Free in April

Here's my list of all the stuff I got free in April:
white bread: $1.49
sesame buns: $2.99
large bag tortilla chips: $3.99
wheat crackers: $2.99
Publix salad dressing: $2
4 2-liter bottles 7Up: $7.16
7 Reece's Dark Chocolate: $5.53
5 Smart Balance sour cream: $9.95
one gallon milk: $3.69
2 bags M&M's: $7.98
2 large pans of food from On the Border: $20
2 dinners at Bahama Breeze: $28

Schick Hydro Shave Gel, $3.99
Big Roll bath tissue, 79 cents
Stayfree: $3.79
6 rolls Publix paper towels: $4.76

Large ceramic casserole dish: $39
13 yards designer decorator fabrics: $975
CVS Go Green bag tag: 99 cents
All detergent: $7.49

Total: $1131.58

Clean and Tidy

Three days of being sick has left me with no energy for housework. But I did muster enough to tidy my poor cluttered desk today. Before: such a mess and no space to do desk work.

After: lots of room for a new project.

David Cooks

because it is just the two of us for dinner tonight and I don't want to spread my cold germs all over his food. The simple menu:

rotisserie chicken (leftover from last night)
romaine salad with ranch dressing
mashed potatoes (from a pouch) garnished with cheese
garden blend veggies (left over from last night)

Cute Fabric

Greta passed this piece of fabric on to me when she cleaned out her stash last week. I think it will make a nice post-wedding project. I'm thinking apron.

Fabric and Fabric and Fabric

My good friend Bonnie has a friend with a furniture import and customizing shop. He invited us down to select rolls and rolls of his $100-per-yard decorator fabric; stuff ready to be tossed into the dumpster. As much as we wanted! The friend even tossed in a large box of leather scraps for us.

Our first priority was selecting fabrics suitable for art classes, and then all the activities involved in children's ministries at church. We found perfect stripey fabrics for Bible time costumes and solid earthy tones for backdrops and banners. Lastly, we chose our personal favorites for home decorating. Mine are all greens:
I came home with five different designs totaling over 13 yards of 54" and 60" wide designer fabrics. What fun I'll have in the months to come! (These really are all green, not golds and khaki. Trust me.)

Wedding Attendants

The children in the wedding have their clothing now. Greta chose attire for them that coordinates well with the historic church we will be using. Luke and Chloe will look very cute. But will they make it up the aisle or freeze up at the last moment?

Garage Sale Day II

The customers poured in all Saturday morning, and even by afternoon, when traffic usually slows down, we had steady customers. Some of our more interesting stories from day 2:

Our first customer asked if we had any old gold we didn't want. At first I put him off, until he claimed he paid more than jewelry stores do. I mentioned "a few broken chains". He said he would take a look at them and tell me what he would pay. It was fascinating: he pulled out a little kit consisting of a scale and little bottles of chemicals. He tested each piece and identified the metals I had. I ended up with $36 for 3 broken chains, and $3 for a couple of broken silver pieces. And I have a tidy jewelry box now.

Greta was thrilled to sell all of her canvases and drawings, and two of her three sculptures. This ceramic lady was quite popular with the customers; by late afternoon she had a new home. A mom and son bought her for their neighborhood annual Halloween decoration contest. I'm not exactly sure what her role in that will be, but Greta was glad to sell her.

The iris bulbs were particularly popular this year. I kept grabbing the shovel to dig up more; by the end of the day I had sold 17 bags of bulbs.

We tried a new sales technique this year: at 2:00 we grouped all the remaining small stuff on one long table. Then we invited customers to "Fill-A Bag" for $1. Whatever they could get in the bag they could have for $1. (We included hanging clothes in the offer too.) It had mixed results. Some people didn't understand and thought we meant everything remaining in our sale. Others just didn't understand. So we decided not to try it again in future.

Overall, we were very happy with the results of our garage sale.

Garage Sale Day 1

After clearing out all the clutter from our house, the girls and I held a garage sale today. It was a beautifully clear, but cool, day today, a great day for garage sales. We filled the garage:

I forgot to take pictures right as we opened this morning, so a lot of stuff was already sold when I remembered to snap a few mid-afternoon. Notice all the bare spots on the green table in the foreground. Those electronics flew out the door. Our best seller, though, was the toiletries. People were fighting over them. One man told me he kept watching for my garage sale signs because he had come last year, and now he was running low on razors. He bought all the razors we had today.
Greta's artwork wall. There is another table too, of large sculptures.

I wish that oak cabinet would sell!

Day 2 of Clear the Clutter

Today was clear the clutter from the kitchen and pantry over at Crystal's blog. I may not have had much clutter in the living room yesterday, but I sure found a lot in the kitchen today! I went through every drawer and cupboard and here is what I found:That's 34 more items for my garage sale beginning tomorrow. And, of course, tidier cabinets. The Tupperware cabinet was the worst: lids with no containers, containers with no lids, and several "whatever is this thing" items. Notice, too, our abundance of mugs, yet we aren't coffee drinkers. I kept my 9 favorites (for tea) and they fit on the shelf well now.

Next is a before shot of one counter. Things have gotten out of hand here with Easter last Sunday and a wedding in a few weeks. Time to clean up and put away!

Clear the Clutter!

I'm joining Crystal over at Money Saving Mom for the Clear-Out-The-Clutter Challenge. Today's challenge is the living room and all the closet space associated with it. This is very timely because this family is having a garage sale in a few days, partly in preparation for The Bride's moving out in a month. She sure has quite the accumulation of clutter! But the rest of us are no slackers in collecting clutter too; most of us will be adding plenty of Stuff to the garage sale. We're supposed to keep it real by posting pictures. Here's my before of the front closet:

It's my after photo too, because I couldn't find anything in the closet to get rid of. I know, I know, it's not your typical front closet. We don't store coats and gloves there; we store tablecloths and shoes there. These are all my tablecloths for the times we feed crowds of people. They have been recently sorted and I use them all. Below the tablecloths is a drawer unit for the family shoes. Well, a few of the family shoes: the everyday, current season shoes. The rest of our shoes are in files in the garage.

Next is the entry. Notice the shoes (Where are those supposed to be?) and the potty chair. That particular item was on it's way to the garage sale until Heather realized it could go in Nana's car for potty emergencies. There are six tiny drawers in the sewing cabinet, and I found three little items to get rid of in them. Not much else is in this room.
Here is the living room with a lovely box of books, towels to be folded, and a stack of sweaters on their way to the garage. Not shown are two skirts and two pants from the laundry area. Then there's the big green ripped sofa. The Bride and Groom want that for their new apartment next month, so it stays for now. There are several clutter-catchers in this room. Sadly, most of the clutter isn't mine to sell or toss. I see an overabundance of video games, CD's, cords, remotes, papers in the file cabinet, and magazines. Nevertheless, I did a fast pass through them and found several items I could sneak out.
This is the worst clutter in the living room. I would love for this drawer to contain almost nothing, but none of this crud belongs to me so I can't make it disappear.
That makes 13 items for the garage sale on Saturday.

Invitations

The wedding invitations are addressed and ready to mail.