I'm Chris and I am addicted to yard sales, garage sales, thrift stores and bargain hunting in general. Visit my site yardsalequeen.com - which I started in 1996.
"Smile" and "VV" (Vintage Value) are the names of two thrift stores I regularly shop at.
I grew up in Clifton Park NY but now live in Lusby, MD. I also lived in other exciting locales such as Schenectady, Watervliet (NY), and Charleston, SC.
Back in June, my entourage and I took a trip to Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Some people would call that a vacation, but when you are doing a roadtrip to visit relatives, it's more like a trip. A vacation is when you fly or cruise somewhere warm and have beverages with little umbrellas in them.
Well we did a bunch of stuff and I took a bunch of pics. I will try to get some sort of order.
My mother-in-law took me to a place called the Yellow Barn. It was a barn full of stuff for sale. What was unusual about the place was that it was a combination thrift store/golf driving range/ and bar for old men.
Outside of the Yellow Barn
Old men enjoying themselves at the bar.
Somewhere in some small town in Wisconsin
At a park across the street from our hotel. Did not use El Stinko's facilities but I don't think they will ever be sued for false advertising.
While in Minneapolis - I saw this and yelled PRINCE!!!! ooooh oooooooh!
Jacob sporting a .25 Twins (TC is for Twin Cities) hat - purchased the day before at a thrift store. There were some pretty good thrift stores in Wisconsin and I found some good buys including a vintage blue portable typewriter that is destined for ebay. That is one advantage over flying, you can haul back as much junk as your car can hold.
My mother in law's friend's antique store. When visiting the metropolis known as Siren, Wisconsin, I highly recommend that you visit The Grey Parrot Antique Store and if you see the owner - a lovely lady named Peeta, tell her the yardsalequeen says hi.
The Grey Parrot - a small cute shop with a ton of stuff crammed in.
The had a huge pool, but the temp was sorta chilly. I asked one of the front desk clerks if they ever raised the temperature up a notch or so. Her response was, and I quote "We don't like to dick around much with the temperature".
Lots of dead animals as decor.
This is as close to camping as I will get.
One day we went to a cheese festival at Burnett Dairy . My kinda place! At the festival, they had lots of free samples, bands, contests, and lots of cheese etc. They even had samples of the cheese that they make that is $49.99 a pound. I guess I am not much of a cheese connoisseur because I would take some fried cheese curds over $49.99 cheese anyday.
Best part of the dairy festival was ....drum roll ... they had a yard sale! Well sorta like a yardsale at least. The dairy place also owns a hardware store and they all sorts of stuff for sale at 75% off. Yes, even at a hardware yard sale, I can find stuff that I needed to buy and come home with me.
And in Wisconsin, I hit a few yardsales.
From the looks at that warped table, I'm guessing it wasn't their first yardsale.
Stuff in the barn was for sale too.
And even did a little bit of retail shopping. The small town had a Ben Franklin. The owner explained it had gone out of business years ago but someone new purchased the trademark name and opened some stores back up.
Unfortunately I missed the Thrift Store Party that was being advertised in the newspaper.
Nearby small town of Minong Wisconsin is home to the Jack Links jerky company. We found the store that sells all the factory seconds and overruns. Nothing but second best for my husband!
Carts o' jerky.
Also went to a Muskie (fish) festival. Apparently it's a fish you don't eat. So it wasn't like they were selling Muskie fish fries or anything. It was in the town of Hayward, Wisconsin. That was a cool little town.
Time to make the candy in Hayward.
Thrift and antiqes store in Hinckley, Minnesota. I think I bought a small Christmas troll there for my collection.
Brat Sale
I hope you enjoy this picture. We probably got undiagnosed Lyme disease traipsing thru the weeds for this photo shoot.
Day trip to Duluth Minnesota. Lift Bridge is in the background.
Pool at the second hotel we stayed at St. Croix Casino. Because a family trip isn't complete unless we stay at least a few nights at a casino.
Chillin in the Leinie Lounger.
St. Croix Casino in Danbury, Wisconsin. Not St. Croix in St. Croix. boo hoo.
On the way home. My Chicagoland contesting friend Susan hooked us up on the VIP floor at the hotel near her house thru a contest she had won.
here's a little video I took while standing underneath the Lift Bridge in Duluth while it was lowering.
By January, I hope to post about our trip we took in August.
David Cassidy was in the news recently when he got pulled over in upstate New York for a traffic stop which resulted in a DWI - see newstory here. He has had trouble in the past with alcohol - so I want to publicly state that if he needs a designated driver, I can get that arranged. My sister, who lives in Saratoga Springs NY can be at his beck and call, if I give her the word. She is always hauling my mom to the Saratoga Raceway and Casino all the time anyway, so she won't mind having another passenger to drive around.
Well seeing David in the news again made me remember that our four year anniversary is coming up. It will be four years next month that I got to rummage around in his stuff and bounce on his bed - at his moving sale that was held in a vacation rental home in Saratoga Springs NY.
So in-case you didn't read my blog back then, here is a blast from the past:
Me in my Sexy David Cassidy owned hat In this blog post, I alluded to a rumor I had heard but I didn't come out and say it since it was a rumor. Well now I will say it: the rumor was that David was getting divorced. In the article I read today, when he got pulled over, he was with his fiance.
I saw this bit of news on the news-scrolly thing on Good Morning America the other day and I thought, I can be of service! Philadelphia, I'm here for you. Don't squander your jackpot of 50 bucks, I can stretch those 50 bones and make it seem like it's $100.
As you may know, I love storage. Because storage is stuff that can be used to store even more stuff. Look for me on an upcoming episode of Hoarders. Just kidding. I don't answer the door when I see the Hoarder's camera crew on my front porch.
Here's what I purchased last week for $15. Some dead person's ugly green cabinet. The front door opens and it has a shelf inside. I am confident in saying that it belonged to a dead person because I bought it at a yardsale at an assisted living community. Once a person goes to the big yardsale in the sky, their family takes what they want and leaves the rest. The remaining stuff gets sold and the money goes to activities etc for the other residents.
I plan on painting it, so here's the "before" picture. But until I paint it, I put it in it's new location to see how it would fit. I hope to have it repainted before the end of the decade.
It's August and the other night I managed to get some back-to-school clothes shopping done and some Christmas shopping done all in the same trip.
In an ideal world, everyone on my Christmas list would love to get yardsale purchased Christmas presents from me. But as we all know, this is not a perfect world and some people - people who I am actually related to - enjoy receiving gifts that were purchased new in a retail environment. Can you imagine??? Most times I compromised and they get both. Something new and something that has a history.
I am happy with my Kohl's shopping trip the other night. This is what $16.98 got me - 8 beach towels and 2 pairs of shorts for the boy. Or should I say teenager. He is growing as I speak and this was probably one of the last times I get to shop the "boys" section of Kohl's, rather than adult male section. By breaking it down into two transactions, I saved more money since I could use the "save $10 off a $30" transaction coupon that I had PLUS an additional different "save $10 off a $30" transaction that the cashier gave to me. And no, those are not lady-like coral colored shorts for Jacob. It's a pair of manly salmon colored shorts for Jacob.
Some of the towels will go to sister (who has a pool) and my sister in law (who likes going to pools). Last summer I remember my sister complaining that all her beach towels were all threadbare and needing replacement. And since neither one of them visits the blog (it would cut into their CandyCrush time), they will be surprised.
Tomorrow I will show you my "new to me" ugly green hallway cabinet furniture thingy.
I am having a busy summer, so my blog posts have been few and far between but I have to brag about a recent purchase. In a store. Yes, you read that right.
I found and purchased bulk dehydrated marshmallows - the kind that are in Lucky Charms. No more buying boxes and boxes of Lucky Charms just to throw away the yucky cereal part for the glorious dehydrated marshmallows! I had to travel out of state to find them, but I think I have purchased enough to last a while. They may not be the ones that are in Lucky Charms but perhaps the Malt-O-Meal brand equivalent instead, but they taste just as good.
I have a wide variety of interests: going to yard sales, garage sales, thrift stores, estate sales and rummage sales. Drinking rum and diet coke. After I had my son Jacob in 2000, I quit my job at a nuclear power plant after almost 10 years. Now I just sit home, eat bonbons and drink way too much diet coke. And plan my Saturday routine.
