The Vinted experiment

 The Offspring discovered buying on Vinted while she was in the UK, and since then, I decided to try selling things on the site.  Mostly clothing, being easy to ship, but other stuff as well.  Bought a pack of plastic envelopes to mail things in, since those are waterproof-ish and flexible, and only 10 cents each.  

So far, it's been a fair success.  We won't get rich, but we've sold some clothes, a Nintendo game, a K-pop album, and a DVD.  Listing is simple enough, and the site doesn't take a cut off the seller's end, so it's been worth trying.  I've sold 10 things so far, I think.  Time to look at what I've had listed for a few weeks, and either drop the price or just donate it somewhere.  

 I've also done a little buying myself, partly to get a feedback rating.  But, also, found a great beach wrap and a sari that will be great tablecovers or whatever, and some foreign coins.  

 

 

June First Reads

 June, so another two-book month.  

Choices: 

• The Safe Room - freebie short story (thriller)
• The Sky Beneath Her (book club fiction)
• A Voice in the Dark (police procedural)
• The Tomorrow Tree (women's fiction)
• The Museum of Second Chances (contemporary fiction)
• The Date (psych thriller)
• The Delivery (thriller novella)
• Happier Here With You (book club fiction)
• What Remains of You (suspense)
• A Single Captive Spark (fantasy)

My picks - Happier Here With You and Museum of Second Chances (and put the Tomorrow Tree on hold at the library)  

May First Reads

 This month, we've got: 

1. Two Lives With You (women's fiction) 
2. Murder By Design (police procedural)
3. The Promise of Wonder (historical fiction)
4. The Confession Artist (serial Killer)
5. The Magic of Us (romance) 
6. The Girl in the Lake (suspense)
7. Westerly (women's fiction)
8. THe Quitters Club (contemporary fiction)

This month actually has a couple of interesting-looking books.  Library has Quitters Club and Murder By Design on order. I went with Westerly, and may have the library order Promise of Wonder at some point.  

April first read

 This month: 

 

• when the Storm Passes (suspense)
• Where the Sea Lavender Grows (hist fict)
• the Dead Room (psych thriller)
• Wake Up Calls (womens fiction - really, is there a mens fiction?)
• Roaring Ridleys (historical mystery, with bad reviews)
• The Last Sunday in May (women's fiction)
•  The Final System (sci fi)
• Ways to Find Yourself (book club fiction)
• Kimi the Ballerina (picture book) 

Ended up with Sea Lavender.  

Oh, Goodwill, I couldn't resist

 Went to Goodwill yesterday in search of a backpack for my upcoming trip.  Found two, at bargain prices.  Resisted the yarn and puzzles (Yay Me!), did find a pack of 3-D dog erasers.  Best find was a GladLock container full of jewelry-making stuff, including a pair of round-nose pliers and a pair of wire cutters.  Only $2.86 for the whole container, so I bought it.  

 

 

 While I waws there, I saw a set of dishes, in a familiar pattern.  Mikasa Studio Nova's Adirondack pattern.  Now, 25+ years ago, I bought two cups and saucers in this pattern for my college dishes.  Always liked the pattern.  But I didn't buy them yesterday.  

Yeah, I went back today.  For $75, I came home with I believe 8 dinner plates, 6 salad plates, and 6 sandwich or luncheon plates.  Plus four plain white bowls that are very deep, just the way I like them for soup.  I didn't buy the serving bowls ($15 each), the coffee cups and saucers, the $10 salt & pepper set, or the wannabe sugar & creamer set that was actually a creamer and a coffee cup on an oval saucer.  

 

 

 

Space Pen!

 I've had a Fisher Space Pen on my "someday" list for a while, but more in a "that's cool" way than an "I MUST have it" way.  But this week, I lucked into a free one.  I needed a pen at the Habitat for Humanity rummage sale last week, and was loaned a neat little pen by a fellow Library volunteer.  I complimented the pen, and found out it was a Bullet model Space Pen, which is shorter.  Turns out, he had multiple Space Pens that he'd received as gifts, and offered me one.  Lovely!  

 

So my new Space Pen is a metallic blue Bullet pen, with a tiny nick, and no clip.  It had an annoying development, because the refill was loose in the barrel and it retracted a bit every time I tried to write with it.  Google revealed something about spacers and springs, but I went with the lower-tech solution of putting a tiny bit of balled-up paper in the stylus end of the barrel.  Problem solved.   

 

And now I have the perfect pen to carry in my purse, because the cap won't come off, and since it's not a click pen, it won't accidentally write all over the inside of my purse. 

 

The library craft swap

 The library and a local craft group have a craft swap about twice a year.  So far, I'm doing good about taking more than I bring home.  This time, I took about a bag and a half of stuff, and came home with about a bag.  Only one cone of yarn, though.   

 

 

 

• Two embroidery hoops (one round wood, one oval metal)
• a handful of short, metal-tooth zippers to practice pouches with
• wine corks (someone brought a whole trash bag full) 
• Pinking shears (vintage)
• tatting shuttle 
• pack of jump rings and clasps 
• Piecework magazines 
• a couple of crochet booklets 
• beaded necklace kit 
• kit to make two embroidery pendants 
• How-to-draw book (vintage)
• Art Deco coloring book 
• fabric to make L a reticule with 
• part of a Tulip tie-dye set 
• kit to make a passport cover and luggage tag with 
• a cone of cotton yarn for potholders
• Fiskars child-size cutting mat with cutting pen 
• mason jar of beads
• pack of assorted pins that say Rue (??)
• Sculpey III for the plan to make a tiny hat and wreath for my HR Shetland 
• paper punch for edges 
• metal box with drawing pencils  

 

Highlights: 

A tatting shuttle - saves me from buying one 

 

 

 

A Fiskars kids' cutting mat with cutting tool 

 

Beads for someone's friendship bracelet fascination, and I'll keep the jar. 

A vintage, made in the US, pair of pinking shears with the original box. 

A bead kit for a necklace that L will probably love.