Estate Sale Finds - November 30

The pickings were really slim this week for estate sales. On Friday we drove about 15 miles away to an ADVERTISED estate sale and when we got there, nobody was there.  I double checked the dates and times and it was scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  What's up with that?   I was more than a little miffed at that.  Talk about a waste of time and gas.  We drove back towards home and I found another estate sale that had amazing prices but not a lot to choose from.  Here's what we got....

A wooden tool carrier that Chablis has already claimed as her own.  8 pewter napkin holders that are headed for my shop.  The coat rack that I'll paint and also re-sell.  I have no idea what the other thing is, but Louie wanted me to buy it.  It's tin and the lid opens.  I'm thinking of painting it white and distressing it, but I have no idea what it's supposed to be.  That's it!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday.  We sure did.  Then on Saturday we drove to Iowa with my parents.  It was an 11 hour round trip day, what with the drive back and forth, breakfast and lunch, plus 17 geocaches.  More on all that in an upcoming post.

Also, if you missed my post on using Square Up, go back and check it out here.  It's a great feature for anyone who is self employed and wants to process credit card payments for their clients while on the go or at a craft show .

And don't forget to sign up for Ebates and get money back on your on-line purchases.  Catch my link here and sign up.  It's free!

Square Up - Processing Credit Card Orders is SUPER Easy

Have you heard about Square Up?  If you're self employed or do any kind of craft/jewelry selling, especially at craft shows, you are going to want to read this post.

Square Up allows you to take credit card payments from your customers and run them thru your
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Square Up takes most credit cards, including American Express.  Swiped payments cost 2.75 % and manually inputting a payment costs 3.5%.  In most cases you will see the payments in your bank account within 2 business days.  You can also send invoices for free through the program.  There are no monthly, listing or set up fees either.

Press this link to take you to the Square Up page and check it out.  I'll be honest, I get an incentive if you sign up through their Refer a Friend Program....

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So go sign up.  And don't forget - press my link!

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Most of the time holidays are wonderful occasions, to be shared with family and friends.  A friend of mine posted this on her FB wall and I really liked the sentiment, so I am sharing it with you here....

Some thoughts as we enter the holiday season...It is important to remember that not everyone is surrounded by large wonderful families. Some of us have problems during the holidays and some of us are overcome with great sadness when we remember the loved ones who are not with us. And many people have no one to spend these times with and are besieged by loneliness. We all need caring, loving thoughts right now. Please offer support for those who have family problems, health struggles, job issues, worries of any kind and just need to know someone cares. Do it for all of us, for nobody is immune. 

I wish you all love and a blessed day.

Geocaching at Volo Bog

Two weeks ago we went out to Volo Bog to do a little hiking and grab some geocaches that are placed along the trails.  Volo Bog is a State Natural Area in Illinois.  From Wikipedia:  Volo Bog State Natural Area is a nature reserve in Illinois, United States, preserving Volo Bog. The bog was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1973 as the only remaining open-water quaking bog in Illinois.^[1] 

The trails are very easy and run through a variety of terrains, which makes them interesting because of the variety.  We walked through woods, prairie, and across boardwalks over water....

A few lone berries that the birds haven't found yet....

A cache is actually hidden near this deck....

We got there early in the morning when the Bog first opened up and we had the place practically to ourselves.  By the time we were finished about 2 hours later, it was starting to get crowded..

I think I liked the floating walkways the best!

We found 2 baby snapping turtles crawling along the trail...

This was a duck blind and a cache is hidden here as well...

Now for some of the geocaches.  I can't show you all of them, but I will show a few.  If anyone is interested in doing the series, here's the link to the first one, Volo Bog #01, and you can find the rest of them from there.

Does anyone want to guess where this cache is?

This was a very clever cache and nicely hidden....

This was my favorite one of the series - Wicked Witch anyone??

I've seen this type of hide before so I had an idea of what we were looking for....

This one was really cute....

The cache container for this one was actually missing and we found the log sheet hanging in the tree like this.  I believe the container has since been replaced...

This one was very well hidden....

Can you believe the spider was the cache?  LOL!

All in all it was a nice morning.  We did an easy hike, Volo Bog is someplace we had never been before and we found 16 geocaches along the trail.  

Starved Rock State Park

One of my absolute favorite places to hike in the state of Illinois is Starved Rock State Park.  Starved Rock is the #1 attraction in the state and is located about an hour SW of Chicago.  They have 13 miles of trails to explore but their claim to fame is the sandstone canyons - they are gorgeous any time of the year.

Starved Rock has a really interesting history, which I am sharing here courtesy of Wikipedia....

Before European contact, the area was home to Native Americans, particularly the Kaskaskia who lived in the Grand Village of the Illinois across the river. Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans recorded as exploring the region, and by 1683, the French had established Fort St. Louis on a large sandstone butte overlooking the river, they called Le Rocher (the Rock). Later after the French had moved on, according to a local legend, a group of Native Americans of the Illinois Confederation (also called Illiniwek or Illini) pursued by the Ottawa and Potawatomi fled to the butte in the late 18th century. The Ottawa and Potawatomi besieged the butte until all of the Illiniwek had starved, and the butte became known as "Starved Rock". The area around The Rock was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

We saw a lot of wild turkey as we were driving through the park....

This is the view from the bridge between the parking lot and the Lodge....

The Lodge is huge and houses a restaurant, meeting rooms, lodging rooms and a gift shop....

There also happens to be a geocache hidden there, which we quickly found before we hit the trails.  First things first, right??

One of the nice things about the canyons is that you can walk into them and climb all over them, which is half the fun.  This time of year the canyons are fairly dry, but in the spring when the snow starts melting, the waterfalls are beautiful and the canyon bottoms fill with water.

This time we went on a Friday in November and it was a good choice, because we had the trails practically to ourselves.  During the summer and on the weekends it gets very crowded.

The trails are a wonderful combination of dirt, paved road, rock or boardwalks.....

Here we are at the top of Starved Rock, over looking the river.  We missed the peak fall colors by about a week, but the trees still put on a pretty good show....

The far point across the bay was Lovers Leap and Eagle's Cliff and that was our next destination...

Louie wasn't leaping off of any cliffs for me.....

The boards walks here are extensive and very nicely built.  It was a great place to sit and enjoy the view.  Plus, it was a beautiful day and the temperatures were just right for hiking...

Wildcat Canyon was my favorite.  When you walk into the canyons the temperature really takes a dip.

To get a feel for the size of the canyons, look closely and you can see Chablis in the center of the photo....

Once we left Wildcat Canyon we had a massive series of stairs to climb.  This is the view from half way up them....

By this time Louie was really happy to see the Return sign.  I think that last set of stairs did him in!

 By then we were pretty darn hungry so we high tailed it to town and grabbed some burgers for lunch...

If you're looking for a great place to hike in Illinois, you need to visit Starved Rock.  It's a gem of a place.  Plus, any time of year is beautiful.  I've been there many times and during all the seasons, and each is special for its own reason.  

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Click on my link here to sign up.  Yes, I do get a bonus for referring you, but more than that, YOU are on your way to getting free cash back.  I've been a member for a year and I've gotten checks back every quarter.  And guess what, there are no fees or charges to join.  This bonus sign up goes thru 12-31-15, so sign up now before you start your online holiday purchases and you are on your way to extra cash in your pocket.