One Woman's Trash......

On Saturday, while Will and I were on our way to a yard sale in Morro Bay, I spotted this mirror in a pile of garbage on the curb! There was a man with a weed wacker working in the yard so I yelled at him to get his attention and asked if they were really throwing this away. He said that the house was being cleaned out and I was more than welcome to take it. I was really excited because Ive actually been needing a full length mirror for a long time. The amazing thing about this mirror is that the glass is in perfect condition, not a single nick or crack. All it needed was a little sprucing up. I painted it this morning (coincidentally the color is called 'Morro Bay') and glued some heavy, silver wrapping paper in the inset panels for some extra pop.

An Ebay update: last week we hit the jackpot when we scored 3 camera lens at a yard sale for $20 dollars. Today my auction went off and I sold two of the lenses for a combined $139! I also got $20 for a messenger bag that I bought for $5. Yard sales were slow this weekend and I mainly bought things for myself but I still have some cool things to put on ebay from last week including several sets of vintage souvenir coasters.

A beautiful Sunday in Los Osos

The Plan

Tomorrow I will be up at the crack of dawn in hopes of scoring a deal! I have some financial goals that I would like to meet before the end of the year and to help boost my monthly income Im going to re-launch my ebay career :). A couple of years ago I had some success selling on ebay (thats a post for another day) and I even made some money selling items for other people. Recently I have been encouraged by other bloggers who have been extremely successful in reselling items purchased at yard sales/thrift stores/estate sales etc. on ebay. The Ebay Life is a great blog with alot of awesome tips about selling on ebay. It has also opened my eyes to selling possibilities that I never realized. Who knew coffee cups were in demand!? Another one of my favorites is Apron Thrift Girl who sells her thrifted, vintage items on etsy as well as ebay.

A teapot I sold on ebay for someone. They bought it for $35 at a yard sale, I sold it for $500.

It's no secret that Im a craigslist addict and a flea market regular but Im hoping that I have better luck shopping yard sales. Craigslist can inconvenient unless the item is close by and a lot of flea market vendors are resellers themselves and charge high prices. Im a sporadic yard saler (sailor?) but Im eager to give it another try now that Im more informed and inspired. I think the greatest challenge for me is spending money on things I don't personally need and aren't necessarily my taste or size. However, no one has ever had to twist my arm to go shopping so I'll give it a shot!

New Chairs

I just picked up these chairs here in Los Osos for free! Thank you Craigslist. The cushions were extremely gross (they had thicker cushions for the back and seat) and immediately thrown away. I imagine these have been sitting in someone's "man cave" or garage for awhile. I don't love the oak wood grain or color BUT I do love the shape of these chairs. I plan on painting the wood and making new cushions with a cool graphic print. Designspongeonline.com has some awesome before and afters that have me inspired.

I've also been inspired to start making some different things to sell at local craft fairs around the holidays. So far I've made a bunch of 'coffee cuffs' and some christmas stockings. Next on the list are oven mitts and aprons. I'm trying to use fun, colorful, retro prints and stay away from the tackier side of crafting. It can be a fine line. It would be great to make some extra money around the holidays but either way it's fun.

... and if my craft business is a bust, I can always stick to gourd farming.

My Rule....

... never pay more than $20 for a piece of furniture! Unless it's something incredibly spectacular of course. I found this table at the flea market last Sunday (yes, the flea market is my second home). It was only $5.00!

I love the caning and the 'mid-century' design. When I got it home I discovered that it is a really high quality piece from Lane furniture. The serial number on the bottom tells me it was made in 1961. The caning on the bottom was in perfect condition and all it took to restore the top was some light sanding, a few coats of Tung oil and paste wax.

I am so happy how this turned out. It is a perfect piece to go in front of our love seat. I'm going to be on the look out for some vintage coasters to complete the look :)
Working on my new table got me inspired to finally finish my side table. The whole project was a good introduction to refinishing and I like how it turned out. It's hard to tell from the picture but it has an ebony stain that lets the wood's grain show through nicely. Now I just need to figure out where to put it!