The Stars Aligned

Do you ever have one of those days that the stars seem to align and magically many good things happened all at once.  That was my Thursday.

I’m still on my diet.  I’m doing better with it this time around.  I think previous times when I’ve done it I’m been doing childcare at the same time.  Often I just didn’t eat because it was so much work to figure out what I could eat.  With the childcare kids not here, I’m taking a little bit better care of myself.

Well I was running low on fruits and veggies.  I needed to make a grocery run.  I’m still being very careful about going out, always wearing my mask and using proper hygiene.  I don’t stop as often either.  For example it I needed toilet paper, I would get it at the grocery store vs making the extra trip to WalMart.  I do not want to feel complete deprived either so my happy medium to mental and physical health was a trip to the grocery that included a stop at my thrift store….again, masking up and being careful.

I’m so glad I stopped and some of you will be too.  I found vintage quilt tops.  I think 4.  I’m so excited to share them with you.  That will happen coming soon.  I debated trying to decide if I should buy them but I knew you would love them.  I’ll be offering them up on auction here on the blog with proceeds going to my postage fund for sending out charity quilt tops.

I adopted this old hardanger doily.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it.  It has some holes and it’s in the best shape…I just love it though.  My Aunt Agnes was a master hardanger…I’m told my grandma Johnson was too.  I never met her.

I bought a couple frames, 50 cents each with the hope that it would work for my cross stitch piece I am working.  Ugly now I know but I’ll paint the frames black.  I only needed one but Kelli has the same chart.  This way she’d have a frame too.  For 50 cents it was worth the risk.  Think black paint!!

I also found this…it’s fabric.  It was in the curtain section.  Someone had used fabric to make curtains and must not have liked them.  The fabric is crisp and nice just like it came from the quilt shop.  There is over 4 yards of it so at some point, it will likely be a quilt backing…just $2 for that.

I found myself a pair of Maurices jeans too.  $2.  I have such trouble with pants.  As Craig says, “You Kramers are all gutt and no butt”.  (Yes he says that!!)  We take it in stride as it is true.  We don’t have hips.  Well that makes it hard to find pants.  They are typically too tight in the waist and too roomy in the hips/thighs.  These were perfect.  We aren’t allowed to try on clothes so it was a wild guess as if they would fit.

I was so happy as I was leaving the store.  What a great day.

Well the greatness didn’t end there.  As I was driving to the grocery store, there was a garage sale.  Not any garage sale.  It was at the house that host my FAVORITE garage sales.  With covid I debated about stopping but decide if I was careful and followed the same protocol, I’d be okay.  Also, the sale is outside and easy to social distance.

As I pulled up I realized that the sale really wasn’t open.  They were just setting up.  I asked if I could look.  They were perfectly fine with that.

I am so glad I stopped.  I can’t begin to tell you how glad.  On my want list has been a stroller.  I want a double, side by side, jogging stroller.  Kalissa has been looking on sale groups for one.  She sends me links all the time and they are $250 for a used one.  I pass on them every single time.  I told Kalissa I was confident I could get one for $100.  She laughed and told me no.  But guess what I did???

….and it’s nice.  It even has speakers for my phone. YAHOO!!  Yep…a stroller tripped out with speakers is mine!!

I found just what I wanted for $100.  I’m thrilled!!

I also found a carseat for my car to transport the grandkids….a bike that is Carver’s size for $5.

Fabric was 50 cents each.  The pink is SEVEN yards worth..the other 4 yards!!  Would you have left it behind??not me!

I got a couple games for the grands too.  I spent $149 at the sale.

Another thing I got were early reader books for my house.  I keep wondering what will happen with school.  Carver is only in preschool but real close to ready to read so if he ends up with no school, I’ll teach him and it will be awesome to have the books.

I also got a big pile of books for Jasper for Christmas.  I’ve done it before for the other grandkids…at Christmas, at the very end of November I give them a bag of wrapped books.  Every day in December, they open one wrapped book and they get to read it with mom or dad.  It’s a great way to countdown to Christmas and encourage reading.  The other families liked it so I wanted to it for Jasper.  The garage sale had mint condition books for 25 cents to $1.  Most were 25 cents.  I got 20 of the 25 books I’ll be giving Jasper.  Many were even hard covers.  If you’re thinking about doing that for someone in your life, garage sale season is here and it’s the perfect time to collect.  The last five books will probably be specific books that are real classic favorites of mine and I’ll have to likely buy them new.  That’s just fine though as I only have about $5 into the gift so far!!

I also picked up this at the garage sale for $1, again thinking about my cross stitch piece.  I love this frame and think I can undo what they did to it so it would work…also again, imagine it painted.  Aren’t the details of the frame awesome??

I was so excited I continued on to get my groceries and headed home.  After putting groceries away and eating supper, I called Craig.  The tires in the stroller needed air.  The bike needed some adjustments.  Happily he was game to do it.

Here Craig is giving Carver the evil eye.  Carver steals tools and it’s very frustrating…

… soon they were friends again after Carver handed it over.  Then Carver played the part of “right hand man”.  Craig is good with Carver showing him how to do stuff.

The bike came with training wheels but were never put on the bike.  Carver at just three, still needs them, and this bike is a little big for him.  Doable, but a little big.  Here he is testing it out.  Carver already has a bike.  This is one for my house.  At $5, how could I go wrong?

The stroller works great.  Both of the boys fit just fine in it.

Jasper will be able to use it, as will Georgia.

We all love going on walks when we are together and having the stroller and the bike will make that so much easier.

I really do feel like the stars did align and let me get several things checked off my want list….and it was all done at a VERY reasonable price!