Garage sale (and beadboard) love

garage-sales-bn-logo Well hello! I am SO excited about the kitchen progress – whoohoo! I’ll share more on that in a bit, but first I wanted to tell you about a fantastic Web site for you garage sale freaks-who-get-up-at-7a.m. lovahs out there.

I first told you about Garage Sale Tracker about a year ago when they were just starting up (here). Their little site has gone and grown up – I’m so impressed! If you are even slightly a garage sale fan, you will LOVE their site. You just enter your zip code, then the distance you’re willing to travel, and garage sales in your area pop up, with dates, items that will be sold – even directions with a map to the location.

Score!!

It really is awesome. And you can list your upcoming garage sale for FREE. (We used it for out neighborhood sale last year.) They’ve also added consignment shop and flea market locations to the site. Are you kidding me? It’s a thrifty girl’s shopping DREAM.

Anyway, the folks at Garage Sale Tracker are excited about their latest venture – an iPhone app:

Ohhhh yeah baby! You know how much I love my iPhone. I mean it. LOVE. Deep, abiding, forever kind of LOVE.

This was me after I got mine last year:

Giddy. LOVE. Love love love.

So when the GST folks told me they created an app, I just about squealed. In my head. Not out loud. That would be silly. Um. What?

Anyway, I downloaded mine (it’s free) and love it! (It’s nestled right between the ABC Train app for the Bub and the Angry Birds app for me. (Best. game. ever.)

You get all the great functions of their web site right from your phone:

It’s thrifty shopping at your fingertips! I’m so excited to do more garage sale shopping this year, now that our kiddo is becoming a fan of shopping. (Yes, he is a golden child.) I love that when I’m out and about over the weekend, I can go to my app and see if there’s anything in my area.

You can’t beat it!

Welllll…you can. Garage Sale Tracker can anyway. They are giving away TWO iPhones next month – one via Twitter entries and one via Facebook entries.

Um. Hello. A FREE iPhone.

The contest runs through next Friday, June 4th and you can enter as many times as you want via Twitter and Facebook. (By the way, I only do Twitter and my personal Facebook from my phone. So easy!)

In order to enter, you have to register for a free account at Garage Sale Tracker. (Click here to do so.) Next, follow GST on Twitter and tweet about them or follow them on Facebook and make a comment. (See details here.)

The Garage Sale Tracker folks will announced the winner at 5 p.m. on June 4th – so you have a week and a few days to tweet and comment your heart out!

If you win, you won’t regret it. Pinky swear, cross my heart, promise you.  :)

I’m just a little too much in love with my phone. Maybe?

In other news, the kitchen is coming along swimmingly. We currently have no sink, but my Dad is coming first thing tomorrow to continue the installation. So far, it’s going the way many of my projects do – what could go wrong, has.  :)

But when we slid it into it’s spot today, my heart skipped a beat. OH, I love it!

I finished up the beadboard backsplash today, and let. me. tell. you. – it’s a LOT of work. It’s easy, but time consuming. Am I making any sense?

For the first time in six years, I am cursing our builder for installing so many bleepity outlets in our kitchen.  Good Lord. Each outlet involves a lot of measuring and cutting to fit the beadboard around it. If you are lucky and have no outlets, you’ll be golden!  :)

I still need to finish trimming it out, painting it and adding one more accent, and then I’ll show you (next week sometime I’m sure). For now, here’s a peek:

beadboard backsplash I was excited to get the trim up there, so I installed some tonight. About five minutes ago I remembered what a PAIN in the booty it is to paint beadboard up against trim like that. Gah! (The trim is needed, in my opinion, to cover the edges. But once I show you the details you can decide what you would do.)

I’ll give you a full tutorial on the beadboard next week!

OH YEAH – I almost forgot! I’m going to IKEA on Friday!! Egads, I’m SO EXCITED!! Any tips for this newbie?

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