Friday estate sales and good food

I headed out early yesterday morning with my buddies Duane and Linda to hit a few estate sales.  The first one was being held in a small old strip mall in what appeared to be a store that was closing down.
They had some decent stuff, particularly furniture, but the prices were really high.  We all passed on buying at that one.  Luckily, there was an old house next door to this strip mall where a lady was having a sale.  She was also selling her house but was in no hurry due to the depressed housing market.  I had a feeling that she was either a big collector or had owned a shop at one time.  I chatted with her and discovered that she used to have a booth at several of the large flea markets in the area.  That explained her prices being a bit high on many items along with the large collections of various things (Precious Moments, teapots, glassware, etc.).  Linda did get lucky at this one, though.  She bought a lovely hand-painted Nippon dish.  She has a small collection of these -- mostly pre-World War I, some passed down in her family.

Our last stop was an estate sale where the house was also being sold along with this 1953 Chevy truck.  Once again, we could tell that this person had once had an antique shop because the types and amount of items along with the prices reflected that.  However, the lady did tell us that she was willing to haggle and would offer a discount on multiple items.  Unfortunately, there was nothing at this sale that any of us could live without.

Since Linda has been looking for small end or side tables, we hit this fab store I've mentioned before called Kaleidoscope.  Very reasonable prices on items from furniture to decor pieces and all beautifully laid out in the store.  Linda is seriously considering a couple of the Haywood Wakefield tables.  She spoke with the owner who also does the refinishing himself on these lovely vintage pieces.  The tables are similar to the ones in this picture.  One thing we've learned from shopping at Kaleidoscope is that if you see something you like -- don't wait too long because items move pretty fast there.

We were all hungry for lunch after our shopping and decided to dine at
Mikey's Cafe & Bakery.  Mikey's is a great restaurant and bakery
housed in what was once an old drugstore called Pickford's Sundries.   

Apparently, Pickford's had a lunch counter and soda fountain and was considered a good place to eat many years ago, too. 

I had their tuna melt sandwich and I couldn't resist one of their cupcakes.  The current owner kept a number of the items from the original Pickford's and has them displayed in the cafe.  They also painted the building pink, which I understand was the original color of Pickford's.  The food is delicious and Duane and Linda and I highly recommend it.