Before and after

As you'll see in this post, I didn't pick up much this time. The housing market in this area has really been dead. I see houses around here that have been for sale for months and months on end. When I browse the real estate website for this area, I see the same stuff over and over...nobody's buying, nobody's selling. I'm pretty sure this down turn is what's leading me to finding less stuff. The less people are moving, the less stuff gets thrown out because they just don't want to move it, don't have the room in the truck to move it, it doesn't fit in the new place, or they don't have the time to donate it.

I've also noticed a lot more piles of renovation junk like ripped out walls, toilets, counters, sinks, etc... which is making me wonder if people just staying where they are and updating what they've already got.

So here are the few things I did end up finding...

At one pile I picked up this nice little organizer box. I heard some rattling inside, and when I got home, I found some fishing gear inside. The 3 replacement hockey blades will come in handy here since my kids love wrecking hockey sticks, and the level worked perfectly and went right into my husbands workshop

 This LeapFrog activity table worked perfectly once I put batteries in as well. My little one is having fun with it for now, but once he gets tired of it, it will be an easy sell.

This tin sleigh was cute, and I think we'll be able to fill it with goodies as a gift basket for the school Christmas fundraiser  

Someones green thumb probably turned black pretty quickly, as these pots still have very new Homesense price tags underneath them. The 2 larger ones in the back are priced at $12.99 and the smaller one in the front is $5.99

This rice cooker is also like new and works just fine. I'll probably sell this as I don't eat that much rice to justify it taking up the room, and I usually cave to the convenient microwave packs :)

 

My kids loved this Spongebob chair

There 2 stools were a bit wrecked, but still very solid, and the folding mechanism still worked beautifully, so I grabbed them

Up close you can see the damage on the seats...what looks like 2 small burn holes on the one on the left, rips, tears, scuff marks, etc...

Remember all those beautiful bolts of fabric I found not too long ago? 

Ta-Da!

I didn't plan on them coming out diagonally, but when I screwed the first seat on, I guess I didn't put it on right, but I liked the way it looked, so I just rolled with it

Nice, plush, and fluffy velour :)

Not only do they look better now, but they are cushier as well :) I have them up for sale at $10 for the pair (a great deal I think since they retail at just under $20 each), but so far no bites. I might try another sale site or 2, but if they don't move fast enough, I'll have to put them out in my storage shed for the garage sale pile where they will be priced even lower to move out quickly.

Until my next post :) Keep looking out for treasures, and happy picking!

Wayang

Well the kiddos are finally back in school, and it seems I'll now have a bit of normalcy to my days again. There is still some construction going on in the house, so we're still living with a bit of chaos, but thankfully the boys each got their own rooms ready in time for the new school year.

As mentioned in my last post, I did my last town-wide garage sale for the year. It wasn't a big one and there weren't many people, but I still managed to get rid of a lot of stuff and walk away with $133.5. I wanted to do one at the house over the long Labour Day weekend, but we had some plans with family, so I wasn't able to. Maybe I'll be able to sneak one in before it gets too cold!

I also posted my blog somewhere online, and someone commented that I must be a dirty hoarder. I think it's obvious that the person didn't actually read the blog and see that I donate almost everything I find to charity and those in need. They probably just skimmed through it, saw all the pics and just made their assumption based on that. I do keep some items to sell so I can pay for my hobby and make a bit of a living from it, but the rest goes.

My main goal is to keep all this stuff out of the landfills so that it can be used again. I hate clutter as much as the next person, but it also makes me wonder what people think of me when they see me picking. I must admit that the comment did get to me and it made me a little bit leary of stopping my car lately.

Here is a look at what I did find when I stopped.

 Lots of baby and kids stuff in excellent and working condition....

A portable fold up swing

A simple bouncy chair

This Dora doll sings and dances when you press a button on her shoe

Another fold up portable swing

A baby gym that converts into a crawl through tunnel when baby starts crawling around

Musical toys. You can kind of see the lights working on the electronic ones

A whole baby doll set with 2 dolls

A kids V-Tech video game system with 4 games

House hold items...

A glass encased bamboo scene. Not sure if there is a specific name for these...

Headphones and 2 bike locks with keys

This pirate wine bottle holder. Without the bottle, he looks a bit like he was making a rude gesture! I wasn't sure what he was meant to do at first until I turned him over and saw a label that said "Drinking Pirate" Once I added a bottle we had lying around, he made more sense :)

Many eye glasses that will be recycled for 3rd word countries, a brand new looking wallet, a Nintendo DS case, and a little Pokemon pouch

A hockey statue. The player looks a bit like a zombie LOL

2 working lamps, light bulbs included!

 An Asics running belt, a hands free mobile headset still in the package, and 3 different tablet/Ipad/E-reader holder/protectors

2 body fat measuring bathroom scales and a USB laptop cooler

A compleat and unused sketch and drawing set in a nice wooden case

A cute little newlywed couple statue with a sticker underneath saying they were designed by M. Valenti (whoever that is lol)

A nice Christmas tree that just has one row of lights that won't turn on. This can easily be fixed by going out and buying a strand of lights and then adding them in. With all the ornaments and garlands put on trees, nobody will ever notice anything is wrong with it.

Lots of toiletries, These were all the ones that were unused, including a still sealed set of Proactive

The people that threw this out seemed to have kept the large plug in water pick set, but also included in the box was a cordless rechargeable water pick. It's still in there completely unused and still sealed and wrapped in plastic.

Jewellery...

A necklace that doubles as an eyeglasses holder, and at the bottom, a scorpion encased in resin that is supposed to hang on a necklace (there is a hole for a metal loop), and a tiger eye stone

Among some costume jewellery were a few silver pieces on the left, and what I'm really hoping are real diamond solitaire earrings in the little box

The watch looks older (70's or 80's ?)  but I can't find any info or mentions of it online 

At first I thought this box was empty, but as I went to throw it into the recycle bin, I heard something slide around inside. I checked it again, and underneath the foam insert, I found a 925 silver necklace.

Electronics...

An Pod docking station, 4 Samsung cellphones still in their packaging, and 2 Blackberrys  with accessories.

Last but not least, my favourite finds of the bunch! Wayang shadow puppets. 

These 2 are Wayang Kulit which are more of a flat shadow puppet. If you click the highlighted text there, you can see a YouTube video of how it's done. These 2 are marked as the characters Sri Rama on the left and Dewi Shinta on the right. 

Dewi Shinta was the wife of Sri Rama. As the story goes, she was kidnapped and imprisoned by King Rahwana. Her husband rescued her with the help of Hanuman, the white monkey, and Iesmana her brother. To prove that she was still a virgin after her ordeal, she was set on fire by her husband, only the fire could not burn her, and thus she confirmed her innocence. A symbol of trust and honor.

These 2 below are wayang golek puppets, they are more 3D and about 27 inches tall. I am not sure if they are also supposed to represent Shinta and Rama, but they are quite beautiful. I can not imagine why anyone would throw these away.

So that's all for now :) Since the kids are back at school and my life is on a bit more of a schedual now, I'm going to try to break up my posts a little bit more so I can make them a bit more frequently. Until next time!