The Picking Sisters are back on the highway!

We headed south to Florida for picking along the A1A highway sale last weekend and checked out lots of estate sales, community sales and garage sales along the coast. We brought back lots of treasures and we are busy adding them to our etsy shop. Even a paint by number, which are getting harder and harder to find.

 

Jeri never gets tired of finding cool signs on thrift shops. Here's a new favorite.

 

 

We stopped at one of those corny stores that sell Florida oranges and souvenirs. The owner

must have a great sense of humor. Poor Mickey...

 

 

First Picking Tip of 2013!

Lucky us! We headed to Florida for New Year's Eve. Edgewater, Florida is south of Daytona Beach. The beach was lovely, the weather mild and the picking was grand.

We watched fireworks on New Smyrna Beach and courtesy of our hosts rang in 2013 with their homemade Comquat Vodka made from their own kumquats. (My picking sister was calling it "kumquat poison" the next morning.)

The flea market at the Deland Fair Grounds was a great find. We found the most paint by number paintings we'd ever found at ONE location. Check them out - a large lighthouse, a large western desert and a pretty pair of ballerinas.

Here's the whole trove!

Laura surprised me with a treat she'd bought for me. Knowing that I love all things horse and cowboy, she bought me a souvenir from the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum. I LOVE this tiny Trigger.

I bought myself a horse as well - a nag. This kooky little plastic nag came with

the story of how Nagshead, NC for founded!

My favorite pick of the trip? These little Mr. Peanut cups!

That Barbie is one busy girl. She went to medical school - who knew? We love

all the treasures that come in the Dr. Barbie accessories!



Jeri, Jeri Quite Contrary...

It's still really slow (TOO HOT) for finding many sales, so I have really spent more time tending to my garden. Now that summer is coming to an end, I have made a report card for myself. Some efforts were spectacular successes (sunflowers and four o'clocks), others were total failures (poppies). Enjoy the bright colors of the sunflowers, zinnias, wildflowers, four o'clocks and morning glories.

The Picking Sisters have two trips coming up to NC and to Florida, so the next post will be the vintage treasures we all love. (P.S. -Scroll to the end to see a recent sign score!)

Morning glories tangled with sunflowers and into the neighbor's yard.

B+ for the Morning Glories. Lush vines, but  not as many blooms as last year.

A+ for the sunflowers. The no-fail seeds made it easy to grow towering plants with

dinner-plate sized blooms.

Watching the sunflowers open was great fun - like a really cool science experiment.

Here's something I learned...whenever I cut the flowers the plants would

morph into one that made multiple small blooms instead of the single giant ones! 

When we were little one of our favorite things to do in the summer was picking four o'clock flowers and stringing them on a vine to make lei. They grew wild in the lane and always closed up at night. The ones I grew thrived and bloomed, but only at night. I finally looked at the seed packet and these were evening bloomers. Note to self: READ the seed packets next year.

I am especially proud of coaxing a bloom from this $1 Calla lily I bought at a thrift shop.

How rainy has it been? Look what sprouted in just 2 days...

And now the sign. It's 3' by 5' and "it's the Real Thing" from the 70's or 80's!

Retirement Home for Horses

We were picking in High Springs, FL when Jeri read in a local magazine that there was a horse sanctuary in nearby Alachua. Fascinated by the idea of a retirment home for horses, Jeri did her best to locate Mill Creek Farm on County Road 235A, but we found it anyway! Cost of admission? Carrots. Seriously, carrots.

This big beautiful blonde was a draft horse.

Horse whispering?

These animals have been neglected or abused or unwanted. They spend their last years on 600 acres of tree-lined pastures. No more work or suffering - just love, good care and lots of carrots. The blind ones were amazing and they came to the fence for treats just like the others!  It was hard to tell whether the horses or the visitors enjoyed themselves more.

We are so sorry we will miss the 4th Annual Spring Sale at Mill Creek Farm on March 24th from
10:00AM - 3:00PM. If you need more info about the sale go to www.millcreekfarm.org. I hope to someday adopt a horse!

A Florida Trip for the Picking Sisters

We both took a Friday off of work and headed to the Gainesville, FL area for a weekend of picking. No big sales this time, just local garage sales and flea markets. Armed with maps, a Garmin, 2 iphones and a Samsung tablet we plotted our route with Craigslist sales and local newspapers. Jeri STILL managed to get us lost. So much for all the new map features - she looked like a air traffic controller with a lap full of devices and screens. And STILL couldn't tell north from west. 

The other Picking Sister says I should show more treasures on these posts, so here are some of our favorites from this weekend. Of course there will be a funky signs and sights along the way...

These squeaky clean party games from the 1950's are hysterical!

 The original drink charms for your parties.

Jeri loved these teeny tiny rollers - only 2" long.

Two of our favorites - dogs AND paint by number!

Emmett Kelly was from Savannah so we were thrilled to find this paint by number.



This refrigerator magnet is one of a set of 3 we bought at Salvage Sisters.





Anyone need a plate?



Couldn't resist a trip to the Salvage Sisters; one of our favorite spots to wander and shop.

These gals are in Yulee, FL.

 





A collection of swizzle sticks from hotels in Miami, FL and Kansas City, MO.


 













One of the most amazing places we have ever been is the Horse Retirement Sanctuary we discovered in Alachua. It deserves its own post, so I will add it tonight. Watch our etsy.com site
etsy.com/shop/mysistersbarn  for the other treasures we picked in Florida!