Now THIS is the last bloggy post for 2009

I am in New York living it up for New Years Eve. Yes, I am right in the middle of all the excitement that New York has to offer. Clifton Park, New York that is. Panera bread to be exact. Who needs liquor when you can have bread! Yum.

All I want for Christmas is a cardboard box

This may be my last post for 2009. Oh well, it doesn't look like I'm gonna complete a task I wanted to do this decade. It was to refinish a small nightstand.

From my Blog entry dated October 25, 2004:

"Anyhow, to change the subject, I did go to a few yardsales this past weekend. Favorite buy was a very dirty, cobwebby, musty nightstand for .25 (pictured below). I'm going to refinish it - hopefully sometime this decade - and I'll post an "after" pic once its done."


So for those who have been waiting since 2004, please be patient. I promise to get to it during the next decade or two.

Happy Festivus

Hope your Festivus was a good day full of feats of strength and airing of grievances.

I bought my DH the above Festivus CD (at Borders on clearance during the summer) and of course, forgot to give it to him today. So it will be a Christmas present. I hate it when I forget to do stuff. I lugged some big heavy packages today shopping retail. And why does my house keep shrinking?? And I hate that I have to drive 75 miles to get to an airport. I'm irritated that my favorite thrift is closed for winter break until January 6. And I'm also po'ed that schools were closed 2 days this week. Maryland snow removal sucks. Traffic at the shopping centers irritated me today. And the stores were out of Festivus poles.

Man, too bad Festivus only comes one day a year! I am pretty darn good at airing grievances.

Newsflash: Dave Ramsey says I am a Winner

But of course the Queen already knows that. But Dave Ramsey says so too. In case you aren't aware of Dave Ramsey, he is a financial guru guy that has a radio show, books, does seminars etc etc etc. Visit his website Dave Ramsey I get his email newsletter - I love hearing the stories of people's stupid taxes. That is, the *tax* you pay for doing something stupid.

Anyhow he's been doing daily giveways for the past 20 days or so. Things like $5000 cash, $2000 cash, a trip to the Bahamas to attend one of his seminars and so on. So today I get the email that finally, I won one of his contests.

Drum roll please........I won......please contain your excitement....a FULL 3 month membership to his message board.

So it's only a matter of time before Dave discovers the wisdom of the YSQ and asks for yardsale advice, to include me in his next book and so on. I just know it.

Thrift Store Waterford Crystal

The day I found the hairnets, I also picked up this bauble. I didn't mention it since I hadn't taken a pic of it. It's a 1999 Waterford Crystal Ball Ornament - I paid a whole $2.50 for it. In researching it, I see it sells for $279 on the Replacements website but also see that someone is currently selling one on ebay for $25 and it doesn't have any bids. Too heavy to hang on a tree and it doesn't even do anything. It's definitely not as cool as my American Idol ornament that says "THIS is American Idol".

Lots of snow predicted for tomorrow so definitely no yardsales. Which is fine. Having a yardsale break is good once a great while. It gives people time to go spend their money at the retail stores to buy pricey gifts. And many of those gifts will undoubtedly show up at springtime yardsales with little pieces of gift wrap still attached and I'll pay a dollar for. So it all works out.

Remember how I mentioned buying someone's old slides from the 60's and 70's? They were all on round carousel trays. I had about 6 or 7 trays full of slides and since I didn't have a carousel projector, I went thru every tray and removed all the slides and then donated the empty trays to the thrift last week. I borrowed my parent's regular slide projector so I'll be able to view them.

So...guess what I see at my thrift the other day? A brand new (vintage) Kodak Carousel slide projector in the box for $8. Crap. I didn't buy it, but should have (I see they sell for about $80+ on ebay). I checked and someone bought it already. I need to trust my judgment better - when it doubt - buy it!

Would you pay admission to a Hairnet Museum?

The reason why I ask is because I think I may start one. But only if it will make me a ton of money. I bought the above hair nets for .25 each today at my fav thrift. I saw them and into my shopping basket they went without me even really looking at them. It wasn't until I got home that I saw that one or two are missing the actual hairnets. But really, I just bought them for the graphics on the packaging anyway. Of course my favorite is the Royalty hair net - since it is fit for a Queen. After the pic was taken I removed all the thrift store price stickers to prevent damage. The sooner you get stickers off things, the better. I also heated them briefly with my hair dryer to soften the glue in the sticker so they came off easily.

You would be proud of me, even tho I bought some things today, I donated way more than I bought. I cleaned out my closet big time - look at all the empty hangers.



I did buy this LL Bean jacket for myself though - it was $6.00



And I passed on buying this gadget - you program it to display different things. I don't think the thrift store volunteers really took time to read thru all the sayings after they plugged it on and had it on display.

Dexter - Wow. Good Morning America - ugh.

I've trained Jacob that we watch Good Morning America in the morning from 7-7:30 and then he can put Spongebob on until it's time for him to get on the bus. I've trained him so well that if I even attempt to put on The Today Show or something else during that time frame he'll say that he wants Good Morning America on. I think mainly its because during the local traffic updates etc, they sometimes show "the point" and I hear him say "Look - there's the point!" every time. The point - as we call it here in the castle, also goes by the name the Washington Monument. Pic above.

Anyhow, what I came here to say is, I was ok with Diane Sawyer leaving to go do the news. I would get sick of getting up that early everyday too and would want a change. But Chris Cuomo leaving too???? What??????!!! My eyes glaze over every time George Stephanopoulos speaks. I think his wife is great, but he does nothing for me.

Tonight we caught up on Dexter's Season Finale. OMG. Didn't see that coming. I didn't start watching Dexter until Season 2 - in the off season, I should watch Season 1.

Mall Shopping

We spent last night at the free hotel - went swimming, I did some faux gambling (made about $8). The dock was deserted - what a difference a few weeks make. There were probably only about a dozen boats left. If you look way in the distance (click on the pic to enlarge it), you can see across the Chesapeake Bay to the eastern shore of Maryland. No easy way of getting there - except for a 3 hour drive, or by boat. This morning after eating the free breakfast and going for a quick swim in the indoor pool, we checked out and went to Annapolis. The hotel is located about half-way there, so we only had to drive about 25 miles to get there, as opposed to driving 45 miles from our house.



I'm on the mailing list for Victoria's Secret and the other week they sent out a coupon to save $10 off anything in the store. They had a lot of body sprays and stuff 50% off so I picked out a $22 one and paid $1.06 for it.

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This shirt caught my eye at my thrift store the other day. Oye. It's so sophomoric.



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Christmas is sneaking up too fast. I gotta get my tree up and some decorating done. After my current ebay auctions end, going to take a break and get back right into selling in early January.

JC Penneys Retail Shopping Today: Spent $0.00

JC Penneys has done it again - sent out a flyer with a free $10 in it, but in talking to others, I know some people's ad said free $10 with the purchase or $25, while others was a free $10 off a $10 purchase. I don't understand the rhyme or reason behind it.

I got a $10 one - and therefore found a $10 item to buy. Didn't even have to pay tax.

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Been trying to do some declutterizing - I have a big box in the garage full of about 8 trays of someone's 1960's & 1970's slides. As its pretty cold out in the garage, I want to keep them inside the house. So I started taking the slides out of the bulky round slides tray thingies and I will just donate the empty trays and keep the slides. I borrowed my parent's slide projector the last time in I was in NY, so the voyeur in me wants to look thru them all. Some of the ones I've looked thru (just by holding up to the light) are pretty funny and interesting. The clothes, the cars etc etc. There's one of a fat baby toddler sitting on a front porch with a pipe in his mouth. Once I get the pics projected on a screen, I can take a digital pic of the more interesting ones and show you guys. I also spotted several slides of the construction of our local nuke plant. I have about 7 more full trays to go thru.

Yardsale Results and Buys

Well my indoor yardsale wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - I made $155, mostly by selling .50 and $1 items. Got rid of a lot of stuff and I will donate some of the leftovers before the end of the year.

I like being able to shop at the other sellers at these sales. I bought this new birdfeeder for $3.


.10 for vintage Coleco baseball game
.25 small canoe planter
.25 bobblehead pen
.25 USS Alamo ashtray
.05 tape measure keychain

And the best of all - that beat up copy of The Jungle Book Sing Along Songs on VHS ($1). With Jacob's love of the Jungle Book, I spotted this video on eBay recently and almost bought it. I'm glad I waited a bit and found it myself.

I think that is one of the best feelings - finding something you've been wanting to buy, for cheap, at a yardsale. And that's why I like selling on ebay too, sometimes you get a nice email from the customer thanking you for selling the item - saying it was exactly what they wanted etc etc etc. Just got a nice feedback from a buyer who said I made a ton of Boy Scouts happy with the vintage Semaphore flags I had sold him.

Speaking of ebay, check out my Enema Man Superhero that I have currently listed (link over there to the left) ...bet you don't have one of those!



I also went to one garage sale that was open until 2pm - I bought a $3 printer which came with 4 used inkjet cartridges. Also bought a nice Bath & Body Works canvas tote bag for .75

I will e-recycle the printer and take the 4 cartridges to Staples and get $12 worth of credit.

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Was going thru my pics and here's one of my huge HE Dryer (or washer?) that was in my house for like 10 minutes.


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And more proof that I don't buy something just because it's on clearance. Here's a bunch of sale chicken livers.

December 1st came and went

I told DH I would have Jacob's room cleaned out and organized by December 1st. Around November 30th, I said I needed an extension due to extenuating circumstances. Our 19 year old dryer broke last week. And our 2 year old washer had something wrong with it too. So we bought super fancy Dryer #1 (and new fancy top loading washer) - and it was delivered the next day. It didn't fit so the delivery men took both back. Those high efficiency monstrosities are designed for someone with a laundry room, not a closet. But DH had checked the dimensions and thought they would fit. Wrong. Since the washing machine was out in the garage (I helped move it), DH saw what the problem was and fixed it in 2 minutes. Then back in the house it went. The next day, he goes to Lowes and buys Dryer #2 - and get this - doesn't measure the width, he only measured the depth. He buys it and brings it home himself. As the old broken dryer was sitting next to Dryer #2 in the garage, I could tell just by looking at it that Dryer #2 was wider. Yep, by two crucial inches. He thought they were all standard sized. We lug it into the house, and surprise surprise, it doesn't fit. Back to Lowes to return it and buy Dryer #3. Third time was the charm.

My 1990 house is not designed for modern day appliances. When we replaced our fridge, and wanted a stainless one, we had once choice that would fit and that's it. The cabinet above the fridge was too low.

Our washing machine and dryer sit in a big closet behind bi-fold doors in the kitchen. So there is just so much room for them. As you can imagine, I have a ton of stuff stored in that area which I had to remove for dryer #1 - which I knew would sit up higher. So I cleaned out all the stuff (except for top shelf) and figured I might as well spackle the holes, sand it and paint, so I did that too.

Anyhow, what I want to ask is, if you are a woman and reading this, how many times have you helped your DH or significant other lug washers and dryers out of your house? My husband thinks that women seem to do this all the time and I should just stop whining. I told him to ask his female coworkers how many times they've help lug washers and dryers out of their house and most likely their answer would be 0 or once at most. I lost count of how many times we did it last week. First to remove the broken dryer, then he tinkered with it, and then we moved it back in to see if it was fixed. Nope. So back out in the garage. Same with the washing machine etc etc. It was just constant back and forth it seemed. Buying new appliances, returning them etc etc etc. Glad I finally got a new dryer that fits and works. And get this, there is even a light inside the dryer. For the past 19 years I've had a dryer with dark enamel interior and no light. Now I have a dryer with a white interior and a light - it's a million times better.

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I signed up to sell at an indoor yardsale this Saturday (you are all welcome to come buy my junk at the Southern Community Center in Lusby from 8am to noon). But I think it will be my least organized yardsale ever. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me pricing stuff, finding stuff to sell and loading up the car.

I won fudge!

Well I haven't started my Alli diet yet, good thing, since I won the above fudge from entering a bloggy contest The blog may say Bittersweet Punkin, but I know her as Schmoopy from my message board. Check out her blog - she's doing a different bloggy giveaway once a week until Christmas.

I had my choice of fudge flavors, and I chose peanut butter (since peanut butter is full of protein and I'm all about eating healthy).

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I had fun shopping on Black Friday - and this time next year, I'll be able to include Kohl's in my Black Friday shopping itinerary. (Our new Kohl's should open within 6 months). Even though the nearest mall is an hour away, I am not hurting for Black Friday shopping opportunities in my local area. Last Friday I hit: Staples, Lowes, Hallmark, Walmart, Bath & Body Works, JC Penneys, 2 CVSs, Dollar Tree, thrift store, BJ's Warehouse, Walgreens, Chick-fil-a.