Selling Our Stuff

We had another exciting adventure this weekend, and we didn't even have to leave home. The TwentySomethings have entered into the world of business, yard sale business that is. We combined our extra stuff and set up shop at Martha S.'s house. Some of us are quite the yard sale shoppers, so we had a few ideas of things we definitely wanted to be sure happened.

1. Everything needed a price clearly labeled.
2. Keep the prices low, low, low...
3. Items needed to be organized and displayed.
4. Improve the atmosphere with good music and friendly conversation.

We started with a bunch of boxes in the basement.

Now I know every yard sale shopper has seen yard sales where this would have been how things were put out on the driveway. That was not the case for the TwentySomethings. After a highly nutritious dinner of pizza and a salad, we set to work organizing and labeling all of our items. Thankfully the weather was cooperating so that we could put items outside the night before the sale. A couple of hours later, we ended up with some fairly organized shelves and tables. Our reward? S'mores rice krispies and strawberry cake, of course!

Turns out we had more stuff than we thought we would. It's amazing to me that five twenty somethings have already accumulated so much stuff in our few short years of life.

For me, it was a lesson of trust. Since I had to work on Friday and couldn't be at the sale, I couldn't decide every time a customer wanted to ask a lower price for one of my items. I had to trust my fellow TwentySomethings to use good judgement on which items to lower the prices I had set and how low to go. It's not that I don't trust my friends; it's more that I like to be in control. They did a fine job by the way.

I tried so hard to sell this sombrero on Saturday. I'm sad to say that no one bought it. It came from Goodwill and returned to Goodwill.

While we didn't sell everything and Saturday was terribly slow, we did have good laughs and enjoyed one another's company. The total came close to $400. 

I don't think we'll do one next week or anything, but there might be another Five Friends yard sale in the (long-term) future.

Marvel adequately displays how we all felt after the end of the two days. 

Cheers!

Feelin' Thrifty & Crafty

I've been slipping on my blog posts, which is why I am posting now! I've been looking for some inspiration and I've found it! I am feeling like an especially thrifty spender today and I know my fellow Twenty-Somethings appreciate good deals too.

I substituted today for my mother (my favorite substitute teaching job!) because she was going to a breast-cancer survivors luncheon called Horses & Hope. So, we still rode in to L-Burg together and she met up with some other woman who were attending, while I stayed in school and subbed for her. After school she took me to a craft yard-sale she had heard about. It was an older woman who had interests in many different crafts, but who was trying to downsize her collection of items. It was awesome! She had very reasonable (cheap) prices on the craft supplies and Mom and I loaded up for a total of $8 between the two of us! I bought several scraps of fabric for making hair bows (and perhaps other things), three bags of buttons, some miniature clothes pins and some little wooden stars. Now I will be searching Pinterest for button and other crafts because this shopping adventure has put me in a very crafty mood.

 I also got a $5 trim on my hair today. There is a place in L-Burg with a permanent $5 hair-cut salon which I think it pretty cool, but I don't always go there for my haircuts. She cut off more than I expected, but the ends feels so much better! I was pleased to get this done and get a good deal, to boot!

Looks short, huh? Sorry for the over-exposed selfie 

Well I've gotta run! 

The Farmer's Daughter

Brief Update: Yard Sales & Job Opportunities

I haven't posted anything in a week or so, I thought I would briefly update everyone on what I have been up to. Last Saturday, we had a huge family yard sale in Berea. Martha S. was there to help us out, and she sold some of her unneeded items as well. I would say that we had a pretty good turnout. However, I don't think that I will be wanting to have another yard sale anytime soon. It's way more work than I remember it being.

Since the yard sale, I have been trying to help my mom finish cleaning the house. She had originally wanted to go through everything before the yard sale, but we ran out of time. Our house was beginning to look like an episode of hoarders, since my mom and I want to hold onto everything in hopes that it can be used for something someday, or that one day it will become valuable. However, we have finally decided to start letting things go. I wanted to get rid of the boxes of beanie babies in the attic, but my mom hasn't let me part with those yet. I have also done a little bit of crafting with my friend Jasmine (she made a wind-chime out of bottle caps while I made a felt bird ornament and some more paper flowers), and went swimming at my sister's house. Tanner and I went to the Somersplash water-park in Somerset not too long ago and had a blast. 

I went to a job interview yesterday in Richmond that I am pretty excited about. Although it wasn't the specific job that I applied for, I still think that I would really enjoy it. Until a couple days ago, I had never thought about being a preschool teacher, since I haven't been around children as much as Captain Something Fun or a few other people I know. I love kids, but do not have as much experience with them as you would think someone with a degree in Child & Family Studies would have. However, you have to start somewhere and I believe that this would be a great opportunity for me. 

All of that being said, I have not yet been offered the job and will not know the outcome of my interview until next week, so I am trying not to get my hopes high just yet. I have had a few other job possibilities, but nothing else has really appealed to me as much as this one since I do not want to move too far away from this part of Kentucky. I love travelling, but I don't think that I would be able to live more than an hour or so away from my family and friends. 

I apologize for not having any pretty pictures for you to look at this week. Maybe I will take some pictures of the fireworks that I am looking forward to seeing this weekend. I hope everyone has FUN and stays SAFE for the holiday weekend! 

Until next time, 

-Miss Ellaneous

Decoration, Celebration, and Sales

Decoration
This week has been the oddest and most exciting so far this summer! Last Sunday was decoration at the church my nanny grew up going to and is buried at. Every year, decoration becomes a time of reflection and remembrance for me. Memories from childhood come flooding back when I visit my grandparents' homes. Pulling in to nanny and papa's house reminded me of summers spent with papa will he set tobacco, took care of his dairy cows and tended the vegetable and sunflower garden. I thought of the early morning breakfasts I despised as a teenager and helping nanny shell green beans on the back porch. My sister and I would play one v. one softball in the yard for hours with home base being a tree that I found was now cut down and prepped to be firewood this winter. I would be lying if I said my heart didn't sink a little when I saw it. My first time riding a tractor and getting whipped with an apple tree limb happened on that farm. I only wish I had known then how special our time together was. I probably wouldn't have tried to avoid visiting like I often did in high school.

Decoration (also know by many communities as homecoming) is an interesting event. At Walker's Chapel, the graves are decorated with saddles, wreaths, vases of flowers, and sometimes figurines prior to the church service Sunday morning. The service is taken up largely by the whole congregation singing hymns and putting in prayer requests. Then, there is a few individual performances and a short message by the preacher. Afterwards, everyone heads to the church hall where everyone has brought a dish for a scrumptious potluck. This year, I made one fruit salad and one vegetable salad. There's usually plenty of butter and sugar filled dishes so I thought I'd bring a healthier alternative -- although I mostly indulged in the other stuff.

Once you've eaten, if you haven't already, you go out to the graveyard and see your loved ones graves all decorated. It's a tradition in our family to also get pictures during this time. Here's a few photos from the day:

Celebrations
Lucas' only full day off during the week is Friday so we've unofficially declared it our date day. This Friday, we decided to head to Harrodsburg, KY. Neither one of us had spent any time there, only drove through it a few times, so we wanted to check things out. Plus, there was a Beef Festival (gasp!). Their downtown is the cutest--a quintessential small town.

(Photo credits: my husband)

An its-such-a-small-world story: The shop on the right is called KentuckyLit with a tagline "Old Books, New Cigars." As I was skimming his Silas House collection, the shop owner started informing me that he was a Kentucky author. I politely interrupted before he continued to inform me letting him know that I'd just taken a class with him this past semester. I learned that the two were actually fairly close acquaintances. We shared a few stories and Hubs ended up getting two cigars on the house (one that the shop owner had rolled himself from KY proud tobacco).

Our Semi-Spontaneous Schedule of Events:

• Picnic at the Park: Held on Fridays from noon-1, it's a free event with live entertainment under a big tree in Fort Harrod State Park
• Explore downtown
• Drive out to Lake Herrington (Beautiful farm country and extra small town called Burgin on the drive there)
• Stop at Kentucky Fudge Company, a locally owned shop with coffee, desserts, pizza, deli sandwiches and retro decor
• Find a jug of water (ended up at Kroger)
• Beef Festival at Mercer County Fairgrounds (Met Miss Ellaneous and her bf there, ate an amazing ribeye sandwich and got a free cow cookie cutter and oven mitt)
• Then, we headed to Danville, KY for the Big Brass Music Festival. They were having a mini Mardi Gras. Great music there!

(Photo credits: my husband)

Sales

Yesterday, I went to yard sales with Miss Ellaneous and her mother from 8am to 4pm. Boy was I beat when we got done! I hadn't been yard saling in a long time until just a few weeks ago. I'm thankful to have started back again. It's saved me quite a few dollars. Here are the purchases I've made so far:

• A vintage yellow sweater vest - $3
• Two tables (that are getting a major revamp!) - $15
• A Vera Bradley small sidebag - $1
• Two heirloom tomato plants (1 baby roma, 1 big rainbow) - $2 each
• Five or six free flower pots
• Pashima scarf made in Scotland - $2
• Random decor (3 items) - $3
• Very full hanging basket - $4

I hope to put my tomato plants in permanent pots tomorrow. Here's a photo of them:

I plan to post more as they grow. And just in case you're wondering, I watered the one on the right just after taking this picture and it perked up within an hour. Isn't it amazing what a little water can do? I'm excited to see red on these girls! Overall, my week has been very exciting. Hopefully its beginning of good vibes for the rest of summer!

Until next time,