Prom

This weekend I attended the prom at the school I work at. What a great time. I felt so proud, and full of love, to see my kids dressed to the 9′s. You forget after seeing kids in the same 3 colors everyday how truly happy and beautiful a little color can make them.
I ran around with my co-worker and now good friend, Carrie. We danced, and loudly sang, along with occasionally yelling PROM 2012! I can’t remember anyone every doing this at my prom, but we never had anyone as fun as Carrie and I.
Two of my most favorite kids won Prom King and Queen. My heart almost exploded. They totally deserved it!

pictures from my prom in 2006 and 2008. Sorry for the crazy sizes.

Guide to Garage Sales

As promised I’m giving you my garage sale plan! To start you want to find where the garage sales are. I think the best place to look is your local newspaper. I check Monday – Friday and clip the ads of each garage sale. During the week I tape them to my desk, but on Friday I tape them all to a piece of paper. If you have an iPhone you can download apps like Garage Sale Rover, or iGarageSale.

Next you will want to map out all your garage sales! On this particularly busy day I used GoogleMaps. While it might be possible, I can’t seem to figure out how enter many locations into my phone, so I used my computer and then took a screen shot. I also number on my paper the order in which the sales come on the map.

Next you make an incredibly tasty breakfast! You need energy to snag the best deals in town! I got this recipe from Rachel’s blog. HOLY YUM. It was super easy too. Cooked in just enough time for us to calculate our plan of action!

Usually I go to 3 types of sales, church sales, estate/tag sales, and actual in-the-garage garage sales. Church sales are great because there is usually TONS of stuff. While I don’t have a picture of my loot, when I left this church sale I got a lamp, thermos, antique nut grinder, vegetable steamer, big ben clock, 1970′s butter dish, 2 skirts, a blouse, and the best steal.. a vintage designer wool coat with a real fur collar.. and how much did I spend?.. $15.00! That was all my garage saling this weekend as the weather isn’t so great (cloudy and cold), but I’m perfectly happy with all that I got!

The next kind of sale is an estate or tag sale. Around here there are several companies that come into peoples homes to help them sell their stuff. Some of these companies that run these sales over price their stuff, and are just plain rude, so watch out for those! But other times you can find really great things! As I dress as an old lady I always seem to find dresses I like. They also usually have great patterns, or craft books. If you ever need kitchen supplies these are some of the best places to look because usually the people are moving into a retirement home where they will not be cooking for themselves.

The last kind of sale is an actual garage sale! I don’t have a pictures of the inside of someone’s garage because I’m a bit shy when it comes to saying “Can I take a picture of this?”  I’m sure the day I ask the person will be like “What the dill is wrong with you!?”  Garage sales are usually the lowest in price. However, most people having garage sales are getting rid of things that are outdated, but not necessarily ’cool’. Garage saling takes a lot of patients. You might go to 20 garage sales and only come home with a couple items. You run into lots of baby clothes, and lots of outdated electronics. DON’T GIVE UP! There is always a diamond in the rough! For example, last weekend I found this box of Mason jars, 15 for $2.00. I’m giving them to Nicole to use as her center pieces at her wedding.

After it’s all said and done, REWARD YOURSELF! Grab a pop or coffee along the way to refuel and a milkshake when it’s all said and done! I’d also recommend finding a really great garage saling buddy. As I’ve mentioned before my Mom is mine, and she’s the BEST.

Well I hope you learned a little sometime! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Ciao!

Garage Sales

It’s no secret that my week is spent waiting for garage sales. Everyday the newspaper arrives at work I quickly grab one off the top and flip to the classifieds. After carefully cutting out the advertisements, making sure not the cut the same one twice in one week, I tape them to my desk. Whenever I find myself on the phone with an angry parent or not-so-happy teacher I reread the garage sale ads and count the hours until the fun begins. My Mom arrives at my house before 10, we grab some coffee and cash, and were off. She was vacationing in Arizona all last week so I garage saled with Gracie on Thursday, but come this Saturday we will be reunited hit the sales like nobodies business. This weekend seems especially popular so I’ve decided to create a little Guide to Garage-Saling. Have a wonderful weekend and check your local newspaper!

 

Ciao!

Before and Gwarfter (?)

Well there you have it! A Gwarly ole’ time we did have! The next morning I was shocked to see how fun my shirt looked. Someday I will take the time to frame our shirts and get those pictures printed. A souvenir of sorts! We enjoyed breakfast the Drake Diner. I had Captain Crunch french toast sticks.. yum. I have many plans brewing for more adventures to take over the summer. I am much more motivated this summer to really commit to having fun. Last summer was sort of eaten alive by dwelling on all the butt wiping I was doing. Ew. This summer I hope to work concessions at baseball games and help decorate weddings to make my spare cash. Otherwise it’s all fun, all the time.

Ciao!

Things I’m Diggin’

My Lotta look-a-likes from SVDP.. $5 dollars. New friends that greet you with a bottle of wine (LuLu B. cause we live on LuLu St.) and hand a you a cold a beer as soon as you walk in the door. Finding giant bottles of Green Machine at Aldi for half their usual price.  Anything fruit related. BK smoothies, and that ridiculous commercial with David Beckham. Really cute boys turning 1 and covering themselves in smash cake.

Ciao!

Gwarly Pt. 2

If you’re into blood, sci-fi, metal, riduclousness, or just having a crazy time, you must see Gwar. It’s sort of one of those bands that should be on every young person’s bucket list. Like.. Kiss.. or Black Sabbath… sort of. In the above photos you have one of the first bands, not sure which one it was, displaying their fighting robots. Municipal Waste played next which was pretty fun. Matt subjected himself to the pit, I took a couple videos, it’s was a little ridiculous. They build a wall of deaht? Is that even how you say that phrase? Google it. It’s just stupid.. Matt stayed out of that for my safety, thanks babe. Then Gwar played. SO AWESOME. Basically what happens is they play their ridiculous songs about aliens and women and stuff and while they play giant aliens come out and spray you with blood and toxic waste in various ways.  For example, they brought out a giant Snooki and ripped her two-headed fetus out of her which then sprayed you with blood. Um, yes. In the second from the bottom picture that is Matt at the front crowd surfing. Talk about a good time.

Ciao!

Gwarly – Pt. 1

After hearing Matt talk about seeing this band “Gwar” for at least a month, and then after enjoying a week of local shows I finally decided I wanted to join him. I think he was pretty excited because he didn’t officially have anyone accompanying him on the trip. The show was at a popular venue in Des Moines called People’s Court. We made plans to stay with our friends Katie and Jim, packed our bags, and headed south. I decided to leave my camera at home and see how running on my iphone went. When arrived at Katie’s and headed right downtown. Even though Des Moines is only about 2 hours away, as soon as we get into town it’s seems like a whole new place. I love taking mini vacations there! I hope this summer we can spend a couple days with different friends enjoying, shopping, eating, oh and I suppose Matt would be skating not shopping. While we waited for the show to start we had a couple drinks at Heros.

I’ll be back with part TWO!

Ciao!

Weekly Wrap Up

What an absolutely fantastic week. The Space, A local music venue hosted a mini festival! It was a blast. So many friends were out and there was tons of music. Matt won the skate competition they hosted! His band played there as well. At the end of the week they had a raffle and I won a ShakeWeight!!!! I also spent a lot of time with my Mom as it was her birthday weekend. We enjoyed the nice weather and played goofy golf! I also downloaded about a million apps!
Hope everyone has a great week! I’ve got another fun one coming up!
Ciao!

Giving In

Well.. I finally did it. I bought an iPhone. It seems as the owner of a mac for the last 5 years I should probably have an iPhone. Well, like everyone else, I love it. I’m using it as another excuse to blog more frequently! I downloaded all the popular apps and can’t wait to use Zombies, Run! I having a feeling my work days just got a little more exciting.. Which reminds me, last day of Spring Break today.

Ciao!

Little Bit

Here’s a little bit of what’s been going on in my life lately. I went with my friend Carrie to a place by Iowa City to pick up her new dog! His name is Picasso, and he’s a such a lap dog. I’ve done a lot of thrifting lately, like maybe too much. My craset (closet/craft room) is almost complete; curtains are hung, next up pegboard organization system! Latestly it’s finally nice out so pictures of skating will soon by flooding the blog. But hopefully rollerskates will be making their appearance. Tonight we are headed out for some tacos, and then to a bonfire with friends. Last night of Spring Break, a bitter sweet evening.

Ciao!