At last the doors open ...

Since I spent about an hour drooling over things I can’t have at Miami Twice by the time we leave there Dietel's Antiques is open! Fred, the gentleman who runs this store comes across as a little gruff to say the least. Once when Mom visited his old shop which was very jam packed with glass and china he growled at her to watch her purse. In his defense, she does carry a large purse. ;) Since I’m a prior customer he greets me in a friendly way remembering me from my last trip, although I think I was a major annoyance on my first few visits to his stores by asking about a ton of prices and coming back 4 or 5 times before buying anything! This was because the first time I visited there were so many things I had only seen in books that my knees were weak – I swear they were shaking! The second time I still had to catch my breath, the third time I was able to find some things to research and the fourth and fifth times I finally made some purchases! During my absence he has moved into a new much larger building and also hired an assistant who followed me around the store wanting to put everything that I ooohed and aaahed over on the counter until I suspect she was told to leave me be and let me look at everything. Fred understands how I operate now, lol. I finally made my way to the back room of the store where ‘the cheap stuff’ is located. Jadite, Fostoria, Carnival glass, pink Heisey, cobalt Moderntone and vintage Fiesta – realistically, although I love to look at the front room antiques, this vintage glass is why I’m here. I ask about a few prices and Fred offers me a special price on all of the Jadite if I buy it right now, I guess he does remember me, lol! I purchase the Jadite and a stick handle Fiesta creamer and make some notes about a few other items. Fred packs up my glass and carries it out to the car where my mom, who has had enough of antique stores and is reading one of the books she bought at GW, is waiting. He tells her what a good deal he is giving me and I promise to come back later for more things.

Back at Moms house, I go online to do some research and immediately realize that I should have snapped up the Delphite blue set. I also decide on a number of other items from Dietels. I return that same day and buy 12 Fostoria American dinner plates, 4 matching lunch plates, the cobalt Moderntone creamer and sugar set, some EAPG salts, a Hazel Atlas Ritz blue shaker and the pink Heisey bowl. Now that Fred is pretty happy with me, we chat a bit and he gives me some good business advice.

The next day, Wednesday, I return to Miami Twice for the Cherry Blossom set. I was even so cheeky as to ask if she could do any better on the price – well, you never know. Really though, I was thrilled to get it for the price she had told me the first day. A quick check of GW because I’m right there and you-never-know, but there’s nothing of any interest again.

Next up: Lookie what I found in the attic!

A Treasure Hunters Vacation

Last week we put an out of town message on the shops and headed down to Florida to visit my mom and one of my favorite antique stores.

We drove down because the last time I was there I bought too many things to bring back on the plane so Mom had been storing them for me. Two items – a fabulous cobalt demitasse set and another cobalt set of 6 cups and saucers in Duncan’s Radiance pattern were even packed and ready to mail from Miami in case they sold before I could get them back to Ohio. I'm always optimistic about sales, lol.

I was going to be bringing back the Radiance set, as it still hadn’t sold. However the demitasse set had sold a few months earlier and I have to confess that the timing for this trip was totally determined by the last payment on the lay-away sale of that set. Not that I hadn't been planning to see my mom regardless – really!

And since I had my DH with me this was the perfect opportunity for us - and by ‘us’ of course I mean my DH – to get up in the attic where who-knew-what treasure was waiting!

I planned on scrounging around in dusty old antique stores and going through the old 'junk' dragged out of the attic for most of my time in Miami. Wow, what a great Florida vacation! No, really. I'm dead serious. I'll get to the beach but treasure hunting is the real fun!