DO YOU LOOK FOR PERFECT?

Not long ago I was thrifting with my oldest daughter and I was pulling things off the rack and getting her youthful opinion. After the third or fourth item got the scrunched face no-no nod I asked her what she was looking for.
"Something I don't have to do anything to."

What? This is a thrift store. Nothing is perfect. That's why it ended up here.

MOMG (Mother of My Grandchildren) could you clarify that a bit?

The things I had shown her for approval were less than perfect. That one is dirty. That one is faded (can't fix faded) that one is out of style (?) and so on.Well, dirt doesn't stop me. I have lots of soap and elbow grease. Faded you can't fix and style is changing so fast it probably will BE in style before we get it home. I mean, your Dad's Members Only jacket is back in style!!

That brings me to my original question.When you are out yard sale-ing or thrifting do you look for perfect?

I don't mean I will buy something that will need 10 hours of work just to find out what color it is. I mean the fixing the seam, sewing on a button, fixing a hem, giving it a good scrub kind of thing. I never hesitate to pick up a dress or pair of pants that have the hem coming out in a spot or two. I can fix that. The dirty pyrex has never stopped me. I have soap and I'm not afraid to use it, along with some secret cleaning weapons.

I picked up this duvet cover for an excellent price. It it missing one of its buttons. Rather than mark down the price and let it go without all of its buttons I will dig in my stash of buttons and replace the button. No biggie.
I love it when the weather cooperates and I have time to wash my treasures and hang them on the line to dry. They smell sooooo good. The stripes on this only go vertical, the other stripes are shadows from the other clothes lines.

So, I don't think I am cheating anyone when I list something that I have repaired. If it is an obvious repair I'll mention it in the listing, if not I don't bother. Is that the right thing to do or am I guilty of false advertising?

What do you do? Do you only look for perfect?

PLAYING CATCH UP

Remember when you were in high school? You would put off that paper that you really hated until the last possible second before it was due? Maybe it was the subject or the teacher or the fact that you were busy with other things (that you had put off) or you had a new boy friend. Well I feel like I'm back in high school again.

I had all sorts of things  scheduled for the first week of October. I had a list of things (in my brain) that I wanted to get done around the house, things to get listed in my ebay store and things to make.  HA!!! Well that didn't happen quite like I planned.

I found a new camera and like WOW, why did I wait so long to do this. I have had better pictures and they have been easier to edit than I thought could be possible. I have had what I think is good luck at the really big thrift the last couple of trips. I have been to some good yard sales where the prices were really yard sale prices and not ebay prices. I have gotten my listing up over 300 and have been able to keep them there for a few days. I got all of those bags of Christmas ornaments listed that had been staring at me every time I sat down at the computer. (Those clowns can really get creepy after a while.....shiver.....)

A question for blog land. Does anyone run a blog just for the purpose of selling? I have visited some blogs in the past and they have a link to their selling blog. On that blog they just list things for sale. I was just a' wondering.

Back to the trash treasure thing. I kinda combined some of my last couple yard sale thrift store trips into the same pictures. Because really, you don't want to see everything I have found.

This is so stinking cute. A giraffe lovey. So much better than that nasty cuddly blankie that my daughter had. She had to fall in love with a white blanket!!

The country bear jamboree.That is a "ghost" angel on the right.

A F-P sounds house and a farmer and his singing tractor. My first leap pad.

My first pair of Armani jeans! I looked at sooooo many jeans
that day and finally found these.

I have had this house for some time and for the life of me can't find anything about it. I have tried the F-P site and found nothing. I know if I could figure out the name I could find it.Any clues?

 

 

                                                                                                                                                         

 

 

This purse intrigues me. Look closely at the closure. It is scissor like. The next picture shows it open.

The purse itself is fused plastic beads. I thought it was a 60's child's purse mainly because it had a plastic lining. But I don't know. I have tried googling fused bead purses but all I get are grown up ones. Anyone know what that metal thing at the top is called? I have seen bracelets that operated like that, but never a purse.

Well these are my special finds this week. Once again, nothing vintage or extra special, except the purse.
Cross your fingers for me on the Armani. I need to score on those.

Hope everyone found something great.
Linking up to Apron Thrift Girl Thrift share Monday.

 

WHY AM I SO STUBBORN?

I often wondered what my Mom was talking about when she said I was as stubborn as a mule.

Well, now I know what she was talking about.

A few days ago we had a great big mess.
The bathroom cabinet was flooded.
The ceiling was a mess.
The car was in the shop.
I broke my camera.

Things are looking up....somewhat.

SweetiePie has fixed the leak. Now we are just trying to dry out the cabinet and the ceiling. Then we can tackle fixing the ceiling. (Ooooo I can't wait ;p)

The car is out of the shop and runs much better. I have to say it is a blessing that I needed brakes because if not I would have been stranded somewhere and it would have taken a gigantic tow to get me home.

I got my new camera. I decided not to get the exact camera that I already had. I upgraded in zoom and pixels from 4X and 6.0 mega pixels to 7X and 12 mega pixels. From a Canon A540 to an Olympus Stylus.

Old camera using the light box. I could never eliminate the yellow.

New camera, same light box, no correction. See even these
guys are wondering what's up.

WOW.....why haven't I upgraded sooner? 

Kind of you to ask. Because I don't like to rock the boat and have to make myself learn a bunch of new technical things when I HAVE to. I had rather do my learning under less stress. But this time I had no choice.

But my Mom would have said it was because I was as stubborn as a mule.
Bless you Mom.
I know you are watching from above.
I'm just sorry I don't listen more often.

CAN YOU HAVE A BETTER DAY THAN THIS?

It all started out so innocently. Birds were singing, the sun was shining. All was well with the universal.

Well, actually it started to fall apart yesterday.


How do you describe 4 inches of standing water in your bathroom vanity? And the water stain on the ceiling on the first floor? I think nightmare is a good word.

Who knew that a teeny tiny pin prick of a hole could do soooooo much damage? You think our first observation would be the fact that the cabinet doors on the vanity were bowed out and water was condensing on the inside of the door. Nope....the first thing we noticed was the water stain on the ceiling in the master bath on the first floor.  A bit too late.

Wait, it gets better.

I had to drop my car off at the repair shop this morning to get brakes. Sounds simple enough, right?  Wrong.

They can do the brakes, for $305, and by the way your car also has a leak in the ($700) radiator, needs ($150) power steering hoses, and bushings ($?) on the front control arm and rear differential. And, no, we don't do inspections. You need to take it somewhere else. Great.

Wait, it gets better.

I signed up for a listing challenge on EBUG. I thought it would help motivate me to get my butt in gear and get things listed faster. Sounds like a good idea doesn't it? 

To sell on ebay you need three things: something to list, a camera to take pictures, and a way to upload them.

Do you know what happens when you drop your camera, while the lens is extended, on the floor? Nothing good I can tell you. Now my camera is BROKEN!!

And that is a good as it gets.

And now if you will excuse me I am going to curl up in the fetal position and cry myself to sleep.

FALL IS IN THE AIR

Last week here in Central NC we  had a variety of weather.
Rain with flooding
Thunderstorms with lightning and flooding
Hot with humidity
Cool with wind
It is never a dull weather moment here.

As I have said previously, it has rained for three weekends in a row. This has been the first weekend in a while that we have had decent weather. I was beginning to worry on Friday night when it started to rain. But it cleared up and yard sales were on.

I had our two granddaughters visiting on Friday and they spent the night. After they were ready for bed I got out my change jar and we divided up some money for yard sale-ing. A perfect time to learn about how much equals what. They each had three dollars in various coins. A fortune for them. Of course they got the speech about when you run out of money you have to stop buying because Grandma has to live within a budget and so do you. Ok, Grandma just fork over the cash!!

They did a really good job of spending their money. The each got a Beanie Baby for 25c.  One got a puzzle for 25c. And at our last stop they cleaned up. They each got a unicorn for 25c. A Hannah Montana sing along microphone, that thankfully went home with them, a Bratz doll and a bunch of other stuff for a total of about a dollar each. The couple holding the yard sale didn't want to take it home so they cut them a deal. But they were happy and they learned that 25c can buy a lot of stuff.

My daughter and I got only a few different things. At the last yard sale I got these stuffies. The F&F plate was from the first stop.
The care bear is a glow in the dark. As you will see that turned out to be the theme of the day.

After a screeching stop and a very quick right turn we found this yard sale. The girls were disappointed that there was no kids stuff. But they did have puzzles. Lots of puzzles. Put together by the adult of the house and guaranteed to have all of the pieces. We got a few.
The left half of the trunk is my stuff. The right half of the trunk is my daughter's. I got 17 puzzles and she got 20. And there were a bunch left. These people are seriously addicted to puzzles. Most of the puzzles were fantasy type. Wizards and such. Most of mine were glow in the dark(the trend of my day) and most of my daughter's were just the fantasy ones. The one that is ready to fall out of the trunk is a hologram. Cool. Expect to see some on ebay soon.

Of course after our fantastic shopping day and getting the girls back home we were kinda tired and not in the mood to fix dinner. On the way home we stopped and picked up a take and bake pizza. Our favorite kind.

Cat.
Would you like fur with that?

YARD SALE ALTERNATIVES....SCRATCHING THE ITCH

For the second week end in a row I have not been able to do yard sales. What??? you say. Or as my daughter is prone to say.... Whiskey. Tango.Foxtrot.

By Monday I was trying to figure out how I was going to scratch the itch. I had bunches of trash to turn into treasures and list in my store. Fix a button here, sew up a pocket there, wash,dry and fold and everything else to do to get ready to photograph and list. I worked like a madman Monday thinking I would get to thrift on Tuesday. Didn't happen. I worked like a madman on Tuesday thinking I would get to thrift on Wednesday. My oldest daughter, MotherOfGrandchildren, called and wanted to meet for lunch. Oh yeah!! The girls are tracked out this week and I haven't seen them in a while. She MOG had a doctors appt  and we were meeting after that. Meanwhile, on the way to the meeting I stopped at a couple of places, JUST TO LOOK...yeah right. I found some goodies and got there at the appointed time.

After lunch, which we kinda took our time enjoying, I headed for the really big thrift. I hadn't been in a couple of weeks and I NEEDED to check the 2/99c racks. I knew I had plenty of clothing items to list so I restrained myself and only found 4 items and one pair of shoes. I headed inside and started hunting...ahhhh....the smell of the hunt....moth balls....dust....Ben-Gay.

I found some hats, craft stuff and a lot of small stuff.
Hats were 99c and the Scotland towel, napkins, fabric and cross stitch were 25c each. I got a bunch of fabric, it was in the wash when I took the pics.

I looked at every pair of jeans in the store. I WILL find the pricey ones someday. In the meantime, I found a Ralph Lauren pair with velvet patches, gold thread embroidery with glass beads and tapestry patches. Some poor child in China is a very good seamstress....

I also found a pair of Antik Denim jeans. I didn't know anything about this brand, other than they appeared to be quality made with quality fabric. When I got home I checked them out on ebay and found that they average $25 a pair with the high end price being $190. I don't know about you but I would feel guilty paying more for jeans than I pay a month for electricity.... !
That's a lot of embroidery. On the left thigh, is that  a peacock?  These would have been great back in the 60's for my trip to Haight-Asbury.

On Thursday SweetiePie and I were out to breakfast. He likes to eat breakfast out, everyday if I let him.
HE suggested that we stop by GW because he wanted to look for t shirts. Stop....you're twisting my arm. I'll go....I'll go.... since you insist.

Of course I found a few things and he let me buy his t shirts too!!

A pieced tree skirt. Made in China, but it was in the bins so it was reasonable.
A Pottery Barn Teen double duvet cover and 2 shams, from the bins also. Yeah......$$$.... to ebay they go.

A bunch of small glass stuff. The ash trays on the left are German and the one on top is from Norway. A Napco cup/saucer and assorted mugs. Not pictured is a Boynton Baa, Humbug mug  and a Mary Engelbrect mug, Queen of Everything, that I have already listed. Baa, Humbug has sold already!! It paid for everything in the picture...I love fast sales!!

And this odd collection of items.

The California souvenir vintage apron, the Christmas colors smock/apron and the.....ummm..... red costume(?). I also picked up a similar pink costume that I forgot to photograph. Now I normally don't pick up "costumes" because of the ewwww factor, but these were not worn and Halloween is coming up and somebody somewhere will  need  a 4X red costume.

Ok, spill the beans, what did you find this week/week-end?

I'M WATCHING YOU.....

I'm having shades of George Orwell and big brother watching me.

As I have said, more than once, I sell on ebay. I keep checking things out over on ebay and it just amazes me the kinds of stuff that goes on. I have a store on ebay. I can go to my ebay and see all of the things I have listed. On this list I can see if anyone has asked a question about an item, if someone has an offer for a buy it now and I can also tell how many people have marked my item to watch.

Now everyone on ebay will watch something that interests them so they can find it again. I do it all the time. Mostly it is something that I have and am going to list or something that I am looking at to buy. I didn't realize how many people watch my stuff. So I decided to do a little count.

When I counted I had 184 items listed. Of those, 43 were being watched. Now those numbers are a little deceptive because sometimes more than one person is watching an item. I had a total of 69 watchers. Keep in mind that my items are listed for 30 days. Sometimes as soon as I list something I will get a watcher. Why would someone who wanted to buy something want to watch something for 30 days?  They don't. They are other sellers keeping an eye on your prices. They either have the same item for sale or are getting ready to list it. I have a $4.99 t shirt listed and I have 7 people watching. Why?

It's a $4.99 t shirt for crying out loud. Go find something else to watch.

On a good note I got the chance to go thrifting.  Whew, I almost forgot how.

I just love going through the 2for99cents racks at the really big thrift store. I always find something. The last time I went I found a few vintage dusters. This time I tried to stay away from a lot of clothes. I have a bunch I need to list and needed other items. But I did find 4 things that had to come home with me.

Have you ever heard of 7 for all mankind jeans? I WANT those jeans. Those puppies go for big bucks. Over 4,000 sold on ebay in the last 3 weeks at an average of $35 a pair with a high price of $190. Seriously!!! These things are on my radar.I looked through every pair of jeans at the thrift store and found a pair of Antik Denim, which average for $25 with a high of $119. They are cute, heavily embroidered and really not my style. I will have to just settle for those for now.

Oh well, the week end is coming up.Yard Sales!!! Maybe I will have some luck.