It's been a while since I have written anything.  To be honest, I have been a bit overwhelmed.  Since my last post, we have purchased the leftover contents of an estate sale and have continued shopping.  We have officially ran out of room.  Literally we could not see our living room floor for a couple of weeks, but oh goodness, did we get some incredible purchases.  

I got a Steinway upright piano that was only two years old for a steal of a price.  I did not realize how much I missed having a piano in the house and how much I missed playing.  The piano set in the living room for several days until I cleared out a spot in the dining room for it.  It is a beautiful piece.

We were lucky enough to stumble on a yard sale that had the Christmas mother load there!  I bought over 40 pieces of Department 56 North Pole Village buildings and accessories.  I am happy to tell you that they are all listed in my eBay store and selling like hot cakes.  I also got over 200 Hallmark ornaments at the same sale.  They are NOT all listed, but some are.  I am going to get back on board with getting them listed beginning tomorrow.

Then we found a huge amount of rubber stamps.  I never realized that stamps have such a huge market.  We got over 300 of those.  I have listed around 50.  Thank goodness they are easy to list and photograph!!

In the midst of all of this, we have been looking for a piece of property to lease or buy.  The real estate market out here is something else.  The building we wanted to lease, that fit our needs was over $3,500 per month.  We have found a piece of land for sale that is 30 acres, shop, building, and house.  Only downside is that it is fifteen miles from town, but what a property it is.  It has a creek that you drive over to reach the house and further down the road there is a small waterfall.  Mountains all around it.  It is gorgeous.

Throw into all of this chaos, I just found out that a piece of my farm sold.  This takes care of the land that was around the house.  A piece of myself will disappear with the signing of the final papers.  It is bittersweet for me, as the farm had been in my family for over 120 years.  I never thought that I would sell it or ever move from my hometown, but the time was right.  Life happens and unexpectedly one morning things aren't the same as they were the day before.  I have had to adapt to the curve balls that were thrown at me, but in making the decision to sell the farm, I have been able to start fresh, make new memories, and carry the old ones with me wherever I go.  I love the turn that my life took in moving to the coast.  It is an antiques and history haven.  I can hunt and shop to my heart's content.  The beauty of that is I get to share our finds with you.  

Everyday is a new adventure--and I love it!

As far as I am concerned, it is never too early to begin thinking about Christmas.  I know that when I lived in Missouri, the summer was the best time to think about Christmas because that was the only time you were ever truly cool.  Here in Oregon, it is slightly different--the evergreens are everywhere, which automatically lends to thinking about Christmas, AND the weather is never hot--so my thoughts have had a tendency to just stay in the Christmas mood.

Being that this is supposed to be about our buying and selling adventures, I might as well tell you that I have started bringing out the Christmas goodies to list and sell.  I really have racked up quite a few over the last year!!  It is really difficult for me to decide which items I part with.  I would love to keep all of them, but I have to sell more than I decide to keep.  I think that is a pretty fair deal.  

A couple of months ago I found probably the largest ceramic Christmas tree that I have ever seen.  It is in 3 parts...no base.  I'm not even sure that it supposed to have a base.  I have picked up a vintage color wheel for an aluminum Christmas tree.  A Pottery Barn Kids Reindeer quilt, tons of vintage plastic garland and decorations.  For myself I am keeping a group of Putz houses that were given to me.  Some of them need repair.  I don't think that I am crafty enough to do that, but Mark is!  He might draw the line at doing paper crafts though.  I have so much Christmas that I don't even know what I have!  The piles are in the dining room waiting on me.  

So, over the next week or so, be on the lookout for the Christmas invasion.  It will be epic!

Of course, I have to include this picture of Mark and the blow mold Santa that we picked up.  We were told that this was the Santa Claus that was placed in the Uniontown district here in Astoria every year.  This one is a keeper for our front yard!

There is so much more and I have many pictures, but I don't want to spoil all of the fun for you!  For now this is the tease that you get.  Have a great day!