Spring is in the air!

It was a bright sunshiney day today! It got up to 67 degrees! The birds were chirping, trees budding, and some flowers were popping up out of the ground. I took a walk around the yard to check things out, and this is what I found...

 Lilac!

 Forsythia!

 Crimson King Maple.

 Magnolia tree- an anniversary gift from my grandma.

 Iris-from my mom and grandma!

 Chives-from a sweet friend from church!
 Too bad the flower bed fairy, didn't do a very good job cleaning last fall!

 The view from my favorite place in my yard-my hammock!
Looking forward to seeing the leaves blanket the sky above me!

 Phlox-from my mom!

 My great-grandma's peonies are coming back-YAY!!!

Found this under some pine trees, it's been there all winter!

The newest member of the family!

LOOK what I found!!!

Oh,were you expecting something, or someone else?

Happy dance!

Hopping Day Today!

The Sale was great today! Too bad everything was half off, so they didn't make much money, but we got rid of a lot of stuff! They decided to open tomorrow from 9am-noon, and still do everything at half off. I never realized how tired you can get from sitting!

I am exhausted! I decided to not go to the retreat tonight, but stay home, with my family, eat some pizza and just chill. I can always go tomorrow-it's an all day thing tomorrow, tonight was just for a few hours and since its in-house (at our church) this year, it's close to home.

I really enjoyed my time at the sale, visiting with my friend's and their family, as well as people watching. I hope they do well tomorrow!

Happy Weekend!!!

I am such a jerk sometimes!!!

Today I met a very lovely, sweet lady at the sale whom I met yesterday, and my blabbing and rambling in my post yesterday, ended up hurting her. I never mean to hurt anyone with what I say, here on the blog, or verbally in person. Unfortunately, I did just that. The verse from Proverbs immediately popped into my head...Proverbs 10:19 "When words are many, sin is not absent". Yesterday's post was after a really long, tiring day, and I should not have said the things I said.

I am sooo sorry sweet blog friend that my stupid, un-thought through words hurt you. Please forgive me! I have removed a large section of words from my post from yesterday, and I hope you believed me today when I told you how sorry I was!!!

I'm sorry if I over-stepped my bounds when I gave you a hug too! I have been so upset with myself all day long-especially since I wasn't near a computer so I could change my post and apologize! I am supposed to be at a women's retreat at our church, tonight, but I decided to go late so I could race home first to take care of my many words.

I also would like to apologize to all the rest of my blog friends-for not being kinder with my words in yesterday's post. If I offended anyone, I sincerely apologize, and ask for your forgiveness.

One day down, one more to go!

Today was the first day of the estate sale I am helping my friends with. I arrived at the house about an hour and 15 minutes early for last minute set, up stuff, and I was about 15 minutes ahead of my friends. There were already 3 cars waiting, and when they saw me pull into the driveway, they got out of their cars. When I didn't get out right away they walked up toward my car and did the what's up, are you gonna get out or what thing with their hands.

I told them I was just a worker and they had to wait until 9 for the family to come and unlock the doors and I'd bring out the numbers then. They were fine with it, especially when the people with the keys pulled in right behind me.

We ended up with 15 people in line before we opened. I was hoping for 20 or more, but since they didn't place an ad in the newspaper (Craigslist only), I think 15 was a good number. It was steady with people until about 1:30, then it crashed. We had a few trickle in after that, but not much. We only made about half of what I was expecting to make-so I'm kind of bummed about that.

I was surprised at the number of people who came who didn't speak English! A couple of them even tried to use that (a ruse I think) to get better deals. Some people nickeled and dimed me to death! I felt the prices were very reasonable, and a few people even told me and my friends they thought our prices were good. After some people left though, I felt exhausted, just from dickering with them, and today was "prices are firm" day.

By the time I got home, I was starving and there was no way I was gonna cook, when 2 of my guys had been home all day, doing nothing. So we went out to a local favorite of ours that sells grinders. We were shocked to see they had downsized their restaurant by at least half, their pickle wedges got cut in half and each sandwich has gone up at least 70 cents. A sign of the times I guess.

Now, I'm just chilling in my sun room, enjoying the sun-feeling a little sad for all the sales I missed visiting today, and will miss tomorrow, but also feeling pretty happy for being able to help out my friends. I would just be a LOT happier if we could sell more stuff!!!

We sold a lot of things, but there weren't many dents made in the amount of stuff there.

Here is what it looked like this morning before we opened...

 The Heathkit stereo was the big hit of the sale, we could have probably sold it 4 or 5 times over today!

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes...wish us luck!!! :)

An Amazing Looking Sale...

This morning my good junkin buddy Auntie and I took off for an adventure! We were headed to a sale that looked amazing! There were over 200 pictures on the Estatesales.net ad. It said nothing newer than 1970, most stuff from 50's.

We left at 7:15 in the morning for what should have been a little over a 45 minute drive. With the rain/sleet mix, and heavy rush hour traffic, we ended up driving for 80 minutes!!! When we finally arrived, we were #72 and #73. Neither one of us has ever gotten that high of a number at an estate sale before!

We sat in the car for a while, but when we saw the line start moving at a pretty good clip, we decided to brave the elements and stand in line. I'm so glad we did!!! We ran into another junkin buddy, Jennifer, who also has a booth in our mall. I felt bad for her when I ran into her later in the house. A woman in line without a number cut in front of her and got in-making Jennifer wait another 7-8 minutes.

It was the same woman standing with Auntie and I in line who told me she drove over 100 miles to be at this sale and she was going in, even if she had to get in front of someone with a number---nice-huh? She failed to follow instructions, so everyone who did, had to pay by waiting longer to get in-what a charm bomb!

The house was packed! Even with 70 some people shopping ahead of us! Some stuff was ridiculously low, some stuff was just right, and some stuff was way too high. I kind of felt like Goldilocks, typing that last sentence. We missed out on most of the stuff that I saw in the pictures, but we each still found a bag full of junk to bring home.

After the sale, we went to a friend from work's mom's house to help tie up the last loose ends for tomorrow's estate sale. I am thrilled to say-we have everything priced, sorted, organized and ready to go!!

I am hoping for big crowds to help them get rid of everything in the two days of the sale! If you are in Michigan and near Novi area, c'mon over and make sure you say "Hi"-I'll be at the check-out table both days!! Most everything is half off on Friday. Lots of women's clothes in excellent condition, blankets, towels, pictures, knick knacks, furniture, dishes, tools, fishing poles, everything you can imagine!

I had to stop in at work to do a couple computer things on the way home, and when I got home there was a note on the counter..."Mom, please take dinner to Adam at work tonight. I have his car." My text to Eric asking where his truck was, was answered, "stuck in the mud." Yep, found it, in the right front corner of our yard, with a big mud hole that used to be grass.

When I asked him why he was driving in the yard when it was so wet and soft out, he said he didn't think it would be that soft...sigh...teenage boys don't always think things through do they? Gotta love them! So, now I have to run something up to Adam's work for his dinner...and I don't even feel like making anything after our long day today! What a bad mom I am!

I've never shopped at an estate sale on a Wednesday before. Can you believe I did not miss work at all today--not one tiny little bit! I could get used to doing my own thing like this!

Here are the things that came home with me today...

A couple more buckets for flower planting! 

 A couple Honey Whip jars-with lids, and a B.C. mug.

 I am giddy over this little bowl and shot glass-too cute!!!

 Hello, my name is Kim, and I am addicted to crocheted hot pads!

 This is one giant loop of fabric-I think it would have been used in one of those old hand dryer things that you pulled down for a dry section each time you used it...what do you think? I hasn't been used.

 I bought one of these glasses last year and a carafe with a lid, now I can sell them all as a set! Yes, that is a lime Pyrex casserole! :)

 This jarts set, was rescued from the trash at my friend's mom's house. I pulled it out of a box of trash, priced it, then decided I wanted to buy it! Her husband thought it was trash!!! Silly man!

She saved a yardstick for me-it goes with the other two I found in the trash there the last time I went over to work on pricing stuff for the sale. I think she and her husband don't know what to think of me-digging stuff out the the trash like I have been doing! LOL! One man's junk...

Tomorrow I get to sleep in, I don't have to leave home until about 8:15 or so to get to the house where the sale is that I am helping with. It's really only 20 minutes away, but with rush hour traffic, I'm sure it will take 40.

If you think about it, and if you are a praying person, please pray for my friend Linda tomorrow. This is really hard on her-selling her mom's stuff. She has had so much going on in the past year. Breast cancer diagnosis, surgery and treatments (all clear now and good news on tests done yesterday-all clear there as well!), her mom passing suddenly/quickly at Christmas time, and now her oldest daughter going in for surgery soon. All on top of this estate sale and selling the house.

We've suggested she hang out in the basement while the sale is going on, because the basement is where the things are that she is least attached to, or has the least memories of. I  hope she will be willing to spend the day down there-so she doesn't see the vultures swooping in to snatch up all of her parent's things. I worry about her heart getting hurt watching people rip through everything without a care.

So if you come to the sale, make sure you introduce yourself-I'd LOVE to meet you!!!

An interesting way to wrap glassware...

I got a package in the mail today, (that was supposed to be here 6 days ago, but the seller never shipped it until it was supposed to have been here...still deciding what to leave for feedback-any suggestions?) When I opened it, I was surprised to find under all the newspaper, 4 small packages, individually wrapped in disposable diapers!!!

In all the years that I've been shopping online, I can honestly say, I've never had anything shipped with disposable diapers as the packing material! I'm still trying to decide if that is a unique way wrap something, or if it is just plain weird. What do you think?

What is the weirdest way something you've received has been packaged? The items were perfectly safe, all nestled in the newspaper, wrapped in the diapers. The tabs did a good job of securing the diaper to the items too!

At last! A finished set! I only needed one fridgie and lid, so now I have one extra little pink fridgie and lid...it's going to the booth-hopefully I'll break even on this purchase!

Estate Sale...Come see me!!!

I've been mentioning that I am helping my friend Linda with her mom's estate sale...so I thought I'd share the details-in case you are in the Novi area. Click on the link below for the Craigslist ad and stop by and see us-I LOVE to meet my blog/junkin buddies!!!

More pictures at the listing...

http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/hsh/3751929313.html

Early Morning Smiles...

I had a super early visitor this morning...6am! My little buddy Logan came to stay for a few hours while his mommy had a procedure at her doctor's office, in preparation for a surgery she is having on May 3rd. He is almost 11 months old, and such a cutie!

We had a fun few hours, but now I am so TIRED! I got up the same time I usually get up for work, but I think I am getting a cold...I may just crawl back under the covers and hibernate on this gray, chilly, dreary day!

Hope you have a great Friday!!!

Second visit and a pile of picked vintage goodness!!

After church today, I decided to take a trip to the first estate sale to see if anything was left. Kevin went with me so he could go to Harbor Freight. We got there between 1 and 1:30, and there was barely anything left! I was shocked! The house was pretty much emptied out!

I found a fun little metal cabinet in one of the bedroom closets, and since it was half off, I wrestled it out of the tiny closet, out of the bedroom and to the check-out line. Then I had to go back to the bedroom, and pick up the little pile of dishes and tins I left on the closet shelf so I could grab the cabinet!

Thankfully, no one who went into the bedroom and looked in the closet was interested in my little stash and it was still there. On the way out, I found two fold up chairs that were part of a card table set for $2 each, so I grabbed them too!

As I was in line, I saw a huge stack of folding chairs folded up and leaning against the wall with a SOLD sign on them. In the stack was another chair that matched the two I already had. Then I noticed the 4th chair was at the check out table and the worker running check out was sitting on it!

I got my hopes up that I could talk the person with the sold sign out of the one mismatched chair, but he wouldn't budge! Who in the world would want a ton of mint green folding chairs and one black one? Well, he got it, because I wasn't going to argue with him over a $2 chair-let him have it. So, I only bought the two.

When we went to Harbor Freight, Kevin went to shop there and I went a few doors down and walked around Walmart. It was a really weird and different experience. 95% of the ladies in the store (other than employees) were wearing burquas. I had forgotten that I'd experienced the same thing the last time we went to this particular Harbor Freight & Walmart.

I felt really self-conscious, almost like I shouldn't be there without a head covering. Probably similar to what a lone person might feel if they were in a store with 95% of the people not wearing a head cover.

We had a fun evening visit with Kevin's sister and her husband. They stopped by to bring me the stash of goodies that she had picked up for me when she was my picker. She got me all kinds of vintage goodies!!!

Here is what I picked up at the estate sale on my second visit

...
Here's a better shot of the pink chairs that I got the day before.

This bucket is from the day before too.

.
Here are the goodies my SIL picked up for me...

Fourteen half aprons!!

Eight crocheted hot pads & ten hankies!

 Vintage creamer pitcher, and cookbook!

 LOVE the bottle-this is going to live here for a while! 

 A couple of vintage lawn chairs in excellent condition, a kiddie chair and side table.

Vintage tv trays in near mint condition!