I think I have packrat DNA in me

What Happened? Where did I go?

jopila — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:25:42 +0000

I got kinda frustrated with going to Goodwill and thrift stores and seeing so much garage sale “leftovers” that it was getting a little depressing to write about what I did NOT find all the time.

Sure, I could mock the crap – but in my heart, I was saddened by simply looking at at that junk.

So….

I found that I like to paint.

Painting makes me happy.

Painting makes me REALLY REALLY HAPPY!

My goal is now to still find stuff to sell on ebay and also find a market to sell some artwork.

I started a blog on my own website, which allows me some additional avenues for selling that this website does not.

I intend to still write about Goodwill and thrift stores and also about making art.

Please join me at:

www.helvismith.com

The Regulars at Goodwill

jopila — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:48:35 +0000

I used to see “The Regulars” at about any Goodwill store in my area.

Since Goodwill has had less and less Merchandise – the regulars have drifted away.

I used to go to my local store twice a day on my thrift store route – but now even once a day is hardly worth it.

It is downright depressing to not find any stuff anymore.

I guess I will have to fall back on my hatred of clowns to make me feel a little better.

This clown makes me want to push it off a high swing and watch it fall.

Fall into a million pieces.

Those overly made up eyes are just plain creeeeeepy.

Happy Birthday from this clown?

No way!

Mean to scare little 3 year old kids with this.

Why ARE there so many clown figurines?

It certainly puzzles me.

I went to an estate sale in a mobile home park.

The sale was in the community center building.

Old lady stuff.

Quilt stuff.

Craft crap.

This dead old lady collected bears.

Not quite as bad as clowns.

I think that much made-in-china-plastic-resin

in one plastic mobile home would kill about anybody.

Just a theory.

I think that these would accomplish the deed quicker.

There was a passel of these at Goodwill last week.

Looks like they are looking for their next victim.

Won’t be me!

Things I would not recommend to buy at Goodwill…

jopila — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:50:35 +0000

A sinus infection will take the blogging spirit right out of a person.

I still went shopping – but did not like it much.

Did not want to take pictures and not feeling good made looking at all that crap make me FEEL even crappier.

I took my 2nd antibiotic after going to the doctor and I think I may live to shop again!

Here are a few things I took pictures of during my hiatus.

Some motel/hotel apparently remodeled or went out of business and donated tons of wall mounted hair dryers.

I would not want to buy a hairdryer used by many many strangers.

Ick.

Did not buy.

Washable Cold Wax Hair Remover Kit.

Looks like it works.

Did not buy.

A baggie of bracelets for causes.

I did not buy cause I did not want to.

Vintage toilet paper.

Really.

1986 toilet paper.

Did not buy.

Goodwill does NOT rock my world anymore.

jopila — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:33:48 +0000

I have seen so many things over the years and it almost catches me by surprise to see something I have not seen before.

This was a first for me.

It attaches under the seat and is almost like thick fishing line that is the “tab” to pull up the seat.

I think tab would not also become, uh, contaminated, and impossible to clean.

I doubt there is a Tidy Tab cleaner in the package.

This was a large creepy photo that totally reminded me of an old post-mortem photo.

Creepy baby.

****************

Gradening Rocks.

Goodwill rocks.

This is a rock, yes, a rock for sale at Goodwill.

$4.99

Goodwill rock.

$1.99

If I had received this rock as a gift, it would have to be surgically removed from the gift giver’s skull.

$1.99 for potential weapon.

***************

It has been slim pickens at the thrift stores lately.

I stopped going to the local store twice daily ( it is only a mile away) as the prices have gone up and the quality of the merchandise has plummeted.

I used to spend a lot of money there and in turn, make money on the stuff I bought.

It may sound funny to say that the quality of merchandise at a Goodwill store has gone down – but here in the Pacific Northwest, the Goodwill stores have not been like a “thrift store.”

They do not smell.

They are well lit and they are clean and well staffed.

They used to sort out the clothing with rips and stains and missing buttons.

Not any more, now they are crammed on the racks so tightly that it is hard to move one item far enough to see the next.

They used to put out a good amount of vintage items.

Not any more.

Those go to the online store and sell for less quite often than they would in the store.

They used to NOT put out obviously broken item on the shelves.

Not any more.

They used to have thrift store prices on their merchandise.

Often now, the pricing is so oddly arbitrarily high that, as a frequent shopper, I hear people EVERYDAY remarking about the high prices.

So now I go just once a day to my local store and still more than often keep my hard earned dollars in my pocket.

It is not a perfect world.

From my view – there are things I would change.

Does Goodwill Think I am an Idiot?

jopila — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:32:51 +0000

I don’t understand this.

Here is a big wooden pheasant.

With no beak.

Marked on the tag – “As-is”

(remember, “as-is” in Goodwill language, means non-returnable)

$7.99

Here is a big elk with one antler busted off.

$7.99

But, hey! They taped the broken part to the midsection of the beast…

I am sometimes out of the loop of current trends, so maybe Martha Stewart has found a way to make broken items more valuable?

Think Martha can do something with this oddly disturbing bunny dish with a broken and poorly glued ear?

Why would any retailer even put these items out for sale?

I just don’t get it.

I certainly don’t buy them.

**************************************

At the smelly store today I saw a sight about as disturbing as the bad bunny dish.

Creepy, eh?

They did have an interesting futon…

If you needed something to brighten up a room – then this would do the trick!

I saw it yesterday, and then the store had a storewide 1/2 price sale last night.

This was still there today…

Going in circles and circles and circles

jopila — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:50:25 +0000

I found those 325 squares of canvas at Goodwill and started painting circles.

Lots and lots of circles.

When I say lots and lots of circles – I mean LOTS of circles.

It has been so fun to paint those circles.

Learning about paint and how paint works.

I even started painting both sides of the canvas.

I have completed many double sided mouse pad-place-mat coasters.

Then I stopped painting the black squares to put my circles in and started painting different colored background squares to paint my circles in.

My next change was to just paint an abstract background on the canvas…

and then paint random circles and smoosh some paint around and scratch horizontal and vertical lines in the canvas.

Then I expanded on that idea even further.

(This is my favorite one so far…)

Today we had our little art club meeting and I think I may have finished my canvas floor cloth.

I painted both sides of that too!

Pics of that later.

Tonight, I am like a crazy woman and I am working on 10, yes TEN canvas squares at one time.

I have no idea what these will look like when I am finished.

I don’t even care.

I am having TOO much fun!

I bought some brushes at an estate sale a few weeks ago of an old gentleman here in town.

He was a nice old guy and when I use the brushes, I get to remember him.

I went to another estate sale of another old guy and bought more brushes.

I am thinking that more brushes are better than less brushes…

I like that all my paints and canvas and brushes are pretty much all used and up-cycled.

Up-cycled.

Interesting word.

The long and winding road and a Hot Destination.

jopila — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:18:28 +0000

We heard about a flea market about 20 miles from home , so we thought we would check it out today.

Took the backroads to get there.

It has been raining a LOT lately…

******************

We went to Rose’s restaurant for breakfast.

Rose’s Deli used to be in Portland and it was the ultimate deli.

This place is part of the chain of Rose’s was in a strip mall and it was an awful breakfast.

Kevin, our server, introduced himself.

That should have been a warning.

I ordered corned beef hash.

I got large diced potatoes with red peppers and onions and ham.

Oh, and the burned toast was cold.

The spouse got the same potatoes – minus the onions and red peppers, but on his plate they were called hashbrowns.

The two eggs over-hard were rubbery and cold.

Oy vey.

**************

Went to a Goodwill store that I had not been to before – but unfortunately I felt like I HAD been there before -

because I saw many items that were re-tagged from stores that I have already been to recently.

This little handpainted tourist dish has the hint of the green tag from the previous store.

Empty shells for canned snails.

Sounds like the name of a song.

$2.99

*****************

I had been wanting to go Victor’s European Meat Market and today was the day as it was just 1/2 mile from

the flea market that was our destination.

It was a small shop in strip mall.

Victor has the reputation of being like the Soup Nazi from an old Seinfeld show.

I found him to be an OK sort of fellow.

(He even said goodbye to me in Russian…)

I told him I wanted spicy Hungarian Sausage and he said they have 3 kinds.

I told him I wanted 3 pounds of the spiciest!

($5.99 per pound)

Got in the car and ripped open the paper wrap and tried the sausage.

OMG!

SPICY!

OMG!

GREAT!

OMG!

SPICY SPICY SPICY!

************************

Then we found the flea market.

Icky sort of place.

Nothing special.

Uh, right….

***********************

Saw a Corvair in the parking lot.

It reminded me of the one my dad had when I was young.

A Corvair Monza Spyder.

My brother tried to teach me to drive a manual transmission in that car.

My first lesson driving the Corvair, we got to the top of a hill that had a stop sign.

That was too overwhelming for me.

I just put the car in neutral – put on the emergency brake and walked home.

(well, “walked” might have been more like “stomped” home.)

It was many many years before I learned to drive a stick shift.

***********

Home again home again…

I probably should take the moss off the mailbox – but is it just so dang pretty.

A Head on Her Shoulders and my Goodwill Griping.

jopila — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:24:08 +0000

They say that if you have 3 of “something” – then you are a collector of that “something.”

I bought this head about 10 years ago and she reminded me of Eleanor Roosevelt.

I call her Eleanor.

Then a few years ago I fond this gal.

I don’t have a name for her.

Or him?

Today I found my new favorite clay head.

She has no name yet.

Check out this hair!

This is really quite well done.

Nice peace sign and tie-dye shirt too!

Best of all….

$4.99!

Not bad….

You know what is bad at Goodwill?

I will tell you.

They are sending crap that does not sell in 5 weeks at a particular store to another Goodwill Store.

Packing up unsold junk and wasting fossil fuels to put the worst of the worst unsold items at another store.

********************

Lately I noticed that junk that used to be 99¢ – now is at $1.99 and the prices on other items just seem to increase.

Here is a another new sales tactic.

If it is chipped or broken – don’t send it to the outlet store to be sold by the pound.

Price it.

Put it out on the shelf.

Mark it - “as-is” so it cannot be returned.

Really stupid sales techniques.

Really.

Stupid.

Here is a poorly executed cat with a broken ear.

$3.99

Execute the pricer.

Oh.

Poor birdy has no beak.

As-is – - $3.99

OMG!

This kitty has TWO busted ears and an overpriced $2.99 as-is sticker right over his bum hole.

I think I need a casserole dish with a broken lid for $2.99 AS-IS.

As-if!

Walmart Schmalmart

jopila — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:10:05 +0000

I was picking up some trash off the sidewalk in front of my office this blustery rainy morning.

I was about to pitch a wet folded cash register receipt into the recycle bin when the – Walmart – logo caught my eye.

Being a very curious type of person – I wondered what does one buy at Walmart?

I carefully unfolded the damp mushy receipt and laid it out to dry.

I cannot make this up.

First item: Fanny Pack. $9.88

OMG.

Did not know they still even made those.

Cookware set – $19 ( I hate to think about it)

Christmas Candy- $4.96 (that does not sound cheap to me)

Almond Roca $4.98 ( no bargain here)

Bath set -$5 and another bath set $5 - must be shopping for two gifts. (for the twins!)

Coffee Maker – $10.24 - (I can only imagine the quality of that!)

Clip knife- X2 $5 each (for the twins!)

Sugar Free Peanut Butter cups (why bother?) $1.48

And in the Holiday Spirt – Sugar Free Toffee! $1.48

Coffee filters for the crappy soon to be landfill coffee maker $1.44

Big spender here. Norelco razor! $29.97

Pt Ls Henley- Had to look up Henely $8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henley_shirt

FG 2pc set ?? $9.50 (FG – FG??? Future Garbage)

FG jacket X2 $7 each (Future Garbage)

Soft Air Ammo ( I am getting an idea of who this shopper is now!) $5.77

Watch $10

Hey – I don’t like my mother-in-law THAT much! I done already got her peanut butter cups and toffee!

void watch $10

Men’s Tee $7.50

Toddler Shoes $16 – for the teenager’s toddlers

Cargo Jeans $14.80 for the teen mom

Men’s Tee $9.50 for the teen mom’s boyfriend

Oh Hell. It is Christmas after all – put that dang watch back in!!! $10

And git yurself a purty watch too!! $10

Shoe care $2 – ( them toddler shoes got to last for the next ones too!)

Insulated cups for the kegger. $6.50

Women’s shoes. $15

Total spent $263.70

30 items divided by $263.70 = $8.79 per item

Save Money.

Live Better.

Indeed.

( I dedicate this post to Buzz)

Learning to paint.

jopila — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 04:34:44 +0000

I have painted many walls.

I have painted the same walls many times.

Painting on a canvas is new to me.

I found 325 squares of canvas at the Goodwill Outlet Store for $4 and it is about the best $4 I have ever spent.

(Well, the $36 I spent on 6 Saarinen Tulip Chairs that sold for $1200 was pretty sweet……)

I have lots of colors of acrylic paint that I got at the Outlet store.

These were $6.99 each and they were huge heavy bags.

Recycled colors….

This came out sort of looking like persimmons – and asian-like to me.

This one is my favorite so far.

There are lots or orange tones in these – as I have a couple of gallons of house paint left from painting my office and I am using that too!

Then I used an iphone app called art Artcamera to play with the art in another way.

It is like eating peanuts.

Ya can’t app just one!