5/29/2007

Another man's trash...

That wonderful time of year is here again...trash picking time, I mean yard sale season! Janelle and I recently cleaned out the neighborhood at an annual Clarkston sub-sale (missed you Amy!). We filled up the mini-van with all kinds of bargains anyway.

One of the first homes we stopped at made the trip worthwhile with all the nice kids clothes, a bureau for Janelle and...one of the most exciting steals ever for me. A whole shopping bag full of yarn. Not just any yarn but Lamb's Pride, approximately 10 skeins (that's about one hundred dollars worth) of it....all for $5!! The lady hosting the sale said she had attempted knitting but never really got in to it.

Another recent favorite was a beautiful, blue tablecloth in perfect condition for $3. Behold some of the loot:













I was reading recently on another blog a description of Skinner's principle of intermittent reinforcement (behavior which is rewarded only some of the time--think slot machines)and how it is one of the hardest types of behavior to break. The blog I was reading was applying this principle to blogging, emailing and the fairly recent twitter phenomenon as an explanation for some of the addictive powers of these activities. Yard-saling definitely fits in this category, at least for me.

10 comments:

Claire said...

YES- ME TOO! It's an addiction I cannot break. I'm so glad you got a good Y.S. fix and I'm happy for you getting all that yahn.

Gotta love those community yard sales...

Anonymous said...

i'm a newly added member of the addicts to thrift stores & estate sale meetings...i havent fully embraced yard sales...but only time will tell...especially when theres brown sheep to be had.

kw said...

That was a divinely appointed sale just for you...you deserved that find:)

Stephanie said...

Oh man what a yarn score!!! I'm totaly jealous. It's those kinds of finds that keep me going back for more. I'm a total yard sale/thrift store addict. I can't help it :o)I love that table cloth too! Woohoo!! My best find last year was a big shoebox of fabrics for $3. It was filled with vintage and funky fabrics. I still don't know what to make with them!!! I can't bring myself to cut them up!

Shari said...

I used to be addicted to thrift stores. Now it's craigslist. :-)

Anonymous said...

what blog was comparing such phenom to skinner? Sounds interesting :-) do you twitter?

ljm said...

Shari--I've got a bit of the craigslist bug too!

Ethan: A while ago I was looking into the hoopla re:Kathy Sierra, a big web programmer who had received death threats on her blog and found this post about twitter:
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/is_twitter_too_.html
I haven't joined in the twittering..yet. You?

Stephanie said...

Jerome would be a welcomed visitor at our house. I have several yarn gnomes that would love to show him around. It would be very Amelie. I had a blast taking Gnorm around town. I loved getting all the weird looks from people as I stood there with a gnome stuffie and took pictures of him with landmarks. It was great fun :o)

Anonymous said...

I missed the Clarkston garage sales too! Umm, I mean I missed the quality time with you and Janelle, of course. It was a toss up...a weekend away with girlfriends to Mackinac Island or some of the best garage sales in the state. Don't think it wasn't a difficult decision! I am addicted to Craigs list as well. I haven't purchased anything, but have sold several things recently. Including a authentic Coach Scribble purse I found at Goodwill for $2.50 and then found two quarters hidden in a nook of the bag...I just sold it this morning for $75 on Craigs list. Not too shabby, eh? Next year...Clarkston.

JJ said...

That was the best day of my whole entire life!