Garage Sale Tracker's Special Features

Its spring, so it is time to kick off one of my favorite things about spring and summer, garage sale time. When I was little, my Grandma Diana would always take my sister and I to garage sales. We were always able to pick out a toy or two from the garage sales that we went to. I loved it, and I think that is when I found my love for garage sales. I think it is so cool to go and look at what people don’t want anymore and sell for really cheap. I have found some great finds at garage sales, but nowhere near as great as things that my dad has found. He found a bunch of baseballs for a dollar each and they ended up being worth a lot more than that. I really enjoy loading Noah up in his wagon and wandering around our neighborhood and looking at what my neighbors are selling.

We normally just stick to our neighborhood because we haven’t really a way to find other garage sales to go to. They used to be listed in the paper and now it seems like they aren’t really in there anymore. When I was pregnant with Noah I used to drive around with a friend looking for garage sales, but with gas being over four dollars a gallon, that just isn’t an option anymore. I found a really cool website called Garage Sale Tracker. It is a free website where you can find garage sales in your area. I am sure there are other websites out there like Garage Sale Tracker, but not with the special features.

I know sometimes you want to go to garage sales when you are visiting family, but really don’t know the area, Garage Sale Tracker has a Trip Planner to help it make it easier. I have lived in the same area for most of my life and honestly, I don’t know the names of all the streets in neighborhoods. I know enough to get around like the main streets, but I remember driving around in circles and wasting a lot of gas not really knowing exactly where I am going. Garage Sale Tracker’s trip planner will help me be able to find all those hidden gem garage sales. I am sure you have used a map website to get directions, but it really is a pain to type in all the addresses on mapping websites and it is so time consuming. I love that you don’t have to type any of the addresses to find where they are. Garage Sale Tracker does all the extra work for you. I like to think of it as my own personal garage sale tour guide or a concierge.

Do you remember those days when we had to actually write things down to know where we are going or to make a list of places we want to go to? Another feature Garage Sale Tracker has is a bookmark list. You can simply click on the bookmark this button and it will save it for you. You don’t have to write anything down, and if you see many garage sales you want to go to, you don’t have to try and remember them all. If you change your mind you can remove the book mark really easily too. After you decide where you want to go, you can use your bookmarks with the Trip planner to plan out your day of garage sales.

I don’t know how many times I have been out and then decide to go to garage sales, maybe it is because I saw one as I am driving by or sometimes just as something to do. I am obviously not going to go home and look for garage sales and I am probably not going to drive around looking for them, Garage Sale Tracker has an iPhone app just for this occasion! So, when the urge hits Garage Sale Tracker is with you and mobile. I know that for some people, garage sales are a serious business. Some people really get in to it and wake up early to be the first to be at a sale, especially if there is something they really want. Like the saying says, The early bird gets the worm or in this case the best items from a garage sale.

Check out Garage Sale Tracker and sign up for a FREE account. The sign up is really easy and this is such a helpful website.

Do you like to go to Garage Sales? What is the best item you found at one?

I Need My Own Office!

I spend a lot of time on my computer, as a blogger and I don’t have a home office desk. I have a laptop so, I blog where ever I end up. I would like to have an office where I can go and work and have all of my stuff in one place. I would love to create my own office with Noah’s artwork on the walls. Noah loves to draw me pictures. I would like to have a brightly colored room with a cd player, so I can listen to music while I work. I would also have to have a TV. I would love to have some really nice office furniture. I used to have a computer desk that was extremely flimsy. It had a top on it that was really loose and would move if I touched it. I didn’t really like it because it wasn’t ideally what I wanted. There wasn’t a lot of space to put things. It did last a long time though. I need a lot of space on a desk where I can organize my things and spread out.

I think that atmosphere is really important too. I would definitely have a few candles in there that I can light to relax while I am working. I would love to have a huge desk chair; it must spin and roll around. My aunt and uncle have a desk in their house and it is on a track. It looks like something out of The Jetsons. You just push off and you go flying. I am pretty sure I hurt myself on it once. I am definitely going to think about creating a little home office for myself soon. I think it would be really cool to get one of those desks for small spaces for Noah, so he could do his projects next to me while I work. He does have a little table that my dad made when I was like his age, complete with a chair with the stickers I stuck on it from when I was little. Those stickers must have been stuck with super glue because they have been there for over 20 years. It is crazy to see my son sitting in my old chair at my old little table, I should be used to it, I mean he eats off the same yellow plates that I ate off when I was his age.

I guess I should start looking at computer desks for home,since my space is limited. so maybe someday, my dream of having my own home office will come true. I have a small half room that I could use. That room has been many things, like my scrapbook room, oddly enough it started out as a den. Now it is kind of a storage/guest room. We have lived in our house for three years and every year, it is made in to a different room. Maybe 2011 will be the year for my office for my blog.

Do you have a home office? What kinds of things do you do to make it more comfortable?

Noah's Easter Calendar

Every December I get an advent calendar. I love advent calendar chocolate. Noah gets one each year too to count down the days till Christmas. This past Christmas was the first year he was really excited about it. He would love to open a window and count down the days till Christmas. He is really big on counting down to things. He says how many more sunrises until whatever it is he is looking forward to. He normally will say is it one more sunrise? Usually it is a lot more, but he knows that each day it gets closer to what it is.

He decided he wanted an Easter Calendar, like an advent calendar. Since I have never seen an Easter calendar, we decided to make one. I took a 12 by 12 piece of cardstock and took a ruler and made the right number of boxes. The idea was to either color or put a sticker in the box each day to count down. I even numbered the boxes backwards. Noah wanted me to change the way I made the twos because I made them with the loop in them. Instead of confusing him, I erased the twos and redid them for him.

When we were done, I went to look for stickers so he could mark off the first day, I left his Easter calendar on the fridge with magnets. I couldn’t find any stickers that were small enough. I probably could have looked harder. I know there are probably some somewhere but not where I was looking. I came down stairs and the first thing I noticed was Noah’s Easter Calendar was not where I left it. I asked him where it was because he wasn’t carrying it around. He showed it to me and there was little cars, trucks, and blimps and airplanes in some of the boxes. I let him finish the boxes. I am not sure how we will count down the days now. I thought maybe with a x, but I don’t want to ruin his chart and that might hurt Noah’s feelings. He is an amazing artist and I want to encourage his creativity as much as I can.

We never ended up using it. I didn't wanna mess up his creation. We had so much fun doing it though. I don't know where he comes up with these things.