The Very Vintage Christmas Blog

Christmas is here! 

Hurray!  Hurray! 

Okay, it really isn't here yet.  But, it will be! 

Hurray!  Hurray!

As we all know, I love VINTAGE Christmas stuff. 

Love it, love it, love it. 

Adore it, actually.

Many of YOU do too. 

Right? 

Dontcha?

So, for all us VINTAGE CHRISTMAS fanatics, I have started a new blog. 

The Very Vintage Christmas Blog

I really want this blog to be a blog for the vintage Christmas community.  I am looking for guest posts about YOUR Vintage Christmas items.  You could write about your entire collection of blowmolds (like I have already done) or you could write about one particular ornament on your tree.  From an entire collection to a lonely candy container - we want to see it!  I'll be out trolling the blogs too and I might ask to feature your collection or one of your posts on the The Very Vintage Christmas Blog. 

If you know the history or value of an item, this is the place to talk about it.  Have a family heirloom that means the world to you?  Or just an items you found at the thrift store?  We want to see it!

If you would like to write a post, leave a comment with a way to get in touch with you.  I really think this will be FUN, informative and interesting. 

So, what do you think???

Whooooooooo's first???? 

(Hurray!  Hurray!)

Pssst...Amazon Specials

Every year I do the bulk of my shopping at the Amazon Black Friday Sale.  It started earlier this week. 

Amazon Black Friday Specials  They have a lot of items that start about every thirty minutes to an hour.  You don't know what the price will be until the deal goes live.  I just keep a window open all day and check it - often.  Maybe too often!  We have a lot of movie fans in our family and Amazon offers a lot of DVD's during this sale.  I got all three "Lord of the Rings" movies for $1.99 each yesterday.  I have a free trial of Amazon Prime right now, which means NO MINIMUM PURCHASE to get free shipping.  So, if I see a deal - I buy it for that price - no taxes, no shipping, no sleeping in a tent outside Best Buy in the sleet.....You get the idea.  You can get a free 30 day trial to Amazon Prime here:  FREE Amazon Prime.  Just be sure to go into your account and uncheck the box that will charge you the full amount after your 30 day Free Trial. 

I am linking these deals through my Affiliate link, but you don't have to go through it.  I really just want everyone to know about these specials.  I can make my Christmas shopping money go a long way through these Amazon specials and my FREE trial of Prime. 

**Winter weather advisory with possibility of sleet has caused my Thanksgiving to be moved to tomorrow.  The turkey is already in the oven and smells Deee-vine.  Don't know if I can wait  until tomorrow for a piece.  Happy Thanksgiving! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

May it be a happy one, a safe one and a tasty one!

I have one last decoration to share. 

Which Thanksgiving item is special enough to get to be placed under the glass cloche?

Why, a milk carton Mayflower from the Bean's Kindergarten days, that's what!

Happy Turkey Day!

Gobble Gobble...It's Turkey Time

My head is already focused on Christmas.  I have the decorations all organized in the garage .  I spend about a week decorating the house - but I honestly love every minute of it.  I love seeing all of my treasures - the ones I have had for years, the ones I found last year and have forgotten about and the new old treasures that I have picked up this year.  I love sitting in the living room and looking at the lights at night.  I love watching my sweet kitty girl curl up under the tree and look up at the lights. 

The Breadman told me on Sunday that he wasn't a holiday person - this year he wanted to skip the hassles that go along with Christmas.  Seeing how I clean, decorate the inside of the house, wrestle the tree from the outside shed, set up the tree, decorate the tree, set up the village, put the lights on the house, set up the decorations in the yard, take the Christmas Card photo, write the Christmas Card letter, sign the Christmas Cards, cook the food, make the candy, do the baking, buy the presents, wrap the presents, pay for the presents, cleanup the house, take out the wrapping paper trash, take down the decorations and wrestle the tree back to the shed......well, I can't see what sort of hassle the man has to endure other than being in a fabulously vintage decorated house, eating peanut butter fudge and opening presents.  So, I will now refer to him as the Bah-humbug Breadman.  *Rant over*  (Here, anyway - I am still fuming!)

But, before Christmas - Thanksgiving comes first.  I do have quite a bit of Thanksgiving and fall decorations.  I always keep my out for vintage Thanksgiving items.  Turkeys in particular.

A new vignette this year - Squirrels.  I had a few here and there and there wasn't any real rhyme or reason to where I had them.  So, I gathered them all up and made them part of my fall Decor.  What goes with Squirrels?  Why, acorns, of course!

A few of my vintage Beistle Honeycomb Turkeys.  I never liked that old honeycomb stuff until I started reading blogs and found out it is COOL.  Ha.  I am such a follower!

I have my picnic baskets all set up stairstep style, so I use them like shelves when I decorate.  The colors fit into the fall stuff pretty well. 

Obligatory enamel turkey platter.  Check.

Obligatory Gurley Candles.  Check.

 Vintage Turkey Planter and a rafter of turkey salt and/or pepper shakers - I always only find one - never a pair.

Really silly pilgrims (but I love those googley eyes), more vintage turkeys and a "Gather Here with Grateful Hearts" print.

"Keep Calm and Gobble On" (- you can print your own here: Craftily Ever After) with my Annalee Pilgrims.

I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my house (hassles and ALL).  There will just be six of us and an easy meal of smoked Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, rolls, cranberries and pie.  It's a different sort of holiday without either of our Grandmother's (which is a part of the Bredman's new outlook on holidays, I am sure).  It's the first Thanksgiving we won't be in the car rushing from house to house trying to fit everyone in for a few hours.  I won't miss that part at all.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  *Gobble*Gobble*!

CSN Store Review - Christmas Edition

CSN Stores has graciously offered to allow me to review a product from their over 200 online stores.  CSN Stores -  where you can find everything from stylish handbags, to Counter Height Stools or great cookware or even wonderful Christmas items.  The possibilities are endless thanks to their never ending selection of items. 

I've been looking around CSN Stores trying to decide what time to review.

How about this gorgeous Pink Christmas Tree?  Isn't it to die for? 

Thank you CSN Stores!

59¢

Well, hi.  I took a short break, didn't I?  Not that long, but long for me. 

We went to the Harry Potter Advance Screening on Tuesday night.  The movie was great and I'm sure some of you have seen it by now.  I sobbed.  Seriously, a made up story about wizard kids should not tear your heart out.  But, it does.  *sniff*  (and,  for the record - we only snuck in two trick or treat sized Butterfingers for The Bean  and a couple Vanilla Midgees for me.  I did spring for popcorn).  When we got there, there wasn't any mention of Harry Potter anywhere on the marquee or outside the actual theater.  There was a table set up that only said, "CW" - so that's where we went.  They handed us two vouchers that only said Warner Bros on them, which we were told to give to the guard at the theater.  "Guard?" I thought, "I wonder what that means."  Well, when we walked down the hall to the theater, there were three armed guards standing there.  I had to give them the voucher and proof of ID to get in the theater.  But, before we could go in the searched my bag (I was paranoid about the little bit of candy rolling around in there!).  When we got into the theater, it was lit up like a baseball field at night.  I didn't even know movie theaters had bright overhead lights.  It was blinding.  Once the move started, the guards came and stood at different areas of the theater and moved up and down the aisle during the movie.  So, I sat there wondering if they had a bomb scare or there was an axe murderer in there or what on Earth was the cause for all this security.  But, then I realized that we were seeing a huge blockbuster movie days before it was to be released.  Someone could have have a video camera and put it on the internet.  Or even just taped the sound.  It was all for the security of the movie - not us lowly candy sneaking movie goers.  Besides, the lady in front of us was eating a salad from McDonald's, so apparently "sneaking in food" was not an issue. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier today I stopped at a yard sale that had about fifty Rubbermaid tubs lined up full of stuff.  My kind of sale!  But, they had lots of made in China Indian statues, Angel statues and die cast cars.  Not my sort of stuff.  They did have some neater old stuff, but nothing was marked at all.  In my experience, sales like that seem to be high.

 

I did come across a tub of jewelry and I spotted a strand of Chandelier crystals in the bottom. I asked the man how much the string was and he said, "Oh, about 50¢.". Sounded good to me, so I continued to dig. I ended up finding about nine strands plus several individual crystals.

Then I spotted this nice old choker made of shell.

And this vintage owl pendant and owl tie tack.  At 50¢ and item, my total was at about $7.50.

 I dug this sweet old planter out of a box thinking it might be a couple of dollars.

 

And this old glass laying egg for my collection.  Another buck or so, I was thinking.

When I went up to pay, I thought I had about $11 or $12 worth of stuff in my arms.  The guy looked at it and said, "Just give me a buck".  I said, "What?  Are you sure?"  "Yep" he said.  That's when I realized I only had a twenty.  I dug in my change and came up with 59¢.  I told him I would go dig in the car and be right back.  "Nah, just give me what you got.'  So, I paid 59¢ in the end for all that stuff!  He said the more he got rid of, the better - money didn't matter.  He said "God Bless You" and "Happy Thanksgiving" and "Enjoy your things".   Wasn't that nice? 

So, did you find anything this weekend?  And, did you spend more than 59¢?  :D

We're off to the first Christmas parade of the season.  Getting an early start this year!

Going to the Movies

Tonight The Bean and I are going to the movies.  We are going to go see an Advance Screening of the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.  I won two free passes through the local CW station.   And I am super excited to see this movie.

I know that I won't buy popcorn, even though it smells dee-vine because it is just too darn expensive. Target is right next door and you can get a sack of popcorn for $1.00 there.  The same size sack is $6.50 at the theater.  Crazy!  I will have Jujy Fruits - my movie snack of choice.  I will sneak the Jujy Fruits in my purse after I purchase at the Dollar Tree. 'Cause that's how I roll.  I am cheap.  What can I say? 


This will be the first movie that The Bean has gone to at night.  He is 15 years old.  How sad is that?  We like Matinees, we like no crowds, we like Matinee pricing.  But, FREE is waaaaay better than matinee pricing!

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about the movie, how it ended and who dies.  Ha.  Just kidding. 
*You sneak in candy too, don't you?

Weekend Finds

It is finally feeling like fall in NW Arkansas. When I read the blogs of my Northern friends, I see them outside in coats and the trees are completely bare.  But, it has been in the high 70's and low 80's here forever.  The Bean is still in shorts, the A/C is running and we still cook out a lot.  But, this week, the temperatures started dropping and we had a frost.  Yippee.  That means pretty leaves. 

Finally!

It's just gorgeous here.  Fall is truly my absolute time of the year and I am happy that we are getting to enjoy it for a few days before Winter kicks in.  The Christmas Lighting parade is Saturday.  It would be nice to wear a jacket to the parade this year.  (The Duggar's are the Parade Marshall's - I am so there!)

Even though it has been warm, I have noticed that there aren't many yard sales lately.  Only a couple here and there.  I stopped at two yard sales this weekend and made a trip out to the Super Cheap Thrift.  (I don't hold a grudge...).  All the thrifts keep telling me that they have "soooooo much Christmas stuff", "we don't know where we will put it all", blah, blah, blah.  But, I keep going to dig in it, and there's just not much out there.  I did realize that although I am ready to dig in the Christmas stuff, it is still a long way away, so they will get it out.....eventually.  I'm just ready NOW! 

Just a few finds this weekend.  This cute old Fisher Price bus will go to the Booth.  I have about fifteen vintage Fisher Price toys in my booth right now.  I am hoping to strike a nostalgic note on a few shoppers for Christmas this year. 

Three giant pink plastic Poinsettia's.  They were 25¢ for all three, so I had to grab them.  They are borderline fabulous/tacky.  I vote fabulous.  :D

A nice basket - heavy and well made like a Longaberger, but only marked with a B.

Any ideas, oh helpful friends? 

This was my one and only purchase from one sale.  I scored him in the 10¢ box.  He is a 1970 weeble sort of Santa with chimes in his tummy.  I lurve him.

And my favorite find at the SCT - a vintage embroidered baby bib for 25¢.  It is just too sweet for words. 

So, did you find any treasures this weekend? 

Merry Kitschmas!

For years, I have been hoarding tiny little Christmas things, vintage Christmas ornaments, parts of old wreaths and candlerings, vintge ornaments with missing pieces, things of that nature. I never knew what I would ever do with them. But, the other night - it hit me!  I knew what to do with all that "kitsch" I have been kicking around.

Merry Kitschmas! 

I covered a frame with vintge silver tinsel garland and then covered every bit of it with various items in my Kitsch bin.   When I thought it was full as I could get it  I added more!

I think they turned out really cute, if I do say so myself.  I call them "I Spy's" - You can find lots of things hidden.

Althought they are random. I noticed sort of a theme - like drums within this one. 

I also made this wreath, but I have added more things to it since I took this photo. 

All of these things are in my Etsy Shop, which makes me nervous.  I've never sold anything that I have made.  But, you can only have so much KITSCH in you own house!

Freebie for YOU (and me too)

I swear this is not going to be an advertising blog - but there are a lot of opportunities right now for Bloggers to score freebies.  So, I will be sharing a few of them (like the Meyer Glitter and the Family Taco Night) with you as I find them. 

If you go to Gilt Groupe and sign up for an account, they will give you a $20.00 FREE credit. You can apply that credit towards your shipping too, which is awesome! Now, they have items from one THOUSAND dollar Hello Kitty watches (for real!) to less expensive items.   Things chance day to day and week to week.  they have gourmet food, purses, toys, artwork, towels and everything in between.




 

I was able to use my code to get both of these plush from "Where the Wild Thing Are".  Each one had an original retail of $25.00, but they were only $7.00 on Gilt.  After shipping was applied and the code was deducted, I had a balance of $1.95 to pay.  Each of of these plushies are 17" tall and look adorable.  I will be able to add these to my Toys for Tots donations. 

Once you sign up, they will send you an email welcoming you to Gilt Group.  In the email on the upper right corner, it should say Account Credit: $20.00.  If you don't get it - let me know at monkeybox @ juno . com and I will remove this post.  It is working for most people.  Good luck!

So, head on over and get your $20.00 credit.  I'm not getting paid by Gilt, although, if you do place an order, I will get a credit on my account.  But, once you sign up and place an order, you can pass on your link and get more credit's too. 

I really will be back with journeys and junk soon.  And, a post about 50 FREE Shutterfly Christmas cards.  Money is tight this year and I was going to cut out Christmas Cards.  But, thanks to this promotion, I will be sending out the nicest cards I have ever sent for FREE.  And, you can too, if you want info.  I will post it soon.  Bloggers unite and get all the stuff we can while the getting is good! 

Family Taco Night

***The winner is Dicity!  Thanks for leaving your comments. 

Around our house, we eat Mexican food about three times a week.  We love Burritos, Tostadoes, Mexican Chicken Casserole and our very favorite - TACOS!  Since we don't eat meat, we use Refried Beans in all of our creations.  The Breadman and I always loved Refried Beans, but it took several years (about 13 years, actually) to get THE BEAN (oddly named, huh?) to try them.  I finally persuaded him to try a can of Bean Dip one day.  He said it was good and asked what sort of dip it was.  I just kept telling him it was Chip Dip - Dip for Chips, etc. until he had knocked off the entire can. Ha! Then I told him it was BEANS.  He's been devouring all things Mexican ever since.

The nice folks at Old El Paso and My Blog Spark have sent me a fun Family Taco Night package complete with a packet of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning, a cute cactus shaped chip and salsa serving dish and three pepper shaped serving dishes as well as a $10.00 prepaid VISA card to buy the remaining items I need to round out our next Family Taco Night.  Which will be tonight.  We do love our Tacos!

Here is a FREE game you can print out and plat on your next family taco Night El Tacodor.

Also, a few delicious recipes:  Double layer Tacos  and Chicken Ranch Tacos.

Here is a coupon for you to print for 60¢ of TWO Old El Paso items:  Coupon

Now for YOU:  Do you love Tacos or Mexican food in general?  Leave a comment telling me your favorite Mexican dish or your favorite aspect of sharing a meal together or just say, "I MEXICAN LOVE FOOD!" and I will put your names in a virtual hat and ONE lucky winner will get their very own Old El Paso Family Taco Night Prize Package.  Don't forget to leave some way of getting in touch with you - email, blog, etc.   I'll pick a winner on Friday, so enter NOW!  Blogspark will mail you your prize package.

PS.  I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD!  :D

Tuesday's Thrifty Finds

Yesterday I cleaned out all the closets in the house.  I threw away one trash bag full of stuff and donated five huge stuffed bags to Goodwill today.  We don't even have a Goodwill in town, but we do have a Goodwill Donation Only Center not far from my house.  You just drive up and a bell rings like the old gas stations used to do - the door opens, a smiling face opens your car, unloads it, says "Thank you" and you are on your way.  Super easy and super handy.  And, while it is handy, it doesn't give me the "I just got rid of six bags of stuff, so I deserve a trip to the thrift" excuse to go in to the thrift.  Ha.  So, I had to drive across town to the Salvation Army for that fix!  (I don't like donating to the Salvation Army - they put people that are working Community Service out to accept donations and they are not friendly and I've seen them make fun of donations and throw complete bags of clothes into the "Rag Bin".)  

The Salvation Army never used to sell much Holiday Merchandise.  In fact, they hardly used to sell much of anything.  On Saturday's they had a Parking Lot Sale and pretty much put out all the boxes of donations that came in that week.  People would line up an hour early waiting while they unloaded the pallets of boxes.  I went once, years ago.  I filled up three boxes and they only charged me a couple of bucks.  But, it is dirty work and you can get hurt - I spotted a steak knife sticking up in a box of Happy Meal Toys once, just as The Bean went to dig in it.  I decided never to go back to those sales again.  Recently, they got a new manager and she likes to sell things in the store - as many things as she can cram in there.  And, much to my delight, she has them price it fairly inexpensively. 

They have a a big selection of Christmas items this year.  I was eager to have a look and see if I could find anything of neat-o vintage variety, or if it would all be newer junk.  I'm happy to report that I found a couple of jewels!

Three nice vintage handmade felt Stockings - sequins, beads, glitter.......you can't get any better than that!  $1.00 each.  Lovin' that Santa.

Three vintage-y children's Christmas books - Rudolph will get a glittery treatment and the other two will go to the Booth - 30¢ each.

I found this adorable planter in the new "One of a Kind" section that the Salvation Army recently added.  It is full of quirky and weird things - right up my alley!  I love those cute chubby love birds on top.  It will go in my Valentine decorations.  (Always thinking ahead, I am!).  You are already getting a peek at my favorite item......

Twelve mercury glass picks!  Twelve!  I am always on the hunt for these beauties.  I think I only have three so far.  So, I really increased my collection today!  They were stuck on a tree that was for sale.  I spotted one pick, then another, then another, etc.  I walked around and around that tree, until I had them all picked off and I was a bit dizzy.  I was worried that they wouldn't sell them to me since they weren't priced, but the lady didn't bat an eye, and only charged me $2.00 for them all.  

Tomorrow I go decorate the booth for Christmas.  Next week I will take all my vintage kitshcy items in and stock it up for the holidays. 

Speaking of Kitsch - I had an idea this morning and I whipped out my crafty stuff and made my vision.  I am madly in love with it, and hope you will be too.  But, I will save that post for another day.  :D

A Photo of Me in Go-Go Boots and a Mini Skirt

*Don't worry, it's not as bad as you might imagine. 

My Grandmother was a photographer.  Have I mentioned that?  She had a studio in Kansas.  She did all of the portraits for the Governor, House and Senate that now hang in the Capitol Building.  She photographed dignitaries, Miss America contestants and even the Phelps family, who she swears were very nice people.  But, we won't go into that here.   

When she had her studio, she was still shooting actual film.  She never actually knew if a photo had turned out the way she wanted it, so she had to take several of each shot to make sure she was getting a good one.  She didn't want to overwork her clients when she wanted to try something new, so she often brought in family to try out new angles, props, lighting, etc. 

Guess who she liked to use the most?  Prepare yourself.

Oh, Lord.  This is me at age three, being photographed in my Grandmother's Portrait Studio.  She would put me in front of the camera and take hundreds of photos of me......for hours at a time.  Many changes of clothing, different hairstyles, props, etc.  It was fun.  For about ten minutes.  I have hundreds and hundreds of professional photos of myself taken from birth through High School.   As I got older, and less cute (and less willing to pull on my go-go boots and culots), the picture taking became less often.  Now that I am *ahem* old, there are very few photos of me.  I had a lifetime of photography sessions crammed into a few years. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for all the mixer love.  I still can't believe I finally own my very own KitchenAid Mixer!  And, for only $18.00!  As suggested, I gave her a name!  Her name is Betty.  She is a white mixer, so Betty White came to mind and Betty Crocker for baking. Also, my Aunt Betty that loved to have family gatherings and make her famous potato salad .  So  I haven't used Betty for a whole project yet, but plan too soon.

Thanks also to my wonderful friends for wanting to drive to the SCT and kick some cranky lady booty.  It's just her.  I still love the SCT.  I was there Saturday and everything was fine.  The vintage Christmas was out in full force and I scored a few goodies without any headaches at all.  Yea!

Glittery Goodness!

Meyer Imports is having a special this month - buy ANYTHING and they will send you a sample of their fabulous vintage Spun Cotton and Plaster Mushrooms.

As we know, everything is better with Glitter on it.  And, Christmas is coming.  And Christmas with glitter is da bomb!

Check out Meyer Imports to see all their gorgeous German Glass Glitter.  I could eat it all up! 
***Bloggers, you can score a FREEBIE by blogging about it too.  Glitter for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My New BFF

I ((Heart)) Lowe's.

Lowe's is my new BFF.

Thursday night, well, actually Friday morning at midnight, they kicked off their early Black Friday Event.  It was a Facebook Event.  At midnight (11:00 here) they were going to release a code and the first 100 people to use it and complete an order for a Kitchen-Aid Mixer would get it for 90% off.  

I sat by the computer refreshing the page to get the code.  I never in a million years thought I would get it to work, but I wanted to play along.  Just for fun.   When the code came through, I went immediately to the Lowe's website and put in the code.  It took about three minutes to process to the next page, so I knew that those 100 codes had to be long gone.  But, what the heck, I plugged in my credit card info and hit Complete Order.  I figured I would just cancel the order.

I waited and waited for it to process.  While I waited, I went back to Facebook.  There were thousands of people on there complaining that the site was down - it had crashed - the codes were gone, etc.  They were not happy campers. 

But, still, I waited - I waited for the page to process.  I watched that little green bar fill in sloooowly.

And when it did - at 11:11 - the page turned and it said ORDER COMPLETE. 

Order total.......$18.10.

Holy crap!

For a Kitchen-Aid Mixer!

Holy Crap!

I waited for an email saying, "Sorry, it was a mistake."  Instead, I got an email with an Order Confirmation.

Still - too good to be true, right?  So, I went to bed.  And dreamed of my mixer and bread and cookies and divinity and pizza crust and meringues.

First thing this morning, I turned on the computer to get my "Sorry, it was a mistake" email.  Instead, I got a "Your order is ready to be picked up" email

Holy Crap!

So, I threw myself together and headed to Lowe's.  But, I knew when I got there, they would take my Order Confirmation, look at that $18.10 price, fall down laughing, wipe away their tears and say, "You aren't serious, are you?"

I walked in, feeling like I was about to commit a crime.  I handed the clerk my confirmation.  And waited.  The girl took my papers, walked over to a guy behind the counter and said, "They are here for that mixer."  Oh, no,  They had been discussing me. 

Craaaaaap.

When she walked back to me, she smiled and said, "Man you got the DEAL of a lifetime here!"  Apparently, my $18.10 mixer had been the talk of Lowe's that morning.  No one there even knew about the Black Friday Event, so they had to call corporate when they saw that discount of $162.00 on my order.

They told me to go home and Bake.  Kind of like, "Go forth and Procreate".  It was all sort of Biblical. 

My new baby.

Whip it good!

I already whipped up some eggs.  For no reason at all.  Other than to whip eggs. 

So, to my new best friend Lowe's......I LOVE YOU. 

Thank you for my new Kitchen-Aid Mixer. 

I'll bring you by some cookies soon, BFF.

The Super Cheap Thrift Gone Wrong

I love my Super Cheap Thrift.  It actually has a name, but I won't use it here today.  I'm sort of upset with my favorite thrift.  Well, maybe not the thrift itself, but the Saturday crew. 

Saturday The Bean and I were on the way to my Grandmother's house, so we stopped by the SCT.  I am not a big fan of the Saturday crew anyway.  The lady that runs the check out knows me from years ago when I was about to accept a job and decided not to take it after all.  I used the excuse of "needing more time for my ebay sales" to not accept the job.  Back then, I was selling 25 or more items a week and making more than this little pitance of a job was going to pay.  I decided that I could stay home, sell on ebay and still have more free time than I would doing this job, which required me to be in my car using gas driving from one home to another and visiting different families - some with unknown family histories.  I really just decided that the job didn't sound safe or fun for me.  So, I declined the position.  This particular lady at the thrift was the one I told "no."  So, she always remembers that.  Whenever I buy anything, she loudly says, "I SEE YOU ARE STILL SELLING ON EBAY."  And, yes, I am, but I buy a lot more for us that I do for ebay at that thrift.  That's where I get some of my favorite old stuff ( like that precious aqua planter in the previous post).  But, in her eyes, every item I purchase will be resold for thousands of dollars.  Oh, how I wish that was true.

So, whenever she is there, I get this attitude about my purchases.  And, it really bothers me.  I buy what they sell, I pay the price they have it priced, (it's not my fault they still sell things for 15¢!) and I pay cash (they hand out vouchers to people in financial distress and they can buy whatever they want or need).  She always has to say, "Oh, this is ooooooold."  or "Oh, this is worth a lot of money."  The funniest part about that is that she is usually holding something that is not a) old or b) worth a lot of money.

Before I went to pay, the lady in charge of the whole thrift was telling me how they had to clear out a lot of merchandise to make room for all the Christmas merchandise.  "We have so much!" she said.  (I tried not to slobber or beg to look in the backroom)  They already had boxes of Christmas items stuck under the clothing racks and people had been looking through them.  In one box, I spotted a huge wreath with the 12 days of Christmas figures all made out of felt and sequins - sort of a Bucilla craft thing- and it was super cool.  I asked another volunteer how much it was and she took it to the back for a price.  When she returned she was empty handed.  "That is CHRISTMAS"  It is not for sale yet."  Uh, helloooo, I was just told that you did not have room for all the Christmas and here I stand wiling to pay to one huge item and remove it from the store.  Striiiiike one.

(I am making a short story very long today - sorry).  When we went to pay, it was 1:45 and the store closes at 2:00.  We were the last two customers checking out.  And, there stands the lady that I do not like.  Great.  Striiiike two.  That's when The Bean discovered a big box of keychains.  He has a huge collection of key chains and always looks for interesting ones to add to his collection.  There were a ton of key chains in this box and they were marked 25¢ each.  He started digging in them, trying to pick out a few good ones.  But he liked a lot of them, so he was really picking through them.  As he was looking through them, the lady that is in charge of the entire Thrift Store, walked by and told him he could have them for 10¢ each, so pick out all the ones you want.  That perturbed the lady that I don't like.  Grrrr.  She didn't want us to get a better price and she didn't want to stand there while he picked through them.  She proceeded to tap her foot and drum her fingers on the counter while sighing loudly.  "Ohhhhhhh!"  Puh-leeze.  Finally she reached over and snatched the box out from under him and said, "Let me count them and I will name a price."  That surprised me, but she wanted out of there.  It still wasn't 2:00 yet, so I wasn't concerned about leaving. 

She counted them out, slowly and making errors in her counting skills.  She finally had piles of sixteen 20's and seventeen 20's and a pile of 16 - which I had no idea what that meant.  I went out to grab a check since I had spent all my cash.  When I came back in, I had the check made out except for the amount.  I had the pen right there on the line where you write in the amount and I heard her say how much, but I didn't realize how much she was saying until I wrote the amount down.  $35.00.  Holy batcrap.  That ain't cheap! 

But, the check was written.  And, it was 2:00.  And, she was giving me the speech about how much money I was going to make on all those key chains.  (I had already told her over and over and over they were for The Bean's collection.  (She was still drumming those fingers and giving me a look.)  To be blunt - she was pissing me off.  *Sigh.

So, what could I do?  I picked up the box of $35.00 key chains and left as she quickly locked the door behind us.  I feel like I got bamboozled into spending serious cash.  I know I could have said, "No", but I really love that thrift store and didn't want a bad reputation in there.  She already seems to think I am robbing them. 

Oh well, what's done is done.  The whole episode just gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

Anyone need some keychains?

*For the record, there are about 50 different an unique ones in there from around the world and that do things (flashlights, tape measures, etc.) and those are the ones that he likes to find.  The rest are pretty much FREEBIE ones from Realtors, banks and such.  There are about twenty with the name BRUCE on them.  Any Bruce's out there?

PS.  Please do not EVER tell The Breadman that I squandered $35.00 on key chains.  Ack!

PPS.  The lady at the thrift (the nice one) told me that the man (Bruce) collected them and when he got married, his wife said he had to get rid of them.  And, he did!  Meanie old wife anyway.  Booooo.

*I wanted to add, after reading comments, that no one knows I resell.  And, really, I buy a lot more to keep, give away, swap and gift than I do to resell.  She is the only one that knows it.  I spent $10.00 on a huge bag of other itmes that same day and only the little fuzzy deer is for resell.  She just likes to make a fuss over it.  The SCT shall always remain my very favorite thrift store.  Everyone else is sweet and helpful.  She's just a pain!