Fun Finds

Garage sales are picking up here, unfortunately I could only go to a few, as I had to work yesterday 8-1, the prime time for sales. I picked up a few neat things this week:

 a gallon bag full of seam binding and lace trim, a pair of bunnies, and a couple of cute napkin rings

 A bag of buttons

 A vase, blue bottle.

 a twig of stars, a cute ornament

and a couple of pillows, the lady threw in the snowman one for free. I'm trying not to buy more snowmen, but it was free.

I'm planning on using the stars, buttons and seam binding for artwork, the vase was a replacement.

Any good deals in your neck of the woods?

A good week

It's been a great week for finds. Wednesday, I went downtown to see if I could find anything for my mother for Mother's Day. I decided to buy us a couple of tickets to a fashion show, my mom works at the sewing department of ISU, and we go to the ISU fashion show every year, so I thought this was a great idea. Plus, she's always saying she doesn't need more stuff, and she doesn't need more sweets.

While I was downtown, I stopped at an antique store and found some great things for me:

 buttons, scarf , and cute little card

 these pieces were in a bag together

 These were all in a bag

 This giant dictionary (it measures a little over a foot tall, 8 inches wide and 4 inches thick), someone donated to the library

Friday, I had a few garage sales to go to, as the fashion show was on Saturday at 10AM. I stopped at one on my way to work and picked up these:

 2 cigar boxes, three cardboard boxes, and a set of mini S&P shakers

 And this box of butterflies, I really only wanted that blue one in the center.

Everything I bought this week, I plan to use in art projects. I'm trying to get myself into sewing more, and I've always wanted a cigar box to decorate.

Friday afternoon, I cut some of our peonies and put them in the teapot I bought last weekend. Their smell is so intoxicating, I love it.

What have you guys found this week?

A Wonderful Day

I had a great day yesterday. My friend and I went to a nearby town's citywide garage sale day. Here's what I got:

 a rice krispie bar, a bag of flat marbles and sea glass, two Winnie the Pooh toys, a cute little ladle and a toy turtle, a bag of formica tiles, a glasses case, a shotgun shell knife, and two cookies that I ate. Also, I bought two cushions for my kitchen chairs.
My friend said we had to stop at the antique store, it was a great idea, here's what I got:

 A teapot I've decided it needs some big flowers in it, once our poppies bloom, I'll put some in it.

 3 bags of ephemera and some seam binding. In those packets are a handwritten letter, tags, receipts, buttons and even an envelope from Marshall Field's in Chicago.

two more ephemera bags, and a bunch of buttons. In the ephemera packs are cigar bangs, tickets, tags, metal pieces and some great gears punched out of paper.

I love the burlap bag, I hope I can use it in some artwork.

What did you guys find?

A little down

I've been really down lately, I think it's because I don't do much outside of work. I don't work a ton, I am over 30 hours this week, barely. A couple of weeks ago, my aunt and I went to an antique mall in a neighboring town, it was fun, but I didn't find much to buy. I have decided, I'm very spoiled with garage sales, I find it hard to spend more than $1 on things lately.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of Pyrex, but I LOVE this color, I may be looking for more things in this color. I didn't buy this, but I did buy a few things,

 Like, buttons, big surprise there huh? I also had to buy the Impala emblem, I love the Impala from the 60's, such a beautiful car. There's also a neat rock in the picture below.

 There's more buttons in the shaker, and a cute little glass.

 I had Sunday off, and I was pretty depressed. I have very few friends outside of my job, and with the exception of one, we don't get together very much. So, I've been bummed about not doing fun stuff with friends. I also decided, I really miss garage sales, there haven't been in any in my area yet, and I keep talking myself out of ones further away. I also had tentative plans to go to a neighboring town's citywide garage sale this weekend, but I don't think that's going to happen. I did find a church rummage sale I've been to in the past, that I think I'll check out.
Today, as I left my apartment to do laundry, I found this gorgeous plant at the bottom of my stairs. Needless to say, I had to stop and take a moment.

What's been happening in your lives?

My Easter Basket

Here's what I got myself for Easter:

 lots of chocolate,

 a light-up bunny, puzzle egg, sparkly bunnies, felt egg stickers, a stuffed chick and a frog keychain.

I went to a garage sale today and was sorely disappointed. Mostly everything was furniture, I really wish people would say that in their ads. I'm not going to be visiting a sale if it's all furniture.
I'm still waiting for a cool sale. There's an apartment building a block away, that has a sale every spring and fall, and I just don't feel like garage sale season has started until I go to their sale. This year it's in May, so a little late.

This weekend is our semi-annual book sale at the library. I have to work tonight, but tomorrow is half price day, and I plan to go in when we open and just take my time. I hope I find something cool.
Also, on Wednesday, my aunt and I are planning on visiting an antique mall in a nearby town. I'm still waiting to see if I get the time off, but it's looking promising. I hope to visit the booth that's filled with buttons.

What are you guys finding?

Happy Easter

I didn't have any Easter swaps I was participating in this year, and my mother suggested I create an Easter basket for her (though later when I brought it up, she seemed surprised), so I did. Here's what I'm giving her:

 The basket I got last year in another Easter swap.

 I included a couple pinwheels, some flowers and a butterfly pick.

 Some candy.

 There's two packets of riibon, a bunch of clay flowers, a bunny, and another pinwheel.

These eggs are a version of some I saw for sale at Hobby Lobby. They had egg ornaments that were painted with an image on them and some glitter. I decided instead of paying $3.00 to buy them, I'd make my own. So, I picked up some paper mache eggs, painted them, added some images I had laying around my house, and covered them with Mod Podge.
The pink one has a wild rose and a goldfinch, the rose is Iowa's state flower and the goldfinch is the state bird. The orange one has a couple bunnies on it. The yellow one has some butterflies from a napkin. The purple one has a couple of vintage advertising images on it. The blue one has some daisy images from wrapping paper on it. The large eggs cost $.69 each, the small eggs were $.29 each, I got the paint for $.25 for each color, and the images were in my collection. So, 5 eggs for less than $5.00.

I hope you all have a great Easter weekend.

Long time no see, sorry about that. I honestly haven't had much to post about and like I said before I can't post from my Kindle. Last weekend I went to a church sale with a friend, and I learned that it does not good to have a list of things to look for if you don't write it down and/or forget it. I do know that linens and craft supplies were on it, and I accomplished getting some of those.

The doily has a note on the back saying "Doilie from box of Linens - Ives - Late 1800's to 1910 probably older. I saw it and thought I didn't want to spend that much money on it, but I finally decided I couldn't pass it up.
The two ribbons were a steal. I have no idea how much is on them. The top one is velvety, the blue is velvet. The bottom one is sewn onto the background, very cool.

I've been in a slump lately, I'm not entirely sure why, maybe I'm waiting in anticipation for the garage sales to start, maybe I've been working too much, maybe I haven't done enough art, I just don't know. I know I am sick of getting crap or no mail everyday, a nice little surprise would be great. Today, I got something cool, check out my other blog, here, to see what it was.
I have been working a ton lately, last week I was pushing 40 hours, and this Saturday is my first day off in two weeks. Today I had an evaluation, I have mixed feelings about it, but I won't elaborate.
I have a little extra money since I got my tax refunds back, but I'm so not into spending it, it looks like I need some new things soon, so I will be, but I really don't want to.
There have been a few sales popping up, and I know there will be more soon, and I can't wait. I'm now off to spend some money on some comfort food and just take the rest of the day for me.

My List

Bargain Hunter has mentioned she has a list of things she looks for at garage sales, I thought I'd make one for this year. Maybe if I had specific items I would spend so much money. Here's what's on my list for this year, with pictures from past years:
Trims, for craft projects (I'm hoping to get myself into sewing more and I love using vintage trims on my projects),

Pigs (because I have a nice collection from last year. I have no specific kinds, just ones I think are cute),

linens (more on the prettier side, I don't have room for them, but I love to collect them. Hopefully, some day when I have a house of my own I can use them to decorate),

jewelry (mostly just because I love collecting it, but I'm also looking for a replacement for the bracelet above. I bought that because it was cute and then started wearing it, unfortunately the clasp didn't always stay shut, so one day it fell off),

food (I don't really need a reason for this right?),

elephants (I love this one I bought last year, and hope to keep adding more to my collection),

childhood toys (in this case, the Smurf, I love finding these at sales),

and buttons (I don't need a reason for this either, do I? I will not be spending money on buttons from stores anymore),

and one more item that's new this year: monsters, I seem to be on a monster kick lately, and I love them.

What's on your list?

I tried

I tried to look nice and be in a good mood today, even though I'm still annoyed that when people ask me to do something they get annoyed when I say no and then come up while I'm working and more or less pressure me into saying yes.
I tried to be nice and helpful to the customer even though they glared at me because I was helping people in the order that they were in line, not the ones that jumped in the middle of the line because they thought they were more important.
I tried to be quiet and listen to my supervisor even though what they said made no sense and they tried to help too much.
I thought I could handle the pressures of work if I had one day off a week, even though I was working more than my normal week.
I tried not letting things bother me even when they piled up for over a week and I was told they weren't that important (it's a different story if you ask the customer).
I try to put myself first and take care of me, even when everyone seems to be demanding more of me than there is.
I try to keep my sanity when everything I do seems to be wrong.

I really did try.
And when everything led me to tears and the urge to just leave, I didn't. That counts right?

I just feel like so many things are building up at work and so many people are demanding my time and that I should just give up my life for work.
I've had so many things building up lately, when that final straw hit, I could barely hold it back, but I did, and now I'm home and I'm wishing for a hug, something nice in the mail, or something fuzzy to cuddle me.
Instead I come home to my brother whining in a text message because I can't wait until almost 9PM to eat supper. Is that so wrong.

I'm not sure what will cheer me up, but I hope it's something/somewhere soon.

And of course, now blogger's revolting against. It's just the story of my life sometimes.

Swim Naked

OK, so this morning, I learned, I can't even type a post on my Kindle.

I've been reading this book called Swim Naked, Defy Gravity & 99 Other Essential Things to Accomplish Before Turning 30, and I thought I'd share some with you:

Swim Naked, I haven't actually done this, and I don't plan to.

Break all of your parents' arbitrary rules: I think I've done this, I've stayed out late, gotten drunk, ate certain foods I probably shouldn't have, left all the lights on, have lots of things started that I haven't finished. I'm actually not entirely sure what arbitrary means.

Grow Something:
I actually didn't think that was possible, but I did grow some geraniums I got in a swap last year.

Dump Toxic Friends:
I've tried to dump anyone that doesn't support me, or doesn't like to do things with me because I have more things to do. I dumped someone I considered to be a really good friend until they didn't console me after my breakup last year. I consider that something huge.

Speak A Foreign Language:
I speak a tiny bit of Spanish, probably should learn something else, but I don't plan on going to a foreign country.

Buy A Kick-Ass Mattress:
I have not done that, I should as mine is extremely saggy.

Draw And Frame A Self-Portrait:
Haven't done that either, I've started a collage of a self portrait, does that count?

Stop Chronic Over-Apologizing:
I don't think I've ever been an over apologizer, though I feel the need to apologize more in my current job.

Create Your Own Sisterhood:
Haven't done that. I have a few friends that I've known since high school or before, but they're mostly spread out. I don't really have someone to hang out with all the time.

Travel Solo:
Haven't done that, I've never traveled anywhere by myself.

Embrace Your Inner Eight-Year-Old:
I do this ALL THE TIME. Whether it's buying fun kids activity books, stomping through puddles or just messing around, I got this one down.

Hold Your Booze:
I am a lightweight. Usually after two drinks I'm done, I've decided not drinking at all works best.

Make Brownies From Scratch:
I haven't made brownies, but I've made a lot of other cookies/bars from scratch. I'm not a big brownie fan.

Declare Your Birthday A National Holiday:
I try to celebrate my birthday as much as possible, but when I don't have a lot of friends to hang out with (see the sisterhood comment above), I don't do a lot for it.

Accept Compliments:
I'm trying to do this. I'm really good at saying where I got the item instead of simply saying Thank You

Unplug Your TV For A While:
I've not unplugged my TV, but I don't watch it as much as I used to. I used to plan my weeks around what was on TV. I don't remember the last time I watched TV and not DVDs. I really need to take a week where I don't watch DVDs either.

Dye Your Hair An Outrageous Color:
I did this in college, I got a free packet of red hair dye, it was very bright. I remember going to class the next day, and a couple of the girls in my class looked at me like I was nuts.

Own Your Mistakes:
I hate people who don't do this. I find it quite annoying when you blame things on other people that are obviously your fault.

Get Health Insurance:
I have this, but am considering getting rid of it, because it just becomes more expensive every year.

Hook Up Something High Tech By Yourself:
I have done this, I've hooked up pretty much everything electronically in my apartment. I'm also really good at being stubborn and moving and fixing things by myself. I've been single for about a year, and quite a long time before I met my ex, it's just easier to do it myself.

Know Your Blood Type:
This one I find pretty important, but I do not know my blood type.

Walk In Heels:
I've tried this, multiple times, and I always end up with sore feet after an hour or so. I've pretty much given up on anything with more than an inch heel.

Disagree Out Loud:
I absolutely can't do this in my family. My mother and brother have such high opinions of themselves and what they believe, that even if I have facts to back up my argument, they will argue until they run out of breath. I do like to chat and disagree with friends.

Make More Money Than You Spend:
I really hope to do this someday. I have such a hard time not buying stuff I want.

Own A Toolbox With All Of The Basics:
I don't have a toolbox, but I have a hammer, pliers, nails, wire cutters, and various screwdrivers in a place together, does that count?

Dub The "Greatest Hits" From Your Childhood:
I haven't made a greatest hits file or anything, but every time Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen, or Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty or Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi come on, I'm transported back to the days of my youth

Fly First Class:
I've done this, and I'm pretty sure I'll never actually be able to afford first class, so I tried to live it up. On our flight to Hawaii a couple years ago, we had an 8 hour flight from Chicago to Hawaii, and my brother had enough miles/points to upgrade me to business first class. OMG, that was great, the seats flattened out all the way, you had your own station to watch movies, listen to music, or audio books. It was great.

Carry Something To Read, A Notebook, And A Pen At All Times:
I always have a book and a pen, I've learned that when you have a book, or something to do, any wait time you have is majorly shortened.

Read Your Old Diaries:
I have done this, it's entertaining the trivial things you think are so important when you're younger. I'm sure I have the same feelings about certain posts on this blog as I get older.

Give Yourself Flowers:
I love doing this. I actually have a tendency to buy myself everlasting beautiful flowers as much as I can. Though I love to splurge on the real thing every once in awhile.

Stop Looking For A Soul Mate:
I think I'm doing that now, I'm trying to just enjoy life without the ever present idea of looking at guys and wondering if I'll want to date them, or if He's the One.

Give Yourself A Make-Under:
I personally don't think I need a make under, more like a make over. I never wear makeup, don't wear high heels. When I dress up, I put on a nice dress/skirt, and add some jewelry.

Be Notorious For Something:
I believe I'm notorious for my art, but I'm not really sure.


It's a very interesting book, with each of the things to do, there's a page explaining or going into more detail.

I've been a little bummed lately, that I haven't found any swaps to join. I'm in a creative rut lately, so I haven't done anything really artsy. And I love the swaps where I get to buy and send stuff to someone else, it's almost as fun as getting stuff.

And I'm chomping at the bit for spring and garage sale season to get here. I operate under the idea that if I'm meant to have something, it will be there when I get there. I've also decided to think a little longer on purchases this year. I'm planning on not buying vintage hankies unless they're really cool, no more tea cups. I want more costume/vintage jewelry, more elephants, and much more pink/purple things.

What have you all been up to?

A little relaxation

Today was my first day off in a little over a month. I originally planned to just sit at home and watch movies all day, but since all my jobs are part-time, I usually do that when I get off work. Instead, I went shopping with my mother and then we went to Reiman Gardens to see a new exhibit and the Butterfly House. We also had to stop off at the gift shop. I wasn't planning on buying anything, then I saw a couple grab bags, that guaranteed to have over $80 in merchandise, who could resist those? Obviously, not me. Here's what was in them:
A giant plastic flower, a box of tags/stickers, a dog pencil, a ladybug ornament, a couple bracelets, a ant plant hanger, some lip gloss, a bird globe, a pair of earrings and a bug on a spring.

And another bug on a spring, a spider, a bug magnet, bugs in a jar, a cute keychain, some more lip gloss, a stick pin, a snowman, an orange cat, some bug goo, and a pineapple key chain.

I must apologize for not posting lately. I'm mostly online on my Kindle Fire, and though it's really nice, when I'm trying to type things, it has this auto correct where it tries to guess what I'm typing, and if I'm not paying attention, when I hit the "space", it's actually the insert button, and sometimes puts it's own words in. I also can't store pictures on it, so I'm not able to do posts with pictures. I do hope to be shopping or have some cool pictures to share with you all soon.

Thanks for hanging around.

I'm bored

Mostly with my life, I think part of it is that it's cold, too cold to walk anywhere. All I do when I get home from work is sit on the couch and watch TV. I have fun when I'm at work. Usually when I'm bored with my life, I get a tattoo, but that's not happening soon.
I had a great post in my head last night, and meant to write it, but my kindle fire decided to be annoying. I turned it on to go onto the web, and all it showed me was a grey screen instead of my browser. I've had this happen once before, I thought maybe it was low on batteries, so I plugged it in and let it sit. This morning I turned it on, and still nothing. The rest of it was working fine, I even purchased/downloaded a free app to see if it was connected to the wireless network. After finding nothing in the settings or help section on it, I turned on my computer and went to amazon. After looking through all the help sections, I finally found the ask in the community section, and then the how to contact amazon. I selected a chat window, and the guy told me to shut it down and restart it. To me, that means, actually shutting down the kindle (holding the power button in, until it asks if I want to shut it down, saying yes, and then pushing the power button again). That worked, and I asked him how to prevent this from happening in the future, he said I had to do a hard reset. I asked if that's what I just did, he said no, I had to hold the power button in for 20 seconds, turn it off and then hold the power button for 2 more seconds and turn it back on.
I'm not an idiot. I told him that's what I just did, and he asked if I held the power button in for 20 seconds. I said yes, and then closed the chat window. If you're going to treat me like an idiot, I'm leaving. I know there are people who have no idea what they're doing on computers, but when I tell you I already did that, maybe you should take my word instead of being an ass.

Anyways, back to the original topic. Winter has finally hit us. We hadn't had any really cold days until a few weeks ago, when we had really windy days and windchills below zero. Then last week we had a day where the high was +9. And it's been probably back in the normal temps of 30s and below since then. My body hasn't exactly switched over to winter temperatures yet because of all our warm days. When it does, I know I won't have a problem walking around when the temps are in the teens.
Last week, I went to Hobby Lobby, Jo Anns and Hy Vee. My original plan was to go to Hobby Lobby to buy some envelopes to go with the thank you cards I was making (to read more about those, go here), but when I looked around, they didn't have what I needed, so I ended up only buying some double stick tape. When I got up to the checkout counter, I gave the lady my gift card. That was fun, it didn't work in the scanner on the counter, it didn't work on her scanner, and the she tried a couple other tricks to scan it. Now, I know with technology and all, you should be able to just swipe it and be on your way, but I've worked in retail and we do use credit cards at the library, with all the time she tried to swipe it, she could have just typed it in, and been done. Finally she said, it must have been next to a magnet, because it was gone. I don't know how that happened. It's been sitting on my desk for awhile and then I put it in my purse. Considering all my other cards work fine, I have a hard time believing it was my fault.
Anyways, I had to go to JoAnns to find the cards. I don't like shopping there anymore. It seems every time I go in there, I either don't find anything worth buying, or they give me dirty looks because I have a Hobby Lobby bag (they're both in a strip, and when I walk in from the north, Hobby Lobby is first on the strip). So, I've just not gone there lately. Since, I needed these envelopes, I went for it. It was a good idea, because I found them and on sale.
The rest of my plan was to go to HyVee for some chocolate eclairs and cream puffs to take to a trivia thing on Sat. I never get only what I plan at HyVee, they just have so many different things than Fareway. I left with $32 worth of stuff, which wasn't even that much.

When it warms up a little (hopefully next week), I plan to walk down to Target. I'm looking for great Valentine's stuff, and since I'm spending only on me, I'm buying whatever I want. Plus, Walmart's right next door, so I'll go there too. I just want some really good chocolate, you know it comes out for Valentine's Day,

And that's all that's been going on lately. Mostly just work, I won't have a day off until Feb 5th. I'm really looking forward to it. One day, would be so nice. Granted I don't work a 40 hour week, but just to wake up and realize I don't have to do anything, that would be great.

Bad Blogger

I'm sorry, I've been neglecting my blog a lot lately. I blame it on my Kindle Fire. I can't upload pictures on that, and if you looked at my last post, it's a tiny bit hard to type a lot on it. My last post isn't that bad, but it did take forever to write, the kindle likes to guess what word I'm going to type, and if it chooses that one, it just throws it in. I had to go back and correct a lot.

Anyways, here's what I've been doing since my last post. My mother and I went to an antique mall in Story City on New Year's day to look for strike plates for my bathroom door, ok she went to look for those, I went for fun. She didn't find any, if anyone has any strike plates, or knows of where to find any, let me know.
I found a few cool things that if I had the money and places for them I would have bought, like this gorgeous mirror:
And this cute Christmas tree:

I've been reading on people's blogs about cool vintage Christmas trees, and while I loved this one and quite a few other ones, I just don't have the space for them maybe when I have my own house and more space I'll buy one.
Also found this cool thread cabinet:

This next booth was just filled wall to wall with glass:

I'm trying to cut back on spending money on glass or dishes, so I didn't even look.

Also found this cool picture frame:

And this cast iron piece:

And this neat silver vase:

I did end up buying some things, like these buttons:

They were actually in this cool strawberry jar filled with buttons, I've decided to spend my money on vintage buttons lately.
The booth where I found these buttons had boxes full of buttons in bags, jars of buttons, cards of buttons as well as bags of trim. I didn't buy any trim, but I could have spent all day just going through this booth.

I also bought these cool buttons:

And these:

As well as this tiny bank book from my hometown:

It measures 4 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide. There's nothing written in it, but anything vintage from Ames, IA, I'm always game for.

These are my rejects from the strawberry jar, anyone want some buttons? I'm thinking of selling them on my etsy shop, unless someone here wants them.

This last week, I've just been working, and will be working all this week as well, this is pretty much my only free time this week, as it's RUSH at the bookstore again. We lost another person at the library, so I am again working 5 days a week, I'm not complaining, but it's nice to have a weekday off once in awhile.

I've really been neglecting art lately, after finishing my December swaps, I haven't needed to make anything, so I haven't. I cancelled my December CollageATC swap because we had 2 people interested, and since no one's said anything about being interested this year, I haven't bothered setting up swaps. I haven't seen much I want to participate in in my other Yahoo group, I kinda want to do a Valentine's swap, but more of buying for someone else than making something. Anyone heard of any?

And that's all that's been happening here, hopefully something exciting will come up. I do have to get on my desktop because there's a few things I can't do on the kindle online, so I will try to check back in more frequently.