The voodoo of finding cool stuff, of keeping it, of letting it go.

I'm going to Portland with one of my two lovely kids next month, and I don't want to miss a thing.

Let's do some math, shall we?

I'm not made of money + I'm going on vacation and I intend to have a crapton of fun + I know how to make extra money vis a vis my mad skills on the eBay = problem solved.

The head she spins, what with all the math.

I'll provide a bit of backstory, for those of you who don't know.

But first I'll do a bit of self-disclosure.

Here's the cool thing about going to thrift stores. I show you a tiny corner of my bedroom, and I know exactly where I found every element.

I found the two 1950s Turner prints at an estate sale for almost nothing (think: less than $20). The vintage metal laundry basket, the wood nymph and the decorative thing that's on the hand was procured at Linda's Boutique (a diamond in the rough place here in Denver I'll blog about later) for a total of about $40. The hand that holds the nymph and the who-knows-what-to-call-it thing was found at an ARC thrift store for 2.99.

I've realized that I enjoy collecting body parts. But not in a bad way.

It's interesting, the items with which we choose to surround ourselves.

Long and short, just like everyone, I do love my surroundings.

Here's another shot of my bedroom. I love the 9.99 Goodwill chair. The 2.99 chalkboard. The doll my friend Shawn made, which is such a piece of art, sitting on its shelf. In short, everything in this corner is so comfortable, and each thing had been put to good use before it found me.

Everything in my room was affordable.

And totally cool.

But it's not all about the cheap. We'll get back to that later.

I used to paint my walls white, and I was in love with all things retail.

My treasure hunting started when I bought a bunch of cheap, completely cool original art on eBay about a decade ago, when my now-ex-husband and I decided to color up our upstairs and go from eggshell to sage.

It was a big change, in many ways.

After we were done painting, I didn't want to put the same old worn-out framed prints and copies of real art on the walls.

That odd original art procurement got me to thinking. If other people sold stuff on eBay, why couldn't I sell stuff on eBay?

So I started to go to garage sales and thrift stores. I found a very cool deco mirror for $10 at a garage sale, did a bit of research, and realized I might have found something.

I created an account on eBay, slapped the deco mirror up for sale, just because I'd learned that other people did it all the time, and sold that mirror that I bought for $10 for $130 to someone in Florida.

I was hooked.

Prior to that point, I thought thrift stores were for the toothless and smelly. I thought I was lowering myself in some psychosocial way to succumb to the tyranny of thrift.

I was so very wrong.

Since then, I've decorated my house by finding stuff other people have used and discarded.

I've changed my way of thinking about so many things.

And I've also experienced an amazing learning curve when it comes to what other people collect.

I've taken full advantage.

Just like the blog lately, I've taken a break from the eBay.

But I'm going on vacation next month, and I want to have fun.

Christmas is coming, and I want to do the gifting thing some justice, at least when it comes to lift tickets for my kids.

I think I've found a time-tested way.

I've found a whole lot of treasures that I've chosen to keep, and I've found many items that are conspicuous in their value to others.

Ergo, a bit of a money stream.

So I'm financing Portland solely on what I've found that I've had little incentive to list lately, for one reason or another.

The incentives have changed lately.

Voodoo Donuts.

Powell's.

The coast.

Le Happy.

Time with Mike and Miriam and Sage, of which I intend to take full advantage.

So I'm back in the game.

And when I find what I find, what I sell - everybody gets what they want.

When it comes to making things happen, sometimes taking advantage of what you know - the retention, the giving away - doesn't have a down-side.

I've accumulated a nice chunk of change this past month or so, just by going through my inventory, simply by realizing what I don't need that someone else might want.

Voodoo Donuts, here we come.