Yard Sales!!

I went to some yard sales today. Got some awesome deals!

Bought all these clothes for $8. Three of them are from Ann Taylor. The dress, which fits me perfect and looks SO cute, was over $100 at Dillards (I looked it up). The Green wool coat is adorable! Ok, enough from me.

Rillz really wanted this sushi stuff. He loves going to yard sales with me! When he finds something he wants he will just hand it to me and say "Mindy, I want this" Ha! Makes me laugh. But, my purchasing technique at a yard sale is amazing if I do say so myself! So here is everything I bought for $15. All those yellow/blue things are chopsticks with a napkin and placemats (can you say... SUSHI PARTY!!). We now have a ton of bamboo sushi rolls and paddles. We also got those brita filters that are SPENDY (still a price tag on it that says $25)! And that yellow bottle thing is a dog water bottle. There is also a really nice sushi platter (not pictured) that is currently in my dishwasher . Oh and the best is the dog collar I picked up for Malu. I brought it home and looked at it to see if it fit and the collar is a COACH collar. Haha. My dog owns something coach and I don't. So funny.

Ok, so my yard sale technique...

Rule #1: Always ignore the price tag (if there is one)

Rule #2: Don't ask "how much is this" or "what is the lowest you will take" or "will you go lower"

Rule #3: You say the price first and ALWAYS low ball! May seem like a crazy offer, but you never know! Once you offer a price you can't go lower so start low.

Rule #4: Pile up all your great finds and approach a barter for the price of it ALL. Not individual items. For instance the clothes I bought today... I gathered them all in one pile and asked the lady, "Would you take $5 for these". She hesitated big time and said "I will take $8". Sounded great to me. I am not dumb, I know how much those clothes are REALLY worth. If I would have approached with individual items or asked ahead of time she would have wanted more for the dress and coat. Piles fluster people so they typically just say yes to the price and therefore you are more likely to get a better bargain.

Rule #5: Never bring your purse with you to a yard sale. Leave it in the car. Stash your money in your pockets.

Rule #6: Before approaching the person running the sale, split out your bills. Put in your hand your starting offer price and put the rest of your money away. When bartering hold the money out for the person to take. More likely to say ok!

Rule #7: Always be ok with walking away from an item. A small select of people won't budge. Unless it is something you really wanted and willing to pay asking price, just put it down and say thanks and walk away.

These approaches are very intimidating and take time to get used to. But you will most likely get better bargains out of people. And sometimes, the price tag on the item is already SUPER low and there is no reason to negotiate. Like, if there is a VitaMix for $35. Right, Kristi?!? Haha.

I think bartering is a lot of fun and now I do it for everything, not just yard sales. Good luck!

Am I addicted...

to garage sales? I stopped at a garage sale on my way to work on Friday. I found some BIG finds. The only problem is I didn't have room in my car for them. Rillz so kindly went back to pick them up when he got off work.




One is this thingy. It is made of solid wood and it has wheels. I am planning on painting it some color and putting it in my bedroom closet and getting rid of my dresser. I don't know what colors or anything to do though. Any suggestions?
The inside of it. I just love it!

The right open side with no shelves has a clothes hanging bar on top. Ok crafty cousins... colors that would be fun for it?

Here is this chair I picked up for $5. I love the color of the material so that is staying and I don't know if I am up to re upholstering it anyway right now. But... I am going to paint the arms and legs. I am contimplating white but if there is another color that would go well with this yellow... I am open to knowing about it. I just don't know what would look nice with it.

I showed my dad the chair yesterday on skype. He asked... is it comfortable? My response "I don't know dad, I haven't sat in it". He can't believe I bought a chair with not sitting in it first. I did look on the bottom to make sure it was in good shape... but after that statement I can't believe that I bought a chair without sitting in it either. Haha... sometimes I wonder about myself. Turns out, I sat in it yesterday and it is comfortable. And I got three pairs of earings for free at that yard sale.

Since last Tuesday until this coming Wednesday I have been working at least 11 hours a day. I am becoming more exhausted with it. My body needs a day off. Every night I come home and don't want to do anything. Rillz has been so patient and loving. I can't wait until next Saturday for a day off! Oh-well, it's all worth the extra income.

Happy fathers day dad! I love you very much.

Ok I have to leave for work in 20 minutes so I better go get ready.

Look what I did in school today

Today was my last school day of the semester. People were asking me what I was going to school for. Well, let me tell you. I am going to get my associates in Early Education. Unfortunetely because of my full time job I can only do 1 or 2 classes a semester. I took the whole last year off because of family issues. Anyways, my class this semester is Inclusion in the Childcare Center. So we made name tags that even the visually impaired can read.

This is my school building. If you look closer in one of the windows today you may see...

This. Another art project. This was pieces of stuff on contact paper. Easy and fun for little ones.

Before school I went yard saleing. It was a good time! So excited and a thrill when you find something. The Abercrombie pants were $2, The tank top $1, the super cute dress $1, the book $.25, the fabric was the most expensive. $1 a yard so $4.25 for those fabrics. I didn't bargain the price because it was for a church fundraiser and I figured I can definitely pay $1 a yard.
In this picture... The metal "square" was $.75 and I needed one for the bed frame and dresser I am going to make. There were also air nail and staple guns that I really wanted but I held off. Haha sounds so manly. And then the leather and buckle clasp things were for Ren. I bought a whole box of leather making thingys and offered the lady $5 for the whole box. She said yes and then started looking in the box a little more and regretted it A LOT! I handed her $5 bucks and took off before she really changes her mind because I new I got a GREAT deal on this useless things to me (but not to Ren).

After school I went to go visit my Great Uncle at Elks (a rehab hospital) by my house. But I got a little distracted and went to some more garage sales and then to the Boise Co-Op. I really wanted cheese curds. I got the cheddar cheese kind. I was thrown off because it was white. I thought the cows automatically spirted out yellow milk for cheddar cheese. Hmmmm... oh-well. haha
I also ate half the bag by the time I got to Elks, which is a whole 9 blocks from the Co-Op.

This is my flower box by my front door. I love the flowers I chose this year. Last year I went a little extreme and bought a ton. This year I stuck with only planting four and it looks so good. Now the trick is watering them to keep them alive.

I planted snap dragons on the bottom but I don't think they like the cold as well. They seem a little sad already.

Yesterday Rillz and his friend Joe removed some trees for me. I am so excited! It is where my garden is needing to go so those trees just had to go first. Rillz is amazing and does what he can for me!

The type of trees that were there before
The cut tree pile. Looks like a lot of work to me. Unfortunetely I was working when they did this so I didn't help.

All clear! We just need to burn the stumps away. I can see clearly now the trees are gone... (did you sing that line?)

This is a small section that I have already planted peas, radishes, and carrots in. It looks like a whole lot of.... well, dirt.

This is my beautiful front lawn right now. See all those white spots? Yeah, well those are weeds. And that is pretty much my whole front lawn... weeds. The picture actually makes it look nicer than it REALLY looks.

Well, I am off to Caldwell now to hang out with Heidi and my parents. Then maybe spent more of my Saturday sewing, gardening, weeding, who knows. Have a nice Saturday my peeps! Peace and Love to you all!