Our latest adventures

With various things going on lately, it's been difficult for me to sit down at the computer at all lately, never mind actually writing a blog post. Time to take care of that while I can! *L*

A few days ago, we met with a voice coach and ended up signing Youngest for singing lessons. Starting after the long weekend, she'll be having weekly lessons. The teacher seems to be a good match, though I have to admit to being a bit taken aback with her mannerisms. I thought she might be used to teaching very young children, but her students range in age from 10 or so to over 70! It was like talking to Mr. Rogers or something. *L* Youngest was comfortable enough with her to give the go-ahead for lessons, so we signed her up. I do hope it works out well for her. Youngest as a marvelous voice; she just needs to learn how to use and control it.

I also recently managed to take in a local government surplus sale. A couple of times a year, in a warehouse on the outskirts of town, the government sells off various pieces they no longer need for their offices. Desks of all shapes and sizes, tables, chairs, bookshelves, couches, armchairs, coffee and end tables, storage lockers, filing cabinets, and even cork boards, clocks, wall art, fake plants and more were all available and ridiculously low prices. I got there an hour before the doors opened, and there were people already there. Thinking ahead, I brought along the afghan I'm crocheting for Eldest and got some decent progress in before the doors opened. :-D

There's a trick to going to these things. First, get there early. Very early. Second, if you're looking for a number of items, bring someone along to help find things. Third, if you find something that looks good, don't leave it in the off chance you'll find something better. By the time you get back, it'll be gone. The way they work it, once you've found something, you stay with it and raise your hand. People working the sale go around with clip boards to the people with their arms raised. They make out an invoice with the item and mark it as sold; then you can take the sheet and look for something else to be added to it. For people in groups, they come in and immediately fan out, searching out the items they need. Sure, they end up with multiple sheets, but it works out. Various businesses, churches and charitable organizations have furnished entire offices that way.

On the down side, once something is on the sheet, you can't take it off. So if you *do* end up finding something better, you're stuck with the old one. Which is how I ended up with two couches. *L*

The last time I went to one, we had the car. I could only fit two chairs into the back seat. They cost me $5 each. This time, I had the mini-van, with all the back seats stowed away. It took three trips and snagging my husband from work to help with one particularly heavy piece, but I've re-furnished much of our living room and part of our dining room for under $60. I was actually there for bookshelves, but never found any, though the shelf I did get was listed as a bookshelf. It's more like a sideboard with hutch, though all in one very solid piece. It's a bit dinged and scratched, but being made of real wood, not particle or pressed board, we can refinish it.

That particular shelf just fit into the back of the van, lying flat on it's back. I'd hoped we could set it on its side and fit something else in with it, but it was a bit too long for that.

For the other trips, I was able to fit in a couch and an armchair per load. Between the number of loads and the long drive to and from our place, it took all morning and most of the afternoon. Things had to be out by 3pm. Anything left behind got donated.

So now we have a "new" couch in the living room that doesn't hurt my knees to get in and out of! Granted, it does need a serious steam cleaning, but it's solid, has almost no wear and tear on it, and only cost $15. As for the second couch, we're still debating whether to find a way to keep it in the living room (we need to re-arrange it anyways) or put it in the master bedroom. Personally, as much as I'd like it in the bedroom, I don't really want to haul it up the stairs! *L* For now, it's standing on one end in our dining room. Youngest's cat has discovered that she can use the new shelf to jump to the top of it, which puts her at about 18 inches from the ceiling. She stayed up there for most of the day! :-D

As if that weren't enough, the next day the girls and I were up early and heading for the library. No, it wasn't library day. It was the library's book sale. We walked over to arrive just before the doors opened, and there was a line up down the block! Talking to one of the staff later on, they estimated that 200 people came in when the doors opened.

Unfortunately, the room the sale was in was really quite small. The last time I made it to one of these, they'd set up in the underground parkade. There was lots of room, not only for a lot of tables of books, cds and dvds, or for people to mill about in between, but for the couple hundred boxes of books waiting to be unpacked as room became available. Not this time! They did the best they could with the space, but there was barely room to move even without everyone with boxes, bags or armloads of books.

The girls and I managed to score some good stuff. I found some cookbooks, craft books, photography books, etc. Eldest got a couple of interesting finds, including a book on North American birds that's she's enjoying. Unfortunately, she was after art books and, before she even got to the section, she saw someone going in the opposite direction with her arms filled with all the art instruction books she could find. Ah, well. For Youngest, I spotted and snagged a bunch of mythology books from the Time Life series she's been borrowing for a while now.

It didn't take long for me to fill the backpack we'd brought to overflowing - thankfully, we brought an extra bag. Grand total for them all? Only $13.

That was just the first trip.

We met up with a friend later on and went back in the afternoon. Things weren't quite as crowded, but it was still hard to get through to some sections. This time, I actually got into the dvd section and we got a bunch of Cirque du Soleil dvds, as well as a couple of nature documentaries. Youngest asked me to show her where I'd found the mythology books I'd snagged for her earlier, but when we got there, there were no similar books left at all. She kept me company as I worked my way down the table. There wasn't much order left by then. As we were doing that, a staff member started restocking across the table from us. That's when I see Youngest suddenly reach out across the table and grab a book that had just been added. The Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were. She's borrowed that book so many times and really loves it, so this was a major score for her!

All in all, it was a very successful event for us. The sale is actually still going, and I will have to really resist going back for more! They may be incredibly cheap, but we do still have to stay in budget. ;-)