our first real snow of the season

How wonderful the world looks around me, in the first snow to stick for this season! 

The trees look like they are carefully frosted. 

The night time is brighter in the white glow.

THINGS I AM LIKING TODAY:

• the fireplace heating up the brick kitchen wall
• watching old vhs movie favorites under a down-filled quilt
• ham leftovers for lunch and dinner
• all the glow of the Christmas tree lights  
• planning for bowling and ice skating with the kids
• my car which gets me safely around and stops well in the snow
• a warm bed to curl up in with soft blankets and cozy flowered pillow case
• a connection to a dear friend at just the right times 
• the newly organized pantry

THINGS I WANT TO DO:

• switch to my new computer desk area set-up
• continue weeding out Christmas decor
• sort more magazines that were hand-me-downs
• hear from a long not seen friend I have reached out to
• set up some clearance sale item listings in my Etsy shop

another day in a string of bliss

What have I been up to?

• having to accept that some things just happen as they will, no matter how much planning you do in life (a tough realization sometimes, for me that is!)
• adjusting lifestyle to 1 paycheck after finally being pretty gosh darn comfy with 2 ( I am worth so much more, but have to be humble in securing that a paycheck is again at least steadily received)
• enjoying little moments with family and friends ( not saying I have oodles and oodles of friends more than you, but why is there never enough time for all the fun that beckons to be had with those you treasure?)

What have I completed?

• painted a thrifted desk that has been patiently awaiting my attention for FAR too long. It is now semi-gloss black with sleek silver metal drawer pulls and a decoupaged top featuring gobs of clock face images sealed off with plenty of clear coat (to protect precious "time")
• taking the 1st big step to changing a kitchen that has been asking for a make-over for nearly 58 yrs (will be a slow process... due to second point above)
• sorting through and eliminating scads of magazines (did you know that if you only save the pages you really are interested in, you can make the compressed foundation of your house rise a few inches?)

What do I need to do?

• clean my closet (what the heck is in the back anyway?)
• dig out the favorite Christmas decor and chuck the rest to the goodwill (the kids probably don't want that stuff one thinks they do when they move out some day. Someday seems a  l o n  g way off !)
• write some Thank You notes ( to show I have some upbringing, after-all)

What do I want to do?

• disassemble the dog pen before the snow flies so I can see more of the pines coated in frosty white sparkles (or at least stop looking at the eyesore as it is now)
• tackle the file cabinet so my new year will start fresh (Geez, I hate ugly paperwork build-up)
• put more photos in black frames, new and vintage (writing on the backs would be a bonus too)

season of vintage fun

I'll say it again.... The colors of these old images get me every time. Soft, yet vivid. I am a girl who notices the little things, how 'bout you? The crisp red and white (my two favorites together no matter what they grace), the sharp green around his shoulder, the yellow of his pants cuff, the subtle pink of the bricks. *sigh*

Have fun with Mr. Jolly if you print him.
Here are some suggestions:

1. gift tag by just sticking some tape on it, or better yet, punch a hole and add some recycled twine

2. twin images glued back to back with a special ribbon scrap loop sandwiched between the glued pieces and dangled from a special spot to make you smile when you see his smile

3. have an old piece of styrofoam hanging around somewhere?.... put it in the bottom of any deep bowl, vase, or whatever strikes your fancy, add some pine sprigs or holly (or both!) to stand upright... add to that an old tarnished fork (or new one), standing upright as well, and use the tines to hold the image.... place your creation on a mantle, entrance table, or as a dinner centerpiece

Fun Ideas

Do you have things all over your refrigerator? You know what I mean by things, right? Just ...things!

I have a calendar the size of Texas on mine to try to have the space to fit in all the stuff I need to do each day with three busy kids. I solved the problem of having too many other things on my fridge by doing something with those things somewhere else. it happened with an antique frame, some chicken wire, and some spray paint.

I didn't have to take out the glass from the frame 'cuz someone had already done that chore before I found it abandoned. Abandoned, I say. Who would do that to a frame with so much carved wood detail and so much potential left in it? This frame is big I tell ya, about 4 feet high and 2 feet across. The wood is about 8 inches wide! Anyway, I staple gunned some chicken wire to the back side and then spray painted the heck out of it all, the chicken wire and including the frame, and now it is in an awkward corner of my kitchen that I never quite knew what to do with anyway. It holds my photos, notes, recipes, reminders, and whatever else seems to find its way into our life and needs a place to be seen. I hold them on to the chicken wire with old wooden clothes pins. Mine are naturally weathered as I use them on an actual clothesline and treat myself to a fresh batch from the dollar store each spring. Lucky me!

These very vintage Valentines you see above are available in the shop as a collage sheet you print, and would be fun to tuck on your own chicken wire frame or on a fridge in your house...or you could craft with them if you have the time. Time. That is something which seems to escape me these days. Extra time anyway. How 'bout you?

That's why I am doing my crafting by virtual idea sharing so you can do what I wish I had time to do. *sigh*

These are sweet little 1920's images which my mom saved. She saved everything. Some things I am glad of, others, well we won't waste time on all that. They are now a collage sheet too and couldn't you picture the little heart shaped ones cut out and glued to some dollar store paper doilies and then added to a wide ribbon to hang vertically? That would be sweet indeed.

I have lots of themed collage sheets and cowboys and cowgirls is just one of them. How fun to throw a themed party and have these as decor and table extras!! You could make them into place cards or napkin wraps. Shrink their size to make cupcake toppers by cutting them out in small squares and glueing back to back on toothpicks, wah--lah, instant Martha whatever her name is!! Or play tricks on your printer by making some in a mirror image, cut them out right along the edges of the images and then glue them back to back on cord, ribbon or fish line and make a kind of mobile to hang at all different levels to twist and turn. Super fun!

Circus is just one more of the many collage sheet themes, besides fire fighters, policemen, and space-- just to name a few. I could really imagine a bunch of different circus images cut out and glued along a sheer ribbon, or bias tape ribbon, or that super duper great twisty kinda striped baker's/butcher's twine stuff...and then hang it all along a wall or in an archway like a banner bunting. And look at these-- you could play with the image and then add your little one's name to the hearts to make an adorable nursery bunting...or use them for a shower party set up!!

Click here to check them out.

recycle

If you are not into recycling you think the items in these photos are just junk. If you do recycle you will say, "Hey!, possibilities can be endless with imagination!"

This photo is at a fun store that has all types of things that can be used again... from the obvious such as fabric pieces and ribbons and beads and photo mat board and frames and wallpaper sample books and wood scraps...to the not so obvious kinds of things that usually get directly sent to the trash- but if you use some imagination they can become art ingredients.

My son has been in a recycling club for 2 years at school. His main job each week is to empty the big bins of paper from his assigned classrooms into the outside paper recycle hopper to be made into more new paper. They also have art days too, where they make things from recycled items. There are both girls and boys in the club so they have made many types of arts creations with unexpected items. Everything from making their own homemade paper to creating beads from junk mail to thinking up new practical creative ways to use things as is beyond their original intended purpose.

My oldest daughter is involved in making art at an art gallery. Some of their sculpture-like art pieces are created with recycled items. The gallery, which is open to the public and sells art made only by young adults with disabilities, is in a beautiful historical building.  I am crazy for old buildings with worn down not so level wooden floors and high tin ceilings and exposed brick walls and vintage window glass that is wavy and has tiny bubbles in it. During our first tour, I walked around with a constant smile on my face. The attributes of the old building structure, wonderful set up of the gallery displays and of course the art itself was inriguing. My daughter also could not stop smiling.The studio sells items, both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional (priced from just a few dollars all the way up to $800) to business owners for their offices, private owners for their homes, and it is a perfect place to shop for gift giving. I knew this was the place for my daughter to blossom, and so took the long, red-tape paperwork steps to have her apply to be one of their artists, since they had an opening for a new artist to be added. (I'm certain if you have a special needs child/young adult then you know what this all means at every step of their life! Paperwork, waiting, denial, approval, more paperwork...) My daughter has had many of her drawings, paintings, and photography matted and framed to be offered for sale in the gallery. I see the pride she has, and I am proud of her every day.

All of my children are artists. I am an artist. We each have our own interests and specialties.
Art is everywhere you go every day. Clothing, signs, menus, book jackets, movie posters, home furnishings, landscaping, architecture, and on and on in so many directions. So many forms of art. Even nature is art.

Back to the story attached to this photo-- The idea of the creative "trash curtain" is an interesting concept, and I would do it with some variations. For example, I think it would be fun to customize it with a monochromatic color approach and do all bottle lids (caps), or all the same shapes (of whatever) on a string. Hang several as outdoor art to catch the wind near at patio or backyard playhouse. It is colorful and waterproof and I even thought it could include some jingly things to be kind of a wind chime when blown in the breezes.

Paper Posies for Springtime

This is a project I completed with some of the hand made, one of a kind, Paper Posies I made. It is a canvas covered, magnet backed photo frame. I laid out and glued down a free form pattern of randomly squiggled lines of vintage cotton rick-rack and clustered a grouping of blue shades of Paper Posie flowers in the bottom corner and flowing outward. A very fun project.

Here I took a sweet little tossed aside vintage oil painting and rescued it out of a very ugly frame by adding twisty wire and a vintage ribbon tied in a bow. Paper Posies were added to the painted flowers to give it a 3-D effect. You could do this with just about any picture, painting or card for a bit of "pop"!

This was a past project that I sold but I have also done this same thing to keep for myself. It is fun to glue Paper Posies onto vintage (or new) rick-rack. It can be used as a garland (you could even glue the Posies back to back so they show no matter how the garland twists!) or to attach onto a lamp shade for trim (you don't even have to glue it on permanently--just wrap it around and glue the ends together... if you are like me and you like to change things often!) or to dress up a boring or thrifted/painted up photo frame or to drape over the top of a mirror in a powder room or maybe over a little girl's vanity. It would also be great to add to a wreath! I'm sure there are oodles of other ideas if you let you imagination run free.

I used some to make a cute little last minute tag for a gift and also a birthday card that you can see and read about HERE.

You can see some projects done by my friends using my Paper Posies HERE on an ATC and HERE on a faux cupcake, of all things. Really, you have to see how cute!!

I once had an order for 100 custom made Paper Posies flowers for a shop owner to use in her glass display cases as props. That was hard work, but fun!! I took them "on the road" as a work in progress while my car was getting "road worthy"...a very funny story indeed. You can see them HERE, and WOW!! they look pretty cool photographed all in a big group!!

The below photo shows examples of my bouquets of one of a kind Paper Posies.

I hope I have provided some inspiration. These flowers work great for crafting of all sorts- altered art, collage, ATCs, card making, scrapbooking, etc...
As well as for decorating- add them to lampshades, photo frames, mirrors, window shade hems, baskets...the possibilities are only limited by your imagination!!

beauty and treasure

You never know what you may find at a rummage sale, garage sale, yard sale, estate sale, tag sale-- 

I had long ago purchased a tiny wooden frame with silver paint very worn from what I believe to be many decades or maybe even a century of wear. The tiny size spoke to me even though the picture featured inside did not. Many times that is the reason I purchase--for the frame and not its contents.

The frame sat, neglected, tucked away and almost forgotten in a box of other frames. In searching through things to sell or donate, or to find inspiration to finally art again when the time presents itself to me, I became reacquainted with that tiny frame with touches of remaining silver paint. Since I had a RARE moment to myself (for a change) that did not involve being behind a bathroom door (!), I thought I would empty the unwanted contents of the frame.

I found this scrap of artwork hiding between the front image which was not going to be kept and the backing paper! What a thrill! I immediately smiled. I immediately wondered about this beauty as I held the fragile paper in my hand. Who drew it? How long ago? Was she a real person or the imagination of the artist?

The torn edges on two sides were wonderful. The discoloration almost magical the way it forms an oval around her. I was so excited that my find had revealed such treasure beyond the tiny wooden frame. No markings nor signature appear anywhere on it.

She had, all this time, waited patiently for me to rediscover her after rescuing her from the sale.

thoughts of my day revealed

It is snowing again today in northern-most Ohio. I love it. I am happy when it snows. I love winter. As long as it is cold there might as well be snow. Snow makes everything look bright and clean. I can do without the melting dirty slushy snowy left-over part of winter, though. Give me everlasting white pretty snow!! Please.

My favorite weather spans from any month it starts to snow {which around here can be anytime after late October} until any month it stops snowing {which around here is usually around late March but has been known to happen as late as early May!} I know I am in the minority in my love of cold and snowy days.
I don't ever get cabin fever...although I don't stay inside "the cabin" ever...I go out in the snow! 'Cuz I love snow!
I don't get cold outside. It has to be below 20 degrees for me to wear a coat. People who know me and see me wear a coat say, "It must officially be cold, Amy's finally wearing a coat."
I never wear a coat/hat/gloves unless A) I am going sledding or building a snowman or B) if it is below 20 degrees. Honest. To just go away anywhere in the car or run errands I don't wear a coat, just a sweatshirt or a couple layers of long sleeve shirts.
It would be heaven to me if I lived somewhere that never went above 70 degrees.

Here's my definition of hot weather, at least here in Ohio: 1. humidity, 2. gross soggy clothes, 3. mosquito bites. YUK. YUK. Super YUK!

I was hoping to drive to my favorite recycling scrap art store today. Ran short on time after all my other tasks. To drive there in the snow would have taken longer than the usual 20 minutes or so and they would have been ready to close up shop 10 minutes after my estimated time of arrival. That's no fun! I need to lose all track of time when I am in there digging around, not keep track of time. Hello!, that's the whole point of getting lost in there, thinking up things to make with unusual stuff, while escaping the outside world.
They have more arts/crafts/sewing stuff there than I could ever list. You can fill a plastic bag slightly smaller than a grocery sack for $5. Yipee! I limit the purchase to just 1 bag and I try to stick with a rule that I take at least 1 bag of stuff to donate to help the cause, the "only bring home same/less than you take out" philosophy.
PS- my mom mobile is just slightly newer than these in the above illustration.

When I did finally arrive home, deciding the rest of my running around out on the snow/ice covered streets would wait until another day, I was met with something that I hate when it goes on and on and on. Barking dogs. My barking dogs. I hate barking dogs, especially when they are mine. Barking for a purpose is ok I guess. Barking just to bark is so annoying to my ears I find I want to crawl out of my skin!! UGH! The dogs were put in their kennels. Ahhh. No more barking! I can stay calmly inside my skin. *deep breath*

PS- don't call anyone to report me. They had shelter and water and food. They bark endlessly year round despite the weather and temperature, just to try to "separate me from my skin"...and sanity!

A night ahead will look almost like this when my dear husband comes home from a long day of working way too hard for his adoring family. He doesn't usually have a suit and dress shoes on to lounge in the chair, though. He is more likely found in a pair of sweats and flannel shirt and socks. Oh, and we only get the Sunday paper. He finds lots of other things to read during the week. He is a sitcom junkie too. He says laughing at silly shows helps him wind down from a day of work.

I, myself, hate sitcoms that have laugh tracks (or canned laughter, as some people call it). Have you ever really listened to a laugh track? It is crazy dumb sounding. Remember when shows like I love Lucy were filmed in front of a LIVE audience? The people in the TV studio inserted the REAL laughter at the right times. After live audiences were a thing of the past they decided they needed to have laugh tracks since the home viewing audience might not be suave enough to know where to insert their own laughter without prompting. UGH! Go ahead and close your eyes while watching a sitcom sometime and see what I mean about it sounding crazy dumb. Almost as bad a barking dogs making you want to climb out of your skin, but not quite as bad. *insert laughter here*

Oh, and the toys scattered on the floor are true to our home scene. Always.

I do enjoy sitting by the fire which burns at our house from about October through April (see above reference to snow-month-spans in northern-most Ohio). I however do not wear a dress and high heels to lounge. My jammies would be more like it. Any chance I get. Usually right after dinner. N. would not be wearing shorts in front of the fire either. But he would be found among a pile of Legos on a regular basis. Have you ever stepped on a small stray Lego with shoeless feet? Go borrow some Legos if you have to and try that one for a treat. *insert sarcasm laugh track here*

PS- don't you love to look at old illustrations and compare your present day life to the life-style that once was?

Christmas is past

This is what it looked like a few weeks back, before I decorated the hutch with vintage Christmas stuff. My kitty was inspecting the area for me. This is also what it looked like again last night, after all the vintage Christmas was packed away for another year.
How 'bout a look around at what it was like for the holiday here when all the vintage nostalgia was in full force.

So much of this stuff takes me back to the days of visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house. I have great memories of those times.... visual reminders and certain scents-- like ham baking in the oven, or fruitcake in a tin, can make me feel like a kid in their house like it was yesterday.

Some of these items will be sold off and new (or old) things will come in to replace them. The circle of collections and thrifting.

We had a good Christmas together as a family. Good food, good memories made, the warmth of a crackling fire in the fireplace and the promise of what our faith brings us.

I love the photo above and am thinking I will offer it for sale as a print. Don't you love those old Christmas bulbs?

We did end up having a real tree once again this year, vs. an artificial one, after a lapse of several years. Boy did I miss a real tree. Love the scent! Our tradition each year was to go to a tree farm the second weekend of December and cut one as a family outing. I miss that tradition, but the tree farms all became more pricey than our budget would easily allow, so sadly there have been no recent trips to the tree farm. This year we headed to the big box home store to buy a tree that was probably cut back in Sept. or something crazy like that. Anyway, we could afford it as it was cheap enough, with the help of our rebate coupon we were redeeming from a previous purchase for a much needed home repair- (adventures in home ownership, as we like to refer to it)-and it really was a cute, tiny tree, after all.... even if it had been cut months ago and struggled to hold its needles.

On top of the table by the window it looked like a tall proud tree from outside. We did fool the neighbors, until they came inside and our secret was revealed. Look closer and you will see one of our traditions...

We always put my stuffed animal squirrel from my childhood tucked in among the branches.
Some of you may know of a movie that has a squirrel in the Christmas tree!!

We ended up having to take down the tree early as it was very dry and we did not want to burn down the house. You know, since it was probably cut back in Sept. or something and all the drinks we gave it were not enough to refresh it for long. We would ordinarily leave it up until Epiphany. Since I had to take the tree down I disassembled the rest of the decor while I was on a roll. On to the new year!!

abandoned

You will never guess in a million years where I got these dishes.

There are a lot of them, too.

Go ahead.

Guess!

Someone's trash!

The trash.

Can you believe it?

I think #1 they got rid of them because they are not dishwasher friendly and #2 I believe they hoped someone would come grab them off the curb before the trash truck came along because they were in several neatly packed boxes with a few representative pieces displayed on top of the opened boxes, kinda like a curb-side-department-store-wedding-registry-display.

I know they are not very Christmassy but I just may set my Christmas Eve table with them.

Yes, in case you are wondering, they have been properly disinfected.

You just never know what you will find if you keep your eyes open... and your mind open as well.

time

As a holiday treat to myself, and the family too, I decided it was time to have the clock repaired with some money I earned by cleaning at a friend's house (maybe I should find someone who will help clean mine! ). The clock once belonged to my mom and it was in disrepair, in need of a new spring for the pendulum. Everyone missed hearing it chime.
It was serendipity that school had a 2 hour snow delay the morning when the repairman was scheduled to come to the house. N. loved watching the repairman as he worked. He looked like he could have made a great Santa, no fake whiskers required!!
They talked and enjoyed each other's company, the older: about how he got started repairing clocks as a boy along side a neighbor... and the younger: about how he likes to build motors and other inventions with Legos and Tinker Toys.

After the repairman left, N. was anxious to decorate the clock. A no-no I am sure after he carefully balanced it and all, but we couldn't resist. First try was to use these snowball looking lights. It came together nicely and then...no light when we plugged in the string. I hate that, don't you? The next thing was to start again and this is what we ended up with.

N. has been collecting nutcrackers since he was a baby so he has amassed a surprising group in 10 years, mostly as gifts and a few found here and there from garage sales. He can spy one on a table of hundreds of miscellaneous thrifty things in 2 seconds flat!

N. did the display of books in front on the floor and was very excited to have them be a part of the whole grouping. I am sure the clock repair man did not have this in mind when he was doing his precision work. Don't tell him, ok?!

Wanted? and Wanted...

FIRST-THE WANTED?

I have these 2 pink adorable Pyrex bowls and have had them displayed rather than using them. I don't bake, you see. I know, I know...I could use them for other purposes as well. I have chosen to just use them for display with my other pink thrifty things on my hutch. It was time to change the display {and besides it was wayyy past time to dust!} so I have moved these into a box. I wonder if anyone out there would like to buy them and have them at their home? As you can see, the larger of the 2 is more faded and has some less than perfect areas. Must have been used more by the owner before me than was the smaller sized bowl which is brighter and in better condition.
Let me know if you have any interest.
Update: they have been sold and have found a new home!

NEXT-THE WANTED
Now on to the next photo below... every year about this time I become nostalgic to the point of frantically surfing the internet to find a few of these elves that I can actually afford. 

My mom had a set of them -maybe 6 or 8 when the set was new- from the 1950's. They were made in Japan by Napco or Napcoware and are called spaghetti trim figurines. I grew up in the 1960's and 70's seeing these decorate our home every Christmas time. I loved to unwrap them from their newspaper cocoon one by one out of the big carton box and try to guess or be surprised by which one it would be based on the shape inside the paper. Then I would spend the next few weeks rearranging them {probably to the point of my mom wanting to tie my hands behind my back!}.
I have found them but not in my price range and when they are in my price range I do not win the bid. Amazing how nostalgia can drive up prices of dime-store Japan stuff that seemed cheesy when new long ago. Just sayin'. I search and search. So I have also put the word out on my blog several times over the past few years to see if anyone has any they would like to sell, one piece or a whole set.
Let me know.
Do you ever long to replace something you grew up with? Tell me what it is...maybe I have it sitting unloved in a box and it would be happier at your place.
Stranger things have happened!!

How to dress a thrifty chair

( My chair waiting to be dressed.)

The chair pictured above is my chair. I have 6 of them. They have been living with me for a few years. They were adopted from the curb of a rich neighborhood in my town. They looked so sad sitting there on the curb. I could see they had potential. They were so glad to come live with me. They have been dressed in many varying fabrics for their cushions.

By the way, the chairs have always been painted in a creamy white and they are kind of chippy which comes naturally at my house with anything painted around 3 kids. I was shabby chic before it was chic.

(My chair dressed in blue.)

I recently dressed them in some beautiful light blue faintly striped damask fabric. Lovely, but I am just not loving it right now in my home. Luckily the huge roll of beautiful light blue fabric was a $2 find at a garage sale so no kidneys were sold for the benefit of dressing the chairs.

Back to trying to decide what to dress them in... I am thinking of maybe some neutral fabric or pillow ticking possibly. I am yearning for a calmer neutral color scheme. I don't think I will do the light blue table theme this year and besides, the tablecloth might be handed off to live with someone else. Hey!, Maybe someone else will cut up the table cloth and make seat covers out of it?!
The best thing about fabric and seat covers is they are NEVER permanent. You could change them with the seasons or the days of the week.

If you have the time!

 I have been painting thrifty find furniture for years now and have been wanting to paint more of the pieces living with me. They have been begging, I mean patiently waiting, for a coat of artsy paint. But that all takes time. Time, my eternal theme in life.

free label

A label I invented-

would be fun to use one

to decorate an old recycled bottle

for your very own Halloween apothecary.

Halloween is coming, roses are fading

Surprised that this post isn't filled with little pumpkins with silly expressions carved into them and cute little witches? That's because I am getting ready (hopefully soon) to unpack the Halloween storage tub any minute (when I find a free minute).

In the meantime, I thought I would snap a few pics of how my bathroom has looked for the end of summer. Thrifty antique roses postcards and tins. The postcards are fun as some have writing on the back. The tins remind me of being at my grandma's house. Did/does your grandma have tins?

Grandma kept lots of things in tins. One for buttons, one for zippers, harvested from clothing that had been retired. Did you ever have a grandma or great grandma who harvested zippers or lace or buttons off things? Do grandmas still do that today? Maybe not so much as those depression era grandmas. I have been known, now and again, to buy a 25 cent shirt at a rummage sale just to harvest some great buttons that would sell on their own new for $10-$20!

My favorite use of tins at Grandma's house was when she would layer homemade cookies in between layers of waxed paper. Mmmmmm! Except the ones with red and bright green dried fruit in them like what goes in fruitcake. Those cookies, not so good. I guess even Grandma couldn't hit it out of the park every time!

Don't you love finding freebies like rose paintings and sweet cherub prints, that all seem to get along together well-- even though they were not found together when acquired?

Fun how that works, huh? So this is how my bathroom has been greeting its visitors of late. But now it is time for a more whimsical seasonal change. The kids are looking forward to the Halloween novelties decor slightly more than they anticipated the roses theme.

PS- I am dragging out the traditional Halloween stuff for the kids' benefit. I have a few black and white and very glittery things that I made and some gifts I was given a few years ago that will be my favorites again this year. Think crows! A little "Martha look" and Alfred Hitchcock mixed together.

10 things....me, and the floor waxer...

1. I ran away from home recently one late night. You read it right. I did.

2. Sometimes I do this. Sometimes I need this.

3. Sometimes no one notices. Darn. I hate that part!

4. Where to go that late? What is still open? I ended up at one of those "big box" stores.

5. Not many places are open all night. It was me and the floor waxer. Well, and a lonely cashier and some semi-truckers out in the parking lot -asleep- waiting for morning, to make their deliveries.

6. I walked around for about 2 hours. Truth be told, the music is pretty good in the middle of the night and the noise of hundreds of shoppers is missing. There were lots of clearance racks filled with summer stuff and great deals, you know, since they have to make room for the back to school and even the Halloween stuff- ALREADY!!!

7. I should have shopped for myself, not the family. I was trying to run away, after all. I bought a few things and went home.

8. I wondered the whole time if anyone would question me the moment I got in the back door or the next morning.

Nope.

Everyone was asleep and never knew I was even missing.

Nothing was ever said.

9. No one even thought to ask, "Where did this new stuff you bought for me come from?"

Nothing. No comment.

I ended up returning most of what I bought. Wrong size, didn't like, etc, etc.

10. Morale of the story:

•  make sure everyone KNOWS you're running away(but only if you WANT them to know or care)
•  shop for yourself
•  maybe the floor waxer man has a few good stories to share and could become a new friend

will that be paper or glass?

Maybe I should be like this retro Dixie Cup mom in this ad, instead...

I do drink out of fancy glass glasses and eat off fancy glass plates all from thrifty buys so they can be broken (which they inevitably are! ) without any big financial loss. That way I can say, with hoity toity attitude, to the family as I wield the broom and dustpan, "I can't have anything nice with you kids around here!"

They just reply, "Mom needs to go hunt down more cheap pretty glassware!"

Do you think they have caught on to the fact that I actually enjoy the opportunity to hunt and gather pretty things on the cheap????

It is funny when my kids take a shine to one certain cup or bowl in the thrifty mix and claim it as their own. When that piece gets broken it is a whole different story.