Monthly Archives: October 2010

You are all invited to our October 30th flea market and open house!

The weather is supposed to warm up over the next 2 days, so it will be a good end of season outdoor flea market opportunity. Some of our vendors and consignors will be setting up tables and selling outside. There will be a few of our regular customers participating as well.  We expect a variety – furniture, jewelry making supplies, primitives, antiques, books, fabric…and I am bringing some bargain priced puzzles. We will be running specials inside the farm house.  Koehler Brothers nursery has a sale on plants, too!

Please come out and see us 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. this coming Saturday.  We would love to see you!

The church near us, on Dayton Road, is having their first annual 5k/10k run at the same time.  We are sponsors of their event and know several of the runners. (see my post from last week that gives more details)  It is going to be an all day party on Dayton Road… don’t miss it if you are within driving distance!

Carol, my business partner, makes cards from trashed books.  It is a good way to salvage good parts of books that have lived a rough life. I loved this one so much that I bought it.  It sits on a shelf in my home next to an old family photograph of a little girl, my mother-in-law, sitting on a horse.

The caption reads: THREE MEMBERS OF A TEMPERANCE SOCIETY

Perhaps, once I finish my below mentioned organizing, I will be able to show off some cards of my own…please stay tuned.

Virtual Online Learning is one of the few groups that I recommend to other eBay sellers. 

I am a quiet person that tends to work with my head down. This educational group, lead by Danna Crawford, is teaching me to stop and look around each day. 

Don’t misunderstand me.  I like people. I am just goal oriented – sometimes tunnel vision takes over.  And my comfort zone is to communicate one on one instead of in crowds. Not many people are going to visit my online store or website unless I make myself known.  VOL helps me to set networking goals, like this blog challenge of posting 5 blogs in one day.  I am saying things I would have said anyway, but Danna sets goals so I am incented to do post to my blog now instead of waiting until later.

I have also learned about twitter, facebook, eBay, and many other things.  If you want to tweak your online presence…stop by and checkout Virtual Online Learning!

October 30th, Mustard Seed is having a Fall open house and flea market.  Of course, we hope to be extra busy with customers that day…but a big part of the excitement is that we get the chance to be a good neighbor!

The church just down the road from us is having an Upward Sports event the same day.  We were able to work a small sponsorship amount into our budget.  Carol’s niece is one of the runners. We are giving a coupon to the participants and donating a few items for their door prize drawings.  It has already been a good way for us to get to know our neighbors a bit better and the event hasn’t even happened yet. 

If you are local to the Dayton Indiana area…or within reasonable driving distance, you might want to sign up. The Upward Sports program is helping local children.

You can find the information here:  www.daytonumc.org/run

A recent episode of Hoarders – my one real TV show addiction – put the finger on a hoarder’s personality trait that I am convinced I share. The expert, in the midst of cleaning out a house, garage, barn and other areas, said that the man had a case of the “Fixin’ To’s”…meaning that he was collecting items for projects that he was “fixin” to”   finish.

It is funny now extreme situations on a television episode can prompt personal changes. I am now in the process of organizing my craft area. Note that it is a small space. I do not qualify for the Hoarders show!

In the past I have jokingly said that I don’t make things, I just gather supplies. Well, there is truth in the humor.  It is time to get focused! I am making decisions regarding what I really have time to accomplish and what projects are truly enjoyable AND realistic.  Luckily, I have many creative friends that will be happy to take extra items off my hands.

Recently one of my best eBay customers brought an artist to my attention. The woman is a fan of cat jigsaw puzzles, especially Geoffrey Tristram art. As soon as I started watching for puzzles made from his art – I found one.  I am posting the picture here for your enjoyment. 

Of course, I would be happy to sell the puzzle from my eBay store, however that is not my intention today.  Sometimes it is just fun to share new discoveries!

This puzzle image is one of my new favorites because of the old advertising and the true to life cat sitting right in the middle of everything.

Are you a puzzler?  Do you have a favorite type of puzzle or artist?

A lifetime ago, when I was a little girl, buckeyes were for good luck.  I remember having the idea that putting a buckeye in my pocket was a lucky thing to do – though I have no memory of who put that notion into my head.

One of our Mustard Seed vendors, Debby Beaver, recently brought a bowl full of buckeyes to the shop. Somehow the price of 3/25¢ makes me doubt any magic effect, though they do make interesting bowl fillers. I like the old metal container she displayed them in, too!

I did try to find some information to back up my memories of buckeye good luck charms. 

According to one of my old dictionaries: the brown glossy seed or nut of such a tree…

Wikipedia says: In addition to using the tannic acid for leather working, Native Americans would roast and peel the nut, and mash the contents into a nutritional meal they called “Hetuck”.

The buckeye nuts can also be dried, turning dark as they harden with exposure to the air, and strung onto necklaces…

The price and location are hard to beat, so I will end up with a few buckeyes this week.  If you want some, please stop by! Your buckeye stories and/or facts are more than welcome.

Today my husband and I went to the Covered Bridge Festival in Mansfield Indiana.  We took our time getting there, stopping at yard sales and barn sales along the way.  More about that later…this post is really just about the nuts.

We don’t do a lot of shopping for new items at the festival.  We mostly look for old books, antique photographs, and a few types of collectibles. Today was hot for October, so we invested in cold drinks - a personal God bless from me to the man keeping bottles of Diet Pepsi on ice! We bought some cheap kitchen spices and a couple inexpensive homemade candle melts. I am sure there was more, but our only annual splurge is the pecans.

We may have, by accident or habit, bought the nuts from the same vendor each year, but after this year we will insist on it.

When we were ready to head back to our car, we looked for one of the nut stands.  We were tired, hot, and ready to leave.

The nearest place had a big banner, plenty of product, and it was a great location (probably perfect). They were prepared…to annoy.  One of the young men was heckling young women as they walked by.  He was loud and obnoxious as he tried to get them to come over for free samples, and doubly rude when yelling at them as they bought ice cream from someone else.

We trudged up a hill to find our treat somewhere else.  We found a vendor we now realize we had bought from last year.  A nice couple about our age.  They work full time jobs and have sold at festivals for many years. They were very polite and helpful.  It turns out that they are putting two kids through college by giving up their free time to sell nuts to people like us.  They thanked us for our business.

Their banner was smaller.  Their location wasn’t convenient. We were tired and could have bought at the bottom of the hill.  But they had the right attitude (perfect actually) - which was underlined by someone else having the wrong attitude.  We didn’t even compare prices. The attitude turned out to be more important than anything else.  Isn’t that often the way it is?

Our local Dairy Queen has happy hour specials from 2-4.  Half price drinks and shakes make it a fun stop for penny pinchers like me.  Our DQ is just across the street from the resale shop, DeJaVu.  I have a booth at DeJaVu, so once every couple weeks or so I buzz through the drive up for a bargain slush drink or milkshake.  Yum!

I am a bit of a magpie.  I collect small items of bright or shiny colors.  I have a hoard of cookie cutters and McDonald toys.  Every year the cold weather holiday season reminds me to turn loose of some of my stash.  One of my favorite items to list on eBay is the old set of 8 red Tupperware cookie cutters.  I always have plenty to spare.

My first listing of the year went up today.  I have plenty left so I will be listing more sets as the season progresses. They are great fun to bake with.  Cookie cutters also make great package decorations and gift bag stuffers for the shop and friends.

What do you do with cookie cutters?  Do you have favorites?  Maybe you know of a set that I don’t collect yet