More Icy Photos and a Surprise at the End

The sun came out today and it got up to 63 degrees. Absolutely crazy after the week we had around here. There are still lots of power outages in the area. The lady across the street still has no power and I feel guilty over here living my normal life. She is 82, but very active, walks every day, gardens, etc. I think she just doesn't want to leave her house - I know she has plenty of places she could go to be warm and safe. With the temperatures warmer, being cold isn't that big of an issue anymore. But, being alone in the dark for a week is a major downer to say the least. I went to the store today and I definitely saw some folks that needed a good washin' and scrubbin'. I also saw some very interesting outfits. Me thinks folks are a running out of clothes and the laundry basket is overflowing. In fact, we drove past a couple Laundromats and they were packed.

While we were out today, we did see something that really got to me and made me have a little crying session in the car. We spotted a convoy of huge military vehicles coming in with pallets and pallets of bottled water and canned food. I've seen that on the news other places, but to see it in your hometown, well, that really got to me. Made me want to come home, put the flag out and realize how lucky we are to have gotten through everything okay and with minor crud to deal with over the next few days weeks.

Everyone in my immediate family has power. Most of us have phones, my Dad still has to use his cellphone. Internet and cable go off and on, but more on than off as of late. I suspect the grocery stores will get busier and busier as the weekend and week progress. As power comes back on, the refrigerators and freezers will have to be emptied and replenished. We were able to save quite a bit, but it isn't worth taking a risk when it comes to eating spoiled food. So, a lot had to go too. I swear, I have thrown out more food lately between this and the big freezer incident.

I know this is my blog and I have a right to talk me, me, me all the time, but frankly, I am a little bored with my own ice storm chatter. It's over, now the clean up begins. And, then it shall be a distant memory.

And, now since you have read this far and stayed with me this week, I want to tell you that this is my 600th post. 600! Man, am I gabby or WHAT? I see people mentioning their 100th and I feel like a real jabberwocky. So, I guess a giveaway is appropriate, right?????? What will you win? Hmmmmm....I don't know. But, it will be GREAT. I promise. It will hopefully be something that YOU WILL LOVE. I like to make my giveaway packages for the WINNER. So, don't mention it on your blog or click your heels three times or tag seven people to name their three favorite Brady Kids, just leave me a comment on this post no later than Thursday night at 9:00 Central. Please, leave me a way to contact you if it isn't on your profile. I will draw a name on Friday morning. I promise I will try to send you a box chock full of goodies that will make you go GREAT GOOGLY-MOOGLY or something like that. If you have a blog - make sure I can link to it so I can get super great ideas for you fantastic box of GOODIES!

How do you like my "Junk on Ice" photos? I like the eternal flowing bottle of water, myself. And, yes, I do have a shopping cart in the backyard. I got it for FREE at a yard sale.

Don't forget to leave a comment for the GREAT 600th POST EXTRAVAGANZA.

Burnin' Down the House

A quick update. Thanks for all the love and well wishes. It means a great deal to me. No power at my Grandmother's house yet. My Mom has power as of 10:00 this morning, but I haven't been able to talk to her because her phone lines went down and they don't have cell reception in the boonies. Our Cable and Internet has been out until 10 minutes ago and not sure if it will stay on.

On a completely unrelated ice storm note, I nearly burned the house down today. Not really, but I could have seriously burned the darn house down. I put a pan on the stove and forgot it. Went outside to talk to a repairman and remembered THE PAN. Ran in to a completely dark house, smoke, crying cats, etc. I was completely freaking out. I threw open the windows and got the smoke out. We set up fans in every window and turned on the A/C fan unit. Really the end result was only soot on the ceiling above the stove and some nasty sooty cobwebby things attaching themselves to the ceiling. I'll have to paint one wall in the kitchen just because soot just smears around, but I was wanting to paint it anyway so I will just look at it like that. One more minute outside and it could have been a tragedy. The cats are fine, the house doesn't smell and if you just don't look up in the kitchen, all is well. That just proved to me how scatterbrained and out of sorts things have been lately. I cook all the time and never forget a pan. I haven't cooked all week and I have forgotten everything. Normalcy please!

After I dealt with that, I realized that there was cold air blowing full force out of the furnace vents. Oh. come. on. One call to the Heating guy and he came over at 7:00m pm tonight and he fixed it. I thought I had sooted it up or something. But, luckily or not so luckily, he said the sudden power surges had been doing this to heat pumps all over town. He fixed it and it warmed right back up again.

Pretty much everything melted away today. Tomorrow I have a guy (actually the heating dude on his day off) coming to clean up the yard and someone else on Sunday to fix the punctured hole in the roof. The insurance adjuster said that someone would be out in a day or two to look at the damage. I said, "May I ask where you are?" "Cincinnati, Ohio", she responded. I thought so because there are 100,000 homes in disarray and I know there is no freakin' way anyone will be "at my house in a couple of days". Then she suggested that maybe I should take photos and get things cleaned up. Uh, ya think?

In the midst of all this today, I received a package from a swap from December. My partner has some difficulties with the shipping and it kept coming back to her. It arrived today full pink Christmas vintage-y goodness and was really a bright spot in an otherwise crap-ola week. So, maybe that's why it never came - because I really needed it today. Thank you Joanne - I will properly thank you when I feel that my Internet will stay on for more than ten minutes!

Only I would take a photo of the Salvation Army Thrift Store in the middle of an ice storm. The Breadman's place of employment is actually right next door and we had to go see what they wanted him to do the next day. Plus, the stores were closed and that is the mecca of all things bread and donutty. You need Chocolate Donettes in an ice storm. You do!

This plane flew over the house yesterday and I begged for it to land and take me somewhere tropical, but to no avail. That's okay, I'll just assume it was Oceanic 815.

I'll be back when and if I can. Thanks again to everyone and to those in the same boat - I feel for ya! And, please let tomorrow be a regular old day!

Ice Storm 2009

An ice storm moved through Tuesday morning downing electricity to over 100,000 people. Our power went out Tuesday at noon and much to our delight and approval came back on again at about 6:00 tonight - Thursday. It is like a war zone outside. There is not a tree left intact. I have never witnessed the things I have seen and heard. The noise of a tree breaking is a noise I will not soon forget. The first night in the dark and cold was absolutely terrifying. Tree upon tree cracking, breaking and falling. Outside our house we have two of the largest trees on the entire block. The one out closest to the street was the first to fall. It lost one branch that fell across the street. I called 911 to report the down limb was blocking the street. A downed limb doesn't sound as bad as it was, it was a 200 year old tree and that limb was as big as a full grown normal tree. It took five firemen with as many chainsaws to cut it up and make a path wide enough for one car to pass. After they left, our tree started losing branches. One by one, they came crashing down through the other branches, dropping ice like shattered glass on everything. We held our breath waiting for one to crash through the bay window or through the roof, but it never did. Actually, one did poke through the roof, but it is hopefully minor and can be fixed easily and inexpensively. The whole street, town, surrounding towns and counties are in a State of Emergency. The Red Cross and FEMA are enroute. The grocery stores are open for awhile,t then the generators go down and they have to shut down. It is like something out of a movie - literally hundreds of cars trying to get into and out of the parking lots. The gas stations are lined up ten deep per pump. The few fast food restaurants that are open are packed with people eating and trying to stay warm. Yesterday Chick fil A had lines of power strips out for people to recharge their cell phones, laptops and DVD players. Everyone is really nice and looking out for one another. My neighbors not more than thirty feet away have had power the entire time (A particularly hard pill to swallow for a certain Bean) and have been bringing me coffee and charging our appliances too. They have fifteen people staying with them right now too. This is Arkansas - we are not prepared for ice storms. We had several big candles and a few flashlights, but that was it. We are in an all electric home, so no heat, no hot water, no cooking. We ate up the peanut butter and some bags of donuts. Pretty healthy, huh? We were about to start eating cans of cold vegetables. Which we could have easily done, but I am happy that we didn't have to do that after all. I am so very happy that everyone in my family had phone service the entire time or I would have gone bonkers worrying about everyone. My Mom is still without power and she is in a very rural area, so it may take some time.

I leave you with some of the over 400 photos I have taken so far.

House at the end of my street. Even more sadly is that the poor people actually just bought the house and moved in today. No power to boot!

Our house and tree BEFORE it hit. See the lovely ELECTRICITY coming in from the window. It went out about three minutes after this photo was taken. The tree is still standing, but pretty sparse.

The "limb" across the road. Such a mess to clean up everywhere.

Trees across the street from my house.

Even in the destruction, there is beauty.

Weeping willow encrusted in ice. Really awesome.
Side view of our yard. That "was" a wrought iron archway. It is now crushed. Not of that stuff should be in the yard. The privacy fence is crushed too.

Even the sun had a snotsicle. What a few days this has been. We have power, but there is along row to hoe getting stores back open, schools open, jobs up and running. Food will be short due to the massive power outages. It is pretty scary - nothing I have ever dealt with and hope to not deal with again. Thank you!

I'm posting this on a brand new computer. I've lost all my bookmarks and favorites - I have them all written down, but eh gads, the thought of typing them all in and finding them all is a bit daunting. I think I had over 150 blogs in my favorites. I do not do Blogrolling or whatever it is called, but I am thinking it might be a good idea. I did go to a few of my favorite blogs that I have a lot in common with and go to their favorites and copy a bunch of them. That was a good idea on my part. Others I will come across eventually and some won't make the cut. I had some that hadn't posted in over a year. I do wonder wht ever happened to those people. Did they just post one day and never again, or did something happen to them. It's a funny thing this blogland. If we disappear, people will notice, but how do you find out what happened?

My screensaver is gone - the one with The Bean as the Hulk and the cats as kittens and all those othe sweet photos I was used to seeing everyday. Now i just have that VISTA thing swirling around. Oh, I just hate change. I'll get it all back to where I wnat it, but until then I plan on bitching about it a lot. (I will say this is one snazzy computer and it has all the bells and whistles and things I never knew existed. And, boy oh boy, do things look different with this widescreen monitor. Boy howdy! I don't even like the look of my own blog now.)

I haven't a clue how to connect my camera to this new fancy dancy high tech computer, but it will come to me. Next I am going to try to hook up the Wi-Fi, which I failed at miserably on the old computer. We have a laptop and The Bean and I could both benefit from wi-fi for homeschooling and general Internet surfing. I'm not completely inept at technology. But, sometimes the terms confuse me and I get in deeper than I wanted to and then I just say an expletive or two and fuggetaboutit.

Another thing I did this week that is way out of my realm is set up a Facebook Account. I don't know why, I don't understand it. I don't really understand the purpose of it. I do think it would be cool to have someone from your past find you and say, "Oh, I used to be in love with you" or "Hey, I wanted to leave my Estate to you because you were nice to me in Junior High." I forgot to add my maiden name, so I don't think too many people from my way back past will be finding me anyway My cousin found me (Hey, Tracy), but she already knew where I was in the first place. So, if anyone can tell me a really good logical reason for my facebook account, that would be dandy.

So, I leave you with a photoless post, which I hate. Bah mumbug. It will get better, I promise.

Thrifty FridayThursday Finds

Today has been one of those days. Nothing terrible happened, thank goodness. Just lots of little weird things. Like I was all settled down to watch 20/20 and that's on tomorrow night. I could have sworn it was Friday! And, I put the dish soap and the vegetable oil in the refrigerator when I came home from the grocery store today. And The Bean put the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the cabinet this morning. (Luckily he realized what he had done when he had finished). And, for the first time in about three years I met The Breadman for lunch and when he tried to start his truck it was dead. And, when he did return to work, he found that major changes were underway - firings, salary cuts, etc. (But his position is safe, knock wood, thank heavens and all that jazz). And this afternoon I baked a Reduced Sugar cake for my Grandmother's birthday tomorrow. I baked it in my giant cupcake pan. When the time went off, the top part of the cupcake was done, but the bottom part was still soupy and gooey. I put it back in and checked it and checked it for over an hour and it never did cook thoroughly. And, then, it would not, I mean it would NOT come out of the damn pan. I finally got it to come out in these little sad chunks - some still gooey, others hard as rocks. Luckily, I had another chock full o'sugar cake mix in the cabinet, so I baked that cake and it turned out perfectly. I do not recommend Reduced Sugar Cakes. :o(

Thank heavens I got to make a thrift run this morning, so the day wasn't a total waste.

A Vintage 100% Wool Christian Dior scarf for 50¢. It has a few teeny holes, so it is going to be felted. But, still vintage Dior for fifty cents! Also a sweet hankie with "Mother" on it for 50¢. I love old hankies even though the idea of carrying a hankie for nose blowing is way off the gross meter to me. I only buy ones that are fresh and crisp and look unused. (Eeew).

A sweet baby quilt for $1.00. The fabrics look more vintage than they actually are - I know they are reproductions of vintage fabrics, but I love it just the same. The Valentine themed "Be Mine" square really got me.

And, a really sweet vintage tablecloth for $1.00. I love the colors of the geraniums - vivid reds and seafoam greens. I had that tablecloth feeling when I walked into the thrift. I thought I might find one, and I did! I always want to find one and I always wish I would find one, but sometimes I know I am going to find one - and I usually do! I'm Thrift-voiant!

Digging in Junk

Yesterday I got to dig in some junk - just like I had been craving to do for a few weeks now. Unlimited amounts of boxes of junk - cool vintage things, weird things, old stuff, some new stuff, an eclectic mix of junk. I was amazed at what I found! I was even more amazed that all this junk was in my very own home. Yikes!

Since we were home watching the Inaugural festivities all day, I decided to tackle some of the boxes in my so called "Office" (aka "The Junk Room") that had been in the depths of the closet for longer than I can remember. When I first started thriifting for ebay items, I bought vintage things and packed them away until I got them listed. Then something terrible happened - I found out that I liked, no, make that loved, all things vintage. So, selling my finds became less likely to happen and I kept more and more. Ooopsie. I know that none of you have ever done this....

I have way more than I can ever list and sell or keep, so the sorting has began. I was super excited to find some goodies in the closet - so excited that I didn't even mind donating the five tubs of off casts that I decided were not worthy of selling or keeping.

Here are the goodies that I found that I had either forgotten about or have no recollection of ever having bought. Sad, eh?

A super sweet child's quilt - all hand sewn and hand tied. Adorable! It has the name "Bobbie" written on the back.

A set of four neat old red trays. I will keep the best one and donate the others. And, a tiny Gurley witch candle. I had forgotten about her - but now I remember that there were three of them when I packed them away. So, surprises still await!
A huge bag full of vintage greeting cards. I adore vintage cards from the 1940's and 1950's. I like to look at the graphics and read the cards. I never use them or destroy them - I just like to admire them.

I have spent a great deal of time lately perusing Etsy and ebay looking at vintage children's Valentine's. I hadn't bought any, because I didn't need them, but I really wanted some. Well, surprise, I found a big bag full of Valentine's too - all to the same Teacher from her students over years, plus cards from her sister and husband. So sweet. Does anyone recognize those troll-ish looking characters on the cards on the right?

Yes, an Annalee pig. Can you believe I found an Annalee in my very own stash? I remember buying these (there is a boy waiting to be found yet) and not knowing what they were, so I packed them away. Now I know. And, now they are mine! (She needs a new fork though).
A good amount of old red candle clips for a Christmas tree. I had wished for some of these at Christmastime. Well, there's always next year!

A box full of vintage Flash Cards - these are tiny - about half the size of a regular deck of playing cards. Too cute for crafting and add-ins to packages.

The Homekeeping Book which explains how to keep house, a precursor to Martha's Homekeeping Book. It has useful things such as what cuts of meat come from which part of the cow, how to pickle, proper methods for washing floors and so on and so forth. The Rainbow Dictionary has sweet graphics. I probably bought it to use in Ephemera packets, but I just can't destroy it. It is too sweet just to thumb through and look at the graphics. And, a set of toadstool salt and pepper shakers. Yellow isn't really my color, so these may be gifted soon.

So, I dug in some junk, found some treasures, got rid of a bunch of things and never even left my own house. Sweet!

I'm off to the Mall (yes, I said the Mall) to try to get in on the free cosmetic settlement, then off to our first Unified Volleyball practice of the year. The Coach is super sweet to us and still lets The Bean play even though it is a school function and he is homeschooled.

Have a good day!

I (Heart) Making Stuff

*First things first...Little Lady is doing well. Her antibiotic shot seems to have kicked in and made her feel much better. She has spent the day playing and being really active. I keep a lot of my crafting supplies in the living room in baskets. I have one basket that has a Ziploc bag full of pompoms in it. She will go over and get into the basket and get out the bag of pompoms so I will give them to her to bat around. She is a funny girl. She seems to be full of energy and back to her regular self. I can deal with the Infection OR the seizures, but both at once was making me whacko. I thought I was losing her. But, I'm not. *Enough cat talk. (For now).

I've never really considered myself a crafter. But, I do love making things. I get an idea for something and I make it. I mostly make holiday things as my house is bursting with regular stuff, but I can always seem to justify another holiday decoration. In the past year now that I am home, a LOT, I have made more and more things. What with the housework and homeschooling, I have found that making something is something that I can do by myself for me. And, so I do. There's glitter in the crevices of the lower kitchen cabinets and hot glue remnants on the carpet, but that's okay. I have a busy mind and busy hands.

First I devised these mini cones. I've always made bigger cones, but I wanted to make smaller ones just to see if I could. I think it turned out cute. I especially like the "SMOOCH" on the handle. "Smooch" was one of The Beans first words. I massed produced 15 of these guys. My first mass produced item.
A Valentine's paperweight. Several years ago I bought a packet of school photos of two sisters from Kindergarten to 8th grade. I have doubles of each photo in three sizes and of both sisters. So, I have a lot of these photos. I particularly liked the smile in this photo, so I placed it inside the paperweight with a piece of scrapbooking paper that looks like an old journal and some hearts. I added in the "L-O-V-E" cut from another piece of scrapbooking paper and it was done. The back is lined in red felt and the outer rim has red rick rack around the edges. I think it is simple, but cute.

Tonight I started a collage using another photo of the same girl in the paperweight. I wonder where that little girl is now and how old she is now. Wouldn't she be amazed that I am using her in my crafting fodder and posting her on my blog

I spied some sweet little dollies on another blog - all made from bits and bobs and yard sale finds. They were just so stinkin' cute, I just couldn't believe it. I immediately started digging in the craft bins and the holiday bins pulling out anything red, white, pink or Valentine-y. I pulled out enough to make roughly 10,000 dolls, (ha) but have only made two so far with another in progress. The ones on the other blog are still cuter than mine, but I am working on it!

This little gal sits on a covered matchbox. She is wearing a cupcake liner dress with rick rack decor. I gave her a rusty heart to hold and a little ladybug. I kid you not, I have had these little wooden Japan heads rolling around in my crafting bins for nearly 20 years. I never knew what to do with them, but I always kept them.

This little gal is standing on three checkers with vintage trim. I love her little spun cotton head and Dresden wings. The wings, I might add, were The Bean's idea. "Make her a Cupid", he said. So, I did.

The heart was a vintage wedding decoration. I glued it onto some dotted Swiss fabric and added the rhinestone heart. It was fun to throw a bunch of junk together and make it turn into a little person! I am hooked now and have ideas for Easter, Patriotic and pretty much every other day of the year. I even placed my first order on Etsy for a fresh supply of spun cotton doll heads.

Hmmmm....what shall I make tomorrow?

Yet Another Cat Post

I mentioned that our little girl kitty Little Lady had a seizure back in October. She has now had a total of four seizures. She had one tonight. It is just the scariest thing to see. It scares us all to death. She bounces right back, but it is just terrible when it happens. Two days ago I noticed she was squatting in her litter box and trying to go pee, but not having luck. She went from one litter box to the other, back and forth, back and forth. I really thought that this along with the seizures meant something really bad was happening. I got her into the vet yesterday and he said it was just a Urinary Tract Infection - not uncommon and treatable with a new high dose shot that just came available.

I asked him about the seizures and he said that she probably has Epilepsy. And, that, if it was his cat, he would just let her have the seizures and monitor them. He said if she had several a week or even every day and if they lasted hours, then we would need to do something to help her. She's only had four in about three months and each one only happens when she falls asleep into a very deep sleep and they have only lasted less than a minute. It seems like hours, but it is really less than a minute start to finish. As soon as she shakes her head like, "that's it," she's off to her food and water bowl and then back out in search of a toy. And, until her next one, which might be tomorrow or a month from now, she is absolutely fine. I will get the results from the Vet tomorrow that it is definitely a Urinary Tract Infection. But, I can tell that the shot is working because she is not in the litter box anymore and she is acting like herself. It's hard to see something you having problems and not be able to help them. She is just the sweetest cat and I have a bond with her like no other cat I have ever owned.

That's not to say that I don't love my other two cats. I do. I really do. It's just that Little Lady has needed my attention lately. I'd love to show a photo of Tiger looking all alert and full of energy. But, that ain't gonna happen. This is how we see him 99% of the time. In fact, as I write this, he is asleep on the couch in a bed I made for myself complete with a quilt and pillow. he even has his head on the pillow like I made the darn bed just for him!

Here's Pity, doing what she does best - getting ready to go to bed. I swear to you, she can tell time. At exactly 10:15 every night, she comes into my office (aka THE JUNK PIT) gives me a very loud "MEW" and runs to the bed. She knows when it is time to go to bed.

It's amazing the love we get from our pets, isn't it? What we would do without our cats and dogs and birds or whatever fuzzy cuddly or even scaly and slimy pet you may have. Thank you for your love, kitties. Even you Tiger, who really only loves Daddy.

A Sticky Situation

I've shared more than my fair share of collections on this blog. White pottery, vintage tablecloths, gingham aprons, enamelware, vintage kitchen gadgets, miniature pottery, vintage holiday...and the list goes on and on. I am out in search of my beloved collectibles at yard sales, thrift stores, pretty much anywhere there is junk for sale. Throwing down a dime, a quarter and even a dollar sometimes to get my goods.

But, one of my collections, is, well....obtained in a different fashion. No money is involved. I get it by pure deceit and thievery. I steal it. One by one. Shhhh.

I steal stickers off watermelons in the fruit bin at the grocery store. Whew. I said it out loud. I am a thief. Actually, it's funny - the one pictured on the cover of my Sticker Book is actually a vintage one I paid for on ebay. I guess I'm not a total thief!

Okay, so it isn't exactly a felony. It's just a sticker.

I always try to find a label that has adhered itself to the side of the cardboard bin. And sometimes I find a watermelon that has two stickers on it.

I quietly remove the sticker and place it in my coupon file. I am discreet. Unlike a three or four year old Bean that would yell, "I FOUND YOU A WADDERMELON 'TICKER, MOM!" As it says up there in the corner, my Dad was in the Produce business my whole life. He started my collection of fruit crate labels. When labels no longer started coming on crates and boxes, he started saving the watermelon labels for me.

It took me most of one summer to find all three of these Disney labels. I suspect there might have been four, but who would it have been? Maybe Donald Duck?

Those three watermelons wearing sombrero's give me a chortle.

"Melon Up!" What the heck does that mean?????

Even though it might look like I have two or three of some, they has subtle differences like "Seeded" and "Seedless"or different farms in the same company.

I have stickers from Arkansas, Texas and Missouri. I suspect they don't ship watermelons too far from where they are grown due to the girth and weight of a load of watermelons.

So, now you see my silliest collection yet. (Except for the massive amount of figural stressballs The Bean and I have collected...) But, it is pretty much also my only collection that is organized and takes up very little room. And, I can continue to collect them for years in the same book before I run out of room.

Now I'm craving watermelon!

Some Finds, A Gift & A Project

Is anyone else in a digging mood? I am so ready to go to a big sale and dig in the boxes and find a treasure. I don't need much, just a couple goodies. I've been boxing up things and clearing things out and trying to get organized. But, I still have the urge to dig in some junk. Come on Yard Sale Season! As I write this the temperature is falling and falling outside to an expected 9 by the end of the week. There will be no digging in junk in my near future. Except my own junk!

A quick run to the thrift last week only netted three paltry items, but I am happy with what I did find.

Find #1: Donvier Ice Cream Maker - $1.00. A good deal, right?

Okay, so it only makes one half pint of ice cream. It's a little one serving maker, and oh so cute. We have the larger variety and rarely, okay, never use it. I thought this would be fun to play around with and make a little treat now and then. We like to take a Kool-Aid single packet, add half the amount of water and give it a spin in the Donvier. It makes a tasty slush in a couple of minutes.

Find #2: What the ?????

This is a hand blown antique laying egg. The farmers would place them under the chicken to entice them to lay more eggs. I have an old metal holder with three blown glass chicken eggs in it. This egg is a lot bigger so I am assuming it must be for a turkey. I found it in the sewing section mixed in with the thread. Even more reason to look everywhere when you thrift! (I think someone might have thought it was a darning egg. It is not a darning egg.)

Find #3: Vintage Tablecloth

At this particular thrift, they have these huge bins where they dump clothes and everything is 50¢ an item or 3/$1.00. I never look in the bins because people are always crowded around them digging and I don't really go looking for clothes anyway. But, recently I have been buying wool sweaters for felting, so I have been digging in the bin looking for sweaters. Last week I reached into the bin and pulled out a vintage tablecloth! A tablecloth in the clothes bin. Oh, No! How many have I missed not knowing this. (Tell me none, tell me none!) I gave it a good soaking and the stains came right out, including what appeared to be big cranberry sauce stain right in the center. Love the horses and covered bridges on the sides (not pictured).

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last week I had a Royal Gift bequeathed to me. Chris at Yardsalequeen saw these vintage-y rusty old ornaments and immediately thought of me. I love them! Thank you Queen. (There will come a day when I will not want people to think old and rusty and then Shara.)

And now a project. I mentioned last week that I had found a nice big shadow box at the thrift for $3.50. I had an idea for it when I bought it, but I had an idea I liked even better this morning. I had all these random things of the Baby Bean's kicking around in the house. Loose tiny socks, his pacifier, a pair of booties, etc.

I put everything in the shadow box, working from the back so everything was flat on the glass. I added in his two teething rings (that we found in the depths of the now defunct freezer last week), booties, a photo in his infant carrier, one teeny striped sock, the shirt he wore in the hospital, his teeny sunglasses (he always loved his sunglasses, and he still does), a pair of socks, pacifier, Identification bracelet and his name badge from his hospital bassinet (Hmmm, the Bean has a real name...). The jungle print background is the sunshade from his infant seat. To stuff it from the back I placed a pair of pajamas, a receiving blanket, a personalized t-shirt and other miscellaneous items so it is really a time capsule and not just a shadowbox. I call it The Bean Box. The Breadman said, "The Bean has been immortalized!"

Have you been digging for junk or creating anything lately?

Weeeee're Off To See

The Wizard. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

My Mother's birthday present this year (or rather last year - December 11th) was tickets to see the touring production of The Wizard of Oz. This was what we refer to as a girl's day out, but The Bean is included. (Don't tell him we think of him as "one of the girl's).

The Wizard of Oz has always been one of my Mom's absolute favorite movies, with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" being a special song for her. She even had it played at her wedding on the giant pipe organ. It was beautiful. I love the Wizard of Oz too. Well, now I love it. There was a time back in my Junior High days (before Ted Turner bought the rights to the Wizard of Oz) when it was only on the Friday night after Thanksgivng. Remember that? Friday night to me, was roller skating in my Dee Cee Painters paints with my coordinating Dee Cee Polo shirt and matching colored pompoms on my skates. Every Friday night I was at the skating rink; skating, being with my friends, looking at the boys, you know typical girl stuff.


But, on the Friday after Thanksgiving we had to stay home and watch The Wizard of Oz.

"Oh, puhleeeeeeeeze, can't we go skating?"


No, The Wizard of Oz is only on once a year, we have to watch it.

Oh My God, it was the end of my LIFE!


Until the next week when we went back and I wore my red Dee Cee Painter's pants and my red and yellow stirped polo shirt. Ah, good times, good times.


I digress. Back to the Wizard of Oz.

The Bean and I have been to several plays at the Arts Center, but most of them are pretty small budget. Like the lady on the bike in Oz would have walked by rolling a bicycle tire beside her or the witch would have melted into an obviously large heap in the floor. But, this was a real production with Glenda in a floating bubble and flying monkeys and a hot air balloon and a real bicycle. And, the Poppies. Oh, my goodness. The Poppies. The Poppies were ballroom dancers in all red with red Poppy petals falling from the sky. And, then right before your eyes, their red skirts swirled around them and everything suddenly turned white - their dresses, their vests, the poppy petals falling were suddenly white snowflakes. You saw it happen, but you didn't see it happen. It was magical. And, the Wicked Witch melted and disappeared like magic. It was such a fantastic production!

Another part of my Mother's birthday present was a real pair of Ruby Slippers. When I saw them online, I pictured ruby red slippers - like bedroom slipper. Oh, how cute, I thought. But, when they arrived they were actual adult sized Ruby Red Glittery Sparkly shoes!

I gave them to her sort of as a joke, but I will be darned if she didn't actually wear them today. There she was at the Wizard of Oz wearing her Ruby Slippers. And, don't think she went un-noticed. Oh, no, no, no! She was the Belle of the Ball. Everyone saw her Ruby Red Slippers. As we were leaving, we spotted a tiny girl wearing her full blown Dorothy costume complete with Ruby Slippers. My Mother stepped up beside her and said, "Look at our shoes!" He mother said, "Oh, she spotted you all the way across the theater!"

There's no place like home!