Apron Thrift Girl

mid century thrifting

With Dave in England and our house on the market, it makes for a challenging thrift day. We had a house showing planned in the middle of Saturday morning which meant I had to take Cerys, Keiran and the dog thrifting with me on one of the busiest thrift days of the year. No where on any "rules of thrifting" have I ever including dogs & kids on the list. I'm usually a solo thrifter which means I can thrift in peace and quiet and on my own. I nearly had a playdate for Keiran planned on Saturday but that was canceled last minute. Luckily a new bookselling friend of mine, Katie, not only helped me by her husband taking Keiran for the morning, but she joined me to go to thrifting despite the fact that Elffin & Cerys both were joining us. And we had a delightful time together. She's energetic, clever (marks off yard sales on the list after we had been to them) and we shop at the same speed. We are both kind enough to the point where we didn't push or shove to get to the books. And I must admit it was so welcoming to have an adult to converse with after a week of just the children and me.

And while I did search partly for books, my eyes were really searching for anything mid century modern. And I found a few gems yesterday.

 

My first Jens Quistgaard salt & pepper shaker by Dansk.

 

a piece of unmarked studio pottery. It's a strange one but I think that's why I like it.

 

I have some guilt about this lamp. One of the services I offer on my website is a finder service. I locate items that people are looking for. A client of mine just recently added a lamp like this to her "in search of" list. But the minute I found it for her I started wanting it. Or needing it.

 

It's a three way lamp as well. And it fits perfectly in the living room. Sigh......and I do adore it. I suppose the honorable thing is to offer it to her and if she happens to say no I may just have to keep it.

The more I read and research about Mid Century Modern, the more items I seem to spot at yard sales and on Craig's List. I enjoyed going through Retro Renovation's blog roll list this week. I especially loved Atomic Tea Party.  Collecting MCM is somewhat slow compared to shabby chic since anything old and worn can fit into that style. Last weekend when I was thrifting in Seattle, I went to a couple MCM stores and the prices are shocking. They certainly don't fit into this frugal budget of mine. I still learned a lot from visiting these shops. And the drool from my thrifted Free People shirt should wash out.

Some of my favorite Craigslist searches are Retro, Mid Century, Teak, Danish, Denmark & Vintage. What are your favorites?

a chapter closes

After five years of walking through the little gate & arch to Kindergarten, we walked through for the last time. Not only did Keiran have his last day yesterday but it marks the end of our time at our Waldorf School where we have spent the last 6 years. The reason we are leaving is to have an even deeper relationship with Waldorf education. It's made such an impact on our lives that we have made the choice to leave our small school in order to attend a much larger school that goes through to 12th grade. We didn't want to get to 8th grade and have to make the choice of either public high school or sending the children on a ferry by themselves over to the Waldorf High School in Seattle. We wanted the transition from 8th to 9th to be simple and familiar.

Our school has a wonderful tradition of both a sword ceremony and a dove dance. Two little events that mark the end of the early childhood and the preparation to the grades. The children all dress in white for the occasion.

Due to privacy I've cropped this picture to only include Keiran. But imagine 14 children running around in a circle with their doves as their two teachers stand in the middle with their white blankets that create a protective nest like feel. This is especially beautiful to the children who will be leaving the warmth and homelike environment of kindergarten to move up to first grade.

 

The final part of the ceremony is the releasing of the white doves who flew around in circles above our heads for a few minutes before heading to their home. And I admit when they released the doves I got a bit weepy. It was hard to think about leaving.

The children walked back into their classrooms where they were handed their napkin ring of braided wool, they were given their artwork and their drinking mug. I sneaked in some photos of the classroom.

 

The loft.

 

The children in the class who are moving up to first grade each made their own doll. Every doll has a sachet of lavender in the belly which smells delightful.

 

The following day the entire school had an end of year party at a farm somewhat near the school. There were picnics, games, lots of sunshine, horses running in the distance and much conversation among friends. We left with both heavy and contented hearts as we said our goodbyes to our beautiful school community.

ice tea with a twist

Last week the Pacific Northwest was touched by a brief taste of summer. Or maybe a tease of summer. The sun was out, the temperature was hot, and I was very content. I love the heat. We spent every evening out on our tiny little deck in our thrifted vintage lawn chairs watching the eagles get chased by birds and the evening ferry loaded with commuters, come into dock. It was so relaxing to soak up the sun and a perfect addition to this was a cold glass of homemade ice tea.

In those few rare weeks a year that it is actually hot here, I take my jar of herbal tea mix and instead of brewing it for a warm cup of tea, I instead brew it by the gallon. My original recipe for the mix can be found here.

To make it iced, I grab 2 large gallon jars and I boil the kettle with hot water. I fill one of the jars with about 1/3 cup of the dried tea.

Dried tea mix of Chamomile, Rose Hips, Red Raspberry Leaves, Peppermint Leaves & Lavender.

I fill the glass jar half way with cold water from the faucet. I next add the boiling water. I add the two different temperatures to ensure that the jar doesn't break and that the tea is hot enough to make the tea.

Tea & water in jar after it has been stirred. It looks a bit like something out of a sci-fi movie though...

It only takes about 10 minutes to brew with this method. Using a strainer, I pour the jar of tea through the strainer and into the other jar.

I add agave to the tea after it has been strained to give it a faint sweet flavor.

I still remember as a young girl, walking out to our wooden stairs on our back porch to see if the tea was ready to drink. I even remember the disappointment when it was still too light in color to bring in. Of course it was regular sun tea back then but I still loved the stuff, especially with a 1/4 cup of sugar per glass. I drank it all summer long with lots of ice and my favorite twirly straw. I even loved to crunch on the sugar crystals as they made their way into my mouth. I can't think of summer without sun tea and now I have a healthier version drink and to share with the children. Of course as I write this our hot summer has long since disappeared. It's back to warm sweaters in the morning. But maybe I'll still make the tea and pretend that it is hot outside. A girl can dream.

weaving in third grade

I'm sorry I am late in writing this post. I fell sick on Friday with a cold and it knocked me flat. I hadn't been sick in a year which is a rare thing for me. I usually catch anything that am within 10 feet of.  I feel a bit back to normal today. Thank you to everyone who guessed a price for my dining room table. It was amusing to see the variety of guesses. I think only one person guessed correctly and that is actually Renee, the first person who commented. I did in fact buy the table for $100.00. Renee please send me your address and I'll send you a gift for guessing correctly. Well done.

Cerys brought this home today.

Third grade Waldorf curriculum usually includes weaving. My daughter's class started this project by cleaning the raw wool, carding the wool and eventually spinning the wool with drop spindles that they made by hand. They next made a board to weave on and created this weaving with beads and hand felted balls.

 

I think I'm ready to take up weaving now. Surely if my nine year old can do this, I could give it a go.

dining & design

Four years ago we moved in our our 1927 home and I dove head first into the world of shabby chic. I bought anything I could find that was worn, dingy, scrappy, rusty and of course shabby. I remember looking at our fancy mahogany 1940's dining set and realizing that it would look awful in our new home. I sold it on Craigslist for $1200 and turned around and bought this table at a yard sale.

 

The children could spill to their hearts delight with this stained and blemished table without worry. If guest were coming I could throw a tablecloth on it and hid away the ugliness of it. The chairs were purchased 2nd hand and together it pretty much fit into my shabby chic style.

Then I found my teak & orange leather sofa and it changed my entire home style. I slowly pulled most of the shabby chic decor and packed it away in boxes for my next yard sale. Since we found the sofa I had been looking for a better dining room table. Usually the best ones were in Seattle and I wasn't able to get a ferry across or the dining tables were too expensive. Tuesday evening, I did a search for "Teak" and our general area I came across this Danish table.

The photo on CL made it hard to see the table clearly. I emailed the seller asking questions about the age, whether it was stained and where it was purchased. She wrote back quickly and gave me the details. It is from 1993, was purchased in Hawaii from a Scandinavian type furniture store and it had a few water stains. I asked to look at it on Wednesday and we arranged a time to meet.

It took me mere seconds to realize how beautifully handcrafted this table was. It did have a few water stains but that didn't worry me since I knew how to remove them. I fell in love with the softness of the wood, the design of the chairs and the fact that it expands to a very long table. I didn't like the upholstery at all but the seller told me that she had already changed it a few times and that it was quite simple to do.

Anyone want to guess the price that I paid for the table? The closest in price (no facebook friend guesses since I mentioned the price there :-) will get a little something in the mail from me.

As my taste are evolving into Mid Century Modern, I also realize that this look is very fitting into the architecture and style of Waldorf. I picked up this book recently at a used book store and discovered a few artist that use techniques very similar to Waldorf. Arthur Espenet Carpenter led me to Wharton Esherick whose style I was immediately drawn to. The photos on his site do not do him justice. I adore these kitchen cabinets and now want to replicate this in my next home. And I adore this bookshelf. Because his work reminded me so much of Waldorf I did a google search for his name and Rudolf Steiner and there is actually a connection on his wiki page. 

My arms were covered in goosebumps at this point. This style just hits my soul with so much emotion. I don't know what it is or why, but it has that "coming home" feel to it. I felt something similar when I discovered Waldorf education for the first time.

My goal in our next home is to create a sort of Mid Century Waldorf style. They seem to go hand in hand. I'm picturing Lazured walls, lots of mid century modern furniture, waldorf watercolor paintings mixed in with 60's art, lots of natural fibers such as wool & silk and of course a general feeling of warmth. This style represents my heart and soul and I want to display this in our home. While my scanner personality immediately wanted me to become a woodworker and buy a band saw and all the woodworking tools, my realistic side said to start small. Yesterday I bought a few already existing wood items that I hope to mid century waldorf them.

Here is a link to some buildings Steiner designed and built. I'm really looking forward to our next home even if we just have a very small one. We wish to buy land that we can grow our own food on and raise chickens. This is our priority and next will be the home. My ideal home is something from the 70's with arched ceilings made of wood. I think this MCW style will fit perfectly into a house like this. But even if we find a home the size of a large shed, we'll still make it beautiful and create a loving home.

4 days of thrifting

Dave's father turned 80 last Friday so he surprised his dad by flying to England for his birthday. Which left me with the kids with an empty three day weekend. Thankfully the sun was out so we turned our long weekend into a thrifting adventure. Here are some of our finds.

As many of you thrifters know, some weekends turn into theme weekends. This one for me was the weekend of many lamps. I found this lamp for $2.00 but it had an ugly shade. I bought an uglier lamp for another $2.00 with this vintage burlap shade and switched them around. I also picked up the Paint by Numbers painting from the Value Village half off sale on Monday for $2.50.

Okay so you either love these lamps or hate them. I'm calling the one on the right the masterpiece as it is so hideously cool. The shade is made from cork. The pottery base is signed but I've yet to make out the name. I paid $2.00 for it. The lamp on the left I actually paid $20 for but I also picked up some vintage Halloween decorations for nearly nothing so I'm mentally thinking I paid $10 for the lamp. Don't you love the magic of the thrifter's math equations?

Saturday morning took Cerys & I to Kingston where they were having a community wide sale. This included maps of the town with the listed yard sales. Funny enough, there were only 6 yard sales on the map when I was sort of expecting something like 20 or so. I was still able to find some great items though that made the drive worth it.

Here is a very good condition Dansk enamel pot with matching lid designed by Jens H Quistgaard. Bowls in the background are from Italy and remind me of a bit of Bitossi.

My first piece of mid century modern gravel art. It's missing a piece of gravel in the sun but it was only .50 cents. I've been admiring gravel art for some time but the pieces I've found locally have either been too damaged or too unappealing. This piece is small and will fit well into my living room decor. I found this sweet site recently when doing a search for gravel art.

This is probably my find of the weekend. Well, times 2 since I found two of them. These are chairs produced by Knoll. I had heard of Knoll before but I didn't realize they were so collectible. There are many more creative chairs than this simple one designed by William Stevens. They were $2.00 for the pair at a yard sale that had been running for three days. I found a similar pair at an auction house estimating their value between $200-$400.

Vintage Halloween supplies.

and a few more.

So Cerys and I were driving home from our day out of hitting the yard sales when I spotted a bunch of stuff by the side of the road. Now where we live this is extremely uncommon. People just don't leave a lot of stuff by the road for free. There was a chair, a little oven I think and this tv. As soon as I spotted this orange globe, I pulled over and told Cerys to go get the TV. She was very apprehensive about it all telling me I shouldn't take these things. I told her they wouldn't be here if they weren't free. She gave me a look of annoyance and gingerly walked back to where these things were lying in the grass. She looked around, worried that she'll be caught and hurried back to the car with the tv and little stand. She once again told me that she wasn't sure about taking them since she didn't see a free sign. Of course her worry made me start to doubt myself. And here I am a few days later still hoping they were Free. They were left at a street corner without any houses nearby though which to me sounds like they were meant for anyone brave enough to stop and pick them up.

This tv is a JVC Videosphere. You can read a bit about these here and here. Mine has a chain and can be carried in the hand or hung from a ceiling. This one actually works although the reception was quite poor. It needs cleaning but overall is a great find.

The weekend buzzed by quite quickly and before I knew it, Dave was flying back to us. I felt like this was the first weekend that I could really thrift and enjoy myself. I was still quite selective since the house is on the market and the fact that we are moving this summer. As always, it's the search for vintage and mid century items that really motivates me to get out there.  I did get a few other items this week that were perfect for my etsy store. One already sold but three other new items are there still available. I'm trying to get back into the normal swing of life rather than sit here focused on the house not selling. Work seems to be the easiest way to do that for now.

a video to sing with

I just stumbled upon this song from blog from Retro Renovation. I think it is fantastic and I can imagine myself humming it in the weeks to come. Brilliant.

thrifting late at eight

Saturday evening I found myself exhausted from a day in the garden. It was a good kind of exhaustion because I was in the warm sunshine which meant I wasn't stuck in the house cleaning. Around 7:45pm we came back into the house and I popped into Craigslist and noticed a listing for free plants a mile or so from my house. I somehow found some energy, told the family I was heading out for a few minutes and jumped into the car in search of free plants.

The plants were nowhere in sight so I imagine they were taken quite quickly. And yet driving back a garage sale sign caught my eye. I looked at the sign, looked at my clock, shrugged my shoulders and went in search of the sale. I stopped outside their driveway and noticed tables filled with dishes, vases, boxes of books and furniture. I didn't see anyone hosting the sale but then again, I've never tried going thrifting at 8pm in the evening. Most sales end around noon on the island.

I pulled back onto the road and turned around but not before noticing another car pulling up to look. I quickly turned around again and asked him if he was going to the sale. My shyness still stops me from charging into their late night sale. He said that he knew the people and would ask them if they were still open. I followed him sheepishly and waited patiently as he walked into the garage and called to them.

Two people came out and said that I could look around. I didn't buy too much but I was still surprised at what I found. I bought two orange vintage lawn chairs since I mistakenly gave all of mine away or sold them at my own yard sale, a 1960's copy of M. Sasek book This is London and these:

I find it intriguing that I can go to a yard sale hours after it has opened and still walk away with some sterling silver. These cost me $5.00. Their markings were small, in fact I could barely make out the word sterling until I was home and looked at them through my jewelers loupe. There is a part of me that has a hard time resisting inexpensive gold or sterling. Last weekend I came home with a child's 10K gold ring for .50 cents and two small 10K gold pins for .25 cents each. A song that's been on my mind from Pandora is this song by The Mollys. Maybe if I sing it often enough I'll stumble upon a bar of dusty gold in a junk box in someone's basement. Seriously I have gold dreams about once a week. Silly.....I know.

I was surprised to see this style of silverware sell on eBay. Here are 6 butter knives that sold for $31. And here's another site which is selling this style of silverware.

One of the most common questions I receive through this blog is how do I find valuable items? Some people tell me that I have luck. I'm not sure it's about luck at all. I'd say that it is about persistence and being just plum stubborn. I'm usually out the door by 7:30 in the spring and maybe 7am in the summer waiting to be the first person to walk into a sale. Or I'm the strange one who is loitering around at 8pm in search of something of value. I don't know why these were not picked up earlier in the day. Maybe the price was too high earlier or maybe no one noticed the world sterling on them. It made my evening though and was fun to bring home and share with the family.

Our area has just a handful of sales so I try to go to every one of them even if it is later in the day. I rarely walk away without something interesting.  That is the allure of thrifting, you truly never know what to expect or what you might find.

mother's day

Our mother's day celebrations were not very conventional. It could have been more adequately called work-on-house-until-we-dropped day but it doesn't quite have the same romantic sound to it. We have thrown in the ringer and have given in to selling our house ourselves. It hurts, it feels a bit like failing but I know our goal is more important than my pride in selling our house. I think I could have sold it FSBO, but time is not on our side with this one.

I have yet to share this on my blog but back in January Dave & I started to become a bit nervous about this move to Los Angeles. The initial excitement of moving to a very large city dissipated with time. How were we the country mice, going to cope in a massive city. Not to mention the idea of never seeing Dave again as he makes a very long commute every day. At the moment his commute begins at 6am down the stairs to his basement office and ends at 4pm every day up the stairs. We often have lunch together and visit in the kitchen for short coffee breaks. I also started to worry about the cost of the Pacific Palisades and the size of the shed that we might afford to rent in someone's back yard. I went back to my favorite notebook and scribbled down what I wished for in a home and community. I sighed when I once again realized that it was Sebastopol, CA. The countryside, the ability to buy some land, the fact that there is a Waldorf School that goes through to 12th grade and of course the ideal climate all made it on my list.

Dave and I began to talk about the children and I living in Sebastopol while he commuted by airplane. Financially it would practically be the same as us living there and sending the children to the Santa Monica Waldorf School. Of course we wouldn't see him for part of the week but the children would live in a rural setting which they would be more comfortable with. Or should I add, their loud voices and joyful screaming would not be as ideal in a city.

Still worried about everything, I actually called a phone in program on Hay House Radio to ask for advice. I somehow got through and was the first caller to speak to the presenter. She told me immediately that she felt that I would not be going to LA. She just had a feeling that I would be going to Sebastopol, where I told her I wanted to be. She said that I had to change my focus from fear of wanting to be in LA to focusing on our family being in Sebastopol. She said if I put all of  my energy and thought towards what I wanted, there would be a very good chance that my life would go in that direction.  Dave and I discussed this later that night and decided to follow her advice. Two days later, Dave receives a call from his boss who told him the the Los Angeles move was canceled. We were gobsmacked yet in another way it is what we expected.

Our main draw to Sebastopol is this school. The biggest thing in our lives, besides our family is Waldorf education. I have been dreaming about this school for probably 8 years since I discovered it while living in Virginia. But at the time we couldn't afford to move to CA and instead moved to Bainbridge Island to attend a small starter Waldorf School. Now we are ready for a bigger school that would take them through to High School. The children have been accepted and the last piece of the puzzle is selling our house.

I still feel like I have slightly failed by not selling it ourselves. We worked hard for 40 days with lots of interest and even a complicated, low ball offer. But it's nearly the middle of May and we want to move this summer as a family. So I have handed over our house to a real estate agent. I must admit, I'm still resisting this idea. What I loved about selling the house ourselves was talking face to face with people. I find in real estate there is lots of buyer vs seller attitude rather than even using first names. It doesn't help that our last realtor transition was awful and included lawsuits with no help from the real estate agency. When we bought our current house it was done privately and it was the smoothest house purchase we had ever experienced. We sat down with the couple selling the house and had honest conversations. I even helped them with their yard sale which I'm sure doesn't surprise you.

Yet our goal is to sell and being on the MLS with a realtor will achieve our goal. We have 20 agents coming through this morning from our realtor's office and 100 realtors coming through on Thursday. I hope it sells quickly because this constant cleaning thing has become quite old.

Here's our annual Mother's Day photos taken across the table from our brunch at Real Foods.
 

The Girls.....

The Boys.....

And the after meal run around....

Despite all the hard work on Sunday and the weariness we feel towards the house, the day was still beautiful because I received so many extra cuddles from the children and lots of I love you's were whispered in my ear. It's amazing how much we give our lives to our children. And how much they innocently give back to us.

patience

One of the best skills a shopper can have is patience. Yet I imagine, if more of us had patience our economy would not be in the pickle that it is today. Overall we are a buy it now society or maybe I should change that to want it now. 1 in 7 Americans carries 10 or more credit cards. It feels easier to spend money when it goes on a bit of plastic. It's not like they take a chunk out of your credit card so that you can see when your credit limit is nearing the end or when your debt is over $10,000. We just whip them out, the cashier slides them through the machine and we get to go home with our new item without always thinking about the money we just spent.

Thrifter's are not immune to this need to buy either. One of our greatest weaknesses is knowing that we might never find the exact item again. At least at Macy's you might have good odds that a Martha Stewart decorating kit will be available for a few more weeks. Or a set of dishes is available for a year if not longer. But when you set your eyes on something at a yard sale, you might have to move quick to buy it before someone beats you to it. This makes patience a needed skill.

Do you remember when I found this bed on Craigslist? We didn't have a frame for it or a headboard so we stuck it on the carpet and reminisced back to our college days where having a mattress on the floor was cool. The bed was still comfortable so it worked for the time being. Since January though I had been looking for a bed frame and headboard. I looked at yard sales, thrift stores and on Craigslist. I could easily have gone out to a retail shop, used my credit card and be sleeping in my new bed by now. But I didn't want a new bed. I wanted a perfect bed and most likely that would be thrifted.

Last week I found a bed on Craigslist. I emailed back and forth with the seller and Sunday, I went to pick it up for $65.

It's an Ikea Malm bed, very simple but has nice clean lines. It sells for $200 plus tax and once was on sale for $99. I still felt the value was good at $65 because it moved our mattress off the floor and it was 2nd hand. 

I'm not always patient and sometimes I do buy compulsively but I tend to always pay for it in guilt later. At least when you thrift there is a small chance that you can sell it for a similar price if you decide that you later dislike it passionately. Retail wise some shops take returns but others are making it more challenging. I'd prefer to buy something I aim to keep.

When you are out and about shopping this week whether it is retail or thrifted, take a second and ask yourself if you are shopping patiently. I feel that the 5 months that I have waited for the bed made it even more satisfying when I put the bed together. And I adore waking up each morning in a fully thrifted bed.

yard sale results

Can you believe it took me two days to recover from the yard sale? I fell asleep twice during the day on Monday because I was so exhausted. I could barely move. It was amazing though and we brought in the most money ever for a yard sale: $1558.00.

I did find it terribly hard to price items. When you are not only a thrifter but also a ReSeller it really confuses your pricing strategy. I know the value of an item but I also know that it all depends on where you are selling. If you sell an item at an auction house, you might get $400 for it. You will struggle asking the same $400 at a yard sale. I tried to sell lots of things cheap and yet try to get some value in some of the rarer items. I think overall people were happy about the prices and the selection.

All the regulars showed up at 7:30 on Saturday morning and we were ready for them. Funny enough there was a Sunday only sale on our street that brought them all out again. They are obsessive enough like me to stop by our sale for the second time just to have a look. I would have done the same thing. They also teased me a bit for showing up at the sale down the street, asking me why I was buying things when I was about to move.

How could I resist these delightful dolls?

 

for .25 cents.

And this?

 

Solid wood bookcase for $35. I explained to Dave when he rolled his eyes as I drove up with the back hatch open wide and this sticking out the back, that I always have enough room for a bookcase. Even if I need to sleep in them. I'm sure I could fit somewhere between the shelves. When we move I want to sell a lot of our furniture but I think I'm taking practically every bookcase we own. That and my orange couch.

Yesterday we finally went back into the apartment and started boxing up the leftovers for goodwill or we set them aside for Craigslist. Despite what we have left, we still managed to get rid of more than 1/2 of what we started with. And I feel so much lighter.

My life feels very much on hold at the moment. The novelty of selling our house has worn off and I'm in this state of limbo which leaves me anxious. I want the house to sell too much and I need to just let that feeling go. I'm going to try to focus on selling more things on Craigslist and restocking my somewhat empty etsy store. I need to get my mind and attention off the fact that we need to sell our home. We have had lots of interest but people are definitely thinking about the decision to buy more than before the recession. I don't see any of the "must buy now" panic that we have had with previous house sales. As Dave says we just need one buyer....

Apron Thrift Girl moving sale

It's a little late notice but I did receive some emails from local bloggers wanting to attend my moving sale. We wanted to have just one sale when the house was sold but to increase our house viewings we decided to have 2 sales. One is this weekend along side an Open House and the 2nd one when the house is sold. For any bloggers interested in coming to the sale, I'll be opening Friday (April 24th) for bloggers only at 10am. I'll still be working on the sale as well so there may be quite a few boxes of goodies to sort through.

Some items include:
Shabby Chic stuff
Old white & pink metal hamper
Vintage Mikasa
Vintage Material
Lots of 50's & 60's stuff
Wooden Pirate Ship
Pink Mixer
Leather Couch
Craft Books
Art Books
Waldorf Playstand (needs sanding)
Heaps of Free Stuff
and lots more.

The sale is on Bainbridge Island and we live somewhat close to the ferries. Leave a comment that you'd like to attend the sale and I'll email you directions. See you tomorrow.

tiffin junkie

If any of you know me well you probably understand that I sort of bumble along from one obsession to the next. I enjoy this bumbling because I tend to never have a dull moment. Something new and exciting is around every corner just waiting for me to learn about, taste, test, experience and embrace. It's been such a strange spring with spending so many days getting the house ready to sell, from trying to sell it where I've become an Alice who is always cleaning and cooking. Sometimes we have just a half hour to make our house sparkle waiting for a potential buyer. It's made trying to do  anything routine, complicated. I haven't worked much, haven't blogged much and overall haven't done anything in my normal day to day life. I guess in a way I have just spent more time away from the computer and experiencing more house wife-ish type things. And I'm loving it. I've never felt more relaxed.

I've become really interested in the idea of Centenarians that Oprah has been going on about. I was especially intrigued about the idea of the Blue Zones or hot spots in the world that has the highest number of centenarians. We already eat a relatively healthy diet but I have noticed that more "healthy" junk food was sneaking into our cabinets and into the children's lunch baskets. I would unpack them in the afternoon and find myself disappointed to see all the Annie's Cheddar Bunnies gone but most of the fruit and vegetables left behind uneaten.

I decided to make a change and was inspired by this blog and her use of tiffins. I wasn't quite ready to go raw and vegan but I certainly wanted to try some of her ideas. I've gone to some websites, placed the tiffins in my virtual cart but never checked out. Something stopped me from spending the money. But then I found that our local store was selling tiffins and I had two in my cart before I could even take a breath. I felt a bit at peace as I checked out relieved that I was going to make some changes in our diet.

I bought the thinner tall one for Keiran and the shorter and wider one for Cerys. They were $18 each.

We had fallen into the routine of the children having a daily sandwich. Dave made them before going to work so that I wouldn't have to touch the wheat. I was uncomfortable with them having wheat every single day for lunch but waking up to an already prepared sandwich was hard to resist. Now that the tiffins entered our lives, it was time to put a halt to the sandwiches.

I sat down with the children and had a long conversation of the changes that were about to occur. I was basically revamping our entire food routine. Cerys had fallen into the rhythm of having organic instant oatmeal every day and Keiran complained about whatever was put in front of him. I went back to my Menu Planners and grabbed some of my healthiest cookbooks and went to work. My favorite is Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair.

Here's an example of a couple days of menus:
Monday
Breakfast: Spinach scrambled eggs
Lunch: leftover chicken pieces, rice crackers, carrot sticks, melon, strawberries
Dinner: chicken gravy over brown rice, spinach salad

Tuesday
Breakfast: Hemp smoothies (hemp powder, yogurt, acai berries, bee pollen, OJ, agave & banana)
Lunch: Tuna salad, crackers, cucumbers, blood orange
Dinner: Baked Potatoes with cheese, avocado slices

Dave is in Texas this week so the dinners are very simple. The children have been so positive about these changes. There hasn't been a single complaint which I must confess, I am surprised about. This morning we tried mochi for the first time stuffed with jam. They were delicious.

Here's what I made for the tiffins today.

Salmon, kale salad with ginger/soy dressing & two seaweed sheets in case Cerys wants to make some salmon rolls.

I am limited to space which is why the healthy junk food has been given the boot. Cerys's second layer includes half a banana, blood orange (a family fav), sweet peas and a couple kumquats. I've been using the tiffins for 2 1/2 weeks now and each day the children bring them home and they are generally completely empty of food. I must admit that it warms my heart to think of them taking in all of this amazing nutrition.

It seems that daily we are learning about the power of food in our bodies. Whether it is the rise in disease which is linked to poor nutrition or learning about power foods like the goji berry and how it can help you live longer. What Dr. Oz found with these blue zones though is that not only were they eating a good, well balanced diet but overall these people were happy and satisfied with their lives. I've spent the last year feeling happier than ever. I'm more at peace with myself, with the choices I've made in my life and how I spend my days. I don't' know what exactly shifted my health but I haven't been sick since last May. (knocking on wood). I usually catch anything that comes my way with at least 4 or 5 colds a year. I can usually fight them off with heaps of raw garlic and herbals but I still experience some unpleasant days. The children also have really turned a corner in their health. Cerys hasn't been sick in probably a year and she hasn't been to a doctor in possibly two years. Keiran also has only been sick once. Is it the food? Our drafty house? the fresh air of the PNW? or something else? I don't' know but I am loving it.

Feeding my children as much nutrition as possibly is my gift to them. We do keep it all in moderation though. Summer is spent enjoying ice-cream and organic hot chocolate is definitely a winter favorite. Overall though sugar is kept out of their diet on a day to day basis but flavor and sweetness are not. Even if they become Lucky Charm addicts when they leave home at least their foundation is based on the healthiest start that I can give them. And I hope to have this argument with them...all the way into my 100's.

another year

Our Easter dessert.

Today I turn another year older. The number seems like a betrayal. How can I be that age when I feel so young at heart? But when I think about it, I've never been happier or more satisfied.

I'm stealing Dave away for the day and taking him to Seattle. Our plans are inspired by the book Gluten Free Girl. We are basically going on a culinary tour of Seattle. We plan on starting the day with a birthday breakfast at Portage Bay followed by shopping at The Chef Shop, Sur La Table, World Spice Merchants, Uwajimaya, Pike Place Creamery, A&J Meats & Seafood and probably lunch at Chipotles because it's fast and delicious. I'll also try to sneak in a visit to the U-district Buffalo Exchange.

I haven't been writing or working much. Most of my concentration has been preparing the house for viewings or trying to relax from the stress that March brought on. I'm so looking forward to today.

wishful

In March of 1996 I was living in Aberdeen WA, a very depressed town on the Washington State coast. I worked in a cemetery dreaming of bigger and brighter things for my life. This last week I uncovered my journal from this time and spent a least an hour sucked into this dark part of my life. I eventually closed the book with a sigh and a heavy heart. Maybe it was my scanner personality or maybe it was the fact that I was late to bloom but it was as if I planned nothing about my future. Who would go to a small coastal town in her early 20's? Why didn't I go to the city? Where was my ambition to do more for myself? I was lured by the offer my parents dangled in front of me of a $10,000 down payment for a house. They had offered me either an option to go to a University or the house. Of course I chose the easy one. 

As I read these pages of my journal I could hear the girl in me who was hungry for love, for friendship and for some goals in her life. I hated working at the cemetery and yet I didn't consider looking for anything else. I hated living in Aberdeen because of the cold and the gray but I didn't consider moving. When I bought that house I don't think I looked past the current moment of just having the house of my own. I was 22 years old and so excited to own something with a front door.

Every man I met in Aberdeen seemed to be full of lies and deceit. I couldn't believe how dishonest people were and it changed the way I viewed people in the future. Instead of being open to what people would share with me I became skeptical. I don't know about my other scanner friends but I find that only a few people can actually handle our scanner energy. As many of you know I am full of life and I go from one idea to the next. I wake up babbling, singing and dancing. I can be seen eating a newly spun stick of cotton candy and you would see unexplainable pleasure in my eyes. I love food, tastes, smells, adventure and well anything that can get my mind reeling. My favorite ex-boyfriend of them all who was the most normal still couldn't handle my personality. I can even recall him rolling his eyes at me or sighing when I said something perplexing. Yet in some of his letters I uncovered this week spoke about the time he was away from me he seemed to miss that strange part of my personality.

When I lived in Aberdeen, before I met Dave I was dating a lumberjack. I met him at an auction house and was taken back on the fact that he had both a car and a job. My last serious boyfriend had a BUI, bicycling under influence and I think this was after he lost his license to a DUI. So no car for him although he was a cook at Dennys which I guess is a job. Of course I worked at a cemetery so I shouldn't judge right?

I only dated the lumberjack for a little over a month when things started to go downhill. The day before I was going to Chicago to visit my brother for two weeks, he started to behave in a strange manner. I confronted him and apparently he said had no chemistry. I told him we did but he again said we didn’t and dumped me on the spot. He said he had considered waiting until I came home from vacation, but I’m grateful he didn’t.  Wouldn't that be annoying to come home from vacation and find a letter at the door breaking up with me. I think I would have gone to the cemetery and dug my own grave.

I flew to Chicago with a very sad heart and met my brother at the airport. I was supposed to originally  fly home on the 30^th  of March but extended my trip to stay for the 31^st , my brother's birthday. I was now to fly home on the 2^nd of April. I had a wonderful, sad week. I explored during the day while my brother worked. I visited my college friend Vikki south of the city. I stayed with Vikki and her husband for a night and remember wishing so hard that I had I could find love like they did. My friend was married and very much in love. They dropped me off in Chicago and we were going to go to the Sears Tower but my brother discouraged us telling us it was too expensive. I was especially frugal and decided against it. We said our goodbyes.

Later in the week my brother and I were talking with a friend of his who had just returned from England. After she left, I turned to my brother and told him that I should travel to England to find romance and get hitched. I had always loved everything about England and used to dream that I would wake up, look in the mirror and see Haley Mills starring back at me singing Beautiful Beulah.

On April 1^st, I woke up and the day was incredible. One of those cold mornings with the brightest of blue skies skies. My brother suggested I go to the Sears Tower. I argued about the cost but he said I should go and check it out. On the train I realized I had forgotten my camera. I said goodbye to him and continued on my day. I wanted to see the toll booth that Sandra Bullock worked in for the movie “While you were sleeping”. I got off the "L" and looked at the booth remembering the romantic scene when “Jack” drops the ring in front of her instead of a token. The romantic in me craved that kind of romance.

I noticed a mall or shopping area after the turnstiles. I can still recall standing at the turnstiles debating about whether to go in or not. In hindsight it was as if I was in slow motion making that choice. I pushed through and found a CD store where I bought my first Alanis Morrisette CD. After looking around a bit more I went back to the "L" and found my way near the Sears Tower.

I made a last minute decision and popped into a store to buy a cheap camera. I was stuck in a long painful line but for some reason it didn’t bother me. I had so much patience this day.

It was nearing lunch time when I came out of the store and I remember distinctly seeing all of the business men (probably women there too but I didn’t notice them). I made another wish and I wished for one of these Suits in my life. I had never even considered this before. I always lived in small towns and wasn’t too keen on corporations with my interest in the environment. But they just looked so hot that day and my mouth watered with want.

I found my way to the entrance to the Sears Tower. I stood near the elevator to go down to the basement where the ticket booths are. I noticed an open elevator with room for me but the attendant just ignored me. He sent them on their way and then turned toward me with a knowing smile. The other elevator opened up and I walked in. I noticed another man walk into the opposite corner. I thought to myself that it was weird that he was on his own visiting the Sears Tower. Never mind that I was doing the same thing.  I noticed him looking at me out of the corner of my eye. We got out of the elevator and stood in another line to buy our tickets to travel up the main elevator to the top. He spoke to me immediately with an English accent “It’s a long queue isn’t it.” I turned toward him and we started to talk. He told me he lived near Oxford and worked for a telecoms company. I told him I worked in a cemetery. He didn’t quite know what to say but kept on chatting to me. There was an instant connection that is almost difficult to describe.  We talked all the way up the elevator. All around the top of the Sears Tower. He had just been dumped. I had just been dumped. He wanted to see the world. I wanted to see the world. We had lunch but didn’t eat but a couple bites due to our nervous and excited stomachs. We spent the afternoon talking non-stop about everything.

We met that evening for coffee. I was taken back to see a sweet bunch of freesia on my seat.  I introduced him to my brother referring to Dave as “My friend I met on the street”. My brother raised one eye wondering how he would explain this to my parents. The next day Dave and I explored the city together seeing our favorite movie landmarks like the art museum from Ferris Bueller’s Day off.  Dave seemed to embrace my love of life and equally displayed his own passion toward life that I have yet to witness in anyone.

I had to leave the next day and head back to my dreary life near Seattle. He took me to the airport and gave me a kiss to remember. The most romantic kiss I had ever experienced in my 24 years of life.  The kind you see in movies where the actor has a hand on each side of her face and lovingly kisses the actress. It made my knees weak and the butterflies flipping over in my tummy.

I had given him my postal address but not my phone number.  He drove on to St. Louis and spent a couple hours in his hotel room trying to locate my phone number. Remember that while the internet was up and running it still wasn't readily available like it is today. He called me two days after I returned home. I can still remember walking into my living room holding library books and pushing play on the answering machine. When I heard his voice, the books fell to the ground and I stood there in a happy state of shock. I called him immediately and invited him out to Aberdeen. He left his rental car in a parking garage and booked an expensive flight to see me. We had five days together before he flew back to St. Louis, and drove nonstop to NY to fly home to England.

We spent the next year flying back and forth to see each other and Friday phone calls 4pm my time/Midnight his time. Our dates were filled with sightseeing in each other’s country rather than dinner & a movie. I bought my first computer just to email him. He wrote amazingly beautiful love letters to me each week that I received in the mail.

January 1st he asked me to marry him. On January 20^th we married for paperwork purposes in the UK, 9 months after we met. The woman who wed us was named Jane Eyre Brook as if things couldn't be any more movie like. On April 1^st the same year we had what we call our emotional/romantic wedding on the San Francisco Bay at the Berkeley Marina. We moved to the UK and began our married life there.

The ironic thing is that on the CD I bought that day, there is a song called Head over feet. There is a line that says “You Treat me like I’m a princess”. Although it sounds a little sappy that is what I had been searching for my entire life. Throughout my childhood I was always drawn to romance whether it was the prince riding off on horseback with the princess or David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly or any teenage romance book that I could devour. I was always looking for love with the bells and whistles. Disappointment after disappointment entered my life. I could easily have settled many times but somehow I didn't. I would go through the difficulties of a messy breakup because I knew "he" was out there waiting for me. How could I have invested so many years in books read or movies watched to settle for someone who prefers lies & alcohol to truth and love?   I knew there was someone out there who could appreciate me and laugh at my jokes instead of laughing at me. On April Fools day, when the comet was flying overhead and the stars were aligned I met him. I met him in the tallest building in America in the same town where the ever so lonely Lucy fell in love with Jack.  He is the boy/man that I have read about since I was a young child. And he is now mine. We married for love and we married for life. Any stumbles we have had, we sit down and we talk or we compromise. We get past it and become stronger in our relationship.

Some days when I think about how we met, I simply have to pinch myself. I feel so grateful and still so much in love 13 years later from the day we met and 12 years later after we said "I do" in front of our closest friends and family.

a few new finds

I'll admit it, I'm starting to get sick of my house. I'm growing tired of waking each day with another room to work on or boxes to sort. Which is why on Saturday when I spotted an estate sale, I knew I had to go. I arrived at 7:30 for an 8:00am start. Luckily the other shopper and I were let in early. It took me only a couple seconds to spot this juicer for $15.00

I had one of these in Virginia but gave it away to a friend after she showed interest in it. I had an Acme juicer and didn't think I really needed two. But of course ever since I gave it away I have been missing it. I am keen to make my own nut butters as well as a lovely Kale & Lime juice drink that can really only be made in a Champion Juicer. And how rare these days to find one in muddy brown?

I also bought a henckels knife set. I didn't spot it right away until the sellers started talking about knives. I looked over and they were talking about some swiss army knives but then I noticed on the counter a set of henckels for $2.00. Having been watching videos like "how to break down a chicken" on this blog I had just been wishing for some sharper knives. This photo includes 6 of the new knives mixed in with my own collection.

I've been a very happy cook this last week, chopping and slicing with my new set.

My last item needs no introduction or reasoning.

But I have to add that they were in the free pile, are signed and marked USSR.

Not only did I get out of the house and do my favorite thing in the world, but I got to take a needed break which I'm feeling is a bit overdue. Our last weekend to work on the house is coming up on Saturday. I just need the inspiration to get through the next week and a half.

houston we have a problem

Every second of my energy is being poured into my office at the moment. A couple years ago when I moved from my tiny office to this very large space I had planned for my chaotic days of my office to be a thing of the past. But as I imagine most of you thrifters know, the more space you have, the more you can fill it up with. Hence my big, honkin', messy problem of an office. I'll show you these photos and then go away and hide in embarrassment.

The thrifted piano and the thrifted shelves that hold my inventory. I've sold the shelves on Craigslist last weekend and the books are now in the basement. The office is in worse condition than normal because I'm clearing out the rest of the house and bringing things into this room. Plus the fact that I haven't probably worked a full day since the end of February.

My spiritual, self-help & waldorf book shelf, my packing area and misc boxes of things I'm keeping to sell at a future flea market. The packing table is actually a sewing table that is going to be in my yard sale as well as the funky and somewhat ugly dresser. The table was a gift, the dresser was a hand me down, the large book case was $20 at a yard sale and the small bookcase behind all the junk was $10.00. They are both coming with us.

Ug...what an awful photo. The ugly pink sheet was waiting for me to make a proper curtain. This is a weird room above our apartment. It is attached to another bedroom through an opening which makes it a little chilly in the winter hence the nasty, pink sheet hanging up unattractively. This is certainly no cute, Posy gets Cozy studio. Of course I always dreamed it would be that way......eventually. The clothes on the rack are to sell, boxes of books to go through etc...

The worst of the mess. Except for the bike (thrifted for $100...retail value $1800) nearly everything here is worth something and was supposed to go on eBay or in my bookshop. I have resisted getting back into ebay for at least the last 12 months. I just can't force myself to sit down and do all of that work. Bookselling is so less time consuming which is why I love it. Finally today, I sent 6 boxes away to a woman who is going to sell the items for me and give me 50% of the selling price. I've been working 5 days on this room and 75% of this stuff is gone now. Although I am now officially tired and ready to stop working on the house.

At least the desks are not too terribly bad. Well maybe kind of bad. The filing cabinet, the table and desk on the right are all thrifted or were free. The chair was new but on sale.

It's funny, now that this room is heading towards un-cluttered I feel that desire to work more. Why do we settle to live in such clutter? I know the answer but I guess out of frustration I have to ask it again.  So there you go....my office in it's true entirety.

I'm am so excited to share with you that my friend has organized 30 people from her church (including teens) to come over tomorrow for 2 hours to help on our house. We totally don't deserve the help and they want absolutely nothing in return which somehow feels wrong. They are even bringing their own food and tools. Needless to say I feel very humbled by this beautiful community that wants to reach out and  help us.

And yet this is how my ideal society would be. I have been wanting to start a barn-raising group at our waldorf school but somehow haven't felt the motivation to take it past the idea stage. It wouldn't be to actually build barns but it could. Or maybe a shed, or help to paint a house in a week instead of the three years it has taken us.

This is the beauty of a true community, to come together to help others. Especially at a time like this with our economy. I wish this would happen more. What if 10 friends came together to weed your garden to prepare it for spring. Or in the summer have a Weed & Wine group as my friend Melissa once organized. She supplied the wine and every one came over with gloves and weeding tools. What community building ideas do you have and what might you implement in your community of friends?

the deceitful clock

I realize I'm a day late in posting. I blog on my laptop where my photos are stored but I spend most of my computer time on my mac. Some days I don't feel like turning on the laptop because something about it always leaves me with a neck and head ache. And nothing can make it go away except for some terribly strong blue pills. I'm one who avoids nearly all medicine but when my head hurts I need the pain to go away. Quickly.

Part of the reason I didn't post yesterday is that time got away from me. Or maybe I got away with time. I finished my bedroom and started on the last and most difficult room in the main house: my office. It's cluttered, large, messy and full of thrifted items waiting to be researched, sold, currently for sale or to be disposed of in any way possible. I feel frustrated sitting her in this chaos and am trying to figure out where I went wrong. I think it all comes down to time. I'd say as a scanner, time is one of the most deceitful things there is to this type of personality. Not only do we want to do everything and anything, but we somehow get it into our minds that we can. In a way, we are the ones that deceive ourselves.

I was just going through a box of books that I never got around to listing. I found a book on making your own natural cosmetics and beauty products. My first thought was to save the book so that when I get to California, I can start using it. I also kept a book out called "Putting foods by" which is about canning and preserving. Yet, If my time is full here, how in the world will I access more time once I move?

Dave thinks that our life will change a lot in our next home because I am giving so much of our stuff away. We literally send van loads to Goodwill every week, other items go to friends and some goes on Freecycle. I sell what I can but at the moment with the timing of everything my time to sell things is slim. I also love the idea of paying it forward. I gave my friend Rhonda all my castoffs from my craft room yesterday. She took away fabric, bark cloth (some for you Jill), yarn, cotton batting, and vintage quilt toppers. I'm at the point where I would rather make a friend happy than try to get a few dollars for something. I will still have lots to sell at my yard sale but I can only store so much of that too.

With less in our lives, Dave is hoping that there will be less to clean and less to move around from room to room. I think that is part of my motivation to give so much away. I want our life back. I want to be able to look at a weekend with endless possibilities rather than thinking that we have to clean the house or sort out the basement (again).

I've also been asking myself what I want to do with my life. Do I want to live with a scattered rush feeling as I do now? I usually work all day which starts with spending around 2 hours writing here, another three hours listing books or selling other items and then an hour or so shipping orders. Next I'm off to pick up the kids from school and I spend time with them until Dave is off of work at 4pm. He takes over parenting and I go back to sorting through junk. We'll throw together a dinner, do the dishes, do laundry, bring in firewood, play a couple games of chess with the children and finally get them to bed. We spend an hour or two watching our favorite shows (dollhouse tonight)and eating snacks before falling into bed exhausted.

What we are lacking, are those moments of relaxation here and there. Do they exist? Do you ever find yourselves sitting down on the couch with a newspaper or magazine? When we stayed in our home exchange home last summer in Santa Rosa, CA for 9 days it felt like we were living in a dream. We spent time out on the patio watching the sunset and reading their newspaper. Okay so we did feel like something out of a 50's tv show but all the tension of our home in Washington dissipated. We were at peace, even if it only lasted 9 days. I remember thinking that I wanted that home and lifestyle. I think it was also the motivation to get me to clear out the house.

Now on the brink of moving, I want to have that feeling again. I don't want to feel cheated by time. Yesterday I looked at my large Mary Engelbreit Home Companion magazine collection. I must have 60 or so? I bought them on eBay, yard sales and on Craigslist. I wanted every one. Yet, I haven't ever looked at a single back issue. So I'm sitting there in my craft room asking myself why I expect to have more time to look at them once I move. Or if I ever do want to look at them again. Sure they are very inspirational but at what expense to pack them up in a box and leave them in storage for a year or so while we find a house to buy. I have to make the decision about whether to sell the set or not. And each time I have a choice like that to make, I am again reminded at how deceitful time is in my mind.

What do I want to spend my time on? I guess it would be part time ReSelling, gardening, cooking, self-sufficiency, family time, decorating our house and enjoying each moment that I do these things.  I think moving and packing up my life is helping me realize that my belongings consume and take over. I let them do this and it has left me raw.  In a way I could literally grab my photos, a few books, my computer and close the door behind me and not look back. This is my chance to start over in a new house and choose very carefully what I want in this new home.

I used to walk around antique stores wondering how the dealers could ever part with all of their beautiful items they have for sale. I've now reached an understanding with that concept. They love the joy of buying and finding something for cheap but they don't necessarily have to own it to take pleasure in the item. They can turn it around quickly and sell it. I am hoping to have a booth at a local flea market in California. Maybe once a month if that is allowed so that I can still take in the satisfaction of thrifing without the need to fill my home beyond capacity and start hoarding again.

I don't feel that my hoarding is totally unjustified. It again comes down to time. I must have had 5 pieces of small furniture that I picked up in free piles at yardsales. They all needed either a paint job or some small repair. When I picked them up I didn't do it so that I can shove them in my basement and forget about them. I had all intentions of fixing them and using them in the future. Of course the future is endless and huge. Yet at the end of the day the only time we ever truly have is in this very single moment. I honestly want a better..... no, realistic relationship with time. I want to go to a yard sale and look at an item and decide if I actually want to spend the four hours needed to do this project. If not, I hope that I can put the item back down and move on without regret.

After I've dealing with time, the house and thrift consumption, I'll start to work on my inbox which has thousands and thousands of email that I saved with every intention of replying. Sound familiar?

The winner for last weeks 300th post giveaway is Rachel of Just Wondering. Thanks again for all the very warm and kind comments. It was just what I needed to carry me through the week with all this work on the house.

the hallway

I keep forgetting to take "before" photos. These are sort of half way through emptying the area.

I think the hallway may be the dullest room in the house. Because the door in the photo leads to our 1000 square foot basement, the hallway becomes this holding area for stuff to go down the stairs. We started painting the hallways last year but never gave the walls the 2nd coat. When we moved in, there was a stained and somewhat smelly carpet over some 70's linoleum, which was over roofing paper and finally the original fir flooring. We removed the carpet the first week we moved in. The tiles were removed next leaving this hard to remove roofing-like-paper. Dave painstakingly removed each bit on his knees with a scraper in hand. We finally removed the last bit in the fall and were able to sand and coat the floor with an eco-friendly oil. It's expensive but we'd rather have healthy indoor air to breath than going with the cheaper polyurethane.

Worn railings to be painted.

Holes to be filled, baby (puppy) gate to be removed.

I didn't take any upstairs photos of "before" but it needed cleaning, a wall painted and a window painted.
We have a basket drawer unit in the right hand corner which had junk on the top of it. On the left hand side we have a wooden wall unit for mail and keys but is usually overflowing. We planned to:

-declutter
-fill in holes
-2nd coat of wall paint
-touch up trim
-paint stair railing
-paint upstairs hall wall
-paint window and surround
-deep clean
-pull any nails or screws in walls
-deep clean

The sun is shining today so I should be able to get some "after" photos. We spent both Sat & Sun working on the hallways. We are now at 18 days until our open house. Time seems to be speeding up while our work seems to be traveling at a snails pace. I miss thrifting but it's kind of silly to bring more things in when we are trying to get rid of so much.

a tidy and somewhat empty kitchen

First of all thank you for all those warm and wonderful well wishes for my 300th post. I appreciated each and every comment. My replies and visits to your blogs this month are going to be a bit slim. I seem to wake up, get the kids off to school, write blog post, waste time on Facebook and then it's back to work on the house. I take breaks here and there but usually end the day at around 7pm.

It's the sorting out of junk that does my head in. For example, I have a two dollar bill from the 1963 with red ink. It's not worth more than face value because it was in circulation and has a tear (from someone superstitious). I've held on to it for at least a year and it just moves from room to room. Each time I find something like this I just look at it and ponder what in the hay dickens to do with it. And I must admit this annoys me. Or maybe I find it energy draining. I went to the kitchen last night and asked Dave what to do with it. He said to spend it and move on. I love his thinking or more like, I need his thinking. I still have boxes and boxes to sort through and don't have the time to contemplate every last item.

20 days to go....

Here are the delayed photos of the kitchen. The light is far too wintry than I would like which leaves a rather dark photo.

I removed the vintage pie safe, took down the aprons (sniff, sniff), removed the faux vintage ice-cream sign (tossed in yard sale box), took out the worn red diner chairs and left the intact brown chairs and vintage stool. The stool was originally at the tiny bit of wall facing the camera. I used to have a market basket there. I tried to remove anything that looked cluttered. I want people to feel the size of the room and not the amount of clutter. The brown lump near the door is Sydney my tortie. And for those considering coming to my yard sale later this spring, the red table and chairs will be included.  It's going to be a fantastic sale as I honestly want to take little with us on our journey to California.

Here's the previous hidden little open cabinet. My father who has built a couple houses in his past and kind of a jack of all trades, finished the shelf off with molding. We painted it and cleaned the shelves properly. I took out some of the jars and packed away my Everyday Food magazines.

We added a shelf in the dreaded corner unit after this photo but overall this is our light and empty kitchen. I stored away the vita-mixer, moved the toaster and we did the dishes. We use the rice cooker every week so this is something that can't easily be hidden away. I took out an old peach crate that housed Elffin's food. That is the gap next to the dishwasher which is meant for a garbage compactor. Our radiator is there for now but will be removed on March 28th.

The cabinets and drawers are mostly bare plywood. Some of it has old red check shelf paper but it is either quite worn or partially removed. I didn't want to replace it because I think the smell of that product is quite strong and my head couldn't put up with the off gassing. Instead I bought some blue grip product to cover the shelves. It still gives off a small smell, but it can be removed easily by the next owners if they are keen for a purely eco-friendly house.

Potential buyers tend to look everywhere. Not only that but they make comments too about any hidden mess. We used to watch a show in England called The House Doctor. The house doctor would go to homes that weren't selling and share her advice on how to get the house sold. They would put up hidden cameras and show the reactions of the buyers to the sellers. Boy were they brutal sometimes about the mess, the state of the house and the decor. Some of the things were silly. Why complain about an ugly table when you're not buying the contents. Buyers do tend to open drawers and doors so my decluttering doesn't stop on the outside of the cabinets. I cleaned out every drawer and cabinet in the room.

Of course being a thrifter, none of my silverware matches, nor my glasses or dishes. This used to be twice as full but was pared down for the house staging.

We only have 4 1/2 drawers in the kitchen. Two drawers hold the kitchen gadgets which means lots of clutter. Most of these are thrifted and used only a couple times a year. I moved the ones that I do intend to use a couple times a year to the basement. The ones I don't ever seem to use I either put in a yard sale box or a goodwill bag.

The blue lining was $9.99 at Costco and I was able to do all the drawers, the bottom part of the pantry cabinets, a few shelves in the upper cabinets and extra to do the base of the open corner cabinet. I thought it was an attractive and affordable fix to my problem.

We worked all weekend on the hallway, stairway and upper-real-strange-and-funky-hallway. Photos tomorrow.

300 today

When I began my blog in 2006 I didn't sit and contemplate the idea. I didn't think long and hard about a name. Basically I somehow did a search on thrift through Google, found a couple blogs and decided immediately that I must have what they have. Some people think I'm clever with ideas but I'll admit it here since it's just the two of us that my skill isn't the creation of ideas but the stealing of them. Oh I do tweak them so they appear unique and somewhat original. But really I'm just a thief bearing an apron and a frugal heart. Apron Thrift Girl was decided in about 10 seconds. I knew I wanted to base my blog around thrifting. I probably scanned my office full of thrifted items, set my eyes on an apron and typed in the name before I thought more about it. I never imagined that I would be writing my 300th post nearly three years later.

Besides finding a caring audience that is actually interested in thrifting, what I have most enjoyed about blogging is the friends that I have made. I love thrifting, I love buying stuff but it is the friendship that makes my life feel complete. So I especially thank all of you who have kept in touch even when my blog posts have not been so frequent and thanks to those quiet lurkers and even to those who comment but never return.

Here's my gift and giveaway. I'm offering one of my Organizer Nest Planners.

The winner can chose one of the Nest Planners from my shop or we can work together to find some paper that matches your style perfectly. The planners include enough forms to keep you organized for a month and I'll email you the publisher files so that you can print off your own forms indefinitely.

I'm also going to offer a free hour of consulting in whatever subject the winner chooses. I can offer advice on pricing items to Resell, organizing (mostly for locals), bookselling consulting and more. You can choose from my services here. The only stipulation about this giveaway is that the consulting will occur in April after our house has been clean, gutted, cleared and ready to sell. At the moment I'm not taking any new clients until the house is ready.

Thank you again for all of your support and friendship during the last 300 posts. Leave a comment and I'll draw a name next Thursday, March 12th.

***Oh and one more thing. I'm in desperate need of a new banner. Something similar to my current one but speaks spring. I'd love to barter for one if anyone is interested. Betts inspired me to change my old one.

National Thrift Store Month

I always look forward to National Garage Sale day every August. What better time to acknowledge and celebrate the art of attending and hosting garage sales. Just last week though I learned that some thrifty women who run this blog are trying to get an entire month dedicated to thrift stores. How can I resist not taking part in something like that. As you know I personally cringe at the mention of Buy Nothing Day on black Friday. I spend most of the year not buying retail so I figure one day a year (relatively speaking) is okay. National Thrift Store Month is a different story and cause that I would frugally and happily embrace. An entire thrift month around Christmas could be, as Barney might say, legendary.

Imagine if people were inspired around the holidays to hit their local thrift stores instead of only heading to the mall? This year I spent more time looking for thrifted gifts and making homemade gifts. It turned our Christmas into something more meaningful than a collection of itune cards or Amazon wishlist gifts that usually sit under our tree.

You can start to help this endeavor by heading to Facebook and joining this group. Next you can spread the word on your own blog. I mean if we have something as strange as Tickling month, there has to be room for National Thrift Store Month. Thank you to the Thrifty Chicks for this brilliant idea.

Speaking of thrift stores, I picked up this piece of art yesterday at Value Village.

Needless to day I don't normally find art at Value Village. This piece was priced at $9.99. Sadly the artist is truly a mystery. I did a detailed research this morning for the artist McCaine (taking out all the McCains that were desperate to show up in my search) and found a few pieces on eBay priced in the few thousands and another at $300. At the end of my search I found about 10 of these online but not any real information that told me who the artist was. Nevertheless, I love the piece and it fits well into my mid century modern decorated living room.

One last thing.....tomorrow is my 300th post. I'm planning for a giveaway and a small celebration. I hope you'll join me.

starting with the kitchen

Whether I am organizing someone's home, cleaning my own or getting ready to move, I always start in the kitchen. Okay, well I did sneak in the bathroom on Thursday last week since we had a snow day but overall the kitchen is where it always begins. Especially in our kitchen which somehow became the front door. We have a proper front door that enters into the living room as most normal old houses have but the way the house is situated on the property, no one ever knocks on our front door. In fact most people don't even ring the doorbell at the kitchen door, they just walk in. I'm thinking the house must have some energy that people feel comfortable about coming in unannounced. We are used to it now and dress appropriately in case anyone literally "pops" into the kitchen. We figure that when we show the house that people will continue to come in through the kitchen. We wanted to start our focus there.

Now the photos I'm about to share with you are authentic. They haven't been staged to look messy. This is what our house looks like after a week of school, a snow day, Saturday lunch and a the beginning stages of emptying the kitchen to prepare it for our overhaul.

The paint on the walls is only the primer color and still needs a second coat. As you can see the kitchen is crowded and full of furniture, appliances and looks very cluttered.

This is the other side of the kitchen looking into the dining room. The china cabinet in the background was emptied earlier that morning and most things either packed away or priced for our upcoming yard sale. The key to staging a home for sale is emptying it of clutter. The table in the center of the kitchen is a yard sale find that kind of created a kitchen island in a relatively small kitchen. While a bit compact it made cooking much easier to have the added space.

The corner cabinet is a mess and yes, that is a gaping hole there where a cabinet door should be. It wasn't working one day and so I ripped it out. I tend to do that always figuring I'll live in the house for years. We plan on adding a shelf and hanging a curtain on the front. Notice the ipod player, music is always a huge part of working on the house for us. Betts, suggested some techno music when I asked for suggestions on facebook, but I can't think of a single techno music artist. Betts, I need more detail. In the end I started listening to The Pierces station on Pandora which worked.

When you clear out a room, everything has to be stored somewhere else in the house. In our case we moved nearly everything into the dining room. Be prepared to sort of camp out when you empty your kitchen. We did manage to make pancakes and eat them on the table that used to be the kitchen island on Sunday morning.

Here is our empty space ready to be painted. On our list was touching up the cabinets. Honestly they could either be ripped out and replaced or fully painted. The insides are still bare plywood. I think they were added in the late 70's. We are not planning to spend that much money at this time. While the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the house to a buyer, in this economy it wouldn't pay for us to redo the entire kitchen. Therefore we are going to make it look as nice as we can. Dave tried to take a dime size chip of paint to the hardware store but they couldn't color match it. He brought home some color samples and by good luck we hit the exact color. Our tasks in the kitchen included:
-2nd coat of paint
-Paint Baseboard
-touch up cabinets
-deep clean every thing
-clean windows
-paint inside of wall shelves (where the shelves are to the left of this photo there used to be a large cabinet. I discovered the shelves one day and decided to take the cabinet out. The shelves still have flowery paper that is probably 40 years old.)
-bring back in 1/4 of the items that we took out

I hope to finish the kitchen today after a much needed run to costco for food.

the list

27 days to go

A week ago my mother and I walked through the house with a clipboard, paper and pen in hand. We went through every room in the house, basement and apartment and listed what we needed to do to make this house shine.

When we purchased the home nearly four years ago she needed a lot of work. In a way, she needed too much work for us to do with two small children in tow. At times the house drained us of every last bit of energy and what was left were two people passed out at the end of the day on the couch. We have spent much of our time devoted to this home whether it was fixing it up, moving junk around or trying to clean up around the junk. And it was during the last four years that I went from being a hoarder to a non-hoarder.

One day I was hauling van loads of junk into the house from yard sales and the next week I found myself asking myself "what have I done?" Now I'm left with a house full of stuff that I don't want any more but it isn't as easy as handing someone the keys and telling them to get rid of everything like Wayne Dyer once did in Florida. I agree with him though that if your stuff owns you, rather you owning your stuff, than it's time to break from that and get rid of it. It's harder to do than it looks. But overall, each time I have something in my hand that I'm ready to let go of, I feel a part of me release and that is very freeing. If not needed.

Dave took the list and loaded it into an excel file, followed by adding a 1 (high priority) 2, (medium priority) or 3 (low priority) next to each item. The list doesn't really include the deep cleaning and decluttering since that is a given. And Christine will be relieved to know that "remove owl picture above fireplace" is on page two.

Our main goal is to sell the house, keep our costs very low, and keep our profit high. We need every last cent for our move. We love our house and are proud of it and don't want to put up a facade of it being beautiful while cutting corners. We want it to be beautiful but will do so frugally.

When people come to see our house it needs to be clean and it needs to be decorated simple enough that anyone can imagine living here. I've already started packing and putting away bits and pieces of me that potential buys don't want to see. Some strange part of me enjoys packing. I love the neatness of it, the challenge of filling a box perfectly and also the anticipation of opening the box months later and forgetting that I had even owned the item that I carefully packed away. I don't enjoy the physical part of moving but I love the packing and unpacking.

We started the kitchen on Saturday, continued on Sunday and I'm heading there now as soon as I post this. I should have some photos tomorrow of our progress.

the house

In exactly 28 days from today, we are going to be advertising our house for sale. I know my blog posts have been slim lately as I have thrown myself into getting rid of stuff, taxes and okay, I'll admit a little bit of facebook. And throw in trying to teach myself some songs on a guitar that I know nothing about. Today I'm making curtains rather than spending $46 on privacy film, sorting through junk and taking a van load of more junk to Goodwill.

I'm going to try to share with you this journey of taking a still filled-to-the rim-with-junk house that hasn't been properly cleaned in a few weeks or was that months and still is a fixer upper, to showing you a house ready to go on the market. It should be all sparkly and pretty. I need this house sort of empty so that I can clean it in minutes when potential buyers want to view the house. I need my eclectic/scanner personality to be packed away properly in boxes so that when buyers view the house, they can picture their own personality in our minimalistic home. Can it be done? We'll let you be the judge when you see the true state of this house on Monday. Be prepared to see a mess. I have a huge challenge ahead of me but hey if I can sell a toilet on Craigslist, I must be able to sell a house.

ben again

It's funny that on eBay I tend to struggle winning a small collection of Ben Seibel dishes but when this auction came up a couple weeks ago at a starting bid of $39, I was the only bidder. 36 beautiful pieces of Mikasa Ben Seibel dishes. I'll take it as a blessing since I think by far this is my favorite pattern of his that I own. The shipping was a bargain at $15 because the seller was in Oregon. Almost the opposite from this other auction I won in 07.

Maybe owning 41 dinner plates is starting to sound a little obsessional but I'm looking forward to that very large dinner party I'm eventually going to host. What I adore about this set is that the dishes are all the same design, just the colors and patterns are different.

My friend H did point out that I vowed not to buy dishes on eBay any more because they all tend to arrive broken. I did write to the seller begging them to pack carefully. Luckily every piece arrived in one piece.

We are leaving to Portland in a couple hours. Thanks again for your suggestions. I wonder if anyone would notice if I brought the dishes along.

off to Portland

Most Waldorf schools on the West Coast have this week off of school so that the teachers can attend educational conferences. We always dream of going somewhere warm but in trying to keep within our budget we usually stick close to home. This next week we are traveling to one of our favorite places, Portland, Oregon. We are leaving on Tuesday and arriving home on Friday.

We've booked our hotel with our Hilton Honor Miles so our stay is completely free. Rather than stay in downtown where we have to pay for parking ($18 a day), we are staying outside of town but where there is still lots to do and the parking is free. We adore embassy suites because not only do you get two rooms with a door that closes between the two of them, they also have a free full breakfast in the morning and managers reception in the evening with drinks and food. It's a frugal delight to stay there.

The children definitely want to go here, and possibly here despite it being winter. I hope to catch some thrift stores and maybe this store to check out their sales rack. Of course if I had my way I would be thrifting with this delightful blogger but I don't think she's going to be in Portland next week. One can wish though right Sandy?

Any other places I can't miss? Any second hand shops that feature mid century modern? Any gluten free restaurants? Any hidden thrift stores that you can steer me to? I'd love your advice and suggestions.

Dave and I have worked non-stop on getting our house ready to sell in April. We need the break, even if it is just four days away with free food and a swimming pool.

Before photo - probably two years ago.

 

After photo- last week. We are going to attempt to sell the house ourselves. I'm building a Word Press blog with photos and information about the house so that I can advertise it. This was taken last week for the blog to show the living room. I think the white bookshelves definitely cheered things up. We are so looking forward to our little vacation to Portland.

be still my frugal heart

Dave asked me last weekend whether I wanted to go out for dinner on Valentines day and pay for a sitter to watch the children. I could hear the ka-ching of the cash register in my frugal head. He then offered another suggestion which was to do something special for me at home after the children went to sleep. He whispered "surprises" to me which of course left me nodding my head before he even finished with the "rises" part of surprises. I adore surprises and yet I get so few. If I wasn't a mother, scanner and actually knew what I wanted to do in life, I'd probably make a good detective. Not much gets past me. This makes for lousy surprises. I try to turn off my head and not guess about things but that's so hard. I can even sense when flowers are coming by way.

Rather than pay a babysitter $30 odd dollars and a lovely meal for $60 or so (it's hard to eat cheap here) I'd much prefer staying in. Which made me think about how celebrate a frugal Valentines.

The cards above were made by Keiran. Yesterday our local organic cafe hosted a Valentine's Card making party. They had big buckets and bowls full of crayons, paper, glue sticks, stickers, crafty bits and lace paper hearts. The children were busy for what must have been an hour. Cerys, who is addicted to any type of craft was delighted to see so many supplies. And the cost? free!

Here are some frugal Valentine ideas:
-Valentine Making Party for your children and friends -bring out your thrifted crafts supplies and let them have at it.

-Make a coupon book for your husband/partner using your imagination. This can be as simple as "pub night out with a friend" or a more complicated "Poker Party at our house that includes home cooked snacks". What would your husband/partner appreciate?

-Homemade Chocolate Lollipops

These were Christmas gifts for the children's teachers. I actually found the kit at a yard sale for $3.00 and simply melted some chocolate chips in the warmer that came with the kit. If you don't have a warmer, then you could also melt the chocolate in a double pan. More advice on melting chocolate can be found here. I tend to find a lot of chocolate molds at yard sales. You can also pick them up at Michaels. We packed them in discounted Martha boxes from Michaels. They also look nice in a small cellophane bag with some ribbon tied around the top.

-Spiced Nuts (my fav recipe is from this book)

-Handmade photo album of you and your husband/partner. Or better, find a thrifted one and add photos and special memories

-Fondue Party, not that you need an excuse of Valentines to indulge in this delectable treat.

-Jewelry Making Party. Gather findings, beads, beading supplies, pasta & string for young children and don't forget patience.

-Winter picnic. Take a thrifted picnic basket, fill it with hot chocolate, popcorn, carrot & curry soup, dishes and silverware. Grab your coat, mittens, hats and lots of blankets.

-Rent your favorite romance movie. Mine would be "While You Were Sleeping".

Valentines doesn't have to be expensive despite what all the jewelry ads tell you. At the end of the day it is about romance and being with the people you love most. Well and kind of being spoiled which I admit to enjoying having been born a romantic at heart. But Dave could take me thrift store shopping and I would be happier than I could with a piece of jewelry. I love romance but especially adore it when it can be done frugally.

closing down

I gave a surprised gasp when I found this in my mail last week.

My friends at Salvage Studio are closing their doors of their retail shop in Edmonds, WA. They are having a retail sale on March 20th & 21st and I'm going to try to make it to say a proper goodbye. I've only been there once but my short visit there was so inspiring. I literally felt like going home and copying their store exactly and sort of borrowing their life. Which I guess could be stealing? They had a store full of thrifted finds, they hosted workshop with little tins full of game pieces/paper and they shared their love of re-purposing unwanted items with all of us.

Lisa, Beth and Amy, thanks for sharing so much with us and I wish you three the best of thrifted luck in your next adventures.

to sell or not to sell?

Well we all know some of the odd things that show up for sale on the second hand market. There was the sod that we purchased in September. Then on Sunday an ad went up in our local Craigslist for a used toilet. It wasn't just any typical, ceramic throne though, it was a child size toilet where the toilet seat was a mere 11 inches off the ground.

I'm not ashamed to admit that the ad is mine, and the toilet came out of our apartment attached to our house. It had originally been a preschool. The bathroom had a regular toilet and this child's toilet. Last summer I thrifted a shower stall as well as a vanity & sink. My father, who can do just about anything when it comes to building, took out the toilet and installed the new shower and vanity. The bathroom was painted a lovely warm beige and gone were the fluffy white clouds on the blue ceiling. It now looked like a proper bathroom decorated nicely for visiting family members. Last Sunday we cleaned out the front of our apartment (although we still refer to it as the Preschool) and I came across the toilet. I grabbed my camera and quickly took a photo to load onto Craigslist. Here she be in her ceramic glory:

I listed her for $50.00 after some research that they sell new for around $300. I mean only a few people would be in the market for a used, kid's pot anyway. I received my first and only email about the toilet about 4 hours later. It seemed a bit suspicious though.

Craigslist is not immune from scams. I got one last week from a guy who wanted to pay me to pull my ad. Then he was going to send me a dodgy sounding cashiers check. I bounced his email and moved on. The person who wrote to me about the toilet said that we was interested in the toilet for her grandchildren who have yet to be conceived.

What?

I still replied as I always do to the first email of inquiry. She wanted to know the lowest I would go. I knocked $10 off the pot and told her $40.00. She then started talking about ferries so I figured that she sounded a bit more legit and we agreed on a time for her husband to pick up the toilet.

He arrived last night on an evening ferry. Dh who couldn't really believe the "wait until grandchildren are conceived" story asked him again what his plans are. The man said that his wife wanted it for the unborn grandchildren. Then he went on to say that their children were 18 & 20 with no prospective spouses in sight.

Maybe they are worried that toilets are going to rise in price during this recession? Or maybe she's just really planning ahead. Dave used to tease me about buying size 10 clothing for Cerys when she was 4. I always buy ahead. But buying ahead for a toilet is another thing. It did confirm to me though that really you can sell anything 2nd hand and there just might be a buyer waiting for you. None the less, this kept us laughing all evening.