My sister and I have made it a tradition each summer to get to the Nokomis neighborhood garage sales in Minneapolis.

Our parents both grew up in the Nokomis neighborhood, so we usually take some extra time to drive by their old houses and reminisce.  Last year we even stopped by my mom’s childhood home and the current owners gave us a tour.  Some of my grandmother’s peonies were still going strong in the garden.

Considering that my grandmother probably planted them in the 1940’s, that’s pretty amazing.

The 2026 Nokomis sales were this past weekend, so even though I was a little burned out after having my own sale, my sister and I hopped in her car and headed out on Saturday morning.

We started out optimistic, there were over 60 homes participating.

The first sale we stopped at was obviously an antique dealer of some sort, but he had some reasonable prices on things.  Many of his items were toys that we’d played with as kids.  I have to admit, I always feel a bit old when my childhood toys are considered antiques, lol.

I did purchase one item from him, this vintage suitcase.

It’s in fairly good shape, and I love that it has a monogram.

I’m picturing it with a stencil added … something like this suitcase I painted back in 2022.

Or, maybe it needs some floral transfers like this one?

Unfortunately, things went pretty much downhill from that first sale.

We ended up at several sales with vintage items that had antique shop prices, and lots of sales with lots of cheap junk.

We were drawn in by this sign …

but it definitely was false advertising.

That award might actually go to the sale that opK and I went to last June in So. St. Paul.

I hope those people are having a sale again this year.

Eventually my sister and I gave up on the Nokomis sales, we didn’t even bother doing a drive by of our grandparent’s old houses.

Instead we got a table on the patio at the Tipsy Steer, had a couple of cocktails and a really delicious salad.

So all was not lost!

Now it’s time for you to weigh in, what would you do with that suitcase?  Add a stencil?  Add some floral transfers?  Just leave it alone?  Leave a comment and let me know!