Two Canadian Myths have been debunked

I just got back from trip to Cleveland (Rock N Roll Hall of Fame then to Niagara Falls (Canadian side) and Toronto. Then a few days in upstate NY to visit family. I've been to Canada before but never to Toronto. I've heard rumors that Toronto is a super clean city. So clean that if you accidently dropped a piece of paper on the ground, someone would be around to pick up that piece of paper shortly. It was supposedly that clean. Nope - Toronto has the typical litter on the sidewalks of any major city. Secondly, the myth that all Canadians are super nice. Came across lots of rude Canadians at Rogers Centre.

Glad to be back home!

Look for yardsalequeen in Woman's World next month

I did an interview with Women's World magazine (a magazine normally found near the checkout aisles in grocery stores) for an upcoming article to appear sometime in May. Once I find out when it is, I will make an update.

Yardsale season has been super slow this year but actually held one last Saturday. I've held yardsales in various places but this was my first yardsale held in a ballroom of a hotel. It worked out really well. More later.

HQ Trivia referral code: yardsalequeen

I've become semi addicted to playing the HQ Trivia game every day. I haven't even gotten close to winning but so...I could use some referrals for some free "lives". My referral code is yardsalequeen if you download the app and start playing.

Now that I finally have a smart phone, I am able to have apps and stuff. I remember years ago I would get emails from app maker people asking me to try out their yardsale related apps and I had to tell them, thanks but no thanks.

My smartphone is actually a Tracphone from Home Shoppping Network. When people see it they are amazed that it is a Tracphone because they think of the Tracphone flip phone of the past and haven't seen how great they are now (NOT the ones you buy at Walmart...its the ones from HSN that have all the bells and whistles).

I was interviewed for Woman's World magazine and an upcoming yardsaling article will appear in a May issue. When I know for sure I will post.

So anyway...just thought I would drop a note and say hi and that I am still here!!!!


Chris

In this month's Money magazine, there is a yardsalequeen.com mention (having a yardsale is one way to make money in 2018, as if people don't already know that. Although I don't recommend renting out an entire church like the article suggests. Just rent table space at a popular yardsale if you don't live in a good yardsale friendly location.

In other news....my husband is still retired and I am still going nuts. Since I've had a serious lack of posts, I probably didn't mention that soon after my husband retired (and was home full time), my head literally exploded. Well not exactly, but close. I had something called an retina vein occlusion - where some vein in your eye explodes and makes everything fuzzy. Not fun. I think it was caused by stress and definitely blaming Mr. YSQ on me having it.

Our son is due to graduate high school in June. Not sure what the future will bring for him but I don't think full time college is for him. Nor the military. He got his driver's license over the summer which is great accomplishment for him. I will be so glad to be done with IEP's and IEP meetings.

December 2017 Money Magazine

In this month's Money magazine there's an article on making money in 2018. One of the writers contacted me for a tip on yardsaling. It makes it sound like I suggest to rent out an entire church for a yardsale but that is not what I meant of course - it is more like rent out table space at a big church yardsale.

Save money on Gas by using free Shell Rewards Card

With the high price of gas now, the way I save money is by using my Shell Fuel Rewards card It's not a credit card, it's just like a frequent shoppers card like you have at CVS or Walgreens. I save .05 a gallon of gas, plus I always buy my gas on Thursdays when my local Shell has an additional .05 off per gallon.

TV Show looking for people holding upcoming Estate Sales

I got an email from a tv producer asking that I pass it along. So here it goes. Hopefully my blogging slump is over.

testing testing

Is this thing on? Hello hello can you hear me now?

DIY Project turn old bbq grill into gardening center

I was talking with a friend recently and told her how I turned my old bbq propane gas grill into a gardening center and figured I should share it here too. I see old bbq grills for free or dirt cheap at yardsales, so if you don't have an old grill, it shouldn't be too hard to find one.

I just gutted the insides, plugged the holes where the propane lines used to be, and filled with potting soil. Ta-da! My barebones gardening center. You can get fancy and add hooks and stuff and store gardening utensils etc.

In memory of Joey Martin from Joey + Rory Feek

In memory of the talented and beautiful Joey Martin of the Joey + Rory country music duo, here are some photos and videos I took years ago when they were the opening act for Josh Turner.

World's Best Rolling Thrift Store on Wheels!

Ok, granted I have only been to one thrift store on wheels, but I am going to declare it the World's Best Rolling thrift store on wheels (that I have been to).

It's a tractor trailer that is thrift store inside! It comes around my area about once a month and stays for a weekend - then it's off to the next location. They call it a "Mobile Compassion Center" but it's really a thrift store on wheels. But if you wanted to talk religion while there, you could do that too since they have a little chapel too. And if you were needy, I think they would give you whatever you needed at no cost. Most clothes are only $1 each.

Schedule for the rolling thrift store

Join LivingSocial and save money on your first deal

If you are not a member of LivingSocial yet and want to try it out - use this link and get $10 off your first purchase of $20 or more.

Living Social $10 Deal Link

This special offer is for new members only. You actually don't have to buy anything - you can always just check out to see what offers are in your area. I also use Living Social deals to check out offers in other areas - like say I am going on vacation, I will view offers in other cities and see if they have any deals I want to take part of when I am visiting other cities. I'm actually using a Living Social deal this weekend and going to our local winery for wine tastings and a bottle of wine to take home.

a recap of 2015. The year my head exploded.

2015 will be remembered by me as the year my husband quit his job and the year my head exploded. Well not my entire head, just a part of it. Mr. Yardsalequeen is calling it a retirement, I am calling it quitting. Who quits a hefty six figure income job? My husband, that's who. And we have to plan on providing for Jacob for the rest of his life - since he is a special needs child and I don't see him ever making a six figure income.

That that means my husband is home with me EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WEEK. And he doesn't like thrift stores nor does he want me going to thrift stores or yardsales. So did I mention he is here with me, every single day. That means all the time.

In a totally unrelated topic, I have been binge watching the tv show "Snapped". Yep, totally unrelated.

About a month after he quit his job, I noticed one of my eyes wasn't seeing quite the same, so after the fiasco with his quitting and losing our health insurance, I had to wait to see an eye doctor. When I looked out of both eyes, I could see fine, but if I closed one eye, I could tell the difference. The doc told me I had a retina vein occlusion and would need shots in my eye to possibly help. Basically a vein exploded in my eye, causing the cloudiness. I think it is caused by stress. Was it a coincidence that my head exploded a month after Mr. YSQ quits his job? I don't think so. I think they are related. My eyes were fine when he was working. And the shots that get put directly in my eyeball have helped, so my vision seems back to normal. But it is something that will need ongoing maintenance.

What a fun 2015. But at least I had a few good months in there the first half of the year.

The struggle is real.

Yep, I'm still here

And I did see Rachael Ray and got to talk to her for a second. Sorry for the lack of posts in forever.

I got tickets to see Rachael Ray!

Wow, I can't believe this is my first post in 2015. I will blame in on a writer's block or perhaps laziness.

As usual, I will be taking a trip to upstate NY for Jacob's spring break to visit family. Anyhow I saw that when I will be there, there will be a charity fundraising event with Rachael Ray. So I sent my sister on a mission today to buy tickets. She said people had been camping out since midnight. Luckily she got us tickets before they got sold out.

Frequent Shopper Card Tip

I just added another frequent shopper card to my keychain the other day and counted them up. 20. That's normal right, for a person who mainly shops at yardsales and thrift stores? Two are library key cards (one for myself and one is Jacob's). So really, it's only 18. How many frequent shopper cards do you have on your keychain? (Yes, there is 20 on my keychain, you just can't see them all in the photo).

Here's a tip on protecting your shopper cards - put a piece of clear tape over the UPC code - that will prevent the UPC code from wearing away.

Bad Facebook Online Yard Sale Photos part 1

In addition to selling stuff on ebay and at real yardsales, I've joined a few local yard sale Facebook groups where I sell stuff. If you're on Facebook, I bet there is a local Facebook group in your area where people post pics of their used stuff they want to sell.

Anyhow, it just blows me away that a lot of times, people don't take the time to post a good photo of their item for sale. Over the past couple of months I've seen tons of awful photos. And I've saved them to my computer, for your viewing pleasure/disgust.

Tip #1 - I don't want to see your feet. How hard is it to take a photo and not have your feet in the photo? If for some reason you are incapable of not doing that - take 5 seconds and crop your nasty feet out of the photo. Here are real photos of actual items I've seen for sale locally. The woman with her entire legs in the photos - she explained she took a photo of her foot on a stepping stone she was selling - so potential buyers could judge the size. As if we knew how big her foot was.

Future blog posts of "bad photos I've seen on facebook online yardsale groups" will feature "Other body parts I don't want to see in your photo" and "Wow, and I thought my house was messy"

Scratched seeing Oprah off my bucket list, flea market in TN and other news

Just a quick post to let you know I have not fallen off the face of the earth. Will be back to blogging shortly. I got a lot to talk about- like seeing Oprah, hitting a huge flea market in Tennessee, going to the American Pickers store in Nashville, and so far this year I have had a ton of yardsales.

One of my long time internet friends (and friend in real life) started a Facebook page about bargain shopping. Check it out at Skokie Shopper Although she is based near Chicago, she is always out and about shopping wherever she goes - it could be in Hawaii, Florida or NYC etc etc etc!

I'll be back to blogging soon.

My Craigslist White Gold Wedding Band set with diamonds bargain purchase!

I got married back in the Stone Ages known as the 80's and at the time I jut wanted a simple yellow gold wedding band and my engagement ring was a plain yellow gold band with a solitaire diamond. Well after several years of being married, somehow my wedding band shrunk and got too tight to wear. Funny how that happens. So for years I've just been wearing my engagement ring which got so thin that the band actually cracked and got deformed.

I went to a fancy jewelry store that was having a special on a $1 watch battery replacement so I took a very nice watch I plan on selling on ebay to get a $1 battery (of course I bought the men's Elgin watch still new in case, at a yardsale for cheap). I showed the saleswoman my sad looking engagement ring and she told me that it's a miracle that I haven't lost the diamond due to the flattened prongs and she told me that I shouldn't wear it.

So later that day, for the heck of it, I decided to check Craigslist and I see a gorgeous ring set made of white gold (which I wanted since I think yellow gold is sooo '80s) with mini diamonds in the band and it had no solitaire. Original receipt said the set cost $2450 without a center diamond. Long story short - a local woman had bought the set with her then fiance with the intention of putting her mother's solitaire in the center. The wedding didn't take place and now the woman just wanted $550 for the set. She wanted to meet at a public place, so I recommended to meet at the jewelry store where she purchased the set so I could talk to the jeweler. So we set up a time to meet and I asked the jeweler if the set could be resized for my finger and my diamond placed in the center. When he said yes, I handed the woman $550 in cash and left the rings at the store for the work to be done. So I did have to pay a bit more for the resizing and new head for my diamond (original head was for a marquis cut stone). But still, all in all, I am very pleased with my Craiglist wedding set bargain! And now I can sell my old set for scrap gold.

My old cracked deformed rings (diamond taken out at jewelers)

picture that was in the Craigslist ad

My new Craigslist Wedding Band set with my diamond installed.  The two pics look a little different but that is due to the seller taking the original pic her camera/lighting and my pic taken with my own camera and lighting.

Original receipt from jewelers

Guess who just bought a new wedding band set on Craiglist for a steal??

Me! Pics to come. My old 25 year old wedding band set had seen better days, for sure.