Giveaway May Week 3!

Sorry for the delay in getting this week's giveaway package announced. Quin was gone all weekend for work and then leaves again on Wednesday for 2.5 weeks so it's going to be a long while until I get any Maren-free time and I had things to do. Things which may or may not have included shoe shopping. :)

Without further delay, here is this week's giveaway package:

This week's giveaway has a sewing theme! It includes a brand-new copy of this fun book about sewing all different kinds of purses and bags. The book has so many cute ideas but I must admit that the very idea of sewing a purse with the lining and the handles and the clasp and all? It skeers me, I tell ya! Sewing a purse and climbing Mt. Everest are about equal in my mind as far as Things I Will Never Be Able To Do. I know there are far braver folk than I out there in blogland, so I'm happy to pass this book along to one of you for whom the idea of making your own purse is a totally realistic goal.

In addition to the book, this package includes a cute embellished bottle full of vintage cream & white buttons and this fun quilted wall pocket organizer-thingie. The consignment thrift where I purchased it labeled it as being purchased originally at Anthropologie. It would be a perfect place to tuck letters, patterns, trims--anything, really! And as with the previous packages, there will also be a handmade goodie to be shown later. You know the drill--if you want to be included in the drawing, simply leave a comment on this post between now and Friday, May 23 at noon MDT.

So...this weekend's garage sale. Whoa. Friday evening was the preview sale, so that afternoon at about 5 pm we laid down tarps on my driveway and grass and dumped all of those giant bags of clothing out onto them. I personally hate looking through piles of clothing on the ground at a garage sale--I simply refuse to do it--but in this case there were just SO MANY that it was really the only option. After my house was ready I walked over to Alice's house to help and to shop. Over the course of the sale I picked up a few fun things that I'll share later in the week. There was lots of traffic on Friday night, even though we didn't pull everything out (because it had to put all put back in the garage that night). By the time we ended things and I got Maren to bed it was 8:30 pm and I was worn out!

Friday night I didn't sleep well again. I was up at 5:45 am Saturday morning because I just couldn't sleep, so I got up and glittered the rosettes for the giveaway package. Sometime after 7 am I went and helped at Alice's house. I couldn't believe how much stuff there was! Tons of furniture, lots of knick-knacks and picture frames and such. Alice's yard was absolutely covered, and she has a big corner lot. We opened up shop in my driveway around 8:00 am for the clothing. The day was warm and sunny and there was an incredible amount of traffic for the sale and people were buying things left and right.

After things got started, I came home and decided to make some cupcakes to sell. Any excuse to make cupcakes is good enough for me! I broke out the jumbo pans I bought last summer but hadn't yet used. They make cupcakes or muffins the same size as the big ones you get at Costco or Sam's and they are yummy! The first batch of seven were gobbled up almost immediately so I sent the other four over (a cake mix makes 12 jumbo cakes--Maren and I split the last one) and I got to making more. The next batch I did six jumbo and 12 regular-sized cakes, with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting--YUM! They all sold as well.

By about 3 pm the traffic had pretty much stopped and I think that everyone had just had enough, so they packed up all the remainders. There were four truckloads of leftovers sent to Goodwill--really enough for another good yardsale. Even though there was so much unsold, they really did sell a ton! We finally got everything cleaned up by 5:00 pm and then at 6:00 pm Maren and went over to Alice's again, this time for dinner. We visited until past 8:30 pm and by the time I got Maren to bed again, all I could do was lay on the couch with the massager on my extremely sore back before falling into bed.

In all, it was a great success! The girls raised over $2000, so they met their goal and were thrilled. I was reminded of why I far prefer going to garage sales to actually running them--it's just so darn much work! I really wish I had taken a photo of Alice's yard when we brought everything out that morning--it was astonishing! I was glad that I was able to help, but I know I'm not alone in saying that I'm really glad it's over!