Door Art (again!)

Remember this?

Yep, I'd painted the front door of our current apartment (the one we are moving from). That was the first thing I did PRIOR to our renovations. Ha ha. I knew that if I didn't get off my a** to do it, I'd never get down to doing it.

Well, we're all pretty sad to leave it. My son, sentimental fellow that he is, asked me several times if I could remove it and have it installed at the new place. Well, I'm too lazy to check if this door will actually fit our new apartment's and I think the new owners are pretty art loving people too. I decided to just consider having SOLD my piece of door art!

Anyhow, I'm definitely going to paint the new apartment door BUT I have these unsightly protruding rectangular wooden trims to contend with. They come with the existing fire-rated door. Have been thinking how to work with these rectangular trims and I've come up with a draft! I can't quite recall if the door has 4 or 5 rectangles but I'll work something out now that I've got a draft!

So, here it is.....TADAH!!!!

Yep, inspired by Noah's Ark! Don't be too shocked by the 'ugliness' of it. I'm only sketching an outline and the final piece may or may not end up looking like this. In fact, I've definitely gotta find space for a red apple with two worms popping outta them!

We're moooooving!!!

I haven't been writing as much as I would like to in this blog the past couple of months cos I've been busy house hunting (or rather apartment hunting). We're moving to bigger premises. There's just so much to coordinate! Thank goodness that the 'end' of this hectic period is approaching and we should be moving to our new premises in early Sept. Mike and I can't wait to settle in. For me, finally to have more space to indulge in my painting and for Mike, to have a balcony for his plants!
I'll put up the new address as soon as I take delivery of the place. Right now, it still doesn't officially belong to us....yet!

The above pic, although hastily drawn by me with MS Paint (and although some may think as ugly!), STILL remains the copyright of Fiona of Cartoon Lagoon  2010!!! 

Garage Sales over - phew!

Phew! Garage Sale over! Pretty tiring! Prior to both weekends, we had prepared and distributed flyers into our neighbours' letterboxes and we had to arrange our stuff (like in a retail store) and price them. People started streaming in even before we officially opened. The same people came again the next day cos they wanted to see if we had new stuff to offer. They were grabbing like crazy!

All sorts of people popped by. We had those who didn't say a word. They just whipped out their money and paid without bargaining. My favourite sort of people! Then we had people who bargained so ridiculously, you would have thought they were expecting you to give it to them free.

We had to label some furniture as 'SOLD' cos the people had paid for them but had arranged for a pick up at a later date. So when others came, they'd go 'Oh!' 'Ah!' 'What a waste! Sold!' 'How much did you sell it for?' 'So cheap?!' 'Aiyah!'
They lamented the stuff already sold. But when we pointed out other furniture not yet sold, they just shook their heads with nary a glance. That told me one thing. If THOSE items hadn't yet been sold, they wouldn't have bought them anyway. They were just trying to tell us, they would have bought them but they were too late.

We had a couple. I don't know why I am saying this but they were PRs. The most classic case of being 'kniao' / cheapskate. They were one of those who had Oooed and Aaaahed at the 'SOLD' items. But when I showed them other pieces of furniture not yet sold, they just kept shaking their heads. They were touching and opening everything.
Finally, something caught the wife's eye. Item A was priced at S$5 (a hideous, bright pink vase - a gift from someone). The couple offered S$2. I counter offered $4 and if they agreed to buy it, I'd throw in a wooden kitchen roll stand priced at $1.
They begged me to let me have the vase at S$3 AND to throw in the kitchen roll stand for free. I relented (because a garage sale is to get rid of stuff, especially hideous stuff, no?)
Then another item caught their eye. A plaque with a runaway horse (another hideous gift from someone). I told them S$2.
Their eyes widened incredulously. They said, 'This so cheap?'
Would you believe it? Not the fact that they wanted that hideous item but the fact that the guy then chased me all over the sitting room trying to convince me that all he had to do return me the free kitchen roll stand priced at S$1 which I had agreed to throw in for free. I refused. Fed up, I walked away.
He was practically pulling my arm as I walked away from him, "You see mam, it's the SAME thing."
He ran after me, "This is worth S$1 and you gave it to me. I just return you this item and I pay you S$1 for this".
I just turned around and gave him a steely glare. Very firmly, I said, 'It's NOT the same thing' and walked away.
Well they couldn't pass up the good offer and they paid for the hideous horse plaque but not before they went snooping round the whole place opening every little box or container. Fortunately, the rest of the people weren't like this tiresome couple. We met some lovely people too. All in, I'm glad we only have Garage Sales when we're moving house. I really hope this isn't going to happen again anytime soon!

GARAGE SALE (final weekend)!!! 7/8 & 8/8

GARAGE SALE (final weekend)!!!

7/8 (SAT) and 8/8 (SUN) 10am to 4pm
(address has been removed after Garage Sale)

Our Garage Sale over the weekend of 31/7 & 1/8 went really well! I'd published an ad in the papers, posted it on this blog and yes, spammed (guilty!) my neighbourhood mailboxes with small home made flyers! Well, from the feedback gathered from our visitors, the flyers were the most effective. Flyers.....hmmm.....it's also how one is fed info that some topnotch real estate agent managed to sell your neighbour's house at an unbelievable skyhigh price or how your neighbourhood tuition agency can guarantee your kid's success!
But since HDB apartments owners have the option to lock their mailboxes from the inside to prevent unwanted mail from reaching them, my poor husband suffered painful knuckles from shoving them into locked letterboxes. Too bad for those home owners, they lost out on some really good deals and good fun!

We prayed that God would bless us with good weather and send the people and He did! We cleared so much furniture on Saturday and made some new friends with our neighbours from our neighbourhood. Really, it's interesting that we also experienced this when we had a Garage Sale in Seletar Camp some years back. We met so many nice people and made some new friends only when it was time to say goodbye! Pity!

After the brisk sales on Saturday, we had expected Sunday to be quieter. But God proved us wrong! When Mike and I woke up at 6am on Sunday to attend 7am Mass, it was pouring! No, we don't usually attend 7am Mass but really, if we'd left attending Mass to the evening, something might've crop up at the Garage Sale or we'd be too tired to attend it, so I suggested going for 7am Mass. (As a sidenote, do you see, how weak I am? I wasn't motivated to say, attend 7am because God should be the topmost priority, early in the morning on a Sunday instead, I suggest 7am Mass to be on the safe side so we wouldn't miss Mass!).

I reminded Mike, that the 'formula' was so simple....instead of worrying if anyone would turn up, our first focus should be on God and the success of the Garage Sale would follow. It was such an epiphany for me even as I said that to Mike. Life's formula was so simple and was right in front of everyone's eyes but it was the hardest thing for anyone to see or follow.

I was dying to receive Holy Communion and I was feeling so excited on Saturday night just before I fell asleep! How strange for me (not because it's a strange thing for anyone else but it is for me)! I just felt a joy in my heart that I'd be receiving Christ's Body in a few hours! I had a feeling that it would rain on Sunday. But I told God it'd be OK cos we really made some good moolah already on Saturday...hee hee.

When we woke up to thunder and heavy rain on Sunday, it would have been so much easier to just snuggle under the covers than to pull our acheing bodies (after the previous day's physical moving of furniture and stuff!) up for church. But I reminded myself that this was exactly what the evil one wanted me to think and feel and so dragged myself up. Felt really ashamed when I turned up to find so many others at 7am who probably didn't even think twice about turning up despite the downpour. It turned out to be such a beautiful Mass and I was all choked up with every song they sang. Just moved me and I was so emotional. Felt all charged up and ready for a second day of sales!

When it rained on Sunday, I didn't panic. Just concentrated on God and His ability to do anything....and He did! He sent the first customers at 9am! In fact, they had turned up an hour earlier, mistaking the start of the Garage Sale to be 8 instead of 9am! We thought we'd made brisk sales at our previous Garage Sale at Seletar Camp but these two days turned out to be even more successful! In fact, even after we'd helped my mum clear her place (for a week of normalcy before next weekend's chaos again), some people turned up that evening after we'd closed her door!

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, we're still having our GARAGE SALE this coming weekend and for every day of the sale, we try to put up other 'new' stuff.

GARAGE SALE (final weekend)!!!
7/8 (SAT) and 8/8 (SUN) 10am to 4pm
(Address has been removed afte Garage Sale).