Category Archives: Photography

Duck, Duck, Goose

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Well look at that, a Thrifting Thursday on a Thursday, what a concept!! Maybe I shouldn’t babble on too much, lest I get distracted and this becomes another edition of Thrifting Thursday on a Friday.

So, keeping the babble at a minimum today, let’s look at a couple of items I snatched up at Goodwill a while ago. Actually, it’s a set of items.

Duckhead bookends. They’re shiny, and animal heads, I couldn’t resist. With my growing owl collection, my sweet goose head, and now these guys, the house is turning down right fowl. Sorry, I couldn’t resist, that pun was just asking for it. Just like these lil duckheads were begging to come home with me. And yes, I know bookends belong at the end of say, a row of books, but I couldn’t relegate these guys to the messy abyss where all of my books reside. Most people would call this abyss a spare room, but not I! It’s the room where thrifted overabundance and already read and re-read literary items go to die, unless of course we have an overnight guest, then the panic sets in and the shuffling of hoard begins. But I don’t wanna talk about that, I’m already getting hives thinking about it.

Speaking of hoard, I’ve recently been hoarding wooden bowls and trays. I love the texture of them, and everyone of them is different.

Plus, they look really cute cluttering up my dining table and holding part of my owl hoard.

And my giant dough bowl, filled with apples and pumpkins. To make things feel all fall like and such. Is it working?

Speaking of fall and being thankful and keeping with my promise to talk about everyday thankfulness, I’m thankful for warm autumn weather and the memory of a summer sunset.

Veteran’s Day

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Today I am thankful to all the veteran’s, active military and their families for the sacrifices they have made to keep our country free.

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Perception of Perfection

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As I cruise through the interwebs, I see so many beautiful rooms, so many clever crafts, and so many other creative things that imaginative people have come up with. And I want to make the rooms in my house that beautiful and try all of those creative crafts, but honestly, I feel a little over stimulated with all of it. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy looking at those beautiful rooms and trying those clever crafts, but it’s become a little too much lately. There’s too much perfection, or perception of perfection. I realize that’s probably not the intent of these lovely creative people, but that perfection has become a distraction of mine recently. I get lost in the journey to perfection, because honestly, it doesn’t exist. And while seeking that nonexistent perfection, I am missing out on all the imperfect perfection around me. So, for the remainder of the month of November I plan to post about something I am thankful for, something that is not part of my journey to that impossible destination of perfection.

I know you’re probably thinking I’m crazy for committing to another series, considering how consistent I was with my 31-ish Days of Getting it Done.  But this time, there’s no doing, it’s only observing, and picture taking, and quote copying, or whatever else tickles my thankful fancy.

So to start off my 23 days of thankfulness….

No, I’m not thankful for a U-haul truck, but for what the U-Haul hauled back to New Mexico, my sister and her husband. I am so thankful that she and her husband made it from Virginia to the Land of Enchantment safe and sound. Even through the scary-ness of Super Storm Sandy, a lost wallet, and numerous other dramas that caused delays and stress. But they made it back home safe and sound, and I have my sister back! *Happy Dance*

Oh and Happy Birthday Sister!!!

Also, I should mention that  my thoughts and prayers are with all those that were impacted by Sandy. Too many people lost their homes, and in some cases their loved ones.

31 Days: Enjoyment

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Apparently blogging for 31 days in a row is completely beyond me, I just can’t seem to physically sit down and get a post written. I do apologize for the absence, seeing as how I have pledged to blog everyday for the month of October and I’ve gotten 9 posts published when there should be 17. But hey, at least there are 9 of them!!  I hope to get caught up on the missing days so that in the end there will be 31 glorious and highly informative posts .

Speaking of my absence, I’ve been busy the past week looking up at the sky. No, it’s not a bird, or a plane or Superman, but Balloon Fiesta season.

See those teeny tiny dots? Those are hot air balloons, gracefully floating in the sky. This was as close I dared get in my PJ’s and morning hair, seeing as how the mass ascensions (a large number of balloons lifting off at the same time) occur in the very early morning hours. This was the last one of the day, happening around 8 am. (Which explains the PJ’s and morning hair on a Saturday morning) I hear the first wave happens around 6 or 7 in the morning. Seeing as I’m a complete vampire when it comes to mornings I’ve never seen the very early mass ascensions and probably never will unless I suddenly and miraculously become a morning person. But I’m not holding my breath.

Besides that, during Balloon Fiesta I don’t even have to leave my driveway to see awesomeness floating in the sky. Like this Captain America balloon or one of my favorites, Sharky. Although I think this guy is supposed to be the shark from Finding Nemo.

 I should mention, the balloon names I’ve assigned to my favorites are names that I have given them, they may not necessarily the official name of the aircraft.  Ya know, since they didn’t ask me what they should name their very large and very expensive balloon in the first place.

Last year I talked about watching a balloon land you can read more about that here.

In years past Bubba and I would drive around town to get a better view. Usually we bring the dogs, because ya know we love the glaring looks from our loving and always faithful furry companions.

Insert gratuitous dog picture here.

So, that pretty much wraps up Balloon Fiesta 2012, it was a great week of getting it done: enjoyment.

Clearance Plants

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Here we are on day 2 of 31 Days of Getting it Done, and it appears that this 31 day challenge will really be a challenge considering it’s 11:30pm on day 2. Maybe I over estimated the hours I have in my day, between 8 hours of work, nearly 2 hours of dog time, and an 1 hour for dinner and dishes (I won’t lie, most days I let the dishes build up during the work week.) there doesn’t seem to be a lot of time left over to blog and do a project. But it’s only day 2, so I can’t throw the towel in yet!

Anywho, on this second day of Getting it Done, I had planned on talking about this great organizational project I had completed, but then the clearance carts in the Lowes garden center happened.

Yup, I managed to fit 4 large shrubs and three smaller ones in my trunk. Bubba (my husband) thought I’d never fit them all in there, but I showed him!

I ended up with:

Two of these, for 7.50 each. They will live in the backyard, and they’ll be pretty big guys once they grow up.

Two more of these, for 5.50 each. These flowery gals will live in the front yard.

Two of these, for 2.50 each. For the front yard.

And one of these, I didn’t read the label and thought this guy was another boxwood. Since, these get pretty big he will live in the backyard.

After unloading everyone it was time to get my dig on. Everything went well, until a few minutes into it, I hit a small road block.

Actually, it was a water line 3 inches below the surface. Why they put a waterline right smack in the middle of a flower bed and at such a shallow depth is beyond me. All I knew was that this posed a slight problem, and I had to change my layout slightly. And when I say change my layout, I mean digging all of my holes three inches closer to the outside edge of the flower bed.  Hopefully, the roots of the my new sticks won’t cause problems with this water line down the road. I guess only time will tell. But in the mean time, this is what the front yard is looking like now.

It’s still looking a little sad, I need to put in new mulch and would like to lay a little sod out there to green things up a bit. Living in the desert has given me a greater appreciation for green things, well maybe not the scary fuzzy green things that seem to lurk in the fridge. I see a fridge cleaning post in the near future.

Once I got the four shrubs planted, I was too pooped to start digging holes in the back for the Privets and the Holly. Plus, it was time for the season premiere of Once Upon a Time, is anyone else hooked on this show? Honestly, I can’t get enough of it.

Anywho, the last three shrubs have been sitting on my front porch for nearly 3 days now. Which has given me a little bit of time to do some research, I found that both Privets and Holly shrubs are toxic to dogs (!). Yeah, toxic.to.dogs. I have two dogs that consume just about everything that enters their yard. So, sadly, my beautiful ,new and cheap plants will not be going in the backyard. In fact, I’m considering returning them, if they are that toxic to my doggies, I’m not sure I want them in any of my yards. Although, after researching the Boxwoods a little more, (after they have been planted) I found they were also toxic to dogs. Actually, it turns out a lot of shrubs aren’t good for little dummy dogs who insist on taste testing everything.

So, I learned a valuable lesson, always research plants before buying them or in my case planting them. You never know what could be harmful to the little dummies you love.

31 Days of Getting it Done: Day 1

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Do you have things you’ve been putting off for no apparent reason other than the fact you just don’t want to do it? Yeah, me too, I have a house filled with “don’t wannas”. I don’t bring this up  to complain, but to introduce this years 31 Day series, yes, I think I’m a little nuts for doing this again, but it might be fun!

Like last year I am playing along with The Nester’s 31 Days of… , you see every October Nester and a group of her friends get together and blog for 31 days straight including weekends (!). The blog topic should focus on one area, but be broad enough to not bore you to death by the end of the 31 days. Last year Miss. Nester opened this little project up to her readers. So, being the natural follower that I am, I attempted to participate. But also being the non finisher that I am I only got 16 of the 31 posts up. Maybe it was the topic I chose, 31 Days of Treasures , vintage and of the heart. It was a topic I thought I would enjoy, and did until I didn’t. It got kind of old after awhile and I started to worry that I was outing myself as a hoarder.

So, this year the month of October will bring us:

Like most everyone else, I’ve got a mile long to-do list, so over the next 31 Days, I’ll be documenting the peaks and valleys of finally tackling all those projects I’ve been putting off. The focus will mainly be on home projects, but I’ll shake things up with a craft or two. And I’ll try to do projects that won’t require materials or conquer those projects that I’ve already got the materials on hand to complete. Hopefully, you’ll be seeing some pretty big projects finally come to fruition, or you may learn how I organize my toilet paper. Either way, I hope you join me on this bumpy and random ride through 31 Days of Getting it Done.

If you’d like to read what I’ve had to say on these marvelous 31 days please follow the below links:

Day 2: Clearance Plants

Day 3: Autumn in the Living Room

Day 4: Autumn Outside

Day 5: Lolita and Car Repairs

Day 6: Procrastination

Day 7: Cleaning Schedule

Day 10: Sorting the Etc.

Day 12: A Clean House

Day 17: Enjoyment

Day 19: Owls and Monkey Trays

Day 20: The Business of Busy-ness

Day 23: Plans

Day 24: Goose Heads and Dog Beds

Day 25: Clearance Plants Part 2

Day 29: Shoe Hoard

Day 30: Early Christmas

Weekend Happenings: Randomness

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Happy Tuesday all! I trust you all had a great weekend, and an easy Monday. On this Tuesday, I don’t have many words, but I have lots of pictures. So pull up a comfy chair pour yourself a tall glass of sweet tea and enjoy.

This weekend, I realized I would never make it as a 50’s housewife. I took it upon myself to make Bubba his favorite fried eggs, everything went smoothly until I had to turn them over. It was at this point I turned the spatuala over to the cook of the house before more disaster ensued.

So, we often feed our dogs morsels from the table while we eat. Therefore, this one sees fit to beg at every meal. Does this make us bad pet parents? And does calling myself a pet parent make me crazy?

With that in mind, I spied this mug at a thrift store. This is the first side.

And this is the other side. For some reason it reminded me of Annie-Dog.

Which brings to mind this other thrifty find. I know this is how Annie feels about her kibbles, makes me feel a little guilty.

Then I remember the evening pulls I get taken on every evening.

I’d say the evening pulls are worth it though, since it makes my puppies tired. And I get to take cute doggie butt pictures afterwards.

And I get to spend time outside, while they all wait for me to take pictures of a weed.

This weekend I also got to spend time with my mom. Isn’t she pretty?

We went shopping for craft supplies while she was visiting. She’s starting a new hobby of quilting.

While I’ve taken on the hobby of crochet. I’ll talk more about it later, if I remember, no promises of consistency around here.

We ended the weekend at Goodwill, that is next door to a rug store with questionable architecture.

The sunset was breathtaking though.

What did you do this weekend?

Weekend Happenings: Labor Day

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Alright, so Labor Day is officially behind us, in fact it’s two weeks behind us at this point. But I never got to share what we did on Labor Day, which apparently after looking at the photos really wasn’t that much aside from eating and riding in a car. Speaking of riding in a car, my Bubba and I decided to take a teeny tine little non-overnight road trip to Madrid NM. And it’s not pronounced MUH-drid it is clearly MAD-rid, ask any of the locals they would be happy to clarify that for you.

Most of the trip looked a little like this, especially once we got to Madrid. Note to anyone who is thinking of visiting this quaint little town over a long weekend, it’s gonna be crowded and parking will be at a premium. Which is why we didn’t stop, we drove through it and made a vow to return when things weren’t quite as busy.

But all was not lost, I did get a glimpse of the diner that was featured in the movie Wild Hogs.

Along the way we did see some pretty New Mexican scenery.

Then we tried our hand at homemade chili rellenos (ray-en-oh). If you are unfamiliar with this spicy delicacy, it is a green chili stuffed with monterrey jack cheese battered and deep fried. Delicious, and oh so fattening, but come on, it’s stuffed with cheese breaded and deep fried, how can a girl pass that up?

Tuseday brought with it the return to work, but also a little surprise:

My very own  Swingline stapler thanks to our sweet office manager. Let’s hope they don’t move me down to the basement stop giving me a pay check and ask me to kill roaches, a la Office Space.

How was your weekend? Deep fry anything interesting?

Thrifting Thursday: Something Smells Fowl

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Yay, it’s Friday Eve!! And depending on where you are in the world ,you are either very near the end of Friday Eve or actually celebrating Friday. I am nearing the end of my Friday Eve and very much looking forward to the actual Friday, then finally the weekend. And not just any weekend a THREE day weekend. I cannot tell you how excited I am at the prospect of spending an extra day eating waffles and avoiding chores.  Maybe I’ll throw some window shopping and dog walks into the mix, but I plan on laying low. Listen to me, it’s only Thursday or rather Friday Eve and I’m already talking about the weekend, guess whose already checked out for the work week!

Anywho, we’re supposed to be talking about thrifting aren’t we? Hence the title of this weekly series, Thrifting Thursday! So, here goes…

Since, I am trying to cut back on my junk buying, I spend a lot of time either avoiding stores that contain bounds of hidden vintage goodness, or trying with all my will to fight the urge to bring home yet another owl. This week, I have failed miserably in both respects.

See him there sitting unassumingly between yellow cow and an empty jar? So cute and small and again, unassuming. That’s how I talked myself into adopting him and bringing him home. One little teeny tiny owl couldn’t hurt, and he was gold, I don’t have a gold owl! Besides, I like golden yellow things, particularly yellow dogs that glow in the sun.

So, I failed at the whole not buying anything-thing, but it was not all for naught, we did find this cute lil chicken for my momma.

The top doesn’t match the bottom, but it’s close enough and my mom was thrilled (or at least feigned thrilled-ness). You know how mom’s are, “Oh, you bought it with your own money and picked it out all by yourself?! I love it and will treasure it forever!” Don’t ya just love mom’s?

With that sweet thought about mom’s, I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of your Friday Eve!

Weekend Happenings

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Good Afternoon!! I trust everyone’s Monday has gone splendidly, and all have survived the beginning of another work week. Or looking forward to some time off if you are amongst those who don’t work a traditional 9-5 Monday-Friday. As with the past couple of Monday’s, I wanted to share a little recap of my weekend. I do this mainly for myself, it’s fun to look back on the weekend past, it also helps to ease myself back into the work week.

So, let’s start off with Friday shall we?

Every evening my Bubba and I walk the dogs, sometimes we take them somewhere new but most of the time we walk them through our neighborhood and eventually end up at “our” park.  It’s our park, simply because it’s close to the house, we have no ownership of it, nor do we have any sweet story to make it our park, it’s just where we walk our dogs. Anyways, Friday I happened to bring my camera with me and snapped a few shots.

It was a gorgeous sky the other night, if only I’d been on higher ground and above those electrical lines.

So, we were walking along, enjoying the sunset, making sure Annie didn’t eat yet another stray morsel of potentially deadly left over hamburger, when suddenly there was a couch.

Odd isn’t it? Actually, it’s not that odd considering there’s a yet another thrift store on the other side of that wall. But still, a couch in a park? Bubba was brave enough to venture over to it, apparently the couch is the base for someones camp. I guess an old couch makes a better crash pad than a box or the dirt.

Saturday morning brought good things, more specifically, it brought waffles with strawberries. Every Saturday morning, Bubba and I try to make a good breakfast and relax. Meaning we stay in our PJ’s until the neighbor stops by at 11:30am and apologizes for coming over so early. Yeah, that was embarrassing…

Then it’s time to hop in the shower and see what kind of trouble we can get into that day. Usually we hit up some thrift stores, since we basically live on thrift row. I’ll have to show you all the thrift stores that are within walking distance of my residence. It’s a dangerous place for this little thrifter to live, let me tell ya.

Sunday we didn’t do much, but battle ants….sooo many ants! I guess it’s that time of the year with the monsoon here and all. But goodness, one would think that one of the 5,683  non-toxic solutions I’ve tried would be toxic to the actual ants! I’ll have to show you the ant-y army currently invading my home. It’s frightening and disgusting all at the same time.

What did you do over the weekend? Discover random pieces of furniture in odd places? Battling your own ant-y army?