A brief view of a typical weekend day:

I did not get up at exactly 6:10 when my alarm went off. I slept until the smaller, less-intelligent dog insisted to be let-out-or-else. I managed to stumble through the shower and left the house by 7:09 with my hair still wet and a cup of coffee in my hand. List in hand, we debated which sales will have the best offerings while Dad is driving towards town. Estate sales are always our first pick but large book sales now top the priority list as well. We drive. We get out of the car. We socialize. We bargain. We often ask if there is more to be seen. I lost three pens and found two different ones. We made it home in one piece.

I like to watch American Pickers while I work. I love to watch the stuff they find and wish I had the guts to go cold calling on a country road. I have the feeling that if we knocked on a stranger's door and asked to look through their barn, we would likely be shot at. The show provides a romantic view of what people like us do. Unfortunately for us, we can not afford a camera crew. Even if we could my father would cringe at the the extra expense of being backlit - I could not face a camera without being properly backlit (you know - like a girl in any John Hughes movie coming downstairs to meet her prom date with new contact lenses and her braces finally off)...

Today was an awesome day for picking (at least in MY mind it was). Unfortunately, we did not find many items that turned Dad's head. So he got some nice Blenko glass and some very pretty crystal - and the rest of his morning was spent watching me shop. As always, I managed to find one piece at the first estate sale that I will not part with: a gavel with a gift inscription dated 1935.

I did find a lot of great books today. I get excited when I see good reading material. As always, a few of these will find a place in my personal library. Although I occasionally come across a collectible book to sell, the vast majority of the books I offer for sale are commodities ranging from college textbooks, literature and other required reading to popular novels, self-help and DIY project books.

I subscribe to the theory that you have to spend money to make money (whenever it suits my purpose to think it out loud). Behind any woman who think she knows how to shop for a broad audience, there is a man clutching his wallet and rolling his eyes. No matter how much I spend in a day the sun still rises at the start of it and sets when it ends. So if you have a moment, take a look around our store. We love what we do. We learn and see new things every day. What could be better (besides being backlit, of course)?