I see dead people's clothes

While at Smile on Wednesday, as I was standing in line to check out (I've seen the line to check out be 20 people deep on a busy day; they just have two cash registers). Well anyway I was in line with one of my yardsale buddies. We got to talking about buying men's clothes at thrifts and my friend said "My husband doesn't like clothes from a thrift store, unless they still have tags, he thinks of it as dead people's clothes."

So I said that I didn't think of it that way at all, I think of it as people who either got too skinny or fat and can't wear the clothes anymore so they donate them.

Then yesterday I was at a different thrift (a non-profit that benefits low cost spay and neuter programs). Another shopper there recognized me and comes over to say hi. I didn't recognize her off the bat, she was older, slurred her words and walked with a cane. Then I recognized her from someone I used to see on occasion while working at the nuke plant. She told me was suffering from terminal lung cancer. Then she added "When I decide to go, I'm going to tell my husband to donate my clothes to this thrift, to help the animals". Boy did that shoot my fat/skinny theory down the tubes!

Speaking of Staples, look at what I bought for .53

At Staples today, I saw they had a bunch of stuff on clearance, including the rolling storage crate for $9.50 (reg. $19.99). So after my inkjet recycling coupons were taken off, I paid a whopping .53 So now I have two of them (you may remember that in my Aug 30 blog entry, I show my other one I bought for $2 being used as a kid transporation device).

My thrift store buys today

Had a good day thrifting - here's part of what I bought (didn't photograph any of the clothes, bought myself a $1 Crazy Horse sweater, a boy scout uniform shirt (.50) and some vintage Izod shirts with the alligator (.35 each), a Tommy Bahama t-shirt for me (.35), and probably some other clothes but can't remember offhand.

My other buys:
$1.50 each - two black storage boxes (when I was at Staples today I see they sell for around $16.50 each)
$3 - tall funky Ikea lamp
.50 Saab repair book
$1 - brand new looking lifevest for Jacob
$3 - Piglet costume
.25 each - promo pirate banners
.50 set of travel curlers
.75 - set of Kids K'nex
.50 - new (I took the lid off for the pic so you can see the seal hasn't been broken) jar of Avon Planet Spa detoxifying body mask
.50 Candy Land electronic game. At that price, I can't pass it up, especially when they have batteries already in it.

Bought myself new earrings today

Oval Cut Genuine London Blue 2.00 Carat Total Weight Topaz Loop pure Sterling Silver stamped .925 earrings, to be exact. I've been waiting to see the blue topaz ring I want on the jewelry website (I have linked on the side) but then I realized, I have no idea of my ring size! doh! I know its gotta be bigger than some of the size 6 rings they have, but I will go to a store and try on some rings to figure out what size range I'm looking for. BUT today I spotted the above earrings for $5.99 (that's the total cost - including shipping) and thought they looked nice. I'll let you know when I get them and what I think of them and see if they look like they do in the pic.

More on Gretchen Wilson concert

It was a lot of fun *working* at the concert, selling beer, wine and sodas. Volunteers got free soda & water. Prices were ridiculous, of course. $4 for wine, $4 for a cup of beer and $2 for cans of soda or water. So doing the math was pretty easy - and having my tons of yardsale experience in wearing a carpenter's apron and making change came in handy. The really ironic thing was, people were actually buying the $2 cans of soda and water. If they walked 30 feet away, there were two soda vending machines, selling large 16 oz bottles for $1.25. All the tip money went towards one of the museum's restoration projects. I was at a BJ's warehouse today and saw that a CASE of water, 35 bottles cost around $6.00. At $2 a bottle, that same case would have sold for $70 at the concert.

I definitely want to volunteer at future concerts. I couldn't sign up for the last one since Jeff was out of town on business (so no one around to watch Jacob).

Near the stage, there was a walkway allowed for taking pics close to the stage. But of course, getting a good concert pic is difficult at night with a little Sony digital camera, but I think these came out pretty good, considering. Afterwards I was kicking myself though - I should have taken Gretchen some flowers! A local florist has a coupon for a free rose with all the bells & whistles. I am sure Security would have let me hand her the rose (which of course I would have attached one of my yardsalequeen.com business cards). Oh well, next time, next concert I will think of that!

clips of Gretchen Wilson's performance at Solomon's Island Maryland 9/23/07

Here's a couple of short clips of the concert tonight that I took while on break - but believe me, right afterwards I got back to my volunteering and helped to quench the thirst of people in need of a cool beverage.

Junk, volunteering, and Gretchen Wilson

Here's pics of the junk I bought yesterday. One yardsale seller had a ton of older software at .25 a box. I bought a bunch of Playboy software thinking I can ebay it, and if it doesn't sell there, I know I'd be able to sell it at a yardsale for more. Sex sells baby. In the other pic are two Yankee Candles at $1.50 each, bottle of Liz Clairborne Realities .50, a couple of Pooh Brown Bag cookie molds .50 each, a Showbox photo frame $1 (for Jacob), .50 and .25 - two pieces of vintage Hull pottery, .50 each - two large storage bags.

Today I plan on doing some volunteering. I bet you didn't know that about me - that I volunteer. Oh yes, I believe in giving back to the community. I'm going to be bartender. There are so many thirsty people in the world that need my help - and I plan on helping them. The money raised will help benefit the Calvert Marine Museum in their educational programs etc, so basically you can say that I am helping to Save the Bay, one beer at a time. Please please - sit down, no need for the standing ovation.

My bartending skills (or lack thereof) will be during the Gretchen Wilson concert today that will be taking place at the Museum parking lot. I think I would rather be bartending than being packed in like a can of sardines. Here's a pic of a previous concert and how they set it up.

My favorite yardsale buy - Continued....

I'd like to introduce you to Rocky, my pet rock. Shhhhh...he's sleeping. I can tell that by the way he lays on his little kleenex blanket (when his original owners couldn't keep him any longer, I adopted him at the yardsale and he came with his little kleenex blanket). I am not like that - I think a pet should be a pet for life, you know a "forever home". Please forgive me for not using the politically correct term "animal companion" instead of "pet" but I don't think the term "animal companion" applies in this case.

Big Brother Finale tonight

Tonight is the finale for Big Brother - I think I mentioned this a while ago but I am a big reality tv addict. Dick & Danielle were not who I would have wanted as the final 2 by any means, but nothing I can do about it. I am hoping Dick wins and gambles it all way or spends it all on ciggys and beer.

One of my favorite yardsale buys - ever!

Just thought I'd share a pic of one of my favorite yardsale buys. Next to it is a penny to give you an idea of the size. I paid .33 for it.

It's great, isn't it!!?? I bought it about 10 years ago, at an indoor fundraising yardsale, I picked up three items (with this being one of them) and the organizer said it would be $1 for all. I can't remember the other two items I bought that day, but this is definitely a keeper.

Afternoon at the lighthouse

This weekend in Maryland was the annual lighthouse challenge. Its where people who are crazy about lighthouses plan to see all of Maryland's lighthouses in two days. Sounds pretty ridiculous to me - I mean if you are really into lighthouses, then wouldn't you want to spend more than a hour (or so) at each one before you have to hit the road again to see the next???

Anyhow with that going on, it means one of the lighthouses near us that is normally closed, was free and open to the public so Jacob and I went to it. We went last year for the first time. Above is a pic I took today. They plan on renovating the actual lighthouse keeper's house to rent out, like a B&B. But geez, the whole grounds is surrounded by a chain link fence with barbed wire on top. I think they would have to do something about that - otherwise it would seem like you are paying big bucks to stay at a prision (with a pretty view, except for the chain link fence)

Another Saturday, another yardsale

I had another yardsale today - so that makes it two Saturdays in a row. After having the highway yardsale last Saturday, I decided to check out having a yardsale at the local fairgrounds. Every Saturday the county fairgrounds turns into a combo flea market and yardsale, and they charge a $10 fee. I normally don't *shop* at it since it's a little out of the way for me and I prefer to go to regular yardsales at people's houses.

This past week I sorted thru my yardsale leftovers from last week and donated a bunch of stuff to Smile. Then yesterday I went around the house finding *new* stuff to add to my carload of stuff. I had left my table and yardsale supplies in my car from last week so I didn't have to unload and reload.

Today I made $112.One of the best things about today was that I didn't have to pay the $10 rental fee! The woman who collects the money came around and told everyone that because the weather wasn't that great this morning (it was overcast early on but turned sunny as the day wore on) and because they will be closed for the next three Saturdays due to the actual Fair going on, she didn't think it would be right (or fair - haha) to collect money this week. Works for me!

There is a dirt walkway that customers stroll down - people's space includes space on both sides of the walkway. Here's a pic of some of my junk - I liked the way I could see the hay bales in the distance.

Like jewelry?? Check out the ad on the left

Yesterday I found out about a place online that has pretty jewelry - and all you pay is $5.99 for shipping. One of the blue rings caught my eye and I was going to get it but I totally missed out - when you're on the website you can see the upcoming jewelry. And I saw the pretty blue ring but I misjudged the time. I will definitely get it - will have to watch for it again. And since they take Paypal it's will be convenient for me to pay. When I was in NY this summer, the stone came out of a ring that I bought in St. Croix - I can't remember the name of the stone but it looked like turquoise but it was bluer. I did save the silver band so maybe I can sell just the band to a silver dealer or something.

Actually with this jewelry, I'm thinking at that price, I may buy a few pieces to sell at a Parks & Recs yardsale that is planned for December. I could buy pieces for $5.99 and then mark it up to $10. I have a ton of fancy jewelry boxes (that I bought at a yardsale) so its something I'm going to think about doing.

Update for last two weeks

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog. I should start writing a little every day just to make it a habit. In the past couple of weeks: I did a "highway yardsale", went to yardsales, shopped at my thrift, did some Staples shopping and BJ's Warehouse shopping. I stopped at BJ's to see when my free 60-day membership expired - the free membership I wrote about here a little while back. I remembered that I never posted a pic of my wonderful pic on the BJ's ID card, so here it is. I have not edited the pic at all, that's how it appears. As it turns out the membership is good until the end of September, which I think is longer than 60 days. I may join on October 1st, I got a notice that my son's school is doing a fundraiser, join for $35 and get 15 months and the school gets a kick-back.

And as I was walking out BJ's I passed one of the lottery scratch off machines and saw a lottery card sitting there in the slot. (Maryland has some self-serve scratch-off lottery machines - you put in your money and you choose what type of scratch off you want). Anyhow no one was around, so I took it. I won $3. (And someone actually paid $3 for it and left it there - or maybe they were doing a random act of kindness, who knows.)

At Staples, I bought Jacob a nice backpack for school. Price: $39.99, sale price $29.99 - $20 rebate brings it down to $9.99. I used three $3 inkjet cartridge coupons to pay for it. So after the rebates, the cost will have been $2.04 (ok, I did spent .75 per $3 coupon ($2.25) so really it will have cost me $4.29. But I will be getting a % back of the $29.99 cost with my Staples Rewards Card. Actually it think I paid .60 per coupon, I can't remember but I know it was cheap. A while back I bought about 200 used inkjet cartridges on ebay - then I just take them to Staples for recycling and get the $3 coupon in exchange.




Last Saturday I did a "highway yardsale" - where people just set up mini-yardsales on the little deadend roads next to the highway. Got rid of some of the toys from the playpen. And last Saturday there were some EARLY yardsales starting, I went to one at 6am! and another started at 7:30. Then by 8am I was set up on the highway. Glad I went to the early yardsales. I bought a very nice almost new panini maker with a Williams & Sonoma panini cookbook for $5, a big McCoy bowl for $4, a trumpet for $10 and a bunch of cds for .25 each. I didn't notice the trumpet had a big dent in it, I sold it that very same day for $15 at my own yardsales and many of the CDs sold for $1 each.

Oh and I wanted to share these pics - when I was at the 6am indoor yardsale at a community center, I could see the sunrise so after I left, I drove to the beach and took these pics.

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day (well what's left of it anyway). It was a crappy Saturday for yardsales (as I thought it would be). On Sunday we took the Metro in DC for the day. Jacob has never ridden the Metro, or seen the monuments. And we didn't see many of the monuments anyway since they are so far apart. Mainly we just walked passed the Washington Monument, to the WWII Memorial (which I had never seen) and then walked thru most of the Museum of Natural History. And when I say "walked thru", I mean it, we walked through and barely stopped to look at anything. Amazing how he's Mr. Slow Pokey while walking from place to place outside dragging his feet, but then once we get inside a building, it's an instant transformation into Speedy Gonzales.





I made an agreement with my husband the other day - a contract of sorts. By 9/30/07 (yes, he was sure to specify the year), that by that date, I will have gotten rid of the playpen full o'toys that resides next to our dining room table (which we never use since its full of other type of clutter - but that's another subject for another day). So....I have my work cut out for me. Wish me luck - I need it. Here's my "Before" picture:

Yardsale Buys from last Saturday

Here are a few pics of stuff I bought last Saturday. One of the sellers I bought stuff from reads this blog from time to time, so I figured I'd show some of her former stuff in use. The vintage white handled curling iron was .50 and I have it displayed in my bathroom with others I have (one of which belonged to my mom). Also bought the rolling storage kid transportation device for $2.

Yes, those are red shoes for girls in the pic above. No, I won't make Jacob wear them (not his size anyway....). The brand name is Born and they are going up on ebay. They were $2 (a little "pricy" but I think they will sell for decent money).

Inside the wooden box is a bunch of Betty Crocker recipe cards from 1971 ($1 for the wooden box with the cards). Wow - what were they thinking when they photographed some of that food - really ickky looking. There is a website that is devoted to ugly pics of food that has appeared on these cards Ugly Food Website

I love Staples

Yes, I know I sound like a broken record, but I love Staples (boy, a statement like that makes me sound like I'm ready for the nursing home!) Today I got free colorized business cards, a $29.99 value. I had a coupon (that they mailed me) for 100 of the new do-it-yourself business card maker that they have.

I still have lots of my other free 1,000 business cards that I got from them, probably over a year ago (I blogged about it). But those I just use as *advertisement* for this website to put up on public bulletin boards and such, they don't have personal info like my email or address on them. So the cards I got today are more personalized. Got them so I can put them in the fishbowls at restaurants and win free lunches. Or if I'm at a cocktail party (hey, it *could* happen!) and someone asks "So what do you do?" instead of my usual "As little as possible", I can say "I am a Queen" and hand them my yardsale queen card.





Here I am as I would appear if I lived in Springfield (is that a thrift store I see further up ahead?? It's like a bad dream, I keep walking but never get to it). Know nukes!

Time for New Years Resolutions

Well today is the beginning of a new year - a school year that is. Today is the day I was to have my nose to the grindstone, getting the house in order, list a gazillion things on ebay and work on my grand plan to create world peace. Oh well, none of that got done. My friend called me at 10:30 (a friend who also sent her kid off to school today after a long summer) and we talked about going to out lunch. I told her not today since I was going to get my nose right on that grindstone.

Then about a half hour later, my husband called to see what my plans were today, since he was thinking of taking half day off from work, and did I want to go to lunch. Sure, the grindstone will still be there waiting. Went to Lonestar (one of our lunches was free since I have a lunch card thing that was fully stamped). Thankfully, there was no crying baby convention going on there.

Then I remembered seeing an ad for JC Penney's, some clearance sale. So we went there and didn't find a thing for me or Jacob, but my husband found three $4.97 shirts for himself. Also stopped at Food Lion and bought some of the Kid's Wonderbread and luckily it was on sale for $1.89. I hate paying full price for bread. Jacob hasn't eaten a PB&J sandwich all summer, but today he checked to make sure he had one for lunch.

The grocery stores I normally shop at are Food Lion and Giant (and sometimes Shopper's Food Warehouse if I see a particularly good deal on something). There is a Safeway about 15 miles away but I normally don't shop there since its location is usually not in the direction I'm going. But last week they had Skippy PB on sale for .99/jar and I had $1 off 2 coupons. So that was a good deal... paying .49/jar for peanut butter. I got the maximum allowed, 6 jars at .49 each.

Someone left me a comment a while ago on where to get coupons. I know some people buy extra copies of the Sunday paper, but that seems pretty wasteful. For almost any coupon that appears in a Sunday paper, there usually be people selling that coupon in groups of 20 on eBay. There are also coupon message boards like
Refund Sweepers where people post lists of coupons they have to trade or sell. I remember back a few years ago when Banquet had those free bowling coupons on the packages of tv dinners, I bought about 40 coupons for like .05 each from some lady on there. There are also coupon cutting websites where you put in an order for what coupons you want to buy multiples of, like Coupon Clippers

Queen gets a new throne

Yes, I know its Saturday, but I will save my discussion about my yardsale buys til another day.

Today's blog entry is brought to you by the letters J and Y (I think an O is still lodged in the toilet). Big news this week was that the queen got a new throne. I caught Jacob playing in the bathroom the other night (making quite a mess with throwing toys in the bathtub and seeing how big of a splash he could make) and right afterwards I got a funny feeling when the toilet wasn't flushing right. I plunged and plunged AND even stuck my hand down there! (yes, I know that's something a queen should never have to do), but I did it and thankfully I didn't find any surprises.

However, I do like having a toilet that actually flushes (I'm funny that way), so I had my husband remove it and we dug around in there and that's when I found the foam - supposed to float - letters J and Y after wrestling with that beast turning it upside down and backwards. I thought I saw another letter, but either I was just imagining it or its really really stuck good in there. So we were going to put the toilet back on, but then noticed we broke some dohickey piece inside the tank. So that's when my husband said we should just go buy a new one, that way we'll know it definitely is not clogged and will work than have to go buy replacement pieces etc.

Regarding the pic above. Who would have known that where a toilet sits could be so damn dirty? And am I the first person to house the elusive dust bunnies that are able to climb the walls?

So on Friday we go to Lowes. And wouldn't you know it, he wants to buy the cheapy $77 WHITE generic toilet. No, that won't work for me. Especially when I know he bought the $200 Super Deluxe Wide Butt model for his bathroom about 6 months ago (yes, incase you didn't know, they make an extra wide model). A $77 white toilet would have looked just great next to the beige tub and beige sink. I settled on a $139 beige beauty with special antibacterial glaze or something. NOT a big butt one. If I don't post for a while, that is because I am busy bedazzling....

So you know how everything happens in "3's"? The week before, one of our sliding glass doors broke, so we have to get that replaced. Then my toilet. And now I am just waiting to see what else goes.

Speaking of Friday - was it "Take Your Crying Baby Out to Lunch at Applebee's Day" and I didn't know about it until it was too late? Aye yi yi. Man, it was like a crying baby convention going on.

last few weeks

I went to upstate NY the week before last - stayed with my mom (at my childhood home). They have a lot of yardsales on Fridays there, but the Friday I was there, it was pouring rain. The garage sales were still held anyways, we just took umbrellas.

I mostly bought a bunch of books. One of my better buys was a Longaberger Berry Basket with protector for $1. It had a big ugly ivy in it so I think a lot of people who saw it didn't realize it was a Longaberger. I was going to throw the ivy out, but my mom wanted it.

Also bought the above vintage lamp $2 and the set of four vintage glasses ($1).

I got to visit with everyone I wanted to: family, one of my old high school friends and one of my old coworkers. This same time last year when I visited, I went cold turkey without internet for over a week, but this time I took our laptop. It was a rude awakening when I found out that you have to pay for wireless at McDonald's and Borders. I thought it would be free. No problem tho since a Moe's Southwest Grill is nearby.

I also did all the regular retail shopping I wanted to do:
Christmas Tree Shops, Aldi's and Dollar Tree , Toys R Us, and Kohl's. Where I live, the closest Dollar Tree, Toys R Us and Kohl's is a good hour away. (Yes, the Dollar Tree is a dollar store, but I think its nicer than your average dollar store).

As usual, I took Jacob to Chuck E. Cheese (twice) and found a new place to take him to called Jeepers It was $14.99 for one hour of all you can play games and indoor rides.

One day after I visited my brother who lives in Albany, I drove downtown (to see my old office building) and to see what has changed etc. I snapped a pic of the capitol building which is near my old office building.