I just watched the saddest and most violent movie I have ever seen.
About a month or so ago, I read on one of the blogs I follow, I regret I don't remember which one, to see the movie The Stoning of Soraya M. It's about a woman in Iran who's husband wants to divorce her to marry a young girl to help her father out. The woman, Soraya, wouldn't be able to support her children if she were to divorce, she starts helping a widower out with his household chores and her husband accuses her of adultry, the punishment of which is death by stoning. Obviously, if you read the title, she is found guilty by a jury of men and stoned to death. It literally made me sick to my stomach to watch her husband throw stones with such force that her wounds started spurting blood. I had to shut my eyes when everyone else stoned her.
As I said, it's the most violent movie I've ever seen, and I watch a ton of violent movies, some in which almost every minute of it someone is being shot or beaten, but to watch a movie that's based on a true story where women have to prove their innocence instead of the accuser, usually a man, having to prove his accusation, is just horrible.
And though officials say it doesn't happen anymore, I wouldn't believe that it still happens, there are tons of little towns so far off by themselves that they only have themselves to carry out what they feel is justice.
It's a good movie to teach us about another culture and how women have no rights, but it's a horrible movie. I know if you google Soraya M, you can find other articles on her, I'll leave that up to you if you feel like it.
I wouldn't be surprised if I have dreams about it for awhile.

Blog Giveaway Winner

Someone is going to win all of the following things:
4 spools of tatting thread: one each in variegated yellow, orange, blue and pink green mix, a crocheted? potholder,

A bag of jewelry findings and miscellaneous,

A bag of vintage buttons,

2 tiny jars/vases, a heart tin filled with miscellanous miniture things, a tiny birdhouse, a tiny yellow box, a bear pin, a butterfly pin, a 'turqoise' jewelry set consisting of a brooch and 2 clip on earrings,

4 blue Christmas ornaments, a vintage tin filled with something, a vintage book and a small painting in a frame.

Who is it you ask, well I had 31 entries, I took all the comments off of this blog and The Frog Princess Blog between my birthday (July 2nd) and last night and got # 27 which turns out to be Linda M of Random Creativity.

I will be emailing her momentarily, so Congratulations Linda

Help

UGH!!! I'm having troubles with certain people.
I was informed that one of my jobs was ending at the end of this month, so when I applied to return to the book store in August, I took that into account, I also thought of it when we were asked our availability for fall at the library, which starts in August. Today, I'm informed that we will be open in August, and I don't know what to tell my boss about my schedules. I already know my schedule for the book store and that would mean I'm coming in late (I will honor the book store and library schedules as I gave them the information I had at the time), I don't know my library schedule as of yet, still waiting on that. But, I honestly don't know what to say to my boss. I want all the extra money I can make until the job ends, but how am I supposed to plan ahead when the information I'm given keeps changing?

Any suggestions?

Big storms early this morning

We had some pretty big storms this morning with lots of rain and wind. I woke up about 2:30-2:45 this morning to the rain, was going to turn on my radio and go back to sleep, but the power cut out about 2:45, all I could really think about was that I just bought quite a bit of frozen food and milk. At about 5, the power popped back on, I was woken up by my air conditioner, I decided I needed to at least set the 2 clocks in my bedroom, because I knew they'd bother me even in my sleep, did that and it went back off for about a minute, so I set them again.
When I left for work, I ran into my parents sweeping up not so tiny, but not huge branches. At my neighbors house, they had about half a tree fall down, at least it didn't hit the house, here's some pics:

That huge branch is the half of tree. When I got to work there was a pretty big puddle around one of the doors, one of my co-workers came in about 12:30 and said her part of town was still out of power, over by the football stadium. I had a patron tell me, their neighbors had a tree fall on a car and that there were tons of trees and branches down along 13th St. I just read about a tree that fell on a house at 9th and Duff, not that far from my house. Here and here are some stories about the storm, and here are some more pics I took on my way home from work.

Venting

One thing I liked about working at the art store, people knew what was in it before they came in. If they weren't looking for art supplies, they had no need to come in, and most likely didn't.
I just had some people that stayed in here for 50 minutes, looking at stuff, killing time essentially and DIDN'T BUY A DAMN THING!!!! They most likely came in for the same reasons as most people do nowadays because of the big sign in the window that says storewide sale 25% off, which means the whole store, to see if they could find something cheap, or they were just killing time until something happened.
I know most stores get people that are killing time, but I know we get it a lot more than other stores, they're either waiting for their pizza (Pizza Hut is right next door and it's carry-out or delivery only), waiting for someone to get their haircut or waiting for their haircut time (Great Clips is 2 doors down), or waiting for their wife/girlfriend, etc to finish shopping in Jo Ann Fabrics (which is 5 doors down) or Hobby Lobby (which is 5 doors the other way). And I get so many people now that when I say the store is closing reply, oh that's too bad I always love coming in here and LOOKING. I always want to retort back and ask them how often they ever buy anything!!!
I had 6 people in here at once tonight (that's pretty huge) and not a single one of them bought anything.

Mostly I'm annoyed with the ones that spent the 50 minutes in here just slacking off and didn't buy anything. They are the biggest reason we are going out of business.

And then, one of them asks me if we can call the owner to ask them a question about a display game. I give them the number of the store and told them they'd have to call in the morning when the owner was here. They calls the number, and guess what I picked up, and they say I gave them the wrong number and can we call the owner right now. OK, if the owner's not here, it means they're off somewhere else most likely doing something personal, I'm not going to give out their personal number.


Can't you tell I'm a little annoyed??? Sorry, had to rant.

My weekend

OK, this might turn into a long post, now you're warned.
My birthday wasn't as exciting as I hoped it would be, got myself all psyched up for nothing.
Mom and I ended up going to Perry, had to go a different way as there was water over Hwy 30, we had directions, but mom decided to veer off those directions and get us lost a couple times (if we had followed the directions we would have been fine). We get to Perry and go to a couple shops before it was time for our reservation at the tea room for lunch. The one thing that was really good at the tea room was the drink I had, which isn't saying much for them, I guess the soup and the cream puff were pretty good too. I had a quiche which was lukewarm, but since I was so hungry, I didn't complain, then I had bread pudding for desert (if you know me, I LOVE bread pudding), unfortunately their bread pudding had pretty much no taste to it.
After lunch, we hit a few more stores. I was looking for something really cool to buy (I had taken out $75 from my bank acc't and my dad had given me $40), unfortunately I didn't find it. We finally decided to hit an antique mall in Boone before heading home. Now, I did find a few cool things there, including some stuff that I'm adding to the giveaway.
I bought a jar full of jewelry misc for $7.50, this pile is what I'm keeping for myself.

This bag is what I'm adding to the giveaway. There's quite a few brooches, a bunch of metal watch links (this lady must have really loved these because she had at least 2 jars full of just these). GIVEAWAY ALERT

I also bought a jar of old buttons for $5.00. I haven't sorted them out yet, but I guarantee some of them will be added to the giveaway. GIVEAWAY ALERT

I also bought this cute pink silk handkerchief for $2.00, and some green tatting for $1.00

After we got done in Boone we headed home and decided to go to Red Lobster for supper, which was great. I had a mudslide and lobster and shrimp.

Saturday, Kevin took me to the Good Guys Car show, I will add the very few pictures I have from that to my Sweet Rides blog. Very few because even though I brought all 3 of my batteries, when I had to change one, I found out the others were dead. Needless to say I was a little annoyed, though it was kinda fun to wander around and not worry about taking pictures of all the cool ones like I did the last time I went.

After the car show, we went to his parents house in Cedar Rapids and stayed there until Tuesday, having a nice relaxing few days. Sunday, we went to eat at Hu Hot, and then watched the fireworks. Monday, we went to eat at Pei's and then traveled to Kalona for cheese, of course the cheese factory wasn't open, so we headed down the road to an Amana store where I bought dried mangoes and papaya, some caramel puffs, and some multi flavored twizzler things. When I was in Hawaii, I bought some dried mangoes and they were really sweet, I was thinking these might be the same, but they are soo good, I wish I'd bought more than one bag. After that we headed into Riverside and to the casino. This was my first time at a casino, I played some Blackjack and won $20.00. After that we headed back to his parents place.

Tuesday, we basically got up and left, more or less. And then of course we both had to go to work when we got back here.

Wednesday, I got to hang out with my friend Loretta and her puppies, we went to Ankeny to Petsmart. We also took a jump over to Micheal's and I didn't spend any money. That's a huge first for me. I guess I'm still looking for that something really cool to buy.

I know I shouldn't really complain, but I'm little disappointed in the gifts I didn't get for my birthday. I guess the trip to Perry along with some clothes (which to me, coming from my parents are never gifts) were my mom's gift to me, plus going out to supper. My brother sent me a $100 gift certificate for amazon.com, which I sent him my wish list for amazon, he could have picked out $100 worth of stuff and sent it to me, though it is nice to pick out my own stuff, as I did already order a book that wasn't on my list. Kevin took me to the car show and bought me lunch, but still. Ya know, it's a little more fun when you get actual presents. I think I'm just moody, because I did get to do fun things, but I don't know. Maybe it's just because I haven't found that really cool thing yet. Who knows. I also didn't get a single piece of mail on my birthday, it would have been cool to get something unexpected. I did get a card from my aunt, who by the way is great at remembering my birthday (probably other people in her family's too) and sending out cards.

I feel as if I haven't really had much time to pause since I got back from my mini vacation. I got home, had to go to work, went to bed, got up did laundry, mowed the lawn, jumped in the car with Loretta, went shopping, went to work, went to bed, got up this morning, went grocery shopping, went to work, came home changed clothes, went to my other job, and now I'm relaxing a bit in front of the computer.

Happy Birthday to me

So, today's my birthday and like I promised, here's a giveaway for you:
There's a box of 4 light blue Christmas ornamens, 2 tins filled with stuff, an old book, a painted picture, 2 jar/cups, a tiny plastic box, a set of 'turquoise' earrings and brooch, a butterfly pin, a bear pin, and a wooden bird house. And maybe some other things, I am going shopping today, maybe I'll find something wonderful to add to the pot.

Here's a close-up of some of the little stuff. The smaller tin is filled with miniatures, pins and some buttons.

This is the book you'll be getting.

RULES:

All you need to do is leave me a comment.

I would appreciate it you blogged about it, that will give you an extra chance but it's not required

This will be open for the month of July, so you have until July 31st to enter. I will draw a winner on August 1st.

Some random thoughts

So, the store is closing. We have a sign saying "Storewide Sale 25% off". I've had lots of people ask if the store is closing, to which I reply in the affirmative, I've also had many of those same people comment that they've always liked looking at our stuff. I always want to ask them how many times they bought items instead of just looking.
If people had bought as many things as they are buying now, when we weren't having a sale, we wouldn't be closing. No one ever thinks about that. I just had a guy spend about $65.00, if it hadn't been on sale it would have been a little over $80, but no one ever buys that much stuff unless it's Christmas season. I told him the total and he said "that's with the 25% off right?" Like I wasn't going to give it to him.
I've had so many people ask if the sale's on everything. My coworker has started telling people when they come in, which I guess is a good idea, because people have a tendency to buy things (even when they're not planning on it), when there's a sale.

OK, next topic. I was reading DebbieDoo's blog the other day, and she was talking about blogger etiquette. She mentioned she likes to reply to close to every comment. I don't do that. I appreciate comments, and I hope I don't seem rude for not replying. I reply if there's a question, or I have a reply for the comment. I do visit blogs that I haven't been to before.
I also don't feel the need to follow someone just because they're following me. I appreciate people following me, don't get me wrong, but I have so many blogs right now (and I know people have many more than I do), that I find it hard to keep up every day. I would rather someone followed me because they appreciate what I post, than just because I'm following them. That's what I do, and when my preferences change, I do drop people from my blog list. Like, I've noticed recently, I've been adding a lot of antiquey blogs. Like people who go to garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores etc, and pick out really neat vintage items. I've also noticed that when I pick out an art blog, I like it to be really different. I used to have quite a few card blogs on my blog roll, but even when I looked at them all separately, it felt like I was looking at the same thing repeatedly, so I took them out.
If you've noticed that I stopped following you, it's nothing personal, my preferences have just changed.
I also love reading cop blogs, but it seems most of the ones I've been reading (or try to read), get so much interruption from the higher ups in their departments they either have to censor what they write, or stop altogether. That's really sad. All the ones I have read would never put their job or department in jeopardy, but someone up there feels someone might read something the wrong way, and they have to bow out. I used to read one blog, Negative Ghostrider, and I loved his attitude on his job. He was good at it but he was a cynic, which is what I think you have to be when you're a cop. I think it's much safer for you if you don't trust the people you deal with everyday. Especially in the bigger departments, there is so much stuff going on these days, that I think it's stupid to trust everyone at their word.
I don't work in law enforcement, but I did get a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice in Sociology, I took as many criminal justice classes as I could, because I love the subject. I rode along with quite a few officers here, and I took the Citizen's Police Academy (which doesn't really show you the dirty parts of the job, but it gives citizens what they want to know), and I know a few of the officers personally. My boyfriend used to be a Community Safety Officer here, and they did a lot of stuff, his definition was, everything that a sworn officer was not needed for. They got to haul the prisoners to jail, direct traffic, help with community relations, and write tickets.
So, I know a lot about the dealings of law enforcement, at least in our little 50,000 resident town when the University is in session. We're probably at about 20,000 residents now. And I will say, I will side with the police, even when I haven't heard both sides of the story, in my mind the police are always right. I know there's certain things I can't say about what happens in law enforcement to certain people, because they just won't get it. That's the way it is with a lot of things, people say that about most groups of people, if you're not a part of it, you won't get it, and I'm not going to waste my breath trying to explain that.
That's my personal opinion, it won't change, just like your personal opinion will most likely not change. I won't apologize for my beliefs, and I won't argue about them on this blog. That's not what it's for. I watched my mother be a councilwoman in our town as I was growing up, and I've seen (even in my own family), how people will argue until they are blue in the face about what they feel even if they are wrong. That's not what I want on here. This is a place for me to vent about things, talk about fun finds I've bought, and about anything else, EXCEPT politics, and those things.
OK, somehow I've gotten way off topic. I'm not quite sure what my topic was anymore, but here's a more fun one.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAY!!!! And I'm a little excited, can't you tell? I have no idea why, it's not like I'm having a huge wild party or anything. I know for sure I'm getting one gift, it'd be nice to be getting more, but I don't really care. As far as I know now, my plans are to get together with my mother on Friday and we're going on a day trip of eating and shopping to celebrate our birthdays (hers is on Saturday). Saturday, we're (my mother, father, and I) are going to my aunt and uncle's house (on my father's side), for a family get-together. I'm planning on making 2 cakes, one each for my mother and I, and a dip, that evening. I don't know what I'm doing during the day.
I'm hoping some time this week to hang out with my friend, Loretta, and her puppies, but it's ok if that doesn't happen, there's always next week.

It's my birthday, in a week

My mom asked me what my plans were for my birthday, at this point, I'm not really sure.
I was hoping to hang out with my friend, Loretta, and her puppies, but she's not sure if she'll be free or not.
Mom suggested we go on a day trip somewhere and eat at a cute little restaurant and do some shopping. That sounds like a good idea, except that it will be just me and her. Sometimes that can be a little much. I did get an Iowa travel guide earlier this year, so I'm planning on flipping through that and seeing what's close with some cool thing, and then exploring the websites of towns. I would love to go antiqueing, that's always a ton of fun especially in stores you don't normally go to.
I remember one summer, me and my mom went to Gilbert, which is a tiny bit north of here, and explored the 3 shops on their main street, it was pretty fun. There was no talk about life and that stuff, it was just her and me enjoying the day. Last summer we met up with my aunt in a town that the name escapes me now, and went to a fabric store, then a nice little restaurant for lunch and explored their little stores. That was fun too, just a nice girls day.

Only problem with that plan is, we'd have to do it on Friday, because Sat, we have a family get-together on my dad's side (which I'm planning on baking 2 cakes for and making my pizza dip), so that will be kinda busy for us. I guess this trip would be a birthday thing for both of us, as my birthday is July 2nd, and mom's is July 3rd.
I'd love to hang out with Loretta and her puppies though. Course I can always do that some other day, they'll be just old enough to travel outside of their familiarness next week, so there's a couple more weeks before they go to their permanent homes to play with them.

I'd love to do something in the water, especially before the summer's over, I know I have awhile before then. Ames finally got their water park done and open, and I'd love to go hang out there, I wish there was a day that it won't be overflowing with little kids. A few years back, I had a very tiny birthday party at the Ledges (very tiny including me, Kevin, and my friend Karli), we got to eat some good food and walk in the creek. I love walking in the Ledges.
Plus, I'm a Cancer, my sign is a crab, and my planet is the moon which controls the tides, I believe water is my element, so I'd really love to be in the water.

Enough of my rambling, but a question, does anyone live in Iowa and would know of some nice places to visit? Ames, is smack dab in the middle of the state, so I'm thinking 2 hours or less drive is what we're looking at.

Hope everyone has a good weekend, I'm planning on going garage saleing today after work, I'll let you know what I find.

Learn more about me

Found me some memes to fill out.
Two Names You Go By:
1. Wendy
2. weinkermeyer

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. shorts
2. hoodie

Two things you have to have in a relationship:
1. Trust
2. Loyalty

Two of your favorite things to do
1. listen to music
2. craft

Two things you want very badly at the moment
1. To have a steady ok-paying job
2. To see my boyfriend more

Two Pets you had
1. guinea pig
2. hamster

Two things you did last night
1. Worked
2. Watched S.W.A.T.

Two things you ate today
1. a pancake
2. cherios

Two people you last talked to
1. my boyfriend
2. my boss

Two favorite places
1. okoboji
2. anywhere with my boyfriend

Two things you're doing tomorrow
1. Working
2. eating

Two longest car rides
1. here to Chicago about 6 hrs
2. here to okoboji, feels so extremely long when you're looking forward to getting away

Two favorite holidays
1. my birthday (will be here in a little over a week)
2. Christmas

Two guilty pleasures
1. pop
2. garage sales

Two things that make me laugh
1. life
2. Little kids

Two things I last got in the mail
1. catalog
2. big box of goodies from Wanda

It's the Christmas (in June) edition of getting to know me. (I just love memes)
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags: I love wrapping paper, because I love wrapping gifts, but gift bags are so fun to use as well.
2. Real tree or artificial: I grew up with an artificial, and it's great because you don't have to clean up after it, but I've always wanted to go out in the woods and cut down a tree for Christmas.
3. When do you put up the tree: My family does it either the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving because my brother is around. In my apartment, I usually do it when it starts snowing because most of my decorations are snowmen because I collect them.
4. When do you take the tree down: I don't usually help with the big one, but mine usually comes down around the end of February when I'm sick of snow.
5. Do you like eggnog: Yes
6. Favorite gift received as a child: One year I got this really cool camper that went with these tiny little play figures, they were probably about an inch tall, and I played with that thing everywhere, even in the bathtub where I lost a lot of the stickers.
7. Do you have a nativity scene: No, we're not religious
8. Hardest person to buy for: My father
9. Easiest person to buy for: my boyfriend
10. Mail or email Christmas cards: I don't send out cards.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received: Can't think of any
12. Favorite Christmas movie: Santa Claus the movie, it tells of how Santa became
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas: Usually in January, because I can find some really cheap Santas for my mom and she collects them, but I'm always thinking about good gifts for Christmas throughout the year.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present: Yes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas: cheesy potatoes
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree: Clear
17. Favorite Christmas song: Mad Russian's Christmas from Trans Siberian Orchestra, or anything off the Muppets Christmas album
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home: Travel, my boyfriend and I usually get together for my small family Christmas, then go to his parents home for his family Christmas
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer: yes
20. Angel on the tree top or a star: Santa
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning: Eve
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year: All the Christmas music stores play, one station here starts the day after Thanksgiving and keeps going until Christmas, I about musiced out by then.
23. Do you have Jesus in you heart this Christmas: once again, we're not religious
24. Favorite Christmas Tradition: putting up the decorations in my family's house.
25. Outdoor decorations: we don't put up more than garland with lights


I AM: creative
I WANT: a ok paying job that gives me more than 8 hrs a week
I WISH: to have a great exciting birthday
I HATE: not seeing my boyfriend
I MISS: more time with my boyfriend
I FEAR: the future
I HEAR: music
I WONDER: about the future
I REGRET: not going away for college
I AM NOT: my mother
I SING: in the shower
I CRY: at movies
I AM NOT ALWAYS: happy
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: my crafts
I WRITE: blogs
I CONFUSE: directions
I SHOULD: create more
I START: way too many things
I FINISH: not enough things


A - Available or single: in a relationship
B - Best friend: Karli
C - Cake or Pie: cake
D - Drink of Choice: Mtn Dew (it should be water)
E - Essential item you use everyday: chapstik
F - Favorite color: green
G - Gummy bears or worms: worms
H - Hometown: Ames, IA
I - Indulgence: chocolate, pop, buying stuff i don't need
J - January or February: January
K - Kids and names: none
L - Life is incomplete without: my art, music, my boyfriend
M - Marriage Date: sometime in the future
N - Number of Siblings: 1
O - Oranges or apples: oranges
P - Phobias or Fears: spiders, the future
Q - Fave quote:
R - Reason to smile: my boyfriend
S - Season: spring
T - Tagging: nobody
U - Unknown fact about me: can't be unknown if i tell
V - Vegetables you don't like: beans
W - Worst habit: not exercising enough
X - X rays: my gut
Y - Your fave food: anything sweet
Z - Zodiac sign: cancer

To the guy in the red semi

with the white trailer on the back, this is the girl with the purple plaid tank top, denim skirt and tattoos all over her arms that you asked directions from.
I'm sorry I sent you the wrong way on Duff. I should have thought about it a minute more, or at least gone back into the store I just locked and picked you up a map and then traced the route you would take on it.
I hope you didn't get terribly lost by going north instead of south, and I hope you found someone much more reliable than me to point you in the right direction.

I have no excuse for not being able to give the right directions in a town I grew up in. I just keep thinking that if you were one of my cousin's husbands (who both drive semi's) and someone gave them the wrong directions how lost they may be.

I deeply apologize (you probably won't read this anyway, but it makes me feel a tiny bit better). When I got to Lincoln Way and saw you're truck in the left turn lane I realized my mistake and thought about running up to you, though I never would have caught up, and letting you know you had to turn around.
I'm sorry if you don't ask directions because I majorly screwed up. I really hope you get to the big Walmart on time and aren't penalized by a girl that should have thought longer.

Trivia Question

Just because I've had enough people ask me, What does "storewide" mean to you?

OK, this may be only me, but when I see little girls with purses, it totally makes me think they're growing up too fast, especially when they aren't purses with Disney characters on them. To me, when you're a little girl (that meaning up to at least 12), you shouldn't have to worry about spending money, or all the other stuff we shove in our purses. Granted they may not have anything close to what most ladies actually have in their purses, I always think they have at least money in there. Especially when I sell something to one of them, and they take out the money and put it back. I know it's good to be learning about money and stuff like that, but it still says "I'm growing up right in front of you"

Garage Saleing and other stuff

Guess what? I went garage saleing again. I went to 4 sales this time, one of them claiming they were Dutch and never threw anything out.
This is a cute little doily I got for 50 cents.

Here's a couple Childcraft books I bought for $1.00 each. When I was younger, we had a set of Childcraft sets and mom either gave them away or sold them when we got older. I'm still not happy about that.

This is a cute little book I got for $2.00. GIVEAWAY ALERT I'm planning on doing a giveaway for my birthday and it's going to be vintage stuff, this is one of the things that will be in it.

I got a set of five of these for $1.00, I'm always looking for more glasses, I don't like to do dishes and I hate running out of glasses, I have a great modge podge collection right now.

These are salt cellars, I believe the lady said, I thought I could use them for glitter (that would be when I have a whole room for crafting and could put them on a shelf where they wouldn't get knocked over), I got them for $3.00 all together.

These are a bunch of little jar/containers that were 4 for $1.00. GIVEAWAY ALERT, one or more of these will be in the giveaway.

This is a tiny little pitcher/glass that's a beautiful pink color, I added it to my tea cup collection, it was $1.00

Here's a little pig and a glass jar, I love these tiny glass jars, they're perfect for little vases, someday when I have a house (or at least a larger apartment), I hope to have a place to put them all together. The pig is for a friend, the pig was $2.00, a little pricey, but I believe it's perfect for my friend. The jar was 50 cents.

GIVEAWAY ALERT: Like it says above, I will be doing a giveaway on my birthday (July 2nd), it's going to be quite a bit of vintage stuff, and maybe some other stuff. I will add giveaway alert to posts with something I will giveaway, as well as in my tags, so keep looking here.

Speaking of my birthday, I was downstairs today watching Amelia with my parents (which by the way we all decided was a pretty boring movie), and they asked what I wanted for my birthday, my answer "I don't know", mom asked me about my mattress. A month or so ago, I told my dad (once) that I wanted a new mattress, out of all the things he forgets of course he remembers this, because my has a pretty big divot in the middle, even when I flip it like you're supposed to. I don't even sleep in the middle. Now I want something exciting, yes I need a new mattress, but who really wants that for their birthday, of course it would be pretty expensive if I had to buy a new one myself. My parents bought this one for me when I moved into one of their apartments my sophomore year of college in 2004, so it's almost 6 years old, I don't know how long mattresses are supposed to last, but since I don't have money, I figure everything should last quite awhile.

I suppose I need to email Ross my Amazon wish list AGAIN, because he needs to be told exactly what I want, or given a list. I sure wouldn't want another Tiffany's sterling silver ring for my birthday (If you know me, you know I don't really wear jewelry, I wear a watch to work, and one ring, nothing else usually)

I would love something really cool for my birthday, what that is, that I'd actually get, I don't know. It'd be cool to have a $500 or even $100 clothes shopping spree somewhere other than here, because our clothing stores kinda suck. I'd love some time (more than a couple hours) with Kevin, I'd love to go to the Good Guys Car show that weekend, I've been there twice, but it's always great, I'd love to have a really cool party with my friends, but of course I have very few close friends, and they're not all in IA anymore, not even in Ames anymore.

What would you pick for a gift if you could have something you really wanted, money not being an object?

Weekend Garage Saleing

Seemed to be more of a Bake Sale Weekend. I was afraid people wouldn't have their sales as it had been raining Friday night and was still raining Saturday morning. I finally ventured out at about 10:30, when it finally tapered off. I did find about 3 garage sales (and of course I spent money, which I really need to cut back on, as my bank account keeps getting smaller)
OK, so this sale, this lady used to home school, so it was basically books, but I still found some cool ones. Everything was $1.00, so I spent $8.00 there.
In the back row, there's a game called Block by Block, you have to figure out ways to put the blocks together to make the picture, next to that is a math skills book, I'm having tons of fun filling it out (I'm not that good at math). Next is Mother Nature Goes Nuts, all about natural disasters. Next is a You're the Detective, you solve the picture mysteries, I used to love these as a kid.
In the front row there is More Stories to Solve, another mystery thing. Solve a Crime Puzzles (are you seeing a theme here), Mad Libs the Worst-Case Scenario version, also used to love these as a kid and then Vanished, stories about people who just vanished.

This next sale had some really good baked goods, I bought a loaf of banana nut bread for $2.50, and a bag of animal cookies for $1.00

These are from another bake sale/garage sale. There is a tin, a doily (which I used my glimmer mists from this post on, will be posting about that soon on The Frog Princess, and a cute little pin, they were all 10 cents each. GIVEAWAY ALERT the tin will be in the giveaway

These are from the sale right above, there's a plate of lemon bars for $2.50, and two scotcheroos for $1.00 each.

These are from the sale with the bread: there's a rabbit that I got for 75 cents (figured I'd give it to my mother) and a little wooden from, I figured I could alter for 25 cents.

Venting

I hate it when people think they are better than everyone else, or feel like they should get out of something because they did something in the community.
It happends on Cops all the time, when they start the "Do you know who I am", and then they get upset when the cop doesn't care, or says you need to be quiet while I do my job. I am a fan of just deserts, you do something wrong, you should totally get punished for it. You leave things out for people to steal, they should get stolen. You do a crime, you get punished for it. You get in the way of an officer doing their job, you should get arrested for getting in the way (I know there's a more official way of saying this, but I can't remember). I know quite a few cops in this city, but I would never play the I know so and so card to get out of something, if I screw up I totally hope any cop I know would punish me for it.
I hate how people always say how they pay taxes so they pay the cop's salary, or shouldn't money be spent in a different way than punishing the hard working people of this town.

By the way, I'm not just bias to other people, my mom likes to pull the "Do you know who I am card", of course, she no longer is on the city council, but I wouldn't be surprised if she pulled the "I know the mayor card". Nobody should get out of their punishment if they screwed up.

Garage Saleing June 5th

I did find another great garage sale on Saturday, almost missed it. It had rained that morning, sometime between 8 and 9, so when I went out to the really good sale, it wasn't set up. I figured I'd go past it again on my way home, I was so glad I did.
This book just sounded good, it was $.25.

I've been on a cookbook collecting mood lately, and these looked good, they were both $.15

This great looking set of stamps was $3.00, I've already tried them out and beyond needing to trim the corners off they work great. I also loved the little heart stamp at the top, I don't have a lot of heart stamps and this one looked fun to play with and for only $.10

A bunch of gift bags for winter time. This way I won't have to wrap as many presents, I got 8 bags for $.50

I also bought a couple bags of scrap fabric and some pieces of fabric at this sale. There was a whole basket of fabric for $.05 each, the lady said if I came back later in the day, she'd give me the whole basket for free, but I don't do anything with my fabric, I just like to collect it, and I was picking out some of it for my treasured tin swap, so I didn't go back.

I spent about $6.00 here.

I got these trucks at a different sale, they were all $.25 each. I thought Kevin might like them. Spent only the $1.00 at this sale.

I got this book at the first sale I actually got to, they had quite a few really cool things from the '50s, only problem was it seemed they were priced for an antique store and not a garage sale. I scored this book for $.50

I got these dog tags, they looked like they were from a dog they owned, for $5.00. I thought they were tags people put on the back of seats like in church or something, I'm sure I can still figure out a way to use them.

I got a whole bunch of bookmarks that looked like they were made from 50's cards. I quickly took off the ugly red yarn after taking this picture. They were all $2.00. I spent about $8.00 at this sale. GIVEAWAY ALERT: I will put some of these cards in the giveaway.

I bought this cute puzzle, that I figured I could pain and turn into a nice piece of altered art, and this cute little piglet stuffed animal for $.50 together. Only spent the 50 cents here.

So, it was a pretty good day, I was thinking to myself that I had spent less than $10, at least until I hit that last sale. Oh well, maybe if I get off my butt and do some artwork, I can sell it on Etsy, and make some money back.

Since I'm losing one of my jobs at the end of June, I shouldn't have any reason not to, hell I don't really have any reason not to now.

Garage Saleing June 4th

Yes, I've been out doing more. This is from Friday, June 4th. I had about 4 sales on my list, I saw the address of this one and thought it was where a friend that I had a falling out with lived, so I decided to wait until I was finished with the others and then walk by it. Turned out it wasn't where my friend lived and had some cool things.
This handkerchief was in a basket full of handkerchiefs, each for $1.00. The lady said I could have them all for $3.00, but I only wanted this one.

These were in separate boxes, the circly thing at the top was a lone clip-on earring for $2.00, the pin, I'm not sure what exactly it was, but it had a cute green stone in the middle, I believe it was $.50, and the leaf was $.50 as well.

These cute little ceramic thimbles each had a flower on the side of them. Sorry about the blurry photo, I didn't realize it was blurry until I took it off my camera. Anyways, they were $.50 all together.

This cute little plate was $.75 as you can see with the sticker I left on it.

The top cup is more ceramic looking and painted blue it was$1.00. Both the bottom cups have cute little gold handles and were $.50 each.

I also bought a couple books at the sale, one of childhood jokes for $.25 and one with some great pictures of America for $1.00. So I spent about $7.00 at this sale.

I've noticed (or at least it seems) that I only find one really good sale a weekend, but as you'll be able to see in the next post, I was wrong.

Only a month away...

I have been excited for my birthday lately. That's the kind of person I am, I may no longer be a little kid waiting to have a big birthday with lots of cake, people, presents, and balloons, but I still love my birthday. It's not an important number this year, 27, but I still get giddy around it (and other holidays, I have a hard time sleeping through the night on Christmas Eve). At least until I went to work yesterday and was informed that the shop will be closing at the end of June. I guess I always kinda knew she'd close sometime, cause we don't make a ton of money, some days we don't even have a sale, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with another shop closing. At least this time, we're going to have sales and hopefully sell everything off, I really hate packing stuff up.
I haven't told anyone in my family yet, and they don't read this blog. I did post on facebook, saying I learned of some depressing news, but no one's asked me what it is yet, I have quite a few family members as friends on facebook, so I'm not ready to jump out and tell them yet.
And it's not a huge loss to me, it's only going to be about $150 less every 2 weeks, but considering I've lost a 4 hr shift every week at the library because we're on the summer schedule, it really sucks.
I've always hated searching for jobs, probably part of the reason I don't do it until I have to (I should have been looking for another job to fill my afternoons, and of course make more money, then I'd have that one as well to fall back on). Looks like I'll be spending time reading the online classifieds AGAIN.
I guess I could look at the bonus of having nights off and being able to watch TV again, not that there's anything good anyway. I sure will be eating up any extra hours the library has to offer, course I planned on doing that anyway with (hopefully) people taking vacations over the summer.

I'd love something to cheer me up, don't know what that would be, as most things cost money, maybe I'll find something cool at Target (which is where I'm heading as soon as I finish this post), or at a garage sale this weekend for a great price.

This sucks.

I just found out that the store is closing at the end of June. Now, I know we weren't doing that great, but I hate finding out that the place I work is closing, this is the 2nd time I've had to go through this.
I'm very glad this time I have another job to work at and hopefully get more hours, but it still sucks. I'm kinda depressed about it now, I sure don't want to tell my parents because they will (at least my mother will) tell me I told you so, I don't really want to tell Kevin, he won't tell me I told you so, but he'll probably say something like I should've been looking for another job awhile ago anyway.
I might have to go ahead and apply for this job at the historical society that my mom wants me to apply for so badly.
And not that this is huge (it sorta is), I just realized I won't be able to access my library email, because for some reason, I can't get into it at home, that will suck.

Not only am I still wanting to go and do something fun and exciting, I want to do something to keep my mind off this new depressing news.

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.