Round 2: How Much Did I Pay?

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How Much Did I Pay?

Today's Loot at Target:

(4) Mini Etch-A-Sketch

(2) Light Up Molecule Balls

(2) Phlat Balls (One already confiscated)

(1) 20Q Game (We love this game!!!)

(1) Moon Sand

(1) Magna Doodle

Total: $5.39 Retail: $53.90

All these things were "hidden" deals at Target. Items that were scanning at the 90% off "Easter" price, but aren't actually "Easter" items. I love going on a deal hunt at Target. I start by visiting my boards such as Fishing for deals to see what deals are being found by other members. I make my list and off we go.

The Moon Sand is a great example of a hidden deal. Moon Sand has names such as Galactic, Solar, Galaxy, etc. But, the seasonal colrs are Grass Green, Petal Pink, etc. Just do a little digging in the display and you just might find one or twenty! The Doodle Pro does have an egg shaped to it, but all the rest of the items are plain old good fun toys. These are great to put back for little gifts, party prizes, etc.

It's really an adrenline rush to see what I can find and how little it will cost. I know people see me walking aorund with a cart full of things, thinking, "My she's spending a lot today" and then my total like it was today is only $17.50.

How did I spend $17.50 when all that only cost $5.39?

Well, I might have accidentally gone down the Easter Aisle and I might have accidentally bought all this stuff too:

Whoops!

See that monkey basket to the right? I mean I seriously needed a monkey basket, right! Some things will be packed up for next year, some will be used in swaps and some will just be given away. The duckie basket will hold my Mom's Mother's day surprises as she has an unusual love of all things duckie. There are two Wilton Chocolate Egg Candy making kits in the back. The Bean has a love of cooking and all things kitchen, so this will be a project for him in the week when schoolwork is getting heavy. The only candy aquisition were the Strawberry Milkshake Whoppers for 19¢. Eeeeew, I thought, but bought them anyway. They are the bomb. Yum-O.

(By the way, thanks for the kudos to The Bean for thinking of "MAIL" out of those letters. Smart, huh?)

So, in the end, I brought home $175.00 worth of things from Target for $17.50. Fun!

Junkreating

I took a pile of junk and made something cool today. I am proud of myself!

Here is my starting pile. The spindles, square things on the white shelf and the wooden "V" were from a broken table I spied in someone's trash on Wednesday. I tore the table apart and pried the spindle into two pieces. The blackboard/corkboard frame was at a yard sale on Friday morning for 50¢. It was missing the corkboard part. The white shelf was from the same sale for $1.00 and the FAMILY letters were $2.00 at the same sale. I am all about letters lately. I wasn't thrilled with FAMILY, but thought I could use each letter individually in swaps or use them randomly around the house out of order and out of context. I had to buy a piece of Matte Board for $1.00 and some thumbtacks for $1.00, but everything else in the resulting product came from the junk pile or my stash of junk. I bought several of the fancy doohickeys at the top for 25¢ at a sale a few summers ago.

Here's the semi-finished product. Leftover whtie craft paint from Hobby Lobby 90% off After Christmas sale rubbed onto the spindles and "doohickey", matte board covered in a scrap of black and white gingham cloth in my fabric stash, coffee stained ribon from my craft suppies and vintage buttons hotglued on thumbtacks for the bulletin board.

I've been looking for a bulletin board to save my cards and items I have received in the mail from my blog buddies. I had a small one, but it was totally packed and about to fall off the wall.

I am going to hang it in the kitchen and then mount the whte shelf under it and use the FAMILY Letters to put M-A-I-L above it. The Bean figured out that we could make "MAIL" out of "FAMILY". Do you see yourself on my board?

I have drug home boxes of broken things and not used them before, but I am on a mission to USE MY JUNK and make it useable and resourceful. I think my first project fit that bill perfectly, if I do say so myself!

Total cost for the Bulletin Board - $1.50 not including the thumbtacks. I only needed twelve, but I had to buy 300! Eh gads!

I've Lost Everybody!

I had an email meltdown yesterday. I lost my entire address book, all my saved files, my passwords for websites, all my emails dealing with the damn school (I did have hard copies of those at least) family emails and all sorts of other important things.

If you are a blog buddy of mine or a family member or a friend, please,please, please email me at monkeybox at juno dot com so I can put you back in my new addres book and regain my normal email life.

Ain't technology grand??????

This picture has nothing to do with anything in this post. I just think all posts need a photo. And, this is one of my favorites.

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I went to The Attic on Wednesday. That's the hospital thrift that I frequent on Wednesdays at noon. I bought $2.00 worth of vintage thread spools, some mohair yarn and two books about "Creating Ceramics" that are signed by the author. Nothing stellar. As I checked out, I noticed a perfect speciman of an oak splint basket sitting by the register. It was perfectly made, all hand made, had some age to it and was divine. I love handmade oak splint baskets. I don't give a patoot about Laongaberger or Peterboro or any of the new handmade baskets. I like the old hand crafted ones. I have a lot of them, but I love adding to my collection. This particular one was special because it was so small that I could cup it in the palms of my hands. I wanted it. But! It wasn't for sale. One of the volunteers had put four teeny pieces of wire in it with a note - "SAVE FOR PLANT HANGER" whatever that means. The lady behind the desk didn't know anything about it, but said she would figure it out. She promised she wouldn't ever sell it to anyone but me. Once I got home, I realized that I probably could have suggested that we put the wires and the note in another basket and let me buy that one and she probably would have done it. And, now I am consumed with getting that basket. What if it falls into unsuspecting hands that don't appreciate it? What if it gets tossed? I. must. have. that. basket. Must!

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Big News! On April 2nd, not more than one mile from my house there is a BRAND NEW THRIFT STORE OPENING. Anticipation......Oh, I cannot wait. ALthough it is super close to the super Cheap Thrift and I worry that it might cut into their donations or raise their prices. Time will tell.

Five Flowers

There was a tragedy in my area this week. A fire. A terrifying, horrifying house fire. Five little girls died. Kristan, 13; Kimberly, 11; Katelyn, 9; Kaila, 8; and Kiya, 5 all died in the fire. They found them asleep like they never knew what happened, which is the only good thing in this entire tagedy. They didn't know what was happening. They weren't scared or wondering when help would arrive. They just slept. The firemen said it was a "Fireman's Nightmare." One death is bad enough, but five deaths and for them all to be childen is just unthinkable.

Sometimes it takes something big to you realize that it could be worse. So much worse.

Remember these girls tonight.

Thank you.

Mother Nature

I'm sure everyone remembers my glider and chair that I bought last Summer. Much to the chargrin of the old hubby, I painted it a nice Pepto Bismol Pink. I put it strategically in the back yard near a small dwarf tree and there it has sat through Fall and Winter. But now Spring is here and gues what sweet Mother Nature did for me???

She put pink flowers on the Peach Tree behind the glider. I had totally forgotten that pink flowers would bloom all over the tree in the Spring.

Aren't they divine?

Thank you Mother Nature!

Yard Sale Completed. Thank God.

***Photos are hopefully working now. I inadvertently posted this post on my other blog (You didn't know I had another blog, now did you?) and when I discovered what I had done, I simply cut and pasted the entire HTML post into a new post, but somehow the photos links didn't jive right or something. If they aren't visible, leave me a comment adn i will try it again. And, Thanks!

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I had my Yard Sale this weekend. It was so much work. The Bean was by my side the entire time and worked as hard as I did. We were both completely exhausted by Saturday evening and I swore I would never have another sale. But, we all know that I will have another one. And another one.

Friday morning I was up and ready to go out and set up at 6:45. With our Homeschool schedule, I don't really get up until after that, so I didn't realize it was still pitch dark at that hour. But, by 7:15, the sun was up and I started setting up.

I had my first customer as soon as I opened the garage door to start emptying out boxes. The mood of the customers on Friday was extremely disheartening. Rude, rude old people. Offering me $1.00 for a $5.00 item. I'm a low pricer and if I think it's worth $5.00 at a yard sale, then By Golly, it's worth $5.00. One lady wanted to pay 25 cents for five dollars worht of stuff. Was she kidding? No, she was not.

It was also very windy and things were blowing around and glass was shattering and pottery was chipping and I just got all P.O.'ed and QUIT. I shut it down and put a big nasty note in the driveway "CLOSED UNTIL SATURDAY MORNING".

I decided Saturday that it was a new day with new people. The first guy let me keep 50¢ change. Well, that 50¢ helped my mood and my self esteem so much. I had a much, much better day after that. I bet he would never dream that 50¢ would mean so much to me. People were friendly, having fun and looking for deals. They still wanted to haggle, but instead of an insulting offer, they just wanted 25¢ or 50¢ knocked off the price. That, was do-able. One family spent $45.00 and didn't even haggle one bit. I did, however, knock $5.00 off as that was my biggest sale of the day. I had two big heavy leather end tables from Target that I didn't want to get stuck with and I really didn't want to give them to the Salvation Army for them to sell for $50.00 each. (Tacky, I know). So, when they swooped in on them, I was happy for them and happy for me too.



I wound up with $352.00 at the end of the day. I boxed up one small box of things that I had put out thinking they might sell, but knowing I would pull if they didn't. I will try them on ebay or on here soon. I boxed up a lot of stuff and donated it to the Salvation Army today and put some stuff by the road for FREE. I got so much darned entertainment out of watching people dig in those free bins that I should have put it all out there.

So, now I have some money in my pocket and a big empty space in the garage. I made a resolution to cut down on thrifting and not bringing so much STUFF into the house and letting more STUFF go. I will still go thrifting and saling, but I will be pickier and more selective. If I quit bargain hunting, I would literally have nothing else to do except educate my child and organize the house. HA!

Sadly, that resolution ended this afternoon when I purchased 40 pewter Wal-Mart Keychains.

Apparently I have no willpower! I spotted these heavy pewter and leather keychains that say Wal-Mart on them today (at Wal-Mart, of course). They were $5.86, but today they were on sale for 5¢. Yep, a nickle. We go to the Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting every year and people trade tchotkes for pins from other countries. I think these will makde great trading items and if they don't, a) It's only $2.00 and b) I can send them to you nice folks in swaps and Happy Mail! ;o)

I also got this fabulous cake stand. I have been coveting these on people's blogs. I have never seen one at the thrift or at a yard sale. So, when I spotted this in the after Easter Clearance today for $13.00, I treated myself with some of those greenbacks you saw above.

Back to my decluttering. I am tossing like crazy!

Yard Sale Completed. Thank God.

I had my Yard Sale this weekend. It was so much work. The Bean was by my side the entire time and worked as hard as I did. We were both completely exhausted by Saturday evening and I swore I would never have another sale. But, we all know that I will have another one. And another one.

Friday morning I was up and ready to go out and set up at 6:45. With our Homeschool schedule, I don't really get up until after that, so I didn't realize it was still pitch dark at that hour. But, by 7:15, the sun was up and I started setting up. I had my first customer as soon as I opened the garage door to start emptying out boxes. The mood of the customers on Friday was extremely disheartening. Rude, rude old people. Offering me $1.00 for a $5.00 item. I'm a low pricer and if I think it's worth $5.00 at a yard sale, then By Golly, it's worth $5.00. One lady wanted to pay 25 cents for five dollars worht of stuff. Was she kidding? No, she was not.

It was also very windy and things were blowing around and glass was shattering and pottery was chipping and I just got all P.O.'ed and QUIT. I shut it down and put a big nasty note in the driveway "CLOSED UNTIL SATURDAY MORNING".

I decided Saturday that it was a new day with new people. The first guy let me keep 50¢ change. Well, that 50¢ helped my mood and my self esteem so much. I had a much, much better day after that. I bet he would never dream that 50¢ would mean so much to me. People were friendly, having fun and looking for deals. They still wanted to haggle, but instead of an insulting offer, they just wanted 25¢ or 50¢ knocked off the price. That, was do-able. One family spent $45.00 and didn't even haggle one bit. I did, however, knock $5.00 off as that was my biggest sale of the day. I had two big heavy leather end tables from Target that I didn't want to get stuck with and I really didn't want to give them to the Salvation Army for them to sell for $50.00 each. (Tacky, I know). So, when they swooped in on them, I was happy for them and happy for me too.

I wound up with $352.00 at the end of the day. I boxed up one small box of things that I had put out thinking they might sell, but knowing I would pull if they didn't. I will try them on ebay or on here soon. I boxed up a lot of stuff and donated it to the Salvation Army today and put some stuff by the road for FREE. I got so much darned entertainment out of watching people dig in those free bins that I should have put it all out there.

So, now I have some money in my pocket and a big empty space in the garage. I made a resolution to cut down on thrifting and not bringing so much STUFF into the house and letting more STUFF go. I will still go thrifting and saling, but I will be pickier and more selective. If I quit bargain hunting, I would literally have nothing else to do except educate my child and organize the house. HA!

Sadly, that resolution ended this afternoon when I purchased 40 pewter Wal-Mart Keychains.

Apparently I have no willpower! I spotted these heavy pewter and leather keychains that say Wal-Mart on them today (at Wal-Mart, of course). They were $5.86, but today they were on sale for 5¢. Yep, a nickle. We go to the Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting every year and people trade tchotkes for pins from other countries. I think these will makde great trading items and if they don't, a) It's only $2.00 and b) I can send them to you nice folks in swaps and Happy Mail! ;o)

I also got this fabulous cake stand. I have been coveting these on people's blogs. I have never seen one at the thrift or at a yard sale. So, when I spotted this in the after Easter Clearance today for $13.00, I treated myself with some of those greenbacks you saw above.

*You see no mention of Easter in this post because there was no Easter at my house. The Bean got a basket of goodies and some books because all kids deserve goodies on Easter in my book. But, no family, no dinner, nothing. Sickness in the family has postponed it until Wednesday. I will be happy to have a family dinner and have some fun. No Easter on Easter really sucks rotten eggs.

Happy Easter Everybunny!

May you enjoy lots of chocolate bunnies and beans full of jelly.

Water,Water Everywhere

It has been raining here. Ground washing, flooding the streets rain. Our street was closed yesterday and no one could leave the neighborhood. That was fine for us as The Bean and I were safe at home, but The Breadman was out and about delivering that bread to the hungry folks. Luckily, the city worked on the creeks and culverts and got the water flowing again and the street opened once again before his arrival.

You might remember these photos from last summer. It has rained so much that this entire water wheel is completely underwater. The water is up to the second story windows. It is such a fabulous place - I do hope it isn't damaged beyond repair.

This bridge runs by the Mill. The water is within a foot of the bottom of the bridge now. On the news they showed people walking across it! I can barely stand to walk across it on a good day as it shakes and shimmies. Add a gazillion gallons of rain and I am not crosing that death trap.

Despite the wetness, my Yard Sale will go on as scheduled. The rain has stopped now, but the yard is muddy. I will throw everything on the driveway and up on tables and let the diggin' begin. I thought I would have a small sale, but it's going to be a humdinger. I hope to make money, of course, or I wouldn't even bother. But I really hope to just get rid of a ton of stuff. I priced everything, (and cheap too) but I plan on wheelin' and dealin' on Saturday and having a bag sale to boot. I want it gone, baby, gone. It has made me happy to get rid of so many things and see corners of the garage I haven't seen in years!

For instance - I found a bunch of boxes of Easter decorations that I hadn't seen in seven years. (Pathetic, huh?) I was so excited to go through the boxes, but you know what? I ended up seling everything except one large cool bunny and a handful of small vintagey things. I have diferent tastes now than I did years ago. Back then, all I could afford were cheap "Made in Ch*na" decorations and they look cheap to me now. Now I prefer my cheap thrift store/yard sale vintage goodies. Most of my thrift store goodies cost less than the cheapy items that I had, but are worth more and more very year! (As if I would sell any of them!!!)

So, out with the new and in with the old.

Or something like that.....

Wish me luck!

PS. The doll parts sold and I have interested people on the aprons, but everything else is still available.

Yard Sale

YARD SALE IS OPEN.

*Prices include shipping.

Boxlot of vintage aprons - probably 15-20. $25.00 ***PENDING***

There are 20 aprons- two of which are not pictured because I found them after I took the photo. These all came from the same estate. Some need a bit of mending, but nothing major.

Boxlot of vintage embroidered doo-hickeys (LOTS of doileys, runners, towels, etc.) $20.00 If anyone is interested in these, I will take a photo.

Service for 8 Pink/Rose Melmac Dishes (missing two pieces, I forget which two) $25.00

Plates, saucers, bowls, cup & saucer, platter and a creamer.

Here's the platter. Looks good with my leg stuck in there, no?

Boyds Bears. Lots of Boyds Bears. How many do you want? $5.00 each includes shipping. Buy 3/$10.00. I have a lot of Otis the Fisherman.


Old cloth doll with handpainted face and handmade clothes. $20.00

Old porcelain doll parts for collage or altered artwork. $12.00 Large head, one large arm, two large legs, small head and all four appendages. ***SOLD*** Thanks Breanna!


I have plenty more things. Maybe you could tell me what you are looking for.

Yes, Svelte, I know, I know. Vera and Haeger. First in line aren't you?

I'll decided how I will ship it after I sell it and package it. Meaning, I cannot promise it will be priority depending on where you live and what you buy. Since I don't know what the exact shipping will be, I'll make a little on some, not so much on the rest. Like the Melmac. It's heavy. But, if someone wants it, I'll ship it and just get a little for the dishes themselves.

Drop me a line at monkeybox@juno.com if you want any of the goods. PayPal is good, money orders are good.

Luck O'The Irish

An Old Irish Blessing
May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

*Come back tomorrow. I'm having an online yard sale! (And an actual yard sale this wekend. Yikes.)

Good Eats, Good Mail, Good Fun

Good Eats:
I've been on a felt food kick as of late. I have a little cousin that will turn two in October, so I am making him a colleciton of play food for his upcoming birthday.
This slice of pizza was my most recent project. It turned out the best, but took the most amount of time. I wish I would have thought to use the piniking shears for the lettuce on the hamburger. I may have to open it up and "pink" the lettuce.
Breakfast - Pancakes and an egg. I tried to make bacon or sausage, but as a non-meat eater, I'm having touble getting it to look right since I really have no experience with what it looks like! I might be able to handle a slice of ham. Hadn't thought of that.
And, dessert. I made him the two cookies, but the cake slice and cupcake are from my Valentine's decorations. I made those as well, I just left them out to remember to make Luke some too. I hand sew them all and don't use any sort of pattern. Any ideas of more play food that I can make? Meatless and safe enough for a two year old???
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Good Mail:
I always know when a swap is enroute and expected, but every once in awhile you get a little good happy mail completely unexpected and out of the blue and it just makes your day! That's what I got this week. Unexpected Happy Mail!
It was so unexpected, in fact, that I could not for the life of me figure out who had sent it! The sender had the same last name as my Maiden name and I could not place her on my family tree to save my life. Well, once I opened it, I found it was from Andie and the last name was just a coincidence. She sent me a litle Green Shamrocky Happy Mail as a thank you for turning her on to that $2.00 Sharpie deal a few dweeks ago. It wasn't necessary, but Thank you Andie!
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Good Times:
This chair is at the entrance to "Oops". I would love to have this in my yard.
The Bean and DH hopped right up there. I tried to get in it, but even with the helpful box under it, I couldn't get my stubby legs up there. It sucks to be 5'2"! I probably could have made it up there if I would have really, really tried, but I didn't think I would ever be able to get out of the deep seat!

I can see the headlines now, "Woman stuck in chair! Film at 11:00." Ack!

Junkin' Ozark Style

I went Junkin' today. I mean really junkin'. Not to the flea market junkin' or yard sale junkin' or thrift store junkin' or even trash pile junkin'. All those things are way more high class and socially accpetable than what I pulled off today. I went down in the woods digging in an abandoned junk pile by the side of the river junkin'. Junkin' Ozark Style!

The Bean and I took my Mom for a ride out to see the river that we like to frequent. Next to the river there is a winding dirt road that leads back into town and is much more adventuresome than the blacktop that we took to get there initially. We went up the big hill driving slow as it is hilly and completely red clay Arkansas dirt and rock.

We were slowly driving along the road when I pointed over the edge of the cliff that the river was running beside the road. When I slowed down to comment about the river, a flash of blue caught my eye in the woods. Now, I'm a junker from way back and I know good junk when I see it. Enamelware! **Screeeech.** I pulled off to the side of the road and The Bean and I bailed out of the car careening down the hillside to the junk pile leaving my Mom alone in the car to fend off any hillbilly mountain men that might have come along.

I suppose this might be a good time to let you know that once upon a time, people just threw their trash into the hollar behind thier house. They burned what they could and threw the rest in the hollar. (*Hollar - a deep hill that you have to hollar into to find the bottom. That's what it means. Seriously.) So, all these years later, all that remains are the metal and glass items. Old bottles, old cans, metal buckets, enamelware, etc. Treasures if you ask me. Not trash!

Of course, nothing was in perfect condition. It was the junk pile for goodness sake. But, in the eyes of me, the Junkreator everything still had a ton of life left in it.

What do you see? Good junk or bad junk? I see a pile of good junk that needs some imagination and a little elbow grease. That blue enamelware bucket in the center still has most of it's bottom and it actually cleaned up pretty good. The white thing is a white washpan with a red rim. The big one on the back left is a gray and white splattered washtub. The bucket on the far right is galvanized steel. No bottom - but it will still hold a flower pot and hang on the fence. And, to think, it was all free. Oh, sure, I was trespasing and might have landed in Jail if I would have been caught, but who cares! Junkin' is good family fun! And, the best part is, I left a thousand things behind, so a return trip before snake/tick weather hits is imperative. I left behind an old wire dish rack from the 1940's that I must return for soon. (I thought The Bean had it, he thought I had it).
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Before the Junkin', I went to the Super Cheap Thrift. It was nearly closing time, but I found a few goodies. While we were paying I overheard a lady talking about a big yard sale in town. She said it wasn't supposed to open until Friday, but they had everything "crammed in boxes and thrown out in the yard and it was very disorganized and you had to dig to find anything." She said it like it was a bad thing. Diggers are the best. I told The Bean to get in the car - we were finding that sale. Goodness, they had the stuff. And it was in boxes and it wasn't very organized and the lady having it could have cared less if she made any money or not. She just wanted it gone. Between the SCT, the digger sale and one other that I stumbled onto I got all these goodies.

A Community Church Cookbook for 50¢ (that I intended for resell until DH picked it up and said, "That's Grandma's Church" and we found recipes by half his "kinfolk" in it so I suppose it's a keeper now), what I "think" might be an old duck decoy for 75¢, a cool planter that looks and feels like real wood for 55¢, three books - Cars of the 1950's, and Ford Thunderbird Anniversary Book (both brand new and for my Dad who owns an anniversary Thunderbird) and a 1935 Car Repair Book all for 50¢ each, a sweet vintage kitchen towel that has since had an Oxiclean soak and is whiter than white for 50¢ and two tea tins from Harod's in London for 25¢ each. The set of four trays in the back are from Coca-Cola from the 1970's or so. They were in a big box full of old kids TV trays (not cool old, just funky old) for $5.00. I asked if she would sell something out of the box for less than $5.00 and she said yes. I had a total of $5.50 in my head for everything before the trays were added in, but she came up with a figure of $5.25 total, so I guess she was a wheelin' and a dealin'.
That $5.25 figure included these two pearls. The blow mold is dated 1973 and ws 50¢. The Holly Time Tree Turner is absolute perfection. I couldn't believe it when I spotted it across the yard. I sprinted to get to it. Sprinted! Me! Really! You can see how much it was priced. Why, oh why do peole take Magic Marker to perfctly good vintage packaging????? *Sigh* In case you don't know what the Tree Turner is - you put your Aluminum Tree in it, plug the color wheel into the back and turn it on. The tree then slowly revolves around so you can see all the ornaments. (No more hiding that Macaroni Baby Jesus the kid made in preschool on the backside!). The tree turner had never been used. It is pristine. I am torn. I should sell it, I'm sure it's worth far more than what I paid for it. But, I do have a Aluminum tree in storage. And a color wheel. And cool retro ornaments. But, alas, I have nowhere to display it. I paid $3.00 for my tree, $2.00 for the tree turner and the color wheel was a dumpster score by my Dad. So, I really think I will keep my $5.00 investment and hope that *someday* I will have room for it.
Yea, that's the ticket.

*Someday*

Ooops, I Did It Again

No, not like Brittany Spears.

I went to Oops again. Oops is a freight salvage store in a nearby town. They have tons of home interior items, salvaged groceries, tool and a messload of candles. Hanna's Candles are made here and are the very same ones sold by Valarie Parr Hill on QVC. The mistakes go to Oops for salvage sale. Today I saw big blueberry cake candles - the ones actually shaped like a cake about 10" across with wax berries for decorations. Looked just like the real thing - Yum-O. I saw them being hawked on QVC for $24.95 not too long ago. Today, they were a mere $3.75. And, just because they are deemed mistakes doesn't mean they are ugly or damaged, just maybe the wicks aren't the same length or the color blue was a bit off from the rest of them. There are some real deals to be found at Oops.

Today I was amazed that they had reset the entire store and gotten in a ton of new home items. Such cool stuff. I showed restraint, but could have gone bonkers if I had a big old honkin' house to fill and not my little crammed to the gills house.

I thought of my blog buddies often as I shopped. Literally, some of you would have died to see the things they had and the prices that they were selling them! Ack!

Right inside the door they had a huge table chock full of glittery Easter Goodness. These bunnies were about 18"tall and only........$6.75.
These bunnies were oh, so very vintagey inspried. They were mounted on chipboard with an easel back for displaying. They were quite large and I really wnated them. But, I showed retraint. They were $8.75.
I loved this cabinet. Loooooved it. It was sort of a pale robin's egg blue and all chippy and grubby looking. The cabinet was heavy as lead and very well made even though it was a new reproduction, it really had the "look". The numbers were on porcelain plates and the knobs were cast iron. I left it there too, even though it made me sad to do so. I wanted to put ribbons in drawer #1, buttons in drawer #2 and Vanilla Tootsie rolls in drawer #3. ;o) Oh yes, how much you ask? $41.25. It had a $200.00 price tag on the backside. I know!

How about these beehive cloche? Cloches? Chochie? Whatever. I digress. These were to die for. Large heavy beehive cloche on top of the cast iron base. Ready? Sitting down? $16.25.
And these dress forms! They were 5 foot tall and heavy as all get out. The dress was made of heavy iron wire. These were $31.25. I pictured them on the "Trash to Treasure" segment on "Decorating Cents" on HGTV. I think they would make primo lamps.
And, this wasn't for sale, but check out that basket. That is a bakset chock full of actual regulation sized footballs. Hundreds of them. Oh, I want an Easter bakset like that! Sans footballs, of course. Before I had The Bean stand there, it looked like a basket full of eggs.

So, what did I buy you may be asking? Well, I showed restraint and only bought things that were small and that I can use in projects.

This painting of Robin's eggs is printed on glass. That's the blue blanket you see through the glass and not the background. It's in a black wooden frame with a black ribbon for framing. It was $1.80 and it just looked like a high class Springy thing to me.
These sweet little birds were $1.80 each, the metal key knobs were 65¢ each and the J-U-N-K letters were 65¢ each too. The JUNK letters are printed on old rusty sheet metal with the grommet holes at the top. They were hanging on a fabulous wooden rack that said "Alphabet Letters" on it. I asked if they had an new entire rack in the back full of letters so I could buy it, but this was the last rack. Dad Gummit! I knew I could have sold the letters to my dear blog readers and kept some choice ones for myself. As for the rack on the floor, they were sold out of "S" which is pretty important for both my first and last name. They were out of a few other important letters like "A" and "E". I tried to no avail to think of something to spell out. Something, anything, in these fabulous rusty old letters, but just couldn't think of a thing. I considered "MOM", but that isn't really me. Even though it is me, you know? Then, as I stood in the check out line, it came to me, like all good junk comes to me - J-U-N-K - I could spell JUNK! I whipped the cart out of line and literally ran back to the rack, much to the dismay of the old DH.

He just doesn't understand the whole junk thing.
Close up of the cute birds and fabulous keys. The keys will go on an old cabinet I have in the living room that has been knob-less for three years. They were the last two keys in the whole place or I would have bought a sackfull. Too cool to leave behind!

And, yes, one piece of glittery Eastery Goodness came home with me too. A glittery Easter-y Bunny and Egg Topiary. Everybunny needs one! Especially at only $3.75.

Tomorrow I'll be back with some thrifty finds and some "Good Eats".

Meet Reba

There's a new sassy redhead in my house. Bustling around, helping out. She's a peach, I tell ya. She does what needs to be done without being asked, she never talks back and hasn't asked for a dime. I was skeptical at first. I didn't think Reba would do the job. I'm pretty picky about certain aspects of my house and like to do thinkgs my way. But since I now have to educate The Bean on top of my million other household duties, I decided to break down and accept the help that Miss Reba offered.

And, you know what? Miss Reba does things I haven't done in a long time. Like clean under the beds! Wonder! Amazement! You wouldn't believe the things she found under there.

I tried to take a picture of her myself, but I found her in the corner of the bathroom by the litter box working her little heart out. I didn't want to disrupt her cleaning for a photo shoot. So, here's a photo of my new gal Miss Reba:

Oh, Miss Reba the Roomba, how I love thee. You bustle about cleaning up here and there, under the beds, under my desk, behind the litter box, into the closet. And, when you need to be emptied, you just hum a sweet little tune and then go about your business.

*This was a Christmas gift from my Mom. I just opened her up on Sunday and took her for a test drive. Why, oh why did I wait so long?

I love you Reba!

The Gravy Boat

When The Bean was about four years old we went to a thrift store. (Shocking, no?) He was digging in the toy bin while I looked around at things near him, keeping an eye on him too. He walked over to me with a bright orange plastic Gravy Boat in his hands.

"What's this?" he asked.

"That's called a Gravy Boat," I told him.

"Wow! A Gravy Boat!' he exclaimed. He held it up to the gleaming window and admired the Gravy Boat. He was in awe of the Gravy Boat. (Keep in mind that we didn't have a real Gravy Boat at our house, so this was a new concept for him).

"Do you want it?" I asked. He had a play kitchen full of play food, real pots and pans and dishes that he played with. A lot. All day. He certainly didn't have a Gravy Boat, so I thought that is why he thought he needed a Gravy Boat for his kitchen.

"Uh-HUH!" he said and clutched it to his chest.

So, we paid the quarter for the bright orange Gravy Boat and he rode home with it clutched to his chest admiring his Gravy Boat all the way.

That night he was geting ready for his bath and I heard him gathering up his toys for bath time. When I went in to check on him, the Gravy Boat was sailing in the tub while The Bean said, "Gra-veeee, Gra-veee" (like a tugboat whistle).

He thought it was a Gravy boat. A boat full of gravy.

I found the Gravy Boat this weekend while I was cleaning out some things in preparation for a yard sale.

I kept the Gravy Boat.

(Gravy is a dumb word after you type it and read it a hundred times. Gravy.)

Beans and Cornbread

*Beans and Cornbread.
That's what we say at my house when you want to say an expletive, but know you shouldn't.

The Bean Takes A Bath - 2004.

The Bean is at a party. A real party. With girls. Until 10:00. PM!. And, I am home. Beanless. With a sleeping husband in the other room and no one else in the house. Usually at this time of night, The Bean plays his Nintendo DS or watches "Good Eats and "Unwrapped" (He's a foodie, I tell ya) while the husband is in bed asleep and I update my blog or read my boards or troll the Internet looking for deals.

A Backseat Bean - 2005.

But, tonight is different. There is no Bean in the house. And, that is fine, he is having fun and being with his friends, which he has been in short supply of since it all went down at school. This is the group of his very best friends and I am so thankful that he was included in the party planning.

A Horrified Bean- 2005.

But, if gives me a peek into the future. The future without Bean. The future with him as a teen and better things to do than play Scrabble with Mom on Friday night. (I cannot imagine what could be more fun than that). The future of me thrifitng and saling without The Bean by my side.

Last Day of School Bean - Take Me With You, Mom! 2005.

A peek that tells me that I better get myself a life one of these days before I have way too much time on my hands. I can only watch the husband snore on the couch for so long before I snap.

*Snap*

At least the cat gives me a chuckle.