I'm Back! With Free Toys and More about Ken

   I know it's been a while, but I'm still here. Ken is improving all the time. He has therapy twice a week, with two or three different therapy sessions each time. He has physical therapy, which works on  his walking and stair climbing, occupational therapy, which works on  his arm and hand, and speech therapy, which, in spite of the name, works on all kinds of things, including cognitive, vision, swallowing, etc. Ken's swallowing is fine now, but his vision is not good. (He lost his peripheral vision in his left eye, and his general vision is blurry.) He also still has some brain fog. So we've been pretty busy between therapy and doctor appointments. He also does therapy things at home. I've also been having to figure out what food I can make for a guy with diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.         

 Anyway, we are still living with nothing but a mini fridge, and a tiny one at that. Our regular fridge stopped working when we had the fire. The electricity surge must have blown it.) Even as mini fridges go this thing is tiny. So I've been having to go to the store frequently, since I can't buy much at a time. I usually try to check out the toy aisles when I go, so I have accumulated several Mini Brands display boxes recently. 

  I've been getting them since the beginning, but they are getting harder to get. The stores seem to think they refill the display boxes when they get more stock, which is wrong. The stuff comes in a new display box each time. It's a shame to think a lot of the displays get thrown out, with the sample toys attached. What a waste. A lot of people have caught on though, and either take the empty display boxes, or just plain rip the samples off the boxes and take them. I haven't done that. I only take empty boxes. Mind you, I am not above cramming the two or three balls that are left in a box into the next box, or leaving a single ball on the shelf. The other reason they are getting harder to get is, the practice of putting sample toys on the display boxes seems to be on the way out. There don't seem to be nearly as many boxes with sample toys on them any more.

  Here are some of the display box samples I've gotten over the last year or so.

  I got three on this day. My favourite was the esspresso maker.

There was also this plant one.

And this one makes a mini aquarium.

  Another time I got this LOL Surprise display. This is after I already ripped it off the box...at home.

  It's quite a free haul, considering that it includes two complete sets.

  In fact, I ended up with two of these. I usually don't take sets if I already have them, and leave them for someone else. I figure there are kids who could use a free toy. 

  And later I got this one. It contains squishy hairdos you can mold. I think it didn't have the squishy stuff though. 

  I also got this one. I seem to have hit on a LOL streak.

  These were in the last couple of months, so these are still available at the stores.

   The bottles that would normally contain the resin to do the 'make' part are empty. That's okay. I can handle that for free stuff.

 This Harry Potter set is pretty great stuff. It's one of my favourites of the ones I've gotten. Lots of little potion bottles and cauldrons.

    Yesterday I got the best haul yet, I think. These are some great sets, and there were multiple sets on the one box!

Min Brand Create Garden.

Mini Verse Hello Kitty waffles. 

Tiny individual strawberry slices and blueberries!

Mini Verse Make It party sets! There was so much fun stuff in this display! 

Three sets! 

  Now, be forewarned. Some of this stuff is hard to get off the packaging. They have it glued on there pretty well. But with a little work you can get it loose. The cake that came off the cake stand was stuck down with some really sticky greasy glue. But it washed off with warm water and dish soap. Some of the other stuff has thick glue you'll have to peel off.

The cake came unstuck from the cake stand. And look. This is more than one full set, because there are two cakes and decorating bits.

  I still haven't freed all the Harry Potter stuff from the packaging. I think it's going to be a little time consuming to not break anything, and I don't have much free time these days.

      And don't forget, Micro Toybox also has samples on their display boxes. These were clearanced for  $3.49 at our local Meijer.

  So get out there and get yourself,(or someone else) some free stuff the stores are going to throw away otherwise, while you still can.

  I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again, but I'm still trying to keep my hand in.        

Nice people, good stuff, and a crazy lady

  People can be really nice. Running into people like the crazy crabby lady I met up with last week can make you forget that. She snapped at me, "I can't take that! I don't have change!" when I tried to pay her for my $4.45 with a $20 bill. She really wouldn't give me change, even though her garage sale was open and lots of people were shopping it. I made arrangements for Ken to come pick my stuff up and pay her later in the day. I really didn't want to trust that he would do it though, since Ken has a problem with getting around to stuff, and there was something I was excited to have found for Emma in the goodies. (Forget it Emma. No spoilers. Wait until Christmas.) As I was leaving, a lady sidled up to me and said," I don't know how she can not have change. She's been running this sale for three days. She has change." I was sort of stunned. I asked a young guy sitting in a chair nearby and texting on his phone if he had change. He turned out to be the lady's son or grandson, I think. He said she would give me change and was surprised when I said she told me she didn't have any. He proceeded to tell the lady she needed to give me change. She freaked out, claiming she couldn't bring out her money until they were set up. "We are set up." he told her, and made her go inside with him to get the money, muttering about "crazy obsessive compulsive woman". I felt a bit awkward.We could hear them shouting at each other inside the house. When they came out I paid, got my stuff and left, with him muttering about having to 'put up with this crazy obsessive compulsive lady ALL day!'.
  But I lost my point. I have run into so many nice people. Maybe that's why she was such a shock to me. This past weekend I arranged another barter. Some nice people let me pick up some of their hickory nuts, and even helped me do it. I'm taking them some of my garlic. (It multiplies like rabbits in my yard.) Another nice lady gave me some tomatoes from her garden when I offered to buy some.It was a nice, friendly weekend. And I got some cool stuff. I found this:

It's Tammy"s Ideal House! And I always thought that was a huge Victorian mansion...

  It's missing all the furniture and stuff from inside, but it's still pretty neat.

And I've never seen one in person before. The lady selling it explained that she had had a lot of people ask her about it, and she'd had to "explain that Tammy was Ideal's answer to Barbie" . Poor Tammy. Nobody remembers her any more!

The back of Tammy's house.

  I also found  a couple pieces of vintage Barbie and Francie clothes,including Francie's Dreamy Duo robe,and a boat load of vintage toys and good stuff.   It seems like some weeks everybody puts out their old things.
  I also got some beautiful mint records for 20 cents each,and something I have wanted for years: a set of Friendly Village dishes, for only $30!
  We're still having yard sales because at the beginning of the summer it rained for nearly three weeks. Everybody is still trying to catch up. I need to be careful spending though, because Thursday is the big Barbie auction. That should be fun, but frustrating. I collect on a budget, so the auction often is out of my price range. Luckily I can deal with fixer upper dolls. I don't insist on mint, because I can't afford to. But I've learned to improve my finds. I've even had comments on how nice my dolls' hair is.(Are?)
  Oh, and good deeds can sometimes be rewarded. A couple of weeks ago I met Donna, whose boyfriend undercharged me. If you read this blog you remember I was driving home when I realized I needed to go back to her house to pay her another $20 and take her a cake recipe. On the way to Donna's to do that Tuesday I found this sat out by someone's driveway with a sign that said 'Free Take'.

  It's bigger than it looked from the car. I may donate it to Goodwill because it's way too big for the space I (don't) have. While we were at Donna's she was having trouble with her computer, which Ken helped her with, and she gifted Ivy with a waffle maker. See what I mean? People can be so nice.