Thursday, June 30, 2011

Garage Sales in Upstate NY

Ok ok, here's more excuses for my blogging absence. I was away last week in upstate New York to attend my youngest niece's high school graduation. The graduation ceremony was on a Friday morning so no garage sales for me that day - but I had all morning on Saturday to hit the sales and even on Sunday I went to a few plus an indoor Elks Club yardsale.

Here's a couple of pics of my trip. There is such a variety of homes in upstate New York. You name it, I've been to it. Yardsales where the homes are 100+ years old, community wide yardsales in mobile home parks and apartment complexes, and regular ole typical single family homes. And even at a celebrity's home. And I'll never forget shopping at one of my all time favorite moving sales - going to David Cassidy's moving sale.

On my way to yardsale - the final day of a 3 day sale.


And they still had a ton of good stuff left! I bought a cool pair of Mid-Century Modern S & P shakers for .75 and a picture frame for $1 (for my mom who told me to find her one).

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Busy busy busy

Well when the cat's away, the queen plays. I was living the single girl life for a couple of days when DH and Jacob went away on a guy's motorcycle trip. They drove to Luray Caverns in Virginia on Friday and came home on Saturday. So that equals two days of uninhibited shopping for me.

But first, let me show pics of what I bought last Saturday. This is the shoebox of stuff I got for $5. When I was getting it out for the photo, I found the handwritten note.



I also put a pair of a pair of wire-cutters into the box. It also had the man's high school awards.


The prophylactic booklet is from some toothbrush company called prophylactic.


Here's one thing I bought yesterday (believe me, I bought more but only had time for one picture). Its a Little Tikes toy box but people want them for their football parties to use as coolers etc. It was $5 and some on ebay (depending on condition) sell for $75+



And now since no one thanked me for not posting some non-pretty pictures in my last post and I got one request to show at least one non-pretty picture - I am posting TWO, because I aim to please.



You can click on the photos to enlarge them. To see all the gory details.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Yard Sale Queen Weekend Update

Last few days have been busy. Had Jacob's graduation ceremony from 5th grade to attend. Now I won't come right out and say it was boring, but I'm so glad I don't have to sit thru any more 5th grade graduation ceremonies. On Saturday (of course) I went to some yardsales. Most interesting thing I bought was a shoebox sized box full of interesting mementos from some soldier's WWII experience (metals, dog tags, things with swastikas on them, vintage souvenir booklets with photos from Italy etc etc.) I got all of that PLUS a railroad lantern and a 70's motorcycle magazine for $5. I asked the seller if the items had any sentimental value to her and she said no since it was stuff left in the house from the previous owner.

At another sale I took this photo of the truck in the driveway of the seller. There was a man and woman giving the sale, so I told the woman I liked the bumpersticker and the man said "that's not her sticker, it's mine". I did not buy their tub. Only thing I bought at that sale was a $2 Beatles Love cd which I will give to my sister. She saw the show last month in Vegas and loved it.



Here's some of my thrift store buys from last week. A Longaberger basket for .25 (it looks like it was washed or something - the Longaberger stamp on the bottom is barely visible. And 2 hairnets for .25 - to add to my hair net collection.



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Over the weekend, we stayed one night at our favorite local hotel. I got a special offer to stay one night for only $32. So I couldn't pass up that deal.



Our view from the room. There was a band playing from 4pm-8pm. In the evening, while the guys were relaxing in the room, I went down to the pier and watched some fishermen come in with their haul. Then saw what they do with the fish afterward. Ewwwwww. I have pics but they are not pretty.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

First for Women magazine



If you're waiting in line at the grocery store and have a few minutes to kill, check out the latest issue of First for Women (June 27th, 2011 date on cover) - page 86 to be exact to read some of my titillating tips on becoming a yardsale genius. I was also interviewed for a different article (same magazine) which will be out in August I think.

Speaking of grocery store lines - oye - what an experience I had yesterday. My grocery store has 3 self checkout lines - which are located further away from where the regular cashiers are at. So I'm waiting to self checkout and I hear a commotion going on in the next lane - with a woman calling for help. I look over and see a small child wedged between the side of the grocery cart and the wall and the woman (who is probably the grandmother) is getting hysterical. The child was screaming and I told the woman to calm down a second - the child can obviously breathe. And the woman says to me "But you don't understand - she doesn't listen to me!!!!!" I'm thinking "lady, get a grip, you can worry about that later".

An employee comes over and is trying to do something with the cart. So I step back and let the employee have space. Nothing is budging. The grandmother now starts screaming at the top of her lungs for help. So I go back over and thought that if the register wall could slide just a little, it may help. So I (still carrying my awesome purse of course) press my back up again the wall (where I drew the purple line) and then put my feet up against the other side and just pushed. I felt the wall start to tilt backwards some, so I pressed again harder the second time and the employee was able to get the girl out. Good thing I am sturdy like ox (thanks to my Polish & Ukrainian genes). And guess what happened afterward? That witchy grandma started yelling at the little girl. No thank you to anyone. By this time (I swear it seemed like forever but the whole episode probably only lasted 2 minutes from start to finish) the store manager finally got there and he told the grandma she needed to quit yelling at the kid.

The child was right in the little space on the left where it juts out a little by the electrical outlet.



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Had a nice little trip to my fav thrift today. For .25 I got 2 more vintage hairnets for wacky hairnet collection. And for .25 a Longaberger basket. Will post a picture tomorrow.

Thursday, June 02, 2011

What skin secrets involve using a butcher knife?



I saw this ad on some website I was on recently and it made my laugh. I wonder if they took the picture from some teenage slasher film.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Yard Sale at a McMansion

Last Saturday (Memorial Day weekend) I went a little further than I normally travel for yardsales because I heard of a huge church yardsale. And since there weren't many advertised near my house, I decided to go. Plus, I saw an estate sale classified ad which was near the church.

I went to the estate sale first since it opened earlier. I think it was mislabeled - since basically, it was an indoor yardsale or indoor moving sale. To me, an estate sale is a sale that occurs after someone has passed away and it includes everything that you would find in a house (food, half full boxes of detergent, furniture, books, clothing, collectibles, junk, stuff, odds and ends, doodads, and whatnots.) And if I'm lucky, vintage spice tins to add to my collection.

But before I got to the estate sale, I had to take a hike to get to it. You had to park up on the street and then walk down a super long driveway. They should have had valet parking. Seriously. They had the signs to prove that they've done valet parking in the past.

The sale was actually an indoor moving sale. But I guess calling it an estate sale makes it sound classier (to some, not me). Like the way Martha Stewart always calls a yardsale a "tag sale". But actually when I read "estate sale" it makes me think that it could be a professionally run sale with high prices. Like I said, this sale was more like an indoor moving sale with reasonable prices.

I believe this quaint 9000+ square foot house with pool will be going on the market soon, so it could be yours, for the right price. Of course I would love it since, I too, decorate much like this myself (of course!!), and have the same taste in architectural details but I prefer something a bit more upscale. Nothing but the best for the queen. But then if I lived there, I would have to drive a lot further to get to my favorite thrift store, so that ain't gonna happen.

The only thing I bought was an American Girl doll for $20. Although if you bought a lot, you were allowed to leave your merchandise so you could go retrieve your car and drive it up the house to load your purchases.

The start of the yardsale hike:


The journey continues.....


Finally arrived:


I couldn't get the entire ceiling in the pic so I did a separate pic of just the chandelier.




Main Kitchen area - some of those things on the ceiling are speakers.
I didn't take a pic of the second kitchen which was on the bottom level.




stuff in the garage for sale:


The church sale was very good. I did buy a bunch of stuff, but sorry, no pics. There were something like 78 vendors set up (each paying $25 a spot). Plus the church had their collection of stuff to sell. There were lots of customers too. A well organized yardsale with a good following/reputation can really earn a church or organization a lot of money.