Photo of Bret Michaels and me

I did my volunteer bartending last night for a Bret Michaels concert. My bar area had closed up early so I was able to enjoy the entire show (right next to the stage.) For some reason Security did not shuffle us along like cattle in the photo line like they usually do. So here's a pic of me and Bret Michaels (unfortunately a few others got in the photo too). Let's play where's waldo, but instead where's the yardsalequeen? (hint: next to stage, camera & black bracelet on right hand). More pics to follow.

JC Penney's - I told you so!

Back in February I blogged that JC Penney's new pricing strategy would stink. But were they smart and listen to my unsolicited advice? Nope, and what do you know - "Bottom line? Customers accustomed to bargain hunting don't much care for the changes the former Apple impresario has wrought." Well duh. You can read the entire article here on MSN Money

Got cheese? Why yes, yes I do.

I stumbled across a cheesy deal today at a grocery store - Cracker Barrel cheese cuts (7 oz packages) at a buck a piece! Plus I had a $1 off any Cracker Barrel product (boo hoo, just had the one coupon). But even at a buck a piece, it was an awesome deal. I heart cheese.

I didn't clear the shelf (I came close) but I did leave some for others. The shelf price said it was discontinued product and had a $2.47 price. But when I scanned them, they scanned at only $1 each, so obviously the price had been lowered but it didn't have a new shelf tag. I love using the scanning guns at my grocery store.

NYC pics - and goodies

Well finally, here are some pics I took last month. One day my sister, Jacob and I took a train to NYC for the day. We left my mom's house around 8am and got back at around 11pm. Busy day! I haven't been to NYC in many, many years. It was Jacob's first time and he loved it. We couldn't see it all in one day, so the only things I definitely had on our "to-do" list was to go to Times Square and also go to the observatory at 30 Rockefeller Center.

Outside Good Morning America studios.  Jacob watches GMA every morning before school. No, I hadn't read the news of the day when I took the pic.

Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant on the Hudson River.  You know I love me some nuclear power plants!!! I saw this on the train ride down. (I don't dare try to re-arrange the photos here (after the fact) since I hate the way blogger has changed the editing feature here)

Walgreen's Times Square

Directions to Sesame Street please.

Grand Central Station (no, we didn't have time to go to the Statue of Liberty, but Jacob wanted the foam hat anyway)

Not NYC but in upstate NY.  An awesome,  authentically vintage bakery. Note to self: buy more poppy seed stollen bread!!!

Kelly Ripa - call me

I am willing to volunteer my services to be a semi part-time research production assistant to LIVE! with Kelly (as witnessed below). I would have to work from home though, since even though NYC is great, I don't want to move far away from my favorite thrift store. That reminds me, my NYC pics will be posted shortly.  And when I say that, I mean sometime this month.

Still on planet Earth

Yes, I am still around. I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth.  Blogger changed the way it works and I don't deal with change very well.

Last week was pretty exciting. I got nipped by my neighbor's pitbull dog.  He has two.  I have the best of luck when it comes to neighbors /end sarcasm.     Here is is over a week later and I can still see the mark.  I can't imagine the damage an actual bite would do.

well I have a busy day planned for today but I just wanted to check in and say hey.  Hey.  Make sure you come back tomorrow and bestow all kinds of wonderful birthday wishes to your ysq.

My cheap & awesome Bose Wave Radio

Yesterday's yardsale shopping will go down in yardsaling history - it's a story my future grandchildren will be telling to their grandchildren. For decades now, whenever I've been asked what is the one thing I want to find while yardsaling, I've only had one answer. A Bose Wave Radio (for $20 or less). Well yesterday was the day I scratched it off my Yardsale Bucket List. I found (and bought) a Bose Wave Radio for $5.

Yes, the color is the ultra rare Nicotine Yellow version - but it's Bose and it sounds awesome.

Such a strange combination of circumstances yesterday - and it all fit together perfectly. Halleluiah - my prayers to the yardsale gods have been answered.

On Friday night, I was lamenting the fact that even though the weather was going to be perfect on Saturday, there were NO advertised church yardsales or any yardsales in my town for the next day. And DH was borrowing my car so I would have to drive his truck and bring Jacob yardsaling with me. I figured - of course - I could spot some unadvertised yardsales so I drove my usual route. And I spotted none. Zip, zilch, nada.

So I made the decision to go to the fairgrounds (about 15 miles away) where it turns into a flea market on Saturdays. Many of the sellers are dealers so they don't have any bargains, but regular people wanting to have a yardsale also sell. That's where I found the Bose Wave Radio. It was meant to be since I wasn't even particularly early - the sellers/dealers set up at the crack of dawn (or earlier) and then they all the pick thru each other's stuff before actual customers show up. Had there been any yardsales in my town for me to go to, I would not have gone to the fairgrounds.

I also bought some other stuff, including this vintage Pearl-Wise toy chest for $1.





Now to create a new yardsale bucket list, since you know there has to be other things for me to find.

Solomons Island Tiki Bar Opening 2012

Today was an extra busy day for me. Today is the day of the annual Tiki Bar in Solomons Island, Maryland re-opening for the season. I stopped in for a bit, signed up to be a designated driver (you can win prizes for being a DD) and talked to some friends who had their boats there. (The bar opened at noon. I got there around 12:30 and left a half hour later after socializing a bit with some friends. I asked if anyone needed a ride, but they all declined. Hey, I tried. Last year I won a $100 prize for being a DD. I want the grand prize this year.

I didn't stay long because I had places to go! Like a live auction that was starting at 2pm. And at the auction, I couldn't stay long either since I had to be home for Jacob coming home from school. If they had auctioned off the weird white monkey statue when I was there, I may have bid. But it wasn't meant to be.

Yes, I know, I haven't put up any pics of NYC yet. Still to come.

I can tell you how to get to Sesame Street

As it turns out, it's very close to Times Square in NYC. I kept looking in all the garbage cans, but I never found Oscar.

More later.

I joined the army! Not an April's Fool joke!

Yes, it's true, I joined the army the other day.



I am now officially part of Ollie's Bargain Battalion




An Ollie's Bargain Outlet opened nearby last week so I reported for duty. I mostly stocked up on Pop-Tarts. Why? Cuz they were good and cheap and having a nutritious breakfast is what I am all about.

I hit a few yardsales yesterday but nothing too interesting to report.

The meaning of true love

If this isn't true love, I don't know what is. True love is a man who will hold a woman's hot pink purse for her while she shops at a thrift store.

Nice set of hooters you got there

I beg your pardon?
The owls! They're beautiful!
(Dumb and Dumber)

No, I didn't buy the owls. The thrift store was overrun with owls this week. And I didn't buy any VHS of Titanic - they seem to multiply on their own. Right after this movie came out is when DVDs must have become popular. It seems like it's the last big movie that was sold on VHS (and everyone and their brother ran out and bought it).




And I didn't buy this "I put out" t-shirt. It wasn't my size. Actually, it was a child's size!



And also didn't buy this sofa, which apparently is in mint condition.



I recently went to a yardsale where a boxing match could have broken out at any time. The seller had a small boxing ring built in their garage. I did buy some brand new unopened beauty products from them.



Not a whole lot going on. I saw that my beloved Whiskey dog has yet again been reincarnated into another tv commerical. Here is his look-a-like in a McDonald's filet-o-fish commercial recently.

Spring Cleaning - make money while decluttering & how we lost 270 pounds!

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
- Robin Williams, 2007

My pink cherry trees in the front yard will soon be in full bloom. I am not the best gardener, but I'm so glad I planted these trees when we first bought our house. They put on quite a show every spring. After a few weeks of blooming, the pedals fall to the ground and it looks like Mother Nature had a big pink confetti party in the yard.




Springtime is my absolute favorite time of the year because it's when a lot of people get spring cleaning fever and they have a yardsale. I've had so many yard sales over the years, I can't keep track. If you've never had a yard sale or garage sale before, why not give it a try this year? It can be some work putting together a great yard sale but it's not rocket science. And just think how good you'll feel afterward with your pockets full of cold hard cash and your house cleaned out. Just go thru your house, your garage, your attic - and just start gathering up everything you no longer need or want (but would still be useable to someone else). If you are a bit anxious about having a yard sale for the first time (yes, even the yard sale queen was anxious at first), combine forces with a friend and have a multi-family yard sale. The more the merrier! Just be careful that you don't end up buying all of her stuff and coming home with more than you left with!

There are many benefits of having a yard sale in the spring. A lot of people who feel like they've been cooped up all winter are out in full force at the yard sales in spring - and more customers mean a better chance of making big money at your yard sale. If you are new to the neighborhood, having a yard sale is a great way to meet your neighbors while de-cluttering your home. An easy way to advertise your sale is to post a free ad on Craigslist (in the Garage Sale section). At the end of your sale, just box up any good, usable leftovers and donate to a non-profit organization for a tax receipt.

For some items that I can't turn into cash at a yard sale - I have another way to score some free bucks. I recently loaded up our truck (and by "I" what I mean is that I made Mr. Yardsalequeen do the heavy lifting) with scrap metal stuff we had cluttering up the garage. We took it to a metal recycling center that pays cash for it. During Hurricane Irene last year, our extra freezer that we have in the garage, died because of the power outage and subsequent power surges. It wasn't worth fixing. Actually it was a blessing in disguise since we bought a new freezer - that I absolutely love.

So while I supervised, Mr. Yardsalequeen loaded up our truck with the broken freezer plus several outdated, broken computers. I hate being wasteful, but at least I know the stuff won't be filling up a landfill. And I got a few bucks. A total win-win. Our "junk" weighed 270 pounds and at $10 per 100 pounds, the scrap metal place paid me $27 in cash!

Before:


After:


And the best part:


Now get busy, organizing your yard sale, recycling and making money! Hope all your yardsales are great this year and you just never know, maybe I'll show up at it.

My new chariot awaits - to bring me to the yardsales

So long 2005 Mazda MPV minivan (boo hoo, I really will miss you with your awesome sliding doors and abundant storage space) but I have bitten the bullet and made a decision and there is a new vehicle in my life. A 2013 Mazda CX-5.



One of our other vehicles is a truck, sooooo I figure if whatever I buy won't fit in the CX-5, I'll just use the truck. But there is still plenty of storage in the CX-5, I can fold the back seats down. Unfortunately, it did not come in purple - the color of royalty.

Progress is being made

Progress is being made on the new car shopping front. I'm sure you remember that I went new car shopping in 2010 and again in 2011. Well I think it may happen soon. Like this year even. Stay tuned for details.

I managed to hit a good moving sale last weekend, plus a yardsale. Here's what I bought:

$5 picture
$3 green depression bowl
$1 vintage nuclear power plant t-shirts
.50 yankee candle
$1 - DVD boxed sets
$1 Ball canning jar
.50 cookbooks
.50 boxed perfume

Thrift Store Fashionista

No yardsales just quite yet, but I did get some bargains this week at my favorite thrift. All clothes were half priced. For myself I bought this wool coat for $4:



W Magazine must have heard about my awesome fashion/thrift store shopping finds and therefore gave me a complimentary subscription to the fashion bible until January 2014. I know I didn't pay for it but for some reason I have been getting it.

I am back baby!!!

woo hoo, here's a new picture for me to share:



Yes, its my kitchen, it all it's messy cluttered glory - a picture that I took yesterday and was able to load to my computer. Woo-hoo DH fixed my camera/computer issue so I can take and load pictures again to my computer.

Now it's time - no more excuses - to start selling again on ebay. I already wrote up a few auctions to start tonight.

As usual, living high on the hog

I am still having some issues with my computer and camera - so no recent pictures to show. I should just throw this computer out (after removing all my photos) and buy a new computer and new camera. Since according to a recent article we all live high on the hog here in Calvert County, Maryland (ranked #13 on the richest counties in America list). Well duh, how else do they expect yardsale royalty to live??? My castle is similar to the one pictured in the article but larger, of course. In reference to living "high on the hog", I think that means most people here butcher their own pigs. People look forward to the annual Calvert County fair like it's the best thing since a church yardsale. Life is so much better since the neighbor with the damn rooster moved away.

Well since I have no new photos to share, I will go into my archives and find a previously unpublished photo. I took this is December 2011 at a new thrift store that opened last year. As you can read, eveything on the table is .10 to .75.

If I had $500 to spend for Valentine's Day

edited - post deleted.

Waaa. I didn't win the contest, therefore I have deleted my post for the contest. Not that I'm a sore loser or anything. Of course if the judges were wise and had declared me the winner, my entry post would have lived on in internet infamy and would driven tons and tons of traffic to their couponing website for an infinite amount of time. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be. Their loss. And mine. A classic lose lose situation.

JC Penneys New Pricing Strategy

If you've read my blog for a while, you know I love my yardsales and thrift stores. But I've been known to occasionally (gasp!!) shop at stores such as JC Penneys and Kohls. But I only make a purchase if I know I got a good bargain. Low prices are good, but free is even better. I present you with:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Exhibit D

So yesterday I went to Penneys to check out their new pricing strategy. (Don't worry, I didn't make a special trip just to go there, but it was near the Outback Steakhouse we had dinner at, so it was convenient. And you know I got a deal at Outback - back in December I purchased a $100 gift card and got a $20 coupon which was going to expire next week, but I digress).

So when I was at Penneys, there were no bargains to look for. Everything was marked with it's "fair and square" price. What fun is that? Zero. None. No bargains for me to look for. With my mad shopping skills, I expect that even in a retail store I can find better bargains than Joe Schmo off the street. Not the same. As an extreme bargain hunting shopper, there was no thrill of the hunt. Lame and boring. Shopping is a sport and I want to win against my competitors (other shoppers). My husband thought it was just fine. What does he know. He's a guy who doesn't get the sport of shopping.

p.s I am especially mourning the loss of the free $10 off anything JC Penney coupons. Waaaaaaa!

Thrift Store Pet Peeves Arg!!!!

I had a bit of a problem with my computer last week but thankfully I am semi-back to normal. The only issue I have now is with my camera and getting new pictures on my computer.

Sooooo....until that is fixed by some miracle, I will have to go thru the thousands of my photos already on my harddrive and pick something out to talk about.

Today I pick: Thrift Store Pet Peeves. I have a bunch I could talk about, but here is one that really irritates me. Why do workers in thrift stores (and yardsales) put price stickers on things in very conspicuous places that may end up damaging the item when the label is removed?

Here is a picture of some vintage Charlie Brown & Snoopy plaques I bought a while back. I was tempted not to buy them since the store put large price tags right on the artwork which is just made of paper. The thrift store could have chosen to put the label on the back of the item, but no, they put it right smack dab on the front, where it can damage the item. Arg!!!!!



I knew because of my years of experience and mad skills I have in removing labels, I could probably remove the labels without damaging the plaques. Here's my plan of attack:

1. Start removal process very soon after acquiring object. The longer the sticker remains on, the harder it is to remove.

2. Summon my lady-in-waiting to retrieve hairdryer and official Tweezerman tweezers from royal bathroom.

3. Plug in said hairdryer and turn on low heat and aim it at label. After a few seconds, try to lift off a corner of the sticker with tweezers (while maintaining low heat on hairdryer). Once a corner gets lifted up, pull very gently to remove the rest of the label.

4. Have a drink and celebrate your success.

Well anyway, that's how I remove a price tag sticker. Your results may vary.

Adult Field Trip to Washington DC - National Air & Space Museum

Well again, there were no yardsales this past Saturday. Woe is me. But I managed to survive the day by drowning my sorrows at the open bar at a party hosted by my husband's place of employment. They know how to put on a party. This event was held at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC.

There were tons of things to do and not much time to do it. Eat, drink, be merry, see museum, watch Imax movies etc. All free, of course. Like I said before we thank you Lord for nuclear power! And since it was held in the evening when the museum is closed to the public, didn't have to deal or mingle with pesky tourists.

Looking down on the band and dance floor. This was early in the evening - people were too busy eating to dance - the dance floor filled up by the end of the night.




First thing I ate was a lobster lollipop.


This was called Shrimp Ouchy. It was shrimp yummy.


Risotto bar




omg - the desserts!!! Note to self - next time, line my large handbag with an empty gallon size Ziplock baggy. Or two.























Outside of the musuem