We are on the verge of a New Year! Crap! Where does the time go? I have not blogged in months due to an insane shopping drive. Similar in a sense to a man's sex drive, I can not stop thinking about my next treasure. Some may call it an addiction? I have run into several good finds and many stories have unfolded. Now to put them into words.

Over the course of the past few months I have found many items worthy of selling. Ebay was a means to the end. I made some good money on cheap items I found at the nearby thrift stores. A few items worth mentioning was a Dolce and Gabbana leather patchwork jacket which I paid less than five bucks for with a turn around profit of $140.00.

An Estate Sale brought me an unexpected treasure. I purchased a digital picture frame, most likely last years Christmas present as it was still in the box never opened. When I got it home I found two Best Buy gift cards for $50.00 a piece on the inside of the packaging. Completely forgotten about.

The best find of the year has to be the Gift Card I found in a purse I paid $1.50 for at one of my favorite thrift stores. It was a gift card to Coldwater Creek in the amount of $116.00.

Sometimes when I am out and about I find items that end up replacing other things that I already have. Over a year ago I picked up an Electra Beach Cruiser for $15.00 at another of my favorite thrifty places. Recently I was combing the threads of the local swap meet and came across a nice Specialized Mountain Bike. I paid $150.00 for it and in less than a week sold the Electra Beach Cruiser which I hardly ever rode for $200.00.

The addict in me thrives on these finds and is an income of a sort. It will really be hard for me to ever go back to a normal job, because nothing interest me or entertains me as such. For my next blog I hope to have pictures of my Gypsie Hippie all pretty and new! My Airstream Dream. More to come......

The Ebay Bug Has Hit

So, over the course of the years on my price fishing adventures, I could not help but notice that I was seeing many of the same people out and about on the same treasure hunts. Most of the time I was searching for things to fulfill my needs. I have occasionally picked things up here and there for other people out of loving the element of surprise. See I am not one to send a birthday or Christmas gift on marked dates to family or friends. However, when I do find something that I know will put a smile on their face I pick it up and send it as a pleasant surprise. Those are the type of gifts I enjoy receiving so they are naturally the ones I love to send. Only recently have I noticed that the familiar faces I was seeing out and about on the same path as I were out to make some money. Money perhaps to support their hobby of price fishing. I decided to follow in the footsteps.

This past week I started listing several things that I have picked up during my price fishing on Ebay. I love the thrill of an auction. I have found a few items that other people find worth bidding. And it is a rush in its own sense. First finding an item, marking its value, and last but not least....baiting the next price fisher. It has proven profitable thus far. I am rather enjoying it. Now if only I could get Rowan to nap longer than an hour and half so that I can do some listing. When Rhiannon starts the full day of Kindergarten next week, by schedule for price fishing and baiting other price fishers can be a little bit more regimented.

Just to set an example, I came across a kayaking jacket the other day in mint condition for like three bucks and I turned around and sold it for $42.00. So if that is not a good catch I do not know what is.

I Must Introduce My Handsome Pants

I was checking to make sure that my last blog posted and I realized I have not mentioned a word of my son Rowan. May I first tell you that he is a pain in the butt. I find it is much better to be honest than to sugar coat anything. Take it or leave it. First off he decided that he was coming into the world no matter how much Adam and I tried to prevent it. He did have a little help from Jose Cuervo, however he was going to make an entrance into our little threesome. See we had planned on having one child and one child only. Our daughter Rhiannon taught us very quickly that life was no longer about us and I in fact was ready for her to be 18. So this new pea growing inside me put me back to square one all over again.

The pregnancy went so much better than the first as I did not know I was pregnant for the first three months. Then to our surprise Rowan decided he wanted out into the world early and was born five weeks early. So in my mind I was pregnant five months total. Not bad. Now Rowan's untimely entrance into the world sent us on a mad dash for a sitter, video camera, and so many other things; life would never be the same again. I really wish I would have named him Rush Rowan Marquis instead of Andrew Rowan Marquis, mostly in part due to the fact that he wants things now and now is not fast enough.

He was born via c-section and had enough complications to afford us two weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I do not think there was anything remotely wrong with this little buckaroo except for the fact that he liked all the attention of the pretty nurses. He did have some minor difficulties breathing and learning to breath-suck-swallow because of him immaturity. Of course I speak lightly of it now, at the time we were a wreck and bared the weight of it on our shoulder as we do not have family close by. Rhiannon thankfully had a home at her good friends house while we adjusted to the changes to come. The Marine Corps was ever so gracious for giving Adam plenty of time to be with us.

Did I mention that we lived in a thirty foot RV. This is right, we brought our son home from the NICU to our RV. We lived and grew in this space for the next five months with our new addition. Being full time RVer's is a book in of itself. If I were to put all of the months together that we actually slept in an RV together as a family it would be close to two years. Needless to say Rowan will always have a funny story to tell about his conception and first home.
When Rowan was five months old we trekked across the United States to spend some quality time with family for the holidays and leave the RV living behind. We had Marine Corps orders to Okinawa Japan. We were to report no later than 15JAN09 or something like that.

So we were off on a16 some hour plane ride across the Pacific. To make a long story short here we rented a great big house, beach combed, ate some crazy food, met some great friends, and within six weeks of arriving we were sent back to San Diego California.

Rowan was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus due to a larger than normal head which was determined after a CT scan of his brain. The pediatric Dr. was concerned enough to kick us of the island of Okinawa back to the US. We were set on another rushing roller coaster. We spent over a month in a hotel in San Diego, begging the doctors to evaluate him and give us some kind of diagnosis. A diagnosis was never really determined. Two treatments were discussed and we opted for an intervention to prevent any loss of behavioral or physical milestones. Rowan underwent surgery for what we had hoped would be a cure for this lable called hydrocephalus. The Neurosurgeon came out to the waiting room about two hours after I left my son in the arms of strangers to tell us that the surgery did not work. I was devastated. Rowan was now a bald headed little handsome pants with a "L" Frankenstein scar. I wanted no less than to yell at every one of those coated people that had touched my son.

From that point we asked for a second opinion and were finally granted the insurance to see the Doctor we had asked to see in the first place. Dr. Levy, has been a pediatric neurosurgeon for over twenty-five years. I had done my research prior to leaving Okinawa. I begged to see him first and the wonderful health care system and the money hungry insurance agencies denied the request at the cost of a little boy only eleven months old having to go under general anesthesia for BRAIN SURGERY! The first visit to Dr. Levy unveiled a whole new way of thinking for us from that day forward. In his words, "I do not think you will have to live with Hydrocephalus in your lives." Much to our relief, he went into further detail as to the fact that Rowan may be lagging in his development much in part because he is a bigger baby and that he wanted more than anything else to evaluate his head growth over the next six months. He reiterated that had he seen him in the first place he would have never recommended surgery.

We had put our son in the hands of highly educated people thinking they knew best and really did not question it. We felt very helpless. What we have learned from all this is do not take no for an answer and there is always a way. Rowan just had his second visit to Dr. Levy and his head circumference is following a unalarming curve and the doctor wants to see him again in three months. Yah for progress and less stress.

If I have not convinced everyone that our son is a pain in the butt thus far, I have a few more tid bits I could fill you in on. At a later rant I am sure they will come out. Rowan is a very determined child when the situation warrants his interest. In other words he is smart enough to be lazy. He loves his dad very much, thinks his sister is the greatest, and as for me; I think he finds me to be an obstacle. I am just as bull-headed as him and he knows it. I am sure the child rearing is going to be Oh-So-Much-Fun. The best part of our day is in the morning when I open his door and find him sleeping or arms open wide with that little handsome pants pacifier grin, or when I am feeding him a warm bottle of milk. He lays in my lap with his head supported in my left arm and only for about two minutes I get to stare at his adorable little face, into his crystal blue eyes, all the while combing my fingers through his hair. These are the moments.

Airstream Dream My Little Gypsy Hippie

Today was a great day, a glorious day, a shiny day. I know a little over board right? Well today marked the day my Little Gypsy Hippie gets a new do. We hitched her up last night and I was on the road at 0630 this morning. My silver 23 foot Airstream International Safari happily cruised behind the trusty Tacoma on I15 and I215 until we met our destination near the San Bernadino Mountains.
It was here at this destination were we met up with the GURU. Yep, he was a short man in his sixties I would guess, who enthusiastically welcomed us to his shop. I would relate him to the guy on the movie Princess Bride who constantly says INCONCEIVABLE. However, to the GURU everything is definitely conceivable, as far as my Airstream was concerned. I spent a good three and half hours at his shop. We talked about everything from rivets to movie stars. This guy polished one of John Travolta's airplanes.
Needless to say I had an Airstream Dream Day. I have had the bug for a few years, but today was the icing on the cake. He showed me his work as he had several vintage trailers on his lot and then we went through pictures upon pictures. I am very tickled to have put the Gypsy Hippie in his hands.
This little rendezvous kept me from following many tempestuous neon signs today. Garage sales just did not fit in the schedule. I am however trying to talk myself out of the swap meet in the morning, ....it is not working well. So the pictures I am posting are of my silver girl as a virgin. I will be sure to post pics of when she has become a lady, all bright and shiny.

Kindergarten Here Comes Rhiannon

This past week my little girl started Kindergarten for the second time. It is a long story to tell, so to make it short ... she missed almost four months due to my husbands occupation. Luckily she eligible to start again due to our circumstance. We are very blessed to have the same teacher this year as we had the last. Rhiannon was so excited to be going back to the exact same room with her most favorite person at her elementary school.

In all my thriftiness I was able to find Rhiannon a new with tags outfit from Gymboree off of ebay. The outfit was capri pants, short sleeve shirt, and matching head band, all under $18.00. That price includes the shipping cost. So needless to say every avenue is covered in my price fishing. I thought I would add some photos of Rhiannon's first two days of Kindergarten.

She really had a great couple of days back at her old stomping grounds. We were like old pros witht he routine and we knew plenty of kids and their moms. Nothing like last year when I did not want to leave and say good-bye. Nope, totally opposite, I almost forgot to say good-bye and blow her a kiss. As I rushed back through the door of her classroom I saw her waiting there looking back for me. We blew kisses simultaneously. I love my five year old more today than yesterday.

The weekend is coming to an end and it has been a very lazy day. Yesterday however, was very eventful which leads to this lazy Sunday. I arose before the crack of dawn, just so that everyone knows how dedicated I am to my treasure hunts, you must know that I was up at 4:00 am. I needed to visit the old cash machine before heading off on my mapped out sales around the Poway area. Craigslist is a wonderful tool I use to help weed out all the stops I do not want to make from the long list of flowering possibilities.

This morning in particular was rather early for me even, yet the web search from the night before gave a clue to one house in particular I did not want to miss. This house listed a collection of Littlest Pet Shop of which was on a list of things to look for for some friends. I gave one of my friends a ring and put a little bird in her ear about the pet shop lot. I was a little skeptical about her making it early enough, so I set my alarm early.

I grabbed cash at the closest credit union and felt a twing of hunger, the only place open at 4:30 in the morning was this grab and go mexican food place not far from our house. I know it was a mexican taco place, what I did not realize was that the primary language was spanish. After about fifteen minutes in the drive-thru I received a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast burrito. It was huge and appetizing enough. I found myself snacking on it as soon as I arrived at the #1 house for the morning. I turned the van, lights, and music off and sat in the utmost silent moment of the day. I watched the horizon become somewhat lit from a rising sun. Two trucks and a van appoached the house quizzically. I was not the only one on this hunt. I had noticed a bit earlier that a lady had pulled her car out of the drive way and left. I figured she left to go get some one dollar bills. When she drove back up I said good morning to her and she informed me she would not be ready for twenty minutes or so. I asked if she would like any help bringing the items out. She was thankful to have the help, as she had two young children inside. As we brought things out I noticed the bin of LPS and set it aside in the garage because the vultures were already feasting on the spoils we were laying out. I finished helping her bring things out and noticed a familiar van pull up.

The driver in the van was my friend I had called from the night before. I was tickled that she made it and lead her straight to the LPS loot. We purchased the whole lot and planned on going through it later, she wanted to follow me. Yep, she caught the bug. We found a few other sales but it started to rain. We ended up back at her house going through the bin of LPS. She kept a good lot of it because of course my daughter has more than her fair share of LPS found the thrifty way. I convinced my friend to stash the lot of LPS until Christmas. She is excited to set it up around the tree at a fraction of the cost of buying it new. The variety was great and some of the items you can not find in stores anyway. Her little girl is going to have a great Christmas morning.

As I was heading home the same friend called me about another sale she was interested in going. We went and I took her to an Estate sale as well. What was the best about the whole day was knowing that I had another person to price fish with now. And it just so happens that our daughters are pretty good friends and will be good little price fishers with us in the weekends to come.

Why not start a blog?

I spend many days of my life hunting for treasures of all types. I enjoy telling tales of my treasures to my family and friends and over the years they have told me that I should write a book. In my mind I thought no one would ever pick up a book about a persons individual treasures. So consequently I never put anything on paper. After seeing the movie Julie and Julia, I figured a blog would be a great way to document my treasures.

Eleven odd years have gone by since I started price fishing. I was forced to volunteer at a local Salvation Army due to some immature choices I made. It was there amongst the piles of clothes and random donations that I realized I had found a cheap and exciting way to shop. I can honestly say that I have rarely payed full price for any material item I own. I can almost tell you the price I paid for every item in my house, even the clothes on my back. Most people would be in disbelief, because they of course have not caught on to this fever.

My goal is to just document the treasures I do find and hopefully tell an intriguing story along the way. My family is very much a part of my price fishing, it is quite possible that I may bring them into the fold from time to time. Enjoy!