A FUN Day and an update...

The winter sickness has hit our house! My youngest son has had the full gamut of every type of flu the past couple of days. He's feeling better today, but not 100% yet. Normally that wouldn't be something I'd even mention, but with my mom coming to town to stay with us so she can be with her sister in the hospital, it made things a little difficult!

Thankfully, a friend and co-worker who has a mother-in-law apartment attached to her house offered it to my mom to stay so she doesn't take any sick germs to my aunt or any of the other cancer patients at Karmanos. It is a beautiful little apartment! My mom is going to want to stay there every time she visits instead of coming here and taking over a stinky teenage boy's room! Too bad it is a 1/2 hour away!

She spent the day at the hospital today, I'm hoping she has some good news to tell me! The doctors said my aunt had a stroke earlier this week when she was bleeding from her brain so she will have to go through rehab now, on top of fighting for her life with this nasty melanoma! Thanks for your prayers, kind words and thoughts!!!

I spent the day with my sister-in-law. She lives about an hour away from me and today was her community's annual fundraiser  indoor garage sale. Last year she invited me for the first time, and we had a LOT of fun, so we both marked our calendar for this year and have been eagerly anticipating our adventure!!

We got there during the pre-sale time and admission was $5. I was hoping they would agree to a lower price since it was half-way through the pre-sale time, but they didn't, so Dawn took a seat and waited while I had a momentary brain lapse and paid the $5 to get in. What was I thinking!?!

The sale was HUGE again, but not as much really cool stuff as last year. I think I will do well with what I bought, but I was hoping for some big scores like last year. The prices seemed higher across the board than last year, and there was a TON of people shopping the pre-sale! I didn't do the pre-sale last year. I don't think I'll do it again.

They had two "holding" areas where you could stash your treasures and they would guard them until you were ready to check-out. I made a few trips to the holding area, and on one trip, I patiently waited for the woman in front of me to leave her stuff and the guy working the area to take it. When she walked away a woman walked up behind me and yelled, "Excuse me!" and when I turned around she said, "I just need to leave my stuff here." I told her that I was waiting to leave my stuff too. Then she said "well, I already have stuff in there and I just need to leave this real quick." I explained that I too had stuff in there, and that she would have to wait. Then she said " I just want to leave it real quick." I told her she would just have to wait until he took my stuff.

Geesh!!! The nerve of some people! I had stood there a few minutes waiting my turn and she was going to barge right in and step in front of me? I think NOT! I was ready for more, but she backed down. Must have been the "REALLY?" look I gave her-LOL! Or maybe it was the "Bring it sister" look-who knows-LOL!

It wasn't worth the extra $5, but it went to charity-so in that sense it was worth it. There were a LOT of older people there, who were shoving their way through the very narrow aisles-some with granny carts, some with walkers and some who would just plow through and stop dead in their tracks right in front of me.

After we waited FOREVER to check out, I drug my sister-in-law around to 5 estate sales, all within 19 miles of her house!! For the most part they were very, very over-priced and we didn't get much. We did find a few things each at a really stinky house though. I've been getting lucky at the stinkies the past couple of weeks, I hope it doesn't become a pattern though-I hope I can find some good junk treasures at non stinky, dirty houses!!!

We had lunch at a Thai restaurant (first time trying Thai food for me!), it was O.K.-not my favorite, but it could have just been what I ordered-I'm willing to try it again sometime. I dropped her off after our late lunch and then stopped at a couple stores on my way home.


Here is what I got today:

 Mini Pyrex casseroles.

 I wish there were more than just one of these!

 A very dirty amethyst Moroccan oval dish.

 A Michigan tin platter from S.A..

 LOVE it!!!

 

 I Love unusual bottles and jars!

 Primrose.

 I know these aren't old or even vintage, but I thought they were cute-especially the spoon that looks like a leg!

 With the spoon in the sugar dish.

 An unused orange fondue pot in the box!

 I grew up with these-reminds me of my brother!!

 A red enamel bowl and double boiler.

 Not old or vintage, but I LOVE these kind of card/picture holders.

 A stool for my mom. I've been looking for one for her, and found this one with storage for only $2!

 She's going to recover it to match the one she already has.

 A $3 chair-why do I keep buying chairs??? They aren't good sellers, and I have more in the basement...

 A little wooden doll high chair-needs some TLC-but worth $1.

 A vintage shelf.

 Oyster and Pearl candy dish.

 Not old, but great for some of my crazy old bottles.

 I've never seen a tin like this before.

 From 1945.

 For fifty cents, it will be great for hanging things on in the booth.

We lived in California for a couple of years when we first got married and Kevin was in the Navy stationed at the Naval Hospital in Hawaiian Gardens-we weren't far from Knott's Berry Farm.

Hope you are having a great weekend!!! I'll be popping over to see what you've been up to soon!!

What Did You Do Last Weekend??

Kevin and I went to a great marriage conference at our church called "The Art of Marriage". It was a video conference created by Family Life Ministries.

There was about 100 couples who were married between 14 months and 61 years! At first I was asking myself what I was doing there, and then little things kept popping up in what they were saying that spoke to me. We've gone to 2 of their marriage conferences before (with "live" presenters) and I think this was just as helpful.

If you see it coming to your area, even if you aren't struggling or having a tough go of things it is worth it! Kind of like a little tune up.

Prayer Request!!

My mom got word today that my aunt (her sister with the brain tumors-who just had another surgery a couple weeks ago to remove more brain tumors) was rushed to the hospital by ambulance! She started bleeding from where she had the surgery and couldn't stop throwing up. They determined that her brain is bleeding, and it is very swollen, so they have her very heavily sedated to try to allow her brain to stop swelling and heal.

My mom is coming down to stay with us Thursday through Sunday to be with her sister at the hospital. Please pray for my aunt Brenda and her family, this new development doesn't sound good at all!!

A Great Looking Sale...but

I only have a few quick minutes today between church and a meeting for parents of high school students interested in going on this year's summer mission trip. So I made a quick pass through some up-coming estate sales on estatesales.net.

There is a sale coming up in a couple of weeks that looks very interesting...except it is a sale where they will be filming HGTV's Cash and Cari. I don't want to be on TV, and I don't want someone shoving a camera in my face while I'm shopping, but the sale looks really fun...a real digger sale.

What would you do? Would you go? Would you skip it? I want to go, just for the treasure hunt of the sale, but I will probably skip it, because when I went to a Cash and Cari sale (by mistake) before, not only was there a cameraman getting up in everyone's business, their prices were pretty high. What a bummer! It looks like there will be lots of great things to dig through!!!

I'll have to keep looking--and hoping a big digger sale will pop up somewhere else!

Frigid Friday Finds...

It was 9 degrees when I headed out this morning!! The main sale that I was going to was almost an hour away. I had made up my mind months ago to never travel that far again for a sale, but when you need a vintage fix, and the pictures of the sale look amazing, and it is in an area you never even knew existed...sometimes you have to break your own rules!

I got to talk to my mom for almost the whole trip, so we got all caught up on what's been going on this week, and it made the ride go by really fast! The sale was on a quiet little street that was lined with cars when I pulled up. There was even a utility truck, that had a cone out in the road-just like they were working! I fell for it until I saw the guy making trips from the house to his work truck with boxes of stuff from the sale.

The house looked like it was about to fall down from the outside and was really rough on the inside. It was packed with stuff-dirty stuff. There was more glassware than I've seen at any other sale, maybe even the last 10 sales I've been to combined! It was a private sale (not run by an estate sale company). Those kind of sales are usually either way too high because they are selling "antiques", or really low because they don't know what they have. This sale was a little of both!

I didn't even make a dent! I wish it was closer, and I wish I wasn't tied up all day tomorrow-the last day! I think there probably be some great deals in the last hours.

It only got up to 16 degrees by the time I got home. I stopped at 3 more sales and 4 thrift stores, but nothing even came close to the first sale. It was bright and sunny for the first couple of hours, but then the clouds came in and now it is snowing.

 Any idea what this Pyrex pattern is? When it was made? I've never seen it before, and it was really cheap, so I picked it up.

Kevin is on his way home from work, we are going to a marriage conference at our church tonight at 7, for a couple of hours and then all day tomorrow-right up until volleyball time! Sunday I have to go to a meeting with Eric to find out what our Youth Group is doing for their summer mission trips-busy weekend!

Hope you are having a great start to your weekend! I can't wait to see what you've been finding!!

Like a moth to a flame...

I just can't seem to resist vintage linens! I have collected wayyy too many, and I have way to many for sale in my booth, but for some reason, I can't walk away! I'm keeping my eye out for my blog friend Deb, for a certain size and color in vintage tablecloths, but so far no luck! You should check out her blog Garage Sale Gal.

 I also am drawn to vintage thermoses...all because of this really cool blog I read called Monkeybox. Shara always has great finds, and great collections. You should stop by and check out her blog. I bet you'll put it on your follow list just like I did!

I went to a couple of sales after work today. One was so ridiculously priced, I'm still shaking my head! The prices made me say to myself--"Really? You've got to be kidding me! No wonder the house is still packed at 2:30! and I'm outta here!!!" Another sale had a really bad b.o. odor in the house (everywhere-ugh!) and everything felt sticky, icky, dirty. I'm glad I carry hand sanitizer in my car!!

I have a small list of things that I am always on the look-out for that friends have asked me to try to find for them, and it got me thinking...we all go to a lot of sales, why not keep an eye out for each other!?! Is there something you've been hunting for and you just can't find it? Is there one little elusive piece to a set that you are dying to complete? Are you kicking yourself for passing up that great whatchamacallit, because you haven't seen another one in years?

Maybe I can help!! Maybe we can help each other!! We could have a network group of thrift store, estate sale, garage sale, antique store bargain hunters-who could keep an eye out for each other!! What do you think?? I might see something at every sale I go to, but you can't seem to ever run across one where you live. What if we traded picker-for-hire services??

I've been thinking of starting a Wednesday blog party called "Wednesday Wishlist" where like-minded blog friends can post one thing that they are dying to find, along with a price range they are willing to pay (and a picture if you can find one) for all of us to keep our eyes peeled for, and if we find it, we could contact the person who posted it with what we paid for it, and how much shipping would be! What do you think??

I don't mean for it to be, oh, I bought it for $5, so I'll tell them I got it for $10 and then add in a couple bucks on the shipping. I want it to be, I got it for $5, it's yours for $5 plus actual shipping-from one treasure seeker to another, because it's a fun and rewarding (helping someone) thing to do!

Think about it, and let me know what you think! I would LOVE to be able to help someone finish up a set, or find that special something they've been looking for-forever!

No Sense of Humor!

Eric had the day off from school and he texted me around lunch time asking if I had plans for lunch-how cool is that when your soon to be 18 year old son wants to hang out with mom!?! He even paid!!! It was just Burger King, but it was still pretty awesome! He hung around and helped me with some things for a couple of hours and then we went down the hall to the gym where the Red Cross was conducting a blood drive.

I was really discouraged to see how few people were there to donate blood! We were walk-ins and we got right in. I was surprised when the lady asked me if I was registering today as a female...what kind of question is that? Do that many people change their gender between their blood donations that they have to ask that question? Eric said they asked him if he was registering as a male so I didn't feel quite so weird about her asking me.

I was trying to be friendly and a little chatty with the lady who was processing my information, and she kept giving me "the look", so I stopped and "behaved" myself. When the blood started actually flowing, Eric was first, but I finished first 5 minutes 46 seconds. When she was un-hooking me I asked her if I beat him and she just gave me a disgusted look and "did you beat him?" then she sighed and told me to sit up and go get some juice and cookies.

Would it hurt them to be just a little friendly? Would it hurt them to make it a little more fun? Why do they tell you your time if it isn't a competition? :-)

Some Great Ideas and a New Project!

Last week I got an email from a coworker and it really had some great ideas in it! I have already put a couple of them into practice, and plan to try out a couple more! It showed spreading chocolate chip cookie dough on   muffin cups from a muffin pan flipped upside down, and baking it that way to form little cookie bowls for ice cream-my guys are looking forward to trying that!

It showed putting a tension rod under your sink in the cupboard to hang your squirt bottle cleaners on to get them up and off the bottom of the shelf and kind of make a second shelf under there. My next trip to a hardware store involves getting a tension rod-I can't wait to try this!!

It also showed a really easy way to fold fitted sheets, and suggested putting your clean sheets into one of the pillow cases in your linen closet-so everything was all together and ready to go. It would keep your linen closet neater and you wouldn't end up searching all over for stray pillow cases. My fitted sheets have never been folded so nicely, and my linen cupboard has never been so organized!

While folding and organizing, I came across a couple of old sheet sets that I decided to put to another use. The white sheets with the purple flowers are my all time favorite sheets! Unfortunately, I was lazy one night about six or so years ago, and went to bed with an ankle bracelet on and as I stretched out my leg, the clasp caught on the sheet and ripped a big ole rip that was impossible to repair.

I've kept the sheets because I couldn't bear to get rid of them because I love them so much. Now I found a way to keep them, but see them every day! I'm trying my hand at making a rag rug!! I tried to make one last summer using bright primary colored material and I was pulling it too tight and it ended up looking like a Jamaican hat-so after a ton of teasing from my guys, I gave up.

This time, I am being really careful to not pull too tight and it is actually laying flat!! YAY!! It isn't perfect, but I'm happy with it! It is a really easy project-I wonder why more people aren't making rag rugs!! I watched some great how-to videos on youtube by LauraJaneV82. If you are interested in making a rag rug-I highly recommend her videos! She makes it sound easy enough to give it a try!

 I think I need to make my strips a little wider next time to avoid the bottom sheet from showing through.

 After I ripped the two fitted sheets into strips, I pulled as many strings as I could off and rolled the strips into balls to make them easier to handle.

My funny little tool that I made out of a paper clip and some painters tape. 

I watched a different video on ripping your sheets quickly and efficiently. I ripped a whole sheet in about a minute-it was incredible! I had to have Kevin on the other end, but it worked! Now if I could just find some extra time, I could really go to town on this! I'm still getting the teasing, but I think they can see I'm doing much better this time! I'm so glad I didn't give up and never try it again!! I can't wait to make another one-I'm sure it will be much better than than this one!!

It's nice to be at home, working on a little project-today has been a crazyyyyy day!!! I had to work the front desk during the first church service and it was crazy busy and weird! We had to call 911 for an older man who passed out during the service. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. I hope he is alright!

It seems that more times than not when I work the desk we are calling 911 for an ambulance! Most times they refuse to go. This time he really needed to go, and so I'm glad he went! There was a couple of small housekeeping/building issues that came up after that, then a woman came in and said there was a hurt deer on the play ground. So I kept our facilities Manager hopping with my phone calls for a while.

Shortly after that, a man who was helping spread salt on the sidewalks came in because he had needed to open a new bag of salt, but didn't have a knife, so he used his teeth and a small piece of the plastic from the salt bag got stuck in his teeth and it was hurting him and he wanted to know if we had some floss! Luckily someone else was at the desk helping me at that time and she was able to find him some string.

On top of regular Sunday morning office stuff and people dropping off cookies for the blood drive tomorrow, it was an unusually busy day! Kevin was taking blood pressures for anyone who wanted it today, so we got into church late and had to sit in the balcony-which was about 90 degrees! I don't think I could have lasted much longer than I did, I was getting so sleepy up there! After that, we ran out and got a bite to eat and then headed back for our congregational meeting to vote for some new elders. We didn't get home until about 3:00-and we left early!

Now I've got dinner in the oven and I will be working on my rug the rest of the night! Speaking of dinner...do you like butternut squash? Do you have a Costco near you? I found this a few months ago at Costco and we just loved it! I was so happy when I found it again when we went on Friday.

I usually chop up some onions and toss it with some olive oil and a little salt and pepper and roast it in the oven-YUMMMM!

P.S.--if you would like to see the email with all of the great ideas, just leave a comment or send me an email and I'll email it to you! I wasn't able to post pictures or copy and paste the email into this blog post.