Sunday, August 30, 2015

Working all the time

Once again, I'm catching up. Last time I posted, we were about to leave on a mini vacation. I didn't go garage saleing on August 15th, as I figured I'd buy enough stuff on vacation, I did spend a nice bit of money, but not for anything really interesting.
So, on August 15th, I chose to stay at home and read some of my books, that afternoon I worked and that night my brother got to Ames with his girlfriend and we chatted a bit.
On August 16th, we got up and started the drive up to Okoboji, IA. My mom had printed out directions from MapQuest, which I thought was kinda funny. We've been going there for years, since I was a really small person, and we've traveled the same route every time. This time we took a different road but it was two highways all the way up there, and mostly it was just highway, we went through a few towns at the end, but is was basically driving straight. We stopped at a gas station/eatery about 11/12 oclock for lunch. I had macaroni and cheese and bread pudding, it was ok for gas station food. We got to Okoboji about 1sh, my brother came in shortly after we did. My first stop was to go next door to the Sugar Shack, which is just jars of candy you can buy in bulk. I got myself a bag of chocolate covered stuff that lasted the few days we were there. I had also decided I needed to pick up a shirt because the few I got last time became too small and I got rid of them. I was going to buy two shirts, but I found a cute bag and got that instead.
The other t-shirt I was considering had a starfish embroidered on it. I'm not sure why they had these things because I've never seen a starfish in the lake and it rains everywhere, but they were cute. I really wanted more of a screenprinted shirt, but those were pretty expensive. The store I bought these at, everything was half price, it was pretty hard to beat that.
I've found the purse is working very well for me too, I just bought it because it was really cute, but I've wanted a smaller purse that doesn't hold much so I can't stuff everything in it.
My next stop was a place that has a lot of jewelry, but I love picking up what they call Treasure Boxes, their just grab bags in a box. I can't help myself around grab bags.
Inside were some pendant necklaces, flower pins, hat barrettes and a strange die ring.
 I didn't want to go back to the condo and sit, so I kept walking down to the amusement park and the shops there. I didn't find anything to buy at these shops, but I did find quite a few old cars to look at.
This one looks like the Impala from Supernatural except that it's blue and two doors.
 The rest of the day was very boring, it rained and no one wanted to go out in the rain and get food, so I had a bagel for supper. My mom was very strange with the rain. There was a lot of rain the two days we were there and she kept whining about it. At times it wasn't that much, so I didn't understand why she couldn't just put on her coat and go out in it.
The next day we went to a local place the Koffee Kup and had breakfast. We decided to go shopping for the day as it was overcast and raining. Our first stop was The Barn Swallow, we go every year, it's a big house with over 3 floors of gifts, clothes and almost every thing you could think of.
 I thought these S&P shakers were just funny:
 Also thought this sign was cute:
 Afterwards we headed north to get lunch. I don't know if it was because it was Monday or because there were a lot of chain fast food places around but not much local was open. We ended up waiting in a place called the Family Diner for awhile, I went out to look for another place and when I got back my parents found a table. It was good, I had a cheeseburger, but nothing extraordinary that I couldn't get in Ames.
There was more shopping after lunch, we visited 3 or 4 consignment stores. I didn't buy much, but I saw a lot of interesting stuff.
My friend got a really cool bag made of ribbons and fibers and vintage trim at a Goodwill awhile back, so I've been on the lookout for interesting purses, this one was cool:
Very elegant, but also about $40.
We stopped at a smelly antique store where I picked up a few things. The frog was for me, the iris angel and Santa for my mother.
 My mother couldn't stand the smell inside so she went next door to the fabric store. I don't find fabric stores very interesting. I like looking at fabric, but if that's all I have to look at, I get bored.
The last place we went to, seemed like a very upscale consignment store. It was fun to look at, but there was nothing I could afford in it, not even the jewelry pieces they had.
This piece was from a post office, wouldn't it be cool to have in a craft room just to fill up with supplies?
 I thought the 'face' chair was creepy and weird.
 This purse was decorated with shell and coconut pieces, here's the front:
 and the back
 An old phonograph
 a cool clock
 a neat cabinet. The glass on the top is bottle ends
 a pillow covered in MOP buttons, this was about $10, still out of my price range.
 Supper was from a place called Smokin' Jakes, they had very good barbecue, but still nothing I couldn't get at home.
Tuesday, we basically got up and drove home. That was an experience in itself, it rained the whole 3 hour drive. There were a couple times it was raining soo hard I was hoping we'd pull over and wait, I couldn't see anything. For some reason my mom decided she just needed to get home. We got to the outskirts of town and my dad suggested we pick up lunch, but she seemed very annoyed and said she didn't want to get out in the rain and she just wanted to get home. We didn't really need to hurry, our original plan was to stay until lunch time and then leave, we got home about the time we were going to leave. It was weird.
And I've been working at the bookstore and the library ever since we got back. Last Sat, 8/22 I decided to give my feet a little break and did not go garage saleing. This week I was going to, but when I woke up Friday morning, it was raining again.
I did stop at a church sale on my way home from work and picked up a few things.
I just thought the Asian piece was neat, I love those little pincushion creatures, the bear is for my mom it's an Iowa bear with an Iowa quarter she collects bears, I thought the C notebook would work for a swap and the frog is for me.
 
Yesterday I worked all day and today's my day off. I was planning on wandering down south to Target and Walmart because I need a dressish shirt for a job interview on Thursday, but we're having flooding after our 9+ inches of rain on Friday, and I saw pictures of the Walmart parking lot being flooded, Target's a little higher, but I decided it would suck to get there and see it was flooded.
I wish we could send some of this water to California, they sure need it.
I guess I check out some closer places Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. I don't really have much planned today. I do have to drop something off at the library, but I'll probably just end up reading some of my giant stack of library books.

No comments: