Basket of Rocks

The antique mall in Ames is closing. I heard that some of the dealers decided to move to the expanded antique mall in Story City, which is about 30 min north of here and right next to the highway. Anyways, the antique mall had signs saying things were up to 75% off, so I figured I should check it out, especially since I didn't see any ads for garage sales this weekend. Here are my finds:
A rectangular white embroidered piece

2 lace cameos, a pink crocheted teacup, some trim and an embroidered collar. I figured I'd use these in some kind of artwork. I love the lace cameos.

2 doilies with embroidered edges, a white pot, a yellow cup and a cute silver spoon.

My favorite find was a basket full of rocks/minerals. I love cool rocks, I've been collecting them as long as I can remember, that was one of the things my ex loved giving me.

Here's my basket of rocks after I cleaned them. The one on the left with the circles in it, is way cool, it's pretty see through when wet, I'm gonna try and varnish it and see if it keeps the glassy affect. I also love the striped one, that's the main reason I bought the basket. The one on the bottom right that's in pieces, pretty much fell apart when I stuck it in the water to be cleaned.

I got all this stuff for under $20 and found out I save about $20 as well. The owners said they were going to be gone by the 15th. There were a few pieces I was thinking about, so I'll probably go back one more time before they close, though I doubt anything will be marked down further.

I'm pretty bummed about this. I generally go there in the winter when there aren't any garage sales. There are 2 other consignment stores here, but they're not nearly as big, course I could save some money this way.

Happy Halloween

Question

So, I'm hating blog with embedded comments. You know those ones that when you click on the post, or post a comment, it goes to a page with the post and then the box for the comments at the end. For some reason, when I go to post a comment, after I type in my comment, I've had to copy my comment, because when I click on Google Account, it goes to a page saying my current account is not authorized to view this page, click here to log into another account. So, I log back in with my google account, and then I see my comment with my avatar picture and the word verification. After typing the word verification, and pushing publish I go back to the page about not being authorized to view that page. I log in again with my google account, and finally my comment is published.

Is anyone else having this trouble, and would anyone know how to fix it? It's becoming annoying, and I want to leave comments a little more quicker. Now, I'm not having any problems with the blogs that when you click to post a comment, it takes you to a full page of comments, or the little pop up page.

Any help would be great.

What I'm Reading

Awhile ago, Bargain Hunter asked what we were reading, and I have meant to do this post ever since.
Here are a few books I've found particularly interesting lately:
Rediscovered Treasures: A New Life for Old Objects by Ellen Dyrop. This book has some great ideas on how to use all that stuff you find at garage sales and antique malls. I find it really cool, because sometimes I don't just want to display my finds, but I'd like to use them for things.

I liked this idea of using an embroidered tablecloth to make a change purse. There's also instructions for some of their ideas in the back. I used a vintage scarf to make some pennants for a swap, if you'd like to see them, go here. Everything I used in making them is vintage.

Another cool book I've found is Beautiful Button Jewelry by Susan Davis. She shows you how to use vintage buttons to make jewelry. She also gives a little bit of history on groups of buttons.

My favorite buttons in the book are the Antique Porcelain and China Buttons. I actually found a button I have on one of the pages in this section.

As I'm trying to branch out and bake more, this book has been wonderful. It's the Bake Sale Cookbook by Sandra Lee. What I love about this book is she tells you to start with a box/bag mix you find at the store and then go from there. I really don't like to make everything from scratch, and it saves time.

One of my favorite recipes was the Pecan-Coconut Cookie Cups, even though I didn't actually follow a lot of the recipe for this one. Mine still came out great.

And this last book keeps my criminal justice background interested. It's The Boy in the Box: The Case of America's Unknown Child by David Stout. I only started reading it yesterday, but it totally pulled me in and I'm interested in reading the rest of it.

Since I work at the library, that's where I got all these, but I've made the titles of the books links to Amazon if you're interested in purchasing any of them. The Bake Sale Cookbook is at the top of my Christmas list this year.

On another note, as the holidays are approaching, I really want to do a gift swap. I started doing some Christmas gift swaps last year, and I really want to do more this year, or even making something for someone. Anyone have any ideas of where I can find these kind of swaps? I am following Swapbot, and all the blogs where I found the swaps last year. I may be a little bit early on these, but I love seeing how other people interpret my interests, and when is it not fun to send something to someone else?

Great finds

I didn't find any garage sales in my area this week, but I did find a rummage sale and 3 craft sales. Here's what I got: a purple square vase, a cute top, and a math workbook. The spiky things I bought at a local store, they had them listed as goblin eggs, I really don't know what they are.
Apple zuchini bread, puppy chow and a ceramic bird.

More puppy chow, seasoned crackers and some dutch letters

Hearty Lasagna soup mix, a cute pumpkin cup with sunflowers, santa brush, snowman bell, and an angel

Jumbo fun activity book and 4 Christmas rubber ducks

3 yorkie charms, a frog charm, and a die charm. The rest of these items were in a free grab bag

I also bought some dinner rolls, dried papaya, and dried mango, but blogger deleted my picture.

I'm A Winner

I entered a giveaway on Brynwood Needleworks last week, and I won this gorgeous tote bag. It's actually bigger than I thought it would be. It measures about 12" square with an additional inch for the top border.
I also got all this fun stuff in my package, a picture of her dog Tag, a planner for 2012/2013, a pink bracelet for breast cancer, and a tiny bag of candy corn. It was wrapped in the green tissue paper with the creamish seam binding.

I don't have any pictures of the cute bundle it was when wrapped. I had just come home from garage saleing this morning, and saw the bundle poking out of my mailbox, so I sat down on the porch and opened it.

Thank you so much Donna, I can't wait to use it.

Check out Donna's blog, she has all of her adventures with her dogs, and her great quilting work on it.

This week's Finds

Not too many sales this week, I think they're finally winding down. I went to 3 planned sales and 2 not planned and bought at only 3 sales.
This one had antiques, salvage, and jewelry in their ad.
I found a cute pig bib, a pineapple crocheted doily, and the cute rectangle piece.

I also found two pins, and a necklace.

These were from a sale that benefit a girls' scholarship fund. I couldn't resist the Care Bear, the figure at the bottom says Turtle Tots Tutu, anyone know anything about these?

I also found the 2 candles and the bouquet of roses pin at that sale. The two stick pins and bag of buttons were from another sale.



I ended up spending under $15 this weekend.

What exciting finds did you all get this weekend?

Time to get things done

I finally decided I needed to stop procrastinating and finish some things up. These are in no particular order:
I need to mail the fairy card along with a couple other items to a friend for a long overdue thank you for hosting a swap.

I need to finish these cards and put together Fall packets for this month's swap.

I need to finish these and get them mailed off.

I need to mail this off with a card for my partner.

I also need to make a birthday gift for a friend who's birthday is today, and a card.

I need to make a card for my grandma, her birthday is next Sat, she'll be 95.

I need to get started on my moos for a swap.

I need to get started on my fall cards for a swap.

I need to get a piece framed for my mother for Christmas.

OK, a few of those can wait a bit, what I really need to do right now, is get dressed, eat lunch and get ready for work. I'm supposed to be there in less than an hour.

Adrenaline Rush

I got to work a concert tonight, and I have forgotton how much I LOVE to work concerts. This was a rap concert.
It was totally busy for the first 30 minutes. After we got the giant rush in, I was left to help out at that door. I got to bar a patron for coming in because he was soo drunk. I heard he had to be dragged out because he had passed out by the time the cops took him out. We had to fill out an incident report and everything, I sure don't want to do that again.
My hands were shaking after that with the adrenaline rush. The rest of the night was pretty slow. I did get to see a ton of chicks in mini dresses/skirts that I did not want to see bend over.

New stuff

I don't have any new pictures, because I didn't go garage saleing this weekend, but these pictures are some interesting things I bought on Etsy this weekend. I do have other things to share with you, so please enjoy the pictures as well.
I don't have anything exciting/interesting going on in my life, I've actually noticed I'm more tired and irritable lately, I don't know exactly why. I have been working more at work, more than 20 hours, sometimes close to 30, which I know is not a ton, but more than I'm used to working constantly.
A very cool heart necklace

The assistant director at the library told me the other day, that she can see me making a career at the library. She says she doesn't say this very often, so it means a ton, and it's totally helping me when I have troubles with my lead workers.
This is the first time I've told anyone, since talking to her last Tuesday. I feel I really can't tell my co-workers, as I felt they might not be too happy hearing about it. I'm not really interested in telling my parents, because they will push me to have more hours (even though I'm past the limit right now), and berate me about other stuff.

Cute peacock earrings.

Like I said I've been more irritable and crankly lately. When I've been buying stuff it's totally been for me. I like that I'm not really spending money on someone else (meaning I like not having a boyfriend and spending money on him). The past few purchases I've made, I smile every time I look at them, and that makes a huge difference. I've been buying junky food for me, maybe not the best choice, but I enjoy and I think that matters a ton.

A cute blue necklace.

I'm dressing up for Halloween, and have bought myself a cute costume. I'm actually working on Halloween, so I figured, why not. I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years, so I'm really giddy about that. Plus, most of the Monday night crew at the library is going to dress up, so I think it will be really cool.

And an alien pocketwatch.

I honestly keep wishing/hoping that something exciting comes along, or happens to me. But, since I don't know exactly what that means, I think I'll be waiting awhile.

I've been chatting to a few guys online through the OKCupid website. I find one of them particularly weird/strange. We were chatting on Yahoo messenger, and then through the emails on the site, and he gives me his phone number and then pretty much ignores me. I find it kinda ironic because he was telling me how my ex was a dick, and then he pretty much says, 'Unless you call/text me, I'm not gonna chat with you anymore.' Now who's being a dick? I'm not ready to give out my phone number to anyone, and I'm certainly not going to give it to someone being an ass.

I went to my cousin's baby shower yesterday. It was fun to listen to the stories from my other cousins and aunts about babies and them growing up, but I'm not at all interested in having one. I thought it was particularly amusing, how bored my mother was when we were chatting.

That's all that's been happening lately. If I'm not working, I'm either relaxing (off my feet), or working on my art projects with upcoming deadlines. Check out my post about them here. I am a little bummed today, because I heard I didn't win a giveaway, that I really wanted, but I'm used to that, I rarely win anything.

What's been going on in your lives?

Fun Finds

This picture belongs at the end, so imagine it's there. These are the last books I bought at the library book sale. Again, a couple math books, a Cricket magazine (love these), a word search book, and a Look for Laura book.

OK, so they're a little late. I apologize. I've been pushing 30 hours at my job for the past 3 weeks or so, so I'm just so tired everyday. I know I shouldn't complain because there's people out there working so many more hours than me, but I'm not used to so many hours (it's a part-time job, and I'm technically not supposed to have more than 20 hours a week), and I'm not complaining about the hours (especially when I get that paycheck), but my feet aren't that happy.

Anyways, here are my cool finds from yesterday:

I love this artist, Lisa Victoria, I bought some of her stuff last year, and decided I was buying more this year. I also learned that she had her artwork at a local cafe, and had a poster up at the library, I saved the poster because it was so cute. The print at the top is what was on the poster, I was telling her the story, so she gave me a free print of it. I'm sending the grouchy looking fairy to a friend. She had the Fairy Monster in a frame and it was $40, I really wanted a magnet of it, but I'll settle for the card, she said she may make him into a magnet in the future. And I just love the multi-colored angel magnet.

This was such a cute elephant container that I couldn't pass it up

The booth I bought these at had handmade books, and then these collage packs, I think they are just her leftovers from the books.

After getting home last night (and it was over), I wished I had bought a pink plastic fish, but oh well, maybe next year.

I also stopped at the library book sale, Sunday is half price day, I always try to go on Sunday.

The Law and Order book has pictures of their crime scenes and explains what they did to create them. The Iowa book has such great pictures of Iowa. I just found You won't believe your eyes interesting. I have been reading in random places about how cool the Rachel Ashwell book was.

I once again couldn't resist the holiday activity books, and the postcard books I figured I could use the images in art.

I didn't realize that said Mensa IQ, but I thought it would be a fun book to look at. I love the weather magazine, and the two books on the bottom looked cute too.

Because I suck at math, I've been trying to buy cheap math workbooks, so I grabbed those two up, the Women book looked fun to read (I took a couple women's studies classes in college), and the Christmas book just looked interesting. It actually does have some pretty cool things in it and I think I will try some of the recipes.

This book, I saw laying on a table and didn't know what it was, so I opened it up and saw this:

It's got a lot of great pictures in it, I thought they'd be great backgrounds for my art work.

So, that's 22 books for about $12, pretty good deal, I think. Of course I had to carry them all home, I never think about that when I'm loading them up.

Now, I totally don't want to spend money for awhile, though I bet that won't last long. I do have to find a birthday present for my brother for this week.

I totally just failed on that, I went to Lisa's site and bought more stuff. Someday, my fridge is gonna be covered in her magnets.

Any good finds for you all out there?

Garage Sales

I went to an estate sale today, that was mostly fabric. In the picture below you can see tables filled with boxes of quilting magazines and books. There's also two rows of tables covered in fabric.
And behind those, a row of tables next to the house covered in sewing notions, bits of lace and quilts

This was a table full of glassware and religious items

The table in the front of the picture was covered in yarns, afghans, and sewing notions. The table behind it was mostly kids stuff, and the table behind that was a TV and some movies

These were the cutting tables they had set up, just like a fabric store

And here's what I bought from my sales:

This first picture is from the estate sale, the big piece in the background, my mother hinted at it being a great present, the pink piece and butterfly were already pieced together waiting for something. At the bottom is the pile of lace and trims I bought along with a doily and a cute red cow. You can't see the afghan I purchased, it's being washed.

These were from another house sale. The couple had already moved out and the house was filled with everything they didn't want to take with them. There's a cute angel for my mother, two vases, some Christmas ornaments and a couple bunny rabbits.

Here is a mug, a vintage fork, a cute glass whale, and a container of fabric leaves

I spent just over $20 at the 3 sales I went to this weekend, I think I got a good haul from them.

What did you all find?

Also tune in tomorrow for my finds at a local art festival and half price day at the library book sale.