Yardsale at Funeral Home - and you're invited!

This is a first for me - having a yardsale at a funeral home. Well the funeral home is donating the use of their parking lot but said in case of rain they'll move it inside If so, I hope they cover up Mr. Johnson or whoever happens to be there at the current time. I know because I called about reserving one of their free spaces - I need to declutter. Maybe they are trying to put the "fun" back in "funeral" or maybe they'll have roving salespeople talking up the benefits of pre-planning.

Real Store Shopping - "saved" $197.81 at JC Penney's

Went to JC Penney's yesterday and did some clearance shopping. Even bought some clothes for myself - a novel concept! My total came to $27.48 with tax and I bought 6 items. The stuff I got was already 75% off, but I also had a coupon for an additional 15% off. Here's what I got: dress pants for me $4.22, Crazy Horse jeans for me $5.07, "vintage" Pink Floyd t-shirt for me (found in Men's dept) $1.67, dress for me $8.47 (was regularly $69.99), pair of Arizona shorts for Jacob $1.67 and a shirt for my husband $5.07 (which I plan on returning since it's the wrong size).

I got my picture taken with Big and Rich!!!!!!!!! 8/27/06 Solomons Maryland

Here's a pic of me with Big and Rich in Solomons Maryland. Ok, I didn't get the real thing, but there's always next time! In the last picture you can see my favorite lighthouse in the background.

Jacob and I went to the Calvert Marine Museum today and watched them set up for the concert tonight and of course did our usual museum stuff. Ok, I know I was too cheap to pay the $40-50 for tickets but I found someone cheaper! As I was leaving the museum (around 3pm) I saw a mom and a toddler on a piece of grass outside the gate all staked out and set up to wait 4 or 5 hours for the concert to start so they can listen for free. Even I'm not that cheap!

So Big & Rich - I guess my pleas (see further below) for free tickets didn't work this time, but don't worry, I'll forgive you! ;)

Gonna watch the Emmy's tonight and Big Brother. Good luck The Office and kick butt Janelle!

Mystery item revealed

In case what you were wondering what my mystery item is, it's a basketball ball return. You put it on the rim of your basketball hoop (you do have one, right?) so when you are practicing, the ball will come back to you when you make a shot rather than falling straight down. Perfect for the lazy basketball player.

Mystery item bought at yardsale (but I know what it is)

I was at a church yardsale today and none of the workers knew what this was. Of course I knew since I've seen them at Target but didn't want to pay full price. Paid $1 for it.



Also bought a pair of Longaberger S & P shakers for $1 which should do well on ebay.

Well tomorrow is the Big & Rich concert - if I don't get free tickets, I think I'll survive and plus Big Brother is on tomorrow night! :) Maybe I'll just go to the museum tomorrow anyways and maybe accidently climb aboard the tour bus and chat with the roadies. I've never been to a concert at the Calvert Marine Museum but I know how it's done. They just stick a bunch of folding chairs on the flat parking lot and make people park across the street in a field. The stage is where the museum holds their annual yardsale. Since school started, Jacob hasn't been to the museum all week (he gets home late from school and the museum closes at 5pm). His current fascination at the museum is the lighthouse, earlier this summer it was watching the otters.

Back to school

Today was my son's first day back to school. To me it's kinda like making a New Years resolution: I resolve to keep all of my son's paperwork organized and send back forms to school on time etc. And resolve to not shop as much and spend more time selling junk on ebay and organizing the house.

However, my husband took today off from work - so my resolution is a little delayed. We spent the day shopping. Went to JC Penneys (I just wanted to look at some of their clearance stuff - didn't buy anything). Had lunch at Applebee's - used coupons that came in the mail the other week for $5 sandwiches. Hadn't been to Applebee's in a while and wasn't impressed. Slow service, burnt burger and the whole place smelled like a dirty sponge. You know when a sponge turns "ripe", it has a certain nasty smell? Well the whole restaurant kinda smelled like that. Then I had to watch a guy in the next table over lick every finger after he ate a french fry. People are gross. Last week I was on the boat ride with my son and there was this mom there - who was picking the zits on her arm. What's wrong with people?!?!

After lunch, we also shopped at Walmart (my husband hates that place - not because of the Walmartization of America or anything to do about the pay scale of employees etc, more like he hates dealing with the other shoppers there). Also went to BJ's Warehouse and Staples.

At Staples they are having a policy change effective 9/17/06 - they will only be accepting HP, Lexmark and Dell brand ink cartridges for recycling (for the $3 coupons.) I have a bunch of Epson ones I need to turn in. A little while ago, I bought 100 empty Epson ink cartridges on ebay for $50, but that will turn into $300 worth of coupons (so if you deduct the $50 I spent to get the cartridges,it will be $250 free Staples merchandise). I'll be doing a lot of shopping at Staples over the next 3 months.

Killing fleas the yardsale way

It's always this time of year that fleas get bad on the dog. So I gathered up all my flea killing stuff - and noticed that everything was bought at a thrift or yardsale. (So I took a pic). I used some of the Hartz spray on him, then a bath, then the flea collar. And the fleas are totally gone. I was ready to do the flea fogger in the house, but I may be able to wait on that.

My Myspace page

I started a Myspace page a few weeks ago, I figured it would be a good and free way to advertise Yardsalequeen.com So if you have a Myspace page yourself and want to be my "friend" or whatever they call it, send me a request or whatever. Not exactly sure how it all works.

Anyhow, here is the link to myYardsalequeen Myspace I started a blog there too, but I don't plan on using it much - mainly to direct people back here. I hate all the ads on Myspace.

Holy Crap - Yardsale Toilet Paper - and it's Charmin!

Sorry I haven't had time to blog lately - been too busy checking my email every 5 minutes waiting to hear news from either Big or Rich. So far nothing. I would have thought I'd have heard something by now, I'm sure the promoters just want to keep me in suspense til the end and then surprise me with free tickets to the Big and Rich concert on August 27. Well anyways, I thought I would take a break this morning from my email checking and go yardsaling.

This is a first for me, but I bought yardsale toilet paper! While at a Girl Scout fundraising yardsale, I bought a tote full of paper products, plasticware, aluminum foil and baggies. All for $5 and that included the tote. The papertowels are on top of the tote (they had been opened but they are clean and I will only use them to clean up spills etc. And 2 rolls of TP that were in a ziploc but not partially used or anything.

My friend Rick - a potential date for the Big and Rich Concert Calvert Marine Museum 8/27/06

Because I'm an optimist, I started thinking about who I would take with me to the Big and Rich concert at the Calvert Marine Museum on August 27 if I somehow manage to wrangle some free tix. (You really don't think I just want one free ticket, do you?) My husband would probably rather stay home and scrub toilets than go to a country music concert. So I got to thinking about who would really enjoy it, and it would be a yardsale acquaintance of mine. He's recently had a ton of bad luck (not counting the pacemaker bandage on his chest) and I think a concert would lift his spirits. And because he's cheap like me, I know he wouldn't actually go out and buy tickets.

Girl with 4 arms wins beauty pagent!

Saw this in the newspaper (Washington Post) and made me realize how far beauty pagents have come. In the past having four arms would have meant point deductions, but it's good to see that the judges no longer discriminate.

Big and Rich - still need tickets

"Free is good" - Kelly Ripa 8/10/06 (or maybe it was 8/9/06, I don't remember)

Ok, day 3 of my attempt of getting free Big and Rich tickets for the August 27 show at Calvert Marine Museum. I haven't heard a thing yet, but I realized my email is not easily visible here. No wonder why I haven't heard anything, so here it is: yardsalequeen@hotmail.com

Big & Rich (Big and Rich) Concert Tickets needed

Big & Rich (country music duo) are coming to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland on August 27, 2006 and I gotta find a way to get free tickets. Even celebrities like free stuff so why not try to make a pitch to score some free tix? Yardsale royalty likes free stuff too. I figure if I blog about it for a few weeks, it will show up in Google searches and maybe Big and Rich will throw me a bone.

Found condom wrapper at a yardsale - and more Super Nintendo

Luckily the condom wrapper and Super Nintendo were at different yardsales. I was at one big yardsale where they had tons of stuff everywhere but it all looked kinda junky and dirty. I peered into one box and in the corner was an empty condom wrapper. Ewww, while I was glad I didn't find the condom itself, seeing a wrapper mixed in with things for sale was kinda yucky. At a different sale, I came across a small box full of Super Nintendo stuff. It was only $2 for all of it. The seller said one of her friend's dropped off a bunch of stuff for her yardsale but hadn't priced anything so she was just making up prices. That's the best way to get a good deal since the seller has no money invested in it and no sentimental value attachment to it either to drive the price up.

It's kinda funny that I've been looking for a Super Nintendo every week since May and don't find any, and then boom, two weeks in a row I find them and at cheap prices. So now I am glad I have one to send to my Mother-in-law. My husband is testing it out now so I'm pretty sure it works.

Went to the mall today (I can't remember the last time I was there, but probably in the spring??). Our nearest real mall is 45 miles away. We do have regular shopping though nearby: Old Navy, Best Buy, Petco, Staples, Michael's, JC Penneys, Belk, Target, etc, but they are in shopping centers, not in a "mall".

I spent a whopping .50 at the mall, and that was in the arcade for Jacob to play a game. My husband did buy some stuff at Dick's Sporting goods (bought a golf bag that was on sale for half-off) and a book at Border's so we didn't drive that far for nothing. And we went to Chuck E. Cheese for Jacob to play games. We don't go to eat there, just play games. I have a ton of the Chuck E. Cheese tokens. I heard rumors that a CEC may be opening near us, so that would be great. We also went to Toys R Us and I bought two items. An inflatable pool slide (on clearance for $25, normally $50) and a Fly Wheel toy (normally $39, on clearance for $10). There were a lot of toys on clearance, I guess they're cleaning out summer and making room for Christmas stuff.

I had a $10 coupon for Toys R Us that I was able to use, so my total with tax came to $26. Then I used gift cards to pay the rest. Jacob gets Toys R Us gift cards occasionally from family and plus we have a Toys R Us Visa card that sends us $10 gift cards occasionally depending on how much we charge.

We pay off our credit cards every month so for us using credit cards is the smart thing to do.

My .25 yardsale buy is a museum quality item!

The top two pictures are from a display in the local Calvert Marine Museum (it's the little local museum that Jacob and I go to a lot). They recently opened a new display featuring aspects of the oyster packaging businesses that thrived in the area decades ago. Well anyways, in looking at the display I realize I have an identical oyster can at home in my kitchen! I bought it at an indoor yardsale several years ago for a quarter. I am kicking myself that I didn't buy them all. Anyhow, the two top photos are pictures I took at the museum and the bottom two are pics of the identical can in my kitchen. I added the red arrow to the top picture to point out which oyster can I have.

WILSON!!!!!! (that's me doing my Tom Hanks impression)

Call Tom Hanks - I found Wilson last week! (Ok, there were probably thousands mass produced as a promo for Cast Away but I had to have it.) And it was only .50 at VV. And same with the like new Land's End shoes for Jacob - only .50

I shopped at VV after I had my checkup for my ear tubes. Didn't do a hearing test this time, the doctor said next time. When I do a hearing test they put you in a little booth the size of a phonebooth. (Believe it or not, we still have regular old phonebooths in our rinky dink town - complete with a folding glass door.) Anyhow during the hearing test, I feel like I'm doing an audition for Jeopardy - I'm positive the little clicker is exactly the same.

My best yardsale buy from last week was a big box of old Nintendo and Atari games for $5. During my mother-in-law's last visit, she told me to keep my eyes peeled for a Super Nintendo for her since hers died. Unfortunately, my husband had to "test" all the games etc and now Jacob loves the Super Nintendo. So...I guess I'll still have to keep my eyes peeled for another for her.