Our three teenagers want to go to Teen Camp with their youth group next week - Alicia Chamblee(her last time), James Chamblee, and Hannah Chamblee(her first time). This is a great time for spiritual decisions, as they leave the world (and their electronics!) behind for a week, and focus on the Lord through fellowship and preaching. This will cost over $1000, so we need your help! You can check out our family's LEGO store, and get anything from a single part or minifig to buying out the whole store of 78K parts. We can even help you find any LEGO part, set, or minifig that you or your kid can't find anymore. You can check out our Cliffhangers store on Bonanza, and buy something from one of our many forays through garage sales in our area. We'll also be adding a few things to this site later today, so check back. Or, you can go to our GoFundMe account to donate directly. Every little bit helps! If you see something you like, message us, and we can work out a deal. Donate directly to the cause here at GoFundMe Or contact us for our Paypal account. See our items for sale on Bonanza See our LEGO store and get some great deals If we get enough to be able to send our kids to this spiritual retreat, I'll be following their adventures through the week here on this blog.
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First off, let me say - my husband and I have been going out to yard sales (garage sales) nearly every Saturday for quite awhile now.
We have seen great sales, and not so great sales. We've even run our own yard sale a couple times. Based on this experience as a buyer at yard sales, I thought I'd list a few things that might help all those front yard entrepeneurs out there. 1. Set a start time, and honor it. Maybe some folks don't realize this, but there are dedicated 'yard salers' in every community, and they schedule their Saturday morning. I'm telling you, they use a map and they plan out their morning based on start times, locations, and description of the sale on the ad. Even in my area, which is a large suburban community, we're getting so we recognize these other regulars by sight. They hit sales that look like they have something they can use...and if you don't have a start time they may just pass your sale by completely. Also, if you have a start time, and people show up to see nothing in your yard, they will most likely move on and not return. You are losing sales that way. Be prepared to begin your sale at your set, advertised start time. Sort of under this point is early birds. If you don't mind people showing up early, say so. If you DO mind them showing up early, say so. It's important. Early, by the way, does not mean 9AM. 'Early' in yard sale language means 6AM or 7AM. Yes, yard sales are hard core. 2. Mark your prices clearly. Perfectly fine to have a table that's marked 'everything $1.00 each' or a box like that. But customers quickly get frustrated when they see absolutely no prices on anything. Assume you'll be insanely busy and won't have time to answer each person individually when they come up to you, item in hand, wanting to know its cost. Have a price somewhere for most items. On the other hand, be willing to haggle sometimes. Have a table that's marked 'make me an offer'. Some people love to haggle. My husband is this one - he'll haggle the price even when it's marked. Others just want you to tell them the price and let them hand you their money. I get frustrated when a seller tells me they don't know what price they want for it, and want me to set their price for them. Frankly, I'm a cheapskate. If you ask me what price I 'want' to pay for an item, I'll likely be thinking, "Well it ought to be free, or I can give you .50cents for it." However, knowing this person has worked hard to set up this sale, I know they likely want more then that. Thus I'm left stammering around, not wanting to offend, and not wanting to put a price on it that's too high, either...because I don't want to spend that much. See what I mean? Frustrating. 3. Be Friendly Looking back, I can see that we tend to spend more at sales where the person is engaging their customers. Even if it's not us, but other customers, if we see they're being friendly, laughing, talking, visiting, we are more likely buy from them than if they're surly or gruff. Under this point - be available to your customers. A couple weeks ago, I was out on a walk with the kids not actually purposely going to a yard sale, but we came upon one by accident. There were clothes hung on the front gate, a table of knick knacks on the lawn, and a sign that said 'yard sale'... but no person. Not a single one. When we walked up and started looking through the clothes, a lady came out of the front door to see what was happening. She was friendly enough, told us the prices, etc. But then went back inside her house. There was no one there. I probably could have just walked off with something. By not having anyone outside for the selling part, she gave the impression that all her stuff was junk, ready to be put out on the corner for the trashman to take. She really didn't care what happened to it. She also gave the impression that the sale just wasn't a big deal to anyone else, either. Yard Salers will pass by sales that look abandoned. Have at least yourself out there. Get your kids to come and wander around the yard. Have friends come over and help you man the tables. Make it a busy place. 4. Last point for today - ADVERTISE! Put your sale on Craigslist, include some major items you have for sale. Put posters up on corners near your house. At least one major intersection nearby, then several corners around your neighborhood. On those posters put pertinent info only. Address, dates, and an arrow. No one will be stopping to read your list of items on your poster. They won't read your funny jokes, either. Use your poster space wisely - Dates Address Arrow pointing the way That's it - no, I mean it. That's all you need. Also, color coordinate your posters. Use bright, neon colored posterboard, and use all one color. Very helpful when you're trying to find a particular yardsale, and you can just follow the bright neon orange signs and know they're all pointing to the same sale. Balloons are also helpful. Get 3 or 4 balloons, tie them to your front gate - it lets people searching for you know right away you're what they're looking for. Only drawback to the balloons is being mistaken for a birthday party. So, check back here periodically for more tips. Or leave your own tips in a comment! 2/12/2014 0 Comments She's Alive!So ok, now it's February and you might be asking how these roses have fared? Well, my lack of update to this blog might be a hint...unfortunately they all perished. At least, I thought they'd all perished. I was quite discouraged at my first attempt at growing roses from cuttings. I took all my containers outside and began dumping the dirt in one spot, until I noticed one little plant had a green shoot on it still. I figured hey, can't hurt. So I took that one root ball and put it in its own bigger container, and left it outside, figuring it can't be worse off than where it is now. Lo and behold, it's growing! As evidenced below. So, while I thought they'd all died, I did have one take hold. I have no idea which one it is, I only know it's one of those cuttings I brought home from my aunt's house.
Sometimes we look like we're dead, but God knows we're still alive. He gives us the bigger container we need, the air and sunshine, and the right amount of food, and He is so happy when we grow where we're planted! 11/8/2013 0 Comments November 08th, 201310/29/2013 0 Comments Leafbaby on the RosebabySee this? That's a wee little leaflet on my wee little rosebaby! Several others are also starting to grow tiny little leaf buds, but this is the one with the largest new growth right now. I decided to bring them all in tonight, as it's starting to get cold out after dark. Here's to hoping for more leafy growth! Rosebabies are growing! 10/28/2013 0 Comments Food for thoughtThis, my friends, is what I like to call Rosebaby food. It is coffee grounds, banana, and crunched up eggshells. Lookin' good! Ok, the roses are all gathered around the windows, globs of baby rose food mixed into their little soil-beds, and covered with their bags so they get a nice mist going in there. And what happens? I get grey skies....
10/23/2013 0 Comments Tuesday and WednesdayThe babies were put to bed - these pictures are just to show how many of them there are and how they've overtaken our house - temporarily, I swear. The scary thing is? These two pictures are not ALL of the rose pots in the house. Only a fraction of them are shown. Can you believe it? A bug has dared to touch one of the rose babies. 10/22/2013 1 Comment The BeginningsFrankly at this point I don't know if I'm doing it right or not. I have done a little bit of gardening before, but unfortunately something always happens to turn my attempts into tiny little plant disasters.
I have some of these rose cuttings stuck in potatoes, because I've heard that works, too, and I've got others I've just put in the dirt after cutting the bottoms of the stems. For pots, I've got several milk cartons with the tops cut off, several cream cheese bowls, and at least two five-gallon ice cream buckets. This is besides all the little and medium planter pots that are actually made for this purpose. Of course, roses need good draining soil, so anything plastic I'm upcycling for this project has had to have holes cut out of the bottom. The roses are currently sitting in baggies, and or overturned soda bottles to form a nice greenhouse, and then situated all over our dining room table at the window. Yes, I did eventually cut off the blossoms so the roots would have a chance to grow. I've also so far added more soil to all the pots, mixed in perlite, dried out used coffee grounds and mixed those in, and next I intend to feed with a little banana peel. My husband says I'm obsessed. My sister-in-law says I'm obsessed. Then again, it's her husband (my brother) who is spraying his new little roselets with epsom salts and aspirin, so I think I'm in good company. |
Project RosesCome along as we watch the growth of twenty new little rosebushes. Archives
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