...and garage sale finds
Remember, when I took my cake to the edible books festival? Well, it won best use of color and with that I also got a gift certificate for 6 cupcakes at our local cupcake emporium. I picked them up on Friday:
That afternoon, I went to a few garage sales, and of course my pictures are backwards, I really have to pay more attention to how I put these in. Anyways, I set out for 5 sales, not very close to my house. The first was kinda interesting. I didn't find a ton I wanted, I did find a cute Easter table runner and a vintage Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, and some doilies. I'm doing horribly at not buying fabric. Now, that I have one fabric book done, when I look at fabric and doilies and stuff, I think would that look good in a fabric book, if the answer's yes, I buy it. The Easter runner has a cute embroidered bunny plus some cute Easter eggs at the bottom. One of the doilies, which I should have taken a better picture of, has these white stars crocheted together with yellow thread. And vintage Mickey for a quarter.
Easter Egg table runner, vintage Mickey, doilies
The next sale was a bit out, but I passed it because they had a dog running around in their yard. I really don't want to deal with really excited dogs when I'm out, plus it was kinda creepy looking, and no sign to tell you it was a sale.
The next was full of vintage toys and records, they were probably well priced, but I didn't want to pay ten dollars for wooden toys. I did pass up a cute Halloween wall hanging, mostly because I didn't have a place to put it, plus it wasn't quilted. I want quilted items, but I don't want to pay a lot for them, so I've been keeping an eye out at garage sales. I did find a neat spatula that has snowmen and snowflakes in it. After paying for that, I was about to leave and then decided to buy a Iowa State basketball player bobble head for my dad for Father's Day. He's always so hard to shop for.
spatula, bobble head
The last two sales were kinda close together. The first one, the lady gave me the wierdest look when I walked up and she saw my plastic bag of purchases from other sales. Apparently you can't bring your purchases with you, I walk. I didn't buy anything at her sale, mostly because of that look, also because the stuff I was looking at, wasn't priced. I don't like that, I don't want to walk over to the pay table every time I find something I like, their loss.
The last sale was promoted as a bake sale for something. When I got there I was kinda disappointed, I didn't see the cookies until I paid. I did find a cute sundae dish that matches one I already have, and an owl to add to my collection.
cookies, book, sundae dish, owl
Saturday, I switched shifts so I could go to a co-worker's sale, though it wasn't as exciting as I hoped, probably because another co-worker beat me there and bought all the cool stuff.
The first sale was promoted as a block in my neighborhood, when I got there, two house had stuff out, the first, there wasn't even anyone around. The second had boxes of stuff and it wasn't priced individually it was $10 for this box, I didn't want a box of stuff, especially when I walk.
My co-worker's sale was pretty interesting, I was hoping for more craft stuff. I did find some. Because I have way too much as it is, I justify buying more as long as it's not full price. That means garage sales, or sales in the store.
stingray magnet, card kit, flowers, hankie
This next sale was quite a ways from the other one, I had gone to this house another year and was scared off by the people putting the sale on, they were kinda creepy looking, so I wasn't sure about it this year. By the time I got there, I just figured I could look, because I was already there. Then I got distracted by the stuffed animals, I have way too many already, I'm not supposed to buy any, but I saw the dog, and it went downhill from there. Plus, they were sooo soft. And the lady did give them to me for a pretty good rate, but I really shouldn't have bought the hamster and caterpillar.
My garage sale money comes from saving over the winter. Last winter, I decided to only save five dollar bills (I read somewhere it was easier to save those than other bills), but I'd gotten so used to saving one dollar bills from before, I ended saving both. In the future I'll only do the one dollars. I like that method better. The first year I started garage saleing I withdrew money from the bank every week, that was a BAD idea, especially when I went through at the end of the season and saw how much I spent. This way it's like extra money.
Speaking of money, I'm kinda freaking out. I got paid on Friday, it was a small check, and was gone Friday afternoon. I hate bills. And because of some new law, I, as an hourly worker can't work over an average of 30 hours a week or my employer has to give me benefits. And since that's not happening, I can't work more than 30 hours a week. It's not helping that my health insurance goes up every year, and now it's at a point that I can hardly afford it. I'm trying to work about 29 hours a week to get my paychecks, and trying hard not to buy anything I don't need, but it sucks. I'm hoping that when I start at the bookstore in August, that law doesn't apply to temp workers, but I don't know. I wouldn't be as bad off, if I didn't pay so much on my credit card bill, but I always think I have to pay over what I charged that month (which is a good thing, but not when you don't have the money), and I did, and that took most of my paycheck.
I can't wait until this Friday, there's a thing called an art walk downtown. Basically, the businesses host local artists and you buy their work. That money is coming from my saved five's so it won't be coming out of the bank. I know I shouldn't spend any, and I may not, I bought one thing for $2 last year. We'll see.
I'm also trying NOT to drink pop. I hate it. A couple years ago, I quit as a New Year's thing, I went three months without a pop, and then I drank one, bad idea. And then I fluctuated between drinking pop and not. Then awhile ago, I decided I couldn't unless someone bought it for me, that didn't work. Now, I'm trying to quit altogether, problem is, I get sick of water and milk. Anyone got any alternatives for me? I like juice, but I drink it way too fast. I've tried all kinds of the water drinks, some I like, some I don't.
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