12.00 and 2 Sales Later

It's amazing what one can do when you set your mind to it. By 9:30 yesterday, I had taken a shower, got dressed, went to Starbucks, travelled around town, got lost in a very ritzy but confusing area of town near the famous Pinehurst #2 Golf Course, went to 2 yards sales (I found more than enough treasures between the two to be satisfied), went grocery shopping (saved 35 dollars but spent 85 doing so), and picked up my son from his stay with his Daddy. All by 9:30. We returned home and I had a few things I wanted to accomplish since DS still can't go swimming and needed to stay out of the burning sun--I might as well clean!

One of my projects assigned to myself for the day was to clean the fridge and exchange the microwave oven out for one I bought at a sale a few weeks ago (a big GE practically brand new for 15.00). Well the fridge project turned into 5 hour + project which avalanched into doing all the laundry, cleaning the rest of the kitchen, doing the bathrooms, and mopping all the floors and taking a run to the dump, with a grand finale of making meatballs for part of our dinner. By 4:30 I was sweaty and tired but at the same time pretty proud of all that I did in an 8 or 9 hour time span!

The picture above represents my "new" microwave, cleaned and ready to rock and roll. I pulled together some of my kitcheny yellow thrifted finds to place on top. (yellow japanese coffee mug, nortikae salt and peper shaker and gravy boat, mikasa yellow bowl, and then some kitchy gadgets I have accumulated featured in the bowl).

As far as my thrifty finds for Saturday morning, I spent 12 dollars between 2 sales and came home with a wonderful assortment of just about everything a girl could want.

I absolutely love different platters, and so I immediately grabbed this cute fish ceramic platter (for a $1.00) to add to my almost collection (2). I had platters way back when but they were all destroyed so I need to revamp my collection.

Also purchased was this cute pink, white and orange vase for a buck. The watering container and blue hotpad are also thrifted but from awhile ago--I just keep moving things around here. I don't have a whole lot to rearrange but I try to bring out new things from their hiding places every so often and love the new look it represents each and every time. I should really gauge my background items better before "staging" a photo shoot..LOL. You can see my garbage can top in the sink that I was washing in the background (embarassing..sorry....but this is real life people). :)

I also scored some summer reading-hardbacks 50 cents, and paperbacks a quarter. It must have been Anita Shreve day, because I found 3 of her books between the 2 sales, along with an Anne Rice book, Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul, and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Work. Topping off this little display is a ceramic pitcher (I'll use for flowers) for 50 cents and a cute line tablecloth for 2.00. I have a dinky round table so I rarely find tablecloths that work at yard sales or thrift stores but with some creative folding, I can make it work.

I just love finding fabrics and craft goodies. This pile of fabric remants were in a bag for 2 dollars! Never you mind the fact I have not used my sewing machine since Christmas--I can not pass up a good bargain. Besides, who doesn't enjoy picking up fabric for that inevitable future project??? I'm thinking about doing a trade of fabric though--because I really have more than I will ever use or need given my few and far between sewing projects. This week I will sort through and organize a few stashes and seek out a trade of some sort--I would love more ribbon, papers, vintage ephemera, paints, rubber stamp pads, distress inks--or what have you for my collages
--so be watching for an upcoming "Barter" post!

Last but not least--Christmas in June--a variety of bulbs, brand new cards, and two handmade holiday apron...oh and a doll pattern--all of these items totalled 3.10! Not two shabby of a haul today which makes me happy and perhaps was the reason I had so much energy for the rest of the not so fun projects for the rest of the day. I think life is all about balance-you need to teeter fun with responsibility, creativity with practicality, splurges with thrifting, alone time with together time--all this and more helps feed the balance act that fill our worlds and makes us all better persons.

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Swap news--I hope everyone has received our partner info this week and has had a chance to email and chat with their partner and get to know eachother a bit. I know a couple people maybe on vacation, so if you haven't heard from them--check out their blog and see if they may be away.

Check out here for partner listings!