Making a dime or two

     This head cold is kicking my tush. I haven't had a cold like this in a long time. Thank god, they are few and far between. My series of recent sleepless nice have less to do with my pregnancy and more to do with this cold! I'm either waking to blow my nose, or to drink some water to sooth my razor sharp throat, or to pee from needing to drink so much water throughout the night! It's an endless battle that I am not winning.

     Still and all, I'm forging ahead and working on the house list. I think we're going to finish off the bathroom after church today, which means, ideally, we should be starting in on Lydia's room early next week. I am eager to get to Jonathan's room since it is currently a disaster from clean laundry waiting to be put away, stuff from getting the garage sale items ready, and Jonathan's things that currently have no particular place to be stored since the room isn't arranged yet.

     Yesterday mom introduced me to a new consignment store near her work and I bought Jonathan's bassinet. I think the prices at Curtain Climbers are better than the prices at Jack and Jill's. From a shoppers perspective Curtain Climbers is the way to go! The store is large and has a lot of items. It's a much larger scale than what Jack and Jill offers. I have always thought that Jack and Jill's were a bit overpriced but if you caught one of their "sales,” you were generally good to go. From a consignors perspective you'd think since Jack and Jill's tend to be a tad over priced, you'd fair better, but my gut says that Curtain Climbers gets much more traffic, giving you more opportunity to get your consigned items sold. In addition, it appears that Curtain Climbers will sell your items for a longer period. I'm guessing the size and location of the store gives them that opportunity, whereas Jack and Jill's is a bit more limited in that regard. I think I'll still shop at both since Jack and Jill’s is right down the road from me, but I'm going to try my next consigning gig at Curtain Climbers. I've consigned at and Jack and Jill's a few times, selling about 50% of the items I've brought in each time. It will be interesting to compare my sales at Curtain Climbers. The other bonus Curtain Climbers offers is that they will take 100 items per consignment appointment and Jack and Jill’s would only take 25 items--which meant you had to arrange multiple appointments if you had more than 25 items you wanted to sell. For a woman that has better things to do with her time, that is an awesome bonus! Since I'm having a boy, I have all of Lydia's clothes to sell that she has since outgrown. I was hanging on to bins and bins of clothing on the chance that our #2 might have been a girl!

     I did sell close to $100 of Lydia's clothing at mom's neighborhood garage sale, despite being a rainy day. Not bad for 4.5 hours of work! I think the rain set in around 1:30. I went home with one completely empty bin (I had brought over five bins)--just in time to store Lydie's outgrown winter clothes! Mom didn't sell so it was just a few tables of girls clothing, 0-2T, that were being sold. I think I'll borrow her garage each year for that sale. I don't think my neighborhood has a sale and I live on a street that is not a through street. If you're on my street it's because you live there or took a wrong turn, so selling at my house wouldn't be as beneficial.

     Next week is rather uneventful outside of working on the house to-do list and getting some things washed and pressed for consigning. There is a mom's night out (MNO) with one of the mommy groups on Wednesday. I'm not sure if I'm doing that or not. It's at the Coppertop, a restaurant I love. Pete is not so fond of it because he doesn't think they have enough 'steak dishes' offered. I'll probably go so I can order one of their fun specialty pizzas! Plus I particularly like the women that are going. ;)

     It's Memorial Day weekend so I do have next Friday and Monday off from work. Pete will work on Friday so Lyds and I are headed over to library for an event and then to lunch with Brenda and Grace! I also plan to get a few annuals planted this weekend. I'm not sure what else is on the weekend agenda. Perhaps a cookout or something with mom and Jim. We could have it at our house since we finally have the room--it's our first Memorial Day in the new house. Mom deserves a break and a thank you for the garage sale hosting. Pete should have Monday off so if the weather is nice, perhaps we'll go off and find something nice to do for a family day...although Pete may be itching to fish by then since I am keeping him pretty busy with that house to-do list! Perhaps he can fish in the morning and then a family lunch picnic with Lyds in the afternoon...gotta keep the husband motivated to keep getting those house projects done!