I'm My Own Neighborhood Watch Committee

I consider myself to be the Neighborhood Watch Committee, but my neighbors might argue that I am the neighborhood snoop. I don't mean to snoop. It's just that our house is condusive to snooping. We have a big bay window the entire width of our living room. Because of this, I can see all the way down the street in both directions and all of the houses across the street. I usually know everything that is going on. Every thing.

Last Saturday I heard the ice cream truck coming up the street. (What is it about the ice cream truck that makes otherwise rational folks turn into kids? People were running up and down the block to the ice cream truck to buy $2.00 Bomb Pops. I have threatened more than once to open my freezer and make a killing off the neighbor kids selling my coupon purchased Popscicles. I could underprice the ice cream man by half and still make quite a profit.)

But, I digress. After the ice cream truck left, I did a little snooping Neighborhood Watching and saw this to my right:

The deadbeat neighbors who are moving out (Yea!) decided to blow $6.00 on Popscicles and eat them in their recliners on the trailer. I will add that the son was also taking photos of them, so even they knew they had officially entered Hicksville.

And, to my left:

A GARAGE SALE!

Holey Moley, I gotta look out the window more often! I never did go over there because all I could see was a lot of clothes and some TV's. later that night, I saw their truck pull out loaded with the left overs. On top of the truck was a cool potato chip rack with clips for hanging bags of potato chips. It was shaped like a bird cage and I am sick I didn't know they had that at their sale. It would have been great for my Postcard collection. Or an array of other junk.

I realize this post doesn't make me sound like too much of a snoop. That's because I didn't mention that the lady across the street was planting seeds in her garden while her son used the riding mower to mow her yard, the people that just moved in across the street were airing up the tires on the bicycles, the man on the corner was mowing his yard (he mows every day 365 days a year), there were five girls walking up the street and the mail lady was delivering three doors up. Yes, I am a snoop. A mighty mighty good snoop.

Before you think less of me - a few thrifty finds from yesterday and today. The pickings seem to be slim, but I am enjoying the hunt. I don't need to drag boxes of htings home, so a treasure or two makes me happy.

A great older tin from Sweden (maybe?) for $2.50. It is big - as big as a silverware chest.

Any ideas? I have forbidden myself to bring home any more tins as I have hundreds (literally) but I plan on using this one to store my craft supplies, so it is useful and not just clutter.

Linen cocktail napkins, embroidered with gray flowers and matching trim. 27 in all for 50¢. I am not a linen napkin kind of gal, but sometimes you just have to grab a deal, you know?

I love this jar with the red writing all over it. It reminds me of a 1980's Sun Tea jar, which I so do not love. But, this jar has character. Candy Flour Sugar Coffee Beans Rice Crackers Party Mix. It was only 25¢, but since it was missing it's lid, the lady at the thrift gifted it to me. I wouldn't have wanted the lid anyway, it was most likely red plastic and would have taken away from it's coolness factor. I plan on using it as a vase to hold bouquets of Zinnias this summer , so I didn't need a lid anyway.

There are quite a few sales in the paper in my small town and we have plans to go to an outdoor flea market community yard sale on Saturday. I hope the Junk Gods are smiling down on me!

Got 'Em!

Miniature Toasting Glasses

I found these on ebay FINALLY!
I don't usually get obsessed about finding something, but I HAD to find these. Not sure why. But, I needed them! And, I got 'em! The ones my Great Grandmother used were plastic, but these are vintage GLASS. So happy!

Thanks for all the help and questions about them. It is very nice to know that my blog buddies were helping in my quest!

Here's to YOU! *clink!*

I Spy With My Little Eye

Here's a sampling of what I saw this weekend:

An old ghost sign for Simplicity Patterns 40¢-60¢. I love these old signs - I prefer them all chippy and faded and not refurbished.

A sign for Collecitles! Which the Bean reasoned rhymed with Testicles. Collecitles!

I love Cotton Candy and Caramel Apple stands. I don't eat the stuff - I just like the graphics of the little trailers. Back behind there was a Pork Rind Stand. The man was passing out samples to passersby. When I walked past, he offered me a Pork rind. I declined saying, "No thank you, I don't eat meat." He looked at me the longest time like I was a complete whack job and then he said, "It ain't meat, it's skin!" *Hurl* Did it ever oink? Then it's meat. *Hurl*

A ghost sign for Ben Franklin. I loved Ben Franklin when I was a kid. I think that's where I get my love of old packaging, graphics and especially Christmas packaging.

"S" is for "Shara". We went to a craft fair and I saw a lady selling black and white photographs of each letter of the alphabet for $5.00 EACH. She had taken photos of each letter on old signs, or in nature, etc. You could pick out the letters of your choice to spell whatever you wanted. S+H+A+R+A=$25.00. I loved the idea of it, but S+H+A+R+A=2 cheap to spend $25.00 for something she can do herself! So, photographing letters is my new thing!
Another "S". "S" is for "Stacks". I have this huge long soffit above my living room window that is empty. I cannot have empty wall space! I want to do the complete Alphabet in mix and match frames across it. I can't wait to get it completed!

Two Gals Junk on Broadway Shop. They had cool stuff in the windows, but their idea of JUNK and my idea of JUNK was different. And their JUNK was $$$!

A Candy Store! This candy store had bins of candy and shelves of candy on the walls. The Salt Water Taffy was 8/$1.00 and there were neato flavors like Buttered Popcorn, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Caramel Apple, Cinnamon Roll and lots of others. They even had penny candy! For a penny! Tax was a nickle. Ba-dum-dum! Ha ha.

This was a neat tree, with interesting green growth and cool textured bark. But the really interesting thing about this was the lady sitting in her daughter's stroller! I have never seen an adult sitting in a stroller! Holding the kid, no less!

Junk art. This was cool - lots of miscellaneous old junk attached to a canvas with paint and grime streaked and dripped all over it. It was interesting to see what all you could identify. What do you see? This was in an art gallery and I snuck the photo. Not sure if photography was allowed...

So, what did you see this weekend?

Thursday Estate Sale

I found myself out and about on a Thursday in a different part of town today thanks to meeting family passing through from Kansas (HEY Aunt Dodo). We met at Cracker Barrel for lunch, did a little nostalgic shopping - I bought a big Mason Jar full of Jawbreakers and then went our separate ways. I had just happened to sniff out an Estate Sale in that general area, so off I went. Trying to do my part to save the planet - you know, making the most of my trips out and recycling and all.

This Estate Sale was reasonably priced. There wasn't the sheer massive amount of items lie there was at the last sale though. The rooms were sparsely furnished with only a smattering of things here and there. I was about to think all hope was lost when I stumbled into the garage. Most of the junk I like is usually in the garage. That's where I spied the Christmas stuff. Zoink!

Under the table I spotted a box under some boxes and I decided to have a dig and see if anyone had missed a treasure or two. They had! I found a box of old blown glass ornaments. Most of these have indents or are figural. That's a pinkish vintage angel in the background. All of these cost a total of $1.00.

There were a few special ornaments....

A pipe!

A large pink and blue vintage mushroom!

This large pink ornament has a huge indent with silver twisted tinsel in the background. Oh, but that dancing googley-eyed cat! What is up with THAT? I really don't think it came that way. Yikes, what to do, what to do.

I found these in a box of random ornaments. Three sequined birds and a fish. 25¢ each.

These five little girls make me happy beyond happy. They were worth the trip alone. I especially love the one with the accordion for some reason. They were 25¢ each.
A few more random treasures - some glass hand painted beads on a string for 25¢.

I found this in the 50¢ kitchen drawer - the lady having the sale hadn't ever seen it. I seem to have a knack for that sort of thing. Whatizit? I think it might be a ravioli cutter or a pie crimper. Any ideas?

A fun old green metal file box for $1.00 that will soon be holding some pink geraniums on the table by my pink glider.

My favorite photo of the day - some miscellaneous vintage office supplies. I have a growing collection of chalk boxes and I didn't even realize it. Two vintage boxes of chalk, two boxes of vintage Dennison gummed stars - gold and silver and a box of Swingline staples. That is an old Notary Public embosser from Texas in the center. It works great and leaves a big star embossed in the center of the seal. Now I can send out some official lookin' Junk!

This weekend is County Clean Up weekend. The bad thing is, you have to take your junk to them, so no curbside piles of goodies. The house down on the corner cleaned out their garage today and loaded up their truck to go to the dump.

Get a gander at the size of that teddy bear! Man, oh, man. I don't want it, but I hope someone stops and asks for it instead of throwing it in the dump.
And, "What is in that truck?" the junker in me wants to know. I considered a midnight run with a flashlight, but see the guy standing there? Well, he just happens to be the Chief of Police, so I don't think a junk run at his house would be wise. That also explains the slightly hideous photos. Junk Photography on the move!

Bunnies and Eggs

I know that Easter was a week ago and that a post about Bunnies and eggs may not seem appropriate. But, it was the theme of the day.

Mama Robin laid a third egg. I thought there were usually three eggs. And, now there are.

Mr. Bun-Bun has made his return to our yard. He has lived in our backyard for the past two summers. I get the biggest kick over him. We live across the street from a huge hayfield, but he chooses to live in our backyard. I had been worried about him since the ice storm and I have no idea what the lifespan of a bunny is, so I wondered if he would return. But, now he has.

A quick trip into Walgreen's today to pick up my FREE Earth Day tote bag netted these Russell Stover Dark Chocolate Bunnies for 5¢ each. Yes, that's right. Five Cents. I couldn't leave them!

A mad dash into Hobby Lobby for three pieces of shite polar fleece turned into a bit longer trip when I spotted the 80% off Easter aisle. I was good and didn't buy much. I was about to leave empty handed when I spotted this sweet little vintage looking girl on the bottom shelf.

And, when I spotted her boyfriend here, I knew I had to grab them. They were a total of $37.98, but $31.98 was subtracted, so apparently I paid $3.00 each for them. Cute!

On a different note: Have you seen the Penny Picker ads from CiCi's Pizza?


They are throwing one million pennies around the USA near their restaurants. If you see a penny, pick it up and it might have FREE CiCi's food on the back of it. I thought that idea was sort of silly and couldn't imagine anyone ever actually finding one. But, then, today, I spotted this on the ground at the Mall*.

And, being thrifty and environmentally conscience, I picked it up. And, when I turned it over I saw this:

A free kids' drink at CiCi's Pizza. Not that great of a deal and we didn't use it. But, it was funny that I actually found one of those darned pennies. CiCi's is actually several blocks from the Mall, so I guess they are spreading them around.

*Yes, I was at the Mall. If you have been reading this blog long, you know that I hate the Mall. Hate it. I wear Merle Norman make up and you can only buy it at the *&%#% Mall, so three times a year like it or not, I trudge myself to the Mall and buy my Make up. Today was no exception to the "I Hate the Mall" rule. The girl at Merle Norman was particularly rude, the whole Mall reeked of the Dillard's perfume counter and I was nearly trampled by three elderly Mall Walkers. I am already dreading my next trip to the Mall. In four months.

Done Sprung

After the ice storm, everything looked so sad. Sad is the best word I can think of to describe what all the destruction looked like to me. Sad. Broken tree tops, broken limbs, broken everything. Since the ice storm, there have been hundreds of trucks hauling storm debris from yards and by the roads. Truck after truck, day after day, load after load. If I never see another stick in my life, that is okay by me.

I wondered if Spring would ever come and when it did, what would it look like - would things still bloom and green up? Or would they still look sad? My answers came to me late last week as things started greening up once again. It is so nice to not see the broken limbs in the trees and the piles of debris everywhere.

Our Dwarf Peach tree encrusted in ice in January.

The very same tree with green leaves and a Mama Robin hiding.

(I know she is a Mama, keep reading...)

The huge one hundred year old tree out front covered in ice with broken limbs at it's feet.

It still has broken limbs, but they are breaking out with gorgeous green leaves.

This tree drops these horrendously sticky pods everywhere that I usually hate.

This year, I don't mind them so much.

The crunchy icy grass in January.

Freshly mowed (Thank you Breadman) green grass with cool shadows.

Forsythia in ice.

And the Forsythia all green. It never got the beautiful yellow flowers this year - I think the ice had something to do with that. I did find this one lonely little Forsythia bloom today.

The blackberry brambles covered in ice.


Sunday we were walking around the yard, doing some Spring yard work, when I noticed this birds nest in the blackberries.

Today we went out to check on the nest and found a Mama Robin guarding the nest.

She let me get really close before she flew away. But, not too far away.

Blue Robin's eggs! From a Mama Robin! In our very own once was covered in ice but is now GREEN yard.

Do you know how badly I would like this nest and these beautiful blue eggs in my living room under a cloche? This picture will have to do though. Stay tuned...for baby bird photos. *Cross your fingers*

PAID IN FULL

I just paid off our car. Made the very last $400.00 payment. I know that is supposed to be a happy day. No more payments. No more obligations. More money for other things. Yea! But, now I have this sense of doom that it is going to fall apart now that it is all ours. I see springs shooting out from under the hood, the tires rolling off one by one, door handles stop working, yadda, yadda.

Oh my. Ours is still pretty much like new. Only 35,000 miles on it - outside and inside still like the day we bought it. So, deep down, I know it will be okay. But, I just can't get this image out of my head!