Trip, trip, tripping!

Hi everyone,

I was fortunate there were yard sales on Friday I was able to go to because Saturday turned out to be a bust.

I will start with Friday.

There were 2 sales I went to on Friday. I didn't find anything at the first which was a real disappointment. There were several items listed in the ad that someone asked me to look for. Only the pack and play was left by the time I arrived (10 minutes before the listed start time) and the price at $40 was too much. Not when I have bought so many for under $20.

I moved on to the next sale and had more luck there. This was an indoor/outdoor sale and I was grateful for the indoor part because it started at 4pm; the sun was beaming and the temp was 90 degrees. 

Inside I found 2 boxes of the Earth Healer compost tea. They were new and had the literature inside. I googled these later and it is made by monks in South Carolina. It contains dried compost tea containing chicken manure and other wonderful things. Comes in a large "tea bag" and you let it soak overnight in water. I filled a 5 gallon bucket and put the bag in it last night and this morning watered my potted plants. The instructions say to let the bag dry out and you can reuse it several times. I have great hopes for my plants!

If you are interested in finding these retail, here is the link I found online:

Compost tea

Next I found this window mount hummingbird feeder made by Wild Birds, Unlimited. It seems pretty sturdy and I like that the parts are easily cleaned. By the way, I have cleaned it all and it is now up in my window. I hope the hummers come soon! I checked the reviews out on Amazon.com and the majority was very positive. I like too that there is an Ant Moat the container of hummer food sits in. I have had problems with ants finding my food in the past.

Below is a picture of the feeder inserted into the oval ant moat. It is all held to the window by the 2 suction cup piece. Seems to be sturdy. I am just hoping other birds don't try to sit on it to drink the water in the moat!

Here is a picture of one mounted in a window I found in Google images. I liked this picture since it is bright and you can see the set up well.  They retail for $24.

The last thing I found there was this stemless wine glass. My husband doesn't drink wine and I enjoy a glass occasionally. I saw this one and picked it up for myself. Cute, isn't it?!

And that was it. Nothing else reached out and tugged my sleeve. So I paid $3.50 at the check out and went my merry way, thinking of all the sales I would go to on Saturday. So much for those happy thoughts.

Saturday morning I left the house with my yard sale bag, printed list of sales, times, and addresses at 5:45am. The first one was conveniently located a block from my house. How nice is that?!

Unfortunately I never even made it to the first table. Walking from my car, I tripped over an exposed piece of broken brickwork and fell face down into the soft dirt drive! Yes, a full face plant. Or rather a full nose plant. Don't ask me how my hands didn't come forward to break my fall because when I sat up, my hands were not dirty or scraped but the bridge of my nose was! My knees were scraped and bleeding as was my nose and I was shaken to say the least. Because the sale was much further from my accident site and cars blocked their view, no one saw my fall. I got back into my car and drove straight home where I cleaned up and started icing my knees and nose. Needless to say I was home for the rest of the day. Pretty sore and a little headachy but other than that, nothing broken, thank goodness. It could have been a lot worse. And yes, later on that wine glass came in handy!

Next Saturday Steve and I head for the Catskills of NY and 2 weeks of vacation. I plan on doing some yard sailing there as well so you will probably hear from me in a couple of weeks. Take care and happy bargain hunting.

Thrifty Christy

Still watching out for turtles

June is here (in case you haven't heard). It felt really nice stepping outside this morning to lower humidity and a light breeze. I know steamy morns are in the forecast from now til Sept. so I enjoyed and appreciated the windows down and lack of perspiration.

Babs, Johanna and Sophie too joined me on the road today. Brenna and her friend Katie met us at the first sale (6am) and I handed off the extra printed yard sale list with addresses and times. The time stated 6am and the address gave the name of a local church. But the parking lot was empty and that was quite a surprise. We pulled in to chat and figure what to do since that was the only listed 6am sale and no others until 7. I reread the listing. "Sponsored by Calvary Temple Pentacostal Church". Hmmm. So "sponsored" not actuallly "held by". As we were bemoaning the lack of a yard sale, a van pulled up and a couple of women got out and ran into the church. Long and short was they were having a sale and the church was letting them store their goods inside. They were quick setting out their wares and we checked it out. By then it was 6:30 and we moved on to a sale at another nearby church.

We were pleasantly surprised to find it open and selling. Usually church sales keep their doors closed til the designated opening time. Lots of items but nothing for me except for a tiny turtle that hangs on a garden planter/pot. For 50 cents I couldn't resist. I do have a soft spot for turtles. I have named her Matilda. Her story is Matilda dreams of being a sea turtle swimming on the ocean currents but really is a box turtle forever land bound. Thank you, Mom, for passing on the gift of giving names to inanimate objects.

Can you find Matilda?

From there on the two carloads of we eager buyers went our way, occasionally meeting at sales. It works out well when one of the cars goes to a sale and gives the other car the thumbs up or down on the status of said sale. For instance Brenna and Katie went to one that we(Johanna, Babs, Sophie and I) passed by when we saw it was on a dead end street and it appeared to be too well attended meaning the traffic and parking looked to be a nightmare. Later on we asked if we should have stopped and our decision was affirmed. That networking

worked for us all as the morning progressed.

Lots of sales and we kept going until 9:30am. By then our stomachs were growling and we were done.

And here is what I found today:

Youth size winter hat (for Hugh) $1

Shirt for me. $1

2 hook racks for my friend's beach house. $3 for 2. They're about 2 feet long.

And I was so happy to find these star decoration lights for my sister Fran. These are larger than the ones I found last week and much better price! Unused too.

Nice size!

2 boxes for $1 each

I have a salad spinner that's too flimsy. This one is more sturdy and only $1

I don't generally don't look at artwork at the sales but this one caught my eye. It is already gracing my bedroom wall. I asked the price, the seller said $5. I sprung for it and she said how pleased her mother would be. It seems her mom pressed the flowers and butterfly and made this. I was taken aback at first that she would sell her mom's artwork; I treasure my mother's paintings. But to each their own and if it didn't suit her decor, then at least it has found a home with me. I would like to re-mat it in time. The white on white doesn't do it justice.

Original pressed floral artwork. $5. It is a medium frame( 21x17)

Below are several pictures were taken at a sale where there was a large collection of Barbies and other dolls. I don't know much about Barbie prices and dolls. All were priced at what I think were retail prices.

I was just amazed at how many there were.

More Barbies and oh, and the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard Oz.

More dolls!

Pretty fancy Barbies. I don't think a child would ever be allowed to touch these.

I found a couple more shirts for $1 each and 4 onesies (50cents each) for Nate. After talking to Brenna, it seems my future grandson now has sufficient amount of onesies for his first several months of life! I will refrain until I get the heads up more are needed.

I went to one yard sale on Friday and found a few things. Below is a plastic storage bin I bought for a friend who has a large dog. Large dog equals large bags of food. This holds an entire bag.

12 gallon Storage bin(the reusable bag next to it is just for size perspective)

Along with the storage container I bought 2 vintage small tablecloths, the watch and the small items in the last picture for a total of $4.

Needed a  new battery.And it works fine. I apologize for the blur. I haven't figured out how to take close ups with my camera!

Love the blue embroidery

Both are on my sofa tables in the living room. Pretty and useful. 

Perfume is Clinique's Happy Heart, roll of hemming tape (binds when you iron), clear glass food storage container, key hider and a lamp wire adapter.

Brenna's finds

Brenna kindly sent me photos of her purchases on Saturday.

Mary Kay eye makeup remover, new in box: 50 cents

Tupperware trays all with lids. Brenna can use them to freeze homemade baby food and or breast milk.Price: $1 total for all three

New paper lantern for Nate's room. Sticker says $1 but she paid 50cents. Brenna has others hanging over Nate's crib so this will just be added to the others.

Dvd's for Nate's collection. $1 each

Goodwill find this week

I spotted this Boon bathtub/shower toy and shampoo holder with a $3 price tag. Good price I thought. So I bought it. Did I look at it very carefully? Not as much as I should have. It was missing the critical fastening devise that keeps it hanging on the tub surround/tile! Basically useless without that! So I checked online and found a replacement piece for $6 and because I also ordered other items I needed, I was able to get it with free shipping. So now my $3 find has cost me $9 total. Not bad for something that retails for $30 new. Now I just have to find someone who wants it! It is quite large and the reviews online are great. Unfortunately Brenna already has one, so do my nieces. I will sell it on Craigslist for $15 unless a reader of this blog contacts me and would like to buy it privately. Any takers???!!

Front of Boon pod

Above is the back of frog pod with new suction cup panel and below is what it looks like hanging on your shower wall.

So ends another weekend of yard sale adventures. Hope you have a good week and maybe you too picked up some nice deals on your bargain hunts. Until next time, happy hunting from...

Thrifty Christy

Memorial weekend

{A quick note. I wrote this and then didn't get around to posting it. Busy week and so on. So here is last week's post today and I will have this weekend's post tomorrow. I promise!}Happy Memorial weekend everyone. There was not a gracious plenty of sales today, but enough to get out there and not sleep in. Holiday weekends are iffy when it comes to yard sales. You never know if people are more ready to use their time to have fun or make some money and sell. This weekend there were sellers! Johanna and Babs had other tasks to do but Brenna, my daughter, was ready and willing to join me. Our deal is I will drive across town to her place, allowing her critical extra sleep time, and she drives us around to the sales with her car that has more room in the back. My little Civic can hold only so much and this Saturday we definitely needed the space...more on that later.There were a couple of sales with 6am start times. We checked them out but nothing for us. That didn't take much time and left us with a 40 minute gap before the 7am's started. I wanted coffee and Brenna pregnant and drinking water needed to stop too! Sheetz nearby took care of our needs. Love its convenient location!Refreshed and refueled we set out again and this time we lucked out. Brenna found a great looking dresser for the room destined to become their office space. The price was $75. Too high. But it was perfect in every way: right color, new and didn't need any work which Robbie her husband really appreciated since he had been working on the changing table lately. Brenna asked if they would take $50. The gentleman said he didn't think his wife would come down in price but maybe $60. He waited for her to come out of the house and asked. Without missing a beat she replied "yes" to $50!

 

 

 

 

Brenna still was hesitant since it was more than we've paid for furniture at a yard sale so she checked in with Robbie. When you are used to $15-$20 deals, you get in that mindset. But, it was still early and they hadn't been open that long. As soon as Robbie heard "$50, new, and move in ready", he said "buy it"! It just fit in the back of her car with not much room to spare. Yay!





 

 

 

Off we went and hit a few more. Brenna snagged a pretty necklace for $1 which she gave to me (thank you!) and I found a couple of tassels for the lamps in my dining room that will tie into the colors of my rug and those plates I found a few weeks ago. I went online (Amazon) and bought these plate hangers. The plates hang flush on the walls and I like it better without those metal stretchy hangers. I think I have the pattern of how I want them on the wall and hope with Brenna's help to get them up soon. I promise to take a picture once they are up.

Along with the tassels, I picked up a roll of fishing line. Brenna had received round paper lanterns for Nate's room to hang from the ceiling and thought fishing line would be a good choice. The tassels and line cost me $1. Not having spent any money thus far except for coffee, I didn't even quibble.

At the last sale I screwed up. I saw a box of Christmas lights, white wires with palm size stars. Something my sister Fran had asked me to look for. Did I check the box thoroughly to make sure they were all the star type lights/decorations? No. I just saw what was on top and paid the $10. Only when I got back home did I realize there was only one set of the star lights and the rest were the white wire icicle lights. And there are a lot of them. Well worth the $10 if you are looking for white wire outdoor icicle Christmas lights. I was not. Sigh. I hate these lessons! So if any of my friends reading this in Greenville, need these types of lights, let me know! I know people use them for other decorating needs other than Christmas, outdoor parties and the like. I can give you a really good deal!

We finished up and headed for breakfast and then home. I helped Robbie bring the dresser inside; he was happy with the purchase. I ran upstairs to check out how Nate's room is coming together now that the crib is up, the changing table has beeen stained and in place and my mom's old white book case has been given a facelift. The room looks so sweet and happy. Just perfect to welcome a baby boy. Only 6 more weeks until the due date!


I headed off for Morehead City, NC to visit my brother Sonny for the rest of the long weekend...long for me since I have Monday off. I am looking forward to bike riding with Sonny, playing with his poodle, Precious, and seeing Sonny's family and grandchildren, Hugh and Beau. The weather looks iffy so I am hoping for rain at night and sunshine during play time. Fingers crossed.


{ok, so the weather was sunny and we had family time in the sand and salt water. My brother Sonny, his daughter Kelley and her son, Hugh are pictured below.}

Hope you all have a great weekend. I am thankful for this Memorial Day, and time with my extended family. Thank you, veterans for your service to our country.

Until next weekend, have a great week and happy bargain hunting!

Thrifty Christy