Do I save garbage? No. Do I keep things that I will never use? No. If I see something awesome that is vintage do I take it home with me? Yes, almost always.

And therein lies the problem. I have yet to really get my ebay/etsy business off the ground. I have LOTS of merchandise. I have set up the accounts. Now I just need to get busy photographing and listing. Sounds easier than it is. VERY time intensive. And I keep thinking that IF I COULD JUST GET ORGANIZED then I could start. The trouble is, I’m perpetually disorganized.

So here’s what I’m thinking…. If I could list at least one thing a day, I could eventually get it all done. So I think that is what I’m going to do. One thing a day… sounds do-able right?

My biggest news though is a trip to California planned for late April into early May. My folks will be celebrating their 40th Anniversary and they want all their kids back together for it. This is no small feat considering we are spread all over the continent at this point. Three siblings scattered around California, me in here in Maine, and one newly relocated to Montreal. That’s a lot of miles!

My favorite part of planning a trip is deciding what to pack. Even though I have months to go, I already have my packing list pretty much completed. I want to fit everything into a carryon since the airline is going to charge us $25 to check EVEN ONE BAG. You suck, airlines. The tickets were a really good price (that my amazing sister plunked her credit card down for, thank you!!!) but they really stick it to you in the luggage dept. So here is my packing list so far:
talk to autumn about afternoons for bella and charlie
GET PASSPORTS!!!

CA PACKING LIST fit all into carryons (mail the rest?)
————————

MY BAG & CUPPY’S BAG

Watercolor or blank journal Notepad
Set of watercolors
1 paint brush
6 pens
Glue Stick
2 highlighters
watchtowers, bible, songbook, bookstudy book
2 weeks of pills + bottles
vitamins, musinex, restaysis
makeup + brushes
travel  wipes
?travel size makeup remover?
?1 nailpolish?
potty wipes for cuppy
1 pair of glasses (vintage?)
2 necklaces, 3 earrings
via packs, chips, snack bars, chocolate
1 headband, 2 hair clips, 1 comb
NO HAIRDRYER OR CURLING IRON
postcard stamps, list of addresses in phone
2 novels, 1 vintage magazine
List of places to go (flea markets, vintage shops)

LAPTOP
Camera + extra battery
Ipod + headphones + usb cable (to recharge off of laptop)
Cell phone + recharger + car charger

6 panties
4 bras – one black, one white, 2 strapless
2 tights + 3 socks
2 leggings
one sleeveless dress (black?)
no sleeve shirts/ modest tanks
1 or 2 tunic short dress/shirt (pink vintage mini dress)
2 sweaters (black linen chicos jacket)
3 fun skirts for meetings or play
1 pencil skirt
1 pair of jeans
2 pairs pjs
1 belt
1 other pair of shoes (pink dr. martins)
extra collapsible duffle
Vintage purses for girls in the family
tshirts for justin
————————————————————-

wear on the plane—
long baggy skirt, bulky wedge shoes, heavy sweater with buckles
1 leather jacket (blue?), one thin long scarf

———————–
Cuppy’s bag — two barbies, two small stuffies, eye cover, 1 colorbook, crayons, snacks

Cute frilly skirts for meetings or play
3 pjs
7 panties
1 long heavier sweater for her to wear on the plane

1 ) Getting my etsy.com shop off the ground. That will include properly setting it up with a kitschy banner and deciding whether to open another account that sounds more vintage related rather than use the name of the account that I’ve used for years to purchase from them. The advantage to using the current etsy ID would be taking advantage of all the good feedback I’ve accumulated. The downside would be that it wouldn’t be linked to anything and there is a possibility that no one would see it as a legitimate business and possibly not be willing to shell out their hard earned money to someone with no feedback. Tricky decision. Any thoughts?

2 ) Reestablishing my eBay selling account. I hate using them to sell stuff because they charge for each little photo and you have to pay through the nose to set up each item for sale and then they charge you another percentage when you sell it and then paypal takes a cut of that too. It’s ridiculous!!! Thus the need to FIRST set up the etsy account whose fees are much more modest. Plus I wouldn’t be pandering to the big eBay corporation. Hate those guys.

3 ) EMPTY OUT my dining room. All the great items I’ve accumulated over the last six months or so have taken up residence there in totes and boxes and teetering piles. It looks like a hoarders paradise. Not cool. Every so often I empty the room out and the dining table becomes usable again. That needs to happen like yesterday. You have to step over and around stuff just to get through the room to the other side. Again, not cool.

4 ) List my bazillions of books on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, etc (using alibris.com). A lot of the stacks of boxes in the dining room (spilling over into the back of the livingroom) are full of books that are just waiting for their chance to shine online and get snatched up. I’ve got some really great ones in there! I read today that these winter months are the best time to list books because everyone wants to snuggle up with a good book when it is cold outside. GOTTA GET A MOVE ON THINGS if these books are going to see the light a day!

5 ) And last but not least, I need to get up and get moving around. After hearing so much about Zumba and what fun it is to jump around and do latin dance moves (yes, I was sucked in by an infomercial) I decided that this would be the perfect exercise program for me. I get the most accomplished around the house when my headphones are blasting in my ears (like now, for instance). The music is my best motivation. Now if those dvds could just somehow magically get out of their cases and into the dvd player (which requires changing settings on four different boxes using three different remote controls — the humanity!!), I might actually watch them! (inferring that I would also be following along and exercising)

Today, Katiana and I are watching Nick Jr. and dancing and singing along to music about bugs. Charlie is feeling insecure and requiring extra affection to be reassured that he is the top short person around here (four-legged person but hey, still a person).

Last week, I got another great haircut from my top hair girl, Yvonne at Salon Y. She is awesome. If you live in the Portland area, I highly recommend her. Plus she knows where the greatest thrift stores are!

I also went to see Guster at the State Theatre. Honestly, they aren’t my favorite group but they put on a good show and always have great opening bands. Last time, Rogue Wave opened for them and they ARE one of my favorite bands now. This time they were opened by Jukebox the Ghost. Love them now too!

For some reason, now that I have a gmail email account (please don’t send me mail at the hotmail one anymore), blogger doesn’t know me anymore and has forgotten all about the hundred or so blogs I was following. This is tremendously frustrating since I didn’t bookmark any of them and now I can’t find them at all. ARRGGGHHH…..stupid blogger.com Today, I hate you.

For anyone trying to get ahold of me, my email address is sondic3 @ gmail.com  I got hacked so many times at hotmail that I dumped them. Stupid msn. I hate them today too. And yesterday. And likely tomorrow.

Have you heard the Creative Everyday challenge for November? I have more excuses then I have completed works of art. I’m digging this challenge. Anyone else wanna try it with me?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my shopping addiction lately. I only shop thrift, discount, and salvage (except for perishable groceries) but still, I enjoy shopping way too much. There are just so many great thrift stores nearby. They call to me….”Your treasure is here! Come find it!”. And I answer this siren call. I have boxes and boxes of treasure waiting to be sold on eBay and etsy and boxes of books waiting to be listed on ebay and alibris. Anyone else have this affliction?See the glasses the cashier is wearing? Those are my “new glasses”! I picked them up a couple weeks ago from the optometrist. But because they are vintage, they had trouble fitting the modern prescription glass into them. I have to take them to their offices in Gorham to get reground to fit better. But they are pretty great….a very light pink aluminum with little beads in their catty corners!

I will try to get my picture taken wearing them and post some pictures!

When we arrived at around 10:30am, the fog was thick but seemed to be gradually pulling away.

We slathered ourselves and the children with sunscreen and set them free to run.

foggy beach

After heading directly for the water, they decided to work on digging a large hole instead.

The hole begins....

The tide was coming in and bringing with it lots of ground of red and brown seaweed. Ick.

completed hole/giant trench

I spent a little time in the water and then just got too grossed out. The giant clouds of red/brown ick was warm and I started imagining that it looked a lot like sewage. So, yeah, I was pretty much done playing in the water at that point. Also, it started getting windier and colder. Most of the late morning and afternoon was spent huddled under towels and blankets and trying to get warm. Then, it started sprinkling. THEN it started raining. People all around us started packing up and heading home. Since I followed my friends to this beach, I didn’t know how to get back to the highway so I had to wait for them to be ready before I could leave. In anticipation though, I packed up most of our beach gear, got back under my towels and blanket and waited.

shivering beach goers

The sunglasses mostly kept the rain out of my eyes.

In time, the rain passed on but man, what a great day for the beach. Since we all had things to do in the afternoon and evening (packing for camping and getting ready for our family worship night) we couldn’t stick around all day waiting for good weather. FINALLY it was time to leave.

On the way back, we stopped at a relatively clean gas station to use the bathroom. While waiting in the car I noted their advertisement for an “expanded wine selection” (which was proudly displayed on a 3×3 foot wire shelf in the back of the store,  next to the entrance to the restroom). Cause yeah, you definitely want to shop for wine at the gas station. And when you do, you want to choose one with an expanded selection. LOL

So has anyone tried this site before? What was your experience with it?

http://rehashclothes.com/

Also, another site I also found today (Yes, I’m so VERY busy) where neighbors and friends and social groups trade stuff, borrow stuff, and last but not least, sell stuff to people nearby. (I signed up) It just launched officially last week so it really needs a bunch of people to sign up to get the ball rolling. Wanna join and swap stuff with me? You can borrow art that won’t fit on my walls and loan me junk jewelry that you don’t wear anymore. Whaddya say?

http://neighborgoods.net

ANYHOOOoooo…..so this weekend, I redeemed my recyclables and took my two daughters (armed with their saved up allowances) to a local ‘flea market’. It isn’t like your normal, every day flea market. It is populated by a handful of old ladies and gentlemen raising money for their bingo clubs or grandchild’s schools and who charge 25 cents for everything (mostly). There is of course, always that one granny who thinks that everything they own is treasure and who want 15$ for each item. (We don’t shop at their tables.) Since we went in the afternoon, they were willing to give us deals on top of their great prices to get rid of things. And on the way home, I stopped at a couple of yard sales that were just wrapping up as well. I know the best stuff is what you find before anyone else gets there. But if you go at the end, you get everything for almost free which is a thrill and a half!

BUT we got tons of treasure! My oldest spent 4$ and picked up this giant vintage barbie airplane with wings that fold up and let the thing turn into sort of an RV. Very cute but giant. She’s still not sure where she is going to store the thing. It is three feet long and a couple feet wide. Alas, that is one lesson that needs to be learned when thrifting. Is it really a bargain if you have no place to put it? My youngest bought herself some plastic adjustable roller skates for a dollar and some matchbox cars that the seller threw in for free with my purchases.

I got an awesome piece of red vintage Samsonite luggage for 2$. The closures are really interesting and took me a few minutes to figure out because they spin instead of moving right to left. I got a really cool straw picnic basket for a quarter. I got some vintage patterns (free), some large mats for framing (free because they were grouped in with other things that I got for a price of a couple dollars), a vintage aluminum pan with copper lid, lots of bits and baubles, some vintage books and romance booklets (gorgeous pictures which I will use for a mixed-media piece if they aren’t particularly valuable otherwise), and a whole lot of flotsam and jetsam. Here are a few photos….

As you can see, even though I don’t celebrate Xmas, I picked up some adorable little vintage tree decorations. I like to hang them on the curtains in the kitchen or art room for a little color. Maybe I will sell them on Etsy or eBay. Not sure yet. Sometimes I just see something shiny and like a magpie, I have to bring it back to my nest.

Here’s a closer view of the little baubles. The stack of plates are made of bamboo and printed with Chinese works of art. Normally I avoid anything ‘made in china’ but they seemed sort of fragile and old and had a vintage quality about them that made me think that they likely weren’t manufactured in this century. The little green lion has holes in the top for either flower stems or pens and drying paintbrushes. Not sure which he was created for or where he will end up . He just seemed so cute and cartoony. The little reclining Asian statue was adorable. I need to do some research on her. She ran me a whole 50cents. I try to only bring things home that I wouldn’t mind keeping for myself in case I can’t sell them.

Honestly, I haven’t sold anything online in a couple of years. I used to be quite savvy. Besides www.etsy.com and www.ebay.com, are there any places that you like to shop or sell for vintage goodies?

I ran across a couple of sites today that piqued my interest. One is www.boocoo.com which is an auction site where the money goes to charity. The other is Ruby Lane which is populated by individual vintage shops. I bookmarked them both for further investigation. I stumbled upon the Ruby Lane one while researching a set of tiny pretend plates or coasters (not sure which) that are tin, made in Brazil and have the maker name that I need to dig out a magnifying glass to read because it is printed so small. It is is Meister or Meisler and has little pioneer families on them. Dutch maybe? not sure. In the pictures below, it is the tiny plate on top of the odd shaped Denmark (“Danmark”) plate. If you know about either of them, please let me know.

I also got some utensils with neat wooden handles (Scandinavian of some flavor), some books, an L.L.Bean Red Barn coat for a dollar, a multi-level corner shelf for 5$, an adorable winter dress for my youngest for a dollar that is red with ‘doggies’ along the bottom, some metal leaves that hang on the wall, a leather, fabric lined clutch, and some other little things.

Afterward, my husband was frustrated with me for not saving my 12$ of recycling money for my upcoming trip to Boston. But considering the hours of fun that I had with my girls, I think that 12$ was VERY well spent. *smirk*

(Click them for a closer look )

vintage romance booklets