Monday Rambles

ALL HEED  THE WISDOM!

That actually explains a lot....

Here lately, this is definitely a necessity.

WEATHER REPORT

So we've gone through a week of freezing temps and snow and are getting ready to go into a week that is supposed to peak at around 70 later on.  Sigh.  Welcome to the Ohio Valley.  Still the warmer weather will give me a chance to do some stuff outside, which is nice.

We've already started making our junk pile for the Feb. set out by the back fence and it's getting a little untidy.  I would like to straighten it up a bit.  Some of the neighbors have already started throwing things on the curb, even though it's early.  We're a bunch of rebels in my 'hood, for sure.  I need a nice day to get out and scavenge.

I'd also like to spend an afternoon at storage making a load of furniture for the booth.  I'm starting to see I've got a good deal of room for some more big stuff.

SPEAKING OF THE BOOTH

I'm just about finished re-stocking.  Sales have been consistent, despite the weather.  I have heard that tat returns will be delayed this year until the end of February, which is worrying.  I really need that sales boost.  At least that gives me more time to prepare.

Today, I have to try and work another bookshelf into the book booth.  I think I have figured out how to do it.  Keith is getting ready to thin his books and has warned me to get ready for them.

I'm on a crusade right now to get the back log out of my house.  We want to swap out my junk room and the bedroom, as the junk room has more closet space.  The bedroom will be turned into a workroom/office.

Every morning before I go the mall and every evening after I get home, I try to get together a box or two of stuff, which goes to the booth the next day.  I'd rather be figuring out how and where to place it there, where it can make some money, than here, where it is just in the way.

AND NOW A WORD FROM MY MOTHER

I've also been going through old boxes of stuff to see if there's anything that I can sell, donate, or otherwise get rid of.  There's just too much crap around here.  In the course of doing that, I found a folder of jokes and clipping and stuff that my mother used to stick in with her letters (remember those?) when I was in college.  I have a briefcase full of those letters too.

Among them all was this gem, which she sent me while I was in seminary.  I promptly taped it to the door of my dorm room.

If you think that my sense of humor is crazy, you should have known my mother.  She was a nut!

JUST CALL ME DOPEY

I forgot to tell you all that I'm on Ritalin now to try and deal with my treatment-related fatigue.  Apparently my fat, old, tired ass has a lot in common with a sixth-grader who can't sit still.  It actually does help a lot, without the side effects I was having with the steroids.  It's not the same kind of manic energy boost, but more of a controlled, sustaining effect.  I do need to take more than one to keep going through the day.  If I miss my afternoon dose, I sure start feeling it!

DVD OF THE WEEK

In three words:  AMAZON SISTAHS HOLLA!

Sadly, there's no throwing wheel action here, but she kicks plenty of mythological ass!  I highly recommend this one and am now super-psyched for the movie this year.

Monday Rambles (Back Home Edition)

ALL HEED THE WISDOM!

That's the nicest thing a fortune cookie has ever said to me!

Well, it worked for Trump......

True that!


HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN

We got back at about 11:30-ish Thursday evening and were very happy to be off the road.  We made excellent time coming back too.  The trip is about a 13 hour drive, give or take.  We made it in 11.  We were worn out, but it was worth it to be back home.

FAMILIAR FACE

We were greeting enthusiastically and vociferously by this little guy.

Okay, so he's not quite so enthusiastic here, but trust me, he was.

He even slept in between our pillows that night, something he never ever does.  He was super, super clingy for a few days after.  He definitely doesn't like it when we go away.

We've finally figured out that he's not a very social kitty.  Kind of like his people, he's just not that into interacting with most people.  We're all just anti-socialites here.  We told our cat-checker to just make sure that he was okay when she stopped in, but not to try and pet him or play with him.  Even at that, he still growled at her every time she came over.  He's a two-man cat, our boy.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Since we still had our rental car for an extra day, we decided to make this year's long overdue cemetery trip.  Mazda just ain't up to long interstate journeys any more, so we rent a car to go to Arkansas.  Things have been too crazy of late to head to the country, so snubbing Black Friday seemed like a good idea.

My mother now has her new winter hat.

I also averted a crisis at my grandparents' grave.

I'm pretty sure Grammie wasn't happy about this.

All better!  I picked up the stray flowers after I took this pic.

THE VISITATION

We had a real good visit in Arkansas.  Even with the extra time we had, it still seemed way too rushed and way too short.  I guess it will always be that way.  Still, we did cover a lot of ground and had wonderful times with as much of his family as we could.  One of his aunts had been going through her mother's papers and pictures and gave him an envelope filled with his old school pics, family pics, and lots of pictures of his father as a boy.  It was great!

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

I did manage to get some junking in during the trip.  More on that tomorrow.  I found a Salvation Army that I had never seen before and revisited a cute little vendor mall that I was last at a couple of years ago.  I also stopped at a couple of flea markets during the cemetery trip as well.  I didn't find a lot, but there were some cool things.

REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS

Booth sales are still down in the dumps.  I had a little bounce in November, but not enough of one.  I'm still due for a really low check.  It seems that consumer confidence didn't rise with the election results. 

I've got Mazda loaded down with holiday stuff to put out this week.  We'll see if that helps at all.  I desperately need a really good end to this year.

MUSIC FOR MONDAY (HOLIDAY EDITION)

I guess I'll wrap it up with this and see you all later.

Fenomenal Foto Funnies!

Still embroiled in battle with the booths, so here's some random pics of randomness for your entertainment.

First up some bits of fortune cookie wisdom:

Try not to think too hard about the way these two might fit together.

This was the roster for a recent weekend animation fest.

It was a good weekend.

Classic yard sale parking job I saw a couple of weeks ago

The house is on the corner of two streets.  There were spaces to park on both streets.  What did they do?  Literally parked on the corner!!!  These are my people?

I'm used to seeing odd lots of stuff at the curb these days.  In fact, I seek it out!  However, I do have to say that finding a neatly folded pile of clothes on the corner is kind of new to me. 

Although, I do have to admit it was set out time!

Someday Rambles

IT'S BACK!

After a kind of moderate last week, the heat is back with a vengeance this week.  Ewww!  COME ON FALL!  Eddie's sweating and waiting!  (TMI?)

It's so hot right now that we went to a large outdoor sale on Saturday with dozens of vendors and I just flat gave up in the middle of it all and quit.  I ain't built for this any more.  I did make one super-fabulous find, though.  Check back tomorrow to see it.

Not only is it awesome, but it's a total keeper.

I put off starting my big booth redo for a couple of days to finish up some things here at the house.  Part of that work is outdoors, and I am dreading it.

Speaking of the booth, I think the summer sales slump is wrapping up.  I've had really good sales all last week, except for one day.  Lots of potatoes and bigger and bigger ladles of gravy.  Yum!  I'm going to come out of this month well ahead of where I've been the last three.  It's still not where I like it to be, but any improvement over recent history is welcome.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND THE OTHER DAY!

Just the table, not the junk on it.  It was sitting on the curb at the bottom of the hill the other day as I was rushing to catch the bus.  I figured it would be gone by the time I got home, but it was still there.  It was kind of hidden by some tree branches.  I wouldn't have seen it originally if I hadn't been walking down that side of the street, which is not something I usually do.

I got one of those looks from Keith when he saw it, so I told him that it was "perfectly primitive."  That's also what I put on the tag.

HEY PAM AT VIRGINIA RETRO!

I'll see you your painted turtle and ladybug rocks....

And raise you one painted barn rock!

Okay, so you really did paint yours, and I just found this one, but I thought it was cool and it did make me think of you.

Those that can, paint.  Those that can't, buy.

Check out Pam's blog, if you haven't already.

THE THINGS YOU LEARN WHILE DINING OUT

Pikachu likes Mexican food.

My last latte appointed me a professor.  Of what, I have no clue.

And the most recent fortune cookie wisdom.

DVD OF THE WEEK

This is an absolutely charming short animated film from 1966, directed by the wonderfully talented Gene Deitch.  The full title is Alice of Wonderland in Paris.  Alice meets a mouse named Francois, who takes her to Paris so she can fulfill her dream of meeting Madeline, of the children's book series.  Along the way they swap stories, which become the various segments of the movie.  Art for each story is provided by creators such as Ludwig Bemelmens (creator of Madeline), Crockett Johnson (creator of Harold and the Purple Crayon), and New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber.  There's not much else in the way of plot, but the whole thing is just too sweet and totally endearing.  (I'm also a great fan of both Thurber and Johnson, which adds to the film's appeal for me.)  Highly recommended, if you can find it. 

By the way, Crockett Johnson is going to pop up here again in a few weeks.

WRAPPING UP

Not a whole lot happening this week, it seems.  Let's make up for that with some music for Monday.



Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend.  I'll be heading to the Big Flea!  It's antique wing time.

Monday Rambles

Behold the wisdom of the fortune cookie!

Behold the wisdom of the trash can in the alley!

Saw that one while on a trash crawl constitutional during junk set out.

I have a feeling if everyone would take both bits of advice to heart, this world would be a better place.

Who says flea markets aren't classy?

C'mon!  We got caviar in the salvage groceries!  Top that!

I found my birthday present the other day in a showcase across from my booth.

That's the way cool 70's Batmobile, by the way.  And it has both figures with it!  Now, I just need to find someone who loves me enough to drop 50 bucks (!) on it.  Well, we do have six months to save up.

Shara did a ramble last week, so I'm doing a phone dump this week. More to come in a second.

I have never been more glad to see a month end than this one.  Barring a HUGE rush today and tomorrow, I'm going to have my lowest total for 2016, and the lowest one in a while.  Sales have just been off.  And it's not just me.  Nearly everyone I know here is seriously crying the blues, no matter what mall they're in.  Sigh.

I know that May means Derby, Mother's Day, the start of warm weather, yard work, yard sales, graduations and proms.  I know that this is just a cyclical downturn and things will pick back up when it finally gets too warm for the wimpy somewhat less than hardcore yard sale shoppers.  But, dammit, I'm overly dramatic!  I wail because it's what I do.  And right now, I'm having a good one.  Wail, that is.  Not month.

If you listen close you can probably hear me.

How slow has it been?  Well, the last two times I've gone in to straighten up, there was nothing to do!  Typically, when things are the slowest, that's when booths get the messiest.  At least mine do.  Counter-intuitive, I know, but that's been the pattern borne out by seven years of experience.  This time around, they're almost spotless.  Even the comic booth, which is always a wreck.  Sigh.

I was loading the van yesterday, when I started hearing some murmurings from the stuff I was putting in.  It seems I had promised them their moment in the blog, but had never gotten around to getting pictures.    In the interest of peace and harmony, here are a few shots of some recent purchases.

Heavy, rusted antique snow shovel.  I can see this baby in someone's porch decor this winter.

Painted bench and vintage metal kid-size folding chair.  I got three of the chairs.  If there had been more, I would have gotten more.  This came from a church sale I like a lot.  Every year, they bring out a few items from their defunct school.  Usually, it's school desks.  This year, it was these chairs.

 

 Folding wooden chair from the same sale.

Two drawers from the same sale.  I've been kicking myself for not getting more, as they had a bunch.  I love those heavy metal candle holders.  The big GI Joe ship came from a fund-raiser sale that a friend of mine puts on every year.  I was looking through all the small toys on a table when she said "Don't forget the big toys too."  And there it sat.  My friends know me so well.  I also got a huge box full of those big cardboard bricks that they use in nursery schools.  I forgot to get a pic of it.

Speaking of forgotten pics, that photobombing blue thing in the back is a handmade child's stool from the junk set out.  This apparently is the only shot I took of it.  It flips over, so it can still be used as the child grows.  It was completely filthy, but totally solid.

Speaking of the curb finds, they'll be back tomorrow.  I'll be wrapping up the bigger stuff then and moving on the the smalls by the end of the week.  The smalls are where the real awesomeness lies.

I hope everyone has nice plans for the holiday.  I was intending to go to the Big Flea today in honor of my mother.  The sixth anniversary of her death was Saturday.  Memorial weekend has a slightly different meaning for me, I guess.

However, when I was dropping stuff off at the booth, a soon-to-be-departing vendor offered me her two booths full of stuff for fifty bucks.  She's been running a sale all month to clear things out, but still had a whole lot left.  There's easily fifty bucks worth of movies alone.

On Wednesday, I'll ask the mall to add her number to my account, so I don't have to re-tag everything.  Having a separate number for the buy helps me track the sales easily as well.  They can't do it until she gets removed from the system at the end of the month, or all of her sales for May will be added to mine.  (Well, she did say I could have everything.)

So instead of the flea market, I'll be heading to the Peddlers Mall today to sort out that stuff. If anyone does want anything, I can re-tag it.  Otherwise, I'll pull it off the floor and stash it until the first.  The largest items (and there is a little bit of furniture) will go right into my spaces with new tags.  She kept her stuff fairly organized, so it won't be a hard job, but it will take most of the day.

I think Mom would understand.  I'll hit the Big Flea again in July, in honor of her birthday.  She would be 74.

The only thing I was going to be hunting at the flea market was comics, since I am running short.  However, there's already a sale for Saturday on Craigslist that advertises "thousands" of comics for 50 cents each.  And there's a con coming up at the end of June.  I think I'll be all right.

Yes, I do realize that I paid for the privilege of cleaning out someone else's spaces.  It's good karma.  The last two vendors to leave ended up just giving me tons of stuff they didn't want to haul out.

I can't play on the scale of some of the larger vendors, but I do okay for myself.  The best stuff kind of falls into your lap, it seems.

Yes, I know this is why Sorrow Mountain is a thing.  It is slowly coming down.  I need to get some pics of that progress for you all.  

Monday Rambles

Oh dear!

Absolutely nothing to ramble about.  I spent yet another week (third in a row!) on the great booth overhaul and redo.  I'm still slogging on and the task is still never ending.  Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to be hindering sales, which are pretty strong.  This weekend was a bit of a dip, but I'll have more on that later.

Maybe we should have some fortune cookie wisdom before we move on.

Oh, stop!  You're making me blush.

Since it's the booth on my mind and in my time so much right now, let's do a tour of what I have done.  I'll go ahead and admit that these shots are all shitty.  I blame the lights at the mall.  Those glowing beams you see at the tops of some pics are not the Junk Gods showering my endeavors with their blessings, but glare from the lights.  Still, some of you are really wanting to see the spaces, and I don't think the pics are going to get any better.  Sorry about that.

Here we go!

We'll start with a new feature:  The Incredible Wall of Canisters and Containers!  I've been selling so many of these at the moment, I decided to group them together for a while.

Salt and pepper shakers, miniatures, tiny ceramics and pottery reside on this mirrored curio shelf.  You can also see my Things in Jars shelf.  Nothing sells junk like putting it in a jar!  I am contemplating swapping this stuff out with my vintage Christmas stuff, which is not working on the shelf where it lives at the moment.  (Hence no pic.)

I finally decided to make a barricade at the end of the shelf on the right to stop folks wandering through the tiny gap and making messes.  I wanted a junk blockade, rather than another shelf, because I wanted to keep it feeling a little open.

Here's the frontward aisle-facing display.  I spent a day and half working on it.  This is the spot where that wonderful, primitive cabinet sat, and it sold weeks ago!  I just shoved some crap there and put off actually making a new display, because I was totally bereft of ideas.  (Doesn't sound so dramatic?  I was bereft, I tell you!  Bereft!)

I think you can make it out as a unit a little better in this sidelong shot.  (Isn't my vocab getting fancy this time around?  First "bereft" and now "sidelong."  I just need to find a way to work "bodice" into this post and I'll be too fancy for my pantsies.  Or something like that.)

Another vendor, who is also a friend and extremely talented when it comes to staging and styling, complimented me so nicely on this one.  He actually told me that he had learned how to work better with smalls by looking at what I do.  I was totally floored, since I'm totally convinced that I have no talent for this sort of thing whatsoever.  All I know how to do is keep cramming stuff everywhere there's an empty spot.

My ode to dressing tables and vanities.  Anything that might be found on a lady's or gentleman's  grooming spot is here--Avon decanters, perfume bottles, watches, jewelry, even corn cob pipes.  It goes all the way the up those shelves you see here.

Aisle side view.  My Asian section is at the very end on the wicker shelves.  In the middle is my Americana section.  The light green shelf in the foreground of this shot just sold, which means that I am on the hunt for another small shelf.  Sigh!

 My new Salvage section.  I've been finding and moving so much of this lately, that I thought it would be good to go ahead and make it a new section.  I want to put up a sign calling this "The Salvage Land" but only the comic nerds would get the joke.  And they never come into this booth.

They spend their time in this booth!  Ignore the boxes blocking the way on the right side.  I took care of them the day after this pic was taken.

I added this shelf to the top of the end of the comic box table.  (Got that?)  It enabled me to move the nerd toys out to the aisle and has boosted those sales.

That's two booths down and one to go.  

Move along!  Nothing to see here!

Uhm, the tour for that one is going to have to wait a while.

I'm going to try and whip a little bit of organization into this one today.  I have treatment tomorrow and really want to take this week off from the booth and rest.

The sidewalk sale was practically a bust.  I only made about 35 bucks and didn't sell very much.  I'm bringing a lot of the stuff home to put in my own yard sale.  Some of it went into a Free Cart at the sale, which took it away and made me happy.

It was a slow day overall.  I think we fell victim to the start of the nice weekends.  It didn't rain this weekend and I think yard work won out over the Peddlers Mall.  Sales were down in the mall too.  This was the first weekend in forever that I didn't break a hundred in sales on either day.

That's about all for this week's Ramble.  Have some music for your Monday.

2015-2016 Rambles

It is said that there are only two things in life that are certain.  Those would be death and taxes.  When it comes to this blog, however, there are at least three certainties.

1. At least half the photos will be crap.
2. The blogger will never be very good at his job.
3.  Whenever you read that posting will resume "tomorrow," then you can expect at least another two weeks (or more) before a post finally appears.

Is anyone even still out there?

If you look back over the last few years of this blog, you'll find that I inevitably seem to flake out right around the holidays and totally disappear.  Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, life just overwhelms me and the blog suffers.  Interestingly, I don't really do that much holiday celebrating any more.  The only gifts to get are for Keith, my brother and Keith's mom.  We haven't decorated or done any baking since my mother first got sick.  If anyone ever gets a Christmas card for me, guard it like a double-bag collector's item, because that sucker is a rarity for sure!  Yet, despite all of this, the end of the year seems to swallow me up like a black hole.

I know my prolonged absence made some of you worry, and I am sorry for that, but deeply touched at the same time.  You all are just so sweet and I am lucky to have each of you in my life.  I owe several of you emails, blog comments, and post catch ups.  I'll get to it, hopefully soon.  If I don't, know that I do think about you all a lot.  I had no idea that this little blog would bring so many great people into my life.

Speaking of being in touch, any of you that have my mailing address, please contact me by email.  After years of declining service, we finally did away with the PO Box.  If you want it, I'll be glad to give you the home address.

Okay, so where to begin?

Let's start with this. He always makes people smile.

Keith's mother gave him that quilt for Christmas.  One of his aunts made it for a fund-raiser at one of the churches that his mom attends and she ended up winning it.  It's really pretty, and Chiquito just loves it!  He's claimed it as his own.

In other Chiquito news, Keith relented and made me a 2016 Chiquito calendar.  I'll get the Jan and Feb pics up soon.  Well, before March, at least.  He told me to warn you all that this one might be the last one.  He thinks that you're going to find pic after pic of Chiquito to be "repetitive."  I told him he didn't know you all.

Speaking of Christmas, I also got this,which of course I love!  Two more pairs of socks came with it!

I get tons of compliments when I wear it!  He also made me a Kosh calendar, but it makes me kinda sad, so I keep it stashed on my desk.  I had asked him to make me a memory book of Kosh pics, like he did for our other kitties who have passed on, but he hasn't had a chance to track down all the pics yet.  The calendar was to hold me over until he could.

Something we did not realize about having a Christmas Eve anniversary is that it is awfully hard to find a place to go for dinner.  We finally got a corrected copy of our marriage license, so Keith is not the officiating judge any more.  He had a couple of our wedding pics blown up and printed out on canvas for me.  We're doing some rearranging at the house, so they'll probably go in the bedroom, when it's done.

The other day, while I was searching for a clean pair of jeans, I came across this:

That's the 70's Batman comic logo, by the way.  I had forgotten I had that one.  Finding made me remember that I also have a shirt with the TV show logo on it, which I now have to find.  I have a nerdrobe and didn't even know it!

Ignore my hair in that pic, please. I'm growing it out in hopes of finally having the ponytail I've always dreamed of.  I've tried it before, but always got frustrated when I got to this shaggy, unmanageable state.  The top and sides aren't long enough to pull back yet, and it's driving me nuts.  I'm determined to see it through this time.  I think it's a midlife crisis thing.  I'm also pondering bleaching it totally white and piercing my nose.

This happened a couple of weeks ago.

It was really the first bad weather of the winter for us and wasn't nearly as bad as it got in other places, but it was enough.  The streets in front of and behind our house are kind of major ones, and traffic was crawling along them for a couple of days afterwards.  The Peddlers Mall was closed for a day and a half.  Sales sucked all freaking week long.  Chiquito told me that the best thing to do was stay in, drink hot chocolate, eat popcorn and take naps, so I did.  He was right.

Speaking of the booth, some of you all want new pics, but it's going to be a while.  Things are a bit rough in all my spaces right now.  December was an excellent month for me, but January sucked.  My total sales were the lowest they've been in a long while.  Bad weather was part of it, but the rest of it was mainly my fault.  For some reason (winter blahs?), I just could not seem to pull it together, get the Christmas out, restock everything, and tidy it all up. 

Usually, I leave the Christmas in through the first week in January, then spend the next week clearing it all out and redoing everything.  Those first two weeks are usually a little slow anyway, and that gives me time to get the booth ready for the end of the month, when the early early birds have gotten their tax refunds.

I could not seem to get moving this year.  Part of it was that I decided to leave some bits of Christmas scattered around my spaces.  I marked everything that had been through more than two seasons down and shoved them on a couple of bottom shelves.  It's out of the way.  It fills shelves people don't access a lot, so the booth looks fuller.  It also gives the adventurous folks (and holiday lovers) some bargains to hunt for,

I also left all my holiday glasses and dishes on another bottom shelf.  I'm down to very few of them, and they've sold year round for me before.  The books and music I worked into the book booth.  None of that took very long.  The hold up came when I decided that I should make a year round vintage Christmas section. 

I had already pulled everything, and it was piled in carts.  All I needed to do was clear a shelf for it and sort through it.  That became the hold up.  Three different attempts to designate an existing shelf totally failed.  I ended up heading to Sorrow Mountain in hunt for a new shelf, rearranging things a bit, then making my vintage Christmas section.  It took forever, as the snow happened in the middle of all this.  The result was I had carts of stuff and empty boxes cluttering my booth and scaring off customers.

Sometimes, it's really obvious that I do not have a clue what I am doing.

Three days in, however, and February seems to be doing much better for me.  I'm thinking that tax money is trickling in, finally.  Thanks to taxes, February and March can be good months.

To switch to a better note, my scans are coming back clear!  The treatments continue, of course, but the docs (and me) are really pleased with the results.  I'm on the same drug that Jimmy Carter is getting, by the way.  I've been referring to it as "the presidential treatment."  I'll have what the President is having, please.  I'll be due for another scan in a month or so.

It's a bit of a busy week here.  I'm benignly neglecting the booth, because it's junk set out weekend in our neighborhood.  The winter set out is always a little iffy, but the weather is supposed to be mild all week, so the pickings might be pretty good.  I've got a bit of cabin fever, so I am raring to go hunting.
I've also got stuff that needs to go out to the curb.  I have two bookshelves that are seriously falling apart and need to go.  I have replacements on Sorrow Mountain, of course.  I've been putting off dealing with these for a while, partly because I'm convinced that it's only the weight of the stuff on them that is holding them together and upright.  Seriously, they're that far gone.  I'm afraid it's going to be like playing Jenga on a large scale. One wrong move and I'm buried in books.

At least this time, if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know what happened.

Let's close out with a backlog of fortune cookie wisdom.

I certainly try to do this one.

Well, thank you!

I was sure this meant I had the winning Power Ball ticket.  Alas!

I got all excited at the last one from Po!  I never got a fortune from a Teletubby before!  Po! Po! Po!  Then I realized that it was the Kung Fu Panda dude, which makes more sense from a fortune cookie perspective.  Personally, I think what the world needs right now is Teletubby fortune cookies.