Tag Archive for ‘Goodwill’ at Groovy Kid Stuff

Tag Archive for 'Goodwill'

What we’ve been up to-

Published by Helen on July 1, 2008 in Crafts and Non-Fiction. 4 Comments

Hazel got some clay for her birthday before we went to MI and she and the boys have spent most of the last week playing with it. This picture shows the first creation, the colors are all mixed up and muddy now but they are still really into it.

I got this amazing stash from someone on freecycle - she said she used to work at a fabric store and spent most of her paycheck there. Now she has more fabric than she’ll ever use and is cutting back. It might not look like that much in the picture , but there are 300+ 1/4 yard pieces of fabric there! Today she posted again and Scott went over and picked up a box of ribbon that should last me the rest of my life.

The 25th was our 14 year wedding anniversary so we went to goodwill where we found this great couch and then to Lowe’s to buy chicken wire. (I think that those are the traditional 14th anniversary gifts right? Used furniture and poultry supplies? LOL!) Anyway, this couch is so comfortable and well proportioned and it didn’t smell. . . but seriously, it is my ideal couch other than the colors. So at some point I’m going to attempt to re-upholster it. I’ve dissected a couch before, so I feel like I have some idea of what is involved, but I don’t think this particular couch is a first-timer’s project. So for practice I’m re-covering the old couch, which was really a loveseat , which is now on the boys’ room. I’m about 1/2 done with that, pictures will be posted when I’m all done, so far it is going well.

The boys were so excited about having the old couch in their room. Ray said, “Now if we just had hatchets and a TV in our room we’d have everything we ever wanted!” (Scott read them Hatchet by Gary Paulsen recently and they’ve been obsessed with having one ever since. Yes, they will be getting hatchets at some point, but no they won’t be getting a TV in their room.)

This is what the chicken wire was for. Every summer I read a book that convinces me that our chickens need to be in movable coops and not in their big hoophouse - the hoophouse is fine, but ideally they’d be scratching on grass and digging up bugs.( Two years ago the book was The Omnivore’s Dilemna, last year it was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, this year it was You Can Farm.) Every summer I come up with a plan for a movable coop and it is usually better than the year before, but then a couple chickens get killed and we move them back into the hoophouse. Ideal is one thing, alive is another. We have persistent and smart predators around here, along with very uneven ground, so a movable coop has to be flexible enough to be secured to the ground.

This one is made of two layers of wire - concrete reinforcing wire for structure and chicken wire for security. A third type of wire was used on the sides but next time I’m going to stick with the first two. 7 of our 22 chickens are testing this model for us, I really think they’ll be safe because I spent 4 days wrestling with wires to make it impenetrable.

And I spent some time reviewing Scott’s life insurance policy. Just kidding - there were a bunch of branches from this 100 year old pecan tree that were touching our roof so Scott did some pruning.

On The Wall

Published by Helen on April 7, 2008 in Chatter. 0 Comments

I bought a bundle of quilt scraps at Goodwill a couple weeks ago - they are always cheap, they are ready to use and you never really know what you are going to get. In this case what I got was a bunch of fabric scraps that I suspect were recycled from men’s slacks from the 70’s. Most of them are polyester. They reminded me of the first job I got when we moved here to GA, in the greenhouse/garden center of a florist. The guy who owned and ran the place was Mr. H - he’d started the business 50+ years before and he always wore doubleknit polyester suits - in greenhouses in Ga in the summer! I guess they never got worn out, and he was notorious for using things until they were really used up. Like if you had two of those disposable 6-pack plant pots that were ripped you could nest them together with ripped cells on different sides and use them again! I used to joke that he could sell his vintage wardrobe and make a lot more money than he ever did with plants.

I sewed all the pieces - which were rectangles - together, cut them in half and sewed them back together to the opposite fabric. I thought I might be making a quilt to keep in the car - something to throw on the ground for picnics or at the park. But after all the cutting and sewing it was more of a doormat size. I couldn’t find any fabric that I thought was right for the back, and I wanted to figure out where it was going to live before I decided how to finish putting it together. It was thrown around in various rooms and never seemed to be right as a rug when Scott suggested that it hang on the wall. (Decorative instead of functional? That rocked my world!) So here it is - a closeup so you can see all the details of the fabric.

And an idea of what it looks like where it is (for scale and stuff.) A new slipcover - washable! - is in the plans for that couch in the very near future.

Recycled T-shirts

Published by Helen on April 3, 2008 in Books, Crafts and Non-Fiction. 3 Comments

About 6 months ago Goodwill had a table of brand new Pokemon T-shirts for sale for 50 cents each. There were two different styles, red and white but the only size they had was adult XL. I bought several of them anyway, thinking that I’d find something to do with them.

I cut out and sewed the pictures from 4 of the white ones to bags that I made from denim. One was a messenger style bag, two were library bags for D and R when they got their library cards, and I made this one recently for a friend of ours who just turned 4 - so it is sized for a 4 year-old. (The painted egg is him as a space man - inspired by the rocket man over on the long thread.)

I used a couple of the pictures from the red shirts for the backs of some of the bags. There was a whole bunch of material left over from all of the shirts, so I kept it thinking I’d find something to do with it.

Then last week I saw something somewhere about calamari knitting (can’t find a good link but it is cutting t-shirts into loops, joining the loops with slipknots and knitting with the “yarn” that results.) I happened to have the Mason Dixon Knitting book from the library so I was able to read their suggestions. I got out the T- shirt remains and a couple other scrap bag shirts and cut them into rings. My biggest knitting needles were way too small so I cut the rings open and just used a single strand of t-shirt fabric to knit strips that I stitched together to make a little rug. I think it is going to go on the porch outside the kitchen door, but Hazel may have other plans.

I had the hemmed strips from the bottoms of the shirts left over so I sewed then to the bottom of a dishtowel.

Now I just have to find something to do with this bag of leftover sleeves!

The antidote-

Published by Helen on December 26, 2007 in Crafts. 0 Comments

That’s what I’m calling this blanket. I started it last week after I was done with all of my running around, finishing things up, sending things off, buying one last thing. . .

I’m using all the solid color (as opposed to variegated) blues and colors derived from blue from my stash. Leftovers from other projects, hand-me -downs, and yarns that came sealed in bags with other stuff from Goodwill. I saw the pattern here a while ago and really liked the looks of it. It is basically the same pattern as the ripple and the babette blankets I made - lots of double crochet - but this one is even simpler since it is *only* double crochet and it is worked in the space of the previous row, not in the top of the stitch.

Basically this blanket requires no thought, no purchases, and I’m on no deadline to finish it. It will probably end up in the boys’ room, but for now it is by the couch - it’s too big to be a carry-along project. I’ve cleared out a bunch of yarn ends that were too small for much else and I’m using colors that I would never otherwise choose. I relax just looking at it!

Santa’s Bag o’ Video Games Part 3: Xbox and Gamecube

Published by Scott on December 25, 2007 in Holidays and Video Games. 0 Comments

Okay, here’s the last post of this year’s surfeit of video games for Christmas. I scored a bunch of these at Blockbuster of all places. I must have stumbled upon some sort of clearance sale of former rentals because usually the store I go to doesn’t have a very good selection.

Xbox

Sega GT 2000 / Jet Set Radio Future
Two bucks for two games? Count me in! I love racing games and Sega GT 2000 is supposed to be decent. That was a throw-in though because I was really after Jet Set Radio Future, which is an urban adventure that has something to do with graffiti tagging. Sounds promising.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Dashiell and Ray love to play co-op games so I know they’re going to be into this. It’s a beat ‘em up featuring the full stable of Marvel heroes. It got great reviews.

Psychonauts
I’ve read that some of the content on this one is inappropriate for the younger set so it’ll be for me. From what I understand it’s a platformer of sorts with clever writing and a cult following.

Need For Speed Underground 2
Another racer, this time of the illegal street variety. I’ve never played any from the Need For Speed series but for two bucks I couldn’t pass it up.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
I cannot wait to play this game! It’s a role-playing action adventure set in the Star Wars universe. I’m actually just as excited about this one as I am about finally playing my Dreamcast.

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
Another co-op superhero beat ‘em up. The lads are going to dig it.

Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
Still more co-op play, this time a Star Wars space shooter that’s supposed to be less difficult than Rogue Squadron.

Gamecube

Viewtiful Joe
A classic Gamecube title that I’ve been interested in for awhile but never got around to buying. It’s a 2D beat ‘em up with a time shifting element.

Kirby Airride
Avatar: The Last Airbender
We already gave these to the boys for their birthdays. They played Kirby at a friend’s a few weeks ago and had been talking about it ever since. They’ve been having a blast with it for the past few days. Even Hazel plays. It doesn’t really appeal to me but whatever. They’re into it. They haven’t given Avatar much more than a few minutes but they’ll get to it eventually. We’re all huge fans of the show.

Santa’s Bag o’ Video Games Part 2: Dreamcast

Published by Scott on December 24, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 5 Comments

I’m really excited to officially break out the Dreamcast tomorrow. I already had a sizable stash of games to go with it but I’ve picked up a few more since then. One title I really wanted to get was Sonic Adventure. I got it but what an ordeal! I took a chance at half.com and bought it from the person that had it listed cheapest. This seller only had feedback from four people, but all were positive. Turns out he is selling bootleg copies of games and trying to pawn them off as discs sent to reviewers.

The Sega Dreamcast can play cd-r’s but all of their games were released on the unconventional gd-rom format, which can hold up to 1.2 GB of information. The disc I got from this shady dealer was most definitely a cd-r. It says so right on the transparent ring in the middle! I know from poking around an underground game sharing network that Sonic Adventure is too large to fit on a regular cd-r. I could have downloaded the same free copy this person did, with deleted cut scenes, music downsampled from stereo to mono, and who knows what else hacked out. That’s not what I wanted and I certainly wasn’t going to pay for it. I didn’t call the guy on his bullshit but did tell him I thought I was buying the official release and requested a refund. He gave me my money back without argument and I soon found a “Buy It Now” deal for the real thing on eBay for about the same price.

I read about a similar scenario on the racketboy forums, did some sleuthing, and discovered they were talking about the same fellow. He’s got lots of rare Dreamcast games listed for cheap on both half.com and Amazon. So buyer beware! Here’s a comparison of the copy (left) and the official Sega release:

I had a much happier experience purchasing a lot of Dreamcast sports games on eBay. I was looking to buy one of the 2K hockey games, which go for next to nothing by themselves. For twenty bucks (including shipping) I found not only that game, but seven more titles plus two VMU memory packs. That was an excellent deal, especially considering that the VMU packs normally sell for around $6-8 each plus shipping. The games came with their instruction manuals and jewel case inserts too. Score!

I also bought a VGA cable from the racketboy store so I can plug the Dreamcast directly into a computer monitor. I haven’t tested it out yet but it’s supposed to offer a clear, crisp picture. And finally, I found a third party light gun for a couple of bucks from Goodwill so I can blast some zombies in House of the Dead 2.

Santa’s Bag o’ Video Games Part 1: SNES and N64

Published by Scott on December 23, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 0 Comments

I’ve been stockpiling games for about three months now and have to admit the Christmas haul is ridiculously large. We’ll have enough “new” retro titles to occupy us for a long, long time. Here are the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games that will be under the tree and some brief thoughts about each:

SNES

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Yoshi’s Island
We have both of these fantastic games for the Gameboy Advance. It will be fun to play them on the big screen.

Super Mario All-Stars - I talked about this one in a recent post.

Super Star Wars
Spider-man & Venom: Maximum Carnage
These are both supposed to be difficult but very good.

Street Fighter II: Turbo
Mortal Kombat II
Final Fight
I have been a Street Fighter II: The World Warrior junkie for the past couple of weeks. I’d never been a fan of fighting games before but all of a sudden I’ve developed an appreciation for the genre.

Shadowrun - A highly regard role playing adventure.

Donkey Kong Country - Platformer with everyone’s favorite oversized video game gorilla.

Starfox - I’m curious to see how this series began. I know they put in an extra chip for this game to push the graphics of the SNES to the limit.

Uniracers
Stunt Race FX
These arcade trick/racing games look fun. There’s a good review for Uniracer at racketboy.

Mega Man X - I have never played any of the Mega Man titles so I’m looking forward to checking one out.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time - From what I’ve read this is a good co-op beat ‘em up. Ray especially likes those kinds of games.

Super Game Boy - Not a game but an adapter cartridge that allows you to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on TV through the Super Nintendo. We only have a few of those games but I thought it’d be worth checking out.

N64

Starfox 64 - I was really excited to find this at Goodwill. I was seriously considering buying it online before it magically turned up last Saturday. It’s an on-the-rails flying space shooter, just like the best parts of the two Starfox games we have for the Gamecube. Unlike in those games though, he stays in his ship the whole time.

Pokemon Stadium - We have Pokemon Colosseum for Gamecube and I expect this is probably pretty similar. It wasn’t well received during its release but I couldn’t pass it up. We love Pokemon!

Diddy Kong Racing - Gamespot describes it as “a cross between Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64.” They don’t score it very well but it sounds promising. I’m sure it’s at least three dollars worth of entertainment.

Star Wars Episode I: Racer - The pod racing sequence was kind of lame in the movie but I’ll bet it’s fun as a game.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled crafty postings. . .

Published by Helen on December 15, 2007 in Crafts and Shopping. 2 Comments

To bring you this Goodwill score-

12 embroidered linen napkins - no stains and they are all hand hemmed and it looks like hand- stitched too. And I have a project in mind for them!

I actually saw these yesterday but they were kinda on the pricey side for Goodwill (about .75 each!) so I walked around with them in my cart for a while and put them back. Last night I got an idea of what I could do with them so today we went back and they were still there. This proves that I was meant to have them if you are a follower of Goodwill karmic energy theory. (Scott and I are devotees.)

Goodwill + eBay = Quick Profit

Published by Scott on December 15, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 3 Comments

On my usual after work trip to Goodwill the other day I was thrilled to find a copy of Super Mario All-Stars for Super Nintendo. It’s an awesome compilation of the first three Super Mario Bros. games for the NES plus the so-called “Lost Levels” (the original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2) all spruced up with improved graphics for the SNES. I’d browsed around before on Amazon and half.com and knew it went for at least twenty dollars. I snatched it up for a measly three bucks and added it to add to my box o’ xmas games.

Today at the other Goodwill we frequent on our Saturday library runs, I found Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World. This was another compilation for the Super Nintendo that included, as the name implies, all of the games on Super Mario All-Stars plus the SNES sequel for the franchise, Super Mario World. We already have that game for both the SNES and Gameboy Advance. Since I knew the going rate for All-Stars, I figured this one had to be at least worth that much. Why not try to make a little money to offset my many retro game purchases?

I looked up the recent completed auctions for the game when we came home and saw that all of the “Buy It Now” sales went for around $25. Nice! Cleaned up the cartridge, tested it out to make sure it worked, took a picture, and finally listed it for $23.99. Believe it or not, someone snatched it up within the first hour. Talk about a quick turn around! I’m feeling very savvy right now. And did I mention that I love Goodwill?

Helen’s Big Score

Published by Scott on December 10, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 0 Comments

Helen called me from the local Goodwill while out shopping yesterday. Seems they were having a little sale. Every now and then they’ll pull out a table from the back and cram it full of a particular item or a group of things that fit a theme. I’ve seen mini-sales for phones, rollerblades and sandals, coffee makers, vcr tapes, and books among other things. This time it was video game consoles and controllers! Controllers were $2.02 a piece and consoles, sans power cords or connector cables, only $8.08. She described to me everything they had and I had her pounce on:

NES controllers- There were five of these, which was perfect. We only have one official one plus a pair of crappy third party knockoffs. I have two extra NES consoles that I plan to refurbish some day with no controllers. That little problem is now solved.
Sega Dreamcast consoles- I’ve already written about the one I bought myself for Christmas. They’re versatile machines and I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a couple of spares for that price. Helen grabbed two of the three they had for sale. I plan on having mine hooked up to my computer monitor so I’ll give one to the boys. Unfortunately the other is in need of repair. It’ll boot up fine but I think the controller port is blown. I guess that’s a common problem in Dreamcasts and a simple matter of replacing a resistor. Sounds like a fun rainy day project to me. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with it after I get it going again. I may give it as a gift to a certain soon-to-be family member who would appreciate the NES emulation.
Dreamcast controllers- Duh. Needed these to go with the consoles. Helen bought the four they had.
Gamecube controller- We already have four in fine working order so we’ll either keep it as insurance or give it to one of the boys’ friends.

Helen also picked up four SNES games, but I’ll tell about those in a future post describing our obscene Christmas game haul. All in all, it was a pretty awesome day for a retro game fan down to the Goodwills. Thanks Helen!

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