Swooping into thrift shops searching for quality and collectible items. Selling on eBay as tam_gonza. Focusing on quilting, sewing, and upcycling fabric-related items.
From cute Pattern of the Day. I just couldn't bring myself to sell this one. I think the pattern is just adorable for both the kid's costume and the Halloween fabric wall hanging.
To a creepy one from 1975.
I came late to the party listing costume patterns for sale. I really do have so. much. stuff. It can be overwhelming. When one thing sells well in one category, for example, CDs, then just like a gambler it urges me on to buy more CDs.
I really have found my niche with this reselling business. I like it and I can put my business background education to good use. I just listed for sale the freebie lot of little girls clothes. It is like picking money up off of the ground.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184511458961
This beyond cute toddler giraffe costume was one $1.99 find I knew would pay off. It sold for $28, at listing price. It was the only costume I found worth reselling and these types of items sell well.
My Halloween costume for 2020. I did a version of Queen for the Day a few years back. I thrifted back the burgundy formal that I dearly loved. Kicking myself over that one.
Queen of All Things Quilted
COVID-19 update - The local post office has removed the plastic sheeting in front of the counter. I couldn't be happier. They also brought back the City garbage cans for public use.
There are also some living assisted centers in California that are allowing visitors. Some states are even noting family as essential caregivers. I haven't seen my 92-year old mother in a year. Luckily, she is holding up better than some, given her age.
Cheers to one of my favorite fall events, Halloween!
My grammasonacid YouTube videos continue. While the world swirls around me, I post these simple vintage toy demonstration videos. I did buy a couple of battery-powered toys, but they are so annoying. I think the allure is that these are low tech and would survive a Zombie apocalypse.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184505920566
This was the second time this year that I have stopped at a yard sale where they were giving away the clothing. I think clothes are a hard sell, they are certainly slow movers to sell on ebay. I will sell children's clothing by the lot. I did sell my last lot of boys clothes that were freebies.
My first bag of clothes ($2 total) from this yard sale included a pair of jean cutoff Lei overalls that fit my daughter perfectly. There were a couple of jean jackets, one I might try to swap by adding some patches where the original owner had pulled off bedazzling. There were also some adorable 5-6 girls clothing jean jackets, appliqued jeans that will go on sale.
My second large garbage full of clothes for free included a couple of vintage cookbooks, 5 summer dresses (which I will hold to swap in the spring), some clothes for swap now, and a couple of pieces for me. But the best part? A $10 bill showed up after the wash cycle. Not only did I get the clothes for free and will make $$ or credits on them, I get paid $10 for the sorting fee. *grins* I am loving this life.
I also discovered with the new iPhone 12, you have to turn off the HDR Video setting otherwise the low light videos come out too bright. It also freaked me out when it announced the call, it was only my mother, but still. I turned that feature off too.
Closet cleanup continues and I suspect will do so until fun outdoor events resume. I mean we are all spending more time at home, aren't we?
The Christmas push is on for resale listings. I've got all of this holiday CDs to go up for sale so I have got to git to gittin!
First off, I have switched my blog format off of mobile. Not sure about my mobile users, but I could never access my blog on my iphone. I also had one reader inquire about the name of my ebay store so I have included that info on my blog header also. I sell on ebay as tam_gonza and the store name is grammasonacid, with a YouTube channel of the same name.
Redoing that oil on canvas painting has whet my appetite to do more. Here I have an adorable stamped cross-stitch kit called Chintz Cats. I grabbed it as one of my keepers. While I may complete that needlework project one day, I have in mind doing a Cubist Cats in Chintz painting.
Reseller update: ebay offers at the store level the ability to manage listings. They have a tab that offers sellers the ability to update item specifics recommended to achieve the magical full-circle blue dot for that listing. In editing my listings, I discovered I had some duplicates. Glad I caught them, that would have been a big problem - to sell product that already sold.
I upgraded my iPhone 8 to a 12 and it is a beaut. My 8 was starting to show signs of fritzing out. The Mr. didn't replace his android in time and he lost all of his contacts.
I bumped into another estate sale and this time it was a man-related one where the gentleman had moved to an assisted living center. I bought these Tiki mugs ($2 ea). I might have biffed on the buy but they might sell as a set.
There were 4 ceramic smalls Christmas angels the buyer first asked $15 for the 4 and I balked, so she lowered the price to $5 for the 4. Those darlings will appear on one of my Countdown to Christmas posts.
This book rounded out my purchases, a reprint of the 1950 first edition of Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book (1998). In beautiful condition and it is a keeper.
It has the recipe I have been looking for - Gingersnaps or Gingies as they are listed in the book. "Soft and puffy ... true old fashioned ginger cookies." The recipe even adds Frosted Gingies! I was born at the tail end of the 1950s so I remember that distinctly American cuisine.
Before everything went to hell in a hand basket, I made great progress in reducing my hoard. This how-to-become-hoarder post from July of last year was my tentative step in getting it under control. I began listing on ebay. I can only say it has gotten worse.
One can guess what happened, oh never mind, I will detail it out. Six months of no thrifting, people locked in and the corners of their closets and cabinets came under scrutiny, fear of another lockdown - I have been buying like there is no tomorrow. My She Shed Trailer is filling up fast. I have 600 listings with a total product value of $8,000. Looks like I am well beyond the 250 freebie listings per month.
Another arena I have ventured into resale is vintage toys. Ones that are 20 years or older, not powered by battery, are my newest focus. The demo YouTube videos seem to be popular for some unknown reason.
Estate sales in my area have been popping up. I live in an upscale rural area with many, many retirees. Young families can't afford homes in the area as a general rule. Some of these sales are even combinations of estates. (I ask a lot of questions of those hosting sales). The frequency and amount of estate sales have been increasing. Is this Covid-related? I am not the one to say but it concerns me.
On to other matters - I bought a ring light so it will even out the light on my online meetings AND I can use it to photograph my stuff for sale.
I have 5 containers of Christmas CDs that hold around 25 each. I pulled 40 Christmas CDs from that stash and others that I know will sell, such as the Mariah Carey Merry Christmas album. I am sure there are more to go. I need to winnow it down to only the CDs that I truly love and am capable of listening to during the few weeks up to Christmas.
The promised painting alteration images. I bought this framed oil on canvas for $5.
Before
After the Tami redo
I think I did it justice. My years of painting paid off. What do you think?
A weekend of no cooking, no cleaning, no Westerns on TV, the Mr. has gone hunting. THAT means a weekend of thrifting, listening/singing to music, eating at restaurants for Tami.
This mystery bag of fabric produced a mystery linen. Anyone who knows what this little ditty is used for, please comment. Umbrella cover? Velcro fasteners on back. IDK
Other delights in the mystery bag were a placemats and napkins set, rooster remnant and vintage fabric.
I thought I had found a use for all of those seasonal quilted wall hangings I made for my office cubicle walls. I put up the state fair quilt as a background but found it to be too busy. Back to experimentation. I will put up my Halloween quilt for a virtual event through work. I will appear on camera as a Misplaced Mermaid or Quirky Queen for the Day.
On the subject of internet meetings, I have discovered sometimes you don't have to appear on camera. When that is the case, I can work on my needlepoint and hand sewing projects. BONUS! I am going to get so many more projects done.
Christmas CD sales are heating up. I just picked up another 10. I had gone through Christmas CD listing burnout. I had kept my eye out for unusual or collectible ones but haven't listed any lately. It is about time. I have a ton of fun ones to highlight on my Countdown to Christmas.
And on the subject of CDs, it was a weekend of electronic finds, an Emerson CD player/AM/FM radio for $2.99 and a toaster oven for $5. I sanitized the oven and ran a CD laser lens cleaner through the player. That was all it needed, the first disc I played skipped a bit, after the lens was cleaned, no more skipping. I am going to keep my eye out for more of these.
The CD player is headed to my 92 year old mom. I have been sending her gospel CDs but she didn't have a player yet. The side loading feature will be easier for her. In her previous home, she had a side loading turntable. We gave it away in the move.
Ok, this painting I am going to share now and then again after I have altered it. Priced at $5, it is beautifully framed but the tree trunks are freakishly long. The composition is sound so I am just going to fill in the tree canopy. In my prior life (before I began quilting and sewing again), I painted with oil on canvas and I still have the paints. My full sized easel is stored for now.
I normally don't try to alter paintings but this one went wrong right around the middle of the painting. I will repost my attempt at making this painting really pop.
Signing off to finish an extra credit assignment in my Modern Art class, then I am done with college until next Spring!
I have nearly finished my modern art history class. While enjoyable, it was an 8 week class and I forgot how much WORK is involved in such a short course of study. The last few weeks have been a struggle with not receiving my textbook until week 5, starting a new job and dealing with a major family emergency.
Back to my title. Artists can reflect the current mood of the general populace. While the rich might be tone deaf to the masses, artists can bring the message whether it is dissent or disagreement with the powers that be.
One assignment in class was to prepare an Exhibition Proposal. I chose Women in Images and one in particular was from the artist Jean-François Millet. He depicted women in a field gleaning
after a harvest. The Gleaners (1857) was met with disdain and
disapproval from the upper classes. At the time, landowners were not granting
gleaning rights, so Millet used a velvet hammer to make his social commentary. At first glance, it appears to be such a restful scene, until you know the artist's intent behind it. That is just one of many examples but I will spare you from further art history.
Now, the medium is online expression. While I could go off the rails with this blog, I have always kept it family friendly. As a joke, I chose the entity of grammasonacid for my ebay store and starting posting videos of toys for sale so I could link them to my ebay listings. Guess how many views my Disney push down toy has received so far?
3,500 in one month.
Yep, 3,500 views. WHAT are people watching? No one has bought the toy yet. It is not ASMR, maybe there is something else in the video that seems to be intriguing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184410416238
Now, I've got Mumbles the Monkey and Gabi Giraffe on for the show.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184484654952
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184487964441
One of the best things of being a college returnee was getting Amazon Prime for next to nothing. I just put in an order for some badly-needed specialty pillows. Of the three needleworked pillow cases, I already had one pillow form that fit the poppies (it now resides in my home office). I bought 2 more pillow forms (on sale) that were promoted on Prime for the other two needlework pillow cases.
Finishing with Fun Find of the Day this 1964 publication. Retro decorating eye candy.
Orange office chair is to due arrive and I can't wait!! Now I am using one of the dining table chairs, while comfortable, it is hard to move around.
It must have been a good year for the craft person who bought the kits from 1984. Thrift sent them through priced at 99 cents each, all 7 unopened. I am severely tempted to keep the dog/cat Christmas plate cross stitch.
Included with my needlekit purchases was this hexagon crocheted blanket. I dug through tubs and tubs of linens for this $2 secondhand find. I have two crocheted blankets up for sale to see if they are movers. I have kept this newest one and will put the other recent find up for sale.
My latest project includes orphan blocks from mystery quilter I bought at an online auction. At first, I was really disappointed when I got the blocks but then I saw the quilter's colorway preference coming through. Now, I knew I needed to add a jelly roll so I could "float" the blocks for the top. I chose a Moda Laundry Basket for the roll. My first task will be to rehabilitate the star block. It needs fabric sides to finish it off. Next, I will square up all the blocks and make them uniform in size at 2" intervals. For example, that blue and white pinwheel block in the center? It needs to measure out at 2-1/2" or the next interval of 4-1/2" because the jelly roll is cut at 2-1/2".
So let's assume the pinwheel already measures out at 2-1/2". I will cut a jelly roll strip and sew it to the top and then the bottom of the pinwheel. Adding other blocks at different steps, I continue to fill in the space between the blocks with the jelly roll strips.
I first did this type of process with my Gypsy Wife Meets Jelly Roll, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Reseller update - Listing goal made! All of my sewing patterns are listed. They are hands down my best sellers on ebay. There are the ones I pulled from my keeper tubs (5 at high count) and those I have picked up at thrift in the past few months. Next up for listing are the needlework kits, with the last to tackle a tubful of CDs.
I popped in to Goodwill to buy one of their what I like to call "fabric cubes," for $5.49. A nice lot of fabric remnants and a good start to replenishing my stash of fabric wovens.
Well, off into the Wild for more sourcing~! I hope all is well in your world.
I went Junk'N in the Junction and had a great time.
The best part of the day was finding a quilt top - $8. Another pink bordered star pattern vintage material one, this girl has blue cornerstones and is missing her side border like the other top I rehabilitated last month. I will iron it out, repair any damage to the sides and put borders on it. I don't think I will even try to match that pink material unless by some stroke of luck, I have something that blends with the rest.
I know Outfit of the Day and sharing thrifted fashion finds linkups have gone by the wayside but want to share my Junk'N outfit, the knit skirt a find the day before, AND a real men's fedora, Christy's Crown Series ($6.99 thrift). I sold my last men's fedora and kicked myself for it. Not selling this one.
Stopped by my first local estate sale. While furniture seemed to be the most popular, I snagged all of the nearly completed, just started and unopened needlework kits at the estate sale. Most of the kits are from the 1980s. Got the whole lot for $20 including 9 CDs, all of those kits, a log cabin blue patchwork tote and a ceramic collander thrown in for good measure. I. am. in. hog. heaven. I also hooked up with the local estate seller who said there was an upcoming sale of a large estate.
How can I resist not completing this amazing needlepoint Christmas stocking? Its a keeper.
Estate sales in my area have been few and far between over the years. My theory on what is happening, older people are dying at a faster rate. Whether this is virus-related or not, I am not the one to come to that conclusion. We are even categorized as one of the counties with the least infection and 16 deaths (last count).
Reselling goal by year's end - to have total value of all ebay listings at $10,000. We will see. I am at $8,000 total value now and I have the week off during Christmas. Yahooooo!
Happy October! My favorite month of the year. Glamour shots in the wild for the Minimalist Plaid quilt. Finished with a scrappy solid binding as I have done for all of my quilts in 2020.
Nearly 8 months later, this quilt is finally done, original post here. The majority of the time was spent at the longarmer while I finished up my California State Fair quilt. I used up all of my plaid wovens on the top and all of my flannel fabric on the backing.
My local hospice thrift shop is so popular, they have to close periodically because they are full from donations. The best stuff is when the rack are rolled onto the floor. I grabbed what appeared to be the contents of a sewing case. I would have spent $4.99 for just the patterns since they are all retro. I will share those 4 pattern packets I scored on an upcoming post. The bonus was the thread, some Gutermann and metallic.
Fun Find of the Day $6.99 at thrift, this original NyForm Troll, retail tagged at $77.50. Truly vintage, I can't decide if he is creepy or cute. Sometimes a troll enters your life, thankfully this one was made of plastic and fake fur.
Pattern of the Day from 1972, posting in Plaid!
I will start queueing up my Countdown to Christmas posts, hoping to fill out all 25 days in the month for the celebration. I have gathered enough holiday CDs for 25 days of What I'm Listening To.
