I am woman!

I am invincible. Or some days I think I am. Well, maybe invincible isn’t the correct word. More like… hmmm…. a word… OK. How about a series of words that make a sentence? Or two. Or a few paragraphs describing what I want and how I feel today? (And why the heck my blog shows bold print? I’ve spent whole days trying to fix that and nothing seems to work.)

I love finding stuff. We all know that. I would really love to make a living, yes, a real living, around that. Sometimes I think it’s all I know how to do, but there are other, unorthodox things I do well, too. Just not things that are in demand in the job world. I wouldn’t want a real, full time job, anyway. I’m too much of a free spirit. Hey! Don’t laugh! I hear you laughing out there! Stop it! Right this minute! Did you hear me? Stop!

So I’ve been buying stuff to sell for over 11 years now. And I’m still just making enough money to go out and buy more stuff. Most times. Now, shouldn’t I be a little further along than that? Maybe if I didn’t goof off so much… I mean, be so free spirited…. I’d be able to make enough to pay myself.

Occasionally, I’ll have days where I’m convinced I’ll never amount to anything. I’ll never get any further than I am. Most days I simply know what I need to do to do it right. I just don’t do it. Then there are days like today where I’m pumped. I CAN DO IT!! I’m gonna work so hard at this that I’ll have to hire a packing department, someone to run the store and maybe even someone to take pictures. YEAH! But I’ve gotta list on eBay. On the web site. Maybe even start an Etsy store. Gotta work, work, work. Gotta blog, blog, blog. Gotta Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. I’ve got pictures to take. Descriptions to write. Stuff to sell.

My new goal this week - actually, it’s the same old goal just never obtained - is to have 30 auctions listed each week and as many other things added to the web site and eBay store as possible. It’s Tuesday afternoon and I’m up to 13 auctions. Why is this so hard? I work way too slow. Sunday I was able to actually do 10. Took me about 5 hours, but I did it. Yesterday, I started at 3:30 and managed to get 2 listed by 6:00. I have no idea what happened. Got one more listed last night. How do other people do it? It takes me so long to think of nice things to say about what I’m selling. Just trying not to start a description with “this is” every single time is a challenge.

So I need some cheerleaders.

Oooo! You know who I want to “be”? The Pioneer Woman. Now, as far as I know, she isn’t in the resale business, but still. Where does she find the time to have the super fantastic blog she has? I’d like to be Lynn Dralle. Oh, there are many people I’d like to be. Or be like. People who found their spot. Their calling. Their niche. Their audience/friends/customers. They stuck with it. Didn’t lolly-gag around. They DID IT.

Maybe you’re in sort of the same situation I’m in. Struggling to find your place. Let’s get busy! You and me. We can do it. We can get there and beyond. Rah, rah, rah, sis, boom, bah!

To be continued…. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally. Hope it doesn’t let up for awhile. Well, maybe long enough for me to get some money back, but it sure was nice last weekend to finally get something to show for the gas I’d used. For a couple of months now, the only money I’ve been spending has been gas money. Not good. Money going out with nothing to show for it.

Last weekend was unusual in that I found vintage clothes. I don’t always run across clothes. Now I’m hording them until I get enough not to be a flash in the pan seller. Got to find a couple of models, too. My tall, majorette niece will do it, but everything is not going to fit her.

Starting with the stuff, here it is in all it’s yard sale glory.

Reddy Kilowatt plate, 1970s mushroom coffeepot, Dansk pepper mill and ’70s Fitz and Floyd candlesticks.

’70s plaid tote bag, Santa coasters, vintage cards, garden fork, hat for the flowers.

Two oak leaf frames. Oak leaf? Is that right? A little cabinet to paint, an old crayon box, another frame and an old, tin, nail box.

Two deco frames and a

1928 Birmingham police department collage picture.

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And now the clothes, wrinkles and all. They don’t look very exciting hanging like that, but they’re actually kinda fun. The two long dresses are Gunne Sax. Found at two different sales on the same day. There are a couple of 60s semi formals and some 80s stuff.

A pair of doves have built a nest on top of a cabinet on our back porch. We’ve enjoyed watching her sit so calmly, serenely and patient. I hope I’m here when the babies fly - if I haven’t already missed them. It’s been raining so much, I haven’t checked in the last couple of days.

What has that got to do with anything else in my life? I was thinking how we can learn from this sweet dove. The past couple of months’ junk expeditions have been like a desert. There have been sales, but they’ve had nothing of interest. Bor-ring. Trust me when I say, I’m due a good one. Patience. Stay calm. Don’t get upset. It’ll come when it’s time. This past weekend? T’weren’t it. There were lots of sales on Saturday, but this is the loot I pulled. (Erin got some good stuff, but I didn’t get pictures of hers.)

Disney wrapping paper from 1966, a vintage, blue/green clutch purse, a 1967 cat bank, an owl bowl, old, oaken bucket or firkin without a lid (that’s the dark shape you can’t really see), a lampshade with flower panels, 2 wooden bowls, neither with much age - one with a child’s drawing of an apple done at summer camp - a set of Lucite handle cake servers, small, blue Pyrex mixing bowl, three hankies, a bird dish and a bird jam jar. Oh, inside the bucket are some fancy prisms.

I mean, not bad, but way not good! This ain’t a payin’ the bills. I have no problem with lots of $5-20 items, but need some $50-200 items a little more often than I’m finding them lately. Sometimes I wonder if I should find another line of work or just go back to being a (ahem) lady of leisure. As if. LOL That’s my dream job, though. Lady of leisure/kept woman/princess…

OK. I’m about to become the bravest person you know. I’m gonna show you something. I’m revealing deep, dark secrets. What is prompting me? An explanation, or excuse if you insist, for why I don’t get to blog much. One of many, many things getting in my way.

Yesterday I heard something fall in the back of the shop. Somewhere. But didn’t see anything right off. Everything’s such a mess. Honestly, I don’t know how I let things get so out of hand, but I seem to keep piling stuff on top of stuff on top of stuff and around of, in front of, beside… I’m pitiful. Just pitiful.

So I walked in the packing/picture taking room and saw a ceiling tile had fallen! And with it, ceiling crap. Dirt and grit and dust and whatever else is in ceiling stuff. Now, this fell on top of a mess. Here’s a picture, not exactly how it looked yesterday, but similar.

Do you believe now that I’m the bravest woman you know? Who in their right mind would show a picture of that to the world?

I worked all afternoon, determined to get it all cleaned up and organized. After an hour or so, just getting it to something that resembled clean and organized would be fine. Even a remote resemblance. I succeeded. In the remote resemblance, anyway. It’s still not what I’d like and if you only saw it the way it is now, you’d think it was still a bit of a mess, but when you compare pictures the improvement is, maybe not astounding, but pretty good.

(Yeah, that’s a mattress against the wall. We store home stuff here, too.)

What’s next? The storage area. A mouse has been eating my cookies! I have to gather my courage to tackle that area. It’s twice the size of the packing/picture taking room and twice as packed and cluttered and messy. AND has at least one mouse.

I’d planned to do a little in there today, but people kept coming in the shop. Not buying customers, mind you, but chatters. Which is fine. I enjoy talking to them, but I sure needed to straighten a little and put some things on eBay and on the web site. Got nary a thing done.

Aren’t those folks always the ones interviewed on the news when bad weather hits?

I got to experience my own bad weather this afternoon! No, no trailers were thrown around. Or none that I saw. Haven’t heard of a tornado hitting a local trailer park either, but I do know some trees are down in town. This is what happened with us today.

It will help if you know about Alabama geography and today’s weather. We were going to Bass Pro Shop in Leeds via Pell City. By the time we got to Pell City, Ricky’s back really started hurting. Suddenly. So much that we stopped at Wal-Mart for some Aleve. I was wanting a Coke, so we went to the drive thru at Krystal. A loud, booming voice came through the air on some outside speaker system saying something we couldn’t understand, but got the gist that it was Pell City’s weather system. Then the sirens went off. As so often happens, the weather looked fine right then. We didn’t even know there was any bad weather on the horizon. Hadn’t had the radio on and had not checked the weather for the day. The radio was turned on immediately and we were informed the storm was headed where we were going as well as the precise spot we were sitting, so we turned around and headed home.

About 15 minutes from home we hear some bad stuff from a totally different system will hit Sylacauga in 15 minutes. And it did! Boyeee hidey - as Cousin Cliff used to say. It did.

Probably a quarter of a mile from our house as the crow flies, we saw weird sheets of rain crossing the road in front of us, but we kept going — until we got in those weird sheets of rain. Limbs and stuff started flying all around, a big something hit the windshield and lots of smaller somethings hit. Why do I never have the camera with me when I need it?! We and the car in front of us stopped in a semi clearing. Meaning the trees were close to the road on the opposite side, but 20 feet off the road on our side. We watched as a pine in front of us fell into some power lines. Would have fallen on the road, but the lines held it up. We watched also, as those lines arced and flashed. Then it all settled down, as quickly as it began and we took a chance passing under the tree.

(A picture of the tree later on in the day. You can click on it for a larger view, but it still doesn’t look as impressive as it does in real life. The lines holding the tree? Not the ones running parallel to the road, but the ones that cross the road!)

Let’s start with Friday. The sales around here were, um, just a little less than enticing. But there were three estate sales advertised in Birmingham. Do I go or do I stay? What do you think? Ready, set…. GO! Lena drove.

First sale was very nice and neat, but was a fancy yard sale. A real fancy yard sale, only it was inside. Not a moving sale. Not an estate sale. I overheard the lady saying she and her husband lived there. It was in two rooms, no three. The porch, living room and dining room. Of a tiny, but older and charming, apartment/garden home type dwelling. And boy, did they have nice stuff. Fine antiques at fine antique store prices. Really fine. And they’d done their research. A book of Maxfield Parrish prints - $700. Because someone had sold a book in similar condition on eBay for that much. Ummm… sell it on eBay yourself, then. Lena actually said that, but in a very nice and tactful way. The lady said she was going to get someone to do it for her. She’d bought a watch off eBay once and found it very hard to figure out.

So, OK. Lena bought a basket and… and… uh… something else. I do remember she managed to only spend $12.00. $10 and $2. She probably bought two of only 3 things priced at less than $100. I bought nothing. Too disgusted. Junk! Gimme junk! So on to the next.

We found the house easily. Felt quite proud of ourselves. But where are the cars? Has everyone already come and gone? The ad said 7:00 and it was about 10:00. Whatever, not a good sign. And speaking of signs, there was a large one tacked to a tree in the middle of the front yard. Lena looked at it, apparently without actually reading it, and thought it said “now”. We look at the house. There’s no sign on the front door to tell us to enter or go around as they so often do. We considered walking up to the front door and walking in, but things just didn’t feel right. I walked around back, following the driveway to the basement garage. There was stuff in the driveway and some in the garage and a lady working with it. She turned around and said it didn’t start until 12:00. Oops. She said to come back, but I had to be back in town by 11:00. Couldn’t come back. Lena asked could we go ahead and look, but nothing doin’. Disgruntled yet again, we left.

There’s still another sale which means there’s still hope. (There were quite a few yard sales that all started their ads with baby stuff, toys and clothes. Those weren’t on our list. We can do that in Sylacauga.) The next sale turned out to be in the basement. And overpriced. Belts $5.00 each. Lena observed that half burned candles were 50¢. And there was absolutely nothing of interest there. Well, I did see a pretty, yellow, home made dress from the 60s, but at $10, passed. However I did buy something there. My only two purchases for the day:

No, that’s not a giant rooster. He’s only 2″ tall.

But can you believe that? What a waste of time and gas. But the company was good. Lena and I haven’t been able to get out together in awhile.

Speaking of Lena, we got to meet a marble carver from Italy. Next post. Tomorrow? Maybe if I go ahead and write it, I’ll post it tomorrow. Yeah. That’s what I’ll do. Actually, I have several posts in me this week. I’ll have to do that for all of them.

Weekend update:

It was nice to have Lena for company at the estate sales yesterday. Had a great time! I was kinda excited to find this mans, Mr. Cabana shirt:

She rolled her eyes, groaned and said it looked like somebody’s drunk uncle. I thought of The Beach Boys. The inside is white terry cloth. So what do you think? Cool or uncool?

I rarely find good vintage clothes. It’s usually old lady, 1980s stuff, but yesterday was a good one. Certainly not like those of you who live in Vintage Clothes Heaven, but unusually good for my area. I’m going to apologize right up front for the crummy pictures. They were hastily taken, not on a form, but a hanger and I think I’ve got my jitter control setting wrong on my camera. Some are blurry. But here they are:

1970s bias stripe jumpsuit.

With its jacket.

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1960s suede, beaded, fringe vest. Uh, how do you get sweat stains out of suede?? I bought it wrong side out and it didn’t even occur to me to check the underarms.

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This might be very talented home sewing, but it’s really pretty in person.

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Not sure the age of this skirt, but it’s wool plaid cut on the bias. 1980s maybe?

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Short 1980s coat.

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1980s blanket coat.

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1970s wool cape.

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1940s? Long coat. Looks like boucle to me. I hate that the picture is so fuzzy.

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Got stuff, too!

Don’t know where that school was.

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This little tote has a place for an umbrella. A long gone umbrella, but I just loved the design of it. Had to have it!

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2 straw purses, a red, kitchen clock, clothespin bag and a little make-up case.

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Owl glasses marked M. Petit and a drink mixer/stirrer thing.

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And a small Dansk covered pot.

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There were a few more things. A tin used car lot sign, a felt Christmas tree skirt, a candle in the shape of a poodle, books, umm…. can’t remember… oh, yeah. 2 mens ties, a 1940s velour beanie… anything else? Probably. It was great getting some fun stuff after the lean weeks. It comes and goes, ya know?

Oooo! I gotta run! I’ve only got an hour to get ready for our nieces 1st birthday party!

As promised. I’m amazing myself! I’m actually following up on yesterday’s blog. Ha! I CAN do it!

Erin’s Versace dress. It’s really Versus by Versace, but how cute is that?:

My 1970s Mr. Dino dress:

And a flashback to the 1980s. Did I mention these? I don’t know if anyone will ever buy them, but I’m just sticking my big toe in the vintage clothing waters and the price was right, so… why not, right? Don’t answer that.

What was with the baggy things at the hips back then??? It’s a straight skirted dress with Hammertime things at the hips. The way it hangs not on a body you can’t see the straight skirt.

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Power dress? Needs gold chains at the neck, doesn’t it?:

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Oh, can’t you just see the curly perm and bright lipstick? Ready to par-tay!:

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Deanna at Timeless Things tagged me for 8 Things. Hmmmm… let’s see.

8 things I’m looking forward to.

1. Getting my bladder tacked! I’m tired of wetting myself. (Nothing like starting with a doozey, is there?)

2. Getting the wedding behind us…er, I mean, Erin’s wedding!

3. This weekend’s sales.

4. My first million.

5. My second million.

6. My third million.

7. Heaven, but I can wait.

8. My fourth million.

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Put some stuff on eBay

2. Blogged

3. Put one thing on the web site

4. Twittered

5. Facebooked

6. Ate, oh yeah. I ate!

7. Met some fun new people

8 things I wish I could do:

1. Reach middle and upper shelves without a stool.

2. Live a life of luxury.

3. Travel a lot. (Is that the same as #2?)

4. Loose this weight

5. Keep a clean, neat house (Translated: afford a maid).

6. Regularly find things for a couple of bucks that would sell for thousands of dollars. (Hasn’t happened, yet.)

7. Have lots of time for family, friends and fun.

8. Be 30 years old again.

Shows I’m currently watching:

1. The Office

2. 30 Rock

3. I think I might be liking Parks and Recreation

4. Ghost Hunters & GH International

5. Mad Men

6. The Tudors, but I’m just now tuning in, so having to watch from the beginning

7. Breaking Bad (same as above)

8. True Blood (also same as above)

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And who’s on my Pandora station right now? Billie Holiday. From Billie to Led Zeppelin. What a range!

We’re back from our Florida vacation to visit Philip and Lisa. Loved being with them. We don’t get to see them often enough. I won’t bore you all with vacation details. It was pretty non-eventful considering our vacations are usually movie worthy - think Chevy Chase and the Vacation movies. I’ll just get to the good stuff.

South Florida is overflowing with thrift stores. I had about 25-30 on my list to visit. Made it to, ummmm…. maybe 10. Erin had come along for the ride and did one afternoon of thrifting with me. The other day I went, she did beach time.

The stuff stuff was icky. Like the dollar store stuff we’re drowning in here. But there were a few clothing gems hidden in the racks and racks of old lady and boring clothes.

Erin got a Versace dress! I was impressed. I think she’s going to have it for sale, but I’m sure she won’t be opposed to keeping it if it doesn’t sell. My best purchase was a 1960s-70s, op art, long Mr. Dino’s dress. Pictures will be forthcoming. But, we got to actually TOUCH a Dolce and Gabbana! Gasp! It was just a shrug, but still. It was in a consignment shop whose prices seemed more than they are new at the stores.

We did finally make it to Palm Beach. As many times as we’ve been in the area, we’ve never driven over the bridge into Palm Beach. I was determined this time I was seeing how the rich and fabulous live. I want to go to there - forever. Just how much stuff do I need to sell every month to support that lifestyle? How many electrical problems would Ricky need to solve? Think we could do it?

We did visit a fun vintage clothing shop, Groovy Vintage Clothing, I think was the name. I wish I had a picture, but y’all know me and my picture taking habits. I took the camera, but never got it out. I would loved to have visited the shop and talked with the owner a lot longer, but we were in a timed parking space and our time was up. Sadly, we had to leave. But if you’re ever in that area, you’ve got to visit the shop. I promise you’ll have a great time!

As much as I loved Palm Beach (and Ricky said he wanted to move to Okeechobee), it sure was good to get back to Southern accents and good ol’ boys and girls. No offense to those who lack said accents. It’s just what you get used to, ya know? But I’m already ready to go back and find me a Versace dress! Oh, and see our son and daughter-in-law, of course. We do miss ‘em.

All wrapped up in one post.

Wisteria is one of my favorite signs of spring. I love to see huge trees covered in the yummy, purple, hanging blooms. We have one in our yard. We have to keep it under control, of course. Can’t have it taking over the big oaks, now can we? Personally, I’d like it, but the man who is our gardener (my husband) says no. Not doin’ it.

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It’s disgraceful. My lack of blogging. I know I say this every single time, but I really want to blog and read blogs! But, since obviously, I’m not in the habit again like I should be, I still want to keep in touch with you all. Let’s be Twitter and Facebook friends! I’ve actually just started with these two. I can shoot out a one liner or short paragraph every now and then. Seems like less pressure. Twitter, I haven’t quite got the hang of. I’m real new there.

I’m on Facebook as Wanda Horton Craft.

Twitter is JustVintage

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We’re going to Philip and Lisa’s next week. That will be a welcome change of scenery. I’ll still be working. Shopping as many thrift stores as I can fit in in 4 days. With a little beach time added to that.

We’ll make a stop on Sea Island, Georgia to go over some of Erin’s wedding plans with caterers and flower people. Erin’s going with us to Florida. I’m sure she’ll be torn between living in the sun on the beach and hitting the thrifts with me.

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There hasn’t been much to report in the weekend shopping excursions this past month. Pretty unexciting and uninspiring. But you know, the more crummy sales you go to, the closer you get to the big one. The treasure. I must be right around the corner for me, because I haven’t found much since the last big weekend over a month ago.

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Gotta go finish some work so we can actually leave. Hope some of you are still checking with me and will join me on Facebook and Twitter!

Love ya,

Wanda