Floating!

Everyone dreams of that perfect yard sale.

The one yard sale that gives you what you've been looking for at the most perfect price.

The Mother of All Yard Sales.

***

I had that yard sale last Saturday.

Oh man! The Yard Sale Gods were looking out for me!

If I had found nothing else, that would have been alright, but I found lots more and for the rest of the day, heck! The WHOLE weekend! I was floating!

First, I found this great 50's dinette table and 4 chairs. I gasped when I saw it and I hurried to get to it and check the price. No price. There were people every where and time was of the essence! I had to get it before someone else did!  I found a man that worked the yard sale and when he said it was $15 for the set ($15?!?!?), I RAN back to Andrew sitting in the van with the kids and made him get out to come and see!

"Where do we put it?" he asked me.

"I don't know! But it's yellow and it's only $15!!" I replied.

"I know, but where do we put it?" he annoyingly asked me again.

Did he not hear me? "It's yellow and $15 dollars!!!" I repeated.

I smothered him with kisses on his cheek and pleaded until he gave in!

It's mine!! Mine, mine, mine!

Of course, after we bring it home, I see how dirty the chairs are. I swear they didn't look that dirty at the yard sale. I didn't even see the dirty! All I saw was beautiful yellow chairs! Lucky for me, with a little elbow grease, some soap and water, the chairs cleaned up nicely!

Such good looking chairs! No scratches or rips in the vinyl- nothing! They are in near-perfect condition! What a find!

We also got these two metal cabinets with solid wood butcher-block counter at the same yard sale for another $15!! They are in great shape, no dents or dings, just a little dirty. Perfect for Andrew for his workshop in the garage!

Then to top off an already great day, I also find a pristine set of blue Hall/Westinghouse refrigerator dishes! These things are hard to find and when I do find them, usually at antique shops, they are for a pretty penny- $50 and up for just one dish with matching lid. Here, I found two dishes with matching lids and a casserole dish for a mere $7.00 for the whole set. Snag! I spot the green jadite coffee mug and grab that. I also spot a pre-WWII brown coffee mug "For my coffee break" and on the inside bottom of the mug "Back to work". Found a lovely set of California pottery art deco planter bookends and a Haeger hexagon planter.

At another yard sale, Andrew snapped up 5 Warner Brothers cartoon character glasses for $1 each. We have several of these but didn't have Petunia Pig and Speedy Gonzales and the guy gave us a deal if we took them all.  I'll probably sell the ones we already have on ebay or etsy.

What a great day!

On a side note, Sunday was our 7-year anniversary of living here! I'm so glad we moved out here!



Random Tidbits: Post-Easter

No new pictures to post. I've misplaced my camera and can't remember where I put it. I have 4 children that like to take pictures too, and if I don't keep it hidden, they'll run the battery down and I end up with 232 pictures of blurry close-ups of various toys, faces, and walls. Maybe 10 of those 232 pictures are absolutely priceless!

So Easter has come and gone.  We made the bunny teeth picture on the recent post into cards and sent them out to close family. They were a hit! It's fun to send out traditional stuff with a quirky twist.

Drowning in Easter candy. Oh my! I usually make a stop at the stores after Easter for clearance sales on candy, but I am passing on that this year.  We have lots and lots of candy and one very sneaky boy that loves candy! I'll find wrappers hidden behind dressers, under the couch, beneath the cabinets and on the floor in the pantry. tsk tsk! When I find Peter, he has a ring of chocolate around his mouth.  I'm not surprised-- when I was pregnant with him, I had a mad craving for chocolate and even dark chocolate made it's way past my lips!

Any chocolate that survives into the Fall will be transformed into Fudge.  I buy the clearance chocolate bunnies and total up the ounces and turn what was so-so chocolate into delicious fudge or bark candies. It's a good way to save money when it comes to buying ingredients needed for holiday baking. Just remember to keep the chocolate in a cool dark place and not in a room that becomes hot during the summers.

I need to re-locate the candy-- Stat! I think today alone, he snuck 8 lollipops! And of course, when the sisters see him with a lollipop, they want another, too!

Would you believe we had snow flurries on and off all day today?  It's not unusual to see snow in April where we are, but after several weeks of warm-almost-feels-like-summer weather, 50 degrees is COLD! Coming out of winter, 50 degrees is downright balmy! But we've gotten spoiled and it's just miserable around here!  The wood stove is roaring with a fire, sweaters and flannel sheets have come back out and thank goodness I didn't plant the garden yet! We had a freeze a while ago and a lot of the orchards around here lost a big majority of their apple crops. I sure feel bad for them. Calling for another freeze this week. Oh boy!

Local schools are letting out May 25th because they used zero snow days this year! Some other counties are choosing to close every Friday to keep the last day of school the same date, but this county is choosing to let out early instead.  May 25th! Wow!

Gretchen is working hard to earn money. She doesn't know what she is saving for, but she wants money! She's been helping me with the laundry and the dishes and general cleaning up.  They all have chores, but she's doing more than usual. It's been really nice to have an assistant helping to fold laundry and it sure made the work go faster!  I hope I can talk her into putting some of it into savings instead of spending it on toys. We were at Goodwill the other day and she offered to buy a toy for Peter, which was really sweet of her.

Evelyn wants to cook dinners with me more often.  She says she needs to learn how to make more dishes or else her husband will have to do all the cooking. I don't know where that came from, but we shared cooking duties and she was proud to have made the whole main dish all by herself and set the table and served up the dishes. They can all cook minor side dishes and simple meals like eggs and toast, but I've never let them do a main dish all by themselves. Peter is showing an interest in cooking and it's nearly impossible to keep him out of the kitchen! He drags a dining chair in and parks it right next to me so he can help, too! Sure makes me wish I had a bigger kitchen because it gets crowded in there with a kid on either side of me.

I have errands to run in the morning, so off to bed with me. Hope your Easter was filled with love and fun and Blessings!

Easter 2012

Happy Easter!!!

:o)