A Day for Bargains

“MOM, YARD SALE!!!!” Well my kid’s started it this morning. It wasn’t me I swear.

I had a few errands to run. I had to pick up a t-shirt from another mom, and bring my Boy Scout to the dump first thing this morning (8AM to be exact) and I am NOT a morning person. I usually don’t make plans before 10am….too much work to wrangle up these kiddos, but this morning we HAD to. Every weekend the local scout troops and packs take turns sorting the returnable bottles and cans at the dump and in return they get a portion of the money.

So we decided to pudge around a little bit while the big kid was working with his Scout buddies. I went and picked up my shirt and we saw a few yard sale signs on the way there. *SIGH, I was bored and I couldn’t say NO!

So what kind of crafty finds can we find today???

I found this cute little sewing box, complete with a bunch of patterns and goodies for $5!

All the goodies inside!!! How perfect are these patterns? I love making kid’s clothing and these simple patterns suit my style—I can easily dress them up with ruffles. 🙂 I know I don’t NORMALLY use patterns, I usually draft my own but it’s always good to have something basic to start with. especially if I am trying a new design.

Found some great fabrics, cotton prints and some corduroy!!

Cute little tray??? I love the tiles. I keep saying one day I’m gonna do some mosaicing….I even bought the tile grout.

The woman had $5 price tag on the tray and the fabrics were$3-4 each but this was a yard sale and most people are not firm on their prices. She told me to make her offers on the fabric so I offered $10 for the tray and the fabric….. she was fine with that. Woo-hoo!! I can’t wait to use that corduroy for something in the fall!

 I know this shirt is wayyyyyy too big for me. But it’s a gorgeous color, and it’s NEW! I think I paid a quarter for it and it still has the extra button attached. I am already envisioning this refashion!

Any crafty finds for you today? Did you stop at any yard sales? It is a great day on the Cape for it!

Nifty Thrifty Crafty Finds!

Sha-zam!!! What an exciting day, and it’s not even over! First off, it is a B-E-A-U-tiful day on Cape Cod, not too warm, not too cold, just perfect.  I set out today to run a few little errands, nothing major and on the way there I got a little side tracked.  I was bring my daughter to her pony club (she is an animal lover, horses being her main gig right now at age 11 – yes we pay them for her to play with the horses, clean stalls, shovel poop and groom the horses—don’t get me started, she enjoys it and the horse farm makes out great on free labor), Anyhoo, on my way around town I saw a yard sale sign. I wasn’t planning on yard sale-ing,  I haven’t done yard sales in ages, and it wasn’t part of today’s plan.…but I was feeling the itch to just peek…MWAHAHAHAHAHA, yeah, peek. That’s an understatement.

I dropped my daughter off at her club, whipped the car around and flew back to the yard sale sign. Down a hundred and fifty roads following signs, left here, right there, oh my am I ever going to find my way outta here?? What did I get myself into? And suddenly there it was, the beloved yard full of “junk.” Ah, I love it. Ever hear that saying one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, yeah that should be my pick-up line. I let the kiddos out of the car and we were on the hunt for a diamond in the rough.

Now I don’t usually go to yard sales with anything specific in mind, just a couple bucks in my pocket. I am a huge bargain hunter. I coupon like crazy, wait for sales, shop in bulk when and if I can, I stockpile for winter, and I try to buy things when they are on sale before we need them. There is nothing worse than somebody getting sick in the house and you have to run out and pay FULL price (that’s right I said the “F” word) for necessities at the grocery store in an emergency situation. Last week’s crisis I spent $50 at the grocery store and all I bought was Gatorade, Pedialyte, carpet cleaner, crackers, Daddy requested some bacon, and I picked up a few boxes of cereal (— didn’t want to miss out on a killer cereal deal, $3.26 for 4 boxes plus a free gallon of milk, hell yeah!) I think I just about fell over checking the prices on all the emergency stuff. I never spend that much on a few items, ICK! My grocery budget is usually about $100 for two weeks for a family of six. I make it work, so a couponing we will go!

Back to the yard sales- I don’t go shopping per say at yard sales, I usually like to pick up goodies like old chairs to be refinished, crafty items, things to be used around the house, kiddie toys, and sometimes a good book. I love going to a yard sale where the family just cleaned out great grandma’s craft corner because those people love to put all of it in a box and say take it away, please just take it. I say Oh with pleasure!  I find sewing machines (usually sellers say they don’t run, but with a little oil and TLC old machines are FABULOUS), fabrics, vintage craft books, patterns, and tons of yarn. Sometimes the finds are not that great and you can’t really use much, other times it’s like wa-pow, bargain! They just don’t make things like they used to. The quality of some of the old stuff you find at yard sales is just remarkable, and it’s the coolest green thing to do you know—-what a great way to recycle.

Other times I find neat stuff that just light up my child’s eyes and I can’t say no. I couldn’t pass up these deals; I would scrape change outta the ashtray if I had to! That’s how good they were.

Hours of entertainment right there!

This Leap Frog toy looks brand new, has all the pieces, and retails for $17.99, so I really felt like I was robbing the girl. I had to ask, are you sure?? Apparently Shelby melted her too with those eyes.

Cruisin’ on the new rides

Then the kids were so excited that I found these bikes for them. Sebastian has been struggling with pushing the pedals on his 2-wheeled bike with training wheels, so I knew I was going to have to get him a tricycle or a big wheel. Walking into the toy store looking for one I was shocked to see that they were no longer “basic” and cheap. I know I paid $24.99 for my daughter’s 9 years ago, and now the prices were around $60 and up. Of course it’s hard to find a basic 3-wheeler anymore; they all have lights and sounds to grab that kid’s attention. DO NOT BRING THE KIDS TO THE TOY STORE…..When he sees that Harley Davidson big wheel you’ll be out $100, or one kicking and screaming 3 year old. I opted for the screaming kid. This “bike” for Sebastian was $1, and Shelby’s was .25, no lies, totally serious, they just needed to be wiped down. This is the heart of yard sales and bargain hunting.

Check out these nifty wooden bowls! $2 bing bing! You can’t find wooden bowls crafted like this anymore, The big one has a sticker that says: Genuine Woodcroftery. These are vintage awesomness and usually sell for about $30-40 online from what I’ve found. Also in the picture are some cool glass jars for .50 each. I can use those either ion my kitchen, or more likely in my craft room to hold buttons or small items.

Did you see the great mirror??I love the wooden frame! It looks like the mirror fell out once because it is held in with a little bit of blue tape. But it will take a few minutes to pull off the backing and re-glue the mirror to the frame. No big deal! I paid $2 for the mirror and .25 for the picture frame. I think I’m going to use the frame to put my degree in once I have it in my hands.

Now for the real crafty stuff. I picked up this box of old Singer attachments, for $1, wicked cool! I don’t know what half of them do, but I’ll do my research. These will go great with my vintage Singer 401a.  Those weird beaded things next to the attachments are shower curtain rings, but I thought they looked like I could use them for something fancy…maybe purse rings or something.  The rings were in a box of free stuff so what the heck right?

I also found these nifty picture frames for .50 each. Not only is it difficult to find frames this big but they can get really pricey. Do I have anything big enough to fit in them, probably not, but I will find something cool to use them for. So many great things that can be done with cool frames, I will find a use for them and I promise to post pics when I do.

So anyhoo, it was a great day finding unexpected items that will go from trash to treasure. It wasn’t in my original plans today to yard sale, but I had fun, the kids had fun.  I found some useful items that excited me and I spent less than $10 all together today. What about your nifty thrifty finds? Find anything good at yard sales today? Do you like to refinish or recycle yard sale goodies?

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