You know, make a loop... visit people in a big old circle roundabout. We visited Gene's youngest granddaughter Bailey (a surprise visit), then off to visit Gene's parents, but we all decided to just meet at his brother's house instead and chat for a bit.
In that one hour-ish time frame, the talk of grandma's car came up... again. Gene's grandma's car had been in his parent's garage for a decade. Grandma has long passed. Basement needs to be shifted to fix some foundation work. Grandma's car needs a new home.
voila.
Gene, never a man to turn down a freebie challenge, he got with his brother and crafted a plan to bring the car 2 hours north to our house. Gene will fix it up and it'll be his back up commuter car.
A week or so later, in rolls Gene's brother Steve. He's the Jewish brother. You know, the one that doesn't eat pork. (psst, he's really not Jewish)
Ever hear a tall tale about a guy that doesn't like bacon?
Hello everyone, meet Steve. Short of his bacon deficiencies, he's a really nice guy and has been a wonderful brother in law. In fact, all my BILs are pretty great. I lucked out in that department.
Anyway, delivery payment was some t-bone steaks and big fat baked potatoes.
In return, Gene has yet one more summer project to work on. I'm thinking orange flames. Who's with me?
A couple weekends ago, it was Maryville's (my town) city wide garage sale day. As a certified bargain shopper AND an antique dealer, this is more fun than Black Friday. (I had to capitalize "Black Friday" since it's a national holiday and all.)
You should have seen my jeep. (I drive a 2 door wrangler). I'm fairly confident that I looked like a Clampett with all my treasures.
I thought it'd be kind of fun to show you my goodies, and my plans for them. P&L statement at the end of this post. ha!
1. Blue jars. I buy them every time I see them (if they are under a couple bucks). I can turn them over hand over fist if I mark them a fair enough price - which is in the $4-5 range.
Paid -$4.00 for 4.
Sell - $20.00
2. Decorative Candle holders - decorative pieces like this go well - again, got to mark them cheaper than what they'd ever get them for in the store. These are new, but they look "old".
Paid -$.50
Sell - $5.00
3. Vintage pyrex refrigerator ware - becoming popular again. History's answer to tupperware. I keep thinking I should use this myself, but it's nice to spend the $ instead.
Paid - $3.00 for 3
Sell - $18.00
4. Glazed stoneware. The one on the right I paid $1.00 for. I love the look of glazed stoneware pottery like McCoy. (I can't remember the name of this company though). The planter on the left, I actually saw in an antique store and looked at it for the longest time. I almost bought it on sale for $18.00. I didn't buy it. Good thing because I found this one for $.50
Paid - $1.50
Sell - $5.00 - because the planter stays here.
5. Kitschy kissing fish from 1950's Japan. I love this sort of stuff, I'm in love with kitsch but I try not to have too much of it around!
Paid - $.50
Sell - $6.00
6. Empty original fisher price box for a trailblazer set. I used to have a friend into FP, so I knew it was highly collectible. Findinging an original box, to go with someone's complete set will increase the value of their collectible quite a bit. This will go on ebay. They were wanting $1.00 but when I asked him if he'd take less, I ended up paying a quarter.
Paid - $.25
Sell - $10.00
7. Set of small Currier and Ives lithograph prints in an envelope. Not something I normally would buy, but I see potential profit.
Buy - $.50
Sell - $5.00
8. Brass Easel. Nice deep easel, harder to find. Marked korea - very pretty. Probably should have marked it more, I already sold it.
Buy - .50
Sell - $4.00
9. A quilt rack. I original bought this to put in my booth, but then I remembered that my sister Amber had been looking for one a couple years ago. I asked her if she still needed one and she said yes so it's now hers.
Paid - $3.00
Sell - $0.00
10. Jewelry box. Have you priced jewelry boxes lately? They are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I know this because I wanted to buy one for each of Gene's granddaughters since they had no place to keep their jewelry. Expect to spend $20 on a cardboard jewelrybox. So imagine my excitement when I found this one for $2.00 It's in mint condition. I'll be giving it to Gene's youngest granddaughter Bailey for either her birthday or Christmas. Probably with a pretty piece of jewelry in it.
Paid - $2.00
Sell - $0.00
11. Rattan chair. Remember senior photos from 1983? Yeah, rattan was the shit back then. Ironically, it's still kind of shit now. A year ago I declared that I would find a rattan chair and rock it out on my next senior girl. Took me a whole year to find one. I'll use it a few times and then resell it.
Paid - $5.00
Sell - $0.00 (for now)
12. Lead crystal decanter. Bought this because I thought Gene might like it. He loves crystal and we have a really pretty bar we built. We already have a couple decanters on it (including one I surprised him with for Christmas) so he turned it down. Quick trip through the dishwasher and it was ready to sell.
Paid - $2.50
Sell - $17.50
13. I ran into my mom at a garage sale, she told me of one that she was waiting on in a nicer part of town. About 15 min before they opened, I showed up there and there was a line outside of people waiting. Since I'm not THAT dedicated, I sat in my car and waited for the rush after the doors opened. When I made it inside, I found my lawyer lived there. I also found this lamp. It needs a tiny bit of work to make it happen, but what a bargain. I texted my mom (who wasn't there) and told her what she missed out on. She loves dragonflies and stained glass. booyah. The grasshopper passes the baton.
Paid $5.00 - I will invest about $10 more to fix the broken bit.
Sell - $50.00
14. Basket. I don't just buy any old basket. I want cute baskets that are more wooden and less rattan. Better quality.
Paid $.50
Sell $3.75
15. Sail boat stain glassed piece. Very pretty, pretty specific genre but the right person will love it. Sometimes it pays off to show up too early to a garage sale. I was 20 minutes early - it was a mad house. I missed out on a bunch of good stuff not being aggressive enough. Note to self: more elbows... less eye contact.
Paid $7.50
Sell $33.00
16. Cross stitched kitchen piece. A little harder to sell, but very well done, and professionally framed. I want this piece to move quickly so I priced it to sell.
Paid $1.00
Sell $13.00
17. A crate of old pepsi and diet pepsi bottles. He was using them to bottle his own beer. He had a bunch more he offered up, but I didn't know how well they would sell. I love how they look sitting in the blue crate. At the moment, they are sitting on my deck under my blue bench.
Paid - $5.00
Sell - $23.75 ($1.25 ea)
18. Canoe shelf. There are always a lot of unlisted garage sales skyping off the neighbor's listing. Sketchy if you ask me, but you do what you gotta do. After I bought the lamp from the lawyer, I saw another garage sale across the yard. I walked in, and before I even got to it, I said "I'm taking that". Canoe shelves are pretty cool. This is a reproduction obviously, but a bargain at $5.00 Original intention was to sell, but it will probably end up in my own bathroom holding towels as it kind of goes with the "theme" I have going on in my house, which is "rustic boaty cowboy meets renaissance art"
Haven't you heard? it's all the rage.
Paid $5.00
Sell $0.00
Total investment? $42.75
Potential profit? $214.00
Plus I get a bunch of stuff for essentially free after I sell a few pieces.
Sometimes I know this makes people angry, so I never say I'm buying to resell. Why, I'll never understand. You DO understand that Wal-mart makes a profit right? Buy low, sell high... kind of what America is all about.
But also keep in mind I have expenses like booth rent, and commissions, so even if I sold every single one of those things, I'd still be in the hole for the month! Yikes.
We recently moved stores (by force, our store moved and didn't have room for all of us). I've decided that this is the LAST TIME I'm moving. If I don't make a go of it there, I'm out for good.
Which means... a kick ASS garage sale at my house next year.
(underwhelming "yay")
{these photos have nothing to do with this post, I just like them, and they seemed appropriate}
About a month ago I shot a wedding. Like most weddings I shoot, my back is killing me by the end of the night. The worst part is during the ceremony, waiting for the kiss with the camera up to my face. FYI, that camera with a long lens and a battery grip is heavy. Hold it up to your face for 5 min solid and it's like doing some torturous forced exercise.
I'm not complaining. I'm used to it. I know how to deal with it, and that involves rest and sometimes advil.
But this time it was different.
You see, I've had issues with my back since around the time I graduated from high school. I remember the first time I realized it, was when my ex touched a spot on my lower back and I thought I would come unhinged. We weren't even married yet, so I was probably only 18 years old.
It's something after a while you just learn to live with, sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse.
When I was pregnant with Tanner, I lost the feeling in my left thigh. It was weird, but I just figured it was from the pressure of that big headed kid kicking his way out. After I had him, it went away.
Fast forward a few years. I was having some problems and switched chiropractors out of necessity one day (same 2 drs in one office). My regular Dr was out so I went to his new partner.
I'd made a point of saying how I hadn't been able to sit "indian style" (I think the proper term is criss cross now) for years. I hadn't thought about it, but something else that was going on, was that I also couldn't lay on my stomach without my bottom half literally feeling paralyzed. I could move my bottom half, but it was really difficult.
New chiro took that as a challenge and adjusted me and pointed out I had a large amount of inflammation in my back. He showed me where it was and by golly, he was right. There's a mound there that I always assumed was fat. sigh. But when it hurts more, it gets bigger. When it hurts less, it gets smaller.
In fact, the Dr says there's noone that comes to his office that has a more sensitive lower back than I do. (It can hardly be touched).
I've lived with it for many years and it's just my normal so I don't think much of it anymore.
So back to that wedding in April. I got home and things felt "different".
My back was really aching and I noticed over the next week, that when I stood my left thigh was going numb just like it had done years ago. If I stood long enough, it felt like it was burning.
Then it got worse.... I couldn't sleep on my back, which is an absolute nightmare to a back sleeper. My sleep patterns got really bad. I had to sleep on my right side and when I did that, my hands would go numb because I couldn't change positions.
I went back to the chiro and announced I had a pinched nerve.
*because I'm positive I do*
He looked at me funny and adjusted me, sent me home and nothing really changed. I had some relief for a day or so, but back it would come. I went several times and the outlook was always the same.
On May 5, when I was shooting Tanner and Katrina's prom photos, I was so into it I didn't notice that my leg was on fire. Literally from hip to knee was numb and it burned for hours.
That shoot was 1/2 hour... that scared me.
What happens at the next wedding which is TEN HOURS?
Right around this time, my friend Laurie Ann posted something on her wall on facebook. I've known LA for around 15 years now. I knew her when she weighed 340 lbs. She now runs on a regular basis and has lost a BUNCH of weight. Read her story. Anyway, she posts this video on her wall and I decided to watch...
The story is about Arthur, a disabled vet who is told he'll never walk on his own again. He was a paratrooper and jumped too much, too hard. He couldn't walk without canes. Couldn't exercise. No one would help him.
He found yoga and it changed his life.
And that got me to thinking, what would happen if I tried it out?
I did a little more youtube research and found this video:
It's a simple video. It's not fancy in any way, just a basic video for beginners. I decided to give it a shot. I made a fool of myself right in front of the cats. They were definitely very much "wtf?"
It was worth a laugh....
for them.
But something happened about mid-way through. My lower back popped loudly. It felt different from any other pop before. It kind of scared me as the rest of the day my leg hurt no matter what I did, standing, sitting, laying down.
BUT....
The next day, after a good night's sleep, I felt good. The tingling in my leg wasn't gone completely, but much better. I started to sleep in my back again (leg propped up on a pillow). I could stand for more than 5 minutes.
It was kind of like a lightning bolt. 9 minutes? All those years of pain, and it was something fixable in NINE MINUTES.
Makes me kind of angry thinking about it. But that gets me nowhere so I'll move on.
Anyway, so yoga is now going to be part of my new routine.
I think this was a wake up call for me. It was something that really scared the crap out of me. Reminded me of my mortality. I think about my father working his whole life, and then he died. He died right at the time when most people will retire and enjoy their later years.
Instead... he died.
I don't want to be like my father, although we're following some of the same paths. I don't want to die at almost 68 years old. That's only 26 years from now. In fact, if I lived the exact same length of time as my father, I'd have 9527 days left.
*that's not enough*
So to do that, things have to change. And they have.
Eat better.
exercise more.
lose weight.
Check. Check. Check.
I'll keep you posted on the progress and the things I'm doing. Like a few other problems in my life recently, I decided to just throw some money at it and see if that fixes it. I'm going to give nutrisystem a go for a few months so I can get some pounds off, and get the pressure of my back.
*I want to weight train again*
My first goal is to hit 50 pounds and when I do, Gene and I are buying Kayaks. He's actually going to go out on the water with me. This shall be a comedy of errors. I'm sure they'll be video.
Stay tuned for the hilarity.
ETA:
Maybe yoga didn't "save my life" - but it sure made me feel for a few days that it did.
My world was turned upside down when I was swept off my feet and fell crazy in love with a tall and handsome cowboy. We were married in 2008 in a beautiful, small ceremony in my hometown in Iowa on the fourth of July.
I have 2 sons, Seth and Tanner and we live the good life in the country outside of Maryville, MO. I love good books, pondering life over laundry, great photography (some of it's even mine) and scrapbooking. I've delved into cooking and writing which is funny considering I never thought I was very good at either.
Read my full profile here, along with some of my favorite posts of all time.
My world was turned upside down when I was swept off my feet and fell crazy in love with a tall and handsome cowboy. We were married in 2008 in a beautiful, small ceremony in my hometown in Iowa on the fourth of July.
