MY FIRST AUCTION

Happy Labor Day everyone! It has been a very wet one here in Birmingham. Tropical Storm Lee has brought us some much needed rain, but as a result there is a lot of flooding and trees down, along with plenty of power outages. Mine was out for only about 4 hours. My kids loved it and I can say that it was refreshing having everyone off of their electronic devices for while. No ipods, ipads, computers and TV's forced us to spend some great quality time together. Sometimes I think we should just pretend the power is off.....ya know?

Saturday Night, I took the whole family out to Maplesville for my first auction. Our friends Lana and Mickey Hardwick own The Auction House in the downtown area.

It sits right on the railroad tracks. My youngest LOVED this. The train came through several times while we were there, right in front of the building.

We got there around 6:00 to eat dinner  and to view the items that were up for auction first. Right off, my kids spotted what they wanted.......A gum ball machine. Just what we needed, right? Well, to make it fun for them, I had to try, and yes.....it came home with me.

I learned a lesson on this one. I paid more than I probably could have gotten it for. Here is some newbie advice from this crazy newbie. Don't be the first bidder. I had a set amount I would have paid for it in my mind.....and that's good. I would not have gone over that. However, I was the ONLY bidder. Mickey would have gone lower if no one had bid and then I would have gotten it at a better price. Oh well.....you live and you learn.

Unfortunately this auction was a lot of bric a brac , tools and junk, not really any great furniture pieces or great smalls. I heard I missed the good one last week. I guess you never know what your gonna get.
The gumball machine was not my only prize. My husband talked me into bidding on a vintage Admiral Stereo system with a record player. I'm not totally sure what I was thinking, but I did it.

And it even came with a few records.......

 It is in great working condition and  in a cute little cabinet. This is not something I would normally go for, but I got it for a few bucks and it has great lines. YES...I am going to slap some paint on this bad boy and make it pretty. It is kind of cool. A lot of people around here are starting to get into old vinyls again. I found myself using it while I was working yesterday. I think I'm getting attached.

I did miss a cute little bamboo cart on wheels. I was totally disappointed I missed it. I was busy with the girls, helping them with their favorite part of the auction..........................

The snack bar!  I think I spent more money on food and drinks than I did on the things I bought. It was SO much fun though and we will definitely go back.

Have you been to the auction? What was the best thing you walked away with?