This and That, Books and Bowling Balls

Hey.  Long time, no blog.  For me anyway.  I have been doing some thrifting and my Valentine decorations are up.  Sadly, my camera has decided to stop working which is really putting a damper on my blogging and ebay listings.  It is still under warranty, but will have to be mailed in, repaired and then returned to me, so no telling how long it will be before I get it and am able to get back on the blogging and listing road.  So, I found a nice camera on Amazon that will be here next week.  It will fill in until mine is back in my hands.  Then I can keep the other one in my purse or in the car so I always have it.  I know I have the iPhone, but I can't get into using it for all my photo taking needs.  It takes great photos outside, but all my inside photos are washed out and not very good at all.

Here's a photo I took of my Valentine Tree - see how bad the color is?  But!  Did you notice?  I am using the PINK Evergleam tree.  It is lovely and fun to see in my living room all prettied up instead of siting on the shelf in the garage.  

(Photo taken from my iPhone.  It really does take lovely outdoor photos).

I have a new obsession:  Book folding.  Take an old book and fold the pages in different ways to create patterns.  Some people can do beautiful creations like this:

Source: jeanniejeannie.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

  

I opted for a much less stressed version created by The T Cozy.  

I used an old Nancy Drew book that I had and made this pattern that looks like a Chinese Lantern.  It's really sort of calming to do.  I cannot just sit and look at the TV - I have to have busy hands, so I always have a project going in the evenings.  This is great for that, I can watch American Idol or Survivor (it starts Wednesday Laurie!) and keep my hands busy while I watch the show.  I am working on a different pattern that I worked out myself now.  I have plans for a heart book too.  I stopped in the library today to pilfer through the FREE book bin and I found several with pretty colored covers and end pages.  Like I really need another project and another excuse to drag home more crap.  Books especially!  Yikes!


A few weeks ago, I said out of the blue..."It would be fun to have a fire pit in the back yard."  Well, The Bean grabbed a shovel and went to work.  

 If you don't know this about Arkansas, you should.  You cannot dig a hole in Arkansas.  The ground is solid rock.  And the dirt, if you are lucky enough to come across any, is bright red.  When they built all the houses on our block the land was located in a flood zone, so they brought in over a hundred dump trucks full of dirt and filled up the flood zone.  So, we have really good deep dark soil in our entire yard.  The Bean was able to dig and dig without any trouble.

He dug it our nice and round, smoothed it all out and made a really nice big hole.  Since then, we have added and and gravel to the bottom for air and some logs.  We haven't made a fire yet.  Funny thing is - I am allergic to smoke.  Ha.  But, I will tough it out one of these days and have myself a S'more.

We needed to put something around it for safety reasons.  We went to Lowe's and looked at landscaping bricks.  They were nice and they would work, but were they really us?  I mean we have a chippy pink glider and a fireplace mantle against the fence and wind chimes made out of tin cups and a six foot tall tin man in the corner and an old grocery cart full of plastic chickens and a lot of other weird things in our yard.  Store bought landscaping bricks just seemed a little bit too ordinary for this house and this family.  What could we use that we already own that would fit in?  Wait!  I think I've got it!

Bowling balls!  

What?  You don't have a dozen old bowling balls in a wheelbarrow in your backyard?  Huh.  I just assumed everyone did!  Now The Bean is troweling out little indents for each ball to sit in perfectly.  We need a few more bowling balls, but each of these have come to us along the way at thrifts and yard sales, so I know more will come along soon.  And, as odd as it sounds, bowling balls really are more us!