Apron Thrift Girl

Not at the KOA

Our journey to Sacramento started perfectly. We stopped in Davis for lunch at Chipotle and a quick visit to a thrift store. We hopped back on the road and drove straight to an estate sale in Sacramento. After spending an hour there the children and I were anxious to get to our cabin at the KOA (a camp ground) in West Sacramento.

We decided to pay a bit more and get a Kamping Kottage which came with a "small kitchen", bathroom and plenty of beds. We called ahead to make sure that we could have a fire and that the Kottage had a fire ring. We looked through all the photos and thought we had done all the necessary preparations for what to expect when we got there.

We arrived at our cabin and immediately noticed that it didn't have a fire ring or BBQ. It was surrounded by gravel yet the smaller cabins across the little road had grass, fire pit and were on the water. Our cabin looked a bit like something you'd find at a construction site. There were rat droppings on the front porch by the door which overall didn't bother me since I'm often digging away in basements. The cabin smelled lightly of cigarette smoke which I try to avoid for the children's sake. We walk into the kitchen and it consisted of a microwave, sink and tiny fridge. We didn't pack the propane stove since we thought that "small kitchen" would include something to cook on. I sighed, called Dave and asked for his help. He rang the manager and spoke with him, called me back to tell me that the manager was coming to talk to us. In my head I was planning to ask if we could swap for a smaller cabin that included a fire ring and BBQ. That way at least we could cook and prepare our food. The only reason we decided to spend more money on the larger cabin was to cook in the kitchen to save money.

The manager arrived and asked us what was wrong. I explained that we had made assumptions based on the website about the cabin. He said that he could roll over a standing BBQ over to the Kottage. The children weren't too impressed to stand around and roast marshmallows though. He then implied that photos of the kitchen were on the site and that I obviously hadn't seen them. I mentioned that I had spent a lot of time on the website and never saw a photo of the kitchen itself. No matter what I said he appeared to want to argue with me. You know the expression "the customer was always right?" Well this was not the case for me. I personally felt that he wanted to belittle me in front of Cerys and Keiran. My intention wasn't to argue about what was on the website or wasn't. I simply wanted to move to a smaller cabin but once he implied that I was internet inept I decided to get a refund and leave. It just wasn't worth it.

It got worse though. When we went to get our refund he started looking for photos of the cabin on his computer. He wouldn't let it go. Ironically enough just now I looked and I still don't see any close up photos of the kitchen or details that there is nothing to cook on. Sure it says half kitchen but what the hey dickens does that really mean? I'm not an expert in cabins and really it should be explained to any customer clearly on the website that one needs to bring their own stove.

He kept having a go at me as I was waiting for my refund from another gal at the desk. He was very unkind to me and even said to me "what you want me to build you a kitchen?" I was so shocked that anyone in a manager role would speak that way to a paying customer, especially in front of her kids. He apparently was very insulted about the rat droppings too. I said it didn't bother me but he ignored me and went on to say that what did I expect, it was a camp ground and that there are snakes and ducks too. Seriously he wouldn't stop talking even after I asked multiple times to just let me get my refund. Finally we were able to leave and I swear he was still rattling insults to me as we walked out the door. It was unbelievable.

We have had pretty good experiences with KOA in the past. I haven't always slept well but the people were friendly and kind. This is the worst customer service I've probably ever come across. My children were in tears as we left. We had to drive to the nearest Starbucks to calm down. Here we were a couple hours from home, all of our camping supplies in the van (except the stove....LOL) and nowhere to stay. I nearly decided to drive home but Dave came through and found us a hotel.

I hate to think about how much he paid for us to stay at the Marriott. I think because I had worked so hard for the last 4 months and the fact that my birthday is this Sunday, that he wanted me to have a relaxing time in Sacramento. I felt a little sick that I had attempted to have a frugal holiday and instead it cost us far more than expected. We did have a beautiful time at the hotel and I must admit when we woke on Wednesday morning to a cold breeze and later rain, I was very grateful to have slept in that amazing bed with feather duvets and pillows.

Dave was still trying to fix the KOA incident at home so he emailed them and told them about our horrible experience. I also mentioned it on Twitter using their twitter name @KOAGREAT but not a word from them on Twitter.

Dave received a reply in what appears to be a form letter:

Subject: KOA Sacramento [ref:000000197856:ref]

Case Number: 197856

Case Summary: Kamper Complaint

Last Reply...
Dear Dave & Selena,

Thank you for your email regarding the  Sacramento West/Old Town KOA Kampground and for taking the time to share your concerns with us. I'm sorry the kabins at the kampground were not what you expected them to be. Each kampground does have different types of kabins, so if you ever need to get details about any KOA kampground, I recommend calling them and asking any questions to help your decision.

Please know that we at the KOA Home offices and the managers of each independently owned campground care very much about your experience.  We'll be sure to pass along your concerns to the management at the Sacramento West/Old Town KOA.

Once again, thank you for sharing your concerns with us. I wish you much happy camping in the future.

Sincerely,

The KOA Value Kard Rewards Team
vkrservice@koa.net
koa.com
888-562-0000

It would have been a little nice if someone had actually signed the form letter as in a first and last name. What we both got from the letter is that they really don't care much about customer service or about us. Dave was very honest in his email about the manager and how he treated us so really what good is KOA forwarding Dave's email to him? I don't think he's going to change his tune if that's how he treats people, especially in front of her children.

I do love visiting Sacramento so we will need to get creative in our future visits there. It's always challenging to be traveling, stay frugal and rely on a gluten free diet. I can't just go anywhere and eat the food available. I usually have to depend on being near a Whole Foods, a Chipotle (although lots of cross contamination) and In-n-Out Burger (protein burger) or have our own kitchen.

I have a romantic vision of traveling and staying in inexpensive small vintage motels. I looked for some when I thought our trip was going to take us near Chico. Yet most on-line comments about these motels mentioned seedy people and cockroaches? I think one of my goals this summer is to figure out how to travel for less. Because we are in a rental we aren't so keen to do a house exchange with strangers from homeexchange.com. We may try some exchanges with Waldorf Home Exchange. We have used all of our Hilton hotel points up so we don't have any more free hotel stays available to us.

My two children love swimming which is why we have been drawn to KOA in the past. They loved their pools and we loved the simplicity of how easy camping is at their campgrounds. I'm not sure at this point if we want to ever stay in a KOA again though. I suppose I shouldn't let one grumpy manager ruin it for us but I think it was the KOA form letter that made the decision to avoid KOA at least this summer.

We didn't let it ruin our little holiday to Sacramento and our trip ended fabulously thanks to an ATG reader which I'll share about next week.

Now to begin the celebrations of my birthday weekend.

Happy Thrifting.

xoxo Selena

How to Plan a Vacation Budget

My mom was a champ when it came to budgeting. She has a gift with numbers and was always able to keep our family on track for money. I think many of my thrifty ways were influenced by her and yet I didn't appreciate it at the time. One of my most embarrassing family memories is the time we drove to Reno, Nevada to stay at Circus Circus Hotel for $19.99 a night. We didn't own any luggage so we brought our clothing into the hotel in brown paper bags. My brothers and I were trying to hide our faces in the bags as we stumbled through the lobby. Yet my mom probably made a smart decision. Why spend money on luggage when we didn't travel very often. Or when we did travel it was in a powder blue GMC Carryall that kind of looks like this but without all the 4x4 hot rod stuff. We just threw our stuff in the back and took off down the road. It wasn't classy but it sure was fun. We drove all over the Western United States in that vintage clunker.

Before each trip my mother would sit down with her blank envelopes and pen to plan our vacation budget. I have tried to copy her over the last ten years but I suffered mostly from Budget Fail. I couldn't keep up and because we charge everything (to get points in order to stay free in hotels) it makes it harder to keep track. My mother would add cash or travelers checks to each envelope. She would write these titles on each one:

• Motel / Camping
• Food
• Gas
• Souvenirs
• Emergency
• Misc Expenses

I figure maybe if I use some sweet Cath Kidston envelope & cards, it might help inspire me to stick with it.

My 20th class reunion is this weekend.....gulp...... Although 20 years have past, I'm still not ready to face my childhood in such a way. Did anyone see the Bones episode about Brennan going to her reunion? This episode helped make up my mind about not going. Some of my childhood friends though are getting together for a potluck dinner on Sunday. Since it was the end of the school year, I decided to celebrate by taking a little vacation. Dave booked three free nights in Sacramento through our Hilton Honor Points.

My sales have been steady and our renter stayed for June so I am taking a bit of my earnings and buying the children some summer clothing. I adore Naartjie because they aren't full of your stereotypical dump trucks and dinosaur characters or TV characters. They are just simple, gorgeous play clothes. Naartjie is having a sale of up to 40% off for their summer clothes. I've budgeted $100 for Keiran and $50 for Cerys. I find most of Cerys' clothing when I thrift but I am more challenged when it comes to Keiran.

Dave asked for some Misc. money to spend while I am thrifting on Saturday morning. I think we'll add $100.00 to this budget. We are hoping to visit the State Capitol on Monday which is free. He plans to take the children geocaching while I work on Saturday.

Our food budget for our four day trip comes to $120.00. We have to be very crafty as we eat out to keep within our $20.00 budget for some of our meals. We plan on bringing our camp stove and cooking breakfast at a nearby park. We are bringing a cooler with cheese, bread, potluck dish for the party, butter, eggs and bacon. Since Chipotle is relatively healthy and delicious, quite a few of our meals will be enjoyed there.

 

I'm not planning a budget for Petrol (gas) but I am keeping track of it so that I can tally up the final cost of our trip.

We have bartered for house & dog sitting so there isn't an added expense for that. My work money is separate from this budget and I'm hoping to pick up a large amount of inventory. I really look forward to thrifting in a new area. 

When I mentioned the budget to Dave his eyes got a bit large with surprise but then something must of clicked and he felt the challenge that I was offering him. He's ready to keep things within our budget. The point of our trip is to get away and enjoy ourselves. We aren't going to beat ourselves up with saving money but instead we are going to be creative. We want to do more for less. It takes a bit more thought but I have found that it is far more rewarding in the end.

How do you budget for vacation?

I'm drawing the name for my 4th Anniversary Mystery Giveaway tomorrow morning. There's still time to enter. If any of you have posted the link on your blog, make sure to comment an extra two times with your link in the comments. I use the random number generator to pick a number. I'll be posting photos of the revealed mystery items tomorrow morning along with the name of the winner. I can't wait to share with you all what I have selected as the Giveaway.

Sturgeon's Mill

A friend of ours mentioned that they were going to a steam run sawmill this last weekend. I didn't think much about it but then a local radio station mentioned it as well and when I heard the word "free" associated to it my ears perked up. We are currently on the frugal hunt for inexpensive adventures on the weekends this summer.

Sturgeon's Mill is considered one of the last great mills of its kind and has survived since 1914. It was like stepping back in time.

 

A few times a year the mill is open for visitors. You can find more details about these demonstration days here.

The saw mill can be seen in the background. This gentleman is pushing the wood through what I think is a planer. Love the man's hat. Not sure if they were going for a vintage style or if this is your typical sawmill attire.

 

They had on display what the original office was like. It was filled with vintage calculators and old office equipment, the kind I often find at estate sales.

 

The men would roll the logs down onto this cart and then slide the log through this incredibly large rotating blade that was nearly as tall as me.

 

I'm not sure where they find their redwoods but there were signs up everywhere stating "looking for redwoods." This is a non profit organization so perhaps many of the logs are donated.

 

The saw blade cut through this large redwood beam like it was butter.

 

The steam escaping from beneath the mill.

They even had a blacksmith demonstrating. He was proudly stating that he has never been hurt by his work even though he doesn't ever wear safety goggles. Shortly after this photo a tiny piece of very hot metal hit Keiran's arm. Luckily just a tiny sting. We're thinking he should review his safety protocol.

 

They had quite a bit of wood for sale. These slabs were some of the most expensive that I saw. Wouldn't these make an incredible dining room table? The had some very inexpensive smaller ones starting at $25. The wishful woodworker in me had the urge to buy one to make a small table. Maybe another time.

They had a very lovely BBQ on offer with cold drinks. When the whistle blew for lunch we headed to the van for a picnic of salami, cheese & olives. The children loved the sawmill and Keiran asked a million questions.

If you live in Sonoma County take a look at Sonoma on the Cheap. You can also follow SOTC on Facebook. Her blog is filled with inexpensive ideas for outings as well as coupons and discounts in our area.

What frugal adventure did you go on this last weekend?

Summarizing Blissdom

Remember my what me afraid? post where I confessed about my fear of flying? Well after taking off and landing 4 different times, I'm still afraid. And my little heart raced crazily at the slightest hint of turbulence. I grabbed Cathe's hand so hard that I'm surprised she flew with me on the trip home. She reached out to me when I wrote my fearful flying post by offering to travel and look after me. I gotta tell you that she was my anchor during the trip. I honestly don't know if I could have done it without her. She made flying bearable to me. She's the reason I made it to Blissdom. I guess I'll be bringing her to England if we visit Dave's family in the next year or two.

Cathe Holden and me.

The spirit behind the Blissdom Conference is community. It's belonging to a group of incredible women who share your own passion for blogging. I swear I have never seen so many teched up women in my life. You know how we bloggers have to discretely pull out our iphone or laptop to check out twitter account or email in the company of friends? At Blissdom it was just the social thing to do. If you were in a conversation with someone and their computer tweeted, it was okay to check that tweet. And even share about the tweet to who you were engaging in conversation with. I was so at home with these women.I found my community.

Lisa Leonard. Lisa is featured in this month's issue of Artful Blogging. More about her in a later post.

What did I gain most at Blissdom?

Well the delicious handshake with Harry Connick Junior was probably my favorite moment. What a gentleman he is. Please take a look at his Musicians' Village in New Orleans. He spoke to us before starting the concert and what I saw was this amazing human with so much compassion and kindness. It was so touching to hear him speak passionately about helping musicians and creating a community for them in New Orleans.

I arrived early in order to be in the front row. My heart just about stopped when he looked my direction.

But what I gained at Blissdom was the courage to go up to someone and say hello. Not only that but share with them who I am and what I do. In this setting, it was encouraged to walk up to anyone of the 500 women and introduce yourself. Where in our daily life do we have permission to do that?  Seriously. Not that I'm going to start going up to people in Wholefoods to say "hello here's my business card, please check out my blog" but I'm definitely going to interact differently when I meet strangers. 

The biggest perk about Blissdom was the pampering by all of the Blissful sponsors. I'll admit it, I'm frugal and I adore free things. We received a swag bag when we registered on Thursday afternoon. Is this a word many people use? I've never known that I have had a swag before let alone mumble the word before this week. Now I'm singing the word. I love Swag!

In the reception area where all the sponsors were set up, there was a continuous hot chocolate booth with 6 cans of Reddiwip on ice at all times. I can't begin to tell you nor probably should admit how often I sneaked out of a session to grab another cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream. Or maybe it was whipped cream with hot chocolate. I even told the girls running the booth that when I make my millions I'm going to have their whipped cream on ice 24/7.

The food was incredible. Most of our meals were included in the price of the ticket to Blissdom. From a frugal point of view between the meals and the swag and the workshops/panels, this conference is serious bang for your buck. They catered to allergies and often a gluten free meal would be waiting for me. When everyone else had a gluten rich desert, they would bring me a delectable chocolate mouse, the bowl decorated with hardened chocolate swirls and complete with three raspberries on top.

Snacks were always available out in the reception area. My favorite was the one sponsored by Orville Redenbacher's. Imagine walking into a room with a table filled with 8 different flavors of popcorn. On another table they had bottles of water and soda. I was in heaven. As many of you know, I'm all about the food.

What did I learn?

I learned so much that I'm going to spend the week figuring out all of this information. I'm a scanner, I love to learn, need to learn, but I have to stay focused. Otherwise everything that I learned will just dissipate when I focus on the next new thing that comes my way.I'm just hard wired that way.

I learned about

• Personal branding and thinking of Apron Thrift Girl as a business (without losing the heart of what I write about)
• Building my business
• Vlogging (video blogging-I'm going to add more of this into ATG. Remember this old thing from this post?)
• Getting published (from blog to book)
• Niche Blogging
• On-line Advertising (this session was absolutely G.O.L.D.E.N.)
• Media Training Workshop (what to say and what not to say to the Media)
• PR Marketing 101

Would I recommend Blissdom?

Absolutely. Even if you are a hobby blogger or a blogger wanting to step it up a notch, I would highly recommend heading to Nashville next year. Start saving now for Blissdom 11 today. Start crafting your pitch now in order to find a personal sponsor to pay for your trip to Blissdom. Or add another jar marked Blissdom when you are saving money. Just make it happen.

I want to end this post by saying thank you to every one of you. You are the reason that I got on that plane. You are the reason I get up in the morning and write a blog post. You inspire me and you encourage me both in my darkest times and my brightest of days. I truly wouldn't be doing what I am doing without you. Thank you so much!

Gama-Go

The Gama-Go holiday sale opened at noon today in San Francisco. I was able to sneak in a rummage sale and three yard sales though before we had to be on the road. My friend Kim picked me up and we headed south on the 101 freeway. The weather was fabulous with a warm bright sun and a stunning blue sky. A perfect California kind of day.

We made it to the line about 15 minutes before they opened the doors. We got stuck in the 2nd wave of people let in but there was still plenty to buy.

Rickshaw Stop....besides Gama-Go they were also selling drinks from the bar. Next time we'll take the bus into the city instead of driving and really enjoy ourselves. Nothing like shopping with a mojito in hand.

 

 

Ironically when I started this post and searched for a category I couldn't find one. Being a thrift blog I don't really have a Retail category. It's not that I avoid all retail shopping but still the majority of the things I purchase are 2nd hand. I did really enjoy myself though. I will admit to getting sucked into the frenzy of "buy, buy, buy" mode. Not only because of the energy at this sale but the constant, beat of the loud, but very cool music. It was almost like I was in robot mode when the music was pumping and I found myself shoving items in my bag. Then the music stopped and I would shake my head look down at my overflowing bag and I'd wonder what the heck I was doing. Then the music would start up and I'd get back into shopping mode. In the end though I didn't go overboard and bought truly what I wanted to buy. They weren't going to get the best of this thrift girl with their loud but cool and enticing music.

Shirts were $15 each or buy 5 get 1 free which brought the price to $12.50 each and they are made in the USA which I'm all for. I'm still building up my warm weather wardrobe so I had a good excuse to shop. The Pomegranate shirt is my favorite. Same with the wallet. I have such a weak spot for that fruit. As someone who didn't leave her island very much it feels so good to be getting out and going on adventures like this shopping trip. 

By the way, Lucy is the winner of last Saturday's Giveaway. Thanks for all your crazy thrifted Hallowe'en finds.

odd collections

It's no secret that we are collectors. Books have been written on this need to collect. If I think to only my small circle of family I know that my mom collects Belleek, swans (she tries to avoid the tacky ones) and Lilliput Lane houses. My dad collects anything to do with trains, trolleys or boats that tragically sank, clocks (although usually tacky ones like an Elvis clock with swinging legs) and old cars although only one at a time. My oldest brother collects (I think) pipe stuff & military books. My middle brother collects things to do with Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and fantasy/science fiction books. None of these are too strange or out there but they definitely reveal a hint of their personalities. Collections can help define who we are. Overall we pretty much like ourselves and we want to be surrounded by things that we love. 

Susan Pearce has written books about collecting and why we collect. She did a survey in England asking people if they consider themselves collectors. 66% of the 1500 people described themselves as collectors. Susan thinks that part of our need to collect goes back to our hunter & gathering days. She also implies that we are human and like shiny and bright things. That kind of reminds me of magpies.

I can't think of a time when I didn't collect. I had my sticker collection which I counted often. I not only had a book collection in my teens but I took the time to catalog and count the books when I couldn't sleep. I even counted how many pages I used to read. Obviously I wasn't a cheerleader and would have fit well with the Glee crowd before the cheerios descended on them. I can see myself in my daughter as she begins her own collections. She is obsessed about anything to do with Elfquest. She's asking me to bring home crystals, bows, rocks, necklaces made from bone and animal pelts. Even when she insisted on buying a scary looking fox pelt complete with head and paws I reminded myself that she could be asking for plastic Hanna Montana stuff made in China instead.

Sometimes all I need to do is bring home an item once from a yard sale and my collection begins. I don't always even know that I've started to collect it until my eye catches another item at the next rummage sale. This is what happened when I bought this box.

I was drawn to it because it reminded me of Waldorf with it's curved wooden edges and the fact that it is from nature. I found it up on Bainbridge Island right at the beginning of my Mid Century Waldorf shift that I was making in the house. It also reminded me of something Wharton Esherton might have hand crafted. 

I fell in love with it but again, I didn't realize that I was on the brink of collecting little boxes until I moved to Sonoma County and found this artistic box.

And there began the collection. I saw another one last week but they wanted $25 for it at a high end rummage sale. Okay so I'm guilty of collecting these things but I'm not going to go overboard, especially on price.

I admit that I bought a somewhat ugly box too. I felt so guilty about it though that I gave it to Keiran who now keeps his collection of shark teeth in it.

It's actually not that offensive it just needs a sanding and oiling. It's very simple and Keiran loved the gift.

I have no idea where my little box collection will take me. Maybe at my own estate sale people will chuckle and make jokes at my expense when discovering the hundreds of boxes lining my bedroom walls. We've all been to those estate sales where a collection has truly grown out of hand. I mean really, how many collector plates is enough?

I do adore collecting although as I have learned the art of purging, I have been a bit more careful in what and how I collect. Instead of buying every single vintage dish out there, I narrowed it down to Ben Seibel. Instead of every linen under the sun, I've dedicated my collection to mostly Vera. I try to now buy items that were made well and reflect both my interest in Mid Century Modern and Waldorf Education. Waldorf defines nearly everything about me. I want my house to show that. When I went to a Yogurt shop in Sebastopol a few weeks ago I noticed that a Waldorf painting was on the wall. When I mentioned it to the teenager behind the cash register she proudly told me that she went to a Waldorf school when she was younger. You could probably walk into most houses and immediately tell a bit of the personality of the person by merely what they have chosen to surround themselves by. It's the beauty of collecting and sharing a little of what is inside of us.

I don't know if my boxes are the oddest thing that I collect but I would love to hear what your weirdest collection is or maybe one that you have witnessed at an estate sale.

frugal thanks

Following the Apron Thrift Girl tradition, I wanted to share a list of things I am thankful for. Last year I shared a list of Thriftful things. This year it will be about frugality.

Top 8 Frugal things I am Thankful for.

1) Freecycle. Elffie is currently eating food from a bag of organic dog food that I picked up on Freecycle. What's not to love about a place to give and receive free stuff.

2) Azure Standard Food Co-op. I save hundreds of dollars each month by shopping with this amazing food coop. Eating healthy isn't cheap but finding the secret ways to cut down on my food bill is the trick to really appreciating what I eat. The best deals on Azure is their sale section which lasts for two months. This allows you to try something the first month and stock up the 2nd. They deliver to many states in the western part of the US.

3) My parents who really taught me how to be frugal even when I didn't appreciate it as a child.

4) Blogs that also share a belief in frugality and simple living. I'm easily influenced which can be a bad thing when I have friends who love shopping and consuming. Sometimes when I get the need to buy (aka January when the holiday bug is still thriving) I visit blogs that talk about thrifting, frugality and saucy vampires (of which this guy is now off my list and this guy has been added) and my need to spend, calms down.

5) Thrift Store Sale 1/2 off Days. Our local Value Village and Goodwill are getting more and more expensive. They sometimes sell ugly made 60's dishes for $5.99 each . And that's just a little bowl. The reason I don't ban black Friday like many people is that I want to be at the 1/2 off Goodwill sale tomorrow morning. Plus I sort of buy nothing most of the year and on this one day I do like to get the deals especially if it has to do with cheap pens and paper.

6) Home Exchange is the most frugal way that we vacation. We trade houses with another family for a long weekend for up or anytime up to three weeks. We always go to the Santa Rosa/Sebastopol area but of course that will change this year. Now we'll probably want to do an exchange between Santa Monica (where we will move to in February) and our island near Seattle next summer. Spending a few thousand dollars for a vacation spent on meals out, hotels and car rentals can make my frugal stomach queasy. I prefer vacations where we can take our van (to fill with thrifted finds), stay in a house for free and choose whether to eat in or go out for a meal.

7) Library book sales. Most of these sales sell books at very cheap prices. Some are .25 for soft cover and .50 for hardcover. Ours has caught onto online values and now sells their books online or prices them higher to sell at the sale. But you can still find a good deal, especially on children's books. To find out where your sales are check out this site.

8) Bartering. I still adore bartering and find it golden in an economic time such as this. I won a sewing machine a year ago. I loved winning it but I didn't really need it. I wanted to wait until I ran into the perfect situation so that I could give it to someone. I was waiting for the person to show up in my life but they didn't appear. In the end I put it on Craigslist. Someone contacted me and said they wanted it for their girlfriend as a gift. They asked if I would take some dark red beverages that possibly might have been made from grapes in trade for the machine. I said no, that would be illegal (right?). So instead I gave him the machine and he gave Dave 10 bottles of very expensive wine. It was a perfect trade. If you see something on Craigslist that you are interested in then it might not hurt to ask if they would consider bartering? obviously make sure you feel safe etc.. Lots of people have been asking for my help recently with either bookselling or budget making or even brand creation for a home business and I have found myself accepting more and more bartering. While I would appreciate to earn the money, I enjoy helping people so much that I don't mind taking a traded item in return for my services. Everyone wins. I started taking singing lessons to help with my self confidence. At the first lesson we discussed payment and my voice instructor said that she would barter for the lessons. What a dream.

My bartering wish list would include: horse back riding lessons for Cerys and me, someone to do my laundry (shuddering), swim lessons for Keiran and someone to finish painting the outside of the house (which we were quoted $6000 for-we started painting it ourselves)

There's the list for Thanksgiving 2008. And one more thankful comment; thanks to all of my blogging friends who make my life feel so complete. Happy Thanksgiving to you.

Elffie who hasn't been himself with his slightly injured back leg. Oh I should add Vets bill to my bartering wish list. Sigh.

Living off the Grid

In many of my natural living magazines I've always admires those that live off the grid. Admired though is many degrees away from wanting that lifestyle for myself. Thursday night a wind storm ripped through the Seattle area. It was awful. Winds were clocked at 69 mph at Seatac, the highest on record. I slept little in fear that our 80 year old trees in our yard would come down on our house. Keiran and I slept in the guest room downstairs while Dave slept with Cerys in her room on the other side of the house from the trees. Now I know that many of you have experienced high winds in hurricanes and tornadoes with the best of spirits. Our problem up here are towering evergreen trees. Even at 69 mph many trees fell on power lines. At the moment our house has been dark since Thursday night at 10pm. We have escaped to my parents near the coast waiting for the moment that our power is back on. We stayed until 10am today but gave up. Dave was happy to stay home because we do have a wood stove and a camping stove. But I do not enjoy surviving by candlelight. Sure it is romantic for a 45 minute romantic dinner (which I have not experienced since Cerys was born) but trying to survive in one room full of candles and two rambunctious children was not my cup of tea.

The saddest part is all of the food we have lost in our freezers and fridge. Bags of blackberries we handpicked and washed and froze. Wild Alaskan salmon, organic beef, Amy's Organic pizzas and much more. We will have to face that when we arrive home. We grabbed the cat, some luggage, my eBay packages that I will have to mail on Monday and some bare food essentials. I can't believe how much I appreciate a working light bulb, a cool fridge, non rotting milk and of course a computer connection. I guess I can confess that I am absolutely addicted to the Internet. So while I love living as natural as I can, I certainly love all my little technology inventions that make my life easier. Our small independent grocery store was kindly giving away free cups of coffee with organic half and half yesterday and today. It was a blessing. Yesterday afternoon I went to Ace Hardware only to find their shelves empty of D batteries. I bought the children a key chain flashlight each, some non smelly candles and a small Mulder (x-files) flashlight for myself and went home wishing I had been better prepared.

Tonight as I am warm, well fed and typing away on a computer, there are so many people cold in their homes in the Seattle area. If you have a free moment please keep them in your prayers. It is going to be a very cold night tonight.

Destination: Farm Chicks Antique Show

What do you get when you take an antique show and mix it with some apron wearing women running it all? The Farm Chicks Antique Show. Serena Thompson and Teri Edwards are the creative pair behind it all. And luckily enough, this antique show is only a 5 hour drive from home. We are making a long weekend of it and spending four days in Spokane, Washington. Live Well-Laugh Often-Junk Much. I can handle living by that motto especially the junk much part.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is the only bumper sticker on our van. Our last van was plastered with them so dh and I kind of had an agreement that our new van would be sticker free. I sort of broke the agreement because this bumper sticker was just necessary for a thrifter's van. We have a 2002 Eurovan and it can hold tons of thrifted finds. She's kind of boxy, not very sexy but she is so comfortable to drive, to eat in (complete with a folding table and small fridge) and she becomes a tiny hotel room (without a bathroom unless you count the children's portable one) that sleep 4. Oh and there are a zillion of these up here in the Pacific Northwest.

Before leaving on any trip, I like to research as much info about an area that we are traveling to.  In the September issue of Country Living, it featured Spokane because they are going to be at the Farm Chicks Show. Serena and Teri are contributing editors for Country Living Magazine.  The article listed some cool shops to hit and inspired me to find out more.

The only reason the children agreed to the trip at all is because of this. In fact I think we will go to it first to get it out of the way. I'm sure the entire 5 hour journey will be filled with questions like "when will we get to the giant wagon". Keiran has talked non-stop about it. Dh offered today for me to go by myself to the show and have a girl weekend (is there such a thing when it is solo or is that just weird) but I wanted to be with the family.

List of things to research when traveling:

1) Thrift Stores -could there be anything more important to search for? I guess food should be number 1 but I'll at least give it 2nd place. Using the Thrift Shopper I found a good list of thrift stores in Spokane. If I have a lot of time I will map quest each one. If I don't, I'll print out a sheet of the stores and use my car map to try to locate them.

2) Restaurants and health food stores. Because I'm sort of a banned from most restaurants because of being gluten free, I have to plan well in advance of where to eat. I can't just stop at a Thai restaurant and hope to find something to eat. A lot of Asian food is soy sauce based which has wheat in it. Natural food stores are generally more aware of allergies and label their food better than conventional stores. I found this place which definitely is going to be a dinner stop for us.

3) We try to travel similar to Sylvie's style which brings me to #3; Coffee. Sure Starbucks is good for on the road, especially in more dubious locations but our preference lies in small, independent coffee houses. The more unique the setting, generally the better the coffee. My two needs while having a cup of coffee are raw sugar (the crunchy caramel colored kind) and half and half. If it's organic it is even better but this can be harder to find.

4) If you have children then you'll relate to this one; Parks. Children need to burn off energy or you have the chance them burning off energy on each other and I much prefer the park energy release. We have been to so many different parks up and down the west coast that I lost count of them. My favorite gig is when I drop dh and the kids off and hit a couple thrift stores. I usually only have a half hour though so it's like speed dating only speed thrifting instead.

5) Antique Stores. Maybe it should be above Parks but I need to know where the park is in order to drop off dh to hit the antique stores. I have a dh that just doesn't like to shop. I don't think that is rare among males is it?. I ask him time and time again if he collects anything or has any inkling of an interest to collect things. His reply is that he is a man. Yet in each Country Living Magazine there is always one guy in it collecting something. I mean everyone collects something. He is an avid Chelsea (English soccer team) supporter (since he was 8) and kind of collects programs but not to any obsessional level like his wife does with her collections. With his lack of collecting and lack of enjoyment with shopping, this usually gives me free ticket to thrift away. And for the record, he despises Joann's above everything else. He says he would rather have a root canal. What's not to love with fabric and notions?

6) Flea Markets. Up here in Washington we don't have as many flea markets as they do in other parts of the country. I still do a quick google search just in case.

7) Inexpensive Lodging. I so wanted to stay in a fancy hotel on this trip. I love posh hotels with down pillows and robes and jacuzzi tubs. I have only stayed in a couple of these but once I did, I had a hard time going back to Motel 6 and their plastic cups and polyester pillows. I spent an hour trying to find something different than your average hotel which wasn't overly expensive. I didn't find a thing. They were either priced over a $100.00 a night for a nicer hotel or $80.00 a night for your boring, plastic glasses, hotel. To me this is just such a waste of money. When did hotels get to be so expensive? In the end I just couldn't pay that much money for three nights in a hotel. Instead we're back at the KOA for a reasonable $45.00 a night in a Kamping Kabin. We bring our own bedding but which means I can bring my cozy duvet, my down pillow and my own comfy robe and pretend that I'm at a luxurious hotel. They were having a sale so third night is half off which fits even better into my thrifter's budget.

Researching and preparing a head of time can make a long weekend of thrifting more enjoyable and you can save time of not having to ask directions or stop at a payphone to search for thrift stores. When I return home from a trip like this, I'll create a folder in my travel section of my filing cabinet. I'll place my printouts and anything I picked up along the way like menus, maps, and brochures and file them away for the next time. This saves me from having to print everything out again. I'm looking forward to our last mini holiday before fall really sets in. Our next trip probably won't be until late winter or spring.

Water, Sun & Sand

Does anyone else have a DH (Darling Husband) who comments on your blog? I actually don't mind since he is on the funny side but I've yet to see another dh that leaves comments. If you know of one please let me know. Dh said yesterday in my comments "all the thrift stores were closed today". Well that we know is far from the truth but I did stick with the family today as we headed out to Bodega Bay. Does anyone remember the Hitchcock movie "The Birds" . Here is the old school that was apparently featured in the film. I haven't seen it for nearly 8 years and can't exactly remember the scene but it was worth taking a picture of for the sake of the blog.

We left early but not before stopping off for lattes (dh got me a 4 shot!) and picnic food. We arrived at the beach around 10:30am and were both buzzed on coffee. I swear coffees are larger here in California than in Washington. Maybe I'm just used to "tall double latte" rolling off my tongue that I don't notice any size larger than a 12 ounce.

The beach was sunny and warm and we layed out our beach blanket (deciding that instead of using nice floral blue Target blanket, would make own first patchwork blanket as soon as able -maybe picking up fabric from summer vacation for a memory quilt). The children ate some lovely sticky sweet honeycomb with dripping honey from Wednesday's farmer's market and I vowed silently never to mix honeycomb & sand again. After eating sticky honeycomb they raced to the water's edge to play in the cold surf. Dave started his sand castle/mote/river routine and I was able to lay out on the blanket wearing my new (2nd hand) sun hat to read my new Katie MacAlister book "You Slay Me". I love Katie MacAlister, especially her lovely bent humor which sometimes matches my own.

Here are Dave & Keiran hard at work. Basically at the end of our beach time they somehow had the water climbing up hill through their dug river to fill the mote at the seaweed covered sand castle. They were both very proud.

This picture of Cerys playing in the sand reminds me of Da Vinci's painting "Head of a Young Woman" (not too fancy on the painting titles back then were they). The link is actually to a page about the movie Ever After, since the painting of Drew Barrymore copies Da Vinci's painting but it also has the original painting by Da Vinci. I like capturing the children when they do not know I am watching them.

Here is Keiran giving me one of those kind of fake smile-mum-has-her-camera-out smiles and to boot he is looking away. But I thought the photo was still cute enough to share since he is covered with sand.

We drove home tired and sandy but we felt relaxed. We arrived home and the children and dh went to swim while I headed out in search of dinner. Tonight Dave cooked some large shrimp with lemon pepper & lime juice and with it we had an organic spring salad mix with Annie's Naturals organic sesame ginger vinaigrette (which she states on the bottle that it is Gluten-Free-a major plus for me), and organic heirloom tomatoes with olive oil and Celtic sea salt sprinkled on top. We drank a fruity sweet Gewurtz wine with our meal and finished the evening with an organic yellow watermelon from the Farmer's Market. I won't mention my sunburn as it is not very eco-chic but definitely ranks up there on the eco painful scale.