A Lovely Day in Vermont. Yay!

I woke up this morning and thought, 6AM, I'm up.  Got up from my mattress on the floor and thought, can hardly wait until I'm not sleeping on just a mattress.  Getting too old for it and my knees kill me when I get up.  I had a lovely bed last year, and slowly it started falling apart.  Years ago one of the neighborhood girls jumped on it and busted part of the frame.  So my ex (husband at the time) had fixed it with mere duct tape and called it good.

Then, when I brought it to my new apartment, when the kids would sleep over, my son would bounce on it and for a long time it was slanted down on one end.  And slowly I started losing all the rungs out of the Jenny Lind style bed that we paid an arm and a leg for when I was married.  Came from The Land of Nod catalog.  Gorgeous but not made very well.  And suddenly more rungs started falling apart.  Finally, started dating again and had sex with one guy and my bed broke even more.  Guy is long gone and one day I just felt like getting rid of the bed frame.

Just a pile of loose boards and broken dreams.  So I tore it apart early one morning at 5AM.  And slowly started quietly dragging it out at 6AM to our neighborhood dump.

So anyhoo,  can hardly wait to stop sleeping on an old mattress.  I'm waiting for my boyfriend to say "Move in."  But he's putting my kids first and thinks we should wait until my girls are a few years older.  He lives further away and knows I wouldn't be able to see them as much.  He's a really nice guy to be thinking of the impact on my kids if they wouldn't be able to see them every day.

Right now I love my ebay job which allows me to be home with them.  I visit practically every day all day into the evenings and then head home to fall asleep for a few hours to a movie of my choice.  Usually Breaking Dawn, The Ring, or Case 39 or some other movie.  Had to watch Red Eye again.  Hadn't seen that in a while.

And a while ago, I felt like watching Moon Spinners.  An old Hayley Mills movie.  I hadn't seen it evidentally as I couldn't remember it.  But it was quite the interesting old movie.  Love the classics too.

So anyway, today ended up being really nice out.  I started the morning feeding my cats, getting ready and heading over to the kids house.  Got there, got the coffee into my belly and started looking at my facebook.  Over the last few days I was uploading old family pictures of everyone we lost and started posting all kinds of old pictures.  All my relatives started responded and we started going down memory lane.  Posted lots of my mom.  Miss her every day.  Life isn't fair sometimes.  And CANCER IS A BITCH WITH NO END.

Then, started to check my ebay, slowly get some packages ready and then a little before nine am I started to mosy out the door to mail my stuff and go yardsaling.  Suddenly, I realized that the post office wasn't open yet so I decided to head over to the yardsale sign I saw earlier.

Well, on the way I saw big signs for an estate sale.  Those green signs seemed so promising.  And there were lots of them, so I surely would find my way.  I got there and stepped out of my boyfriend's car.  I've been borrowing his while mine get's fixed.  I get mine back next week.

It was still a little chilly in the early morning here in Vermont.  Suddenly, another guy was walking up with a number, and another guy was passing us all a number.  Mine was 25.  Here I am thinking, I've never been to a yardsale before where you get a number.  Well, it was a real ESTATE SALE.  Suddenly quite a group of people with numbers started arriving and we all were waiting to go inside the house to check out the items.  The guy was actually a realtor.  One guy had showed up all the way from Montpelier and another guy from several towns away.

While we were waiting some of us started chatting.  Got on a GPS conversation for some reason and another woman talked about getting lost in the bad part of Boston at night.  I know, it was because I told them about my boyfriend being down in Boston as his sister was in the hospital and I told the women that I thought he had wanted me to go down to get him.  "Get my GPS"  was all I could think.  Luckily I didn't have to get him.  His brother was bringing him back.  I breathed a sigh of relief as I don't think I would do very well driving through Boston.  All I could think of was little ol' me driving through a huge city?

But I suppose if I had to, I would have done it and eventually found my way.

So, once the guy let us get into the house, we all walked through.  I went very quickly.  The prices were ungodly high and all I wanted to do was get out of there.  Another woman behind me whispered,  "This is definitely different."  I think she was just about as disgusted as I was.

So after that, I started finding more yardsales.  The second one had some nice things and I was looking at the outfits in hopes of buying some to sell.  But she wanted a dollar for just about every outfit.  I managed to dicker her down to 50 cents for one item, paid her and walked away.

Then started driving for more sales.  The next one was a good one.  I at least walked away with some glitter glue for the girls and a cute little sewing case.  Yay and for low prices.  Can't beat a quarter or fifty cents for something.

Then onto a little bit of a drive and false sign.  The street said it was having a sale and I saw no yardsale to be had.  I hate when you get turned around thinking your driving for a little bit and you are going to find that bargain sale.  Not on your life.

Then, I decided to drive through another town and back into mine.  It's still a little early in the season and not a lot of sales yet.  No luck in the other town and I wasted good gas.  Darn it!

Then, as I was driving back I mailed out my ebay packages.  And the sun was coming out.  Yay!

I started to drive into another town and found a yardsale along the way.  Stopped, and it was a good one.  I found a cute container with an angel painting on it.  I recognized the painting and wanted it for my pencils and supplies.  And then I spied a whole bunch of essential oils she was getting rid off.  So I gave her $1 for the whole lot.  And we got talking about soaps and crafting.  It was fun.  I saw a few old vintage suitcases yet hesitated and left.  Went into the next town and caught a few more sales.  Found a lovely Ginny Vogue doll at one for a cheap price and a bunch of women's outfits to sell on ebay.  Then I headed back and really wanted to go back to that other yardsale.

Found my way back and the suitcases were still there, so I gave her $1 for each.  Started talking about reinventing them and she was saying decoupage would be nice.

Hit a few more sales on the way back.  They are definitely cropping up.  Yardsale season is almost into full swing.  Give or take a few more weeks.  Got a few more outfits to sell at one and more acryllic paints for the girls at another.  Like we need more paints.  Oh well.  Craft and art supplies are always a good thing.  And I got lucky and also found a little yarn!  One was a Paton's metallic that I will think of some use for.

Girls and I settled down to our computers and I started to list the doll and most of the outfits.  One or two I decided on keeping.  A new wardrobe on a budget is always nice.

Last I checked two people were suddenly watching the doll.  And now I'm laughing as my youngest daughter just came in all excited that the glitter glue is the same glue that her teacher uses!  I told her I paid a quarter for it.  She has just reminded me that she paid ten cents for a tv last summer.  Across the street from their house there had been a yardsale and they let her have a huge bulky old tv for ten cents.  She got it last summer.  I asked her if it was in her room and she said she didn't know where it is.  I started laughing, thinking, "Yup.  It's probably gone!"  Dad probably threw it out.

My oldest used to come home from nearby yardsales with the craziest stuff.  The neighbors loved seeing them come over and they would send them away with stuff for practically nothing.  I'm sure they were laughing and glad that the little kids were walking away all excited with it.  And loving seeing a huge unwanted item disappear from their house and over to mine.

Well, lunch has consisted of something light.  Only felt like a tuna fish sandwich with celery and nibbled.  Then my supper was almost going to just be a bowl of chocolate ice cream.  And then my daughter, Julia was craving my scrambled eggs with cheese.  So no I am slowly nibbling yet again.

And then earlier this afternoon, we heard the good old ding a ling truck drive on in and before I could blink, the girls were rushing out with money and back with huge snowcones.  Well, summer has officially begun in the mind of Mr. Ding a ling.

And I hopped back on facebook at one point and started responding to some of my family and friends.  Sparked up a conversation about a grape tree.  One cousin's daughter bought a grape tree and another cousin to her responded, "What's a grape tree?"

Then another cousin, responded, "Don't grapes grow on vines?  ha ha.

Then I responded, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.  Then I had to mention seeing a rose tree in Costco one year and thinking to myself, "A rose tree?  Aren't they rose bushes?"

Then, I did a moronic thing.  Another friend from high school posted a picture of himself with pets behind him.  I didn't look super close at the picture and thought they were bunnies and started a whole story about our bunnies and that my ex was a "bunny killer"  for demanding all our bunnies stay in the garage all winter.  I would cry out "bunny killer"  and then the girls would repeat it and start crying as our bunnies started dying in spades for some unknown reason.  Probably because we bought them from a store that is known for selling sick animals.
 
Well, I then looked at a larger size of the picture he posted and realized that the pets were in fact dogs and not bunnies!  I was mistaking one's two feet for bunny ears!  Ha ha!

But not the only moronic thing.  Yesterday I posted an old picture of my son on facebook with I thought a bag over his head.  My cousin replied with, "That's a box, not a bag."  And another moronic thing.  I posted another picture of him inside my dad's armoire with some toy.  I thought it was Funky Monkey (one of those monkey stuffed animals with the long arms and legs and velcro.  I then went on to write about what we used to do with Funky Monkey.  My mother would put Funky Monkey on the ceiling fan in the living room and turn it on and we'd all laugh when it landed on someone.  Mind you there was a whole crowd of people sandwiched in that special living room.  Good times.  Well, I looked at the picture again and had to correct myself after I posted it.  Not Funky Monkey but instead it was Woody.

Another nice highlight of today was calling my Great Aunt Mary and getting to talk with her.  I like to call her every now and then to keep in touch with her and that side of the family.  I just love hearing her voice and it brings me back to all the times we used to sit in her kitchen all day, drink tea, eat cookies and treats, play with all the cousin and stay well into the night while all the adults never wanted to leave.  She had fallen down while yardsaling at someone's house and hit their cement.  She broke several bones in her shoulder or arm.

And then another really fun thing today was getting to dive into one of my new suitcases to reinvent.  It was a smaller blue one.  I used some fabric glue and glued some paris newspaper fabric onto one of the sides.  Then I started to tackle the inside.  When you open it up, there is a little mirror in the middle of the top that I was able to pull out.  I started gluing different fabrics into parts of it.  And then I glued a little baby pocket I had cut off one of my girls baby outfits.  It has hearts and kites on it.  I glued it into one corner of the bottom part.  Then I started to cover up some of the rough edges with some nice ribbon.  And I had decided to glue in one of the little fabric roses I learned how to make.  It will make a nice little holder for a dangling necklace.  And I am thinking I am going to want to velcro some strips of ribbon or lace in on the top part of the inside.  I will need the velcro for pulling it apart and sliding in all the bracelets I am making.  When the two are done, I am going to use them at my craft shows in the Fall as containers and displays for my products.

I will take some pictures when they are finished.

Well, I should go.  I've got a pretty yardsale skirt for the girls I am repairing.  I got it at a church rummage sale yesterday.  Got it back and the zipper is completely broken.  Well, it's too pretty to get rid of so I am starting to sew up the zipper so the skirt won't open up and it's made of stretchy fabric at the waist.  So they can at least wear it over jeans or leggings.

And I need to get back and see how my ebay items are doing.  Hoping for more bids.

And then I still need to work on that knitted skirt.  I've been procrastinating this week on it.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted May 5, 2012

Might be mailing her to someone next week.  I've got two and she would be an extra.