It’s Spreadsheet Time!

Yessiree, let’s head for that annual thrifty roundup! Maintaining my garaging spreadsheet has been a really satisfying habit. Would you believe it goes back 15 years now? I can’t tell you how many times I've had occasion to look up when I bought something or how much I paid, and it's always a trip down memory lane. So many of the entries plunge me into the day of the sale where I found the item, who I was with, the conversations I had. All that personal history, neatly lined up in rows and columns.

Okay, so I love my spreadsheet. We already knew what a strange person I am!

I was a darned frugal thrifter this year, in fact the only year I've spent less was 2005, and that total was within a dollar of this year. The total outlay for 2019 was $342.40, with an estimated retail value of $5,568. The category with the best return on investment was clothing, where I spent $28 on 22 items worth nearly $1400. Of course it's hard to go wrong in a category that includes $1 shoes, brands like Dansko and Keen. And I had the fun of upcycling the one pair that was a bit beat up.

 The next most lucrative category was garden items. Only bought 6 for $36, but the average worth was around $40. If you’ve purchased any large pots or plants for retail prices you’ll know I got bargains! 

I may be fondest of the $1 pitchfork I found at an estate sale. It's old and a bit beat up, but it's the perfect tool for loading wood chips into the wheelbarrow. And since I got the power company’s tree trimmers to give me a free load of chips (about 7 cubic yards worth!) that is going to be a dollar well spent.

Another top category was accessories – 9 purchased for $10, and worth nearly $300. I especially love these polished wood earrings inlaid with silver.

In spite of my telling myself “No décor! No projects!” I brought home plenty in both areas. Spent a little over $80 on 27 décor items, mostly art for my walls. It's all stuff that I love, like the vintage Danish swan poster, 

and the framed three-dimensional rainbow of linen and beads. 

I think it's interesting to note that when I look at the oldest spreadsheet from 2005, the things I still own and love fall into the décor category. Well, except perhaps the Curious George flashlight – what could be more practical than a Curious George flashlight?

In the area of projects, I brought home supplies for makery – fabric, sewing notions, bits and bobs. One of the pieces of fabric came in handy recently when I made reversible button-on covers for my dining chairs – a project actually completed!

Looking at the column of prices spent, I found 13 items that were free, worth over $200. I would actually have bought the dancing fairy switch plate cover, but I love it even more for being free.

Most expensive purchase of the year? The set of vintage dishes from Germany that I use and love every day. 

Well worth the $50 I spent, even if the set only included three of the cool bowls.

All these treasures, and a new knee as well – it was a very good year!

Revisiting

Last summer, when my friend Marcia was here and we were waiting for my knee replacement surgery to happen, we naturally did a bit of garaging. We stopped at an estate sale in my old neighborhood, and it was a treasure trove. We had a great time on their driveway, chatting and roasting in the August heat and digging through the many boxes. The sale was lady’s parents’ belongings, and her mother was an extremely creative (and collecting!) person. Marcia came away with an armload of CDs, and I bought music and movies and craft supplies and whimsical doodads. I remember walking away with my arms full for a total of five bucks.

One of my favorite whimsies that day was this tiny vintage piece.

So you may only imagine how excited I was to see that they were having another sale this weekend. I don't usually go back to one I've already seen, but I knew they had only scratched the surface of the parents’ belongings.

Marcia is back in California now, so I took my friend Lonna along to see what we could see. Alas, her luck was not running well – she found a book she wanted that turned out wasn’t for sale. Then she saw something else she liked and had a somewhat unpleasant encounter with one of the pushy guys I think is a local dealer. (There are a handful of these folks who are consistently rude, and I generally try to arrive at sales when I think they will have left.) So sorry, Lonna, it’s not usually like that!

I fared better. On our way into the house we walked by a large Christmas wreath. I noticed it had a price tag. One dollar. Now mine. It's just faux greenery but you can't beat that price. I think I'll refurbish it for next year, but for now it's the total of my seasonal decorating.

The first thing I found inside was this trio of one-inch tall angels. Some of their wings have gotten broken, but I still love them.

My next find was a large framed embroidery for my studio.

You may remember that my focus word for this year is “Mend” – this seemed a perfect reminder. When I got home, I noticed a tag on the back from the framing shop. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was framed in Oklahoma City where I grew up!

Turns out the framers are still in business, and one of their shops is only a few blocks from where I lived. I'm sure I'll never know who the embroiderer was, but I wonder if our paths ever crossed? Whoever she was, the frame was carefully selected to color blend with the embroidery.

I found some cute cupcake papers. At three for a penny, home they came.

In one of the back bedrooms, I found this big (about 2’ tall) papier-mâché bunny who now resides at my house. He was one of the things the creative mother made.

In the other back bedroom, I noticed a really nice switch plate cover, and asked if it might be for sale. The answer was yes, in fact I could just have it, if a screw driver could be located to remove it from the wall. Alas, no screwdriver appeared. I first tried a dime (too big) and then the tip of a table knife (also too big) then they did locate some odd multi-purpose tool but it was too awkward to turn the screws. But I really loved it. So later in the day I went back – with my own screwdriver! Had it off the wall in no time, and made sure that the folks having the sale knew how much I love it.

Of course since I was there again I had to shop again. It was amazing how much had left the house in two or three hours, but much remained. I picked up some movies

including one that might be in Chinese.

I found a very small Yixing tea pot, too small to be practical for use. But a) it was only fifty cents, and b) it looks good with my other Yixing pots. ‘Nuff said.

My last find was another papier-mâché bunny, much smaller than the first. 

I absolutely fell for his hand painted face.

So sometimes you can go home again – even if it's to someone else’s home! Even better, they told me another sale is planned in January, because they hadn’t even started on clearing the garage.

I can hardly wait.

FAIRIES AND IBISES AND CALLING CARDS

I liked the Thrifty Chicks’ idea of leaving calling cards at the yard sales I visit. So early Saturday morning I designed my cards. Fiddled with them until they felt right. Told the computer to print.

I'd like to, the computer said, but you’re out of black ink. I changed the black ink cartridge. (Note to self: go down to the kitchen and put ‘black ink cartridge’ on the shopping list so you’ll have a back up.) That’s better, the computer said, and sent through the five sheets I'd asked for. But the black ink didn’t print.

I took out the new cartridge, shook it—sounded like ink sloshing around in there. Put it back, tried another sheet. No black ink. Took it out, pressed on the place where the ink comes out with a piece of paper. No marks on the paper. Smooshed it some more until some ink marks showed, put it back in printer, tried again. No black ink on paper.

At that point I gave up and went garaging, sans calling cards but with friend Diane. Calling cards are a good idea, but a friend is even better! And on Sunday I tried again to print my cards and they came out just fine. Guess the universe was averse to my starting this just now…but I'll be ready for the next time!

Have you ever noticed, as you’re going from sale to sale (or thrift store to thrift store, if that’s your venue) how a theme will develop? You keep seeing the same item or motif over and over. There was one Saturday a couple of years ago that was Backstreet Boys Day. Everywhere I went there were posters and t-shirts and CDs emblazoned with their faces (is it just me or do they all have impressively chiseled jaws?). This week’s theme turned out to be fairies. Yes, fairies as in little people who live among the flowers and do magical things. At our first stop we opened an oblong blue box and found this inside:

I wish my photography did justice to the details.

I did some searching when I got home and found that these are carved by lasers, guided by a computer. I’m still completely in the dark as to what that actually means, and it must not be terribly difficult because these pieces are not expensive even new, lots available online for about ten bucks. Neither Diane nor I are particularly fairy aficionados, but we both liked this. I ended up buying it, feeling a little guilty because I felt like D wanted it too.

And then at the very next sale we found another one! It was about half the size of mine (and about half the price!) so D bought it, and we spent the rest of the morning marveling at finding two of them.

Then we kept seeing fairy motifs everywhere. Books, jigsaw puzzles. Probably the cutest was the pair of gauzy fairy wings for playing dress up. We resisted those however!

We were even more excited by the trio of ibises walking across the road. There was no traffic so we stopped to watch them strut. I see herons and egrets fairly often, but I think these are the first ibises I've seen here. They were probably white-face ibis, since those winter in this area. Gosh, garaging is educational!

As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the various pets we encountered. One was a beautiful gray cat named Motor, so called because of his loud purr. “When he was a kitten,” they said, “his purr was bigger than he was.” Motor was a fair sized cat, so he grew into his purr. While I was petting Motor, I heard nice background music and commented on it. “Oh, that’s from next door,” they said. So as we left I saw the next door neighbor in his driveway and called out that the music was great. He said he’d been fishing in Mexico, and the hotel was playing this over their loudspeakers, and he’d bought 5 CDs, he liked it so much. “Let me play you my favorite piece,” he said, so we wandered into his garage. He skipped ahead to his favorite, which turned out to be a polka. As we stood there talking about the music, we noticed there were dozens of wooden whirligigs in his garage. Turns out that when he retired, he taught himself to make these things. He has over 80 designs he makes and sells. He pointed out his fish skeleton design. “It's usually ladies that buy that one,” he said. He also paints rocks, and we got a tour of his back yard to see some of his rock fish. And all the while, the Mexican polka bounced along in the background.

We also enjoyed meeting lovely Hannah, a black lab and heeler mix:
She had been spayed the day before, and her owner was trying to keep her quiet. But Hannah didn’t care that she’d just had a hysterectomy—she wanted to play ball! Her owner told us she had won a free spaying on a radio call in show. Otherwise she didn’t know how she would have afforded it. Turns out this nice lady is one of the many, many casualties of our meltdown economy. She lost her job and hasn’t been able to find another, and for a time was living in a tent. Now she’s in a small travel trailer, parked by a relative’s house. We could see how much her dog means to her in these hard times. She told us she had a number of friends—former friends—who pressured her to get rid of her dog, telling her she couldn’t afford to keep her. As Diane said, that’s someone she won’t be needing to call anymore. I've always maintained that I would live in a tent before I gave up my pets, and here was someone who has done it.

I spent $10.35, and besides my laser fairies I brought home:

A couple of gifts for friends and family—a fun visor for someone who drives a convertible…

…and these cute pj pants for someone who would live 24/7 in flannel if she could.
Nice green tencel shirt for me.
Bar of French soap with shea butter in it.
Two new candles for the lanterns in the yard.
A Sunset gardening annual.
Fun necklace. Needs cleaning, and I think I'm going to remove the little tube pieces.

Lizzie liked it and wanted to try it on. I told her she can wear it the next time she has a date.

A DVD.
Some cleaning goop.
Have to admit my eyes deceived me. When I picked up this box I could have sworn it said Oxy Cleaner, and I've had good success with Oxiclean, the stain remover stuff. So I bought it. Imagine my surprise when I got home and saw that it says Orange Clean. Can’t blame my glasses, just got new lenses a few weeks ago, so it must be my brain!

And finally, this should make a fun door prize for some lucky children's librarian.

Next week I most likely will not be garaging, because we have a little vacation planned. We’re driving to Phoenix with my husband’s brother and his wife to see this Dale Chihuly glass exhibit at the botanical garden there. Of course, if we pass a yard sale sign on our way from the motel to the gardens, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the car just automatically turns where the sign points!