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!
Tag Archives: photography
Thankful Thrifting
Happy Friday everyone!! I trust you have all made it this far in the week, it was a little touch and go for me. But thankfully, God created sweet tea to help us poor working souls along. And for some reason, it tastes so much better out of a thrifted Donald Duck mug.
Speaking of thrifting, it’s been a while since I’ve done a Thrifting Thursday, on a Friday. I’ve kinda missed them, there’s nothing like reviewing all the treasures I passed up for one reason or another, or found worthy to cart home. Here’s what I found on a recent thrifting trip:
This Rudolph tea set made me smile, I can’t decide if it’s cute or really tacky. What do you think?
Then I came across some really awesome pieces. This stuff was super heavy and really old, and I instantly fell in love.
The curves on this guy had me at hello. Or maybe she’s a girl, with all those curves maybe I’ll call her a girl. Aside from the curves, I noticed some markings on the back.
That’s got to be from a moving company right, or maybe a maker signature? And it’s got to be old, I don’t know anyone with handwriting like that anymore.
Then I came across this cute Lane Cedar Chest. I was tempted, but the $200 price tag was a little steep for this cheapskate.
The inside was pretty clean, and still cedar-y. But not quite as immaculate as mine with original tags and key attached to the inside of the lid.
One day, when I get a better stand/platform for my TV, I’ll show you the inside of my cedar chest. Then I’ll finally be able to get to the pillows and comforter stored inside. Nothing but the most convenient of storage solutions for me!
Have you found anything fun or reindeer-like on a recent thrift store run?
31 Days: Clearance Plants Part 2
Remember my first Getting it Done post, I talked about purchasing some clearance plants? I planted a few of them in my front yard.
And was about to plant the others in my backyard when, I decided to do a little more research on my new green friends.
And found that they were poisonous to dogs if consumed, that is. Considering my little chewers would likely be munching on my new green friends, I had planned on returning the rest of the clearance plants.
Then I thought about all the other potentially poisonous plants that had been lovingly chewed on and ultimately destroyed, most of which I inherited when I bought the house. (The plants not the chewing, the chewing came with the arrival of the dogs.) Let’s see, what has been on the toxic menu over the years, there was the Cherry Tree, the Spanish Broom, the Rosemary, which if you look closely in the pictures to follow you’ll see the remnants of. All of these were eaten over a year ago, without any odd reactions. The brat dogs haven’t really seemed that interested in the vegetation in the yard lately so I am hoping they have outgrown this phase. With those hopes in mind, I decided to keep the remaining clearance plants. So, I buried, I mean planted them a couple weekends ago. So far, they are still there, with all branches and leaves remaining undisturbed and uneaten.
Don’t you think they really set off my cinder block wall? Really makes the place seem less prison like doesn’t it? Actually, I’m pretty proud of my fortress (you can read more about that here.), it provides us with lots of privacy, and it keeps the prisoners at bay.
The planting of the shrubs went pretty smoothly, there were no unfortunate water line surprises 3 inches below the surface or anything. I see that as a huge success. Plus, I’m super proud of the three huge holes I dug.
Don’t you love how the dirt and surrounding background is in perfect focus, but the shovel and hole have a lovely bokeh? Apparently, digging a big hole then having to make a nice picture is just too much for this little gardener.
All three shrubs are Privets, I can’t remember the variety of the Privet that lived a year in the big white bucket as his tag fell off during the winter.
The other two are Golden Vicary Privets. All three should get to be 8 to 10ft tall and 8 ft wide, that is if they can survive a dry New Mexican winter. I hear they are pretty hardy, so I have high hopes, and look forward to a nice green and leafy looking wall in a several years. And healthy doggies, let’s hope they can keep their paws off the green stuff.
New around here? I’m participating in a massive linky party for the month of October, if you would like to learn more read this post.
31 Days: Enjoyment
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.
31 Days Day 5: Lolita and Car Repairs
So far this week, I’ve introduced you to my plans for tackling 31 projects within the month of October, I got to complain about waterlines running annoyingly through the middle of a flower bed my clearance plants were to be planted, and you got to see how I made my living room and front porch look autumn like and such. Not exactly meaty topics, I realize it may be a bit of let down, it’s a let down for me too. I didn’t realize how much time it would take to have a project done everyday, and share that project with you, my awesome and ever so patient readers, with an awesome, intelligently written, picture laden post. ( Could that sentence have more commas in it?) Apparently, it will be one or the other around these parts, so it’s your choice, a project done with one picture and very few words, or a non-project with lots of words.
Anywho, I mention all this to say, I don’t have a project done to share with you. So, it’ll be a wordy post today. Aren’t you lucky?
But I did have to get the fuel pump replaced on my car. And I have the bill to prove it. That should count as a project.
I’m $1,000 lighter now, but my car has a working fuel gauge and the check engine light isn’t on all the time. Which means, I was able to pass my emissions test, which means, my car is legally registered now. I was a day late in renewing my registration, which bugged me to no end. Everytime a police car got near me I’d get a little sweaty. Oh, and if you are lucky enough to live in a county that doesn’t require an emissions test, here’s a little background…
An emmissions test consists of five parts:
- On-Board Diagnostic 2 – Tests vehicle emission control equipment functions
- Tailpipe exhaust analysis – Measures carbon monoxide and hydrocardon emissions
- Pollution control equipment – Verifies equipment installation and connections
- Visible emissions – Checks for tailpipe smoke
- Gas cap pressure – Ensures cap holds tight seal
All this to say that if your car’s check engine light is on, you won’t pass the emissions test, which means you won’t be able to get your car registered, which means you’ll be driving an illegal car, which means they will catch you, and haul you off to jail, which means your cell mate, Lolita will cut you. Which means, I paid $1000 to get the fuel pump fixed, which means I finally passed the emissions test and got my registration, which means my car is now legal, which means I won’t get caught, and hauled to jail where my cellmate, Lolita would have cut me.
Which means, it’s Friday, and I’m out of words.
Happy Friday, I’ll be back tomorrow with another life changing post! And fewer “which means”.
31 Days: Autumn in the Living Room
This month, I’ll be talking about getting things done. You know, those things that nag at you everytime you walk by them, like that wall with the 20 zillion paint swatches on it, or those annoying little jars of nail polish that jump out each time you open the medicine cabinet. Yeah, those things, the annoying things, the things you end up ignoring or not even noticing after a while. So, October will hopefully bring a home for all those little jars of nail polish, and a painted wall in one color. October will bring a mix of big and small project, more than likely you’ll be seeing lots of smaller projects, the kind of satisfying projects that go quickly.
I love those quick satisfying projects that have a big impact. It really helps to keep the momentum going. Well, today is a teeny tiny thing, it’s not really a project, but it makes me happy so I’m including it in the 31 days.
I turned my summer owls into fall owls.
You may remember this shot from my 31 days button. I like to recycle, especially when it means less work for this lazy girl.
The two big owls have been living on my coffee table since July, they were a gift from my uncle, you can read more about that here. The teeny squirrel and golden owl came from various thrift stores around town. Since this picture was taken, I have replaced the golden owl with a much cuter bronze owl that my mom gave me. I would have taken a picture of it, but by that point the table was cluttered again and I wasn’t in the mood to move keys, wallets and junk mail. Hmm…my spidey senses are tingling, maybe it’s time for a post about key and other “leaving the house” paraphernalia. Would that constitute spidey senses to tingle? Anywho, the clear leaf containers came from Goodwill, I got a stack of 4 of them for $2. See? I may be a hoarder, but I don’t spend a lot of money on my hoard.
While I was setting all of this up, Goldie was helping.
Yeah, that had nothing to do with the fall coffee table set up, but I don’t feel that a post is complete unless I include a dog picture in there somewhere. But isn’t she cute? I have a fear that I may be turning intthe dog equivalent of the crazy cat lady from The Simpson’s. But instead of throwing cats, I’ll be throwing dogs.
And with that nice random thought, I think it’s time to conclude today’s installment of Getting it Done, making the living room all autumn like and such.
Clearance Plants
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.
Green Eyebrows
Alright, I don’t really know where this post is going to take us, I just know I have a random assortment of photos I took and then edited. So, I would hate to waste them by letting them just sit on my hard drive, waiting for that perfect blog post when it may never come. Besides that, who said a blog post really has to be about anything. Can’t it just be a post about nothing, like Seinfeld was a show about nothing. Maybe I’ll just yammer on about the injustice of a hair in my marble rye or that woman in the ladies room that couldn’t spare a square.
Anywho, as always, grab a nice tall glass of sweet tea or your preferred beverage of choice, sit back and enjoy the randomness.
This is Annie, she’s always so sweet and so kind, when there’s something edible involved. Otherwise, she takes her stringy tail and butt flaps to her nasty bed where she can ignore us all from a distance. For some reason, I feel she is silently judging me.
This is what she was eye balling when I snapped this image of cute sweet normal dog Annie.
My breakfast, well my Saturday mid-morning breakfast. On a normal day my breakfast consists of a banana eaten hastily while entering the on ramp of I-40, generally 10 to 15 minutes behind schedule. Tardiness is my constant companion.
So, back to Annie, she’s definitely the most unusual dog I’ve ever had the pleasure of sharing a home with. She communicates by yawns. No, I don’t mean normal silent doggy yawns, I mean low guttural Dorthy from Golden Girls yawns.
This is the most close I could come to capturing one of her yetti yawns, usually the mouth is opened much wider.
Aside from yawning and begging, she enjoys photobombing, and like everything else Annie does, she does not simply make an appearance in the background of the picture. Any Annie appearance is always front and center, toothy grin and all.
She does enjoy posing though, particularly with her newest conquest.
This time it happened to be a bowl I used to hold that nasty dry crap, otherwise known as Iams, when her regular bowl was infested with ants during the Great Ant War of 2012. By the way, after numerous attempts at putting an end to the battle of the ants, I still have survivors, cornstarch and Raid don’t seem to phase them much. Anyone have any ideas?
Although, Annie can be a very sweet dog, she can also be quite ruthless, especially when it comes to time outside. Poor Goldie tends to get the brunt of this ruthless-ness, as evidenced by the green eyebrow. That’s a grass stain, caused by Annie slamming Goldie’s head into the lawn. All summer long Goldie has had odd green eyebrows, it took us a couple weeks of monitoring to figure out how it was happening. Poor Goldie lets Annie-Devil take out her many frustrations on the Golden One during their outside time. I should probably mention though, Goldie and Annie are the same size, Goldie could easily take up for herself, but her passivity tends to keep her from doing so.
(Not that I would know anything about being passive.)
I always end up having to break up the head slamming fest. Sometimes, I wish there was someone to break up the head slamming fest that I tend to allow myself into at times. I suppose I do have someone that intervenes when the head slamming and grass stained eyebrows become too much.
My Savior, Christ Jesus, He’s always there to pound on the window when the head slamming becomes too much.
“121 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
Psalm 121 KJV
So, He does help me even when my head is being slammed against the perverbial lawn, and He doesn’t even take a break from watching over me. How could I possibly be worried over a few green eyebrows when I know He will be there when it’s too much?
And look at that, this post really did have a point!
Also, Happy Autumn a week late!!
Note: Although I mention name brands within this post such as, Iams and Raid, I am not being compensated for such mentions. They are just brands that make a frequent appearance within my household, much like dust bunnies make frequent and ever present appearances under my sofa.
Thrifting Thursday: Kooky-ness
Maybe I should rename this series Thrifting Thursdays-but-sometimes-on-Friday or whenever the heck I can muster enough words strung together to count as a post. Sorry for the absence this week, it’s been kind of a busy work week, which translates into less internet time when I have non-work time on my hands which translates into one random thrifting post at the end of the week. Anywho, to blow off steam I’ve recently been doing more window shopping at nearby thrift stores. Since, I have put myself on buying ban until I can sort through the pile of treasures I already have in my arsenal, I have been a good girl and haven’t added anything to my pile. Yay for me!!!
This past week I spied many interesting pieces:
Like this lizard, he was made of wood and signed. He’s not really my style but I was very impressed with the detail put into it. Look at the scales and his horn type things. I used to know what those were called back when I was going to grow up and be a zoologist.
I had to use much strength and will power not to bring this iced tea set home. It even came with matching tea spoons, although the spoons and the rack were plastic, so I can’t be sure of how stable this set would be. If only I didn’t already have a huge pile of breakables in my home.
Speaking of breakables, I found this adorable hedgehog, doesn’t he look so happy? I don’t know what I would have done with him, but for some reason I was drawn to his happy face.
Then there’s always the owl, this guy was pretty big, and a little scary, but I found him to be picture worthy. Maybe it was his snooty expression.
And I can’t forget his teapot friend.
Nor their kooky-eyed companion. This guy was really big, probably about 10 inches tall, but again I found him to be picture and blog worthy so here he is.
Have you seen anything cooky lately? Or have you put yourself on a buying ban???
Thrifting Thursday:Thrfriday
So, another Thrifting Thursday on a Friday, at least it’s only one day late. And it’s finally Friday!!!! *Enter Happy Snoopy Dance Here*
With the end of the week, comes time to talk about thrifting. Lately, I’ve been showing some restraint when it comes to buying everything in sight, but this week I couldn’t help myself.
This little guy was too perfect to pass up, and was 25% off, so that brought the “adoption fee” down to 75 cents from a whopping 99 cents. I know, such a big spender right? Anyways, since I’m a nite owl myself, this little possible sugar bowl(?) was just too cute to leave on the shelf for someone else. I have always been a notorious night owl, even as a baby! My parents have told me stories of staying up all night trying to rock me to sleep but to no avail, I just wanted to be awake. Some things never change I guess, even nowadays, with a morning job, I often have to force myself to go to bed by 1AM. Mornings, though, yeah, those are almost painful, and I’m ALWAYS late for work. So glad I have a boss that’s sweet enough not to kick my butt into the unemployment line from my frequent tardiness.
So, back to the bowl, I couldn’t resist his charms, the owly-goodness of it, and the handmade-ness, and who could resist those blue flowers? Yes, I’m making up words, but it’s my blog and if I want to make up words I’m allowed. Besides, it’s Friday, all goes on a Friday right?
Indeed, one mans trash is another mans treasure. Or rather, one mans discarded craft is another woman’s treasured piece of owl hoard.
So tell me, are you a night owl or one of those annoying cheerful early birds that steal all worms from us night owls?
Semi-Seasonal 