Garaging 101

(Hang on, folks, this is a long one...)
Saturday I went "garaging" and it reawakened my love of the thrill of driving around town following signs and wasting gas just to get a killer deal on fun things that we probably don't need. It is so funny to go garaging here because people really get into it and there's like a parade of cars around you when you are going to a good one.

Summer is the time to go out garaging and there are SO many garage sales here it's impossible to hit them all up before everything good is taken and you are left looking at really old cruddy dollar store purchases worth nothing at the time of purchase and old ratty clothes from the 80s. But as I look back at my garaging ventures I have to say, I have gotten some awesome deals. Check these out:

Police car: $10

Toddler bed AND mattress, very good shape: $10
Buzz Lightyear costume (this was the purchase of the day on Saturday. I thought it was going ot be too small but it fits like a glove and is complete with wings and shoes covers. Gun provided by Grandma Sheriee)
Dr. Seuss backpack: 25 cents

Swing: $1

Other things I have bought are my entire set of dishes (my mom gave me a set of 4 of hers when I left for college. I found a matching 8 pc. set at a rummage sale for $2.50); another car like the police one but red ($10); an umbrella stroller ($1); Carter's train set with tons of pieces ($5); Operation (50 cents); children's books (25 cents a piece); 3 Pilates DVDs (free); a bathing suit (eww. just kidding. that is disGUSting); a quilt rack/shelf thing for Nolan's room; a boat decoration for Carter's room ($5); a space heater ($2); a decorative basket ($5. I'm so ashamed. I overpaid on this one. I was young an inexperienced); and I know there are more things but I can't remember them right now. In conclusion, if you play your cards right, garaging can be a really rewarding way to get what you need and want but don't want to have to buy it new. So here are my time/energy saving tips for effective garaging:

1) Start with the internet. Get on craigslist.com and look up garage sales in your area. That way you aren't wandering around aimlessly wasting gas.

2) Hit up the rich neighborhoods first.

3) Do not stop at garage sales where there are filthy old stuffed animals and clothes strewn all over the lawn.

4) In fact, do not stop at all unless you see something that really catches your eye. I used to feel like I was being rude just driving by and looking. Don't. It takes too much time to get in and out.

5) If there's a bunch of stuff you want (especially small items), just take a huge armful of it to the person in charge and say "I'll give you $2 for all of this." They are usually too busy to want to sit down and count it all out or they just don't care so they'll be fine with that.

6) I always think of what price I'd be happy to get an item for before I ask how much something is. If they don't meet that number (they usually do) then I don't get it.

7) Judge a sale by it's sign. The ones with huge signs and bold letters are the best. The ones with tiny lettering and are hard to follow are usually never worth the hassle of wondering where you are going.

8) Seriously avoid "estate" sales, which mostly happen around here when someone elderly has passed away and someone is selling everything in their house. I've been tricked by these so many times and all they ever have is smelly furniture, old perfume bottles, mobility scooters, walkers, dentures, depends, bed pans...I'm seriousit ain't pretty.

9) And finally, know when to call it quits. If you found a good deal at 8am that you are pumped about and are still feeling lucky 2 hours later and haven't found anything since then, chances are you've made up for your sweet deal in gas. Go home and surprise your hubby with all the stuff that you have saved so much money on and see how excited he is.

And to end today's post, a totally cute picture of Nolan modeling Carter's new goggles.
What are your best garage sale purchases???

No, this is not another post about my garden

YAY! I'm officially a Mormon mom. I canned. I can. I can can.
So remember those delicious peaches and apricots I had? Well I made some sweet apricot jam and canned it and then some peach and strawberry freezer jam, too. Of course I could not have done it without my mother-in-law, who is always so willing to help me with projects and usually ends up doing most of the work (including child care and entertainment).

It only took about 6 hours but look what we got out of it! (yes, that is me being sarcastic) I wonder if canning is really worth the work and resulting sweatiness and achy feet. But my project this summer is to get some food put away for food storage so I guess I'm one step closer to my goal. But isn't it all so pretty? The peach jam didn't set up so well but everything else looks pretty good. But then I got thinking of the endless possibilities! If you can do tomatoes, why not my favorite spaghetti sauce? Why not some stew or something? (the word "stew" is such a turnoff, isn't it?) Anyway, I never thought I would get into canning but this will be pretty fun.

OH! And I almost forgot! I needed cans so I went to Smart N' Final and bought 1 doz. wide mouth pints. The price? $9.50. Yechhhh. So I used some of Clarice's for this little project. Then i got online and contacted a lady about buying her used bottles. She had an assortment of somewhere around 10-12 dozen that she'd sell me for $30. Luckily Clarice was going right by her house for a meeting so she picked them up for me and now I have my own set of bottles! I counted them today and here's what's in the mix:
33 reg. quarts
47 WMpints
53 reg. pints
5- 2-quarts
5- 1/2 pints
So grand total is about 12 doz. for $30. It would have been about $120 for buy all that new. Plus, there are about 7 blue glass vintage bottles which are really cool. I'll have to put a pic on here of them. I'm really just too lazy to get my kiester up off the couch right now.
Anyway, just thought I'd reinforce what a dork I am just in case anyone was doubting. I think tomorrow I am making more apricot jam and canning some meat. Pretty exciting stuff!!

Why I Love California

Nope

Definitely NOT

Not so much

Before I moved to California I really REALLY did not want to live here. From the outside in California looks pretty bad sometimes. Fires, earthquakes, (liberals), (treehuggers), wierdos, San Fransisco, cross-dressers, wierdos, El Nino, gangs, high prices, wierdos, taxes, laws, wierdos...doesn't sound too fun. But, I guess you can be happy wherever you are. You just have to learn to love the little things. Here's some things I love...

I love that everything grows in California and that my garden is going nuts.

I love that I picked a humongous bowl of sweet, crisp sugar-snap peas yesterday and ate them all day plus I had leftovers to take to friends. I love that we have so much squash that we have an excuse to meet neighbors and take them something. And that they are sick of it, too. I LOVE the melons that we get. They are like 10 times more sweet than the crumby ones you get at the store.
And I love that there are fruit trees everywhere. Check out these peaches and apricots I got today. There's a small preschool by our house with some fruit trees in it. While walking by there lately I've noticed a bunch of fruit on the ground. So I went and asked if I could pick their fruit and they were happy to let me have as much as I wanted. So I'm making fresh jellies tomorrow and doing some canning (for my first time. I'm such a sweet homemaker.)
So I'll post a picture of my cans of delicious jams (I still don't know the difference) sometime later in the week.
Other things I love about Calfornia....We are an hour and 15 minutes from Disneyland, the ocean, the Wild Animal Park, Seaworld, and San Diego; it's gorgeous weather 3/4 of the year; there are lots of members of the church; everyone (else) has a pool; and I can wear men's clothing and a pick stuck in my hair and no one will think I'm out of the strange.
See, California isn't that bad after all.
What do you like about where you live???

My Favorite Things

Today I made cookies and (holy crud) cinnamon rolls. I used two of my favorite kitchen gadgets for these things- 1. a cookie baller (not sure that's what they are called...maybe a cookie scoop). They make every cookie dough ball perfectly round and beautiful. And 2. my kitchen aid.

Then I got thinking about how I love kitchen gadgets. Most of the cool ones I have I've gotten from my mom, including the garlic press and the Pampered Chef food chopper. So what I want to know is, what else have I been missing all my life? What are your favorite gadgets, kitchen or household or ANYTHING?

Pinewood Nerdy

Things got a little competitive at last week's Elder's Quorum pinewood derby. It was a date night, so as you can probably imagine, the men wound up doing all the racing while the women chatted about things that actually matter.

We were at Spencer's parent's house the day before the race and there was this old broken mechanical dinosaur toy. He ripped out the "engine" and the next day went to the hobby shop to get a propeller. He rigged it all together and put it on the back of our car that evening as everyone was making their cars. (normal boy scout rules did not apply at this derby)

(Trying not to hack my finger off)

So once all the guys saw our car they got scared and hit up the church kitchen and their cars, finding and taping all sorts of things to their cars. They turned out like this. (That's our car on the left)

But then they got even more ridiculous. (It was hilarious watching these grown men race over and over, taping more and more crud to their cars. These cars had spoons, screwdrivers, keys, cell phones, a huge bar thing, and tape all over them. It has to be a guy thing. Seriously, look how intense they are)

So anyway, who ended up winning the prize for biggest nerds? That's right. Mr. and Mrs. Yours Truly. We had a good time with everyon, though, and I was actually quite impressed with Spencer's creativity and ingenuity. He was pretty clever and our car was unbeatable (except when the super heavy cars would lose control and wreck the rest of ours).

In other news, I bought (on clearance..yes!) the boys matching shirts and ties last week. I had the best time dressing them up yesterday morning and doing their hair. Sorry this pic is blurry. The other ones turned out really dark. Carter loves to put his arm around Nolan when we take pictures I think it's so cute. They are already best little buddies.