I can tell you how to get to Sesame Street

As it turns out, it's very close to Times Square in NYC. I kept looking in all the garbage cans, but I never found Oscar.

More later.

I joined the army! Not an April's Fool joke!

Yes, it's true, I joined the army the other day.



I am now officially part of Ollie's Bargain Battalion




An Ollie's Bargain Outlet opened nearby last week so I reported for duty. I mostly stocked up on Pop-Tarts. Why? Cuz they were good and cheap and having a nutritious breakfast is what I am all about.

I hit a few yardsales yesterday but nothing too interesting to report.

The meaning of true love

If this isn't true love, I don't know what is. True love is a man who will hold a woman's hot pink purse for her while she shops at a thrift store.

Nice set of hooters you got there

I beg your pardon?
The owls! They're beautiful!
(Dumb and Dumber)

No, I didn't buy the owls. The thrift store was overrun with owls this week. And I didn't buy any VHS of Titanic - they seem to multiply on their own. Right after this movie came out is when DVDs must have become popular. It seems like it's the last big movie that was sold on VHS (and everyone and their brother ran out and bought it).




And I didn't buy this "I put out" t-shirt. It wasn't my size. Actually, it was a child's size!



And also didn't buy this sofa, which apparently is in mint condition.



I recently went to a yardsale where a boxing match could have broken out at any time. The seller had a small boxing ring built in their garage. I did buy some brand new unopened beauty products from them.



Not a whole lot going on. I saw that my beloved Whiskey dog has yet again been reincarnated into another tv commerical. Here is his look-a-like in a McDonald's filet-o-fish commercial recently.

Spring Cleaning - make money while decluttering & how we lost 270 pounds!

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
- Robin Williams, 2007

My pink cherry trees in the front yard will soon be in full bloom. I am not the best gardener, but I'm so glad I planted these trees when we first bought our house. They put on quite a show every spring. After a few weeks of blooming, the pedals fall to the ground and it looks like Mother Nature had a big pink confetti party in the yard.




Springtime is my absolute favorite time of the year because it's when a lot of people get spring cleaning fever and they have a yardsale. I've had so many yard sales over the years, I can't keep track. If you've never had a yard sale or garage sale before, why not give it a try this year? It can be some work putting together a great yard sale but it's not rocket science. And just think how good you'll feel afterward with your pockets full of cold hard cash and your house cleaned out. Just go thru your house, your garage, your attic - and just start gathering up everything you no longer need or want (but would still be useable to someone else). If you are a bit anxious about having a yard sale for the first time (yes, even the yard sale queen was anxious at first), combine forces with a friend and have a multi-family yard sale. The more the merrier! Just be careful that you don't end up buying all of her stuff and coming home with more than you left with!

There are many benefits of having a yard sale in the spring. A lot of people who feel like they've been cooped up all winter are out in full force at the yard sales in spring - and more customers mean a better chance of making big money at your yard sale. If you are new to the neighborhood, having a yard sale is a great way to meet your neighbors while de-cluttering your home. An easy way to advertise your sale is to post a free ad on Craigslist (in the Garage Sale section). At the end of your sale, just box up any good, usable leftovers and donate to a non-profit organization for a tax receipt.

For some items that I can't turn into cash at a yard sale - I have another way to score some free bucks. I recently loaded up our truck (and by "I" what I mean is that I made Mr. Yardsalequeen do the heavy lifting) with scrap metal stuff we had cluttering up the garage. We took it to a metal recycling center that pays cash for it. During Hurricane Irene last year, our extra freezer that we have in the garage, died because of the power outage and subsequent power surges. It wasn't worth fixing. Actually it was a blessing in disguise since we bought a new freezer - that I absolutely love.

So while I supervised, Mr. Yardsalequeen loaded up our truck with the broken freezer plus several outdated, broken computers. I hate being wasteful, but at least I know the stuff won't be filling up a landfill. And I got a few bucks. A total win-win. Our "junk" weighed 270 pounds and at $10 per 100 pounds, the scrap metal place paid me $27 in cash!

Before:


After:


And the best part:


Now get busy, organizing your yard sale, recycling and making money! Hope all your yardsales are great this year and you just never know, maybe I'll show up at it.

My new chariot awaits - to bring me to the yardsales

So long 2005 Mazda MPV minivan (boo hoo, I really will miss you with your awesome sliding doors and abundant storage space) but I have bitten the bullet and made a decision and there is a new vehicle in my life. A 2013 Mazda CX-5.



One of our other vehicles is a truck, sooooo I figure if whatever I buy won't fit in the CX-5, I'll just use the truck. But there is still plenty of storage in the CX-5, I can fold the back seats down. Unfortunately, it did not come in purple - the color of royalty.

Progress is being made

Progress is being made on the new car shopping front. I'm sure you remember that I went new car shopping in 2010 and again in 2011. Well I think it may happen soon. Like this year even. Stay tuned for details.

I managed to hit a good moving sale last weekend, plus a yardsale. Here's what I bought:

$5 picture
$3 green depression bowl
$1 vintage nuclear power plant t-shirts
.50 yankee candle
$1 - DVD boxed sets
$1 Ball canning jar
.50 cookbooks
.50 boxed perfume

Thrift Store Fashionista

No yardsales just quite yet, but I did get some bargains this week at my favorite thrift. All clothes were half priced. For myself I bought this wool coat for $4:



W Magazine must have heard about my awesome fashion/thrift store shopping finds and therefore gave me a complimentary subscription to the fashion bible until January 2014. I know I didn't pay for it but for some reason I have been getting it.

I am back baby!!!

woo hoo, here's a new picture for me to share:



Yes, its my kitchen, it all it's messy cluttered glory - a picture that I took yesterday and was able to load to my computer. Woo-hoo DH fixed my camera/computer issue so I can take and load pictures again to my computer.

Now it's time - no more excuses - to start selling again on ebay. I already wrote up a few auctions to start tonight.

As usual, living high on the hog

I am still having some issues with my computer and camera - so no recent pictures to show. I should just throw this computer out (after removing all my photos) and buy a new computer and new camera. Since according to a recent article we all live high on the hog here in Calvert County, Maryland (ranked #13 on the richest counties in America list). Well duh, how else do they expect yardsale royalty to live??? My castle is similar to the one pictured in the article but larger, of course. In reference to living "high on the hog", I think that means most people here butcher their own pigs. People look forward to the annual Calvert County fair like it's the best thing since a church yardsale. Life is so much better since the neighbor with the damn rooster moved away.

Well since I have no new photos to share, I will go into my archives and find a previously unpublished photo. I took this is December 2011 at a new thrift store that opened last year. As you can read, eveything on the table is .10 to .75.

If I had $500 to spend for Valentine's Day

edited - post deleted.

Waaa. I didn't win the contest, therefore I have deleted my post for the contest. Not that I'm a sore loser or anything. Of course if the judges were wise and had declared me the winner, my entry post would have lived on in internet infamy and would driven tons and tons of traffic to their couponing website for an infinite amount of time. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be. Their loss. And mine. A classic lose lose situation.

JC Penneys New Pricing Strategy

If you've read my blog for a while, you know I love my yardsales and thrift stores. But I've been known to occasionally (gasp!!) shop at stores such as JC Penneys and Kohls. But I only make a purchase if I know I got a good bargain. Low prices are good, but free is even better. I present you with:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Exhibit D

So yesterday I went to Penneys to check out their new pricing strategy. (Don't worry, I didn't make a special trip just to go there, but it was near the Outback Steakhouse we had dinner at, so it was convenient. And you know I got a deal at Outback - back in December I purchased a $100 gift card and got a $20 coupon which was going to expire next week, but I digress).

So when I was at Penneys, there were no bargains to look for. Everything was marked with it's "fair and square" price. What fun is that? Zero. None. No bargains for me to look for. With my mad shopping skills, I expect that even in a retail store I can find better bargains than Joe Schmo off the street. Not the same. As an extreme bargain hunting shopper, there was no thrill of the hunt. Lame and boring. Shopping is a sport and I want to win against my competitors (other shoppers). My husband thought it was just fine. What does he know. He's a guy who doesn't get the sport of shopping.

p.s I am especially mourning the loss of the free $10 off anything JC Penney coupons. Waaaaaaa!

Thrift Store Pet Peeves Arg!!!!

I had a bit of a problem with my computer last week but thankfully I am semi-back to normal. The only issue I have now is with my camera and getting new pictures on my computer.

Sooooo....until that is fixed by some miracle, I will have to go thru the thousands of my photos already on my harddrive and pick something out to talk about.

Today I pick: Thrift Store Pet Peeves. I have a bunch I could talk about, but here is one that really irritates me. Why do workers in thrift stores (and yardsales) put price stickers on things in very conspicuous places that may end up damaging the item when the label is removed?

Here is a picture of some vintage Charlie Brown & Snoopy plaques I bought a while back. I was tempted not to buy them since the store put large price tags right on the artwork which is just made of paper. The thrift store could have chosen to put the label on the back of the item, but no, they put it right smack dab on the front, where it can damage the item. Arg!!!!!



I knew because of my years of experience and mad skills I have in removing labels, I could probably remove the labels without damaging the plaques. Here's my plan of attack:

1. Start removal process very soon after acquiring object. The longer the sticker remains on, the harder it is to remove.

2. Summon my lady-in-waiting to retrieve hairdryer and official Tweezerman tweezers from royal bathroom.

3. Plug in said hairdryer and turn on low heat and aim it at label. After a few seconds, try to lift off a corner of the sticker with tweezers (while maintaining low heat on hairdryer). Once a corner gets lifted up, pull very gently to remove the rest of the label.

4. Have a drink and celebrate your success.

Well anyway, that's how I remove a price tag sticker. Your results may vary.

Adult Field Trip to Washington DC - National Air & Space Museum

Well again, there were no yardsales this past Saturday. Woe is me. But I managed to survive the day by drowning my sorrows at the open bar at a party hosted by my husband's place of employment. They know how to put on a party. This event was held at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC.

There were tons of things to do and not much time to do it. Eat, drink, be merry, see museum, watch Imax movies etc. All free, of course. Like I said before we thank you Lord for nuclear power! And since it was held in the evening when the museum is closed to the public, didn't have to deal or mingle with pesky tourists.

Looking down on the band and dance floor. This was early in the evening - people were too busy eating to dance - the dance floor filled up by the end of the night.




First thing I ate was a lobster lollipop.


This was called Shrimp Ouchy. It was shrimp yummy.


Risotto bar




omg - the desserts!!! Note to self - next time, line my large handbag with an empty gallon size Ziplock baggy. Or two.























Outside of the musuem

My old mirror mirror that is on the wall

Since I will be doing some minor remodeling to our powder room, I took some "before" pictures. It's very Circa 1992. We bought the house new in 1990, so I think I finally got around to taking down the crappy builder's grade medicine cabinet, adding the oh so fancy lighting fixture, painting, and putting up the dollar store peel n stick border around 1992 or so. And haven't done a thing since. I mean really, why mess with perfection? ha. But now the mirror is starting to age, at the bottom you can see where the reflective part of the mirror has gotten weird. It's like some cleaning chemical or something got behind the glass and started eating away at it.





I am keeping the sink and cabinet. I can never figure out why people go with those pedestal sinks. Not me. Where do they hide all their crap????

Mirror mirror soon to be on my bathroom wall

Here's one of my thrift store buys from the other day - a huge mirror for $10. I had better things to do today, so of course I asked my Lady-in-Waiting (having a Lady-in-Waiting is just one of my benefits of being Yardalequeen) to take the photo. So those muscular, well toned legs wearing fashionable grey pantaloons, fuzzy socks and thrift store Merrell brand shoes belong to her. Not me, of course.



It's been a good 20 years since our downstairs bathroom has had a facelift. So it might be about time for some minor remodeling. Like replace the lighting and the mirror, electric cover plates, remove the peel 'n stick wall border that I remember buying at a dollar store close-out etc etc. And it wouldn't hurt to give the bathroom a new coat of paint. (I bought a $5 gallon of a neutral colored Oops Paint at Ace Hardware.) Hey and guess what? The mirror looks all big and heavy in a cast iron frame, right? But it's not, it is big but not heavy - the frame is plastic! But I swear, it doesn't look like plastic and you can only tell if you touch it. And really, how often do you go around touching people's mirrors when you visit someone's house?

The Great Yard Sale Season of 2012 has officially opened!

I went to my first yardsale of 2012 (last weekend) so I know the yardsale season as officially begun. For $3 I bought a leather Stone Mountain handbag. Yes I know I already have the best handbag ever made which I currently still use and love but for $3, it doesn't hurt to have a little variety now and then.



And tomorrow I will shop at an indoor church yardsale, but then I have a feeling there may be a dry spell until springtime. But you never know.

I had a few other buys this week - from a thrift store. I was looking at our old rubbermaid kitchen sink dish drain the other night and thinking how old and gross it looked. And ta-da, just the next day I spot a brand new, never used one for $2.50.
I wish I had instead been looking at my old and gross mini-van and found a new one for $2.50.

Did anyone catch Storage Wars the other day where Barry Weiss found some old glass collectible fly catcher jars? The day after watching it, I found a blue glass fly catcher jar. The cashier had no idea what it was. I don't think it's old but for $1 I had to get it.

Oh and I bought an orange chair for $4. Depending on how the pictures turn out, my plan is to use it as a backdrop for when I take pics for ebay.

Cheers to a Great 2012!

I've been away. I would like to tell you I was visiting a vineyard and winery in the Tuscany region of France.





But I honestly cannot say that I was. I did however go to a local vineyard with a friend. Of course I used a coupon for a free wine tasting for 2 plus free wine glasses. The place and the grounds are much prettier when it's not wintertime and raining. Wine is not my adult beverage of choice, but I can manage to choke some down from time to time.

And I just got home from visiting my family in upstate New York for a while after Christmas. Plus I may have stopped in to their Salvation Army once or twice, just to browse, of course.