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.

Thursday Five

It's time for Thursday Five again. Here's this week's words:

Fabulous
Satisfying
Amazing
Sweet
Jubilant

1. I received my True Colors swap package yesterday. It was FABULOUS and totally worth the wait.

2. My birthday is Saturday, I will be making my own cake, but I know it will be very SATISFYING.

3. My guinea pig died yesterday, and my friends, here and on facebook, are being AMAZING and leaving me some nice heartfelt comments.

4. I got 2 colors of nail polish in my True Colors swap, pink and purple, and they are so SWEET! I'm planning on wearing them both today.

5. My mother and I are planning a little trip to some antique stores in the area tomorrow for our birthday celebrations (hers is on the 3rd), and I bet it will be JUBILANT.

To read more Thursday Five's head on over to Nicole's blog.

And don't forget to sign up for my birthday giveaway, here.

True Colors Swap

I received my True Colors Swap package. It majorly brightened up my day (see previous post). Here's what I saw when I opened the box:
Ironically, the card says "Sending loving thoughts your way. Hope tomorrow's a better day."
And here's all the packages waiting to be unwrapped.
There were a bunch of pom pom bugs (great minds must think alike, check out my other blog, here.), scented shower cream, body lotion, bug stickers, some candles a couple wooden bugs (I do have the butterfly already, but they're so cute!), scented kitchen bags, a candle holder, shoelaces, plastic bracelets, a homemade bracelet, and post it notes.

As well as 2 shower poufs, an eye mask, 2 scarves, 2 tall candle holders, pink and purple nail polish and a pedicure set.

I know there's only one tall candle holder in the picture, the other one didn't quite make it in one piece, so it'd being mended.
I'm so glad I choose to switch from my usual green/blue to pink/purple as my favorite color. After arranging my stuff in my apartment, it definitely helped brighten the place up.
Emily, this was totally worth the wait for. Thank you soo much.
Also, don't forget to sign up for my birthday giveaway, here.

My pig died.

Garage Saleing this week

It rained on Saturday, so I got to one sale before the rain started and then ended up going to a new farmer's market downtown.
Here's what I got:
A stuffed frog, a stuffed dragon, a white plastic table cloth, a tiny red dragon, 2 bags of pom poms and a cute little butterfly pin.
I also got a quart of peas at the farmer's market.

And I bought a couple cake pops, this one's carrot cake.

I ended spending about $6 at the farmer's market, and it was all on yummy stuff to eat, so it wasn't a total loss, plus I got a free bag.

It seemed like slim pickings for garage sales this week anyway, so it wasn't that bad.

Don't forget to sign up for my birthday giveaway here. I've only had one comment, so it looks like Kimberly's in the running to win already. I'm also adding some cute little plastic flower rings that I blinged out to the package. I had this great idea to add gems to the centers of them for party favors, until I realized I didn't really have a party and didn't have anyone to give them to. They are pretty cute though.

Birthday Giveaway

I changed my mind (I do that). I've decided to have a different giveaway for you guys for my birthday.

Remember this bag?
Anyways, I'm going to fill it with ways to pamper yourself for my giveaway.

Any comments on this post until my birthday (next Saturday) will be entered. I would love it if you blogged about this, if you leave a comment that you did, I will enter your name twice.

Good luck all!

Thursday Five

Today's words are:
1. Nice
2. Ideal
3. Enjoyable
4. Outrageous
5. Loveable

1. I received my Summer Essentials swap package today (see previous post), it was NICE.

2. It would have been IDEAL to see the box for my True Colors swap as well, but I can wait.

3. I watched The Black Swan last night, it was ENJOYABLE and weird, which way more than I can say about Somewhere, that movie, I felt like I wasted an hour and a half of my life on.

4. I had a dr's appointment this morning at 8:50, I thought it was OUTRAGEOUS that I was scheduled at that time, even though the clinic didn't open until 9, when I was helped, but then I also wasn't seen until 9:30. I told them all that on the survey they asked me to fill out afterwards.

5. My guinea pig will be so much more LOVEABLE when I clean her house today.

To see what other people wrote for the Thursday Five, go here.

Summer Essentials Swap

I joined Nicole's Summer Essentials Swap and received my swap package today from Jackie:
I received matching oven mitt, hand towel, and hot pad.

A shower pouf, shower gel, body lotion, fragrance mist, shea butter and foot salt.

A candle, Imagine hanging, and an Iris picture frame.

To see what other people got in the swap, go here. To see what I sent Jackie, go here.

My Birthday Plans

So, it looks like my mother and I are going to go to some antique shops around Ames for my birthday. So far, we're planning on going to the one in Story City, one in Ellsworth and one in Jewel.

Anyone know of any other exciting ones to visit?

True Colors Swap

I signed up for a true colors swap, and my partner's favorite color was dark green, here's what I got for her.


A cute asian bag, some beads (she likes beading and jewelry making), some candle holders, a couple candles, a cute bear, a wolf pin (her favorite animal is a wolf), a buffalo key chain (she likes Native American items).
Cat coasters, and a glass cat (she likes cats), a frame I decorated.

And this way cool Captured Dragon.

For a more detailed description on this, head over here, to my art blog.

An elephant

My coolest buy at garage sales yesterday was this bronze elephant. I saw it as I was walking up to the sale, and knew I had to buy it. I don't collect elephants, so I don't know why
At my first sale I picked up a Taste of Home magazine, three tiny birds, a cute glass leaf, a tiny jar, cute brass cup and a tiny charm

At the secon sale I picked up a cute plate, a bag of heart confetti, a Santa bag (so much for not buying my mother more Santas), a bunch of little plastic animals, a bag of jewelry (some pairs of earrings, a cute heart necklace, and a tiny bluebird), and a very cute stress dude

At that second sale, I saw brushes with hair still in them, gross!
And at my last sale I picked up this box of Easter eggs, I admit I only bought it for the prize egg, unfortunately, that just turned out to be a silver egg with a sticker.

I got a couple more to go to today. Let's see what I find at those.