First Rummage of the Year Scores

I had such high hopes for this blog but alas, as the title says, I have too many things I want to do and not enough time in the day to get them done.
I wanted to share my awesome scores from one sale I went to on Saturday.  I wanted to visit more garage sales but felt satisfied by my finds from the one sale so I stopped to keep from building on Mt. Unlisted or worse, creating a whole mountain range.  But that is for another post.
So feast your eyes on this goodness:

I know, right?  The cooler was my happiest score.  I have a friend who has her finger on the pulse of cool and has been wanting one of these for her husband for camping but said they were too spendy.  Well, for $2 my Apple man could be trendy and cool.  After I showed him completeds on ebay, he wants me to sell it.  I argued the beer/bottle opener feature on the handles alone is worth keeping but no joy.  It's outta here.

Good by beautiful vintage coolness cooler.

I found my first vintage pyrex casserole dish.  Not a super hottie but I am grateful none the less.  The binoculars are for the kids, not worth much and too much fun.  The fossil watch is hard to research but I don't think it's worth much.

The last bit was a Christmas sweater and a vintage penguin ice bin.  The penguin cooler is mid-century and hot.  Just shows, constant research pays.  I would have never picked this up without people sharing what they are selling on thrift shares.

I got 5 vintage playstation games for Space Boy and a shirt and a jacket for Little Critter and Normal Child.  How much did I spend? . . .$13.  Man do I love a good rummage sale.

1970's Toy Thrift Score

I stopped in quick at the local thrift shop on the way home from grocery shopping in town.  This is what I got:

Critter is in a lot of trouble for an event the other day so she is basically an indentured servant and doesn't get anything from thrift stores right now.  So it wasn't too hard picking through the toy stuff.  I just kept saying no.
The good news was I found two bags of boys toys which Critter could care less about.  Wasn't sure about them but I saw the word Tootie Toy and looked it up on my phone.  Yep, the first bag was a keeper:

A bargain at $1.00 for the whole lot.
I also found a bag of some seventies Fisher Price adventure looking set.  When I got home. . . Wowza.  People sure are sentimental for their childhood.

All that for vintage fisher price goodness for $1.00
I also took a quick peruse through the plush bin and found these at $.50 each.

The books I will keep.  Spaceboy want to make a Bonzai apple tree so I found a vintage Sunset book.
This is my first Thrift Share Monday with Apron Thrift Girl.  Lot's of fun to be able to participate.

Stuff the Puppy Has Ruined

I really don't know what I was thinking getting a puppy.  When I had my old dog, she was a puppy once but she didn't chew.  She immediately did everything I asked as far as obedience.  She was devoted to me from the get go.  Maybe she was that way because she was a rescue, or maybe because I didn't have any kids or maybe I have ruined so many brain cells at this point I just don't remember how ROTTEN PUPPIES ARE!

So I only work out of the house 6 days a year.  I work at a local ski area teaching skiing to local kids.  I earn a pass and a little spending money.  The rest of my time I work from home writing listings for my ebay store. 

I came home from work today.  Critter yells "Mommy's home, mommy's home!".   Well that was nice. . .for a second.  Then Normal Child tattles on Critter she drew on my favorite stool.  Critter yells "it was an accident".  Meanwhile, Spaceboy is telling me something over the din of the other two I can't quite make out. 

I don't have my jacket off, I don't have my shoes off and where is Appleman?  Oh there he is, wiping sleep out of his eyes from his afternoon nap, smiling and grateful for the reprieve.

So I finally walk over to Spaceboy to see what was so important.  Well, I guess this was important:

Wait, is that what I think it is?

The power cord to MY mac?  The way I make my living?  The puppy chewed it completely through and NO ONE noticed?  I guess I should just be grateful there isn't another vet bill because they forgot to unplug the cord!

Lolly apparently was so mad that I went out the door this morning, didn't take her skiing or for a walk, she pounced over to the thing that smelled like me. . . and chewed it to bits.  Who says English Shepherds aren't smart.  Wow.  And I thought this dog didn't like me.  Now I know not to cross that dog.

Next time, I get to go, no matter what!

Luckily, my day ended with a phone call from one of my neighbors who had flame throwing friends in from the Cook Islands and treated us and the kids to this:

I guess one of his life goals was to flame throw in the snow.  Cool, I'm game to watch.  Sorta made up for the craziness of the rest of my evening.  I mean come on, what's crazier than hanging out in your swim suit, throwing around a burning stick in sub freezing temperatures?

What a Week!

Apple Man works 1 weekend a month at a local hospital.  So last weekend it was his turn which means it is my turn to hold down the fort with 3 children and a young fur person, Lolly.  Thinking I was going to loose it I had the brilliant idea I would take them all up to Moonlight for the first ski of the year.  After all I do have poster children:

Shameless bragging, Little Critter and Space Boy make the big time!

We needed to get our wiggles out, pick up our passes and try out our ski legs again.  So we/I get all three kids geared up and ready to go.  The only challenge being, I was not ready to go.  The three of them were sweating to death in their sub zero clothes so I told them to wait outside.  Normal Child charges out the door with Little Critter close behind and that is when I hear the yelping. 

I knew what had happened and I didn't even need to witness it.  I had warned the children not to let the dog out without a lead on because 1. she hates to go in the car and 2. she is going through a keep away phase.

Little Critter, trying to be good, had inadvertently slammed the dog's rear foot in the door in her effort to not get in trouble by letting the dog out.

So now I have a dog who looks like this

I am soooo hurt, give me a cookie.

That was Sunday.

On Monday I made an appointment at the vet for 2:30 to look at Lolly's foot.  At 11:30 I get a call from my neighbor, my husband was in a car accident, he's OK but his car is totaled.  Great. . . 

I get in my car with Little Critter and Lolly and drive the canyon to rescue him.  As soon as I get in cell range, I cancel the vet appointment and that is when I see this:

My heart sank. 

The good news, he really wasn't hurt, mad, but not hurt.  His airbag didn't deploy which means no front impact. 

What happened?  A guy was coming at him in his lane passing on a double yellow.  Apple Man slowed down and lost control on the ice and slid sideways into the SNOWPLOW right behind the illegal passer.  So now you know what a snowplow verses Subaru can look like.  It sheered the front two feet of his car right off.  Strewn all over the highway.  Quite frankly, I am just glad he is alive and unhurt.

The rest of the car looks great.

We had it towed home and will try to sell it as a parts car.

So as I finish preparations for Christmas, I am grateful for my family, our health and our now mostly recovered puppy.  I will look forward to 2012 with great hope that all the people and fur people I love will live to see another year and that all in our lives will be well again.

Cheers to 2011, may it teach me all I needed to learn in this difficult year.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

The title is not a miss print and a pretty serious way to make some cash on ebay or a good excuse to have a party, depending on your point of view.
So I went to the thrift store yesterday, feeling uninspired by my lack of sales this week.  $62 for week, seriously?  It's Christmas, I should be at $620 for the week.  I needed a jump start and went to the thrift store to find it.
So with whinny 4 year old in hand, I charged in feeling like I owned the place.  Little did I know, Little Critter had adopted the same attitude.  So she grabbed my hand and charged over to the toy section with me glancing at the mugs and children's clothes along the way.  Finding nothing in the toy section worth listing (is everyone buying their Christmas presents for their kids at the thrift store this year?), Little Critter drags me to the book section.  Right past the mugs again and still I see nothing.
The whinning was getting to me and I am not feeling in charge or charged up anymore, 15 minutes of consistant whining can do that to ya.
I grab her little hand with her 'new' books in the other, wander over to the sweater area.  As Moses parted the Red Sea, so did the ebay gods part the isles for me. 
The first of 4 lovelies:

What makes this such a beauty is Santa's mustache:

I am pretty sure Santa did not have a black mustache where I came from.  Gives him the evil villian look.
So here are my other lovelies:

Pink and Brown are the new Red and Green

Mr. Polar Bear, your tails are crossed

Just pure Ugliness

So I am hoping to get theses listed by the weekend so I can ship them out.  I will ask between $29 and $39 (though I think they are priceless).
What will I do if they don't sell?  Well, I guess I'll have to have an ugly Christmas sweater party with my friends and supply the sweaters.  Hopefully, they will be bring the egg nog.
Happy Listing.

Pity Party and Redemption

Birthdays are always a bloody caution in our house.  I never know whether to go all out or not get sucked into the consumerism of it all.
So yesterday, my birthday, started out as a dud.  I had to take the puppy to the vet which went fabulous.  Clean bill of health and they hit me up for a $5 donation to the local shelter for this photo.

An English Shepherd and her girl

Totally worth it.  Love the pink boots on Critter.
So I run my errands which include buying my own birthday cake because Apple Man didn't make me one, but he is hit or miss anyway.  I was going to buy myself all kinds of presents too but I ran out of time.
So I get home when the kids' bus gets here.  Once the bus comes, my day is over until bedtime.  So, after getting the homework train started and out of the station, I remember the last thing Apple Man said as he walked out the door on my birthday.  "Oh honey, there's a big bag of scraps from that deer I killed last weekend, could you grind that up into hamburger and we can have hamburgers or meatballs for dinner"
Did he forget it's my birthday and the whole meat thing has me queasy to begin with.  I came to Montana a vegetarian 19 years ago.  So he just asked this Northern California Hippie Girl to grind meat for dinner on her birthday.  That's love I tell ya.
So this was my birthday 'chore'.  (Scroll down if you are squeamish).

Lovely.  Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate fresh meat but this?  On my birthday?
So the kids and I had a fabulous hamburger supper and store bought cake for dessert.  They sang me happy birthday and I cracked open a beer because what else ya gonna do?

Luckily, after Apple Man got home, he had this:

That man never ceases to amaze me.
In the bag?  A new pair of flannel jammies!  God I love that man!  So he has redeemed himself. . . again.

Stuffing and Unstuffing

Genetically, I am a hoarder.  I fight it, think I can actually do something about it, but when push comes to shove, I collect stuff.
I have a shelf full of books to help me combat the disease

I also collect books about how I want my house to look.

but all that ends up happening is my shelf collapses under the weight of all the books I collect.

Waiting for the weight of 3rd and 4th shelf to give way.

So none of that has worked unless you like dusting books.  So I tried this program.  I printed the list, made plans, filled it up the first 15 weeks and started to work.  I actually tackled a couple projects that were bothering me, so I got that goin' for me, which is nice.  But here it is, week 46 and I have completed 7, yes 7 projects.  That my friends, is pathetic.

One of my projects, already re-cluttered!  Ugh!

But beat my self up?  No, not me.  I am a scientist by trade so this is my proof, I have a genetic condition, I can't fight it.  I am not an organized, tidy, or simple person.  But I am here to tell you, I have another plan (that may or may not work).
I am NOT going out on Friday (or Thursday) to go shopping.  I am supporting this movement.

It is going to work for me for two, no three ways:
1.  If I don't buy anything, it won't accumulate in my house.
2.  I'm not a big fan of crowds or corporate greed.
3.  I am done shopping for Christmas, finished last month actually.  I am a bargain shopper, but all year, not just the day after Thanksgiving.

So my latest motto is '1 thing in, 2 things out'.  I have to say that has made the biggest difference. 
So as you are stuffing your face this Thanksgiving, think about unstuffing your house and don't shop on Friday.
Disclaimer: Sis, I mean me, not you.  Have fun at the craft fair, at least it's local.