Yard Sale Saturday, April 2nd

Yard sale is in full swing here in St Tammany.   Due to some family emergencies, however, time was limited so I selected what I considered was going to be the best ... the annual yardsale at the local Hosanna Church.   

Arrived promptly at 8am and was home by 9.     Todays selections ....

• 4 wood cigar boxes, which were being used as crayon boxes.   I love boxes and these are the perfect size for mixed media fun.   I know I already have a small stack of boxes awaiting creation in the garage, but these were just 50 cents each and they were calling me.
  buttons -- a button necklace, a jar of buttons, and a card of dog and bone buttons.
• A couple bracelets and necklaces to add to the bead and chain collections.    I know I'll use these someday.   Let me repeat that ... I know I'll use these someday ... I know I'll use these someday ...  I sure hope I use these somedays as I've almost a ton of this stuff. 
• A bag of braid and some ribbons. 
• Box of Alphabet (and other) rubber stamps. 
• A package of unused Daisy Kingdom collars.   I have no idea what I might do with these, but ....
• Two cross stitch patterns which are Cajun related.   These will go to the cross stitch section of my shop. 

 I'm going to start setting aside (like ya right, I'm that busy) an hour or two each to start playing with my stuff again. 

Yard Sale Saturday, 2/26/2011 Athena 2000 Sewing Machine

It's been quite awhile since I've been out on my yard sale circle. It's been cold, and, frankly, I've just not felt like it.

But today, the sun is up and it's warm. Beau is training for the upcoming Crescent City Classic and was going on a fast walk between the two trailheads. So, I had extra time between dropoff and pickup and decided to check out a couple yard sales versus going home for 30 minutes.

AND, I'm so glad I did. I was recently pondering buying a new sewing machine, but was holding off trying to figure out what I wanted. But, that all changed when I found this beauty this morning.

 She's a Singer Athena 2000 from 1976.   She's about 30 pounds and came in a heavy (heavy vinyl) case with 8 different foot attachments, 4 different plates, a ruffler, extra bobbins, and a small assortment of sewing accessories.    They had the price listed at $150 and I offered $100 with the agreement that I could bring it back (they were in the neighborhood) if it didn't work well.     Needless to say, my next stop (right after picking up Beau, of course), was the bank for the $100.   It even had the original Instruction and Applications booklets, along with the certificate of warranty for 30 years.   Now, the warranty is expired, but imagine when sewing machines came with a 30 year warranty.  

I brought it home, set it up.   I had to read the booklet to figure out how to thread it.   And .... I'm a really happy camper !   It sews beautifully.     There were a couple of receipts for buttons and zippers for 1990, so I'm assuming this has been in storage for a very long time.   On Monday, I'm going to take it over to the Sewing Machine Shop and have it maintainced and lubed just to start out on the right foot.  

I'm not sure, but I think I just committed to do some sewing !

Yard Sale Saturday, 9/25/10

A local Church hosted a yardsale to raise funds for their Youth Group.   The sign said it started at 8am.   I drove over around 7:30 with my coffee and a book, thinking I'd just hang out and watch the people until it started.    I don't know what time they actually opened the doors, but it was in full swing when I got there. 

I don't know who oversaw pricing of the donations, but they obviously were not very interested in raising very much money for their youth.    Case in hand, fabric (often several yards), marked at 10 cents each !

I didn't haul very much away, because the truth of it all is I don't need much in the line of arts/crafts supplies, coupled with the fact that I'm supposed to be downsizing !!!  

Finds:   
3 pieces of fabric, each with more than 2 yards.    They have no immediate plans other than inventory.
2 unused rubber stamps for 25 cents each
1 plastic bag with jewelry related items for 50 cents (these also put away as inventory)
A set of Tandy Leather working tools & supplies for $1.00.   I purchased for the tools.   They have a variety of shapes, hearts, leaves, sun, moon, etc.    I don't do leather work (not yet anyway), but thought they could by used on soft metals, clay, etc.   I also kept the leather laces and put in my 'strings' box.   The rest, a couple wallet kits and quite a few leather patterns, I put into a big plastic zip-lock bag and dropped in the Grans Donation box.

Well, although I love a great bargain, just like anything else, $2.30 was way to little for these objects (particularly when the money if for the teens) and I gave them $5.00.   Which still isn't much, but better than the $2.30

Yard Sale Saturday, 7/10/2010

The yard sale circuit is unusually quiet for this time of year. Hardly any ads listed in Thursday paper, which is closely matched with what I find when I go out on my circuit. Hardly any. I do, however, get up and go. It's part of my Saturday morning routine.

This morning there were 4 in my circuit ... of which I found two items of interest. 

This now makes 4 small guitars that I have in my inventory awaiting design.   This one is unique in that it is smaller than the other 3.   This one stands a mere 23" tall, whereas the other child size guitars are almost 32".   These are up soon ...

The second find was the 5 X 7" picture frame.   I looked at Target and Belks but couldn't find anything I liked ... but this one seemed just right; a few lines but nothing overpowering.
 

This is my son Alex and his love, Mary.  I think the frame fits them perfectly.  

Yard Sale Saturday, June 5, 2010

The first yard sale this morning was just up the street.  At the entrance was this young man.

He was so cute, I had to stop and take his picture.   He then followed me back to his house, where he and his brother, maybe a year older, were manning the fort for Mom, who woke up not feeling well.   The brothers are going to be fabulous salespeople some day, they showed me just about everything on their tables and tried to talk me into all of it.    Then, this young man insisted that he follow me back to the front of their section so I wouldn't get lost, but, of course, I was going to have to drive slow.    Which I did.

Made 6 more stops and then, headed back home for some much needed coffee.

Finds:  Two Chain type necklaces and a chain hook thingie that goes on pants or purses.    I thought I was over collecting pieces of chain; apparently I was wrong. 

Yard Sale Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Almost every Saturday morning, Beau places a cup of coffee on my night table and tells me it's Yard Sale Saturday.  He then turns on the light and proceeds to read his newspaper.  Usually, by 6:40am, I manage to climb out of bed and start getting ready.  Getting ready is easy, clothes, teeth, hair, drink rest of coffee, collect money and back up tote bag (cell phone, measuring tape, billfold), put on the MP3 player and out the door right about 7am.   And, so it went today, except I forgot the MP3 player.

Visited 8 sales in all; The Lakes, a local subdivision was having its annual. 

Finds:

• a container for crayons.   I certainly don't need anymore crayons.   I haven't finished making the heart crayons I started last weekend for Lilly, but I really like these small lidded containers and for a dime, what the heck. 
• a pack of artist paintbrushes
• A bottle of fraycheck.    
• A couple yards of Brown and Blue braid
• A box of foam stick on letters.   Thought these would be fun to add to my packages mailed from the supply shop ... words, or at least letters, on mail kinda thing. 
• A really long chain that was probably some kind of belt. 
• 14 pieces of antique lace and/or crochet thingies.  

The antique lace/crochet was interesting.   At one of the sales there was a rather large stack on a table with no price.   I asked the woman for cost and she came rushing over telling me how they were antiques and really special.   I reminded her that one persons antique was another persons used, unwanted stuff, to which she quickly decided the small pieces were a quarter and the larger 50 cents.   I must have spent a good 45 minutes going through them all, and in the end selected 14 pieces.   I envision them as texture under paint on canvas.   I thought about offering her $10 for all, but truthfully, I'd selected the ones that I thought had the best potential and the rest would just be inventory.    I'm sure I'll regret this decision.   Oh well.

Yard Sale Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Slow yard sale day in our immediate area today; the paper showed most were up in Covington, and although it's only 6 miles up the road, it's always good to establish limits on such foolishness, or it really could get out of town and I could be headed off to the 100 mile yardsale they have up there, somewhere (NC and TN, I think).

All told, visited 6.

Finds:

• A big box of crayons
• A ratty box with assorted sewing supplies.  The box I've already thrown out, it was in very poor condition and I really don't want a sewing box.   But the sewing supplies was worth $1.
• A tween embroidery set.   I picked it up (25 cents) for the bag of embroidery threads.   The woman then pointed out the booklet that goes with it, which is full of beginner stitches, which should come in as a handy refresher since I'm still busy stitching away on my Padillies.  

At the last stop I came across a woman's mannequin head, from the upper neck up, complete with a head full of hair.   I figure it must have been used in beauty school or something like that.  I kept looking at it and thinking about the couple times recently that I'd walked off from something because I couldn't think of any use and then later greatly regretted it.    After several minutes of contemplation, I decided that I could use her to model hats, should I create some.   But then, I started thinking about how I already made a couple hats and they didn't turn out so well and they really were not much fun ... so I walked off and left her.    I'm sure I'll be regretting it before the weekend is over.  

Yard Sale Saturday, 5/8/10

There wasn't a large number of yard sale ads in Thursdays' paper, most likely due to Mothers Day, which worked out fine, as I again, had only an hour and a half set aside for the weekly event.    The paper had been recycled, so just set out on my historical yard sale circuit ... Hwy 59 to 1088 to Sault to 190 and then home.   It's really more of a squarish rectangle, but that is totally beyond the point. 

I visited 9 yard sales, 5 of which, turned out to be right in our Subdivision (with only one sign at the entrance).     The only find that made it home was this sad looking (child size) guitar.   It has no strings and the paint is a bit scratched, hopefully signs that is was a well loved toy.  The price was perfectly right at $1.

I'm taking the fact that I found this guitar today, the those other two last weekend, as a sign that I'm supposed to be creating a new set of wall art guitars.   So, I've lined them up in my studio space and I'm waiting for a lightening bolt full of inspiration to come back and strike me at any moment.   (Might be best, though, if it waits until next week as we are going to be out for a couple days).

Which brings me to the point of opportunities lost.   I've had two of these in the last week and it is bothering me greatly.    It's like this .... I've collected so much stuff for potentially art that it's begun to take over my life.   So, as a result of this acknowledgment, I'm becoming a whole lot more selective about what I drag in.    This has resulted in two lost opportunities of late.

Lost Opportunity 1)  a week and a half ago I was wandering through the Restore and happened across a rack and a set of pool balls.  The price was right @ $5.00, but I kept thinking ... ya right; and what am I going to do with these besides drop them into inventory.  Three days later I had a really great idea, jumped into the car and headed back to the Restore.   Of course, they were gone.

Lost Opportunity 2)  At one of the last yard sales yesterday I came across a set of 4 low (maybe 6" tall x 8" wide and round) chunky furniture feet for a whole $2.   Same thing.   I looked; I thought; I looked some more and, in the end, I walked off without them.    This morning I awoke thinking how great they would be with a hole drilled down the center ... painted, stacked, wrapped, etc. etc. etc.

So, I vow, for at least the next few weeks when some really catches my interest I'll just pick it up and bring it home.    Period. 

Yard Sale Saturday, May 1st, 2010

We started (and ended) with a very dreary, overcast, misting kind of day.   Which, was good in that it blocks out the smell of crude oil that is slowly starting to premeate our air from the Oil Spill.  

Quail Creek was having its Annual Community Sale, so, as I had only an hour and a half, headed right out at 7am.  Altogether, visited 17 sales.   The common theme of the day was childrens toys, clothing and furniture, with a sideline of glassware.   Seems these were prominent at almost every stop.

My finds:

• 2 child size guitars  ... these were just crying out to be designed, painted and loved without the involvement of little sticky fingers. 
• A grab bag of sewing things; some ribbons, bindings, a pincushion and a variety of little metal thingies.
• A necklace and bracelet with interesting beads and trinkets.

Yard Sale Saturday, April 17th

I found myself debating this morning whether to get up and go see what was up in the Yard Sale world.   I've been a bit sleepless the last week, but, the sun was up and the birds were singing; so out I went.     I wouldn't say it was much fun, though; I visited 5 sales and when, I still didn't much find myself in the mood, just headed back home.

Finds:
2 plastic storage containers; I typically find these just the right size for much of my found objects storage needs.   One was filled with pencils, which I'll donate to Grans; the other filled with markers, which I'll hold on to for Lilly -- perhaps within the next year she'll be ready for beginners coloring.
A small handful of paints; some acrylic, some tulip and a couple ink blotters.
4 decorative pins, which I now can't find where I put and didn't make the picture.
 
Expenditures ... a whole $1.25

Yard Sale Saturday, March 6th

Today was the annual yard sale for the Hosanna Church, right up the road.    The majority of the churches around here discontinued their annual yard sales after Katrina (not sure why), but this one continues.   They obviously have a generous membership, who donate a large assortment of household items, books, crafts, toys, accessories, etc.   I always find items of interest here and came prepared with three of my shopping bags to load up.  

Finds:
-- Small assortment of jewelry for the found items box ... (except for the elephants; they are for my sister who collects them).
--  A large assortment of sewing related items.    Ribbon, lace, two boxes of threads, needles, buttons, transfers, fabric paints, Amish Quilt kit, magnets, closures and a flower press for the microwave.
--   (Not shown), Two full boxes of sewing patterns.

I'm happy to have the return of yard sale season.   Although I'm well past the point of needing any more supplies, I find it great fun going out. 

Yard Sale Saturday & Other Stuff

Yard Sale Saturday, February 27th
Usually, by this time of year, yard sale season is started up and in pretty good swing.   Not this year.   I suppose it's the weather.  Almost every weekend is chilly and wet, or chilly and windy, or perhaps, just chilly.   Frequented just one sale on Saturday, at the local middle school for Haiti relief.   

Finds: 

• 1 pair of old turquoise earrings (for the found objects collection)
• 1 old link belt (these will eventually be taken apart and applied to something else ... think I have 5-6 of them, now, in different patterns.
• 2 pieces of fabric
• 1 roll of heavy wrapping paper (which I use to wrap up the patterns sold out of TodaysTreasure .. instead of using envelopes.

The Other Stuff
I've not been posting to Blogger for the last couple weeks.  Shortly after my return from vacation, I realized that my post history between August 2006 and July 2008 (Two Years !) is gone.   Not just missing,but GONE.   I searched all my settings thinking it was just hidden, misfiled by a choice of some kind, but No, it's gone.    After spending literally hours search Google for answers, finally ended up posting in their help forum.   I'm hoping they will have an answer for me, eventually.   But I'm not real hopeful.   I've seen a variety of messages indicating if you know the name of the individual posts they might be able to recover.   Of course, I've not kept track of that, in any manner.   Woe is me.   Oh, and I think, in the process, I've messed up my RSS (or whatever all that is) feed while trying to fix the ther problem.   Again, woe is me.

I recently upgraded from Photoshop Elements 2 (which I've been using for about 10 years) to Photoshop Elements 8 and I'm on a learning curve.   I'm thinking about using photoshop to create small pieces of collage art for use in the soldered pendants (assuming I ever gain an real skill soldering).     I upgraded because many of the current Photoshop downloads/enhancements were not compatible with the old version.   Although the two versions have alot of similiarites, I'm taking it tool by tool, step by step, learning it well.  A very time consuming, but rather fun, process.   Which means, I've been doing a whole lot of sitting on the couch with the cat.

Pulled the masks out of the bag, where they've been curing in water since mid January.    I sanded them down with a block to remove the roughness on the faces and washed them up.    I've set them out on the back porch, where I'm closely watching them for signs of personality ... i.e., decide how to paint/stain them. 

Yard Sale Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

I wasn't expecting yard sales this week, but Beau always sets Thursday's paper, with the yard sale ads, aside for me.   I looked and found two and, surprising enough, one was in the subdivision; just a couple blocks down the way.    (I'm of the general thinking that yardsales in mass usually start after the 2nd week of January; when the bills start rolling in.

So, although it was only 34 degF this morning, I piled in the car and went down the street to the one.   Damn it was cold.  

It was a moving sale ... typical odds and ends of stuff.   There was, however, an interesting assortment of costume jewelry at 50 cents each that I picked through and came home with an interesting assortment of pins, a couple necklaces, and chain combinations (think one may be a belt).     I'll put these away to inventory.   The chains and pins should work well on some upcoming purses.  
  

Yard Sale Saturday, 11/21/09

It's raining and I headed off to the only garage sale posted as inside ...the FHS Robotics Club in the cafeteria.  Surprisingly enough, there were not very many folks there.  It was being staffed by three women.   When I expressed surprise about their being no Robotic Club students, one woman explained to me that generally the students didn't like to get up before 10am.    So, the Student Robotics Club don't even man their own yard sale.  Figures.

Finds ...

• One really cool wood heart shaped box that is begging to be painted.
• One Chain
• A variety of rhinestone Jewelry and a 'slider' bracelet
• Big buttons
• Fusible Web

Expenditures = $3.25

Yard Sale Saturday, 11/14/09

Hey Mr. Tamborine Man, play a Song for Me ,,,

It was abit chilly this morning and if I hadn't agreed to take Beau to the Trailhead, I would have declined Yard Sale Saturday and stayed in bed ... But, am I ever glad I didn't.

I came across two tamborines and three handheld drum pieces, at, amazingly enough, two different yardsales.   (It's been well over a year since I've seen one).  I've created three mixed media tamborine pieces which I put over the French doors in my studio and have been wanting more to, eventually, line the entire surface.   (Did I mention how excited I was .. and, the 5 came in costing an entire $2.00.

AND THEN ... at the next sale I came across a metal stand ... apparently some kind of family note center.  Well, last night I was telling Beau that I was going to take a few of the magnet sets to the upcoming shows and needed something to display them on .... This it is, at a whole 50 cents.

Other finds, not quite as exciting, but purchased just in case ....

• 3 bags of assorted ribbons and lace .. some look quite old.
• A box of zippers (Yep, in case I ever sew those purses that I've been collecting patterns for).
• Two bags of rubber stamps
• Two bags of narrow wood pegs that are about 4" long in a variety of colors. 
• Two little necklaces that I wanted the charms on.  

That's it ...

Yard Sale Saturday, 11/07/09

Nice chilly morning out there.   There were alot of ads in Thursday paper so knew the day had great yardsale potential.  Took Beau up to the trace and started out from there.   Just for fun, I kept track on a corner of the newspaper; I visited 17 yardsales in all.  

Finds:

• A three shelf rubbermaid stand.  I think these are meant to be used to store spices in a cupboard, but think it might have great display potential in my art tent. 
• A purse that I bought for the bangles; going to cut them right off.
• A purple and pink wood necklace
• A small assortment of Jewelry pieces that will go to inventory
• A container of marbles

Total expenditures = $4.00.    Beau was surprised when I came home (2 hours later) with just this.   But, I already have so many materials and supplies that I find I'm getting more and more selective.   I suppose I'd quit going out if it wasn't fun.

Yard Sale Saturday, 10/24/09

Amazingly enough, I really wasn't in the mood this morning.   I'm getting to the stage where I have so much 'stuff' that I can't imagine ever getting it all used.   But, I needed to take Beau to the trailhead (so he could do a long run home) and I needed to go to the Gym, so I did, of course, follow the three garage sell signs between the two, as well as two more between the gym and home. 

Find ....

• Two small bottles of fabric paint
• 4 bracelets with a variety of either interesting beads or charms
• 1 magnetic necklace
• 1 chain belt
• 2 link belts on stretch elastic (thought I'd take them apart and attach the links seperately to other things)
• 1 pair of earrings with wood beads and guitar picks (think these belong on one of my guitars in progress)
• A piece of lace and a piece of faux fur
• A couple little onyx creature (I'm not sure why)
• And 1 barret, which is new on the card and I'll probably wear.

I've been having little talks with myself on how I'd like to move away from the jewelry findings.   I consider the beaded items I create more accessories than jewelry, but I'd really like to move back towards the art.  But, I just keep seeing things that would work so well and for a quarter ... well heck.    So, I assume this become something I'm going to have to reconcile.   At least, they don't take up much room from the storage standpoint !

Yard Sale Saturday, 10/17/09

A cold front came in yesterday and it was wonderfully cool outside; 58 deg.f and to make things even better, it's not raining.

I had three yardsales marked from the paper and found several more.

Finds: 

• 8 purse patterns (for me; not my shop).   I still plan on making purses (someday)
• 2 Cigar Boxes  .. I'm thinking I'll turn these into Treasure Boxes for Lilly (store junk jewelry for when she's abit older.
• A set of bamboo purse handles
• A pack with 2 different laces
• 6 cards of vintage buttons
• A package of thread (The thread is okay, but mostly small wood spools, which is what I wanted)
• A package of glass globs ... great colors for solder experiments.
• A whole stack of bags (which I'll put in the art/craft show supply box).
• 5 pieces of fabric (for those purses I'm going to make someday)
• 1 Scrabble Game.  I'll pull out letters 'A I M E E' for the bracelet I'm making for our neice for Christmas.  The rest of the letters go to inventory, the letter holders to 'blocks inventory' and the game will either go to the wall or I'll recreate as a piece of wall art for Lilly's room. 
• A couple bracelets with charm pieces and a leaf broach ... for inventory

Thats it ...

Yard Sale Saturday, September 12th

Just like anticipated, we woke to rain ... pouring down rain.   There had only been two in my circuit listed in the paper.   So, around 8:30 there was a brief let-up, so decided to slip out and see if anything was going on.   The sale in the Oaks was apparently cancelled, but did see a sign for The Traces .. an indoor sale at that.    Only one treasure I was remotely interested ...  a game of Mancola.

Now, I'm clueless as to how to play this game, and the instructions were quite vague, but the little marbles are flat and should work well  for solder practice and the mancola board will be great to line up small beadsets and parts when I make charm bracelets.

Yard Sale Saturday, August 29th

Only one ad in the paper within my yardsale circle and that was a contractor listing for doors and building materials. But, it's August, so knew that yardsales were certain to be out there. And, I was correct ... visited 7 all together. I'm sure there were more, but I was hungry and in serious need of a restroom, so headed home.






Finds:

• 5 Bracelets and two Necklaces @ 10 cents each. I felt sorry for the young woman selling them to me ... her mother gripped and complained the whole time I was there. I think it's a good bet that it's what this woman does most the time .... I left quite quickly.
• An old slide making kit. There's a few slides with bugs already attached, but there are also blank glass slide sheets that will be great for collage pendants.
• 6 Offwhite Tassle's ... also 10 cents each.
• A whole bunch of rubber and chunky stamps for $4.
• A Few Pieces of Ribbon for $1.00