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!



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!





Back on the Picking Highway!

This is the first post since November because local picking has been slim. We are tickled to see warm weather because that means more highway sales and festivals! The Peaches to Beaches sale runs from Fort Valley, GA (peach country) to Brunswick, GA on the coast. Nice folks, good prices and the laughs pick right up where we left off in 2011. Hope you'll enjoy seeing our new treasures!

This sale is big news along the highway.

A lovely sign right in the middle of a sale in Baxley.

Jeri has to stop and read every sign...

Always time to pet the critters like this piggie named Charlotte.

Believe it or not his name is AFFLAC!

Why not pull the tractor up in the yard? You never know what folks are looking for.

If you think the sign was rundown check out the "estate".

This home was packed with antiques. It must have been exquisite in its day.

 AND NOW THE BEST PART, THE PICKINGS!

A $1.00 birdcage with no bottom made a perfect trellis!

How fabulous is this paint by number of Paris?

We remembered having this cup and saucer at our house in the 1950's.

We can't seem to get enough old signs.

A pristine sandwich plate for ladies who played cards...

Anything turquoise and plastic grabs us!

A milk glass Kit Carson mug by Hazel Atlas.

A cool harmonica made in Germany. 

Of course we kept a few treasures for ourselves - a $1.00 table with a stained glass top, an old metal iron horse for Jeri's collection of everything horse, a vintage metal cookbook holder, a blue plaster bird with wire legs and a grand table with  peeling paint red that was originally used to help a gardener stand after kneeling.

The pick of the pickings was a Hubley Bathing Beauties Cast Iron Door Stop.

All in all a wonderful day and we are off to Gainesville

and Micanopy, FL next weekend. Our etsy shop will be

full again very soon! 

What We DID NOT Do in North Carolina

Jeri couldn't resist sharing her ice cream with this cute little bear.

Downtown Hendersonville is Bear Country!

The Picking Sisters went to Western North Carolina for a few days to the goat farm in Flat Rock, to see the Smoky Mountains, breathe cool air (in the 60's) and, of course, pick. OK, the goat farm is actually the cottages at Highland Lake where they have a few goats, geese and a stunning vegetable garden. The food everywhere we went was local or organic and yummy. Breathtaking views of the mountains, stunning waterfalls, great shopping, divine flowers blooming everywhere. But the picking? Not so much. 

The goats were glad to see us!

We called this goat Grandpa because of his long white beard.

Jeri herding goats.

This post is about we DIDN'T do. For example, we picked in Etowah, Hendersonville, Asheville, Lake Lure, Chimney Rock, Columbus, Flat Rock, Bat Cave (yes, it's a real place), Brevard, NC and Lexington, SC.  We just didn't find a lot of our kind of stuff.


 This is the entire haul!

Here are a few shots from Bat Cave. We LOVED the scarecrows!

What else did we NOT do? We went to Chimney Rock State Park, but didn't go up to Chimney Rock because the elevator was out of order. We went to the Pisgah Forest Equestrian Center, but didn't ride - no time. We went to Sliding Rock, but didn't slide down - no bathing suits. We went to the climbing wall in downtown Asheville, but didn't climb - too chicken. All on our list for next time (except for that climbing wall).

 Weren't we smart to climb down these rocks in flip-flops to put our feet in the stream?

We took these of ourselves - maybe we should have figured out the self-timer 

before we went away?

We loved this sign in an Asheville shop window.

These monkeys were just sitting on a coach in an Asheville yarn shop.

This place in Asheville is called the Tobacco Barn and it's huge. Here are some photos of the place, fun signs and a few grand things we did not buy. 

 

Here's the front of a Coke cooler hanging from the ceiling. Cool wall art, no?

One final stop at the US 1 Flea Market  in South Carolina on the way home. Aren't these the

 best stripper shoes ever?

We guess this sign is for the people who are wondering where they are?