Ice Cream, Pretzels and Atlantic City

Here's a bunch of pictures from a mini-vacation we took way back in August. I think I have my computer working fine now (knock on wood). For our mini-vacay, we only spent 2 nights away but we crammed it full (just the way I like my life in general!) First day - drove to Pennsylvania (a couple of hours away) and stopped at the Turkey Hill Experience. Jacob loves Dutch Chocolate Turkey Hill ice cream so I figured we would make a quick stop. I didn't want to actually PAY to go thru the Experience (I read some bad reviews) so we just looked around in the part that was free, took some pics, ate some ice cream and bought a few souvenirs in their gift shop. I'm not going to pay $11.50 per person to go thru some fake manufactured touristy experience when a Ben & Jerry's tour only cost $3. And it's better ice cream. (I think I may be in Vermont later this month.)


Next stop was learning how to make pretzels (another one of Jacob's favorite foods) at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery.



Then we had some time before dinner so I'm like "let's go into Lancaster and find an Amish market or something". I should have done some research beforehand. Because we ended up instead finding the seedy part of downtown Lancaster - and there wasn't a single Amish in sight. Drove right passed the Lancaster jail (no, I didn't ask if they gave free tours). So we gave up on finding an Amish market and just went out to dinner and relaxed at the hotel pool in the evening. Here's Jacob pretending using a pay phone - no doubt there for the Amish to use.


Next day, we got up and drove to Atlantic City. As we were leaving the Lancaster area - we spotted the Amish places - guess what? They live outside the city on farms. Who would have thunk it?? It was about a 4 hour drive or so to mini Sin City. We checked into the Showboat Casino. DH headed for the craps table and Jacob and I took a walk to the Abescon Lighthouse



Bonus points if you can read Jacob's t-shirt. No fair googling it. The woman working the temporary tattoo parlor on the Atlantic City boardwalk knew what it said. The shirt came from the Salvation Army during one of my trips back home. I think I paid $1.99 for it (new, with the tag so I know what it says). Notice that yellow round thing on top of the lighthouse? After you climbed the bajillion steps to the top, you could walk around outside.

View from the top of the Abescon Lighthouse:


Outside of the Showboat Casino. The big casino being built next door is called Revel. It's not open yet - it looks amazing. I really liked the location of our hotel. I was glad it was close to walk to the lighthouse and semi-close to the amusement park area.



Jacob won 2 angry birds. I don't even want to know how much they cost.


This wasn't my first time to Atlantic City - I used to go with friends pretty frequently in my single days. But never rode one of those push carts. So Jacob and I did that in the evening - I had been so tired from walking all day. I didn't even mention the couple of hours I had to myself where I went shopping!



One store I found on the boardwalk was nothing but pure junk. I think I spent $10 there on various items. Of course I need some $1 umbrella hats and a $1 Atlantic City hat for Jacob and some expired energy drinks. I passed on these vintage bubbles - I remember these from my childhood! They were .25 each and were very goopy and gross.


Outside the Showboat.


On the last day of the mini-vacay, we woke up in Atlantic City and then drove down the coast of New Jersey, stopping in Margate City to see Lucy the Elephant





Then continued driving down to Cape May, NJ and saw their lighthouse. Did not climb. Climbing one was enough for this trip.



Then in Cape May, boarded the Cape May ferry. That took us to Lewes, Delaware and from there it was about another 4 or 5 hour drive home (to relax!).

My Current Dilemma, Part 2

I'm having problems with my computer's picture software - so no pics until I figure it out. (I think what is happening is that my hard-drive is so chockablock full that I'm unable to see thumbnail pictures and instead have to individually click on pictures by file name (such as DSC5847, DSC5848 and so on). And doing that is a major pain.

I love my new freezer. Now I am glad the old one broke. But I had to unload my entire shelving unit full of stockpiled pantry items - to move the shelf - so the new freezer would fit. Hypothetically speaking (of course), it's normal to have 8 cans of sweetened condensed milk, right?

My Current Dilemma

I've been so busy the last few weeks with school starting up, shopping, cleaning up from Hurricane Irene, shopping, exercising (yes - I've used my treadmill more over the past 2 weeks than I have the past 10 years (I signed up to go to my HS reunion next month!!!) and doing even more shopping that I haven't posted much lately. But now, here is my current dilemma:

Remember my organized chaos picture from a few years ago? Click here for a reminder. Long story short - the freezer has died. It is 24" wide and fits nicely into its current spot. New freezers are all 28" wide and won't fit into that spot. We bought a new freezer today. Needless to say, I have some re-organizing I need to do.

It wasn't worth to get our old freezer fixed. We bought it new around 1993 or so and it wasn't frost-free. So over time, ice would build up and then it would have to be defrosted. But now - the new freezer which I got a great deal on from Sears (had a 25% off coupon plus they threw in an extra 5% off). With tax, it came out to less than $400 plus it has all the bells & whistles. Frost free - now that was worth it in itself!, digital temperature control, interior light - none of which our old freezer had.

But now I just have a bit of work to do to get it to fit in the old freezer's same spot. Stay tuned for an updated "organized chaos" photo.

Don't worry, Atlantic City pics are still on their way. I haven't forgotten.

Cocks Road

Yeah! My computer is fixed! A new $20 power supply thingymajig did the trick. I still need to find time to write a blog post. So until then, just enjoy this blast from the past. Supposed to have been Cox Road.

How the hell

How the hell can this be September and me not have a single blog post to show for it??

My computer is dead. It better just be temporarily dead since I have years of pictures stored on it. I am using a laptop now - so I don't have access to pictures. I know you are waiting patiently to see my latest vacation pics. I am waiting to receive a new power supply for my computer.

I also have years of old (mostly unanswered - my bad) emails stored on my computer since I use Microsoft Outlook for my main yardsalequeen.com comcast email account. So, if you emailed me within the past month or so and haven't heard back, you probably won't hear from me in a while. I can read current email thru the comcast website (but past emails are on my harddrive). I know I promised one tv producer guy I would do something (make a short video) and that has been put on hold until I get my regular computer working.

I have an update to the weird looking cat I saw in my yard a few weeks ago. Of course I am not 100% sure if it was the same weird cat or not. But if not, it was a twin. Rocky wasn't feeling good so the nice man at Animal Control took him away. He said he was going to a wonderful place called rainbow bridge where he'd get to play with other weird looking cats just like him. So I am happy about that. I will show more pictures of Rocky later when I get my computer fixed.

Day 3 of no electricity

So Hurricane Irene cancelled all the yardales this past Saturday morning because it was raining so hard and then in the evening we lost electricity and haven't had it back since. (I am currently at a secret undisclosed location where I can use a computer).

Hopefully we will get power back today, fingers crossed. And hopefully schools will be open SOON!!!

Our $149 HP Touchpad Deal

So last Saturday as we are driving to Pennyslvania, my DH says something like - starting today there is a deal on HP TouchPads - the price has been slashed from $449 to $149 - we should try to get one. I had never heard of this deal before but if it includes stopping at a store to do some shopping, I'm in. First we stopped at Walmart - they had none. Then we stopped at Staples where they were $449 and they didn't have any on the shelves. BUT a very helpful employee offered to order us one, have it delivered to our local store and they would honor the Walmart $149 price (for a 32g).

So we ordered one and yesterday it arrived and we picked it up.





And I picked up my 300 free personalized mailing labels (from an email coupon I got) while I was there.

Note to self: earthquake proof the royal throne area

I've had a busy past few days - took a mini vacation with the family (more on that at a later date) so I missed yardsaling on Saturday. We got home on Monday night.

Yesterday I was home alone (the guys had gone golfing) and I was making up for lost computer time when I heard the house creaking and cracking. My first earthquake! It seemed like it was just out of the movies - you know when they show an earthquake scene with glassware rattling. Then it stopped and I did what seemed logical - posted it to my personal Facebook page at 1:52pm "I think I just felt an earthquake!". The earthquake hit at 1:51pm. Then resumed surfing.

I didn't check my upstairs royal throne area until later in the day and found this. My Longaberger basket full of stuff that was on the back of the throne fell spilling the contents. So now I better earthquake proof my house since I need to keep all of my half full bottles of lotions and medicines I don't use. If you come to my house and need a bandaid or are bleeding profusely and need a box of bandaids, I'm your person.

Now who wouldn't want soiled clothing???

Although it sounded very tempting (haha), I did not buy any soiled clothing last weekend.

Instead here are some other buys of mine:



$2 NWT Kohl's bathingsuit for Jacob
$5 lot: wicker basket, gameboy (for resale at Play N Trade), embroidered bib, scrabble game (I'm collecting a bunch of tiles - to sell on ebay to crafters), heavy duty plastic birdbath (not in picture)
.50 blue thing is a Tupperware container for small odds & ends
.50 vintage Tupperware ketchup & mustard containers
.50 German Shepherd socks (ebay)
$3 new Longaberger candle
$1 - green mesh ball thing is a birdfeeder
$2 - lot of California Raisins
.50 - vintage cartoon glasses
.50 pedometer

Here Kitty Kitty

During summertime, when schools are out, I usually curtail my thrift store shopping. I don't totally eliminate it, but I do cut down. I am glad I stopped into my favorite thrift the other day and bought a few items, including this Good Luck Kitty tin for .50 (it originally held some sort of candy and was made in England by George Horner & Company.) I also bought myself a new bottle of Gwen Stefani LAMB shower gel for $1.

I love shopping at my local thrift store - you never know what you will find - anything from vintage stuff to current stuff and at cheap prices. I am not a big fan of chain thrift stores (like Goodwill or Salvation Army), I prefer the small independently run thrift stores. Don't get me wrong, if I am near a Goodwill or Sal's, I will stop in, but it's not my favorite.

The countdown for back-to-school has begun!

The scary clowns are back

If you weren't scared by the scary clowns I bought at a yard sale the other week, here they are again. But one somehow got decapitated; I think the one on the left is guilty.

Yardsales this past weekend were so-so. I now have horns. It's not something you typically find at a Maryland yard sale. It was $5. Will resell on Craigslist or something.



Another buy was this handmade unused bird-feeder for $1. I am kicking myself because the seller had two (but I liked this one better). For a buck I should have also bought the second one.



I hate typos. Now I don't want to hear about any of MY typos, my forte is finding typos in other people's writings. You can't imagine how much gas I wasted trying to find Cestnut Drive! ;)



Speaking of typos, I saw this on Good Morning America and cringed. The girl who wrote "Good Morning Amarica" on her sign should have been banished to the back of the crowd.


Better late than never, here's a pic of some of my buys when I visited New York in June. Some old meter thing $5, new Dansk silverware $2 and a $10 Canon Canonet camera. I had an identical camera in high school and loved it and this camera still has a good value on the resale market (+$100)

My reincarnated Whiskey Dog is famous again

I saw my reincarnated Whiskey dog yesterday - he's appearing in a full length movie - Spy Kids 2. Here's a picture from the commerical. I'll watch it when it's on tv and fast forward to get to his scenes.

Reason #749 - Why Yard Sales are so Awesome

Reason #749 - Why Yardsales are so Awesome

You can buy stuff you never knew you wanted, needed or existed. Like this Virgin Mary Toast maker for .25 (at that price, the bread was not included).

Yard Sale Buys, Critters and Martina McBride

Here's some of the stuff I bought last Saturday. Prices ranged from free to the most expensive thing - $5 for the old typewriter and the ream of paper. I thought it was odd that the seller said "oh the paper goes with the typewriter", as if I'm actually going to use the typewriter and will be needing the pink paper to type on. Well duh - of course I won't be using the typewriter, it doesn't have a ribbon. If the typewriter model isn't anything special, I will remove the letters & numbers and sell just the keys to some crafty person. The Fireking Jadeite dishes were $5. Next expensive item was the double sided Hooters flag for $3. Pyrex was .50 each (with lids!)

Majority of the things were .25 or .50. For .25 each, I had to buy the scary beaded clowns. And I got some more vintage spice tins to add to my collection.




And as I said in my previous post, I had some critters in my yard recently. Including this weird looking stray feral cat who ate sunflower seeds that had spilled on the ground. I've named the stripey stray cat Rocky (since it's one of my all time fav movies.)



My other little friend is my pet dragonfly who visits from time to time. He doesn't like to be petted much.




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Last Saturday night I did my volunteer bartending gig for a Martina McBride show. She is awesome. Somehow I got assigned to the super busy bar but I managed to take a few breaks here and there. There was no photo line, but they did allow people to get up close to the stage near the end of the show. Here's some pics and videos:






Song list:


Opening act was Courtlyn Carr. I was busy bartending so I didn't see any of her show. But afterward she stayed around and signed autographs and took photos. Good thing I changed my clothes at the last minute before leaving the house because I almost wore the exact same outfit! How embarrassing would that have been.

It's official - there's a new sheriff in town

and she's here to buy your junk.

quick update

I know I've been a bad blogger lately and I'll try to do better. So this will just be a quick blog post until I have more time to write. Since I last blogged, a few things happened. I had some critters in my yard. Pics to follow. I did a sleep test and was electroded all up from scull to legs. Oh yeah, that makes you sleep well. I even have myself a "Wellness Coach" now. I kid you not. Why? Why do I do anything? Cuz it's free thru our health insurance.

The people at the Nate Berkus tv show got in touch with me. Again. How annoying. Just kidding. I sleep on my Nate Berkus pillow every night. Well actually it is just Nate Berkus pillowcases (bought on clearance when Linen N Things went out of business, but still). Last year they called me of the blue about the possibility of being on one of their first episodes. I never mentioned it until now. Of course the taping was going to happen when we had our big Los Angeles/ Las Vegas / train trip from hell vacation. And they recently got in touch with me about possibly doing something at the Worlds Longest Yardsale weekend which will be the first weekend in August. The taping is of a decorating challenge - really not my thing. If they wanted me to teach someone how to clutter up a room in no time flat, then I'm your person. But to decorate a room so it looks like it didn't come from a yardsale? Eh - don't think I would be good at that. I would be buying more Jesus Playing Baseball artwork. Or if I was lucky, finding another piece of artwork known in the art world as The Kramer. Plus, I have a family thing scheduled for next weekend that can't be changed.

What else. Oh I bought something really cool today for a quarter. I'm going to be eating Virgin Mary toast soon! Again, I am too lazy to take a pic now, but I will show off my toast soon.

here's a pic of my little gardening cart that I purchased the other week for $5 and it will full of tools:



p.s. My peat moss is still waiting for it's deployment.

Take a look at my caboose lantern

I had a good yardsaling day last Saturday. Bought a bunch of stuff. Including this old caboose lantern ($20), a big thing of peat moss ($1), some expensive backpack (the kind that someone would use for Amazing Race ($10), jug of Hoover rug cleaner (.50). Two packages of solar lanterns (8 lights) for $5, a Step 2 gardening rolling bench full of new hand tools ($5), very long tree trimming saw on poles ($2). The toilet paper came from an actual store, not a yardsale. But don't get me wrong, I HAVE bought toilet paper at a yardsale before, but this package just happened to be in my car when I took the pics.



At the moving sale where I bought the peat moss for $1 - afterward I heard the husband ask the wife - "Why didn't I ever deploy the peat moss?" And wife answered that he did but they had bought two and only needed one. So now I have my own peat moss that I will be deploying to my yard.




And last but not least, Jesus playing baseball for $1. You would think he would at least wear sandals for a little protection. And just think of the dirt. Ewww.

Drive-thru Tobacco Barn Yardsale

I drove right thru a barn last Saturday on purpose. It was to get to a yardsale. It was sorta like driving on a covered bridge, but there was no bridge. The seller had a "everything for $1 yardsale". I've been to their previous yardsales so I sorta knew what to expect regarding stuff (no antiques or fancy jewelry). But I did see something that looked like a crown so I had to buy it. It's like a big tacky crown shelf. But I realized that I was holding it upside down. So it's like a big tacky upside-down crown shelf. Anyhoo, I'm going to spray paint and hang it up anyway. Because I've been watching Nate Berkus, and I think this is what he means when rooms need architectural detail. Or not.

And at one of my thrifts, I took a chance on something and spent $15 on a motorcycle jacket. I think it will do pretty well on ebay. I also bought a singing McDonald's Filet-o-Fish for $1 - just because.

Here's pics of the tobacco barn (taken with my cellphone). Southern Maryland tobacco barns are on the endangered species list. Apparently, they are important and should be saved so that we can look at them and think about all the tobacco that was dried in there and made into cigarettes for people to smoke and get sick from.



lots of ventilation for the tobacco to dry




They converted one side of the barn to storage units for all their stuff. That's what I need.


My tacky crown shelf:

Thrifty, super cheap families wanted for TV show

I got the below email from a casting director looking for thrifty families in the Los Angeles area. So if it sounds like something up your alley, feel free to contact them. I don't know what the deadline is, but I assume they want applicants sooner rather than later.

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Is your family the thriftiest in America? Do you refuse to pay full price? Are you always on the lookout for the best deals?

Calling all coupon experts, yard sale fanatics, thrift store wizards, swap meet junkies and super savers for a brand new show on a major network! This show will be the chance to put your skills to the test in a fun competition and prove once and for all that you and your family are the ultimate bargain hunters!

If you live in the Los Angeles area and your family will do anything to save a buck please email your story and a family photo to Ellen Rakieten Entertainment: familycasting@rrstaff.com

Ok, so I'm in Redbook Magazine this month (August 2011 issue)

but instead of putting me on the cover (as I assumed they would), they put Jada Pinkett Smith. But if you read the article (page 132) at least they used someone who looks like me in the photo on the right hand side of the page (a young, skinny, attractive woman wearing a red off-the-shoulder blouse). And get this, I made a big error. I paid $3.99 plus tax actual CASH for it at Walmart. What the heck was I thinking? I should have gone to Walgreens (and used Register Rewards) or CVS and used my Extracare Bucks to pay for it at least.



I know I never have gotten around (yet) to posting my yardsale buys from NY or last week. So here at least is a photo of the stuff I bought last Saturday.

I am kicking myself over not buying something last week at a yardsale. One seller had about a half dozen brand new basketballs for $1 each. Just one was orange (which I bought) and they others were a weird blue/black combination color. But still they were brand new etc. I should have bought all of them and donated the extras to my son's summer camp, where I'm sure they wouldn't have turned down a donation of new basketballs. So that just reinforces my new mantra "when in doubt, buy it - especially if it's cheap".

Too lazy to talk about all the stuff individually , so just click on it and enlarge to see detail. A lot of the stuff I bought at one sale where I bought a bag full of stuff (nothing priced) and the seller told me it was $5 for all. The dog scrapbook was the most expensive thing ($3) for ebay. The Yahtzee game was new and $2 (will keep). Big remote (.75) will go to my mom who needs a big remote.

Patriotic Toilet Paper

I spotted this "patriotic toilet paper" at one of my thrifts a while back. No, did not buy. Is it just me, or should it be called unpatriotic toilet paper???

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You would be proud of me. I decluttered a bowl the other day. I was trying to shove my new Dunkin Donuts water bottle in a kitchen cabinet and while doing so, another bottle fell out onto the kitchen counter knocking a bowl to the floor into a million pieces. So congrats to me for uncluttering. AND bonus - the bowl was dirty anyway so no need to wash it.

p.s. Ooopsy, I forgot to mention, while I was in NY, I went to a Dunkin Donuts grand opening and I filled out an entry to win a gift set and I won. Ewww - coffee??? Gave it to my sister.

thrift store shopping in upstate new york

Also when I was in New York, I stopped at a couple of thrifts that I always visit. Doesn't the Salvation Army look so inviting?



When I saw the entrance, I thought maybe they had gotten word that I was visiting and in preparation had set up a special entryway with a moat, just for me, as yardsale royalty. It was lovely, but I told them they could use the special queen/moat entryway for all. It was in this store that I saw the phallic Christmas Castle a while back.



Vinny (my niece's cat) enjoying the $1 yardsale cat house I bought him.