Looking Loved

Sparky and I celebrated our anniversary this week. We dined out at East of Tokyo gorging ourselves on sushi. It was a quiet and romantic meal. Then we had fun running around doing Goodwill half price day where we both got some great bargains. We had lunch at India Gardens (we had a buy one get one free deal), And we decided to check out some places we’ve driven past but never stopped. The first was Mishawaka Antiques, along the main drag in downtown. They had 3 store fronts (nearly the whole block) filled with interesting stuff. They has statues of horses, giant metal sculptures of chickens/roosters, creepy dolls, vintage clothing, globes, books, an animatronic woman that when activated would mix your drink by holding the glass and gyrating like a hula dancer… We spent nearly an hour wandering around. I pointed out a couple of items that we had or have – the Samsonite luggage ($100 for 3 pieces) that we had a 5 piece set before selling it at a garage sale for pennies! There was a floor globe for $97 that we have its twin in our living room. The jug that was my parents (my father dumped his change into) and is proudly standing sentinel on my hearth was there to the tune of $99. Our minds were boggled and we finally left. We traveled to a place called Elite Resale only to discover that it was closed (on the only day we decided to investigate). Luckily the World Wide Pawn shop was just down the street. Sparky decided we should stop to see if they had any women’s bicycles. They didn’t. BUT they had jewelry and I looked long and hard. The clerk wanted to make a sale badly but it wasn’t to be. As we were turning to leave Sparky points and says, “Isn’t that the kind of jewelry box thing you were looking for?” Sure enough there was a large jewelry armoire sitting in the middle of the area behind the counter. He suggested I inquire if they ever get any like that in for sale (that was because it was being used as a desk). I asked and the clerk really wanted to move it! The original price was $109 but she offered to sell it for $80. It looked a little beat up. But I said yes and that was my anniversary gift! I worked hard vacuuming the drawers, scrubbing the dirt off with a little Murphy’s oil soap, doing a polishing and wood moisturizing and even had to get out the Old English scratch remover. I went so far as to remove the hardware to get it really clean. Check it out – so pretty!!

Sparky hauled upstairs and I proceeded to transfer all my stuff from my 2 little jewelry boxes (one I got as a Christmas gift when I was about 11 and the other was a garage sale score). I managed to get it all moved over with the exception of my earrings that I never wear since I’m allergic to most of the metals and one ear piercing has grown closed. I was going to check that there was enough room to open the lid (where there is a nice mirror) when I got this surprise!!

He really is a romantic!