probably Tearoom pattern (which he loves) on super discount because no one knew what they were, so he picked them up for a steal.

Old Cafe low 8" low, tab-handled candy dish in pink by Hocking Glass Company, circa 1936-1940

It was a great store. They had a gorgeous set of Pink Adam on sale at the front - by far the most extensive set I have ever seen assembled in one place. They store owner told me that the man and his wife had taken 30 years to assemble it. I was really glad I didn't have $4,000.00. I would have been sorely tempted.

Thankfully, it was also the last store of the day. I was whooped! We headed back to my place, stopping for sodas on the way to celebrate Amanda's new flatware. When we got back to the house, Justin was too excited to wait to try out his new percolator. He cleaned it out and made a batch of coffee right then, so we had coffee and smoked and talked for a while. It was good to sit down and relax a bit.

Justin and the new samovar!

Justin and Amanda headed back to Spartanburg around eight, and Terry came in from work, which was good. I was thinking about going to Miss Kat and dana's tonight, and he lost the extra set of house keys some time last night. I could leave my set out for him, but I'd really rather not do that. With him being in, I didn't have to worry about letting him in, and could do what I liked this evening.