A Crazy Craig's List Thursday

John and I recently cleared enough space in our garage to allow us to park inside for the winter, but every year we have the problem of the snow blower sitting in our only path for walking. We are constantly running into it and it also sits right in front of the refrigerator we have out there so we have to move it every time we want to open the fridge door.

The solution? We decided to get rid of a set of shelving we used for storing mostly junk (John's stuff). So Thursday, while John was at work (because that is the best time to get rid of his stuff), I went out in the freezing garage and starting going thru everything. I loaded some stuff in my car for Goodwill and "relocated" the rest into a black trash bag so he couldn't see whats inside!

Sooo, what do you do with a set of large metal shelves that you no longer want and don't have a truck to haul them away? You post them under "Free" on Craig's List. 

So I went inside where I warmed up and proceeded to post my ad... 

Metal Shelves, Elkhart, IN

Heavy Duty Metal Shelves. Great for the Garage.

Free for the taking. You pick up.

Call or text: 574-3two9-83zero3

While on Craig's List, I had to check out the furniture and I found a small drop leaf table someone was selling for only $10 in North Liberty (where John works), so I called the number in the ad, told them I'd take it and that I'd have my husband pick it up after work.  

Then, within minutes of me posting my ad the phone starts ringing. I'm getting text messages, I'm getting phone calls, everyone wants these shelves!  I had people asking me if they were in good shape and I said "I think they are great...for free".  I even had one person ask me if I would disassemble them so they could fit it in their car? I said "no...they are FREE, I'm not doing anything to them".  Then I had a person tell me that her boyfriend wants to come get them right now...so I said "Great, bring a truck!".

Things were going great. I had posted my ad, got the shelves hauled away and took down my ad, all within an hour....AND John called me and said he had picked up the table and was on his way home.  I just love when things work out like this....

That is until I get another phone call..."Carole? This is the guy you purchased the table from". (Why would he be calling? John already picked it up.). He proceeded to tell me that his wife was the one that placed the ad on Craig's List for the table and that he didn't know that she had 2 ads posted for 2 different tables. Seems the table that he gave John was a much nicer, more expensive table and he sold it to me for $10. He said "My wife just got home from work and said "What did you do!?!"  I thought it was kind of funny, because John didn't know what it was supposed to look like...he just knew he was picking up a table...and he was probably thinking that I really scored a good deal. Ha!  

I told the guy not to worry, he could buy the table back for $40....no I didn't say that! :) John exchanged the table the next day.

I guess everything can't go smoothly. That's not how things work in my world!

Winter... Like It or Not

What I  hate  dislike about winter...

- Wearing a coat.
- Slipping on ice.
- The NIPSCO bill.

- The laundry hamper filling up twice as fast.
- Getting in a freezing cold car.
- Pets left outside in the cold.
- Worrying about everyone I love, driving on icy roads.
- Daylight savings time.
- Breathing in air so cold that your nose hairs hurt.
- Dirty snow on the road sides.
- Yellow snow...you know what I mean.
- Those blow up Christmas lawn decorations.

- Running out of windshield washer fluid.
- My car covered with salt and dirt.
- Realizing people really do need those lines in order to park their cars.
- Shoveling the driveway.
- Sleet hitting me in the face.
- Not being able to open the windows.
- Pushing a shopping cart in an un-plowed parking lot.


What I  love  like about winter....

- An undisturbed, blanket of sparkly white snow. 

- Kids bundled up in snowsuits.
- Snuggling up under a blanket.
- Tree branches covered in snow.

- Wearing my Uggs.
- Soup.
- Ice cycles.

- Christmas lights.
- Slippers.
- Not hearing John complain about mowing the lawn.
- Snow angels.

Note: The blanket of sparkly snow, tree branches covered in snow and ice cycles are only enjoyed when viewing them from inside my house!

Remember That Scrap Wood?

Tomorrow Hart City, the building where I have E-Six, is having a craft fair. They rented space to local crafter's to come in for the day to sell their stuff. What they sell has to be handmade. 

That gave me a great idea.  Do you remember this?

I went and picked this scrap wood up several weeks ago.  It was free for the taking and I knew then what I was going to make with it.

So I spent the past couple days sawing, drilling, painting and gluing.....

This is what I ended up with...

This is just a few of what I made and I didn't even come close to using up all that wood!  

Hey...did I just make something come full circle? The scrap wood was once a tree and now it's a tree again. :)

Ugh...Christmas Stuff Already??

I feel like I'm off on my Seasons. I have had to decorate and stock E-Six with seasonal things early so customers have the opportunity to purchase things in time for them to decorate their homes. It's like when you walk into a store and think...Ugh, Christmas stuff already?? Well, now I'm doing that!

I just spent the past 2 days pricing Christmas stuff (pricing is my least favorite thing to do) and making multiple trips hauling it all over to E-Six. Once I had it all there, I was able to unpack it and start decorating (one of my favorite things to do). 

Whenever I spend an extended amount of time at E-Six the owners of the building will come over to my booth and start talking to me. They have been very nice and always tell me how much they appreciate us being there.

The booth looks kind of empty because we had a really good weekend and sold several large furniture items!! But before I can get anything else painted I need to get ready for the Craft Fair which is this Saturday. I'm going to use all that scrap wood I got a few weeks ago! 

It's a Creative Thing"

Ok, I don't know how to explain it other than to say it's a creative thing.

John doesn't understand it and I really don't think the people, who I have turned down, who have asked me to paint a piece of furniture for them understand it. I have to see a piece of furniture and WANT to paint it. I have to see it and think...I know what I can do with this. 

It is the reason that we have several pieces of furniture that John bought that have been sitting here a long time....I just don't want to paint them. 

I also struggle with weather or not I should paint a certain piece of furniture. I love old antique furniture and some things just shouldn't be painted.

The fear of ruining someones furniture also plays a part in it. If I don't understand someones description of what they want done, and it doesn't turn out like they envisioned....then what??

Having said all that....I did end up painting one small piece of furniture for a lady. She had a small but heavy child's rocking chair and she asked if I could "Shabby Chic" it up for her. She pointed to a piece of furniture in E-Six and asked me to paint it like that. So I had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted AND I liked the chair which helped.

This is the finished chair. I forgot to take a "Before" picture of it...

When I returned the finished chair to the lady she was very happy with it and I was relieved!

I think I will stick with buying pieces that I want to paint and hoping someone else sees them and likes them too!

Moving to the Basement

It is getting cold outside and someone (John) is starting to complain about parking outside. Seems he doesn't like scraping frost off his windows or getting into a cold truck.  So I have been frantically trying to get some of the larger furniture pieces painted that have been sitting in our garage. We are going to start taking everything downstairs for me to work on over the winter, so I have to give up the garage.

Here are some before and afters of what I got done this week...

Before:  

After:

I've been told that gray and yellow are the new hot colors for baby nurseries, so I'm hoping that is what happens with these.

So that is 2 things that we don't have to haul downstairs. I'm not looking forward to moving everything else, but it will be nice to start parking inside.

53

Things are back to normal and time is flying by. Speaking of flying by....what's up with my age? This past Monday was my, gasp...53rd birthday!  It seems like only a couple years ago I was playing tag at recess, last year I was learning to drive, last month I got married and last week I gave birth to Lisa!  How can I be 53 when Lisa is a newborn? 

I got to celebrate tacking on another digit to my age by going to dinner with my family which I love doing. It was a really nice time. Afterwards I got gifts and my mom made my normal pineapple upside down cake which is always tasty.  Lisa & Ty also had desserts for me at their house:

(Wait, how can Lisa have a husband and her own house if she was just born?)

Is it crazy that this gift from John was my favorite?...

It is my own little cordless drill! It will be so much nicer taking this back and forth to E-Six! I have already used it a lot and John has already asked to use it! :)