Man, it felt like 1972 for a little while today...

Our internet went out for a few hours today, and also our cable (both supplied by Comcast). So no TV and no internet. Since we live in the boonies of Maryland, there are no "local" stations, so you have to have cable. Or else have a huge ugly antennae on your house to maybe get a fuzzy station or two. And to top it off, something is wrong with our air conditioner. So no air conditioning. Will be paying a HVAC service technican $95 to walk in the door tomorrow and diagnose the problem.

There's a reason kitchen rhymes with bitchin'

It's Memorial Day weekend so I wasn't expecting many yardsales, but there were a bunch. I was the first person at one sale and bought a ton of stuff, including some Hallmark Maxine items. The seller told me that Hallmark no longer makes the Maxine stuff. Along with the magnet I bought - pictured above (I paid either .50 or a .25 for it) I bought a Maxine teakettle for $2 which I'll put on ebay and a Welcome mat for $1 which says "Welcome to my home. Don't touch anything." Probably keep that for myself.

Bought a new Elvis Presley Zippo lighter in a tin for $1, and ton of CDs for only .10 each. Nothing was marked at the sale so I kept loading up an armfull of stuff finding out the prices, paying and putting it in my car and going back for more. I picked up 3 CDs that I wanted (including Clay Aiken Measure of a Man). When she told me the CDs were .10 each, I had to restrain myself from jumping up and down. So I calmly paid, loaded up the car and went back for about 30 more CDs.



Took this pic yesterday, thought it was funny. I'll be putting a larger version of it on my website.

Oh I don't think I mentioned this but I did "splurge" the other week and became members of a local museum. Joined during a half priced membership day, so a years family membership was only $25. The museum is the Calvert Marine Museum It's a small museum but they have a few fish tanks and a kids room etc. One of the highlights of the museum is the Drum Point lighthouse which you can climb up into. The museum always has a few "free" days a year but I figured for $25, it would be nice just to stop in whenever we want and not pay anything. I plan on taking my son there a lot over the summer. Since becoming a member, we have gone once a week.

End of school year coming up

The end of school year is coming up so I've been busy trying to run of bunch of errands now rather than having to do them with my 6 year old. Things like oil changes, hair cut and of course thrift shop. My son is not a good shopper, so I definitely scale back my thrift shopping in the summer.

The above pic is of one of my recent favorite yardsale buys. The basket on the bottom is my "new" vintage basket, paid $5 for it. The basket on the top is the one I bought a few months ago and blogged about. Made by a company called Redman in Peru, Indiana.

Yea for Taylor Hicks. I liked Katherine McPhee too, and also Elliot Yamin but I'm glad that Taylor won. It would have been neat if Elliot won since he really did not have any singing experience other than karaoke (unlike Katherine and Taylor). I am a big reality tv show junkie. So after the Apprentice ends in 2 weeks, there will be a lull until some new ones start up like Big Brother.

Voted for Taylor Hicks

Just a quick note but I'm hoping for a win for Taylor Hicks tonight.

been busy

My mother-in-law has been visiting this week so really haven't had much time to blog. Had a few awesome buys last week that I will post about when I get a chance.

Arrested Development Yardsale

Now that the tv show Arrested Development is no longer, they are having a yardsale (kinda) of stuff used for the show. If you are in Los Angeles, here's how to check it out:

Estate Sales Los Angeles is pleased to announce that it will conduct an exciting prop house sale of the contents of one of Twentieth Century Fox Television's favorite television shows of the past decade “Arrested Development”.

Spectacular array of items will include several periods of furniture, magic show accessories and artifacts, interior décor items, art, books, kitchen appliances and kitchen ware, interior/exterior lighting, office furniture, extensive entertainment memorabilia and too much more to itemize.

Don’t miss the opportunity to own a piece of this show.

Sale location:

La Trova House
2032 Stoner Avenue,
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Sale dates: May 19 – 21, 2006
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

For more information, please contact info@estatesalesla.com or visit
Estatesalesla.com

Yardsale Liquor - .25 each

At a yardsale yesterday I was digging thru a box of stuff marked ".25 each" and among the used McDonald's toys and baby rattles I found these two little mini bottles. Was hoping to find more but only found the two. I figured I was doing my good deed of the day by buying them - rather than some kid finding them.

Also at a yardsale I bought an old printer with 10 cartridges of ink - all for $10. I can recycle the printer at our local recycling center and then turn the 10 cartridges into Staples and get $30 worth of Staples coupons. (Bring in any inkjet cartridge to Staples and they give you a $3 coupon good towards anything in the store).

Well I know my website (and blog) gets fewer visits on the weekend soooooo I've decided to keep my Botox Donation Fund open if anyone still wants to donate to this worthy cause.

Did a couple of radio interviews in the past few days. Radio interviews make me nervous. One was on Friday for a Columbus Ohio radio station and the one today was one in Detroit and that one lasted about a half hour.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hey, it's my birthday! And I can't think of a better way to spend part of it than going yardsaling at my favorite church yardsale. They price things at .10 and .05

Since it's my birthday - show me some love by signing my blog OR by making a little contribution to my Botox fund (any amount will do, like $100, $250, $400 etc :) Your choice! For your convenience, I've included a little handy dandy Paypal donation link:

Lots of *new* shoes

Went to VV this week and bought a several pairs of shoes for .50 each including that pair of navy blue ones for me and pink suede ones for my son. Before I went to VV, I went to Smile and found the sneakers on the bottom far right (those I paid $1 for since Smile's prices are a little higher).

Before you think I am totally crazy for buying pink shoes for my son, I figured for .50, I would try putting some liquid shoe polish I have and see what happens. They are very similar to beige pair he has and likes, so I'd figured I would take a chance. I'll post a pic of the 'pink' shoes, when I finish my experiment.

Tomorrow starts my gift receiving season - anniversary, birthday and mother's day all once a week for the next 3 weeks. But I bought myself my bd present the other day. I got a good deal on a 19" flat screen monitor at Staples. My husband said it should knock out at least 2 out of the 3 gifts. It was cheaper and nicer than the monitor I bought my husband for Christmas last year. I think I even blogged about it - back on Black Friday when I was waiting in line at Staples at 6am to get it. What a difference a few months makes.

I'll post a pic of my cleaned-up dog soon. Yes, he is a scrappy dog even when clean. Here's the story behind Whiskey:

About 12 years ago, Whiskey was a stray that one of my neighbors was tossing food out to but was skittish and could never catch him. The first time I saw him, I could see even from a distance he had a flea collar on. Well one night, my neighbor and I managed to grab him and it appeared that the flea collar had never been loosened and was starting to cut into his neck. So using a knife, we cut the collar off. Well the next day, he was like a new dog and we've had him ever since.

Well anyways Whiskey has always been a little troublemaker - never listens and loves to dig holes to try to escape from the yard (I heard that the terrier breed are known for being "escape artists". On one of his escapades, another family a few streets over fell in love with him so now when he manages to escape, I know where he's headed. The other family doesn't want him permanently, but likes to get visits from him.

Whenever he's over there, I let him visit for a while and then go pick him up. One night (it was an election night), I went to the other family's house and got him (the parents weren't home). So then I drove to the school to vote (Whiskey likes riding in the car.) At the school, I see the parents on the other side of the parking lot. Since I wanted them to know I had picked up Whiskey, I yell "Hey Dawn, I have Whiskey in the car". Since she didn't acknowledge that she heard me, I yell a little louder in the school parking lot "DAWN, I stopped and got Whiskey - I have Whiskey in the car!" I didn't realize until later, how that must have sounded to the voters going in to vote. (But anyone who knows me knows I'm a rum drinker).

Update on dirty dirty dog

Ugh - he got dirty again! Sometime in the middle of last night he tried digging out again but gave up and came inside and the mud dried on him. So he got another bath.

Today I cleaned up and painted an old school desk that I got from my mom's cellar. She had a friend who worked in a school district who would get the discarded school desks and chairs (for free) when new ones were bought. The paint on it was all banged up and lots of little pieces of tape all over the desktop. My mom had about 5 to choose from, so I looked them all over and I'm happy with the one I took. So I cleaned it off and painted it a dark green. Not the greatest pic, but here's what it looks like. It's going in my son's room and I plan on selling the small toddler sized table & chairs that is currently in his room.



Oh I forgot to mention my site was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal last week, here is the link
Wall Street Journal article

Free Scoop day at Ben & Jerry's

Hey, if you live near a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop, you can go on Tuesday April 25 and get a free scoop. Make sure you check out the details (note the time restriction): Ben & Jerry's You should also check the store locator to make sure the scoop shop near you is participating.

I don't live near a scoop shop, but both my brother and sister do.

Dirty dirty dog

Went to a few yardsales this morning and then it started raining which lasted most of the day. My dog freaks out during heavy rain and thunderstorms and he tried to dig a hole to run away. I used to freak out whenever he did, but not anymore. He's sort of become the part-time dog of another family in the neighborhood. So when he gets out, I know where he will end up. He is fixed so he's not out cruising for a date. He was unsuccessful in his attempt today to get loose, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

My big buy today at a yardsale was an outdoor canvas swing, the kind you have to hang from a big tree branch. It looked new and I paid $5.

I am getting a large number of hits on my website this week...if you are reading my blog for the first time, please leave a comment and let me know how you found my page. I think it was mentioned in a yardsale article in the Wall Street Journal the other day. Over the next few months my website will appear in some pretty well known publications: Woman's Day, Woman's World and Better Homes & Gardens.

Went to NY for Easter

I've been busy this week - and last - so I haven't had time to write. My son's school spring break was last week and part of this week so I went to upstate NY to visit my mom and family. I still haven't caught up on all my tv watching when I finish writing this, I'm going to watch the latest Sopranos episode that I missed when away.

There's a Chuck E. Cheese (CEC) not too far from my mom's house so I took my son there twice and used free tokens that I had gotten off packages of Koolaid Koolbursts and my sister gave him a large quantity of tokens for his recent birthday. Every once in a while Koolaid Koolbursts will have special packaging advertising CEC and have a token coupon worth 10 free tokens. It's really a good deal since I can buy the Koolbursts for .99 and get $2.50 worth of free CEC tokens. Well on my way there, I noticed smoke in the distance and as I got closer, I saw a car was on fire. It was kinda weird since traffic was still going by etc, it didn't look like anyone was trapped inside considering someone opened the trunk. But I'm thinking "I know I moved away from home a long time ago, but have things changed so much that cars just catch on fire and no one does anything?? I was stoppped at a red light when I snapped this pic. As my light turned green, I saw the firetruck arriving.

Whenever I visit my mom's, there are 5 places I try to go (make it 6 if I include Chuck E. Cheese. But I read that a CEC may be opening close to our house which would be great). The other places are: Aldi's grocery store, a Dollar Tree dollar store (which I think are better than your average dollar store), the Freihoffer bakery thrift store, the Salvation Army and a community based thrift store. Oh and I left off another place: The Golden Krust bakery in Cohoes. Unfortunately this time I couldn't do that since it burned down to the ground a little while ago.

My bargain at the Freihoffer store was on Boboli pizza shells at .75 each (still with good expiration dates). I've had them years ago when I bought them in a regular grocery store using a coupon and on sale. But haven't seen them on sale in a long time. If I was to buy them around here, I'd be charged the full price at $3.69 and really, I don't think they are worth that. And since I stocked up on sliced pepperoni ($1.39 for 8 oz at Aldi's), I am set!

I still have more to write about my trip, but the Sopranos are calling!

Another Saturday of mediocre yardsales

It started pouring today at around 10am, so not many people had yardsales today. Only went to about two and two more had signs posted with their raindate on it.

At one yardsale they had a big rubbermaid type tote full of free live white mice. They were giving them away. The seller took one out and it jumped out of her hand and their cat got it. I know Petco and other places sell white mice as food for snakes and stuff, I just don't want to think about it (or see it happen in front of my eyes). Ok, I know I am a wuss. I think we have or had mice in our attic and even then I don't want to see a dead mouse and just put out the Decon poison rather than seeing a dead mouse in a mousetrap.

My good bargain of the week was a free haircut (no, I didn't do it myself!) A coupon booket came in the mail earlier this week (coupons for various local businesses) and the coupon for the hair salon said first three haircuts on Friday are free til the end of May. So since I needed a haircut, after my son went to school, I got in my car and drove to the hairsalon. Got there about 20 minutes before they were set to open. The parking lot was deserted so I knew I would get the first free haircut. Did give the stylist a $5 tip.

Another freebie I got the other day was some free digital pics at CVS. They had a 5 free print offer this week.

Did (of course) do some shopping at my thrifts this week. Can't really remember what I bought except for a few DVDS for $2 each (Bridget Jone's Diary and Forgiven).

Been busy doing some interviews...

Yardsale season is definitely picking up (even though I went to a bunch of crappy ones last Saturday.) I've done 3 interviews in the past 3 days from media people wanting to interview me for yardsale stories (did 2 newspaper and 1 radio). I get nervous when I do live radio interviews (much prefer when they tape it to play back at a later time).

Yesterday I had to go to my son's school, so I stopped at Catholic Charities on the way. Bought two ice-cream scoopers for my collection at .50 each and a $1 VHS called Jasper to the Rescue. It's a 10 minute video on bed-wetting done by Disney. On the website it sells new for $19. For a 10 minute video! But of course if someone has that problem and it helps, then it's money well spent. I'll put it up on ebay eventually (I want to watch it first - not that I need it but just out of curiosity). I have so much junk to sell that it's ridiculous. Last night I even had a dream about storage space. I definitely need to declutter!

You know I was thinking about those ratty looking jeans I saw at Penney's the other week. If anyone was to donate them to my local thrift store, they wouldn't be considered nice enough to put on the sales floor. The volunteers there carefully inspect the clothing before they put it out and if there are holes, rips, etc, they won't put it out.

Ate at a place with cloth napkins today

My husband and I went out to lunch today. Decided to try an Italian restaurant that we've never been to. The place used to be a Perkins restaurant. But I think I got that Perkins closed down since I used to do Mystery Shopping (well Mystery Eatting) at that Perkins and my last review wasn't good. Anyhow they remodeled inside and now it's a sorta fancy restaurant. Had cloth napkins which I don't see very often. well I guess Outback Steakhouse has cloth napkins. Will have to pay better attention. Anyhow, I got a chicken parmigiana that wasn't great (dry and not very cheesy). My husband liked his lunch though.

Afterwards we walked around the nearby JC Penneys. Didn't buy anything. But what I thought was funny was seeing some very super distressed Levi's priced (on sale) for $34.99. Actually I think whoever is buying jeans like that is either stupid or lazy. Why not take a pair of your old jeans and distress them yourself and save $35? When I commented to the salesclerk who was standing nearby (I said something like "wow, these are really distressed" and she kinda rolled her eyes at the jeans and said "did you see the next table, they have paint splatters". And sure enough, the next table has distressed Arizona (brand) jeans that had distressing plus white paint splatters. When I say "distressed", I'm not just talking about jeans made to look already worn or broken in, I mean jeans that have 5" wide holes in both knees, hems that are torn and looked like they've been dragging on the floor.

Exactly 6 years ago today, I had a yardsale.

You know how I remember so well? Because the next day I gave birth! No, I hadn't planned it that way (he was 3 weeks early). And if I knew I was going to give birth that weekend, I wouldn't have had the yardsale but instead I would have packed my overnight hospital bag which I ended up having to do last minute.

There were only a handful of yardsales today. Didn't buy much. One neat item I bought for $1 was a vintage ceramic piggy bank marked "Corky Pig" on the bottom (it was made by the Hull company). See above pic.

Had an Elvis sighting while shopping at the hardware store

About once or twice a year our local Ace Hardware store has a "Ladie's Night". They are normally closed on Sunday nights, so they have it when they would otherwise be closed anyways. I went to my first Ladies night in the fall, and they just recently had one another one this past Sunday night. They have 20% off everything in the stores, freebies, goodies to eat and Elvis as entertainment. I am not kidding! It certainly is a surreal experience to be pushing your cart in a hardware store (in my rinky dink town) and see rhinestoned cape wearing Elvis impersonator strolling by belting out tunes. I regretted not bringing my camera. I would definitely describe him as the older, *fluffier* Elvis, not the trim and young Elvis. I haven't seen a ton of Elvis impersonators in my life, but I think he sounds very good. Visit the The Rockin Elvis website.

The freebies I got this time where two canvas tote bags and 4 Benjamin Moore sample paint cans (normally $3.49 each). I ran into a yardsailing friend there and she had her paint samples but then said "oh I should have gotten some darker colors for making yardsale signs!" What a smart cookie!

I didn't really buy anything. They had a good sale on suet cakes for the birds at .50 each. I had gotten a free $5 gift card in the mail from using my Ace frequent shopper card. So with my free $5, I *bought* 10 suet cakes for the birds.

March 16

Got some good bargains at my thrifts the past few days. Today I bought a little lightweight collapsible cart thingy (the wheels even fold down) for $1.50. Also bought myself a few tops at V V (it was a .30 day). I plan on going to a big indoor yardsale this Saturday so I plan on bringing it. And a bunch of other stuff.

I got a good bargain online the other week at Amazon.com We have a California King sized bed so buying sheets is always a challenge. Most brick and mortar stores only carry regular King sized sheets, not California King. Well the other week while looking on Amazon, I found brand new Cal. King sheets (300 thread count and they also flannel sheets) for only $14.99 a set. And if you spent over $25, shipping was free. Well at that price I couldn't resist and ended up buying 3 sets. I think a lot of people only think of Amazon for books and DVDs but they really have quite a selection of all kinds of stuff.

Sat. 3/11

The Message Board is down. But hey, you should be out yardsailing anyways! Not sure when they'll be back up, hopefully soon.

Chris