Mom Time on a Dime

Hey all,

Just thought I would pop in real quick to tickle your brain about something...

Although I have been absent for most of July (again, SUPER sorry) I have still had people write in and contact me asking questions and what not,  mostly related to garage/estate sales.

Not to be braggy, but so far, I have had FANTASTIC success browsing around on my Saturday morning route and found out that some people are curious to know my methods. 

My $70 estate sale find that ended up paying ME! Read about it HERE

Forgotten little $25 table turned unforgettable HERE

Instead of writing back each one individually, I figured I would write a post answering some/all/any questions you may have on the subject of "Garage Saling". 

Im planning on doing a post about my "How to's" for throwing a great selling and popular garage sale as well as "How To" get the most bang for your buck while shopping yard/estate sales, etc and where the best places are to look/start.
If you guys are interested or curious, PLEASE leave me a comment below asking me your questions, or feel free to contact me directly by clicking the button up top.

I should be back soon (or as soon as I can...) answering all your questions!  Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!
Samm

Hey all!

Sorry I havent posted anything new in a while! Chris and I have been out gallivanting across the country from wedding to wedding this summer and taking some fun little vacations in between, not to mention working (which hasnt left much time for fixing up the house, doing projects, or blogging :-(

I hope to be back with some fun new projects super soon (I have a lot of work stuff going on right now which should let up at the beginning of August) and I will be back in the swing of things.

Here's a couple quick updates for you with pictures to come!
1. I did not get the stuffed kitty (insert dramatic screaming, crying, and pouty face here).  Even though I wrote them telling them I'd take it, someone flagged the ad on craigslist as "inappropriate" and the ad was taken down (WTF!! right?!)  I dont know if my e-mail ever went through but I have yet to hear back.  I promise to keep you posted!

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty... ... Still so freakin creepy... Read all about this lil guy HERE

2. The deck/back yard is DONE!!! after 7+ hours of painting by hand in the 104-degree heat, Chris and I broke down and hired someone to paint it for us with a sprayer... Best $275 ever spent.  Final pictures to follow soon.

3. My office is looking AWESOME and so much more put together.  I really cant wait to show you all the changes how its gone from a "man cave" to my purdy lil office.  Again, pictures to come, I swear (we are having a garage sale this weekend and for the past several weeks all the boxes have lived in my office.... not exactly the most photogenic.)

4. Even though I have been swamped with work and other fun stuff, I have time to fall in love.  Yes, I figure here is as good as place as any.... Dear Chris... I am cheating on you... with these people.
If you guys aren't watching Downton Abbey, you aren't living.  I grabbed Season 1 at RedBox on a whim and became instantly obsessed.  I highly recommend watching it (I'm not condoning watching Season 2 pirated online... but I'm just saying... ... ... ...)  If anything, tell your husband/wife/significant other/roommate that you are doing it to improve your grammar.  I even got Chris into it (true story: after 3 episodes Chris turned to me and said "I feel smarter for watching this"... oh how quickly the boy learns :-)

5. Just for kicks and giggles, here are some pictures I randomly took of us while we were in Chicago last weekend.  Awesome city for all those interested.

Heading to the airport... Chris was hoping I would show a little more enthusiasm.

SOOOOO much leg room in the exit row seats.  Sure I will help you deboard the plane in case of an emergency...it seems only fair after I stretch myself out like Gumby while others of you are squished together like sausages.

First night in... Chris and our good friend Matt enjoying some brewskies...

Game time at Wrigley. My AZ Diamondbacks against the cubbies. Dont mind the creepy two-faced guy over Chris's right shoulder...

Although after 5 minutes of sitting in our seats, it started to rain... and didnt stop... for FOUR HOURS!!!

Lady Jenn, me, and Matt... soaked to the bone... Being from AZ, I was a little more shocked than everyone else...

After the 4 hour rain delay the game finally started and we actually got some great seats (bleachers are first come first serve).  We were even on TV!
3.4 seconds of fame secured! Big thanks to my dad for watching the game back in Scottsdale and giving us a shout out when we made it on TV.  I'm not sure what I was pointing at in the sky... maybe the fact that I saw more storm clouds coming? I dunno... long story short. AZ lost :-(

So we went to drown our sorrows...

Germany Cheers!!... Unfortunately, everyone did NOT know our name, but a couple beers later, it sure felt like it.

We tried to take the train everywhere we went and since Matt is Chicago-city-iterate, we felt more than safe.

I make fun of a lot of people for awkwardly posing with their "other" with the whole hand on the chest move.  It just feels so unnatural to me.  This is my attempt at making it look "loving" but I think it just looks more "get-too-close-to-me-and-I'll-push-you-on-the-train-tracks"

 Next day...

Dear Sweet God, everything was extremely bright... thank goodness my $10 H&M dress looked fab.  Oh, and Chris isnt an amputee... He hurt his leg playing competitive softball (no pity) and it was oozing after the rain at the Cubs game so he had to cover it up... again, no pity for a grown man getting injured in slow pitch softball... none.

Here I am posing with a blind man Chris in front of the Bean.  If they could scale this down just a bit, I would love to have it as a paper weight (... million dollar idea: Bean weights.  Does anyone know if they are doing this yet.  I call "dibs"...)

It started raining again so we ducked out for a while in the Chicago Civic Center where we oohed and ahhed under the World's Largest Tiffany's Glass Dome... 

Stunning, no? Just dont stare at it too long then attempt to drive...

 We had a FABULOUS dinner at this restaurant called The Purple Pig.  If you guys ever get a chance to go to Chicago, I would HIGHLY recommend this place.  Absolutely amazing.  After 5 bottles of wine and 23 small plates (there was 5 of us, don't worry), they finally kicked us out after our 3+ hour long meal.  Jenn and I saw it as an opportunity to grab a souvenir.

Its a water craft... that says The Purple Pig on it... LOVE.

 All in all, it was a nice relaxing trip with Chris, Man Sam (to differentiate between Sams, I am Lady Samm and he is Man Sam... we like to keep it simple for our friends), Jenn, and Matt.

Navy Pier!

Gino's Pizza... Chris was really impressed with the cheese.

Although I did enjoy everything getting back to normal when we got back.

Personal sleeping space? Nooo....

I promise to have some REAL projects up soon as well as some AWESOME garage sale finds I've been adding to the house.

See you guys in August!

Sorry I havent posted in a while, but since we headed up to our friends lake house for Memorial Day then turning around and heading out to Cali for my cousin's wedding, I havent had much time to do much of anything other than pack and repack (not that Im complaining!)

So I thought I would give you guys a little iPhone photo run-down of our last week! (P.S- some of these are also Instagram pictures which is why the quality might look a little funky... enjoy!)

So, we began our vacation by almost dying... Im not joking.  We were running a little late to Chris's parents to drop off the pups and Chris's dad drove us to the airport. "Drove" is an understatement.  Im pretty sure NASCAR drivers would have even told him to "slow the **** down!"

So Chris and I celebrated survival by ordering the largest margarita they would legally serve us at the TGI Fridays in the airport.

We got into San Francisco pretty late and then had a 2 hour drive down to Carmel to meet up with my parents at my grandparents vacation house, so we were a little beat.  But the next day, we woke up to this:
Ummm yea... Chris said he would like to die on this golf course.  He golfed it everyday we were there, so he almost did.

We also were able to go down and walk along the beach at the Pebble Beach Golf course.
Seriously, this place is stupid pretty...

Oh did I mention they had AWESOME food too?... Very... umm... fresh, organic restaurants...
 No joke... this dude was walking around the patio of this little Mexican food restaurant we ate at... Gave a whole new meaning to the menu "free range chicken"...

After a day or two, we had to leave Carmel and headed up to wine country for my cousin's wedding.
Before the wedding, Chris and I took it upon ourselves to visit some wineries in the area.  Our favorite? Wente.... awesome, just awesome wine.
We then headed back to the hotel, took a couple asprin, and made our way to the wedding.

It was beautiful and my cousin (also named Chris) married a gorgeous, fun, great gal Kristin. The reception was awesome and I had the best looking date in the entire place.
Oh, did I mention they served wine?
Hooray!
We had a great time!! I seriously love my family!!

The day following, we downed MORE aspirin, 4-5 gallons of water, a greasy cheeseburger, and took the 35 minute drive San Francisco.
I loved driving across the Bay Bridge... such great use of pattern! Stripes, geometric shapes, I loved it all!

After we checked in to our hotel, we grabbed the F train and went down to Fisherman's Warf.
Awesome San Francisco tip: The F train is just as old and fun as the trollies but a third the price ($2 compared to a $6 trolley)! We would really recommend it!

Down in Fisherman's Warf, I screamed out loud like a 13 year old that had just seen Mr. Bieber.
...
except it was for my favorite Sourdough bread company: Boudin.
Yes, thats me, just walking around eating a plain loaf of bread... HEA-VEN.

Chris needed more to eat than just a loaf of sourdough bread (HA! like I would give him any of mine? psh. He would lose a finger) so we stopped and got some lunch... I nearly cried taking this picture.
Clam Chowder + sourdough bread bowl + me = this next picture...
Apparently when I get excited, my thumb bends the wrong way.

We also did some shopping where I found some FABULOUS consignment shops.  I got this outfit (plus an awesome Burberry jacket for CHEAP) at Fillmore and 5th.
By some act of God, we were able to get a table at one of the most coveted Vietnamese restaurants: The Slanted Door.

The view:

The food:
Seriously amazing.
(BTW we usually arent "those" people who take pictures of our food, we just had a lot of friends to make jealous since mostly everywhere we went was based on a recommendation.)

Day 2 in San Fran, we decided to walk around and grabbed breakfast at Dottie's.  It was GREAT!
Happy Chris:
Sad Chris:

After, we thought it would be fun to see if we could get into the Giants game.

However, because Im from AZ and my core body temp is around 102, I was freezing in the 50 degree weather. We actually passed another consignment shop (Jeremy's) were I picked up this little Ralph Lauren sweater (for $25!!) and paired it with a fun little scarf ($11!)
I LOVE good consignment shops.

Also, the shop, Jeremy's, was REALLY cool!! I dont know if you could tell from this picture, but I loved their staircase and nail head detail on the wood above the railing, in the middle, and along the floor!
Anyway, we got tickets to the game (standing room only but since we had to catch a flight and couldn't stay the entire game, it was perfect for us)
Someday, Chris and I want to visit ALL the country's baseball stadiums so it was great to check AT&T Park off our list.
Sadly, we headed back to the airport and waited for our flight in these awesomely trendy chairs.
 And had to jump right back into work....

Once we got on the flight, after about 10 minutes, Chris spent the rest of the flight like this:
Awww tired Hubs... so cute though... I wish I slept this pretty (I usually require a drool cup if sleeping on an airplane).

But it was great to get back to our Big D, and I think the boys missed us too...
So thats about it!! I promise we have a lot of projects waiting in the wings that I will post soon, but I thought I would share a little bit of our adventures last week with y'all.

I think our favorite part was all the awesome food (and letting our true fat kids out).  Have you guys gone up to the Bay Area at all? Carmel, Pleasanton, SF?  I would love to hear if you have any suggestions for next time!