Saturday, May 10, 2008

Garage Sales

Today I came home with mostly odds and ends. There were a couple community garage sales today. I love that you can drive to a neighborhood, park your car and walk around to all the houses finding your treasures. I came away with a bag full of clothes, a bunch of books, lots of random fabric, and a few random duplo blocks.


Three of the books I bought are old and two of them are even red, my favorite color. They aren't actually books that I will ever sit down and read but they are on interesting topics-- surveying, which could be nice to have around with family history land records; Gregg Speed Practice is just a cool book on shorthand. I've read books where the characters know shorthand but I have never actually seen what shorhand looks like. It's pretty random, I'm curious how it works; and A Cumulative History, I just love old history books. It's the family historian in me. I love learning about the historeography of history and how people viewed the past, in the past.



I also love reading through cookbooks and I'm excited to read and try out the recipes in Short-Cut cooking. I'm all for easy cooking and take many shortcuts in my own cooking.









I also bought Mr. Popper's Penguins. I absolutly loved this book when I was in grade school! I am so excited to read it to Elijah someday. I think he will love it too. It is truly just the cutest book.








I found a box set of the Wallace and Gromet short films. These shows are hilarious and I think my boys will love them (Sam will especially like the dog in the movies. Sam is so into dogs right now. He call them "uuff")








With all the crafting blogs I've been reading lately my hands have been itching to try all the patterns and ideas I have been filing away in my favorites folder. Today I found a stash of fabric to feed the urge. Some of it is vintage funky. I have a whole bunch of the orange one (any ideas on what to make with it??) and also got some furry fabric to make animals out of. I'm excited!

2 comments:

Maren said...

I went to my first garage sale and I thought of you. You seriously need to give me some advice? How do you bargain? I tried to offer a lower price, but ended up paying what they were asking anyways. I bought Sydne a cute table with chairs in very nice condition. I think she will like coloring on it, but I had not idea what I was doing. How do you know when you are getting a good "garage sale" deal?

Sarah said...

Yay! I'm excited you went garage saleing Maren.
As far as knowing if you are getting a good deal that really depends on how much it is worth to you. If you are willing to pay what they are asking-go for it, but it never hurts to negotiate the price. I always try and talk down especially if I am buying more than one item from them. It also depends on the time of day--is it early or late in the sale, how desperate are they to see it go?
The more you go garage saleing the more you will get a feel for what is a good price for things. I love finding sales that are selling cloths for 25 cents or even like today $1 a bag. Books are great for 25-50 cents, but depending on the book I will pay up to $1. Most people put prices on items expecting to get less. Don't be afraid to bargin! Many times people will meet in the middle.
Check out tipnut for more tips on how to attack the garage sales in your area http://tipnut.com/tips-from-a-garage-sale-junkie/

Happy hunting!