Dewey YESimal!

I had longed for a real card catalog for years. Liz Lemon has a behemoth one in her apartment, and she is my life coach and Swami. All the cool makeover projects I found for them on Pinterest started with "I found this for $10 at a local rummage sale," which produced in me a charming bitter envy-rage. 

No one is so naive as to price a real library card catalog for a mere $10 anywhere around these parts. A weekly search of craigslist showed me that people who had these babies KNEW what we the crafty would give to possess them. Here's one I just found on craigslist nearby. 

But to be fair, Jo Ellen deserves to be compensated for having her head spun. The poor dear.

$475?! Mama can't play dat. And while I am a HUGE proponent of affordable hacking/DIYing I just couldn't bring myself to fake this instead of having the real thing--even though this DIY version looks crisp!

Why? I am a staunch defender and consumer of actual books. I have never read an eBook because I think a real, made-from-a-tree, printed-with-ink, feel-the-heft-of-the-pages, book is a magical experience too good to pass up for pixels (yes the irony that you're only reading this because of pixels isn't lost on me). 

I actually USED card catalogs and learned about the Dewey Decimal system in elementary school *yikesface*.  I remember the vertiginous, Mary Poppins Carpet Bag feeling of pulling out one little bitty drawer and it being longer and deeper than any drawer I had ever encountered. I felt so grown up (like an archivist! or Egyptologist! or Treasure hunting preteen Indiana Jones!) flipping through the hundreds of little cards and find the magic number for the book I needed (The Courtship of Princess Leia, for the record. Not joking) --and then getting distracted because my friends were playing M.A.S.H. nearby and inevitably forgetting the number and having to start over.

While computers are obviously a far more efficient system for library users now, I still think these massive fossils deserve better than to rot in school basements like some kind of sad rodent tenement. I think card catalogs should be honored, or at least given a cushy retirement where they can be treasured, remembered, and revered. And that reverence to me would come in the form of having juice spilled atop them, crayons scribbled on their sides, and all manner of action figures, pacis, and ossified string cheese stuffed in their hallowed innards. RESPECT THE PAST.

There were actual tears when a teacher friend texted me 2 years ago: "you wouldn't be interested in our library's old card catalog that we are getting rid of, would you?" I screamed. It's not like I had even told this beautiful Saint about my longing. Clearly this was my destiny's child. 

When I first saw it in person my reaction really bordered on crazy cat(alog) lady talk, "Awwww, it's so tiny!" "It's even more beautiful than I had imagined!" and "Oh, but so heavy! What a healthy boy...yes you are! Who's a healthy boy?" Because yes, my newborn dream come true was only 2 feet square, but weighed more than an Imperial Star Destroyer.

I got it home with only like 5 slipped disks and Jesse was like, "What now? What are you gonna do with that? Where will it go? You realize our house is tiny?" And I covered the catalogs impressionable ears and scolded him, "We'll make room! This is a blessing! I'M KEEPING IT!"

And then I left it in the garage for 2 years to be a spider habitat until we moved. Shut up.

But here we find ourselves with lots more space, and finally the motivation from me to take on the restoration.

This is the state he was in after his stay in the garage. 

That bottom piece of trim had fallen off somewhere along the way. The presence of MDF underneath the trim also let me know that this wasn't totally solid wood like I had thought--despite weighing  more than the Forest Moon of Endor. Bummer. Or swomp-swomp (as Layla says when you drop something thrown to you). I lose vintage-antique points there, but who cares, the thing held freaking Dewey Cards, yall. I'M KEEPING MY POINTS.

The veneer is a shiny flat doo doo brown and had HAD to go.

He is almost a perfect cube. Short and stocky and frisky and fine. Too little to be a stand-alone piece, but to big and deep to really fit comfortably on a normal table.

 Beside a book, for scale. (1 of about 300 Star Wars books that I own. Because awesome).

Last week I sat down and took all the hardware off to assess the situation.

Michael Scott is my constant DIY companion. I will never be defeated at "Office" trivia, btw.

I found that the hardware was solid brass (not plated...via magnet test), and gave it a brasso bath to take off most of, but not all because VINTAGE, of the tarnish.

The next day I got down (girl, go head get down), on sanding the beast. The yucky brown veneer IS real wood so I could strip and stain it like a solid wood piece (being careful not to sand all the way through the veneer which would expose the MDF and my secret shame).

The drawers are plastic (oh the ignominy!) and metal bolted on to solid wood fronts.

Sweet boogers, it was hot that day and I laid down a preliminary stain with my sweat. I was batter-dipped with the sawdust by the end of this.

I moved the show into the blessed AC to try out stains. 

I tested each of the colors on a drawer front. This was so stupid. HELLO KEIGHT, IT'S STAIN. I knew I'd have to sand off the 2 losing shades, but didn't plan for how deep that would be. Total pain. Next time I will test on the back side.

 I wiped the whole thing down and started staining (went with the golden oak...even though I typically hate oak colored stuff, it looked the best by far).

A coat of finishing wax and the hardware went back on. Here's where the giddyness began. Jesse cut me a strip of thin plywood to cover up the bottom trim piece that had come off. Itf fit so perfectly and took the stain just the same as the catalog did.

Wood glued and weighted down overnight and that little strip is now an inalienable member of the piece.

I got a set of 4 hairpin steel legs on eBay (from this seller) for $45 (the best price of all 13 places I looked).  These are 14", tight profile, and unfinished steel.

I screwed them on last night, lickety split.

Turned him over and put him in a place of honor in the foyer! 

Yeah, I am freaking jazzed about this guy. The catalog itself is so heavy and solid and stout that the dainty (looking, but solid to hold the weight safely!) legs set it off so well. Besides looking great, it really does have tons of storage space and is a great height for cute things to display and as a drop zone for keys. This bibliophile is all heart-eyes for her restored biblio-file (#sorrynotsorry).

 Welcome to your forever family, baby!

Adventure of Islands

YOUGUYSYOUGUYSYOUGUYSYOUGUYS. I have had my first true Thrift-Steal-to-DIY-Treasure moment.  To the tune of $35 for the raw materials turned into a golden nugget that would probably have cost $1000 to have had professionally made/installed. 

Even? NO, I CANNOT!

It all started when I was in an area of the thrift store I usually don't even glance at. Do you see anything worth $1000 here? (well there's not...yet!)

Tanks a lot, amirite? (sorry)

It was those torn out kitchen cabinets. There were exactly 5 of them and they were $25 for the bunch. I thought they would be perfect in my workroom/studio/sewing sweatshop. This room right here is it:

So, yeah. It's not the worst (even without Baby McHugginLovinStuff parked there)

If you're not impressed with the riches of this space, maybe I need to rub your nose in the rags from whence my DIY/sewing career began in 2010:

She was so eensy and adorable. And I was beyond proud of her! My little starter nooklet.

Anyway, I always knew that if I had the space I would love a cutting island/table. Sort of like this: 

But since my studio is actually built to be the formal dining room (We don't formally dine. What we do at our normal kitchen table can barely be called "dining."), I did want to make a space that wasnt ultra outwardly crafty and could still serve a purpose if/when we do entertain (like a buffet line for the potluck!).

I brought the cab frames into the garage and started toying around with how they would be laid out.

Hello, boys.

 Note: this configuration was not the answer. I might not be gifted at Tetris, yall.

 But the main problem I kept running into was the table top. I wanted something sturdy and solid. Ideally a chunk of solid wood. But dannnng if thick, solid countertop material isnt expensive!

It would kind of defeat the coup of my $25 cabinets to have to shell out $500 for the top. Even my blessed Swedish Godmother couldnt help me. IKEA's best option was this guy who was only real wood to a depth of 1/8" and STILL cost $270. 

And then I went to another local thrift store on 50% off day and stumbled upon a recent donation they had received of SOLID. WOOD. DOORS. 

Not the actual one I ended up getting.

Technically it's just a solid core (like real wood but all mish mashed together and not from one tree) under a soild wood veneer. Good enough! I realized I could have had one of these from Home Depot all along for only $63, but I was so glad I didnt discover this until after I found the brand new (still with its barcode sticker on) one at the thrift store for $10!

And the added bonus was that we only had to make one cut through this monster (so. heavy) because he came the perfect width already. We also now have 1/3 of the door left over for another project.

On Saturday we Jesse solved the arrangement conundrum and we bolted the 5 cabs together and backed them where needed with plywood. Then we got some trim for Home Depot for the baseboard and the edges. I stayed up waaaaaay too late nail-gunning and wood-filling to get us to this point:

I put the finishing touches on the bottom with sanding and paint, and then screwed the tabletop-formerly-known-as-door down atop the cabinets (nearly herniating myself in process because I was too giddy to wait for Jesse to get home to help lift it):

 UHMUHGAH!!!

This is the ONLY photo I have of it right now because I wasnt planning on posting about it yet, but I got so so excited that I just whatever-ed and here we are.

I still need to decide on a stain for the top (tricky because of the reddish wood of the floors, sigh) and cut more custom shelves and fill in the pre-fab shelf-peg holes that arent in use.  I am undecided on whether or not to put cabinet doors on the long sides (the front short side here will definitely stay open and be filled with pretties--not supplies).

I'm loco, ha-ha, banana-flavored bonkers over it!

If you ask me if you can take it from me, I will tell you:

$3.25*

.
i got back out on the garage sale circuit with my friend nikki this weekend for the first time since early spring (actually, my last garage sale, was our own) and had a bit of success. plus the weather was overcast and drizzly so we werent sweaty monsters (the exact condition i have tried to avoid by not saling all summer).

2 brand new, unopened sets of replacement straws and valves for camelbak kids bottles...which we have two of! this was at an estate sale where we walked through all the rooms in the house and all the stuff for sale was spread throughout.everything was 50% off by saturday so we got this $7 set for 50 cents.

2 sets of racecar jello molds. these people appeared to be big jello-molding fans, with lots of these for sale, but i'm no jellist and only got the cars to use to make fun shaped crayons for a rainy day project or goody bags.

some pretty and reversible wrapping paper and a yard of a kind of fabric i had JUST been needing the night before for a little layla project that i had to postpone because i didnt have the right stuff. perfect!

$2 for two pairs of children's place jeans for layla. they are in great condition. i tried NOT to buy this because there was some eastern european woman working this sale (for no obvious reason such as residence or relation to the house) and she was REALLY pushy and aggressive. but bootcut and adjustable waists won me over and i hid in the car while nikki finished looking.

so $3.25 for several things i had actually said i needed before, KNOW i will use, and just one fun thing i never knew i wanted until i saw it (jellos).

we hit a consignment shop after this because the rain picked up, and while i dont usually enjoy consignment shops because of the "just like a garage sale...but more expensive!" setup, i found SO many goodies at this one that i couldnt beat at retail and had been on the hunt for:

i was not looking for this, but sometimes an item just jumps into your heart and hands. this is a big horsey little girl's ombre polo shirt for my tiny friend hazel, whose daddy, ryan, rocks the big equine shirts like it's his job.

okay, no, $10 for a buzz lightyear action figure is NOT good. but this isnt just any buzz. it's the kind judah has been coveting for almost a year and which i have been terrified by the retail price of. did i mention he is huge and and talks? and he wants you to bring it!

and a new (used) lunchbox was on the back to school list anyway. score one for mommy and one for BATMAING!

i had this exact style helmet in my amazon shopping cart this week for $25, since layla outgrew her baby helmet and we've been taking lots of bike rides to the library and town lately. SO glad i didnt buy it since i found the same model for $3. judah will wear this one and think its spider man and layla can have his less overtly-boyish one. brain safety for the win!

a pair of saucony kids shoes for layla which was also on the back to school list (no sandal allowed at school...oh, my poor heart). and a pair of sperry-esque dressy shoes for my little preppster boy.

oh judah. this kids has become the weirdest little magpie hoarder. i find caches toys in the weirdest places hidden all over the house lately. he's very into lots of things inside of other things. so obviously, this is something i want to encourage so that he will have a future reality TV career on TLC one day. thus this mega bloks set and wagon for building, stowing and hauling around outside. $30 new, so i feel okay with this.

and this last item should have been charged to my friend nikki, because i was already done shopping when i spotted it. she was taking 8 years to check out and i saw this dress on a mannequin and loved the style for a few wedding i have coming up. i checked the size and was crestfallen that it was a small. in desperation, i gave the mannequin a hug to compare our waists and then tugged on the jersey material to check the stretchy-forgiveness factor.

i thought it was worth a try so i [very] unceremoniously climbed up in the window, ripped the arms off the mannequin, stripped her and accidentally toppled her wig as well so that i could try on this little number. it turned out to be worth it because it totally fit.

i read somewhere fancy that mullet hems are in! i'm all for trends that allow me to bend over with coverage-confidence.

we'll see if stitch fix can beat this!

so the consignment shop kind of killed my super-steal total for the day, but i am pleased with the haul since many of these were already on my radar and wishlist.

what is your favorite garage sale season? do you have any great consignment shops youre faithful too? are we spoiled little garage salers to think that consignment prices are often too expensive? did any of yall score any deals this weekend?

yard sale SOLD

the yard sale was a HUGE success.

yall's advice, tips and suggestions were invaluable in our making out like bandits. THANK YOU!

we made $391.75!

i had $500 in my head as the number i would be really happy about, so when i counted all the profits up afterwards (i havent touched so much cash and coin since i worked at chickfila and i was DYING to wash my hands) i started to get disappointed.

and then your wisdom echoed in my ears: you are just trying to get rid of stuff, any profit you make for junk you never use is BONUS!

so yeah, my neighbors paid us $400 to come take away junk we hadnt used in years. and even after all that we had 3 van-loads of stuff to donate to charity which will create jobs, bless others and give us a hearty tax deduction.

this is the driveway before any customers came and before i set up 2 more tables piled with things. they garage was also full and set up but i was too insane frantic at this point to remember to take a pic of it. i drank coffee on this morning for the first time in months (that junk makes me crazy)

i had my eyes peeled for hilarious and interesting characters all day and after a few honorable mentions (a 70 year old man who picked up judahs toy chainsaw, smiling as he looked across the driveway at me and wielded it in the air like a serial killer while making the chainsaw noise, and two ADORABLE little girls who were into sewing that i was thrilled to give a bunch of free fabric to) and the top three were as follows:

2nd runner up: a young white guy who bought a few of jesse's polo shirts and some pants. her was wearing a "fear factor live CHAMPION" shirt so i asked him about it. it was really weird because he seemed to just want to get away from me. i was like, "well, youre wearing the shirt, that means you have to tell us the story." the whole time it was pulling teeth to get him to give up the details, and we finally let him go.

i was wondering why someone who was on TV and had won $50,000 would be so reluctant to share the gory details (especially since he was wearing the shirt!). well i looked it up online (like a normal stalker would) and it turns out "fear factor live" is NOT the TV show, it was an attraction at universal studios where normal people could play a version of the tv game.

this guy went from #1 on the list of interesting yard sale characters to #3. he was going to be #1 because of his being a reality TV winner but now he is just #3 because he totally let us believe he was on the TV version and was really shady about trying to run away while we were talking.

first runner up: this hilarious mother-daughter pair of black women. they were so sweet and great to talk to. but these ladies had me ROLLING. they were looking for baby things for a friend who was expecting and they were pretty much competing with each other and would fight over every thing they found, including one footrace when they spotted the diapers for sale. it was extra funny when the daughter had to beg the mom for some extra cash after being a turd to her.

they spent about $70 with us. the mom kept spotting other things she wanted as she tarried at my table bickering with the daughter. and when they got ready to load up, they needed jesse's help and had heard me talking to him and said, "can jeffrey help us carry all this?" it was awesome. i told her his name was jesse but then would keep calling him jeffrey for fun and that thoroughly confused her so she just started referring to him as J. it was precious. these ladies brightened the heck out of our spirits as we headed into hour #4.

and then the #1 most colorful character of the yard sale was an older couple, maybe 50-60 years old. they were looking for children's clothes because the lady's business was making dog clothes.

i will be honest, i laughed in her face when she first said it because i thought she was joking, but she was VERY earnest and serious and so i felt bad and then had to be EXTRA interested after that to make up for it.

she needed to tell me how around these parts, people like a southern flair in their doggie fashion, so she wanted denim and plaid button-front shirts so she could make them little cowboys. she wanted to tell me EVERYTHING about the process and i was keenly aware of the precious minutes of life that were being sucked away from me in the name of custom canine couture.

the husband was the best though. at first he seemed to have just been dragged along, but then i realized he was an active contributor to this business. when they came up at the end the wife proudly proclaimed that she had found a whole pile of things that would be great for doggie outfits.

then the man grabbed a pair of layla's old red ruffly pantaloons and proclaimed, "i'm the bloomer man! i had the idea that she could just snip here, add a seam there, and just like that, you have a tube top for a dachshund." it took every fiber of my pelvic floor musculature not to pee my pants right then.

i broke 2 of my rules: i let 2 kids go inside to pee (because i am a mom of a recently potty trained kids and i know when they say they have to go, you respect that) and i took a check from one lady who lived close by. no regrets.

i dont think anyone who asked me about the price of something walked away without it, and i tried to stick hard to the "if they touch it, it's theirs" rule, especially as the day wore on.

one couple of young grandparents bought an entire table's worth of girl clothes for the new grand daughter. that was a happy moment.

the $1 table was a big hit and the huge table of less-nice kids clothes and t-shirts that were "stuff a grocery bag for $5" did really well too.

i was also thrilled to give many of my star wars book collection (begun when i was in middle school and completed last year) to a sweet little chubby 10 year old boy. i think his parents were surprised that they were mine, and i was happy to give him a few of my favorites for free, though a little sad to not one day give them to my kids (i know they will be so torn up about that one day).

all of the new space in our drawers, attic, closets and garage is WONDERFUL! i could easily get addicted to this purging and yard saling business. it was dangerously tempting when i went to target the next day to just buy full priced new things to replace the old stuff. but NO! that way lies ruin.

so for now i will just glory in all the declutter and make sawdust angels on the spacious floor of the garage while jesse continues to hone his new carpentry craft.

thank you so much for all of your help!

advice please!

it has been 5 years, 7 months and 2 days since we have owned this house. that is 2041 days.

thats really not so many. but now think in terms of stuff-accumulation. still, you might look at that number and think,"how much crap could one tiny family (that values tidiness and abhors materialism and consumption) accumulate in that period that they didnt really want or need and yet still allowed to live there?"

the answer would be: TONS.

as much as i am learning to love living simply and buying less, it hasnt always been that way. i also have a big weird heart and am thrifty. the thrifty side has me saying, "i cant get rid of this! what if i NEED this portable ice cream maker ball one day? what if we have a power outage and i am having one of my dairy withdrawal rages? THEN WHAT!?!?!"

true story though, we registered for one of those balls like insane people and our friends bought us one because they are enablers. we used it once during the winter of 2007 while putting up christmas lights. that was the last time i saw it without thinking, "why the HELL is that still in my way!?!?" but Madame Frugal McWhatifs won out in the end and it was granted a stay of execution until its next appeal.

and then the big, weird heart part of me also projects the emotions that i am so terrible at expressing onto possessions. the Toy Story franchise has not helped me overcome this. when my family had a yardsale when i was 7, i snuck out of the house the night before and into the garage and "rescued" so many of the toys i hadnt touched in years because i couldnt bear to think about how lonely and rejected they might feel by getting cast out of my life.

sure that's cute (and somewhat telling as to why i am the way i am now) when it's a 7 year old and an old stuffed turtle that her grandpa won for her at her school's bingo fundraiser that she trying to retreive. but it's not nearly as charming when it's a 29 year old holding on like grim death to a pack of biore pore strips she last used in 2005 (though clearly not for lack of opportunity).

we are all about personal growth here at dukes farm, so we are trying to lure me slowly away from the bad place where every salad bowl, necklace and old sports bra that i contemplate throwing out/selling/giving away starts to look just like bravely resigned woody and buzz at the edge of the landfill inferno during the climactic scene of Toy Story 3 (which i still cry during, despite having seen/heard it 459 times this year) and i inevitably put it down and promise to play with it more next week. we are moving away from that bad place and towards the happy land where objects are emotionless and i am not insane.

so i spent a sweaty 2 hours in the last night in the attic, that first and final frontier of forgotten things.

this is what the garage looked like afterward:

we're just a TLC production crew away from my shot at reality stardom

my kids have already shown signs that the recessive insane-nostalgic-attachment gene is expressing itself in their DNA makeup by going bananas as they wandered through here today; visiting the graveyard of their babyhoods and begging to grant certain items clemency and let them back in the house. i say NO MORE!

so then i arranged for the godmothers to watch the kids on saturday (a trip to the zoo!) and invested in a pack of neon posterboard.

that's right, people:

it's on.

here's where i need you.

this is our first ever yard sale. never put one on, have only been to maybe 9 in my life. i need tips.

have you put on yard sales? which have been successful and why do you think they were?

as a garage sale buyer, what do you look for when deciding whether to stop or not?

haggling? accepting checks? bathroom usage? when do i post the signs?

i need everything youve got.

so far i have $150 in small bills and quarters, a dozen bright and simple signs (after i took the above picture i added blue dots in the middle of all of the arrows so that there would be continuity between the signs...since they are yellow and pink), a craigslist listing (and a few other online garage sale postings) and a stern warning to jesse that I am captain and supreme mugwump of this rodeo and i MUST be obeyed blindly in all things yard sale.

what am i missing?

i am counting on yall.

$15

we had a delightful kid-free weekend thanks to my husband setting up babysitting with both awesome sets of grandparents so we could have a "make up" birthday/anniversary weekend all to ourselves. what a treat.

we woke up at 8:15 am on saturday and just lay there going, "what the HEY-UHL did we used to do with all of this time!?!?! we didnt even appreciate the freedom!"

the first thing we did when we finally got out of bed at 10am (you do the math) was hit up some local yard sales. the first one we went to was the only one we went to.

i didnt even see the sign announcing the sale, but my hawk-eyed hubface spotted it. we turned in and at the foot of the driveway was a box of stuff that said "free," which is always a good sign to me since it means they are hosting the sale to clear out their junk, not make crazy profits. a few laps later and here's what we had:

hideous wal-mart art? why yes. but use your crafter's eye and you can see these 12" square frames would be charming and personality-laden with a coat of cheery spray paint and judah and layla's cheesing faces peeping out. $1 each

two brand new 5x7 IKEA RIBBA pre-matted frames. i think it was solomon who said in the proverbs, "a godly wife hoards RIBBA frames because she knows there can never be enough." ok, so maybe that's not canon, but these beauts are already all over our house. $1 each! they are $3 each at retail.

we are DIEHARD cranium lovers. but our cranium turbo cards are starting to seem a little familiar and repetitive. so this mint condition game (the clay is still moldable and the original pencils included!) will serve as an expansion pack with hundreds more clues. $1. and then 20 sticks of sidewalk chalk that were never used except for the pink and the purple look like they were used for approximately 3 seconds each: FREE!

the human mind is truly a marvel. you guys, they now have WASHABLE CHALK!!! i guess the greatest minds in our country who have been slaving over this innovation for years in chemistry labs have finally cracked the code on how to make that stubborn, permanent substance know as "chalk," washable! i havent read all of the instructions yet and dont quite understand how it will work, but just think of how many hours this will save me of scrubbing my sidewalk on my hands and knees with soap and a bristle brush after my kids have had doodle time! if only burt from mary poppins had had this technology at his fingertips!!!

and our TUCK AND RUN deal of the day year CENTURY, is...

this massive 2-person chair and ottoman for TEN DOLLARS! this picture does not do it justice, let me assure you. this thing is in perfect condition ad is a golden wheat color. the upholstery isnt faded or stained or worn anywhere (again, despite my awful photography and those shadows). i really suspected there had to be a dead squirrel on the inside of this or something because these suckers cost like $500 new.

this was actually the second thing we found after the hotel-art. always having lusted after one of these huge comfy beasts, i asked the lady causally, how much for the chair? she said $10 and i almost fainted. then i said, "and the ottoman?" when she told me it was included in the $10, i think my tonsils might have fallen out of my mouth.

we told her we wanted it and jesse called around to borrow a truck as i found our other items. we gave her the money BEFORE we went home to swap the car for the truck so we wouldnt get outbid or undercut. despite one little hiccup where the back cushion flew out of the truck and onto the road (thank goodness, it hadnt been run over when we went back for it after noticing a mile later) we got it home and installed it in its new place of honor in the house with no trouble.

hear me now: there WILL be fights over this chair. it's that comfortable. luckily, our entire family can sit in it at once, so the fight will end happily. on sunday night after the kids were in bed, jesse and i were sitting in it and i thought how funny and infrared picture of our house must look right then, with all the space free and the two adults jam packed in side-by-side just sitting there.

this little $10 garage sale find turned into an all-day saturday complete living room makeover wherein we have captured many cubic feet of space and reclaimed them for our own! i will have to leave you titillated there as it's not 100% finished yet, but rest assured the reveal will be epic (in my head).

i'll keep you posted on whether any corpses or recording devices turn up in the chair, but for now, we are truly sitting pretty (i hate/love myself for that one).

$19.25

after talking to raechel, the yard sale maven herself (hello, kate spade diaper bag, american girl dolls and 2 video monitors all for $5 or less each?!!?) last night about her big day of sales coming up this morning, i felt like i had been infected with a little bit of the deal-finding bug.

what's more, the kids went off to my parents this morning, the fall air was SLAMMING, and jesse and i found ourselves feeling DINKy (double income, no kids) with $20 in our pockets and some adventure on our minds. conditions were perfect and the sale signs were everywhere. we hit 5 sales total in less than an hour after our lunch date (al fresco, with a coupon, amen!). all of these sales were in their wind-down phases (we arent hard core like rae, who gets up bright and early to get the pick of the litters!) but we still did alright.

woody hat: 25 cents

judah is a HUGE toy story fan and even more in love with his hand me down woody action figure. 10% of our day is spent answering the question "where woody hat go?" when we have the rare occasion of actually locating the hat, judah likes to crack everyone up by putting the tiny thing on his head like he's wearing it. so he is gonna pee his little pants to actually have a woody's hat that's his size! he will also break or lose this within a week. but it's worth it!

30 jewelry boxes with padding: $1

we caught this sale as they were closing up. i spotted these and knew right away i could use them when/if i start selling the fabric button earrings in my etsy shop. in fact, i specifically havent listed them yet because i didnt want the headache and expense of having to find and buy good sturdy, protective shipping materials to send them in. this lady had probably 90 of these that she wanted to give me for $2, but the trick about yard sale-ing is to not end up with crap that you dont use and will end up needing to sell or toss one day. so i just filled up a kroger bag and got 30 for $1. it will fit a pair of the earrings and my business card perfectly! if i ever make or sell more than 30 pairs of the earrings, i will regret not getting all the boxes, but for now i'm glad i dont have 90 boxes sitting in my garage.

i found the same amount of these on closeout on etsy for $21.25 after shipping.

girls grey mossimo cardigan: $1

when i couldnt find a tag, the mom tried to tell me this was a 4T, but it looks the exact same size as layla's sweaters for this coming winter. i love that it can be like a longer sweater-dress style for when she's littler and last until its a real cardigan length as she grows. awesome condition and love the gray on little girls. no clue how much the original price was. no doubt it came from target though, so i would guess at least $10.

skil xdrive 18V drill with extra battery and wall-mounted 1-hr charger: $5

doubt i would have even registered this item's existence if my testosteroni other half hadn't been with me, but he spotted it straight away. we have a smaller one of these that came with a huge tool set we got for our wedding (thank you, courtney!) and use it weekly at least, but for bigger projects we often wish we both had power drills so we could work extra speedy instead of taking turns. we made the extra-hyper dad of the sale (i HATE being pitched to at garage sales, "you guys need a TV?" um, if we did dont you think we would be over by your 2 huge old box sets that you want $20 each for instead of looking through your old clothes!?!) show us that everything still worked before forking over the cash. we tried to get him to combine the sweater, woody hat and drill for $5, but he made us pay $6.25 exactly. oh well, can't win em all.

the best i found for this exact same set new online was $148 and used for $70.50 after shipping.

and our tuck and run pedal deal of the day:

instep double bike trailer: $12

we had only $12 cash in our pockets at this point and the sticker on this said $15. we had the mom show us how to hook it up and make sure all the pieces were there. it looks brand new and she even said she only used it 2 or 3 times because her kids learned to ride bikes faster than she had expected. jesse has already test driven it on our bike and its a dream. so excited to head to the park with our little nuggets back there!

i was so nervy as jesse told her we only had $12 and she was deliberating, but when she said, "okay, sure," it was SO thrilling. it is hard for me, the duchess of overshare and honesty, not to jump and cheer and yell, "YES! sucka! we totally would have gone to the ATM to get more money and paid $15!" when one of our haggles works. i am not cut out for subterfuge.

found the exact one on amazon new for $167 after shipping.

did yall find any sweet steals this weekend? brag about them here or link to your blog. i love seeing (aka coveting) others' amazing garage sale treasures!

we are off to a wedding tonight and i am so excited to have a dinner, dancing and romantic night alone with just me and jesse; celebrating the new couple with our friends. also: cake! thank god i'm not ovulating.