Friday, May 28, 2010

More Garage Saleing

So, I spent almost $32.00 at one garage sale today. And I found out a couple things aren't going to work for my purposes, but oh well.
This is a miniature piggy bank, it was $.50
This is an earring and necklace set, unfortunately, the necklace is a little tight for my neck, I figured I can always pass it along to someone else. It cost $2.50
Here are some pretty cool looking beads I picked up for $1.00
The four tiny boxes at the top I got for $3.00, the plate of grapes was $.50, the egg man was $1.00, the tiny group of items was $1.00, and the two fuzzy bears were $.50 GIVEAWAY ALERT: at least 2 things in this picture will be in the giveaway, one of them being a bear.
The two flowers were $1.00, I figure I can use them as embellishments on something, they're a really cute green and white plaid, the Hello Kitty clip was $.50, and the leopard clip, which I figured I'd use as embellishment was $.50
Am I the only person that buys necklaces and pins for the charms on them? The two necklaces on the ends were $2.00 each, and the one in the middle was $1.00
All these earrings were 2 for $1.00. I bought them all to use as embellishments.
You can't really tell, but the first pin is a bear with balloons and the second one is a mini angel with a sold sign on it, they were $.50
These were all $.50 each. I thought they'd make cool embellishments. I bought a smaller rose pin like the one above just last week at our antique mall, they match pretty well. GIVEAWAY ALERT: At least one of these will be in the giveaway, tell me what you like.
This little Christmas cup was $.50, add that to the cup I bought a few weeks ago, I now have a collection.
This shirt was $1.00, I tried it on after I got home, it doesn't fit that well, but if I start my 4 mile walks and doing sit-ups in the mornings like I plan to, it should fit nicer.

***EDIT*** If anyone wants this shirt, I will send it along in the mail. If there's more than one person I'll do a drawing. The lady said it was between a small and a medium. The reason it didn't really fit me is of the nice little stomach I've put on. The arms were a little tight on me, but I think it might be closer to a medium. The sleeves are probably 3/4 sleeves, the color's a little bit lighter than the picture. The white tank is connected to the shirt so it's all one piece.
***EDIT***

This skirt was $1.00 as well, the tag says XL, but it must be a child's size, because I could barely get it up over my legs, but once again, if I start my 4 mile walks again, it should fit me next summer.

***EDIT*** If anyone wants this skirt for their child I will be happy to send it along. If there's more than one interested party, I'll draw someone.
Like I said, the tag says XL, the colors are pretty much the same as in the picture. When I shimmied it on, it sat about my knees, I'll measure it when I get home and edit this again. It's really cute, the lady said it'd never been worn.
***EDIT***

I also bought some strands of beads, and some tiny wooden hanging signs. There were 2 reasons I went to this sale: 1. Jewelry galore, she did have a ton of this and 2. buttons, my Treasured Tin Swap partner likes vintage buttons, so I thought maybe there'd be some, there were buttons, but they weren't very cool. This sale was yesterday and today, I'm glad I didn't go yesterday, there probably was much more stuff there, and I sure didn't need to spend over $30 there.
I'm going to a couple more tomorrow, hopefully spend a little less. I did get $50 out of the ATM today, after taking $40 from my paycheck before depositing it, but I do believe I get paid from the library today, so I can handle it. I do need to step back on my spending, I will be working less at the library, unless I pick up at least one more weekly shift, or substitute for people going on vacation. We'll see, I like garage saleing though. Kevin got me started on it again last year, and it's not as much fun by myself, but it's still fun.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Yay!

Pardon my excitement, but I'm so tickled that someone wrote something about our library. I mean I know it's great, but I work there, so I'm a little bias. Check it out.

Friday, May 21, 2010

More pictures

So here are the shirts I bought on Tuesday. I hope the pictures aren't too dark, I took them in my bedroom, which is dark all by itself because of the dark chocolate curtains I have up, plus the dark brown bedspread they are on. I tried to lighten them up in Picasa, I hope it worked.
First up, is this swirly blue T-shirt, it was about $7.00.
This one's more green than the picture shows, think more of a kelly green. This was about $4.00
This one's more of an olive drab green, it's a cute little sweater, only think I don't like is that it's got too wide of a weave at the top, and will show anything through it, so looks like I'll be wearing my black bra or another shirt underneath it. This was about $9.00
This is more of a magenta colored shirt, not quite sure why it turned out so orange. It's about the same color as the sweater below. It was $4.00
This one's about the right color. It's a cute little sweater that I figured I could wear over tank tops to get around the no tank top rule. It was about $11.00

Those are the shirts/tops I got at Target, keep in mind all those prices were on sale. Now, I know Target claims they have pretty good cheaper stuff, and I admit it is cheaper than some places, but most of the stuff I look at are going to be pretty plain T-shirts, so it makes more sense to just shop at Walmart, course I didn't find any of these tops at Walmart.

These next pictures are from my trip to the mall today. Our mall pretty much sucks, I will be one of the first to admit that, I have no loyalty to our mall. It did used to be good with more than just clothing stores and jewelry shops. We used to have a KB Toys, I don't know if they exist anymore but it was a pretty cool toy store; we also used to have a Baskin Robbins (those don't seem to exist anymore), and a nice cookie store, plus a bookstore and a music shop. The toy store went out a long time ago, we lost the Baskin Robbins awhile ago too, now we have a Cookies Etc, which isn't too bad. The bookstore, was Waldenbooks, but since we got Borders, they moved out and we got a black-lighted mini golf place instead. The music store, Sam Goody went out a few years ago, we got an exercise equipment store there, and then they moved out as well. We used to have a Hardee's where you could sit in a bi-plane and eat, that moved out and a Diamond Dave's moved into half of it with a small pizza shop in the other half, then Diamon Dave's moved out as well as the pizza shop and now we have a hair salon there. We also used to have a nice Sears, first they got rid of the clothing and filled up with more appliances, then we lost it altogether and a Halloween boutique comes in every year. We can still get Sears appliances at the Kmart in the south part of town. Our movie theater became a dollar theatre, I hear it has pretty good movies, but I don't go to movies that much anymore.
So now, we have clothing stores, shoe stores and jewelry stores plus a few eateries and misc stores.
I went to JC Penney and Younkers today. My tennis shoes are completely shot and I was very pleased to find the exact same shoes (they've been great to me) on sale at Penney's. I've always liked Penney's, they seem to have some pretty cute stuff when I go there, though I did limit myself to only the shoes even though they were having a sale. The shoes were about $50.00 on sale, normally they're about $70.00
My next stop was Younkers, I still had my $50 gift card from Christmas, but I haven't found anything cute yet. They were having a sale plus an extra so much % off stuff, so I figured it couldn't hurt, my main reason was to get some longer skirts for work, you'll see those below, but I figured I should check out the sandals as well.
These are made by Provo. The lady I talked to, says she wears them at work all day and can still walk at the end of the day. These are in a bronzey color, I got this color because 1. I alread have black sandals, 2. they looked great with the skirts and 3. it was nice to get a different color, it really brightened stuff up nicely. These were about $43.00 with the sale and extra %15 off. Normally they're $70.00, great deal there.
This is more purpley than the picture shows (yes those are my feet, I had the skirt on my bed, and stood on my bed to get a good picture). I got this one because it's a little more dressy than any of the other dresses and skirts I have, plus it's a springy dressy. It was about $20.00 with the sale and the extra 20% off, regularly it would be $40.00. Sounds like a good deal to me.
This skirt is the whole reason I went in, I saw it on their website, and hoped they had it in the store. It hits about the top of my feet, and makes me feel so good (I'm wearing it now and plan to wear it to work tonight. It was about $24.00 on sale and with the extra 20% off, normally it would be $48.00, also a great deal.

Even with my gift card and the sales I still spent $43.00. That is totally the reason, I don't shop at these stores when things aren't on sale. Like I said before Penney's usually has cute stuff, but I do have a very hard time finding good stuff at Younkers, now I don't have to worry about my gift card.
I should be well set with work now too. What with 5 new tops, a new pair of shoes, 2 new pairs of sandals and 2 new skirts, I shouldn't have to worry any time soon. I sure am gonna hate it when my credit card bill shows up, but they were kind of needed purchases. I needed new shoes, I needed something else to wear on my feet for the warmer months and I did need more t-shirts, the skirts were just a bonus, but I sure won't be buying any new clothes for awhile.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Some purchases

OK, these are a little out of order, as I still haven't figured out the order to upload them.
I've been pretty busy running around since Saturday. Saturday I went to 5 garage sales and found some pretty good deals, those pictures are further down. Sunday, my mother and I went to a scrapbooking store in a town about 30 min south of here, I will be posting those items on my Frog Palace blog. Monday, Kevin and I went back to Ankeny to go to a really good Chinese Buffet, then we traveled to a park/dam and really wished we didn't have to go to work that night. Tuesday I went to the Salvation Army where I was very disappointed in what they had. This is the 2nd time I've been to the store in their new location and I was disappointed the first time as well, I thought this time I might be surprised, not so much.
Then I wandered a little further on down the street to Target and picked up 5 shirts that were on sale. I've been on the lookout for t-shirts lately, as I found out we're not allowed to wear tank tops at the library, which is most of my summer wear. I also bought these cute sandals pictured below, we're not allowed to wear flip flops either, so I've been looking for some cute sandals, I saw these and decided to buy them. There's only one slight problem that I'll have to get used to.
Aren't they just cute on my feet?
My problem is that they have about 4 inch heel on them. I don't walk around on heels that much, but I decided they were really cute, and I asked a group of ladies what they thought, they agreed that they were cute, so I bought them. I do have a pretty long dress that I bought in Hawaii, that would look great with these, and I know Kevin will like them. I've been practicing walking around my apartment in them, and today, I'm planning to wear them to the store (I'll also bring along a pair of flip flops in case they prove to be too much for my feet), I think with practice I'll be OK. My mother never encouraged me to wear heels, I never played dress up in her high heels because she never wore any. It makes me wonder if she had encouraged me and I had been getting used to walking on them throughout the years if I could walk fine in them. Who knows?
So, I just succeeded in gathering my mail in my new sandals. I live on the 3rd floor of a Victorian house, so that's down and back up 2 flights of stairs, one being a curvy one and the other being kinda steep; out the back door, down 4 more steps, walk through my backyard, past the driveway and up to the front porch, up 4 more steps and back. It was a little slow, but I wasn't in a hurry, I may have to change my plans of wearing them to work tonight as it's a little chilly and it looks as if it might rain, and that will definitely spell disaster on my walk home.
Anyways, here are my purchases from Saturday, I don't know exactly what I'll do with a few but they were just too neat looking to pass up:
This is from the last sale I was at, it's a velvet painting. It's a painting on velvet. Unfortunately, it's got a couple spots where the paint came off, but it's still really gorgeous looking. I have it propped in my kitchen at the moment, as the hanger on the back needs to be replaced. It was $1.50.
This cute little tea cup I found at my second sale. It was only $3.00 with the plate. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I've been reading Tales from an OC Cottage and she's showed some of her tea cups, and I think the idea of just having a cute one jumped out at me. I kinda wish I had a glass cabinet in my kitchen to put this in, I may have started a collection, uh oh, I sure don't need more of those.
These beads were found at the same sale as the tea cup, I don't know what I'm going to do with them either, but I'm sure I can come up with something. These were 10 cents.
These, I'm not exactly sure what they are, but you shake them and they make some kind of musical noise. I honestly didn't know they were in the box. I just bought it because the box was cute. GIVEAWAY ALERT: I might put these in the giveaway, it depends on what kind of box I decide to use, because they're kinda heavy.
And here's a picture of the cute box. It was only $1.50
On Saturday, I spent a grand total of $6.35, that is $3.00 for the tea cup, $.10 for the beads, $1.50 for the painting, $1.50 for the box and $.25 for a vase that's not exciting, but I decided I needed another small one.
I did end up spening about $70.00 at Target the other day. The shoes were $25.00 and the shirts ranged from $4.00 to $11.00, and they were all on some kind of sale, I'm glad I didn't buy them when they weren't. I also bought a $5.00 movie I've been looking for for awhile.
I know I shouldn't be spending $$, but I needed t-shirts, I believe the sandals were a good investment, you can't pass up a good deal at a garage sale (even if you don't know what you're going to do with an item), and a $5.00 movie once in a while isn't bad.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Lonely

I really want to do something fun and exciting.
I've been trying to go to more garage sales now that the season is started, but it's just me going to them, not so much fun.
I'd love to have a cool thrift store or antique store to go to. Or a flea market, I've never been to one of those.
I was going to go to this cute little group of stores (sorta) we have here in town a few blocks from my house. It's called the Shoppes on Grand, and it's on Grand Ave, big surprise there. It used to be a whole bunch of separate little stores, now it's all one big one, but there's lots of little rooms. It used to be a house, so there are a lot of little rooms. And it's a great place to go every once in awhile, especially with a friend around lunch time, because there's also a tea room there and they have great food.
I think I'm really missing human interaction lately. Other than my 2 jobs, I really don't interact with people that much. I love the people I work with, especially at the library, where it's not just me for a certain time period.
But, I don't really have any close friends here. My best friend lives in Des Moines, which is about 45 min south from here, so I don't see her very often. Another good friend lives about 45 min north of here, she does come to town pretty often, but I've been working Mon - Wed mornings at the library and every night I'm working at one place or the other. I don't get to see Kevin that much anymore, usually only on Mondays (cause he works 6 days a week, 12 hr nights, and Sunday is his night off), last week he said, he wouldn't be surprised if they were working 7 days a week starting this weekend, I'm holding onto the hope that that's not true, but even if it isn't, he will be working 7 days a week really soon.
I don't do much outside of my apartment, I go to the grocery store, walk to Target and Walmart, but that's all by myself. My parents are trying extremely hard to know about my life more, but I really don't see why they need to know, it feels like they want to know what I'm doing every minute of my life, and that's a little annoying.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

my weekend

This weekend was Kevin and I's 3 year dating anniversary. We set the date for May 1st, because neither of us could remember exactly when we actually started dating. We didn't get to see each other on the first because I had to work that afternoon and he had to work that night.
Sunday morning I wake up to him coming in my door with bags full of things. In these bags were:
A 5 quart Dutch oven
A 12" Frying pan
A 2 quart saucepan and
A 3 quart saucepan.

I've been wanting some better cookware for awhile now, and Kevin will probably say I don't have any reason not to cook now.
We then went to Ankeny and ate lunch at a Chinese buffet. After that we stopped at Walmart where I picked up:
Some wooden spoons and
a spoon rest.
We then headed south again, stopping to look at some car dealerships on our wat to Des Moines where we went to Bass Pro Shop. I've been wanting to go to it ever since it opened, and I was a little annoyed when he went with his friend on Labor Day. That was pretty cool to go into and look around, I would have liked to stay longer, but he did promise a friend he'd help with some truck maintenance.
After we got back, he dropped me off and went to help his friend.
I had planned on cooking him supper for my present to him, and those pots really came in handy.
I cooked Lemon Dill Bluegill (that's what I had in the freezer) and loaded mashed potatoes. I unfortunately forgot about the prep time, so I started at 5:30, thinking I'd have everything ready to eat by 7. It didn't really happen that way.
I started peeling potatoes, and realized I didn't have a potato peeler, so I had to borrow one from my parents. I used my new dutch oven to cook them, which took a bit longer than I expected. But, while waiting for them to cook, I did get the rest of the ingredients for the potatoes and the fish ready. After cooking the potatoes, I realized I was supposed to mash them up in an electric mixer, which I also didn't have, so I mixed them in a bowl with a fork, to squish them. Then they were supposed to bake for 30 minutes.
While they were baking I got started on the fish, all that turned out OK, and I got to use my new fry pan for it. I should have taken a picture, it was pretty cool looking with the water in it, and the lemons floating on top and then the bluegill on top of that.
But, it all turned out ok, and it was a really nice anniversary.
Here are the recipes if anyone wants to try them out.
Taken from Taste of Home's Contest Winning Annual Recipes 2006, Loaded Mashed Potatoes
5 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used about 8 potatoes)
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
3 TB butter
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheddar cheese blend, divided
1/2 lb sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 green onions sliced
1. Place potatoes in a Dutch oven and cover with water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until tender. Drain and place in a mixing bowl. Add sour cream, milk, butter, salt and pepper. Beat on medium-low speed until light and fluffy. Stir in 2 cups cheese, bacon and onions.
2. Transfer to a greased 3-qt baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.
Yield: 14 servings
Taken from Taste of Home magazine February/March 2001 Lemon Dill Walleye
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 TB butter or stick margarine
4 cups water
1 TB snipped fresh dill OR 1 tp dill weed
3/4 cup fat-free milk
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/8 tp pepper
2 lbs walleye, cod, halibut or orange roughy fillets (I used quite a bit of bluegill)
In a large skillet, saute onion in butter until tender. Add water and dill; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes. Add milk, stir in lemons and pepper. Top with fillets. Cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
Transfer fish to a serving platter and keep warm. Strain cooking liquid, reserving lemons, onions and dill, serve with fish.