A day of Antique Stores and Exercise

Today being a holiday and all, I decided to celebrate by first sleeping in, then doing whatever else I felt like for the remainder of daylight (about 6 hours worth by the time I got up!). This January day brought some nice balmy 70 degree weather, so I opted for a little antiquing and hiking.

First thing I see in the antique store is my consignment case. Yes, I’ve had this crap here for THREE YEARS and little by little, a piece will sell. Last month I got a check for....79 cents. Yes, you read that right, 79 cents. Commission tends to take a bite, but really! So here is the case that I faced:

After inquiring what kind of money I would get if it all mysteriously "burned up in some unforeseen fire", I decided to look around the shop. I love these shops, as you can find the best and worst of all eras in one place. For example:
There is nothing really that can describe the hideousness of this book. What is most shocking is that the cover photo is showing THE BEST designs it has to offer. We really need to bury the 1970's. Around the corner, I find an example of the era when ladies found it completely appropriate to wear a dead animal around their neck...head, tail, feet and all:
Poor guy, he still looks shocked to have ended up that way! Next to this area however, I locate this great doll carriage and baby dresses area. Sometimes the setup of the items is better than the items themselves:
Now, in every antique or consignment shop, I am bound to run into things that I don’t consider "antique"....like these items:
I mean really, this is pushing the envelope as far as "collectible" is concerned. I meander on pass these hideous things to find the following:
Hmm..., there is no description on the item, and it’s already in the 70% off area. Is it considered OK to consign your old bondage toys? Really? Moving on...I peruse through some old books and turn to see THIS staring at me:
Dear god, bury it already! As I run screaming from this doll, I find a vintage Argus camera sitting amongst boxes of old shoes and baseball cards:
I consider purchasing it, pondering how full my bookshelves already are regarding vintage camera purchases. I thought about how I would have to make room for yet another camera. So then I grabbed it and headed off to pay for all the things I found.

After this, it's off to the beach for a hike again:
I stayed on the "lower hiking area" this weekend as I was already pretty exhausted from all that antiquing and didn’t want to injure myself. This creek leads to the ocean, and doesn’t it look inviting?
Well, forget it:

So after a quick 2 miles around in the BLAZING January sun...I take a few shots of the beach and a sailboat and then head home.
Aren't these nice? The first one looks like a painting!

Here is a shot of what I actually purchased at the antique shop. NO, the hideous 1970's stitch book did not come home with me!

An old lithograph ($3), mini salt and pepper shakers ($1), a flocked bird ($1), the Argus camera ($10), and a ceramic egg holder shaped like a hen ($2). Not bad!