The Aftermath

I survived the Great Toy Purge of 2010 (part one), but just barely.  My dining room/office/craftroom, alas, did not fare so well.  Just look:

 

Um, ignore the pile of sheep wool on the far left on the table.  That had nothing to do with the toy purge and everything to do with having a giant flat surface that likes to catch things.  Yes, I love to embarrass myself with hideous photos of my house, why do you ask?  I now have the great task of attempting to find my room again and put everything away.  The hangers strewn on the floor will go back in a box in the attic until the next children's consignment sale.  Toys and clothes on the floor will be donated.  

I really hope everything that went into this sale gets sold.  I just do not want it back in my house.  I'm trying to reduce the clutter, not bring it back in.  But, if some does come back, I'll put it into the attic and sell it again at another sale.  

These children's consignment sales are so wonderful for cleaning out the house and paying for clothes for the kids.  They also help supplement birthdays and Christmases.  I find the most wonderful toys in awesome condition at these sales. 

I crashed hard this afternoon and passed out for two hours.  I spent morning helping set up for the sale, but that wasn't what caused the crash.  It was the evil Oscars on tv that did it. I spent the time in front of the tv working on the second sidewinders sock:

But most of the knitting was a waste of time.  I frogged back as much as I knit.  Reading directions and then paying attention to them is a most important part of knitting.    Now if I could only do that I'd be golden like Oscar too.

The Great Toy Purge of 2010

The children's consignment sale at my church is next weekend.  I, however, being on the committee, must have everything labeled, tagged and delivered by Monday.  I'll be working all weekend towards that goal.  Here's just a sampling of what I'm getting rid of:

I could start a toy store all by my lonesome.  You should see what is left up in the playroom!  I'm trying to get rid of the Youngest for a few hours tomorrow so that I do more purging.  The problem with having the kids here while I'm doing it is that I hear "But Mom, I love that toy!" even when they haven't played with it in over a year.  It kinda makes it hard to get rid of the overwhelming amount of toys that have come into our house over the years.  Stuff comes in and never goes out.  It must go!

Here's something rare that never happens around here.  I almost had a heart attack when I saw it because they really don't get along nine tenths of the time:

Would you do this?

Would you do this to your child? Would you put your precious little angel in this terrifyingly ugly size 4 overall/short set? As far as I was concerned, this won the prize for scary clothes that were for sale at this weekend's consignment sale:

Scares the heck outta me!

Savings!

This post is gonna thrill you guys silly, I just know it. Ah, not really. I'm being totally sarcastic.

This week I've got my hands full with a children's consignment sale. Remember the last time I mentioned the sale? I won't show pics again, I promise, it's very redundant from sale to sale. I've been swamped with preparing for it and working at it. By the time the weekend is over I'll have spent approximately 22 hours working there.

Well, today I got to shop it. Here's part of the loot that I got:

Here's what's so exciting about these piles of clothes. These are full fall/winter wardrobes for both boys. There are 45 items. I did not picture the couple of toys (4) /movies (4)/sleeping bag (1)/toy organizer (that retails at Target for 59.99.) That brings the total up to 56 items total. I spent $211.00. That's only $3.76 dollars per item, and some of these are upscale clothing lines like Talbot's, Children's place, Gymboree, Kelly's Kids, etc. too!

Let's say you bought all these at retail prices. The minimum that you would spend on these would be $10 per clothing/movie and $59.99 for the organizer. That's $609.00. I saved $398.99!

I'm so excited!

I have to confess - there's been no knitting/spinning or otherwise done this week. I'll have to make up for it next week.

This Coming Weekend

When I say that the Lil' Lambs consignment sale I work at (I'm a committee member - there's about 22 of us) every six months is huge, I'm not kidding. For the past two days I've worked my behind off setting up for this. There' still two days left. We open to the public tomorrow.

But for tonight, I've got some pics for you of it. You'll have to forgive the quality of them though, all I had was my camera phone.

Let's start off with the toys, shall we? These were piled up and falling off the tables and there are loads crammed under each table as well.

Mountains of toys

And even more toys

And look! more toys!

Need a few shoes?

How about a few baby swings?

I counted 41 swings

And strollers? Tons.

How about clothes?

A view from on stage

The best thing above all about this sale though? Yes, there's tons of stuff. Yes, about $65,000 will exchange hands this weekend. But it all goes back to the children of our church: To children in need and to the needs of the children's ministry in church and to the children in the community. This sale also provides the community with extremely (some downright cheap) affordable items that they can use to have well clothed (and toyed) happy children. Not bad for a weekend's worth of work huh?

big score!

Today was such a fun day. Today was the day that the committee of the Lil' Lambs Closet consignment sale got to shop for goodies. We get the first pick and usually the best stuff that comes through the doors on both toys and clothing. Of course we work our proverbial behinds off to get that privilege though.

I got a major score. A Moonwalk/Slide Combo! It was $95. Around these parts, you can't even begin to rent one of these for a day for that price. I'll be able to use this for both boys' birthday parties for years. I was thrilled at this buy. Yes, it was a much bigger purchase on one item than I would normally buy, but when you stretch the price by several years, wow. And, my brother can borrow it for his kids too. My kids don't know about it yet. We're taking it to the lake for Eldest's birthday on the 15th to surprise him with it. Well, it'll be a surprise if we can keep it hidden. It's rather huge.

It looks similar to this when blown up:

It's not a castle though. I'll post pics when we've got it up and running. Cool!

Wake me when it's over

I'm tired of the second sock. Second Sock Syndrome has arrived. I just want this sock to be over and done with. I've only got about two inches or so left on the leg and then it'll finally be over. It's not that I don't like these socks or that I'm tired of the color of the yarn or anything. I think I'm just tired in general.

Wake me when it's over please.

*****

I finally finished organizing my consignment sale stuff and got it turned in and now I'm concentrating on my actual committee job of dealing with the phones. When a sale begins, we have a registration and the people who want to sell their kid stuff get a seller number. Once we are out of numbers, well, we're out. However, these people I deal with over the phone, just don't get the concept. I can't give a seller number out if I don't have one can I? I even say that plainly on the voicemail that they listen to. Still, they beg, they plead, they demand, they get mean or they try reasoning to get one of the numbers. I crack up at the reasons they use to try and coerce me into giving them a number. An couple of examples of a voicemail like this would be:

"Hi. I'm XXXX XXXXXXX, and I'm a church member so I should be given a number. Mrs. VVVVVVV said it would be ok."

or,

"Hi, I'm BBBBB BBBBB, and my neighbor's uncle's cousin's children go to the preschool there. So, can I have a number?"

*****

Let me tell ya, Widget was a huge help in the organizing of the clothes I had to sell!

Everything looks fine from under here!

First, Next and Last

First Up: Child update - better, but not all there yet. All I'll say about that.

Next Up: Consignment sale madness is here! Check out the wreck of a dining room. Imagine the opposite side of the room and the back wall and most of the dining room table looking roughly the same and you'll have an accurate picture of what I am trying to sort, enter on a spreadsheet and tag. AAAAHHH! And this is just the winter stuff folks. There's almost as much summer clothing in the attic. Ick! Please ignore any dog hair that you see on the floor. She exploded on the floor. (She's a chow mix and it's really frickin' hot here and instead of shedding outside she did it inside in about two hours. God help me.) I promise it's been cleaned up. I have to try (really hard) and look at it like it's black roving as I vacuum it up or I'll completely gross out. Thank goodness the rest of the house is hard wood or tile. Can we please get those organization, cleaning people from tv to come clean this mess up? Also, the dog whisperer guy while we're at it. Maybe he can train her to roll and shed somewhere besides my dining room carpet. The rest of the house looks quite different. just so you know.

Help!

Last Up: Knitting! If you've read the previous couple of installments in my life, you will know why this sock is going so slowwwwlllyyyy. So, here to brighten up the sock with a little luxury is an emerald green velvet background. Of course the sock is inside out, cause I wanted it that way. That's just how I roll dude.

Lil' Lambs Closet Children's Consignment Sale

I urge every Mom in the Atlanta, GA area to come to the Lil' Lambs Closest Children's Consignment Sale. This is a wonderful sale that happens twice a year, in March and September. I know that I would not have been able to keep my children clothed as well as they are without it. There are tons of clothes, toys and all child related equipment up for grabs at amazing prices here. Everything is checked to make sure there are no stains or tears on the clothes and that all toys or equipment sold will work. And, to top it off, all of the proceeds goes to charity. Please check out their website for more details!

If you don't have a sale like this in your area, please contact the great people who work for this sale and find out how to start one. I can't rave enough about this sale.