$2

for reals.  meet my new teapot.

as i’m fond of saying, hooray for yard sale day!

hot off the skillet

my husband unloaded this off his truck two seconds ago.  hooray and hooray for yard sale day!

i think the room now merits some tintin, don’t you?

     

…and bean bags and built in cube storage.  anyways, i just had to share.  it must be the thrill that comes with reckless spending.  you should see what else i bought.

a little yard sale goodness

i got this piece of painted fabric today for 50 cents.  it makes me happy.  i still have to make a pillow out of it but i’m really just fine with pretending.

i got distracted unpacking the groceries

but i didn’t take pictures of the bananas or tomatoes so i do have some self-control.

anyways, i picked this pink bread pan up at a yard sale this summer.  it makes me happy.  it makes me even happier when it has lemons in it.

how ugly becomes awesome

spray paint is like magic.

okay, so to some people it’s still ugly.  but i’m telling you, they were uglier before with their smoker gold frames and red plush velvet mats.  i almost passed them by.  but i have been needing something for our naked family portraits and my yard saler’s intuition is freaky keen.  wait until you see the gold parrot candle sticks i picked up.  …okay, those were a bit questionable but this is just fun.

old mother hubbard

i had my china out for an airing the other day.  my cupboards still don’t have doors on them so i had to take everything out wash them down.  while i was at it washed all the dishes.  i thought i would take a picture for you.

since they’re so gorgeous.  don’t you wish you could spend all your money on dishes?

i picked up another 6 settings of my gold crown china at a yard sale for $2.  now i have service for twelve.  dinner plates, bread plates, salad plates and tea cups with saucers.  no dessert bowls though.  or any other bowls for that matter.  and not a single serving dish.  haven’t bumped into one anywhere.

and here they are all put away.  waiting to get all dusty again.  you know, i do have the doors painted and sitting in the garage…  not that that means anything.  just a thought.

ho de ho de ho

i got new shoes. three dollar. hooray for yard sale day!

other than that, today i gave my kids matching hair cuts, cleaned the bathroom, washed diapers, swore at photoshop, roasted fake hot dogs in the back yard, mopped the kitchen, pilgrimaged to winco and the bank, put up a new twin bed for hughey, placed a land’s end order (there’s nothing like having retail therapy at your fingertips), wiped up pee four times and was muggy.

all the while gideon followed me around playing a hundred questions with his plaintive voice and faux southern accent. “maaw maaw, why did god make the smugeetos? do flies poop on me? is this how you harpoon an orca? (while jabbing at it with a shishkabob stick.) how come grandma doesn’t live at my house? huh, maaw maaw? can i have honey on yogurt? will you read me this book, why is henry sad?” meanwhile, when jehu wasn’t peeing on things, he would stand there and say “i love you mommy, i love you mommy.” i probably say “i love you” over 50 times a day. that and, “i would eat you if you were food” and “i just want to pinch it, pinch it, pinch it.”

i was reminding daddy the other day, that since he has a girl, he is going to have to start talking it sweeter too. his response, “she looks like a sperm whale. aren’t those the ones with the giant heads and little tiny mouths?”

gettin’ the fix

although it’s not quite the same when you have to unbuckle/buckle three car seats for every yard sale. it cramps my style. but i did score a box of about 30, large vintage prints (on matte board) for a dollar.

i also drug home this doll bunk bed. it needs a bit of work but it was only $5. i’ll just stash it in the attic for now and maybe spring the project on my husband in a few years when he’s grown less suspecting. it will make a good birthday present for my sweet genevieve.

i also got a couple 50 cent aprons. like i need more of those. a new, melissa and doug magnet board for $3.

and a lovely little children’s book. takes you on a tour of some girl’s house and you can poke around in the cupboards. just the thing i would have liked when i was little.

(p.s. and is it just me? or is wordpress making anyone else mad as a hatter right now?)

presents for me

*surprise*

what is it? a box of fabulous vintage christmas cards i absconded with at the church yard sale. ooo goody.

aren’t they beautiful?

of course, i’m not going to show you them all, you have to wait till christmas. other than that i got a neat aluminum dispenser for things on rolls. it’s a vicious little monster, works great. although i do have to remember to close the little louvers, so the boys don’t saw their heads off when they walk by.

and then one little, green, lonely hot pad. there also used to be this strawberry, metal serving tray. but it didn’t happen to be dishwasher safe. i almost cried. i try to run over squirrels on purpose, my first response is to video tape my son when he is caught, hanging upside down in the swing, screaming. …but cry over serving trays. that’s what pregnancy does to you. at least in my case.

by the way, i put that video in the sidebar. he’s fine now, really.

mavis pities the adolescent

i just mailed this package off to my little brother. with this neat vintage book i found on male hygiene. i hope he gets the point.

and these are a swank little set of bow ties i dug up for 10 cents. which he will actually wear, mind you. because my brother is cool. if cool can be defined by only one person, and i could do the world a favor, you know. first by setting the record straight; ass crack is not cool and neither is messed up hair that took as long to style as my mother’s (with, if conceivable, even more hairspray). if you are going to try that hard, at least try to be different. not like every other, half-skinned monkey, stuffed into size 2 pants not accommodating of the human posterior.

and it is true, there is nothing like the sight of the culturally immune, gentleman who holds to proven standards of dress and taste, who can really make a girl look twice. but, if you have got to the point where veritable road-kill does turn you on, i can only say, i am quite sorry. (stay tuned for pictures of my husband which i’m putting up later this week and i will try hard to explain – he’s a red haired half-skinned monkey, i couldn’t help it).

i think if a boy dressed like the fellow above with an unconcerned ease, not trying to be different so much as trying to be reasonable. and if he went about the rest of his life equally as purposeful and unmoved by the backwards thrashings of the world, then that boy would say a thousand words and a thousand charms, just walking down the street. words and charms only heeded by the right kind of girl, of course. in which case, he had better be prepared to do a lot of walking, but i’m sure it’s good for you.

by the way, if you want to know where i get it, check this post on my dad’s blog. the apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree, as the saying goes.