Tag Archives: Goodwill Clearance Center

Jan2

Yarn

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I thought I was done with the business of making hats. That’s what I told the world on December 1.

I’m not making any more hats for a long time…Yarn takes up storage space…The completed hats take up up space too…Yarn cost money…I’m not really selling enough hats to make creating them worth the effort.

(Read all about it here: http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2016/12/01/the-last-of-the-hats/.)

Less than a month later (less than two weeks later, actually), I went to the Las Vegas Goodwill Clearance Center on what must have been yarn clearance day. I found so much yarn, in many great colors. Yarn doesn’t weigh much, right? So yarn sold by the pound is cheap. I couldn’t pass up cheap yarn in good colors. I threw all the yarn I found into my basket. Some of it was all tangled up in other items, and I had to cut the yarn to get it in my basket. (Good thing I found some scissors being sold off by the pound.)

This photo shows the yarn I got at the Goodwill Clearance Center in Las Vegas, NV.

This photo shows some of the yarn I got at the Goodwill Clearance Center in Las Vegas, NV.

I actually didn’t buy all the yarn I found that day. I went through the yarn before I took my selections to the register for purchase and put back the colors I didn’t like so much. I got rid of a couple skeins of a dark green that made my head hurt. I left behind some dingy looking white. I only kept the yarn I thought would make really nice hats.

Why do I have such a hard time walking away from yarn? I guess I’m going to have to face it: I’m addicted to yarn.

Also, I just like making hats. I like the ways the colors come together…or how they don’t come together when I make poor color combo choices. I like starting from a couple balls of yarn and ending up with a hat. I get great satisfaction from creating.

As soon as I bought the yarn, I could barely wait to start making hats again. I’ve already made several, and yesterday I loaded up my phone with podcasts to listen to while I work with my new yarn.

I guess I’m back in the hat business. Let me know if you want to buy one. I’ve got plenty.

These large hats were made from yarn bought by the pound at the Goodwill Clearance Center. All three have rolled edges and cost $13 each, including postage.

These large hats were made from yarn bought by the pound at the Goodwill Clearance Center. All three have rolled edges and cost $13 each, including postage.

 

These are two more hats I made from yarn I got at the Goodwill Clearance Center. Both are large, both have a finished edge, both have sparkle white yarn in them, and both cost $13 each, including postage.

These are two more hats I made from yarn I got at the Goodwill Clearance Center. Both are large, both have a finished edge, both have sparkle white yarn in them, and both cost $13 each, including postage.

 

This green and grey hat is extra large. It has a rolled edge and costs $13, including shipping. The yarn came from the Goodwill Clearance Center windfall.

This green and grey hat is extra large. It has a rolled edge and costs $13, including shipping. The yarn came from the Goodwill Clearance Center windfall.

 

I made this hat before I left the forest in October, but it just resurfaced when I cleaned the van. It is an extra large and has a rolled edge. It costs $13, including postage.

I made this hat before I left the forest in October, but it just resurfaced when I cleaned the van. It is an extra large and has a rolled edge. It costs $13, including postage.

I took all the photos in this post.

 

Apr10

Holly Hobbie

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I was at the Goodwill Clearance Center. I walked over to the table on wheels where toys were heaped in piles, and I saw her there. She was one of my oldest friends, but I hadn’t thought about her in years.

Holly Hobbie.

She looked the way I remembered her: beige “blond” braids, small features on a cloth face, blue bonnet with tiny yellow flowers, “patchwork” dress, bloomers which matched her bonnet, and black cloth shoes.

I scooped her right up and put her in my basket.

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I took this photo of the Holly Hobbie doll I found at the Goodwill Clearance Center.

Holly Hobbie wasn’t my first soft toy, but she was one of the earliest. I don’t remember receiving her, doubtless for some special occasion. I do remember my parents giving me Bicentennial Holly Hobbie for my 5th birthday in 1976, so the original Holly Hobbie came before that. I also had Holly’s friend Heather, but I can’t remember when she came along. (Heather was taller than Holly and Bicentennial Holly was shorter than regular Holly, so it was easy to pretend they were sisters.)

Through the years, I had other Holly Hobbie toys.

I had a much smaller, plastic Holly Hobbie doll with a picnic play set. She had weirdly synthetic combable hair.

I named the dog Chocolate because it was the same color as a Hershey’s kiss. One time I had the set at my mawmaw’s house and was showing it to my aunt. She was holding the doggy, and I said, “That’s Chocolate.” She thought I meant it was made of actual chocolate and was kind of grossed out/embarrassed that she was touching what she thought was my candy.

My sister had the The Holly Hobbie General Store.

This was a Colorforms toy, and it was super cool because unlike most Colorforms at the time, it was 3-D! You slid the walls into slots on the floor, and the walls stood up. All the little girls stood on their bases and could be moved inside or outside. I really liked to set up all the little slick plastic “objects” in their proper places in the store, but once everything was set up, I lost interest. I guess I was a little too old for imaginative play, by the time my sis got this set.

When I was younger, I had a different, smaller Holly Hobbie Colorforms set. I managed to play with the set for hours at a time, even though the dress-up possibilities were limited. I guess I knew from reading the Little House on the Prairie books that those old time girls didn’t have a lot of wardrobe options.

I had Holly Hobbie sewing cards too. I spent countless hours lacing the bright yarn through those little holes. Is this how I learned to sew?

My lunchbox all through elementary school and into middle school looked had Holly Hobbie and her friends on it.

The book I really remember about Holly Hobbie was given to me by a family friend one year for Christmas when I was probably 11. It was called The Adventures of Holly Hobbie and was written by Richard Dubelman [amazon template=image&asin=B01K3RTD6Q].

The story was absolutely fantastic! It is about a girl (probably in her early teens) whose archeologist dad is missing in Central or South America. Holly Hobbie, the girl’s ancestor, comes alive and steps out of a portrait. Although Holly Hobbie is the protagonist’s ancestor, when the portrait was painted she was about the same age as this particular descendant, so that’s the Holly Hobbie who comes to life.The two girls go on a quest to save the dad. I read this book multiple times and absolutely loved it. I read it in the mid 80s, when books with strong, brave girls as main characters were more difficult to find than they are today.

With all of this Holly Hobbie in my life, my favorite was always the stuffed doll. I remember being really little and crying and wiping my tears onto my Holly Hobbie doll’s face. Holly Hobbie was my first best friend. That’s why I had to rescue her from the megabig thrift store, and that’s why I’m going to be a grown woman riding around with a Holly Hobbie doll in her van. I don’t care who thinks it’s weird.

This photo I did take.

I took the photos in this post.

Mar1

In Praise of Roadside Assistance

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It had been a good day. There was no line at the post office. I paid for my lunch with a gift card I got for my birthday and used a coupon for a free birthday sundae. Then I locked my keys in the van,

I was at the Goodwill Clearance Center, my favorite place to shop.

I must have been distracted. I took the keys out of the ignition and put them on the dashboard. I got a text message, read it, replied. I put my ring in the glove box so I wouldn’t lose it. Then I jumped out of the van, locked the door, slammed it shut. I took two steps before I realized I wasn’t hearing the rattle of my key chain. Oh no!

I wheeled around, and there they were on the dash. Oh no! What to do?

I walked around the van and tried all the doors. Locked. I tried to push down both front windows. No luck. I checked  the other windows: all locked up.

One of the long, narrow side windows doesn’t have glass. The glass was busted out not long before I bought the van. That window is closed with plastic and cardboard. Could I pop out the plastic and cardboard and climb through the window? No. The last time I locked my keys in the van (in December) I pulled the screen off that window and popped out the plastic and determined there was no way I was going through.

(That time I had left the keys in the back of the van. I was able to reach in through the window and use my umbrella to knock the keys close enough to grab. I didn’t actually have to climb through the window. This time I’d have to go all the way through the window to get the keys from the front of the van. I imagined myself getting stuck trying to pass through that window, my legs dangling outside, stuck like a baby with shoulder dystocia.)

I didn’t have my phone with me. I’d left my phone in the van. I had to find a phone.

Thankfully, I did have my insurance card in my little zippered pouch. On the insurance card is the phone number for roadside assistance. I wasn’t sure if roadside assistance covered rescuing my keys from being locked in my van, but it seemed like my best bet.

I still had to find a phone. I went into the Goodwill Clearance Center. I asked the woman at the first register if I could use the phone, told her I’d locked my keys in my van. She couldn’t let me use the phone without the manager’s approval. Thankfully, the manager approved.

In less than half an hour, Mr. Hernandez had arrived and used his special tool ( a slim jim, I presume) to unlock my door. I grabbed my keys, and I was back to having a good day.

I think I pay $14 a year for roadside assistance. It’s tacked on to the insurance for my van. I use it about once a year, but there’s no limit to how often I can use it. It covers towing, changing flats, jumping dead batteries, and rescuing keys locked in the van. (I’ve used my roadside assistance to deal with all of those problems.) I recommend roadside assistance to everyone, especially van dwellers.