Life

has not been going that good for me lately.  It's my own fault, I guess, for being too happy when Kev graduated. For some reason, I'm not allowed to be happy. I don't know why, and I really don't think it's very fair. I'm not a really bad person. I don't believe in helping those that won't help themselves, but that shouldn't be such a terrible offense to Karma, I shouldn't think. I would help someone to help their self.

Anyway, nothing to do but keep plugging along, so I just keep plugging along.

Yesterday/today I made some amazing progress on clearing out a lot of my books from around here. If there was/is anything I was a full out Hoarder of, it was books. If a book ever reached my hands, the only way it was leaving was if someone pried it out of my cold, dead fingers. It was pretty ridiculous, to be honest.

Long story short, I took 155 books (merely a dent in the overall collection) to a UBS and got $61.00 cash for them. Better than I was hoping for!

While we were there - the County/Town North of here - we visited some thrift/antique/flea market shops.

I don't know if I've just been out of the thrift-shopping loop, but it seems there's a new kind of shop these days. The thrift shops I'm used to bill themselves as non-profit and take donated items and use the money they make to fund their Charity.
But now I'm seeing - three in one week - where thrift stores are running their business the same way as antique/craft malls, where they rent out space to people (like me) to bring my stuff and set up to sell. But it doesn't have to be antique or crafts, it can be whatever I have: books, toys, clothes, 80's home decor, etc. Yard sale stuff.

I'm just trying to figure out if I can sell enough to pay for the space. I can't be going in the hole every month. I wish I could find one that sells by consignment and takes part of my money if I sell something, or none if I don't. There's plenty of stores that sells clothes on consignment, but I have more stuff than clothes.

One store we visited was having a 50% off sale and I found a Queen size fitted bedsheet I paid 54¢ for.
I've not been happy with my bed sheets for a long time, even the 1000 count Egyptian cotton ones I paid out the nose for. I wanted sheets like my Grannie used to have, Percale. I had actually passed over some sheets previously because they didn't have the set, but then eventually it dawned on me that I didn't know why I thought I had to have a matching set. At night, when it's dark, and my eyes are closed, I don't even see what color or how decorative or if the sheets match. I just feel them. Maybe I'll get lucky and happen across a pink or orange or blue solid Percale flat sheet.

Stopped in the new Goodwill store and found Kev a couple of pair of gym shorts, his favorite summer wardrobe. They were about $4 each including tax.

At the Salvation Army store I found a bag of foam letters stamps for 69¢. I didn't need them for anything particular right now, but I figured as soon as I passed them over, I'd end up coming home and seeing an idea on Pinterest then be mad at myself for not getting them.

At the Habitat for Humanity ReStore I found the juicer. I just needed (wanted) a juicer, I didn't read the name or think it was vintage or anything, but according to Etsy it was a pretty good find at $1.00.

It's been a pretty rough week around here, but we (by we, I mean J and the boys) managed to get R's other new window installed.

I'll get around to painting them one of these days. In the meantime, I washed his blinds.

I didn't read up on hints for washing blinds lately, but several years ago I read a suggestion about putting them in the bathtub and run hot water and add bleach. I can't remember what happened when I tried that before, but for whatever reason, I nixed that idea this time.

Instead, we built a frame out of some scrap lumber and I hung them up and sprayed them with the water hose, sprayed on Scrubbing Bubbles bathtub cleaner....I love that stuff, it cleans my tub better than anything else I've tried....wiped with a rag, then hosed them off and left them hang to dry.  Mucho easier, for me.

Today we had a couple of errands to run, on no particular time schedule, so we fit some yard-sale'ing in along the way.

What.an.ordeal.
First off, J shops like I (used to/still do sometimes) - he was buying stuff he didn't need and most likely probably won't ever use, "because the price was too good not to".  *cough*dresser*Pyrex*cough*
He told me he didn't like yard-sale'ing with me because I wouldn't let him buy stuff.

He still managed to come away with all this: a pair of bicycling gloves $2.00 (he tried to buy a bicycle gel seat, too. I said, you don't ride a bike. He said he's going to start. I've heard that same claim for years, so I don't believe it), a tackle-box-belt for $1.00, the propane camping stove for $5.00 (we don't camp, ever), old tin snips $1.00 (we don't have any tin), a combination square $1.00 (Pawpaw used to have one just like it), a turkey caller for 25¢ and the electric knife for $1.00.

The route we were taking, going to my cousin's house, took us right through J's fire zone, and gah, I think he knew every person at every house we stopped at through there. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk....

I only found a couple of deals today: a set of old Made in Japan S&P shakers. I don't know if they are vintage or anything about them, I don't know much about S&P shakers but I have a large collection of them that I thought I had stopped adding to...but these looked old, and were only 25¢.

And a set of #502, #503 "Crazy Daisy" or "Spring Blossom" Pyrex refrigerator dishes, with their lids.
This set I believe would go for at least $25 in a re-sale store. I told myself I wasn't going to pay more that $2.00 for them...although I might have been fibbing to myself if she'd said, say, $5.00. But I really thought she'd say more like $10.00.

She says "Oh...how about 50¢ for both?"

How about, SOLD!

Weekend Thrifting

I planned my thrift store shopping for Friday - the third Friday of the month - which used to be the 50¢ clothing sale at one of the thrift stores I visit.
Sadly for me, she's not having them anymore.

I did find one mixer beater - which they ended up giving me for free - a package of glue gun sticks for 50¢ and a package of round wooden circles that I can try this project. They only cost 50¢ so not a big loss if they end up sucky.

At the next store, Ryan found an old Olympus SLR camera for $4.98. For those of you that aren't camera knowledgeable (like me), that basically means it uses film. Not digital. I don't know why he wants a film camera, but he found a great deal. He says it's still a good, popular camera, and sells for $50+ on eBay and Craigslist.

After there we went into a Variety/Salvage store and he found Kodak film for 50¢ each. Sweet!
I found some appliance light bulbs for 99¢ for a 2-pack. I've been needing bulbs for one of my fridge's and my oven. I was afraid they wouldn't work, but they did, so we went back to today and bought the other four packages of them :)

The next store we visited was a thrift/re-sale/antiques store all in one. Which meant they had A LOT of stuff to look at. But also meant the majority of the things I liked and wanted cost more than I wanted to pay.

I found a bundle of four 8x10 wooden picture frames for 88¢. I didn't/don't have any ideas using then yet, but I figured I couldn't pass them up at that price.
Ryan found some sort of special fishing reel, a 1963 Pfleuger Nobby, for $7.50. He plans to give it to his Dad for Father's Day tomorrow.

At the next thrift store, I found this dresser for $7.99.  Ryan asked me where I was going to put it, and I have no idea, but how could I NOT buy it for 8 bucks??  Despite being made of "wood products", it's heavy and sturdy, and the drawers are sturdy and clean.

The top has some water damage, like bubble bumps, but I think I can sand them back down. If not, the whole top can be removed and replaced.  I like the color as it is, but I'm sure I'll never be able to match it, so I guess I'll have to strip the whole thing and re-stain or paint.

Ryan found the little firefighter picture frame thing. It even has a 6 on the helmet, which is his station number.

We were in another thrift store, with one to go, when we got interrupted for the day. (Another story, another day.)

I told J about the appliance light bulbs, and he'd seen a yard sale yesterday he'd wanted to stop at but couldn't because he was on the ambulance, so we went back out today. Hit the two thrift stores we didn't get to yesterday, but didn't find anything to buy, and another thrift/re-sale place that turned out to be more vintage/antique...in other words, same junk, higher prices.

Also stopped at a couple of yard sales along the way, but didn't find any good buys at those. The yard sale J had seen was at a storage facility. Apparently several of the storage bin renters decided to yard sale from their bins at the same time.
They probably had a lot more stuff yesterday, but they still had a whole lot of stuff today, and it was priced to SELL! I had to make myself not bring home arm-fulls of stuff I did not need, just because it was priced so well.

I managed to come out with the wooden peg coat hanging thing for 25¢, and a fire-truck-pedal-car bell for 80¢. I didn't know the bell went to the pedal car, I just saw a bell with a fire helmet on top. The guy asked what it was worth to me, and I was just like, not much. I wasn't even going to buy it after he told me what it was because he was probably right that he could probably sell it as a replacement part for a lot more than what I wanted to pay for it, since I'm just going to put it on a shelf and let it collect dust.
He started at $20, but when I was going to let him keep it to sell to someone else who wanted to pay the price he deserved for it, he dropped to $1.00. And I just couldn't pass that up. J would've had a fit.
Then, I was counting change out of my change-purse, and the guy said I didn't need to count out pennies for him, so he ended up taking 80¢ for the bell. I still feel kinda guilty about it.

J found some of those rubbery fishing worms things for 25¢ a pack, and another food processor, exactly like the one Mom gave me years ago and exactly like the one he paid $6.00 for at the thrift store on our way back from Chattanooga last week, for 25¢ !  It's missing the large screw-on piece that holds the center piece in the chopper, but for 25¢ we couldn't pass it up for parts if nothing else.
Turns out it runs better than the one he just bought, so he's going to rob the screw-on thing from it, and make it the parts processor.

Stopped by one last yard sale on the way home, and I almost, almost got away clear, and then I saw the little Amish Rooster 1/2 cup Pyrex refrigerator dish. She wanted $1.00 for it. I'd have preferred to pay more like 25¢, but it was worth at least $1.00, I know.

Oh.Kay.

Prior to my last post, I was impatient to get on with my project. I didn't want to practice any more, I didn't want to waste what little fusing webbing I had on practicing.
But more than that, I didn't want to mess up my project, so I had no choice.

I dug out a few generic, worn old t-shirts I'd culled from one of the boys' t-shirt supply and cut, ironed, and sewed.

I didn't do toooo badly, for a first try, I guess. Some of the seams didn't match up, and I didn't pay attention to the direction of the print of the camo panel.

(Wow, that is ugly!)

Next I thought I'd try fixing a back on it, as practice. I still didn't want to cut up my flannel sheet, so I went looking for some or a piece of material big enough.
I didn't have any big enough, but I have a box of material my Mom gave me, that belonged to my Grannie (who passed away in 1994).

Grannie could sew, beautifully. Both Grannie's could. So can my Mom and my Sister. If my sister can sew, I dang well should be able to as well, or better.
Especially now. Used to there was all kinds of things I couldn't do, that I could do when I got older, like make biscuits, keep flowers/plants alive, raise a garden, can stuff from the garden, make jelly. Therefore, I should be able to sew now, too.

Anyway, I got the box out to start looking though the materials....and 18 years later, it still smells like Grannie.  I couldn't even look at the material because I kept holding it to my face and inhaling.

Also in the box was some cloth napkins/hankies she'd made, or was working on.

I'd like to use those cloth napkins with the antique dining room suit she gave me, but I don't want to wash her scent out of them.

The hankie and the flower-embroidered-what-ever-it-is are a delicate material with perfect, straight, tiny stitches. So lovely.

Anyway, I was getting no where, so I just folded it all back up and stuck it back in the box.

Some times I'm more creative than other times....apparently this isn't one of those times. I give up. Maybe next week.

I think I'll go back to my getting-rid-of-stuff project for the time being.
Except, tomorrow I'm going thrifting.

Panic Mode

Awhile back, Mariah @ Thee Fire Wife posted a T-shirt quilt/blanket quilt-along. Like many people - and it won't surprise you at all to know - t-shirts are another thing I hoard for sentimental reasons.
(Kinda strange to realize I'm such a "sentimental hoarder", when I never really considered myself to be a very sentimental person.)

Anyway, one of the first requirements was a flannel sheet. Which until a couple of days ago I didn't have, couldn't find one cheap, or not in a set.

Next requirement (maybe optional for some, but definitely not me) was a sewing machine.
I unearthed my machine from upstairs and dusted it off/out. Then I remembered the last time I tried using it, it had a problem with the bobbin thread tangling/jamming/breaking.
I found up some scrap material and gave it a go to see if maybe it had fixed itself over the years. Of course not. So I google'd, and located a Brother manual online, messed with it, and finally got it working right.

It's been a looooong time since I sewed anything...tried to sew...I never was very good at it to start with...So I knew I couldn't jump right in. I needed to try it out and practice.

Mariah's instructions were to cut, pin, and sew a square of t-shirt to a square of the flannel sheet. I used a nasty, ragged old T headed for the rag bin, and a scrap of regular material (not ready to cut up my flannel sheet yet). I cut, pinned, and sewed...and it did not go well.

I had read on some other sites that they used the fusible web backing on the t-shirt instead, making it stiffer, square-r and easier to sew to the other t-shirts.
I had some fusible web backing in my craft stash, so I cut out a square, ironed it on, and sewed it the first panel. It was a lot easier to sew, although my seam still didn't come out that spectacular.

Then I decided, okay, well I know I can make the panels, so I'll work on that. I sorted through the t-shirts I want to use for the blanket, and then picked the least important one, one I didn't really care if I messed it up.

I also decided that using an entire square of fusible backing was a waste, when all I really needed was to line the edges to sew the seams. So I cut strips of fusing and ironed them on around the edges.

This shirt had a front and a back, so I got a two-for-one out of it. 

The problem was when I went to cut up the other t-shirts. The more important ones. Panic set in.
What if I'm doing it wrong? What if the little strips of fusing doesn't work as well? What if I mess it up? What if? What if?

So, I'm stuck. I can't bring myself to cut up the other shirts.

Pinterest-ed

This is just a record of the things I pinned and did (or tried), because I forget.

This was actually just pre-Pinterest, but I saw the picture and got the idea for making tiny cakes using a muffin tin.

Around Thanksgiving of last year, J brought in some sweet potatoes that they had grown at the station and I wanted to try making a pie out of them. I google'd SPP recipes and Pinned several likely ones to a Board to try.

I don't remember the circumstance now, but it seems like we were somewhere, or something, and had gotten a sample, or piece of Gingerbread Cake. Ryan always liked the Little Debbie gingerbread cookies, but I don't think we'd ever had Gingerbread Cake before. We liked it, so I googled some recipes to try making our own.

When I don't have anything specific to look for, I just click "Everything" at the top of the Pinterest page and see what there is to see.

I found several links for Tips and Hints about Photography. I never knew how to be able to take a picture of my Christmas tree to show the lights before.

I learned an easier way to do the silhouettes without having the kid sit still while you trace their shadow on the wall.

Made some DIY Hummingbird feeders out of some Red bottles I had on hand.

I tried the idea of microwaving water and vinegar for easy cleaning my microwave. It didn't work all that great for me.

Tried this homemade French Vanilla Coffee creamer. J wasn't a fan of it, and I don't think it cost less than buying a bottle of store bought.
Tried making the mini Funnel cakes using a 6" round cookie cutter and condiment squeezer. Cookie cutter worked, condiment squeezer not so well.
J liked the Oreo Truffles, but Kevin didn't care for the taste of the cream cheese.

Ryan loved DQ's Frozen Hot Chocolate, so I looked for a recipe to try and make it at home. He said this one was good, but had kind of a weird aftertaste. I'm wondering if it's the sweetened-condensed-milk he's not liking, or J's not liking in the coffee creamer.
We didn't like the taste of the Chocolate-Banana "ice cream" at.all.
I saw where someone claimed that a Mason jar will fit in place of a blender pitcher, making it easier to make 1 serving smoothies. Sure enough, a little Mason jar screwed right into mine. Although, I didn't actually try to blend anything with it on there.

  

Ryan found this idea for wrapping chocolate chips in crescent rolls to make like "chocolate pies". They liked them.
J brought a couple of zucchini squash in from the garden this morning. I planned to slice and freeze them, like I did the ones from last week, but then this recipe for zucchini chips came across on Pinterest, so I gave it a try. J declared it a success.

 

And this caused a spat between me and the ol' man this morning. Because he's a jerk.

Travel Week (Part 3)

After a wonderful day spent with the new Cousins, they had to leave us after the Fountain of Youth for a previous engagement. But how fantastic that they freed up a whole day to spend meeting us, spending time with us, and taking us around the town on such short notice (we didn't even know each other existed the week before!).

The day had cleared off and warmed up, so we stopped in to a (stupid) Dairy Queen for some Ice Cream treats. They made the orders wrong, then got irritated when I wanted it corrected.
Oh well, Dairy Queen is still, hands down, The Best chocolate milkshake I've ever had. (J says it's Steak 'N Shake, but I'm not sure. Maybe I need to do a comparison test.)

After that, we went to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and jogged up 219 steps (jogged, yeah, right, haha!).

Going up! (14 stories)

The Castillo, 1.5 mile away

Another storm blew up and it started raining, and we were pooped after that climb anyway, so we went back to the hotel room and just crashed for the rest of the night.

The next morning we got up and headed back home, the weather still as bad as it was on the way down and pretty much the whole time we were down there - rainy, nasty.  We were nearly involved in a multi-car pile up when traffic went from like 70 to 10 mph without any warning. Us and some other cars had to veer off into the emergency lane to keep from rear-ending those in front of us. It was awful.

Shortly after that we stopped at a Rest Stop to use the bathroom and saw this ugliness passing by.

I went in to pee and when I came out just a couple minutes later it was pouring buckets. And the bad news was, it was traveling in the same direction we were. So we had to ride into it, until we got ahead of it again.

We never had really decided if we were going on to Chattanooga or not so I didn't book a hotel room, figuring I could do it online if we decided to go straight on up there. But we heard the weather up here was pretty bad, and didn't want to stay on I-75 anywhere near Atlanta, so we decided to come home, and cut off just north of Macon and came home a longer, harder, but less traffic-icky, and therefore less dangerous I think, route.

Ryan's doctor appointment was at 8:30 this morning, so we got up a little after 5am and was on the road by 6:00. It rained on us all.the.way. up there.

After his appointment, I had a couple of things planned we could do... Thing is, we live so close to Chattanooga (less than 2 hours on a clear, easy driving day), we've been there several times and have pretty much already done everything we're interested in doing there. They have this new "Ducks" thing, where you ride in a WW2 amphibious truck that takes you on a tour around town, and then drive off into the River for a water tour. Sounds pretty neat. There's also a free Electric trolley shuttle thing we've never ridden, and a Pedestrian bridge we haven't walked across. So I figured that was a good way to spend a day, then we'd come on back home this evening. I didn't see wasting the money on a hotel room just to get up and come home tomorrow because there wasn't anything else we wanted to do that would require another day stay.

But it rained and poured the whole time we were in the Dr's office, and everyone kept saying it was supposed to keep raining all day, so we said to heck with it, we'll come back on a warm sunny day.

What this day called for was some Hot Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (and coffee for J).

Hot now! Hot now!

There was a dozen in that box about 5 minutes before.

I think he woofed that one down in two bites!

We enjoyed watching the doughnuts cook and
then get their glaze shower.

There's several Thrift type shops between Chattanooga and here and even though the weather was nasty and we were pretty tired, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to check a couple of them out.

At the first one, I finally found a flannel bedsheet. Who'd have thought it'd be so hard to find a flannel sheet? I've looked before, but the only thing I ever found was a set, at Goodwill, for like $6.00, and I found I couldn't bring myself to break up a perfectly good set.  This was one single flat sheet, and only cost $1.39, but then they were having a sale, so I got like 35¢ off of it, too.

Found two of the mixer beaters for 20¢ each, I'm trying to collect several for a project when I get enough.

I dug around under a stack of pans and things (which is unusual for me, I'm not usually a digger) and found the green Pyrex 9" pie plate for $1.99.  I don't really know how to price Pyrex, but from what I see online, it's Vintage, Lime Green, #209 Pyrex. These were originally introduced about 1952, then the pink and yellow colors about 1954, but I don't know if the pink and yellow colors were additions, and they continued making the lime greens, or of they were a replacement, and my lime green is from 1952-53.

I got three more mixer beaters for 25¢ each (my top price I'm willing to pay), and J found himself a food processor he's been wanting. Funny thing is, it's exactly identical to the one we have that Mom gave us a few years back that used to be my Grannie's.
J's been using it to make his Super-Secret trout fish bait, which involves stinky sardines, and it makes the processor stink. He has to really de-fumigate it with bleach so when we use it for cole slaw and such it doesn't make it taste fishy. So he's been wanting another one to use for just making his bait, then he can just wash it but not worry about if it still smells like fishy.

And now we're back home.