Vintage Sewing Machines

We love vintage sewing machines and have plenty so really all this reenactment needed was redecorating our tree, moving all our dining furniture, bathrobes, a well bribed child, our newest acquisition and lots of patience with the camera timer.

This machine and cabinet were found as we left our house and drove 4 houses down the street. Neighbors were clearing out their house and my husband said, it's just a matter of time before there is a sewing machine out there... and there it is! Sure enough, there she sat. A Singer 15-91 in an art deco style cabinet WITH the stool!  We of course screeched to a halt. Jeremy hopped out and asked if they were interested in selling it. They were. It sat on the driveway because they couldn't lift it into to large blue dumpster sitting there.

Now how to get her home. All five kids were in the car on the way to dinner with the in laws so we didn't have anywhere put it. We ended up setting it on the small ledge in the back of the Tahoe while my husband slowly walked behind holding it in. A friend and neighbor drove past us and had a good laugh at the scene. When we got her home and had a chance to peek inside the stool and drawers were full of lovely sewing treasures. The Singer accessories box, a lovely silver and gold thimble, old buttons, oh so much stuff! So finally, here she is....and we are.....

Sleep is cheap

Cheap people like sleeping. Alot. Why? Because it's cheap! Not free. I need sheets. Like, really soft super thread count sheets. I have maybe 7-8 sets of sheets for this bed. For all the beds? No telling. LOTS. Bedding is one of my addictions I have semi recovered from. I say semi because I have still bought a duvet (ebay Pottery Barn) and sheet set (deal a day $24) in the past couple of months but really, I am recovered. I feel like this duvet will last me a Looooong time! Really.

Anyway, sleeping, cheap. Air conditioning. In west Texas we need air conditioning to sleep well. I can't sleep and be sweaty. If I find myself sweating in bed I will have to get up and shower. We try to keep it around 70. This is our compromise number. I would prefer 68 and Jeremy would prefer 75. This is what marriage is about folks! Finding a compromise number. And turning the air back up before he gets home. Also important.

Pillows are key. Jeremy has one. He mistreats it and wads it up this way and that and trashes it. He goes through a lot of pillows. I have 4-5 pillows, all king sized that I rotate. I like one on each side, two under my head and if it's very hot one between my legs on my side so they dont touch. Perfectly normal way to sleep. MY pillows have nicely aligned cases and are never wadded up.
I love pajamas. I love the light cotton pants and button tops from Nick and Nora but my PJ drawers are full so I'm on lockdown. Breathable, cool, not so baggy you get tangled, perfect. I have to sleep in sock but Jeremy is strictly no socks. I can NOT sleep without socks. My feet just freeze and get hyper-stimulated or something. It's not pretty.

Jeremy does have a bit of a sleep advantage having narcolepsy. But it puts me at a huge disadvantage because he ALSO has sleep apnea. So not only does he go to sleep quickly and deeply, he snores super loud. FUN! I cannot tell you how close we were to divorce 2 months after we got married. But he got a C-pap machine and now it's relatively quiet except when he sort of wakes up and pulls the mask off and puts it on his forehead. I used to poke his or say his name softly. Now I just rub my hand all over his face till he puts it back on. 8 years this June! Don't question my methods.

Sleeping does not come easily but neither does waking. I have a fear of turning out the lights and not being able to sleep. Usually I do but the fear makes me keep the tv on too long or working on a project too late.

Wondering why after all this expense and trouble sleeping is cheap? Because I can't shop online while I'm sleeping! G'night all!

Buying Storage Units at Auction and getting RICH!

So, we decided that garage saleing was buying one item at a time was too tedious so we now just buy junk by the garage-full! We visited several auctions and purchased our first unit, cleaned it out and made about twice what we paid for the unit. Yay!

We can do this, we said. So we bought a couple more and even sold a tanning bed that boosted our confidence level but didn't really find anything we wanted to add to our collection. Craigslist made for fast selling and fast profit. Then we went to an auction on a nice toasty day and I found a unit that spoke to me. I gave my husband the NOD and yet, he did not bid. So I just bid. And bid it up to $375. I WON! So we went to a couple more units and lost interest and decided to go back to the unit and check it out. My Mom's husband reached in a box and pulled out a white piece and commented it was the heaviest Styrofoam he had ever seen and started to toss it aside. My husband gasped and said, that's a space shuttle tile.

Yep, the unit is full of NASA. Not a whole shuttle contrary to my 7 year old sons belief. But we unloaded box after box of models of airplanes, vintage NASA photos, 40 boxes of manuals and various papers regarding NASA history. We have opened an Ebay store and been selling NASA one piece at a time for three months now. Every time and auction ends we sa to ourselves. That's the wow factor! Some of the more memorable items we have sold thus far is the Apollo 11 flight plan, and an Earthrise photo. We have quite a following now and I'll be sad when it's all gone honestly even if I'll have my living room back.

$25,000 later... I'm pretty sure the next time I tell hubby to buy a unit, he's going to buy it!

Buying Stuff at auction and reselling it!

One Sunday at our favorite (only) local auction house we bid on a lot full of old papers. I was attracted to the vintage Christmas cards in the lot but he saw potential for the whole kit and caboodle. We won it for $15. After going through many thousands of newspaper clippings, letters, diaries and greeting cards, we came upon an envelope of 8 crisp series E war bonds with the original pay-stub. After researching we discovered the $10 bonds were issued only to U.S. servicemen during WWII as final payment for their service making them scarce. Unfortunately, the only way to cash them in is to prove that you inherited them. So, we listed one on eBay. It sold for over $80. It turns out that a pristine uncirculated $10 bond is very rare. Eventually, we sold the other 7 bonds for $75 each, for a total of $625, much better than their mature value of $10 each. Trying to sell them as lot on eBay was unsuccessful because each collector wanted one to finish their collection, not a full set.

Summary: Paid $15, Spent $0, Sold for $705. Total profit from bonds- $690

Lesson learned: Buy old papers when you can. They sell for little and you never know what treasure they could hold. We'll cover the other things we sold from the lot in a future post.