Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

This year, we’re out in Colorado spending the holidays with MacKenzie and Karrisa! While we’re having a blast skiing and spending time with them this Christmas is a little different for us since we aren’t spending it with our parents. I guess that means we’re finally grownups with our own agendas…that’s hard to grip. (miss you Mom and Dad!)

I loved when I was growing up opening the Christmas decoration boxes and walking down memory lane with each ornament. The ornaments we made in school were always so fun to look at as well as all the numerous different ballet ornaments I’ve been given…I don’t think Rob knows how ballet oriented our tree will be in the future! The year we moved out of the house my mom started a new tradition for her tree, packed up all our ornaments and shipped them our way. Now her tree has a few hundred personalities other than just our family ornaments.

Here is her whimsical elf tree.

o'christmas tree.

Here is a close up!

layers of elves!

My parents tree is so much fun to look at! There are layers and layers of elves in the tree, not just on the front branches. My mom jokes (at least I think she’s joking) about taking attendance for all the elves, not a bad idea when you have so many! I’m always on the look out while at garage sales or thrift stores hoping to find a new addition to her elf family. The elves don’t stop just at the tree. You never know where they’ll turn up! There’s one in the bathroom, on the bookshelf, one taking a nap, and one overlooking the porch…

a few from the collection

Did you find the elf sleeping on the job?!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas! Rob, MacKenzie, Karrisa, Meiko and I wish you joy and happiness—now it’s time to go ski!

Junk/Treasure

As I’ve mentioned before, I love Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays for the Garage Sales! I’ve become a little obsessed and my eyes are trained to find those little signs sitting so low to the ground. I’ve even become a sign critic.  If you are going to have a garage sale follow these rules for signage…

1. Arrows are always helpful pointing in the direction of your sale.
2. Address (people have GPS systems now a days.)
3. Days and times of the sale (some people put signs up the day before and it’s deceiving.) 
4. Don’t say it’s HUGE if it’s not, but if it is, DO!
5. BRIGHT! NEON! LEGIBLE! (Draw attention to your junk, I mean, treasure.)

Some other tips for throwing a garage sale…

1. Multi-family sales are amazing! (I like it when multiple families get together and have a garage sale. There is more to check out and I might not have seen a sign for the separate sales…
2. Have a little bit of everything, not just kids stuff!
3. Price accordingly, the reason you’re having a garage sale is to get rid of your junk! For example, don’t price paperback books at $5, (I’ve seen it) price them at $.25 or $.50… 
4. Have furniture out for sale even if it’s broken, people like to fix/reupholster those pieces up (like me!)
5. If you have kids, I’m a sucker for lemonade, so help them make some and sell it for $.25! cookies, too!
6. Don’t ask if the person is looking for anything in-particular, most of the time, we don’t know what we want until we see it.

Please share if you have additional garage sale tips!