Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Black Friday thoughts by yardsalequeen debbie downer

I am really not liking that so many stores are opening at midnight on Black Friday. I hope next year they go back to the regular get up at the crack of dawn sales instead. I know this sound morbid but I think we are going to be hearing about crazy things happening because of the stores opening at midnight. You know, things like parents locking up their sleeping babies in cars while they shop. The drunk drivers having more targets to hit at midnight and so on.

So anyway, just thought I would do a quick upbeat blog posting. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Why I love shopping at Staples, and my $3 Waterford Crystal candy dish - oh my!



Where else can you walk out of a store with a bunch of stuff and pay nothing and it's legal? And you want to know what's funny?? Looking at the receipt now, I see I was even overcharged! I only bought two packages of bungee cords at .70 each and I see the cashier accidentally scanned one of them twice so there are 3 on the receipt. Note to self: start scrutinizing every cashier's every move at every transaction for the rest of my life.

The stuff I bought was on clearance. .50 for a package of Mrs. Field's cookies? Insane. Only flavor on clearance was macademia nut. I found one package on the endcap with the other clearance items. But then I had the brilliant idea to check the shelf where the other regularly priced Mrs. Fields cookies were located and found another Macademia Nut cookie package mixed in with the others. Man am I good. Welch's fruit snacks were clearanced to .50 a box and all had good expiration dates.

I paid using one of my Staples rewards checks. I get them monthly for recycling ink cartridges there. And I also buy my printer ink at staples so I get ink reward checks for those too. I just picked up a bunch of printer cartridges at a yardsale yesterday. I paid $2 for this whole lot:



Spray paints, weed killer, full bottle of outdoor bleach etc. Also included about 8 ink cartridges which either I will sell on ebay (since they are new/unused) or recycle at Staples and get a $16 reward ($2 per cartridge, up to 10 cartridges per month).

And I had some other great buys yesterday. Like this stuff


$2 hourglass - oh my!, $5 crock, $3 Waterford Crystal candy dish, .50 heavy duty scissors and a .50 male hula dancer (surprisingly, I do not already own one). Here's another pic of my candy dish that weighs 4 lbs.


And for $5 I got this awesome corner cabinet, with storage. You know I love storage.


It will replace the junky wooden corner shelf currently in my kitchen. Ooops I mean, it will replace the lovely vintage sturdy rustic solid wood corner shelving unit which was probably handmade with love by a talented Amish craftman at my next yardsale for big bucks.

No, we don't use that camping coffee pot or whatever it is, we use it for storing keys that we don't know what they go to. And I will have to find a new home for my Griswold cast iron witches cauldron since I won't get rid of that - you just never know when someone needs to have a spell cast on them.

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Garage Sales in the Snow - visit to upstate NY & Burlington VT

Here's a re-cap from my trip from last week:

Thursday night - flew from Baltimore to Albany, New York - where it was snowing. Good thing I packed my windbreaker.

Friday - went to a few garage sales in the snow. Remember, these are hearty New Yorkers - a little bit of snow is not going to send people into a panic, like it would in Maryland. Took my mother shopping in the afternoon and on Friday night went to a casual reunion get-together at a local watering hole.

Saturday - went to a few more garage sales in the morning. Dropped my mom off at the casino and went to a few garage sales/estate sales with my sister in the afternoon. Garage sales in New York don't close up early at noon or 1pm, like they do in Maryland. Saturday evening was the school reunion event, held at a large hotel. Dinner, dancing, photobooth, the works. I had fun. DH stayed home in Maryland with Jacob. It started to snow heavily while driving to the reunion. And was still snowing when I left after midnight. So basically it was like I got a free refresher course in driving in snowy conditions. And as a bonus, I earned extra points since I was driving my mom's rear wheel drive Buick Century. I'm an excellent driver.

Sunday - drove with my sister to Burlington, Vermont (2 hour drive each way) to spend the day shopping, eating and visiting my niece (her daughter) who lives there. No snow there. Got back to my mom's around 11pm. My niece lives in a cool apartment on Church Street, which is Burlington's downtown with little shops and restaurants. I even purchased something at full price. At a jewelry store, I bought a pair of earrings made by Baked Beads I see on their website the pair I bought sells for $16.50 online and at the jewelry store I only paid $13.99 so I did get a deal without trying!

Monday (Halloween) - flew home to Maryland. I should be sad since Jacob is growing up and had no interest in going trick or treating, but I was glad since I was pooped.

And now for some pics:

Woke up Friday morning and looked out at my old backyard:


going garage saling




a few of my buys: $1 shoes, .50 picture frame, .50 hook (to hold a birdfeeder), .50 pair of speakers and $3 Crate & Barrel new travel bag with accessories. I left some of the stuff at my mom's to bring back when I have my car there.


My sister testing out a personal steam sauna at an estate sale. She did not buy it.


yardsale at vintage house in Saratoga


Driving to Vermont. Miles and miles of farmland:


animals in fields:


and of course, clowns.


On the drive there, we stopped at one big disorganized fleamarket/junk sale. It was awesome.


My niece's apartment building in Burlington. Her doggy is in the window watching the goings-on down below.


Like a guy wearing a mask, blowing a didgeridoo, and beating a cymbal. No, he wasn't Occupying Burlington - those people were a couple of blocks away. This is just the part of the normal stuff that goes on in Church Street.


So proud - my niece and her shoe collection. I admire her storage capabilities and love of shoes.


A trip to Vermont is not complete without enjoying some Schweddy Balls.


And a trip to Costco (since I don't have one nearby). I didn't buy the $29.99 bear but I had to have my pic taken with one since I saw that my hero Clark Howard bought one for hottie Anderson Cooper.


About to go do some Goodwill hunting in Burlington:


Church Street in Burlington at night.


Oh from my other blog post - here's a closeup of my Bitch kit.


Flying home to Maryland. Yeah for Southwest offering a complimentary adult beverage on Halloween.


Enjoying my rum and coke (my drink of choice). The flight attendant called me "astute" for noticing the complimentary cocktail blurb. Being astute is better than being cheap.


And oh, almost forgot to add some juicy reunion pics. Like my dessert:


Oh sure, I'd bet you'd like to see my photo-booth pictures taken with 6 different men, but what happens at the reunion, stays at the reunion!

Wear opened toed shoes in the snow? Of course! Leaving the reunion to find my mom's snow covered Buick Century in the parking lot.


p.s. Burlington Vermont has the nickname of "Queen City". If they had known I was visiting, I'm sure they would have given me given me keys to the city, but I was traveling incognito and wanted to spend quality family/shopping time and not deal with all the media.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

back from my high school reunion - Shenendehowa Class of 81 reunion

I returned from my high school reunion late yesterday afternoon. For some odd reason, all the info had "Shenendehowa Class of 1981" written on it. I hope the reunion committee got their money refunded since it was obviously a typo. If I had graduated in 1981, that would make me in my late 40's. And we all know, I am soooo much younger than that!

Had a busy, busy weekend. On my hour flight to Baltimore yesterday, apparently I napped a little. When I arrived in Baltimore, the guy next to me on the plane said "boy, you were OUT. If we had crashed, they would have found you walking around the plane wreckage asking "what happened???"

And of course I went garage saling over the weekend. Sure there was snow on the ground, but that doesn't stop hearty New Yorkers and their garage sales. I took a ton of pics which I will post later. But today I have some half priced Halloween shopping to do!