Yard Sale Weekend

Ok, that's kind of a dumb title for this piece, I suppose, but let's face it, that's what it was, so I may as well call it by the proper name then. Right?

This past Friday and Saturday, there was a community yard sale here in Grassflat. And, as Mandy loves yard sales, needed to try to clear out some of the kids clothes as well (gotta make room for more stuff, ya know) then what better way to accommodate all of those things than to participate in the community-wide yard sale.

Here's some photos of the tables (and more tables) of clothes once worn by Maya or Kurtis (or Mandy's friend Nancie's two little guys) that we had for people to pick through last Friday and Saturday here in our front yard.
We had four tables lined up and the far end, pictured here, held mainly little boy items sizes 12, 18, 24 month, sizes 2T and 3T. Mandy priced the kids clothes very cheaply -50 cents per item - and this was what the table looked like late Saturday afternoon. We did have a lot of people stop by and look at things, many purchased items too, and when we started out Friday morning, the clothes on this table was piled about twice as high as shown here near to when we were done Saturday. We didn't make a fortune on this yard sale but the girls sold a good bit of stuff and what is left of the children's clothing is going to be donated to the Women's Shelter over in Clearfield in the hopes that maybe some other children will have clothes that are in very good condition -"very gently used" is probably the terminology.

I spent all day Friday sitting out in the front yard by the tables and to keep myself occupied, I was working on a table runner I started embroidering a week earlier. I finished it late Friday night and here's what it looks like. (It has this design on each end of the runner, obviously.)
Here's another shot of it -a little bit closer up. This also is supposed to have four napkins to match the runner but I ran out of the thread in the light yellow here so will have to wait a while now before I tackle the napkins.

Saturday -another bright, sunny day -brisk breeze that kept the temps from going sky-high -and again, I was in charge of the tables. Since I had completed the blue table runner the night before, and didn't have enough yellow floss to start working on the napkins, I embarked on another embroider project. This one is a table-top square tablecloth -about 35"x35" in size. It's a Christmas cloth -green with white embroidery -so with not having to worry about where this color went for this stitch and another color for these stitches, this area, etc., work on this item proceeded a bit faster. Here's what I got completed on this tablecloth on Saturday.
This is about half of one side that I got completed on Saturday. I had hoped to work on it more yesterday but didn't get around to that then nor have I had time to mess with it today but will be starting in on it again this evening.

I ordered several items from Herrschner's - a craft store, online -and these are two of the items I had ordered. I have 7 other table runners and two other small table cloths (35"x35") to work on now and all but two of these are Christmas designs. Think Christmas gifts if I can keep myself working on these things.

I had to order embroidery thread too from Herrschners because the closest place to where I live that one can purchase embroidery floss is a 37-mile drive to State College to the east or a 41 mile drive to the west to Dubois. The wonderful world of Walmart, in its infinite wisdom, has now completely eliminated any embroidery products in the Super Walmart store located 20 miles from here in Clearfield.

This really disgusts me and two of my neighbors and close friends, Shirley and Kate. For them, especially, this is a disappointment because they both like to do the stamped embroidery (which is what I do) but they also love to do the counted cross stitch which I do not even begin to try to mess with because it drives me absolutely bonkers. Makes me blind and cross-eyed, at the same time, and my workmanship shows those issues too with the counted cross-stitch! Messy! So, as much as I love the stuff that can be made in counted cross stitch, it will not be forthcoming from my fingertips!

What really sucks ya know, about Walmart's no longer carrying the embroidery stuff, is that that a few years back, they also cut back on the size of their entire crafts department. They used to carry a very nice selection of fabrics, yarns, other kits and craft items too. That is, until the Joanne Fabrics store that used to be located in Clearfield closed up and that's when Walmart began to cut back on their fabric and crafts department. A move that many of us in this region felt was really underhanded of them as well as unfair to the crafters in this region as it forces us to have to travel twice as far now to purchase any type of fabric or crafting supplies. Frankly, when the Joanne Fabric store closed down, I woiuld have thought perhaps Walmart, with no competition then in these items, would have at least kept this department at the size it was then, maybe even expanding it a little bit. But instead, they have been gradually trying to completely phase out any craft type things it seems.

People wonder why some of these hobbies are becoming a "lost art" and if Walmart's cutbacks on these products is any example, it's no wonder it is quickly fading into a craft of the past. What a shame too because any type of hand-crafted item can make such a pleasant way to relax, do something worthwhile and make a useful and pretty product that others may very much appreciate in years to come simply because it was hand-made -perhaps even specifically for the person who receives such items too.

By late Saturday afternoon, the little boy in the house had been running around the yard most of the day -in his bare feet, no less -and after supper, he looked like a regular little piggy -food smeared all up and down his body, dirt encrusted on his feet, legs and arms so Mandy brought him outside after supper -still fastened into his booster chair on one of the chairs to our dining room set -and she gave him what she calls a "redneck shower!" Here's Kurtis, enjoying getting the dirt, food and general grubbiness, sprayed off him as he sat in his seat!

What Mandy and I find really funny about his enjoyment of being "hosed down" is that in the house, in the bathroom, he hates the shower! He does however very much love getting in the tub and getting a bath though -has a field day splashing all around then!

After Mandy finished hosing him down, she turned him loose again in the yard except this time, he was naked but she just let him run a little bit, letting it "all hang out" and he was having himself quite a good old time.
Here's the little trash picker bending over, rooting in a big bin that Mandy had filled with toys the kids no longer play with. Apparently, she hadn't asked his opinion about which toys to get rid of, I guess, cause he was having a high old time, digging away, and playing with toys he'd previously been ignoring!

And finally for today, here's a picture too of my "new-to-me" 1998 Jeep that my son-in-law located for me and we arranged a reasonable trade-off of my old van with the crappy transmission for this fine unit. Bill did have to do some work to it but it was only a little bit of body work on the front of the Jeep as engine-wise, it runs fine and dandy! I'm very pleased with my new means of transportation anyway and I figure that's all that counts. Isn't it?
Oh yeah, and one other thing -if you noticed there are no pictures of the yard sale with Maya in them, that was because we sort of pawned her off for two days and two nights to one of Mandy's good friends (Jen-Jen) because if we'd have had her here while trying to do this yard sale, we would have been completely, stark raving mad, I'm sure, by Saturday night! But just to give you a little "fix" of a Maya picture, here's Maya last Sunday trying on one of her big sister's "back-to-school" purchases. Hope that Kate doesn't plan to wear this item in the same manner that Maya is modeling it, don't you?
That's it for now, folks!