Cyber Monday or Flippin’ Sh!t On eBay

So, my bloggy hubby, Scope challenged all of us lazy slackers former bloggers who are content these days just curling up like pampered pets at the feet of Facebook to venture back out in Blogaritaville today for a Cyber Monday post and a link-up with him.  I figured I could handle one measly little blog post.  Sure.  Why not?…. Assuming I could figure out my password.   

Or that Windows Live Writer still acknowledged my existence.

Which it didn't.

Now I'm forced to compose my posts in Blogger like an animal.  No borders around my pictures or anything!  *sniffle*  F**k you, Windows Live Writer.  

But anyway....

I figured that since I have spent so much of my time lately in thrift stores, garage sales, and on eBay, I might as well tell you a bit about my eBay adventures.  Here are some of my better (and more high-five worthy) recent sales:


Out in Seattle last Christmas, I bought this Green Day American Idiot t-shirt in a thrift store for $2.99.  I really liked it, but it was too short on me (What?!  I know!) and my kiddo, Wednesday, wanted nothing to do with any shirt that had “idiot” sprawled across the front of it, so I listed it on eBay and it sold to a buyer in Australia for $18.00.  Sa-weet!


There’s this really awesome local thrift store here in Chicago that I walk to every Monday for their 50% off sale.  I bought this uber-slutty Coogi nautical-themed mini dress there for $3.00 and it sold on eBay for $50.00.   Cha-ching!  (Ohhhh, slutty sailor dresses, how I love thee!).  I wish I could find one of these every day! 


I bought this black, white, and red Anthropologie mesh skirt that had a really cool Tim Burton kind of look to it at my favorite thrift store.  I got it for $2.19 and it sold for $17.50.


Over the summer we had a huge community garage sale where I bought this 1973 Woodsy Owl (Remember him?!  “Give a hoot!  Don’t pollute!”) for $4.00.  The seller wanted $5.00 for it, but Woodsy was pretty beaten up and I tried to talk him down to $2.50, but he wouldn’t go any lower than $4.00.  Arg!  Dilemma!  I crossed my fingers and hoped his damaged spots wouldn’t be too bothersome to scare off any eBay buyers, but I shouldn’t have worried.  Woodsy sold fast and he sold for $27.00, so woo-hoo!


At the community wide garage sale, I also bought these Ninjago Lego minifigs as part of a set of two huge bags of Lego pieces.  The bags cost a total of $20, but I parted the various Legos out and these figures alone sold for $65.00!


These Batman Lego minifigs were part of the same garage sale Lego bags as the Ninjago ones.  This grouping sold for $42.00.   With all the different Lego groupings and sales I made from those Lego bags, I made over $150 in profit so far, and I’m not even done listing them all yet!


Other community wide garage sale finds:  This 50’s/60’s style Girl Scout Brownie plastic figurine which I got for 25 cents.  Yeah, just 25 cents!  I soooooooo felt like I was ripping the lady off!  It sold on eBay for $15.00.


And this little plastic tabletop globe which I got for 50 cents and it sold for $20.50.


And this Tupperware Shape-O-Ball which I bought for $2.00 and it sold for $20.00.


Man, we did great with our summer garage sale loot!  But back to thrift store scores.  I bought this huge Warner Brothers Studio Store Harry Potter snow globe at a thrift store for $2.73.  I about fainted when I saw it.  I know they are hard to find and can go for quite a bit of money.  This one had some minor damage and was missing its box, but I was still confidant it was worth it.  It ended up selling on eBay for $37.99.


I bought these Serta Sheep beanie babies at the local thrift store for $3.28 and they sold for $20.00 in about a day.


I bought this red vinyl snake skin jacket for $5.46.  This one took awhile to sell, but it eventually sold for $25.00.


This old 1970’s Sears Winnie the Pooh teddy bear was sitting alone and abandoned at the thrift store.  I got it for $1.09.   It sold for $20.00 to a buyer in England. 


I also bought this big bag of old Polly Pocket dolls from the early 90’s at the thrift store for $3.38 and it sold to an Australian buyer for $35.00 within an hour of listing it.  


And. lastly, I bought this life sized Jack Skellington Halloween decoration at the drug store for $15.00 and it sold on eBay for $90.00.  Woo-hoo!


And that’s what has been keeping me so busy lately, all the bargain hunting, listing, packing, and trips to the post office.  Whew!  I’m not sure how many of you guys are still around and reading ye olde blogs anymore, but I’ve missed you guys an awful lot.  What’s been up with you?   :-)




© Coracabana

Don’t stop believing

Yep.  Here’s ANOTHER update on 2012’s Project 365….


Day 323 (2012-11-18) ~   This particular day (Nov 18th) was the 8th anniversary of my beating death and beginning the process of re-learning how to walk again.  (Y’all remember that whole blood clot in the spinal cord mess.)  Somehow this shot seemed fitting for the anniversary of the start of that journey, I think.  :-)





Day 324 (2012-11-19) ~  Another picture I took in the local community garden. I liked how these puff-ball plants looked in black and white.  (Oppsie.  This pic was really taken on the 18th, not the 19th.)





Day 325 (2012-11-20) ~  Ready…. set…. go!  Scope, Wednesday, and I were all packed and ready for our Thanksgiving trip to Disneyland.  This was the night of November 20th and our suitcases were all lined up against the kitchen wall because at 2:30 the next morning we had to get up and bolt out the door to get to the airport in time.





Day 326 (2012-11-21) ~  This was taken our first night in Disneyland.  We had never seen Sleeping Beauty's Castle all decked out for the holidays before.  It was so gorgeous!   This shot also seems fitting because by the point this was taken, we had been awake and on the run almost 24 hours!  *yawn*  Sleeping Beauty, indeed.





Day 327 (2012-11-22) ~  This was taken our second day in Disneyland.  While walking down Main Street USA, Mickey (literally!) ran right by us.  I was SO loving his Christmas sweater!  (Hee hee.)





Day 328 (2012-11-23) ~  This was taken our third day in Disneyland.  It is Jack Skellington laughing down at us from the ceiling inside the Stretching Room in the Haunted Mansion Holiday ride.  This was, by far, Wednesday’s favorite ride!





Day 329 (2012-11-24) ~  This was taken our—*sniffle*—last day in Disneyland.  It’s the outside of the Haunted Mansion Holiday.





Day 330 (2012-11-25) ~  The morning we flew back to Chicago from LAX, it was very, very foggy in LA.  But a minute or so after take off, we burst up through the fog below to find sunny blue skies all around us.  I kind of like this shot because of the shadow of our plane on the carpet of clouds just below us.  That's not something you see every day.





Day 331 (2012-11-26) ~  Okay, so I messed up my days a bit after our DL trip.  In my defense, I took over 3000 pics in DL (yes, really) and I had a LOT of editing to do in a hurry (because Snapfish had a promo where all 4x6 prints were only a penny each!  Ohhhhhh, what simultaneously fortuitous and cruel timing!)  I was so busy editing and deciding which pics were print-worthy, I really wasn't motivated to take my 365 Project seriously (nor to add more pictures onto the pile!) for awhile there.  So, this was taken on the 30th, not the 26th.  It's a Christmas-y park I often walk through near our house.





Day 332 (2012-11-27) ~  Uh-uh.  I know.  I couldn't believe it either.  Sitting in a tree outside a local high school the morning of the 27th, there was an owl, just watching all the arriving students walking by.  (It must have been looking for Harry Potter.)  Only two of the kids (my daughter and her friend) seemed to notice.  All the other kids (Muggles!) there were oblivious to the watchful owl.  It was hard to get a decent shot of the owl because it was high up in the tree, branches were in the way, and I only had my point and shoot camera with me—plus, I was afraid to get too close and risk scaring the owl away.  But, all in all, I don't think the shot ended up too shabby, considering.





Day 333 (2012-11-28) ~  On an early morning walk through a local park, I was struck by how pretty the blue sky was with all the trees in silhouette.  And then I noticed all the squirrel nests perched in the trees.  It's quite a bustling squirrel city we've got going on there!  (Pic really taken on the 30th, not the 28th.  Sorry, I was still recovering from the Disneyland trip!)





Day 334 (2012-11-29) ~  Absolutely no thought nor effort went into this shot.  Clearly.  I just realized I had messed up several days on my Project 365 and just snapped random shots on the run on my way to the train station one night.  Blah.  This was really taken on the 30th, not the 29th.





Day 335 (2012-11-30) ~  Yeah.  It's a fake spider lurking in the corner, mid-way up the wall.  Poor Scope wasn't feeling very well for a few days after we got back from our trip....  But once he pulled this stunt to try to freak out Wednesday and me, well, that's when we knew he was on the mend!





The rest of Project 365 is coming soon!






© Coracabana

Yeah, it’s January and I’m still posting pictures from Halloween. Your point is….?

And now for another update on 2012’s Project 365….


Day 305 (2012-10-31) ~  Halloween night, Wednesday dressed up as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scope was Jack Skellington, and I was Oogie Boogie.  Here's Sally and Jack heading out to go trick-or-treating.





Day 306 (2012-11-01) ~  Our pumpkins, all baked by tea-light candles, the day after Halloween.





Day 307 (2012-11-02) ~  *sigh*  I got an emergency call from Wednesday at school.  She had broken her glasses in PE class.  Somehow I hadn't expected it to be quite THIS bad!  (Oops.  This was taken on the 1st, not the 2nd.  My bad.)





Day 308 (2012-11-03) ~  Wednesday and her friends in a limousine on her 16th birthday party.





Day 309 (2012-11-04) ~  This was Wednesday’s family party for her Sweet 16.  I can't believe I'm the mom of a 16 YEAR OLD.  Seriously, where does the time go?!





Day 310 (2012-11-05) ~  When all else fails, draw a picture of your thick-skulled, non-listening, jackass-y nemesis on a left over birthday balloon…. and then beat the shit out of it!!!!  That’s a valuable coping tool Wednesday picked up this particular week in November, which she found to be extremely satisfying!  :-)





Day 311 (2012-11-06) ~  And the winner is….





Day 312 (2012-11-07) ~  We picked up two new Halloween decorations this year.  I figured they deserved to star as picture of the day once before being shoved away in storage!





Day 313 (2012-11-08) ~  Since changing the clocks, my walk to meet Scope after work is A LOT DIFFERENT.  Soooooooo dark and kind of creepy.





Day 314 (2012-11-09) ~  This is a partial shot of a Harry Potter display item I bought on eBay.  I owned one when I lived in Seattle, but I got rid of it (along with a TON of other stuff) when I moved to Chicago, and I always regretted not keeping it.  *sniffle*  I wanted to replace my long-gone one, but I couldn't find one for sale online anywhere, then suddenly there one was on eBay for MUCH cheaper than my original one!  I bought it and when it arrived I was thrilled—it was in even better condition than the one I originally owned.  Sweet!





Day 315 (2012-11-10) ~  My old skool 1970's Mickey Mouse doll.





Day 316 (2012-11-11) ~  This was the night that Wednesday discovered the joy of Jiffy Pop!





Day 317 (2012-11-12) ~  So, you leave Wednesday alone for a couple of hours in the house with a camera, paint, and some clay, and look what you'll come home to:  A stop-motion/claymation movie in progress!  WOW!





Day 318 (2012-11-13) ~  There was one spot of light snow on the ground at the park this morning.  ONE spot.  There was no snow to be found anywhere else.  Weird.





Day 319 (2012-11-14) ~  Out of time and out of ideas.  This was just a super-quick shot of some red leaves and a street light in the dark as I was running to the train station.





Day 320 (2012-11-15) ~  Blue light special?….  Anyone?…. Anyone?….





Day 321 (2012-11-16) ~  Yep.  We ran to several stores to stock up on Hostess cakes the day we heard they went out of business.  This was what we managed to hoard.  Mmmmmm.





Day 322 (2012-11-17) ~  Just a shot of some flags I saw while taking a walk through the local community garden.  (Taken on the 18th, not 17th.  My mistake.)






That’s it for today, but the rest of the project is on the way soon….






© Coracabana

Too much of a good thing

Hey there.  Remember that photo cult I got kidnapped by last year?  Y’know, the one where they brandished red hot pokers at my nipples and swore to shove Cheetos up my nose if I didn’t take a picture.  Every.  Single.  Day.  Of.  The.  Year.  Remember that? 


(Ahhhh, good times.) 


Well, I did it.  I survived.  I completed the whole project and then frantically made a hasty, scream-filled escape, and hid, sobbing, in my closet with my sweater pulled over my head as soon the cult looked the other way. 


(Okay, not really.  But it kind of feels like that.)


Now that I’ve been plopped out the back end of the project, I realize what a freaking ridiculous undertaking it was.  Sure, maybe it sounds simple enough to take a measly little picture once a day for a whole year—pffft!—how painless, right?  But it isn’t.  No.  You see, the cult headquarters (aka the official site where you upload your daily 365 pictures) is…. well…. a wee bit more complicated than that. 


Let me explain….


When I first joined their cult, things were all hunky-dory, kumbaya, hakuna matata, and shit like that.  I was learning a lot—I mean, A LOT—about my cameras, Photoshop, Picmonkey, and digital photography in general, and I was enjoying the journey.  I was having fun.  But it didn’t take me long to notice the nasty undercurrent lurking beneath it all. 


Man, people are competitive there.  It’s like Thunderdome!  I mean, if someone posts a picture of…. ohh…. I dunno…. say, a bowl of Skittles, for example, the others on the site would all ohh and ahh at first, but then run off like thieves and post their own pictures of bowls of Skittles too with captions saying ‘Look!  Look at ME!  Look how much awesomer MY Skittles picture is!’ and soon there would be hundreds of near-identical pictures of Skittles floating around, each topped with a heaping helping of attitude. 


And then the bickering and bitch-slapping would erupt.  Over pictures.  Of Skittles. Oy.


I never realized how much fighting a handful of non-Paparazzi produced pictures could whip up.  It really started to get to me.  I stopped interacting with the other cult members months ago and just kind of kept on posting my pictures there late at night once every few weeks, hoping not to be noticed.  In all honesty, I’m glad it’s finished. 


Frankly, there are days you just don’t feel like taking a picture, okay?  There are days you are just too busy to take a picture of anything more than a half-assed snapshot of whatever crap you bump into.  And there are days you just want to take pictures without being judged.  That’s what it all boiled down to for me.  I realized about half-way through it that producing a photograph worthy of judging every (!) single (!) day (!) for (!) a (!) whole (!) year (!) is just unnecessarily stressful.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were times I loved the project and enjoyed the heck out of it…. but, all in all, I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew.


But anyway….


The project is now complete—yes, I finished it; I didn’t quit—but I’m waaaayyyyyyyyyyy behind on posting the pictures here.  In fact, it appears the last time I updated you on the project was October. 


(October?)


(Really?)


Well, crap.  I suppose I should really get on that.  Like, now.  Here we go….



Day 288 (2012-10-14) ~  I got this spooky Halloween banner in the mail from my awesome friend, Callista. I hung it up on the wide window above our backdoor for Halloween and I loved it.





Day 289 (2012-10-15) ~  This was one of the local high schools back on October 15th. The walkway was soooooooo gorgeous with the trees all covered in orange and yellow Autumn leaves.





Day 290 (2012-10-16) ~  I saw some Halloween skulls on sticks in the ground while I was out walking on some errands and I thought they might look exceptionally creepy with Picmonkey's Ghostly filter.  Oh, yeah.  Definitely creepy.





Day 291 (2012-10-17) ~  Yeah.  It rained this night.  IN.  THE.  HOUSE.  It even warped the wood trim above our backdoor.  It’s times like these when I wish I was still a renter.  Grrrr.





Day 292 (2012-10-18) ~  And this is how the cacti grow in Chicago.





Day 293 (2012-10-19) ~  I saw this wee, little dude guarding a car in a dark parking garage and he made me giggle.





Day 294 (2012-10-20) ~  Wednesday was busy, busy, busy making clay puppets for another stop-motion movie she had in the works.  This was one of her latest clay buddies.  In fact, this puppet right here earned her $2,000 in a film contest—but you’ll have to wait a couple of posts for the rest of that particular story.  (Sorry!)





Day 295 (2012-10-21) ~  Another retro Strawberry Shortcake doll that I have in our den.  This is Apricot.  I have no idea why she's just named after a fruit when all the others are named after desserts though. (????)  Kind of odd, huh?





Day 296 (2012-10-22) ~  And this is what it looks like from the third floor balcony when some construction crews show up at 8am and dig big holes in the sidewalk and block off the only two exits out of the building (besides the back alley).  No warning.  No notice.  Just—BOOM!—you’ve got no front doors until further notice, suckers.  Grrr.





Day 297 (2012-10-23) ~  Wednesday saw this Jack Skellington fondant cake sculpture in the front window of a local bakery and she about fainted from joy right there on the sidewalk.  Her 16th birthday party was a couple of days after Halloween, so we ordered her a Jack sculpture for her cake.





Day 298 (2012-10-24) ~  Our pumpkins were waiting on the deck, ready to be carved for Halloween night.  (ACK!!  A slight cheat on this picture.  It was taken on the 25th, not the 24th. Whoopsie!)





Day 299 (2012-10-25) ~  Ooooooooooooh!  I love this one!  This is what it looked like on my walk to meet Scope after work on October 25th.  Halloween was definitely in the air!





Day 300 (2012-10-26) ~   Okay, there was a lot of stuff going on this particular week, so I missed a couple of days by accident.  Fortunately, Scope, Wednesday, and I went to an incredible blown glass gallery, so I have lots of pics to make up for it.  Like this one.  (Taken on the 27th, not the 26th.)





Day 301 (2012-10-27) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. This one is called "Scene of Japan #59" by Hiroshi Yamano.  The fish was soooooooooo realistic!  Just amazing.





Day 302 (2012-10-28) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. There was no artist's name on this one, as it was an unlabeled bowl on a desk in the back office.  I love the colors all back-lit in the sunshine like that, all bright and rainbow-y!  (Taken on the 27th, not the 28th. Sorry!)





Day 303 (2012-10-29) ~  Another shot from the back office at the blown glass gallery I visited on the 27th.  This one wasn't labeled either, so I have no idea who the artist is.  I loved the three white apples propped in front of the book like that.  If you look closely, you can see the images of white apple blossoms on the apples.  Wow.  (Taken the 27th, not the 29th.  Whoopsie!)





Day 304 (2012-10-30) ~  We carved our pumpkins on the night of the 29th, but this one of Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas really dried out and shriveled up overnight, so we had to light it a day early before it caved in on itself.





(If you want to see all the previous Project 365 posts, click HERE.)  The rest of the project is coming soon!






© Coracabana