Apron Thrift Girl

the house

In exactly 28 days from today, we are going to be advertising our house for sale. I know my blog posts have been slim lately as I have thrown myself into getting rid of stuff, taxes and okay, I'll admit a little bit of facebook. And throw in trying to teach myself some songs on a guitar that I know nothing about. Today I'm making curtains rather than spending $46 on privacy film, sorting through junk and taking a van load of more junk to Goodwill.

I'm going to try to share with you this journey of taking a still filled-to-the rim-with-junk house that hasn't been properly cleaned in a few weeks or was that months and still is a fixer upper, to showing you a house ready to go on the market. It should be all sparkly and pretty. I need this house sort of empty so that I can clean it in minutes when potential buyers want to view the house. I need my eclectic/scanner personality to be packed away properly in boxes so that when buyers view the house, they can picture their own personality in our minimalistic home. Can it be done? We'll let you be the judge when you see the true state of this house on Monday. Be prepared to see a mess. I have a huge challenge ahead of me but hey if I can sell a toilet on Craigslist, I must be able to sell a house.

ben again

It's funny that on eBay I tend to struggle winning a small collection of Ben Seibel dishes but when this auction came up a couple weeks ago at a starting bid of $39, I was the only bidder. 36 beautiful pieces of Mikasa Ben Seibel dishes. I'll take it as a blessing since I think by far this is my favorite pattern of his that I own. The shipping was a bargain at $15 because the seller was in Oregon. Almost the opposite from this other auction I won in 07.

Maybe owning 41 dinner plates is starting to sound a little obsessional but I'm looking forward to that very large dinner party I'm eventually going to host. What I adore about this set is that the dishes are all the same design, just the colors and patterns are different.

My friend H did point out that I vowed not to buy dishes on eBay any more because they all tend to arrive broken. I did write to the seller begging them to pack carefully. Luckily every piece arrived in one piece.

We are leaving to Portland in a couple hours. Thanks again for your suggestions. I wonder if anyone would notice if I brought the dishes along.

off to Portland

Most Waldorf schools on the West Coast have this week off of school so that the teachers can attend educational conferences. We always dream of going somewhere warm but in trying to keep within our budget we usually stick close to home. This next week we are traveling to one of our favorite places, Portland, Oregon. We are leaving on Tuesday and arriving home on Friday.

We've booked our hotel with our Hilton Honor Miles so our stay is completely free. Rather than stay in downtown where we have to pay for parking ($18 a day), we are staying outside of town but where there is still lots to do and the parking is free. We adore embassy suites because not only do you get two rooms with a door that closes between the two of them, they also have a free full breakfast in the morning and managers reception in the evening with drinks and food. It's a frugal delight to stay there.

The children definitely want to go here, and possibly here despite it being winter. I hope to catch some thrift stores and maybe this store to check out their sales rack. Of course if I had my way I would be thrifting with this delightful blogger but I don't think she's going to be in Portland next week. One can wish though right Sandy?

Any other places I can't miss? Any second hand shops that feature mid century modern? Any gluten free restaurants? Any hidden thrift stores that you can steer me to? I'd love your advice and suggestions.

Dave and I have worked non-stop on getting our house ready to sell in April. We need the break, even if it is just four days away with free food and a swimming pool.

Before photo - probably two years ago.

 

After photo- last week. We are going to attempt to sell the house ourselves. I'm building a Word Press blog with photos and information about the house so that I can advertise it. This was taken last week for the blog to show the living room. I think the white bookshelves definitely cheered things up. We are so looking forward to our little vacation to Portland.

be still my frugal heart

Dave asked me last weekend whether I wanted to go out for dinner on Valentines day and pay for a sitter to watch the children. I could hear the ka-ching of the cash register in my frugal head. He then offered another suggestion which was to do something special for me at home after the children went to sleep. He whispered "surprises" to me which of course left me nodding my head before he even finished with the "rises" part of surprises. I adore surprises and yet I get so few. If I wasn't a mother, scanner and actually knew what I wanted to do in life, I'd probably make a good detective. Not much gets past me. This makes for lousy surprises. I try to turn off my head and not guess about things but that's so hard. I can even sense when flowers are coming by way.

Rather than pay a babysitter $30 odd dollars and a lovely meal for $60 or so (it's hard to eat cheap here) I'd much prefer staying in. Which made me think about how celebrate a frugal Valentines.

The cards above were made by Keiran. Yesterday our local organic cafe hosted a Valentine's Card making party. They had big buckets and bowls full of crayons, paper, glue sticks, stickers, crafty bits and lace paper hearts. The children were busy for what must have been an hour. Cerys, who is addicted to any type of craft was delighted to see so many supplies. And the cost? free!

Here are some frugal Valentine ideas:
-Valentine Making Party for your children and friends -bring out your thrifted crafts supplies and let them have at it.

-Make a coupon book for your husband/partner using your imagination. This can be as simple as "pub night out with a friend" or a more complicated "Poker Party at our house that includes home cooked snacks". What would your husband/partner appreciate?

-Homemade Chocolate Lollipops

These were Christmas gifts for the children's teachers. I actually found the kit at a yard sale for $3.00 and simply melted some chocolate chips in the warmer that came with the kit. If you don't have a warmer, then you could also melt the chocolate in a double pan. More advice on melting chocolate can be found here. I tend to find a lot of chocolate molds at yard sales. You can also pick them up at Michaels. We packed them in discounted Martha boxes from Michaels. They also look nice in a small cellophane bag with some ribbon tied around the top.

-Spiced Nuts (my fav recipe is from this book)

-Handmade photo album of you and your husband/partner. Or better, find a thrifted one and add photos and special memories

-Fondue Party, not that you need an excuse of Valentines to indulge in this delectable treat.

-Jewelry Making Party. Gather findings, beads, beading supplies, pasta & string for young children and don't forget patience.

-Winter picnic. Take a thrifted picnic basket, fill it with hot chocolate, popcorn, carrot & curry soup, dishes and silverware. Grab your coat, mittens, hats and lots of blankets.

-Rent your favorite romance movie. Mine would be "While You Were Sleeping".

Valentines doesn't have to be expensive despite what all the jewelry ads tell you. At the end of the day it is about romance and being with the people you love most. Well and kind of being spoiled which I admit to enjoying having been born a romantic at heart. But Dave could take me thrift store shopping and I would be happier than I could with a piece of jewelry. I love romance but especially adore it when it can be done frugally.

closing down

I gave a surprised gasp when I found this in my mail last week.

My friends at Salvage Studio are closing their doors of their retail shop in Edmonds, WA. They are having a retail sale on March 20th & 21st and I'm going to try to make it to say a proper goodbye. I've only been there once but my short visit there was so inspiring. I literally felt like going home and copying their store exactly and sort of borrowing their life. Which I guess could be stealing? They had a store full of thrifted finds, they hosted workshop with little tins full of game pieces/paper and they shared their love of re-purposing unwanted items with all of us.

Lisa, Beth and Amy, thanks for sharing so much with us and I wish you three the best of thrifted luck in your next adventures.

to sell or not to sell?

Well we all know some of the odd things that show up for sale on the second hand market. There was the sod that we purchased in September. Then on Sunday an ad went up in our local Craigslist for a used toilet. It wasn't just any typical, ceramic throne though, it was a child size toilet where the toilet seat was a mere 11 inches off the ground.

I'm not ashamed to admit that the ad is mine, and the toilet came out of our apartment attached to our house. It had originally been a preschool. The bathroom had a regular toilet and this child's toilet. Last summer I thrifted a shower stall as well as a vanity & sink. My father, who can do just about anything when it comes to building, took out the toilet and installed the new shower and vanity. The bathroom was painted a lovely warm beige and gone were the fluffy white clouds on the blue ceiling. It now looked like a proper bathroom decorated nicely for visiting family members. Last Sunday we cleaned out the front of our apartment (although we still refer to it as the Preschool) and I came across the toilet. I grabbed my camera and quickly took a photo to load onto Craigslist. Here she be in her ceramic glory:

I listed her for $50.00 after some research that they sell new for around $300. I mean only a few people would be in the market for a used, kid's pot anyway. I received my first and only email about the toilet about 4 hours later. It seemed a bit suspicious though.

Craigslist is not immune from scams. I got one last week from a guy who wanted to pay me to pull my ad. Then he was going to send me a dodgy sounding cashiers check. I bounced his email and moved on. The person who wrote to me about the toilet said that we was interested in the toilet for her grandchildren who have yet to be conceived.

What?

I still replied as I always do to the first email of inquiry. She wanted to know the lowest I would go. I knocked $10 off the pot and told her $40.00. She then started talking about ferries so I figured that she sounded a bit more legit and we agreed on a time for her husband to pick up the toilet.

He arrived last night on an evening ferry. Dh who couldn't really believe the "wait until grandchildren are conceived" story asked him again what his plans are. The man said that his wife wanted it for the unborn grandchildren. Then he went on to say that their children were 18 & 20 with no prospective spouses in sight.

Maybe they are worried that toilets are going to rise in price during this recession? Or maybe she's just really planning ahead. Dave used to tease me about buying size 10 clothing for Cerys when she was 4. I always buy ahead. But buying ahead for a toilet is another thing. It did confirm to me though that really you can sell anything 2nd hand and there just might be a buyer waiting for you. None the less, this kept us laughing all evening.

tech toys

Last week I made two purchases. One thrifted, one new. The first is my thrifted Samsung Laser printer that I purchased on Craigslist for $50.

Okay so I have to admit a photo of a printer isn't too exciting. But all day yesterday I was in printer heaven. I love creating my Nest Planners for my shop but they are high maintenance to put together when there are a lot of them. The printing out the pages is slow on my regular printer. I basically have to leave it for a half hour if I am printing out 20 menu planner forms. I'm too impatient for this speed.

Yesterday I printed off enough forms for 5 more binders in less than ten minutes. The slowest part was opening and finding the files on my laptop. And not only did they print fast but now they won't run if they do happen to get wet. They look more professional now which I am very pleased about.

As someone who changes business directions as often as I change my sheets on my bed, I have learned that it's not always the brightest idea to go out and buy professional business cards from the printers. I have three boxes of business cards that are useless now. Especially with a move in our future, it is silly to spend a lot of money on new cards. So while I advise against printing off your own cards when I was doing home business consulting, I have found myself to be doing this very thing. From a business point of view, you want your potential customer's first impression to be a good one. Having business cards that have perforated edges, slightly runny from outside moisture (when you put them up on a board) and that have curled at the edges isn't exactly a great way to make a first impression. But....I'm tired of spending money on cards and because I designed them myself I'm not too sure if I can even print them off online. Yesterday though took my home printing of biz cards to the next level.

They still have the perforated edge that I'm unsatisfied about but these are coming in the post tomorrow and should solve that problem. I'm so happy with the look of them and look forward to sticking them up around town. I heart my laser printer far more than a girl should.

My other toy is hard to share. Sometimes I feel like such a conundrum here. One minute I'm saving heaps of money, another time I'm bringing in money and then there are those times I spend money and I have a bit of blog guilt. Like I should only be sharing money saving tips and not bragging about buying stuff. But I'm terribly excited about my purchase and just have to share.

I've been wanting one since I first saw the teaser adverts when the iphone first came out. And although I grew up in the most frugal family ever, they always seemed to have the latest hi-tech item. I remember that they had the first Radar Range on the block. It was massive and who knows what it did to our growing brains with a name like Radar Range. And when I was in third grade, my parents spent like a thousand dollars to buy a VCR. We had to drive 30 miles to rent a VHS movie that cost them $10.00 a night. And I think the price of a blank VHS tape was like $29. Outrageously expensive on my father's EMT salary. But my mother loved this type of stuff even when all of our clothing and furniture were 2nd hand. That is the secret to frugality though. Spending where you want to spend and within your means.

Even though I felt the iphone would help my business, I still delayed when I had enough money in my business account to buy one. When I started doing ReSell consulting, I felt that I wanted an online calendar to make appointments then and there. And if I move further into the Search & Find service than I want to have ways to contact people immediately whether it is by phone or email. Last Monday I went to the nearest AT&T store and bought the phone. Because I'm sometimes beyond silly in my frugality I actually still share a cell phone with my parents. My bill is $15.00 a month so I felt venturing out and having my own phone is a positive step for me.

And I simply adore the phone. It is terribly easy and so incredibly cool to use that I keep telling myself that I've been teleported into the future. It is so futuristic. My favorite bits so far are the ability to have Pandora at my docking station in the house and to use it in the car on the radio, to use iPhone Miles, being connect practically anywhere (our county went 3-G (or is it G-3) in November), having access to eBay and Craigslist and the calendar features which synchronizes with my Outlook Calendar on my laptop.

I do make sure not to use it in front of the children; as in to ignore the children because I have the phone in my hand. I love sneaking a look at my email when cooking dinner but if they come into the kitchen I turn it off. I don't want to be one of those moms who push their child on the swing with one hand while reading their email with the other hand. So far so good.

Both of these gadgets have made me feel so much more organized and even better, they have taken away a lot of my stress. Looking up something on eBay from my sprint phone was a huge headache. I love to spend money where something saves me time and effort. That's why I spend $15 a month and do all my postage labels at home with Endicia.  The time I don't spend at the post office in line is far more valuable than the mere $15.00 I spend a month. Again, being frugal isn't about not spending. It's about being smart where you spend your money.

PS: regarding yesterday's post. Thank you again to each of you who took the time to write such heartfelt comments. I was touched by each one. I also wanted to add that people began to reply to my email on the local email list as soon as I posted on my blog. Maybe everyone was busy on Friday with the superbowl. The replies have been as well thought as your comments were and I feel that I have learned a lot about this subject and about how caring each of you are.

personality

Where I live, we have a very strong email list full of moms. Lots of local items are discussed like how to find a plumber or which restaurant to eat at. Sometimes conversations are deeper and even some get to the point of being heated. When I first moved to the island I started a support group called Families for natural living. This is a nation wide group based in Virginia. The name has since been changed to Families for Conscious Living. When I became a parent in England, this was my life line to sanity. All the strange things I was doing as a parent were not only respected by this group, but they were supported. Breastfeeding, organic diet, natural health, co-sleeping and so on. When we moved to Virginia, I couldn't wait to start my own group. This group became my community until we moved to the Seattle area. I quickly started one here but from the beginning it felt different. People didn't seem to need the support as much. And conversation just didn't flow like it did on our other FNL email list. Finally after five years of lack of participation I closed the group. I had recently written two very heart felt emails with no replies. This other island wide moms group moved to another venue and created a Green Parenting list. I thought it would be the perfect substitution for the FNL group. Maybe I'm just too honest and it scares people or maybe I say the wrong things? I wrote an email a month ago about co-sleeping and I only received one reply privately. Yesterday I was so moved by something that again I wrote to the group but only one person responded privately and defensively. Dh thinks my topic of choice was too delicate but I'm not sure.  I tried to write it in the most gentle way. I'd love to hear your thoughts:

Here it is:

I picked up a book yesterday at the library on AD/HD. I must say that although I've heard lots about this, I've yet to ever read much about it. I think it's probably a good thing now that I have read some of the check-lists in the book for your child possibly being AD/HD. I was literally shocked to see that so many of the items in the list applied not only to my daughter's personality but to mine as well. It kind of made my stomach sick. Initially I was annoyed because I don't need a label like this attached to myself in my 30's. But then again, if I had been given this label when I was a kid, it would have destroyed me.

I'm curious what people think of this term AD/HD. Is it a positive view? Negative? Some of the things that come up for me are giving kids medication and labeling them. Both of these I think are somewhat negative. I don't know if they are near the truth, they are just the first things that come to mind. Most of the children I know that are my daughter's age might also fall into this personality description but minus the label. I usually tend to hang out with natural minded parents who seem to avoid Dr. visits more than the rest of our culture.

Ironically I discovered an amazing book this last summer called "Refuse to Choose" by Barbara Sher. I'm so relieved I found this book before the AD/HD one. She talks about this personality style.
She calls people with this personality, scanners. I fit this description so well. But her book is written in such a positive way that I finished the book feeling so good that I am not alone. In fact that I'm just hard wired different than the norm. And in fact that I am special. I want to do everything and anything in life. She also mentions other famous Scanners like Da Vinci.

Then I discussed her book on my blog, and continue to do so and each time people write to me saying that they never knew that there were others like them. They feel so relieved to even know about having a word that describes their personality. And that it is okay to be who they are.

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf Education also has his own view on the Four Temperaments. From wiki:
"Waldorf teachers use the concept of the four temperaments to help interpret, understand and relate to the behaviour and personalities of children under their tutelage. The temperaments, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine,[35] are thought to express four basic personality types, each possessing its own fundamental way of regarding and interacting with the world."

Both my daughter and I fit mostly into Choleric:
Walk: firm, heels dig into the ground with each step
Eyes: energetic, active
Relationships: friendly as long as he/she is in command
Food: spicy
Memory: poor
Interest: the world, self, and future
Clothing: individual and outstanding
To stimulate: issue a challenge

So maybe labels are everywhere? And maybe it's up to us to figure out whether they are positive or negative. And which to move forward on in a helpful way.

I suppose if some people analyzed my daughter, they might suggest that she should be medicated. She is a spirited girl, full of life. I do find that when she has corn syrup and/or food coloring her behavior can worsen. Same with when she is over stimulated by tv/music/media. So on a daily basis we tend to avoid these.

Growing up with style of personality I was teased nearly every day of my life, my teachers shamed me a lot of the time for being eccentric/energetic and from both of these I told myself that I would never to send my child to a public school. Maybe things are different than when I grew up or maybe it helps where I grew up (small farm town in Northern CA). I just didn't want my own children to go through what I went through. Last week I went to a meeting for next year's first grade parents at the children's school. One thing that I mentioned in the meeting to the other Kindergarten parents is the joy I have felt that my daughter's spirit (she's in 3rd grade) is not only respected but she is given the freedom to be who she is in a safe learning environment. I couldn't ask for anything more as a parent. Every conference we have with my daughter's teacher, she tells us how imaginative my daughter is and how she throws her energy into her drawing and art.

I realize this email is verging on babbling. I'm just trying to throw out some thoughts on children and their personalities. Has your child been labeled? How do you feel about it? Is this label really necessary? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
************************************************************************

There you go. Was it too negative by my comments on medication? I mean the medication thing is my own belief. I haven't taken cold medication in probably 10 years because I feel that the natural route is more effective. I'm not trying to judge anyone that does take medication, it just doesn't fit into my family values. The one person who wrote me privately spoke very highly of medication and how it helped her child. One day the child couldn't read and within 6 weeks he could read. The child became social and happy. She also implied that AD/HD has a similar brain pattern to those who have been in a car accident. Hmmmm....I'm not sure what to think about that one.

I can't imagine medicating Cerys. While I would not miss her lows so much, I would miss her highs heartbreakingly so. The woman said the medication doesn't change her son, he's still the same boy. I just wanted to bring up that I can help my daughter with eliminating certain foods & media and honoring her spirit. I'll still refer to her as spirited because that is what she is to me. She's a little spitfire full of passion, beauty, emotion and spirit. I love her entirely for all of these and will work hard to keep her away from foods that bother her and media that overstimulates her.

Christmas- a couple years ago with her dad and uncle's knee.

So with all of that said, I miss my old parenting group where I could speak with my heart and have people who cared about what I said, reply. Of course many of you do that each time you read my blog and I am grateful for all of you. I would love to find an email list of natural parents that can fill the gap where my FNL list used to be. Do any of you have one to suggest? I hope onto the Mothering Boards from time to time but I'd love just an email list form. Thanks for listening to me and I don't mean any offense to anyone who does anything differently than me. I'm writing this from the angle of a naturally minded mama.