Finally: Coupon Bragging Rights

I'm still couponing, but it sure feels like the value of coupons aren't what they used to be, and it's been harder to find good deals on items.  I get the feeling with all these super couponing shows out there and some of those savvy shoppers that buy 100 identical items and pay two cents total for it, companies are being a little more cautious with the coupons they give out.  Coupons used to have a long grace period to use them, expiring 6 months from issue, but now it feels like you barely get a month before they expire. I've even seen coupons that give you a week to use them, which really bites when there's a mad rush from thousands of other people trying to use the same coupon and clearing out the shelves. By the time they restock, your coupon has expired.  Getting a rain check doesn't always work as not every store will honor an expired coupon or even offer a rain check on a particular deal.

Anyway, that said, it's been a long while since I've been able to take a $100 grocery bill and bring it down to $20. Our pantry isn't packed to the gills anymore, and there's no more overflow stashed in the basement. I still get a good deal now and then, but nothing to write home about. Until today! I'm pretty stoked about todays coupon deal and I just had to share!

The 7/6 weekend's paper had the P&G coupon inserts and there was a Buy One Get One Free coupon for the new Tide Oxi soap.  We happened to go out that day but by the time I got to the stores, the Tide Oxi was cleared out.  I didn't worry, the coupons expires on 7/20 (see, 2 weeks!), and I figured I'd be able to hit the stores at least a couple more times before the coupon expired. Fast forward a week, and I never did go back out to town. It all worked out, though, because Sunday 7/13's paper had a sale at Target advertising buy 3 Tide Oxi at $10 each and get a $10 gift card back. I did the math and I needed to buy 6 tubs to get the best maximum deal and use 3 coupons.  I just so happened to have 3 coupons! (We buy 2 different papers and the 3rd came from my Aunt). The challenge was getting to Target and finding the shelves stocked, with at least 6 tubs for me!

I woke up early this morning and planned to be at the doors when Target opened at 8am. I made a beeline to the soaps to discover... empty shelves.  Drat!  I flagged down a nice employee and asked if there were more in stock and lucky for me, they were unloading the truck right at that moment!!  She was kind enough to go back and bring back some boxes and I got my 6 tubs!  Happy day!! 

Here's what I did:

6 tubs at $10 each = $60

minus 3 B1G1 free coupons valued at $30 = $30

minus 1 $5 gift card from a previous purchase = $25

Pay $25 and get 2 $10 gift cards back = $5 for 6 tubs!!

That's 83 cents a tub!!  I am thrilled!!  And even more so that it wasn't a wasted effort to get up so early and make the drive into town and not coming home empty-handed. I'm not a morning person-- my usual wake up time is 9ish, so I mean business when I actually leave the house at 7am to shop!  

I use a lot of oxi type soaps when I wash my vintage linens and they really work to help get rid of any stains or yellowing in the fabrics and that "old people" smell. Plus I've got 4 kids, and chickens and cats... we can get some clothes seriously dirty in this house! I won't need to buy any oxi soaps for a good long time!! 

We Jinxed Ourselves!

With 1 dog, 5 cats, 18 (I think) chickens, Andrew and I often remark that we have plenty of animals to care for. Sometimes we ohh and ahh over a certain breed of puppy, or someone posts a kitten picture that tugs on my heartstrings, but usually we cannot be swayed.  It costs quite a bit of money, after all, to care for all these animals.  We were also recently talking about how nice it was there were no more babies to take care of, especially when 6 out of 7 of us came down with food poisoning and there were a few days when Andrew and I could barely get out of bed. Had there been babies to care for, it would have been extra tough when we needed to recuperate ourselves.

And there's the jinx. See the little baby below?

Andrew was on his way home from running errands when he spots this little guy on the road.  A busy country road that people zoom down at speeds of 55 and up!  As fast as he could, he braked, backed-up, and parked in someone's driveway to rescue the kitty.  Before he got there, however, a speedy white car comes zooming and Andrew said a quick prayer that Kitty doesn't move and he closed his eyes, hoping he wouldn't have to open them to see something that couldn't be unseen. Lucky Kitty, the car missed him and the force of the air from the car tumbled the little guy right off the road.

Now safely in Andrew's arms, the Kitty meowed and meowed.  His eyes were crusted shut and poor thing was so scared.  Andrew comforted him and drove home with the kitty.

As you can probably imagine what happened next, we all oohed and ahhed over the kitty.  Poor little fella.  I pureed up some canned cat food and he gobbled it down. We looked him over and except for his eyes, he seemed to be alright. We think maybe he is 6 weeks old. As quickly as he entered our lives, we have fallen in love with him.

We took Kitty to the vet and he checked out just fine.  Got some eye drops, some deworming meds and ointment for his paw. Heart and temps are good. Just a really cute and lucky little fellow.

We haven't come up with a name for him yet-- waiting to see what his personality is like before we settle, though there are some potential names we all like. I'm reminded of what it's like to have a baby in the house, feeding him every two hours and making sure he's been brought to the litter box to do his business. Late nights and early mornings and me dragging my feet-- yup, there's a baby in the house! But it's ok, I know -this- baby will grow pretty quickly!

Welcome to the crazy house, baby!! 

Summer 2014 So far

Whatever happened to the 'lazy days of summer'?  Were they ever really lazy for parents? I remember as a kid and as a teenager, long days spent at the pool, or looking for tadpoles in the creeks, or imagining adventures in the nearby woods.  But what did my parents do? Dad worked and Mom took care of the home. Definitely not lazy for them.

For Andrew and I, there's always something to be done and it's easy to let these days fly by without taking the time to do things together as a family. So we are consciously trying to make every effort to partake in some of those lazy days of summer. Sounds contradictory, planning for a lazy day in the middle of a busy week, but if we didn't, it would never happen.

One lovely destination for those lazy days is the river nearby. We discovered it accidentally last summer. Well, we knew the river was there, but didn't know we could swim in it, until we went yard sailing and took the back way home on a 4th of July weekend when all the campers were out in force. We saw kayakers and tubers, people swimming and fishing! Wow!!  We never knew!!  We waited until after the holiday, after most of the campers had gone home, and investigated. Sure enough, we found a river access spot close to home.  It was the perfect swimming hole!  Not too deep, maybe chest high in some areas, and not too fast-flowing when it hasn't rained in a few days. We went to the river quite a few times last summer, before it got cold.

This year, we had a very rainy Spring, and the very first hot day we had, the kids begged to go to the river.  It was swollen with the rains, muddy, and just too dangerous for our little ones.  I wouldn't even trust myself in that river, as there were plenty of sticks and limbs floating past quickly. We waited a few more days and finally, the first week of June, we were able to dip in and swim!  We've tried to go back at least once a week, more if we can fit it in.

We got new tubes to float around in!  So much fun!!

Heyyy, I do exist!!  A rare picture of Humanus Motherus!!

It's sweltering here, and with not wanting to turn on the a/c, the kids are melting.  It's not so bad really, but they play hard which means they just can't cool down fast enough. So after Daddy came home from errands, he offered to take them to the river again! It's shark week for me, so I took a pass and went into town instead.  It's Peter's 6th birthday tomorrow, so I had a few things I needed to pick up.

Stopped at the local thrift store and I gotta tell you, it was very nice not to rush around looking at things rather quickly because I have all the kids with me.  I can't remember the last time I went out all by myself! It was a nice little hour to myself.

Turned out to be a good day to hit the thrifts as I found a bunch of linens.  Not all vintage, the last two on the right are fairly new, but I couldn't resist the Monsters and the yellow is a complete Queen Ralph Lauren set! Back in my working days, I splurged on several Ralph Lauren sheets, because vintage queen sheets are hard to find and I was swayed by the Ralph Lauren brand, back in that short period when brands mattered to me. Still, though, despite the brand name, I can attest to their quality, and they're not cheap. I still have the sheets I bought 20 years ago and they are still thick and super soft to sleep on. I like to mix in my newer sheets with the vintage sheets.

I don't normally buy pillows, but this one caught my eye. Plus it was only 99 cents.  I'm going to replace the stuffed pillow inside-- it's that old, loose foam contained in a small pillow form. Probably won't put it on the couch just yet-- the kids are still in the habit of pulling off the blankets or sheets I put on there and I get frustrated to see them end up on the floor less than an hour after putting it on the couch.  With all the pet hair created by 4 cats and a dog, anything that ends up on the floor gets washed. I'll just wash the cover and put it away until the day comes when I can trust the kids not to pull stuff onto the floor.

Peter turns 6 tomorrow! I still remember clearly the day he was born, how can he be 6 already? I need to finish wrapping gifts and get the party banner up, so on that note, Ta-ta!

Thrifting

Thrifting is hit or miss these days.  I hardly ever find any Pyrex at my local thrift shop because the manager there takes them all before they even get to hit the shelves! I know this because a friend of mine started working there and I asked him to keep an eye out for me. That's when I found out why I never find any Pyrex there, she hoards them all!!

When I go to the big town, I try to stop at the thrift shops there, and there are many in one small area of town, which conveniently is on my route downtown. There are 2 big national shops, 3 local shops, and a bunch of consignment shops all within 10 miles of each other. My problem is I can never get there early enough to find the good stuff, because I just am not an early bird. I don't usually get out of the house until after 10 am!

Anyway, we had a pretty good day yesterday at the thrifts. Andrew found some HO trains and a display car and I found a Pyrex lid at one shop. Even better at the next shop when sitting pretty on a shelf was a pristine yellow primary Pyrex bowl, the biggest one!  It was nice and shiny and hardly any wear to it and priced at $6.99.  I have this theory that if I grab a cart walking in the store, I never find anything. Go in without a cart and boom, boom, boom, my arms are full! Such was the case this time-- the Pyrex, a pretty turquoise pot, and some vintage pillowcases.

Don't see a yellow bowl up there, do you? I put the turquoise pot back because it was an aluminum pot and quite honestly, I'd never use it, even though it was so shiny and pretty. As for the yellow bowl, well, there's one less primary yellow bowl in this world because of me. So sad.  I set it down on some white thing so I could get a better look at the pillowcases I was looking at, and then all of a sudden I hear a crash, which was so loud and I look down and there, shattered on the concrete floor, is my bowl!! Two thoughts flashed through my mind-- "wahhhh! My bowl!!!" and "Crap! I'm going to have to pay for it!"

 Lucky for me, there was a worker standing nearby who witnessed the whole thing and walked over to me and said, "Don't worry about it."  I apologized and started picking up all the big pieces and used my foot to scoop over the tiny shards when the guy came back with a broom and dust pan.  We worked together cleaning up the mess and I said, "Guess I'm going to have to go and pay for it now," and the guy goes, "Nah, don't worry about it!" He made a little joke, I guess to make me feel better and I walked away with just the pillowcases. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for a broken bowl, but I'm so sad to have broken it.

Heading to the little town tomorrow to run a few errands and we'll stop at the local thrift shop. Fingers crossed I find a Pyrex bowl and I don't drop it this time!

First Auction of 2014

Living in West Virginia means yard sales and flea markets taper off in October.  There might be one or two odd yard sales here or there, but it's pretty much done with by then.  So I rely on auctions and thrift stores for my treasure-hunting fix. I was looking forward to an estate auction back in December, but it got snowed out and postponed all the way to April! It's been weeks since I've found anything good at the thrift stores, just little items now and then, but nothing big that fills up my car and makes me do a happy dance like a football player doing the touchdown boogie!

Finally, an auction was advertised in our local paper and it wasn't too far.  Let's go, let's go, I plead with my husband!  I don't have to beg too hard, he wants to go, too!

There were some old toy cars and a bunch of Pyrex we had our eyes on and maybe a few other things if the price didn't go too high. It was held at a fire station and the turnout was pretty good.  I think other people are wishing for yard sale season to start up again, too! After the tools and outdoor stuff was over with, a lot of people left, so I thought I had a pretty good chance getting what we wanted, but here's where I learned something new: This was a consignment auction.  So what does that mean? It means that unlike an estate sale where the auction company can't be bothered to auction off every little item and instead group things into lots and you get the whole box for one low price, a consignment auction is someone using the auction company to sell an item for them and most times, it has a reserve price. And stuff that I thought were being sold in lots because they were grouped in a box? Wrong! It was just easier for the helpers to bring them to the front and then hold up every single item to be bid on.

Holy cow!!  That auction took forever!! It was moving swiftly and yet slowly because of the amount of items to be auctioned off.  Thank goodness for iphones to play on! They finally got to the section where the small goods were located at, but it was still a long way off before they reached the cars and Pyrex.  Cars went for way more than we were willing to pay, unfortunately. I finally went up to one of the helpers and asked them to do the Pyrex stuff next, because we needed to get back home to the kids.  I figured we would have been home by 4 and it was already 5!! Thankfully, the guy was happy to do so and after 5 hours at the auction, all we came home with was the two Pyrex dishes below.

I'm happy with them.  They are in pristine condition and I paid far less than if I had gotten them online or even at my local thrift stores. I don't think we'll go to a consignment auction again, now that we know what we know now.  I'll stick to estate auctions, but hey, I got my fix and something to show for it, right?!

In other news, I've been selling things on my Instagram account, @516vintage and I am doing really well there.  So well in fact, I am making more than I make in the booth! At this rate, keeping the booth is making less and less sense so I put up 20% sale signs in the booth the last time I went in to restock and hopefully I can clear out at least half of it and then close it out at the end of February. The booth was fun, and I don't regret it. Now I know what it takes and I can say I've done it and no more wondering about it. Time to move on and pursue other avenues! Feel free to check out my Instagram shop and if there;s something you like, you can purchase it via paypal. Or just come by and say "hi!" I post pictures of other things besides sale stuff, so it's not all about selling things.

Happy 2014 to you, and here's hoping it will be a good year for us all!

Honest

We took Miss Kitty to a no-kill shelter today.

Not too happy about it, but it needed to be done.

 

Of all of us, Evelyn feels the most sad about it because Miss Kitty was sort of hers. Miss Kitty liked to sit on her lap and slept on her bed and I always told Evelyn that when she moved out, if Miss Kitty was still around, she had to take her with her.

 

Let's be honest, it's not my favorite thing as a parent, to take away something the kids love, but for the past... year? Ages it seems like, one of the cats (there are 5 in the house) has pooped outside of the litter box and everyday Andrew or I have to clean up the poop.  This gets old, really fast.

 

We got a new couch last year, a nice leather one, and about a month after we got it, one of the cats peed on it.  If you have cats, you know how strongly cat urine smells and no amount of cleaner or spray can completely eradicate it.  I was so upset, the pee was on the part of the couch where I usually sat and every time I sat there, I could smell the pee which made it miserable for me. The problem was, we didn't know which cat it was, so we had to wait and wait until we could catch the cat in the act.

 

We finally caught the culprit, and it was Miss Kitty.

 

Our previous house was criticized for smelling like cat pee from prospective buyers. I wasn't happy when I heard that and was quite embarrassed. When we moved here, we made the decision that any cat caught doing business outside of the litter box would be ejected from the new house. Imagine our surprise when we had to toss out 3 cats! Don't worry, all our cats and dog are fixed. No pee smells after that. Then we had to cat-sit two cats and we found out they didn't use the litter box and the owners decided they didn't want them back, either. So we tossed the fixed male outside, but the 

un-spayed female had to go to a shelter.

 

It has been a rule we've kept since we moved here more than 8 years ago. I love cats, and I accept the cat hair and the litter box chore, and the occasional hair ball on the bed, but I cannot love the smell of cat pee on the furniture or in the house, so Miss Kitty had to go.  If it was summer, I'd throw her outside and she can join the other outside cats, but there's a blanket of snow out there and that would just be cruel to take a spoiled housecat and toss her in the snow. So to a big no-kill shelter she went.

It's a nice shelter and I'm sure someone will fall in love with her and give her a home. We were gone from the house for 5 hours and I have to tell you, it was nice not to find poop outside of the litter box when we got back.

 

About the couch-- I recently found a recipe for a spray that is supposed to work wonders on dog and cat urine, so I mixed it up and tried it out last night and as of this morning, I don't smell any pee. I vacuumed the couch, and pretty much doused the bottom where the cushions go and the cushions themselves. It was all dry by morning and I no longer smell anything but the spray on the couch, but the cushions could use another spray, which to me is understandable, the foam in there probably absorbed the pee.  Tonight, I'm going to flip the couch over and spray the underside and the cushions again. I hope the spray works, because the couch is still in good shape and I'd like to keep it for as long as I can.

 

 

 

Restocking the Booth

I made it out to the booth today.  I admit, it had been a little too long between visits but with the SUV in the shop for over a week and then my sprained ankle, it was just a little bit difficult to get out there. I knew I had to go soon, because of the coming Holidays and I had put aside quite a bit of merchandise just for this time of year.

 

A sort of "Before" picture. I brought in 6 boxes and some more shelving to make more room for displaying the goods. The big shelves in back are looking bare and sales have been sluggish, so I hope all the fresh merchandise will get things moving!

 

A proper "After" photo.

I moved one of the shelves I had on the side into the middle and a new slim shelf is in front of it.  Customers now go in and around and there's more to look at with the center shelves.

 

A little rolling cart replaces the shelf I had there and I made it into my baking section with all the vintage bake ware, cookie cutters, and the vintage Sunbeam stand mixer.

 



Close up shot of the new slim shelf.  A few of my vintage Holiday glasses. I'm such a glass hoarder, it was super hard to give these up! I tried to give them room to shine and not crowd them with other things, and if a set sells, the staff at the mall are really great at moving things around to fill up your empty spaces.

 

Here's where the shelf I moved ended up, right behind the slim shelf.  I like it here much better.

I was in a hurry and didn't really get to arrange the bottom shelf the way I wanted to-- the place was busy and I wanted to quickly get out of there before I lost any sales to potential customers.

 

A little table display on the left side of the booth.  I like how this turned out.

 

I came back home with about half a box of stuff because I just ran out of time and I couldn't find a place to put some of those things on display.  I have a small wire Christmas tree that I cannot find and I wanted to use it to display and sell ornaments.  I thought I could do without the tree and just leave them in a bowl, but it didn't look right to me, so they came back home with me. I've made a promise to myself to get back out to the booth after the weekend and add a few more items and meanwhile, find that tree!!

 

Don't forget, Check out my Instagram: @516Vintage

Link at the top right of the page!--------------^

 

 

 

 

Fine, Fine, Fine

We had an extremely full weekend.

Friday:
-An hour at the DMV to renew license tags
-Picked up SUV from the shop
-Library
-exactly 3 yard sales
-Grocery store
-Thrift shop
-Pulled 10 boxes worth of merchandise to clean and sell at a last minute road-side stand on Saturday
-Go to sleep after 1am

Saturday:
-Woke up late
-Loaded the SUV with boxes and folding tables
-Set up stuff next to a friend and hoped for the best
-Come home at 4pm, a little richer than when we left the house
-Clean house for company on Sunday
-Bake a cake for a birthday dinner on Sunday
-Bath night for every one

Sunday:
-Woke up late
-Guests already here!
-Entertain, entertain, entertain
-Make dinner for company
-Sprain ankle and tear up knee
-Manage to keep injuries secret from Guests
-Say good-bye to Guests at 4pm
-Collapse on couch and prop legs up then defend them from 5-year old that wants to use my legs as a bridge

I'd insert pictures here, except I didn't take any and you really don't want to see my torn up knee. I don't have a weak stomach, since I'm the Mama Doctor around here and I have seen my share of bloody gashes and scrapes and cuts. I can look at gross pictures of injuries and say "ouch!" and walk away. This was the first time, ever, that my stomach did a flip-flop when I pulled up my pants leg and saw the flap of skin hanging back and a big bloody gash where the skin should have been. For once, I couldn't say "ouch" and walk away because the injury was on me!

I sprain my ankles often-- little minor ones at least weekly; big, major, limping ones once a year or so. Apparently my Grandmother had weak ankles, so I can blame my DNA, I suppose.  I was just walking beside Andrew along the gravel driveway, headed back to the house and the next thing I know, my left ankle gives out and I land on my right knee and hands. The pain from my ankle nearly caused me to black-out, another first. I managed to swim out of the pool of dizziness and get the ground to stop spinning out from under me and sit down on the ground. That was when I noticed the fabric of my pants around my knee felt wet. I pull up the leg of my pants and when I saw the wound, I burst into tears.

I've got Guests! Dinner is just about to be served! I still need to play hostess! Andrew helps me up and I tell him to tend to the stove, I've left the peas on boil! He goes and I limp over to behind the cars where no one can see me. I wonder if anyone has seen me fall, but no one runs out so I think not. I need to walk past the big windows in the dining room where everyone is seated so I manage to clear my tears and carefully control my limp so that my walk looks normal as I head into the house.

In all fairness, I'm absolutely sure that my Guests would have been understanding and I could have depended on Andrew to take over and serve dinner, except I sprained my ankle in front of them before and my weight was mentioned as a probable cause which pissed me off and I really did not want to have a repeat conversation about weak ankles versus weight. So I chose to pop some Excedrin, slather Neosporin on a big bandage and slap it on my wound, wipe my eyes, and chant a mantra: I'm fine, fine, fine. I'm fine, fine, fine. I'm fine, fine, fine. It worked. They left without any clue that I was hurting.

Today, my ankle is as big as a grapefruit and hurts like hell. This is definitely one of my big, limping ones. My knee hurts and because it's cold and I'm wearing pants, you can't see the bandage and the 5-year old forgets that Mama has a big boo-boo there and keeps bumping right smack on it. I managed to wash it out in the shower last night and the skin is back where it should be, slathered in more Neosporin and covered with a bandage.

Another day or two of taking it easy (well, as easy as I can with 4 children), and I should be alright. Now that the kids are in bed, I can plop on the couch and prop my legs up and no worries about my legs being a bridge to climb on. Until next time, I've got Sam and Dean from Supernatural Season 8 calling my name.

516 Vintage

I'm sure you've wondered (I hope) why I've been away from this space for so long.

I wish I could say it's because it was summer and life just got very full, or we went away on a 4 month overseas vacation. 

The sad truth is that Instagram has taken me away.

I am hardly on Facebook anymore, as I don't like the direction it has gone with all the advertising and people posting silly statuses and really, I don't need to know when you go to the gym or how yummy your coffee is. I still have an account there, and I check in every now and then, but mostly, I stay away.

 

Instagram on the other hand, wow!!

I love that you need to post a picture and it's up to you to caption it or leave it open to suggestions and there are no ads (though I hear it's coming). I confess that ever since I got my new iphone and I was introduced to Instagram, I've been completely hooked.

It's a private account, only for family and friends, and the reason I'm even telling you about this is because I've opened a second public Instagram account to help sell some of my lovely vintage goodies.

 

We still have the booth, 516 Antiques, located at Berkeley Springs Old Factory Mall, in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. It's doing alright.  I have had good months of sales and some slow months. I enjoy the booth very much, but sometimes I feel a tad overwhelmed when I have to pick out items from my stash at home and price them and pack them in boxes and then figure out the best time to head out to the booth and restock it.

 

How much easier would it be to just take a photo, list it with a description, send a paypal invoice to the buyer, then send it off in the mail?!  I don't need to leave my home and heck! I can stay in my jammies if I want to!!

 

So, I need to get the word out, get more people to follow my new account, @516Vintage on Instagram and just see where it goes from there, right?

 

 

If you have an Instagram account, follow me @516Vintage.

I've currently got these lovely handmade felt ornaments with embroidered spirograph designs on them with a blanket-stitched edge and a tiny red bell and a shrinky-dink holly leaf charm. I'm asking $10 which includes shipping. Only 7 available!!

 

I miss this space, and I'm trying to come back here and post more often.

Check out my new link to @516Vintage on the sidebar over there.

Hope to see you there!!

 

 

 

 

Warmth and Light

It's a cold, blustery day and there's snow in the forecast.

Nothing has actually touched the ground yet, but there were a few flurries.

I'll take that.

 

When it gets cold like this, I sure am grateful for the warmth of a house.

I seem to spend more time in the kitchen, where I can bake or cook and be near a hot stove.

I ended up baking cranberry orange bread today, something I haven't made in awhile.

 

 It was still warm from the oven when we sliced into it and it warmed us up from the inside out.

So good!

I used the recipe from the back of the cranberry bag, which is nearly identical to the one in my old Better Homes and Gardens cook book. Doubled it since one loaf would be gone in a day between the seven of us and if I'm already cooking one, what's the trouble of cooking two?

 

For Veteran's Day, our local food store offered a 10% discount on your entire grocery bill for Veterans. Since Andrew is a Veteran of the Navy, we took advantage of the chance to save a little extra on the groceries. Every little bit helps. Of course, since we're there, might as well stop in the thrift shop right next door, and did we get lucky!!

 

Look what we found:

An awesome mid-century lamp with a 2-tiered fiberglass shade!!

We have been looking for one since forever and they are usually out of our price range when we see them in antique shops. This one went for a mere $8!!

*happy dance*happy dance*happy dance*

 

I did a search on ebay and found 2 lamps just like this one, slightly different shades, and one with a pink base instead of white. One went for $100 and the other $200! This one is not for sale, we're keeping this one and as soon as I can rewire it, it will be used in the living room. I also need to redo the cord that holds the fiberglass to the lamp frame, since it's broken in a couple of spots, but that's an easy fix. The fiberglass shade itself is in perfect condition which is good news.

 

Little by little, our home is slowly looking more and more the way we want it. Slightly modern, but not at all like a museum, because we have to live here with little ones. We try and teach the kids to respect the vintage stuff, the new stuff, too, though there's very little of that here. I think it's sinking in because stuff is still around, though it might be a little more battered than when we first got it. There's a side table I'm a little sad about that has saw marks from a knife and one of the kids gouged a picture on the side of it (grrrrrr!) but for the most part, this is a lived-in house that happens to be filled with vintage stuff.

 

Gretchen told me once that she won't be collecting antiques when she grows up and if we give her anything old, she isn't keeping it.  Well, thanks for the heads up kid, I won't be sending you off with anything vintage! Maybe she'll change her mind someday, but we certainly don't expect them to like the same stuff we do when they grow up. I just hope we can instill an appreciation for vintage things and that they learn to take care of their things, no matter what age it is. Doesn't mean they have to like it, but take care of it.

 

Fingers crossed we find another mid-century lamp with a tiered shade!

And it doesn't take another 20 years to find it!

 

 

 

 



Yard Sale Finds

It's been awhile since I shared my yard sale goodies with you.

The yard sales are starting to wither away for the season and if I'm lucky, I can find one or two this time of year, but I'm going to have to rely on auctions and thrift shops here on out, until next year.

 

I've had some really great finds these past couple of weeks, though, and I'm really excited about some of my prizes! I was headed out of town with 2 of my girls for the day and I spotted a yard sale sign on the way. I thought it might have been that one house with over-priced junk, but something inside of me nudged me and whispered in my ear, "you never know, maybe it's someone else's sign." I am SO glad I listened because it totally was someone else's sale and before I even had the car in park, I already spotted this lovely pitcher and glasses set.

 

Aren't they beautiful? The pitcher and 9 glasses are in near perfect condition and I can just see myself using these around the holidays!

 



There was no price, so I picked up the pitcher and waved to get the lady's attention and called out, "how much?" You know I scooped this up when she held up 4 fingers!!! I can't believe she let this gorgeous set go for only $4! It's going to be hard to part with this one, so it's a keeper for now.

The funny part is I had no cash on me at the time and I had to borrow money from Evelyn! Good thing she brought her wallet! She kept track of what I borrowed and I paid her back, with interest!

 

The local paper advertised a church yard sale and around here, a church sale is almost always a guaranteed good thing. This church was right down the road from us, and I made sure I got up early for this one. It started at 8 and we were there at 8:15! And man, was I glad we got there when we did!

Anyone that knows me, knows I love vintage drinking glasses, so I'm always keeping an eye out for cute ones here and there. I consider myself lucky when I can find a matching pair. (I was Hugely Lucky with the pitcher and glasses set above!)

 



I spotted this set of 4 vintage car glasses. I see single glasses here and there, but not all in one place! Snag!

 



I also found this set of glasses in the original box. I grabbed it without checking all the other glasses inside and when I got home, I found one glass that didn't belong, and one of the matching ones with a big chip and a crack in it.  No worries, I had 2 just like this that I had found at other yard sales, so it's still a complete set! Sweet!

 



Even more vintage glasses!  It's really unusual to find this many in one place, and I had my arms full until one of the little old church ladies handed me a box for them. The yellow polka dot one was the imposter that was in the box of 6 glasses, and we now have a match to our pink swan glass! The two glasses on the far left are vintage peanut butter glasses from a company out of Pennsylvania and both command high prices. The flower glass is of a Columbine flower and the 2nd is a dachshund glass. 

 

A close-up of the cute dachshund glass.  This will sell quick in the booth!

And how much did all these glasses cost me? Well, we also picked up a toy robot from the early 80s, some nice metal picture frames, a crocheted cotton string potholder, and a vintage glass creamer. Our entire cost was $5.60! Sweet!

 

 Back in my young, single days, I used to hang out at a friends' place and he had this awesomely warm blanket that I claimed whenever I was there. Repeated requests for it to become mine were turned down, saying it belonged to his (deceased) mom. I think it was plaid. This was before you could find a computer in everyone's home and ebay wasn't really a big thing yet and it never occurred to me to go hunting for my own blanket. Fast forward to present time and I was walking around the thrift shop and I spotted this blanket hanging from across the store. I knew exactly what it was and made a beeline for it.  Sure enough, it had the same heft, the same weight, the same quality of my friend's blanket! Only $7 and it was mine. It's a big one, I think a bigger one than his, and I can tell it's already going to be my favorite blanket. I love that it looks kind of like a Hudson wool blanket, too, with the stripes.

 

Further research tells me it's made from a German manufacturer, Biederlack, out of Cumberland, MD, which is only 25 miles from us! They have since closed down, but I bet there were plenty of people from around here that worked there, which explains it's presence at the thrift shop.  I have seen cheap copies, thin and flimsy, that fall apart in the wash. This, you can tell, is high quality and so, so warm. Perfect for these cold West Virginia nights!

 

 The most recent auction we went to yielded a box full of vintage salt and pepper shakers, for $7. I didn't count, but there were about 20 complete sets. I will turn around and sell most of them at the booth, but this one is a keeper. Isn't he cute? A bunny and a magician's hat!

 

Time to get busy and start pricing items to sell in the booth this week!

 

 

Family Photo

Trying to get a decent family photo is so hard to do!

 

When we were stacking the wood, I kept thinking about how nice it looked and what a great background it would make for pictures. Light-bulb!! The family photo for the Christmas card!! Yes! Now try and get all 6 of us smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. While I set the timer on the camera and run back and forth trying to beat the timer... whew! Even bribing Peter with candy didn't help.

 

Sure wish we could afford a photo session with a decent photographer, but have you seen the rates on those private shoots? I could feed my family for a month at that price! So I do the best I can with what I got. We'll try again tomorrow, after breakfast, when we all have full bellies and hopefully Peter will be content to sit still for a little while.  Guess I'll make chocolate chip cookies tonight for a better bribe!!

 



Happy Day

I am still doing the thrifting and yard sale-ing thing, but I've also added going to auctions as a regular gig. I've gotten comfortable with the way the auctioneers talk and I've also tried to introduce myself to them so they are aware I am deaf and try to make it clear to me what the price is currently at.

 

 I must add that we went to an auction last weekend by someone new and he did the old school-style of auctioneer speak and I had the hardest time following him.  Even Andrew had to struggle to hear where he was at on the pricing.  I managed to win a few things for low bids, but the one I'm kicking myself over was for a really sweet enamel-topped table with chrome legs and I thought he was saying "eighty-eighty-eighty-eighty" in that really fast voice, which was over my budget, but then the next thing he says is "Sold! $5 to such and such"  Agh!!!  He was saying "eight!!!"  I would have gone for it!!  Ah well, I have no room for another table, but I could have easily taken that table and sold it for $100 or more.

 

On a happier note, we went to a yard sale not long ago that was advertised in the local paper for Friday only and located inside an old warehouse. The town we live outside of used to have several factories back in the 50s-80s, and most of them have closed down. One was a shoe factory and there were several clothing places, where women would sew outfits all day long. The warehouse the sale was held at used to be one of the sewing factories and someone bought the building and wanted it cleared out.

 

Anyway, we go and we pretty much were the only ones there, besides a bunch of guys responsible for getting the place cleaned up. It was a dream!! It was like going in and finding stuff that had been sitting there for years, unused, and then getting it all for cheap! I spotted about a hundred industrial metal chairs with wood seats that I immediately wanted to claim as my own, but where on earth would I put 100 chairs? And just how much were they gonna cost me? Imagine my delight when the price he quoted was reasonable and I bought 20!! 

 

The guys there were even kind enough to help me sort through all the chairs so I could pick out the best ones, pulling out the chairs that were missing the feet or had names written on the seat in markers. Apparently, the women were pretty protective of their chairs and most had names written on the back on a piece of tape or a ribbon tied around the seat back.

 

 

I'm really pleased with these chairs and I can't wait to sell them on my own in my booth or elsewhere. It's been more than 2 weeks since I found these chairs and I am still floating from the high of the find! Just in time, too, since yard sales are ending and now I'm pretty much dependent on thrift stores and auctions. Hoping to set up at a big flea market next year where I'll sell these chairs and the other items we have found.

 

There's an auction tomorrow we might go to. Wish us luck!!

 

November First

Good-bye Halloween! It's been fun but I'm glad to put away the decorations and get my house back to normal again, at least until it's time for the Christmas stuff to come out! Now comes the begging and whining for a piece of candy and I admit, it's kind of nice to have a bargaining tool, like: "if you want your candy you better eat your lunch!" Not so much for the good eaters, but the picky eaters gobble up their meals much faster! 

 

Gretchen wanted to be a mummy this year. Actually, they all decided what they wanted to be this year right after they got home from trick-or-treating last year!  Amazingly, none of them changed their minds! Of course, I don't start on any sewing until the last minute because I thought for sure some body would have second thoughts. I don't know why I thought a mummy costume would be easy-- it wasn't! I had visions of sewing strips of muslin around old white clothing, which was definitely easier to think about than to actually do. Eventually, I figured it out and Gretchen and I were both pretty pleased with the results!

Evelyn as Chicken Nuggets, the bad girl in jail. I didn't want her to use her real name on her number sign, and suggested something like Crazy Harriet or Mad Mary, and she runs off and comes back with Chicken Nuggets. Alrighty!!  She got a lot of laughs with her chosen name so it was all good! Her costume was pulled with stuff we already had around the house, and the chain was a clearance buy from last year's Halloween sales.

Sylvia used Gretchen's costume from last year, so no work needed to complete her sweet witch costume. Not pictured here are the cute black and white stockings she wore, which was another clearance buy from last year.

Peter was skeleton boy and I had every intention of making his costume from scratch, well, semi-scratch.  I was going to sew on bone shapes onto black knit pants and a long sleeve tee, but from past experience, nearly everything I have sewn for this kid gets rejected! I happened to walk into the thrift shop one day and spotted this costume in just his size for only $4. A bargain when you think about all the hard work it saved me! All I had to do was sew up a mask, which you see here, out of an old shirt of Andrew's. It's a little wonky, but it does the job and he wore it!! The bone gloves were a clearance buy last year. I'm telling you, these kids have stuck with their costume picks for a year and I am amazed!! It was so nice to pluck stuff off the clearance shelves for next year and to see that they actually used them! 

I really love this shot in black and white.  It looks like a classic Halloween photo here and I keep looking at it. Definitely going in the photo book I make at the end of the year! 

 

Since we're so rural, we went to the trunk-or-treat gathering at the church in town. The weather was perfect all day ( see the kids barefoot in the above pictures ) which is kind of unusual for the end of October, but then just as we headed out for the fun, it started to sprinkle. No, no! Please! Wait until we're done!  But no such luck. It started to rain harder and then it was pouring by the time we got home. But that's ok, the kids had lots of fun and they got just enough candy to last a month or so. Would you believe they still had Halloween candy left from last year? Yeah, some of it melted in the bags and I had to dump the rest of it out.

 

So, November!  Glad to see you! Can't believe you're here already!

What have you all been up to??

 

 

 

 

Rainy Day = Perler Beads

When news of a bad storm was headed our way, we battened down the hatches and tucked away all the loose items we had in the yard and the garden.  Anything that could be picked up and blown away by strong winds were put up in the pole barn.

 

We got the rain, but no winds, thankfully. I know others were not so lucky with fallen trees and loss of power, but I think all in all, this was a storm with more bark than bite.

 

What I really should have done to prepare for the storm was make sure there were rainy day activities in the house for four children to do!! The kids are outside nearly every waking moment and then to be stuck inside the house? By the end of the day, I was happy to tuck them into bed and kiss them good night!

 

 We did manage to get some perler bead projects done, thanks to Sylvia pulling out the box and starting a Father's Day project. Pretty soon, the rest of us caught the beading bug and most of the day was spent making and then ironing plastic pictures. That is, when they weren't chasing and bickering with each other!

 

 You know how there are some of us who start things and never finish them?

Or those that want someone else to do the work for them?

And then others who don't stop until the job is done?

Yeah, we have all of those people in this house.

 

 No names will be mentioned, but I will say we ate dinner at 8 o'clock that night because somebody couldn't stop until the job was done. Ahem!

 

 It's always fun to see their creativity go beyond the suggested pictures on the box and make something that appeals to them. Each kid has such personal tastes and choices and it really shows in the different things they made.

 

And here's the project that delayed dinner. That's 1,682 beads, yo!

Please tell me you can see what famous painting this is based on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's Van Gogh's Starry Night I used as inspiration!



Auction Time!!

This is a picture-heavy post, so if it takes forever to load, I apologize!

 

We went to an auction last Saturday and I am still riding the high from the thrill of the whole day!

I've been to a few auctions before, but I don't usually do any bidding, instead, nudging Andrew to bid on something and using his ears to hear the auctioneer for me. This, I think, was my first real auction in which I actively bid on things by myself, with Andrew at my side just in case I didn't understand something.

 

 It was kind of bittersweet, this particular auction, because we actually knew the man whose stuff was being auctioned off.  He was a bit of a hoarder, having owned a store at some point and instead of selling stuff at clearance prices when the store closed, he brought all the merchandise home with him. He also enjoyed going to auctions himself and if anyone knows how auctions are, it's easy to understand how fast stuff can pile up if you don't get rid of the unwanted stuff quickly.

 

 A few years ago, he was having daily yard sales trying to unload some stuff and when we discovered his sale, we were near-daily customers of his.  He was a great character and we really enjoyed talking with him, except when he didn't have his teeth in, I couldn't understand him, and left the talking to Andrew!

 

 Turns out all those yard sales and all the many items we bought off of him was just the tip of the iceberg.  I had no idea that he also had a trailer, several sheds, a cattle barn, a car port and don't forget his house, filled to bursting with stuff!

 

 He died almost a year ago, and it has taken the family this long to finally sort through and then hire an auction company to come and help clear out all the stuff he had piled in the house. Having been a previous yard sale customer of his, I knew there would be lots of good things to buy and made sure to clear the calendar so we could go.

 

 I even asked my Aunt and Uncle to come down and help Grandma to watch the kids because I knew I wouldn't want to bring the kids there. An auction is really no place for kids-- there's no where to play, too many breakable things and it's easily to get distracted having to mind small children and keeping them amused while trying to follow along to the auctioneer's calls.

 

 It was a truly friendly atmosphere, since we knew a lot of people from town that were there and people were laughing and talking. There was food and drinks for sale, it was a cool day, and the auctioneer was as laid back as could be while at the same time keeping things moving along at a brisk pace.

 

 When we first got there, I was blown away by the amount of stuff out on tables and on the ground.  I knew there would be a lot of stuff, but this was beyond what I imagined! While some of it was cheap store merchandise, a lot of it was good, quality antiques and vintage goods.

 

 There was everything from Fenton glass, crocks, furniture, crafting things, store merchandise, tools, guns, knives... it's nearly impossible to list everything. I wish I had taken a picture of the whole grounds, but I was focusing on individual items, trying to remember where certain things were so when the auctioneer moved to those locations, I could bid on them.

 

 We didn't get everything we bid on, but I was really happy with what we brought home. There were a few surprises in some of the boxes and once I sell those items in the booth, they'll more than cover what we paid which will make everything free and give me a little profit, too.

 

 In case you're not familiar with how auctions work, let me give you a quick run-down:

 

They put a bunch of similar items into one lot and even if there's only one thing you want in the whole lot, you have to bid on the whole thing! So if you win the bidding, you are now the proud owner of the one thing you wanted and 10 unwanted items. See how quick a place can get filled up if you don't get rid of the unwanted items right away?

 

This photo above is an example of one lot. We bid on this, because we wanted the pitcher and glass set, but the bidding went too high for us. I think the winning bid was over $30. Had we won this lot, I would have sold the extra bits in the booth and kept the pitcher and glasses.

 

 The auction lasted all day, but we left around 2, feeling like we had enough and we needed to get back home to the kids. We have a little regret in leaving before it was over because there were some things we didn't get a chance to bid on and then we found out the auction ended at 3:30! Only an hour and a half more and then maybe our vehicle would have been a little bit more packed!

 

 We sorted through the stuff right away, even left behind 2 boxes of stuff at the auction that we didn't want. Some of those items have been in the shed or the basement or wherever for years and there was a musty smell on the fabrics and the boxes had spiders and bugs and even mouse droppings in them. No way were those boxes coming in the house!

 

 After sorting, we ended up with 2 trash bags destined for the landfill, any plastic was recycled, and all paper and cardboard was burned.

 We had a really good date at the auction, met a few new people, talked with old friends and really had a great time. The auctioneer has that talent of making you feel like he was looking right at you and I never once felt like I needed Andrew to help me bid on anything. In reality, he was looking at over 100 people, but I sure felt like I had his undivided attention!

 

His family were all there and we got to talk with them a bit, but I wonder how they felt to see all those people bidding on their parent's things. Or maybe they were just so happy to finally see the stuff gone? Mostly they hung back on the porch and watched the bidding. I'm sure they already picked out stuff they wanted to keep.

 

In any case, Andrew and I are definitely going to try and attend more auctions this summer. Especially the ones held by that particular Auctioneer. It sure was fun to come home with a loaded car for only a small price and having things to keep and still having plenty of merchandise to sell in the booth.

And to finish this off: How about those creepy doll heads? Never did see who bid for them!