Day three

All the pictures in this post are of chalk drawings from a contest in Spirit Lake, it had actually happened during the weekend, and we got to see these beautiful drawings when we were there on Monday.
It was a very relaxing morning on Monday, we all got up when we felt like it and just lounged around the condo.

At about 10AM we went mini golfing at Treasure Village, my mother felt sorry that my brother wasn't up there yet, so she decided to play a round with me (she never does that). We decided not to keep score and it was pretty fun. By the time we finished it was lunch time.

We went to a close town, Spirit Lake, and drove through looking for a place to eat. We decided to got to a little bistro called Rebab's. It was pretty good, I tried a pesto chicken sandwich, and it was great.

After lunch we went to another art gallery and were blown away by the gorgeous photographs. Mom and I loved them so much we bought some notecards.

We then went to a quilting shop, where my mom had tons of fun. I found a cute egg fabric to go with some bird images I had at home.

We then went to a consignment store where mom and I found a couple pieces of clothing. I also found a few linen pieces that I couldn't pass up.

After that, we went back to the condo and proceeded to pack up for the next day.

And that is the end of our short exciting weekend. Tuesday, we got up, packed the rest of our items and left.

I had taken over $100 with me and spent about $80. Between the sugar shack, the flea market, a t-shirt store, the art gallery, the quilting store, and the consignment shop, I spent that much money. You will get to see my purchases in the next post.

I was kinda disappointed that my brother couldn't make it up to spend some time with us, but we all know how work goes. He is up there now, and will be there til the end of the week.

My trip, Day one and two

I went on vacation this past weekend. My parents and I went up to Lake Okoboji, in Iowa. We have a timeshare there, and we decided we could take a long weekend. We left shortly before noon on Saturday and arrived there shortly after 3:30PM.
Our first stop was to go to a consignment store we'd been going to for 27 years, only to find out it had closed. Next we went to the mall that's right next door to our condo (we had time to kill as we couldn't check in until after 4PM), and had to stop at the Sugar Shack. It's a store that's all candy. I only bought somewhat healthy things this year (chocolate covered nuts are healthy, right?). We traveled down to the amusement park and past some cool cars. By the time we got back it was time to check in. Here's part of the view from our deck:
We decided to go to a local ribs joint across the street for supper. My mother was not impressed with it. When we got there, there were only 3 seats at the bar and it was sit yourself place. So, we're all crammed into the bar, with a big gap between the bar and us, it was a perfect setup to spill all over yourself.
I'm trying to be more healthy lately and drink only water, milk and the occasional adult beverage, but I almost stopped that night. A root beer float just sounded so great, fortunately for me, they were out of root beer. After supper we traveled back to the condo and relaxed for the night. It was pretty hard for me to sleep. I was in the smaller room with 2 single beds, I hadn't been in that room since I was there with my ex.

The next day, we got up early and went to our favorite place for breakfast, The Koffee Kup. Then we decided to walk off the calories we'd eaten (I don't think we even got close). The original plan was that my brother would be coming up on Sunday and we'd have a few days with him and his girlfriend, but work got in the way, and he wouldn't be arriving until Tuesday, the day we were leaving.

We weren't really sure what would be open on a Sunday, but we had seen an ad for a flea market on Tv on Sat night, so we went out to that. There was a lady selling buttons, both mom and I had a blast picking throught them. I also bought a flower frog, I've been wanting one of those for awhile. You'll see all my purchases in a later post.
This is a weird backpack I found in one of the stores. It wasn't much more bigger than a basketball, but cost over $30.


By the time we were done with the flea market, it was lunchtime, so we went to a local park and had a picnic. Afterward we went to an art gallery and then to the Barn Swallow for shopping.

After shopping, we decided to take an evening cruise on the Queen II, we got there a little early, so had to get some ice cream to pass the time. After the cruise we were all tired and went to bed.

My apartment smells so yummy

And this is why:
I tried out a new recipe from The Best of Taste Of Home magazine I picked up at the grocery store the other day.
It's called a Chocolate Chai loaf. It used chai tea latte mix with chocolate and sour cream. My apartment smells like chai, yummy. The frosting (which makes me wonder if it's really a bread, because you don't frost bread) has the chai tea latte mix in it as well.

I also bought some Do Biz cookie dough at the store the other day and made these Garbage Great cookies.

I originally bought the dough just to eat it. Since, we are going to Okoboji this weekend and I wasn't sure how much longer it could sit open in the fridge, I used the rest of the dough to actually make cookies.

I originally planned to take the bigger chai bread to work, but I'm leaning toward taking the small loaf and taking the big loaf with us this weekend.

Job things

So, I learned some good news today. As you know I work at the public library here in my town. My boss created another job higher than my level but under my lead workers levels (they're basically my supervisors), that gives us some more responsibility plus benefits and a salary. I applied for it, I've only been there almost two years (will be two in Oct), but I have worked in a library in college, and I volunteered at the library for maybe a couple years before I started working here. I also do things when they need to be done, and volunteer when other people don't. Plus I love the job, and the people I get to work with.
Anywho, I applied for the job, and was asked to sign up for an interview time today. I signed up for the first one which happens to be tomorrow morning (Tues). Now, I'm kinda nervous, I have no idea what they will ask at the interview, plus I'm not really sure what to wear. I'm thinking maybe khaki pants and a nice shirt, but I really don't know. A friend said I should wear one of my nice skirts, but since I always seem to be wearing a skirt to work, I thought maybe something different.

Anyone have any encouraging comments, or suggestions on what I should wear? They would be very much appreciated.


And, no, the picture has nothing to do with this post, it's one of the Chinese paper cuts I bought last weekend, I just figured you might need something to look at.

Thanks All

My Finds This Weekend

This weekend was tax free day on clothes here in Iowa. My aunt mentioned it after we went to lunch Friday, so dad decided he needed some shorts and I thought I'd see if there was any cute skirts on sale. I got a couple great bargains:
This one was originally marked at $48, and I got it for $9, it's marked as a small, but it sure feels larger.
This one was originally marked at $79, I wasn't sure what it would be, because there was no markdown on the tag, but it was so cute, and such a beautiful color, that I figured I'd see what it rung up as. It rang up as $17.70, the salesperson was also very surprised.

Then, my aunt and I went to a church sale, and I found a few cool buys, I found this cute sugar pitcher. I've noticed I love these heavier glass pieces, I have a few sugar bowls and a creamer. In fact, I have this same sugar bowl, only there's an etching in the side of it.

And even though I keep telling myself I'm not buying craft supplies, I did buy these flowers, and some punched paper. My justification is that the flowers are always so expensive in the stores, and I would love to have punches, but just to amass even a few is pretty expensive.

I went to quite a few sales on Saturday, one decided not to be open, and a few weren't very exciting, but I did find some things to buy. I bought a few crafty magazines at one and some Chinese papercuts, to see more about these, visit my other blog.

I also found this great bowl and doily

And a cute bear, more punched paper, and some birds

What exciting things did you guys find this weekend?

This week's finds

Not any massively exciting sales this week, but here's what I did find:
A Susan Branch cookbook, another book, a tiny popple, a small care bears, 2 pot holders and a cute mice figurine.
a box of foam stickers, a Making Memories Tool kit, and 9 matboard frames

Here's what was in the Making Memories toolkit: an eyelet punch with 6 different heads, a hammer, some glue, a dry embossing tool, an x-acto knife, a pair of tweezers, some scissors, a cutting mat, a ruler and some kind of sanding tool
another book, some tiny fans, a couple puzzle postcards, and a cute ornament
a pair of angel earrings, a turtle pin, some very dangly earrings, 3 charms, and a pair of white earrings

In other news, my cousin asked if I wanted to sell some of my finds at a flea market at the Lincoln Highway days, that sounds great, so I said yes.

And Jessica G sent me a nice little surprise necklace in the mail. Thanks Jessica

Great sale this week

This weekend started out depressing with garage sales, a friend from work went with me to this one at a church that was supposed to be huge, which it was, but not much exciting. I did end up buying this book and tiny vase.
This morning I have 4 sales on my list, and then ended up only going to 3 of them and one I happened by. I went to my first estate sale today(though I didn't realize that's what it was until I walked past a sign on my way home). It was tons of stuff. There were holiday things in the garage, then you passed free stuff on the back porch, dishes in the kitchen, lots of glassware and some misc in the living/dining area, toys and guy stuff in the basement and jewelry/linens in a bedroom. I ended up spending almost $10 at this sale, I would have bought more if prices were lower (I think I've become more of a cheapskate with frequenting garage sales). It seemed like a couple was selling their house (ok, there was a sold sign outside), and the children were helping with the sale. You could totally tell in the kids were pricing things to get rid of and the parents wanted money. There was a guy (I'm guessing one of the kids) in the basement, and I had a few items that weren't priced, so he prices them (all under $1.00), but when I went to check out, the mother misread his handwriting and thought they were more expensive. I didn't let her get away with it though, I did say I just talked to the guy and that he priced them for me.
I walked away with: the tiny frog, bag of jewelry(just for the butterfly pin), pom pom bunny, tiny salt and pepper set, and the 3 gold colored bunnies.

I also bought a lion bank, a strange red bug candle, an old bunny, a cute hankie, and a reindeer (I'm always on the lookout for good reindeer, my brother collects them).

This picture was my best buy at the sale. I saw it sitting in the basement and figured it would be too expensive for me. It measures 22 inches long by 13 inches tall. It's one of those painted on velvet pieces. I got one last year, but the colors are much brighter. Anyways, I figured it would be pretty expensive considering prices on other things, but I asked the guy and he said "a quarter" SOLD.

Would you have bought it? I was thinking I would pay up to $3.00 for it, so the price was perfect.

The rabbit in the next pic is also from this sale, I thought it would look great covered in dress pattern paper or book pages.

Now, the snowman, teacup and saucer were from a pretty gross sale. It was an indoor moving sale, as you walk up to the house, the door to the porch is open and there is paper (magazine pages, junk mail and other things) all over the porch floor, you get inside and there is just stuff piled everywhere, this lady didn't even vacuum the floor for the sale. It kinda looked like she was somewhat of a hoarder, there were multiples of the same thing, and just tons of clothes and Christmas stuff among other things. It was pretty gross, but I figured I was already inside might as well look. So, I picked out my items and she asks me how much they are worth to me(because nothing is priced), and I didn't want to say too low of a price, but I didn't want to pay too much for them, so I said a couple of dollars and she said ok. Then, I left pretty quickly, it was so nasty looking.

This next items were at the sale I wandered past. I had started at one street with a planned sale where they had pretty high prices, and then saw the sign for this one. I got to the sale and it looked like mostly kids stuff, but then I saw a table at the end that looked interesting. I very rarely buy clothes at sales, I do expect they're washed, but it stills feel weird, anyways, I found the cute Betty Boop shirt and then couldn't pass up the red bucket on the table. I think I can use the bucket for a Christmas present, ya know like hot chocolate, a mug, some marshmallows.

So, that's my interesting Saturday garage saleing. It turned out pretty good considering there weren't very many sales. I think the heat turned them away. It's been in the upper 90's lately with heat indexes above 100. I was watching the news last night and they said we were getting a cold front...temps are supposed to be in the 80s, that's a sad cold front.
Find anything exciting in your neck of the woods?
I'm gonna link up with Would You Buy It Wednesday on Junker Newbie.

Thursday Five

It's time for another Thursday Five.

This weeks words are:
1. Cheerful
2. Adventurous
3. Warm
4. Lovely
5. Delicious

1. I bought some really cute and CHEERFUL stickers yesterday at Hobby Lobby.

2. I'm not feeling very ADVENTUROUS in my garage saleing hunt this week. There are very few to pick from.

3. It's been extremely WARM in my area this week. Monday and Tuesday we had a heat advisory with temps in the high 90's and the heat index well over 100 degrees.

4. I wonder if I have any LOVELY mail today, I've been very slackerish and sitting on my butt in front of the computer all day.

5. I made a DELICIOUS supper last night of mac and cheese with corn and tuna.

Head over to Nicole's for more Thursday Five.

Interesting finds

Went to some interesting sales this weekend, though it was hard to convince myself to go out as the temperatures have been in the upper 80's and around 70% humidity. I'm glad I went though. Here's what I found:
It says it's a taper tipper. The instructions say it's to make it so your tapered candles fit in your candleholders. I had no idea what it was, it's just incredibly cute, and I can add it to my silver collection.

a couple bandanas to use when I dress up for my other job, a book that will be great for an altered book, it's got a great cover, plus the pages are gilded. A round doily, I bought it to put on a table, but it turned out too small (i really should measure that table), and didn't look good anyway, I will find somewhere else to put it. A cute piggy bank, it sorta matches the piggy planter I bought here.

A Haeger bowl, my mom said it was a really good bowl, so I got it.

A wooden seahorse, I'm planning on decorating it. A sci fi book, a bug bag(too cute!), a stuffed frog, an old time elf on a mushoorm, some millinery flowers, and a pink tree.

2 children's chapter books, I found out that our youth program doesn't have a budget for these kinds of prizes, so I figured I'd buy them when I saw good ones. A pink brooch, and 3 cute little bears.

I didn't realize I hadn't posted on here since last weekend. I have been working a ton this week, I even dreamt about work 3 nights in a row(that's when you need a break, right?). I was waiting for the Thursday Five on Flip Flops and Combat Boots, but it didn't come up this week. I hope to post more next week.

More Great Finds

Went to a few exciting sales yesterday and today, found a great find today. Here's what I bought:
A yummy cinnamon roll, a pair of fish squirters, a tiny black cup, a "let it snow" sign, and an embroidered hanky. Found all these in the free boxes: a cute doll, a tiny tiger, green plastic beads, pom pom man, crocheted (?) turtle (it's actually some kind of holder), an angel made from a tiny shaker, and a butterfly pin.
The butterfly pin was bought from a new store in our downtown, I got to talking with the owner, she has her artwork and a few other artists in the community, she let me leave some business cards and said if I wanted I could bring some art to sell.

A stuffed puppy, frog, and bunny, a care bears bank.

A couple kids sunglasses, an activity book, a cute pink bag, and two Sesame Street characters.

Here's my great find: a bag full of jewelry. I found it at an unplanned stop, I saw a couple signs as I was heading to another, and stopped at this one on the way back. There was a plastic container filled with all the jewelry in the picture, priced as 10 cents each. As I started looking through, I kept finding all this cool stuff. So, I asked if I could buy the whole thing, and the lady gave it to me for $3.00, I also found the pair of frogs and elephant at that sale. Any ideas what I should do with the lot of jewelry pieces I'm not interested in?

A post secret book. I've always wanted one of these cause they're so fun to look at, but I don't see the point of paying upwards of $14.00 for basically a picture book, but for 50 cents, I'll take it.

I thought it was a pretty good weekend, but I've decided I need to start taking a larger bag to carry things, I keep ending up with either my bag full, or another plastic bag with it.

On another note, I joined Match.com and OKcupid, and told people that my screenname on yahoo, and MSN is weinkermeyer. I got my first person chatting with me today. After saying hi and what are you doing, he asks if I want to do a video chat (no), and then says he looks pretty good and has a nice body. I really don't care. Most of my reasoning for adding my screenname is so I can learn about a person before I see them. I do judge a lot on appearance, even though I try not to, so I was hoping to learn more about the person before seeing them. And then he says "are you always this boring?" because I was ignoring his comments about his body, and actually doing other things online.

Guess I'll have to wait a bit longer for the intellectual ones to contact me.

I also learned (after filling out my profile) that match.com makes you subscribe to message people. I'm not doing that, I don't really trust online dating sites that much, and I'm pretty happy with my life right now, but I was taking Carrie's advice to put myself out there. But, I'm sure not paying for it, maybe some day when I'm more into dating (and have more extra $$), maybe, but not now.

Did you guys find anything cool this week?

A new Year

It was another birthday, just like every other year, get all excited and then it's not.
My mother and I went to a couple antique stores on Friday, the 1st. The original plan was to go to Sister Act in Ellsworth and then the antique store in Jewell, but when I talked to her on Thurs night, she conveniently forgot about the Jewell store (I swear as much as she forgets what she says, I'm gonna start taping her). Lucky for her, it was closed when we drove through anyway. We then went to Antique Iowa in Story City, and my pictures are a little backwards, so here's what I bought in Story City:
A couple hankerchiefs, a cute embroidered hot pad, a fire king measuring cup, a silver pitcher and an A&W hamburger man.
And here's what I bought in Ellsworth:
2 glass creamers, and a silver toothpick holder.
I enjoyed our trip, but we left after I came home from work, so I was already tired from working and being on my feet for 5 hours, and my mother also decided to forget that we weren't doing lunch (because that would put us back more on time), and got a little annoyed that I had already had lunch when I came home. Plus, I think I was hoping to have a day, like we did last year.
And on my actual birthday, I got to go grocery shopping and make cupcakes for the family get-together on the 3rd. My mother came upstairs around 11 to give me this skirt that she had made.

after that I watched a movie and made the cupcakes. It wasn't until about 5, that I went down to meet my brother and his girlfriend, who drove from Chicago, and my mom and dad, to go to Texas Roadhouse for supper. We get there and they tell us 35 to 45 minutes, and of course my mother and brother got a little annoyed, I warned mom about it. Then they sat us in a booth for 4 and had a chair on the end, and my mother and brother complained more. I will say the waiter was a little off and I wouldn't have given him as much of a tip as my parents did. I did get to drink a nice margarita and get a good burger and fries. But, like every time when we try something new, my mother and brother had to complain and I was reminded why we never try anything new.

After we got home, I got more presents from my parents and brother:
An M&M t-shirt, a spatula, a cooking spoon, a kitchen towel, and gift cards for Fareway and Nature's Touch (a local jewelry store) from my parents. OOPS forgot the toothbrush heads that are in the bathroom.
A grater, a microplane, a paring knife, Turner and Hooch movie and a Target gift card.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my presents, but I didn't want all that boring stuff, I did mention to my parents that I needed a paring knife, a grater, and spoons, but who actually wants that for their birthday presents, course I can't guarantee I'd use the Target gift card to buy those things, I definitely want to use it for something fun.

I just feel it was kind of a let-down, of course lately I don't know what would be really fun.

Winners

Unfortunately I only had 2 people enter this, I pulled Kimberly's name out as the winner for this bag filled with products you can pamper yourself with.
And because I only had 2 people, I'm going to send Jessica a fun gift too.

Please email me ladies with your addresses.

New Finds

No garage saleing for me this weekend, but my mother and I did go visit a couple antique stores today. We went to The Sister Act in Ellsworth and Antique Iowa (I think that's what it's called?) in Story City, here's what I found:
Two creamers and what was labeled as a silver vase, I think it was a toothpick holder, but cute either way. These were found at The Sister Act.
Two hankies, a Fire King measuring cup (it's blue glass), a sterling silver tiny pitcher, an A&W hamburger man, and my favorite find, the walking pot on the pot holder.

Don't forget to enter my birthday giveaway here, you have until midnight tonight Central Standard Time.