Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Hodgepodge

It's Hodgepodge time, head on over to Joyce's blog to see what other people have said.


1.  I recently read here about four secrets to happiness from around the world. They were:  Overcome your fears by facing them head on, allow yourself to relax and reset, work to live versus living to work, and find the good in life. Not sure if these are the actual secret to happiness, but which of the four do you struggle with most? Overcome your fears by facing them head on. I'm horrible at this. I'm much better at avoiding things, but I think I'll have to do this very soon.
Which one comes most easily to you? allow yourself to relax and reset, or mostly just relax. I find it so easy to put my music on and go for a walk, or just settle down with a good book.

2. How would you spend a found $20 bill today? Totally take it to one of our Asian food stores and buy something new to try out.

3. Ego trip, power trip, guilt trip, round trip, trip the light fantastic, or trip over your own two feet...which 'trip' have you experienced or dealt with most recently? Explain. I'm really good at tripping over my feet, or more likely dropping tons of things on the floor.

4. If you could master any physical skill in the world what would it be, and how would you use that skill? I'd love to learn how to ride a motorcycle, does that count?

5. As July draws to a close, let's take inventory of our summer fun. Since the official first day of (North American) summer (June 20th) have you...been swimming? No, but I hope to when we go on a mini vacation in August.
enjoyed an ice cream cone? Plenty, yes. I have decided ice cream is a must for summer.
seen a summer blockbuster? Nope, I usually wait until the library has movies to watch them
camped? I don't do this camping thing you speak of
eaten corn on the cob? Nope
gardened? I'm not good with plants, plus I live in an apartment.
deliberately unplugged? No, I plan on doing that on my mini vacation as well
watched a ballgame? Not interested
picked fruit off the vine? Nope
taken a road trip? We went to my cousin's for his wedding
read a book? Reading books is a constant in my life
Are any of these activities on your must-do-before-summer-ends list? Like I said I hope to do a little swimming and getting away from technology on our mini vacation in a few weeks

6. The Republican Presidential candidates will debate on August 6th. What's your question? Not interested

7. What's your most listened to song so far this summer? I don't really have a certain one, but one I always associate with summer is Summertime by Kenny Chesney and a few lines worked great for me the first summer I was with my ex:
And it's two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard
We were on our way back from a mini vacation and this song started playing on my MP3 player and it was perfect because I had my barefeet on the dashboard of his Ford truck (not old), my sunglasses on my face and I have three tattooes, no YooHoo bottle though. I always think of that when the song comes on. And though I'm not happy with my ex, it does make me smile.

 8.  Insert your own random thought here. Tomorrow is Wednesday, garage sale postings go up on Wednesday. Lately, I've noticed that once the week starts I keep looking forward to the weekend for garage sales. I've not found anything really cool yet, or hit the one jackpot sale of the year, but I keep hoping.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Collections and other stuff

I've been meaning to do a blog post on some of my collections.
I used to have a much bigger collection of pigs, but last year I decided I didn't need pigs, see how well that turned out:
 I really love those spiky ones, I find them so cute, I had one as a keychain on my bag, but he degraded a little too fast for me. The one in front on the left has three legs and he was a nickel at a garage sales, at a price like that I didn't want to pass him up. The one behind him is a toothpick holder. The front ones are just random ones I've picked up over the years.
Next up, are my elephants:
 This one started with that large one on the right, I believe it's bronze, but it sure isn't solid it is heavy though. The tiny black ones I kept seeing at Hobby Lobby for about 90 cents, I couldn't pass up the price. The one on the left in front of the radio is a gold Christmas ornament. Most of these I picked up at garage sales with the exceptions being the gold one and the one between the large lion and the brass elephant. The tiny green one on the left actually holds lip balm, my friend got that for me for Christmas. The large one with flowers on it, was one of my favorite buys at a garage sale a few weeks ago.
You can also see my collection of lions interspursed with the elephants. That started when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, after reading that I wanted a lion that was my "Aslan" I finally found it in a ceramic one I picked up on vacation, that's the large one in the back. There's also a little toy one in front of him and the lion king of the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Next is my collection of frogs, this was also very large a few years ago.
 I used to have tons of frogs, I pared down after breaking up with my ex, mostly because he bought me a lot of them, and I didn't want to see him when I looked at them.

Here's my collection of picture frames:
 Like I said in an earlier post, this started out as me buying them at Hobby Lobby for swaps, then I started seeing nice ones at garage sales that I picked up for swaps, now it's just a bunch of picture frames. I'm hoping to someday create some artwork to go in them, and then sell them.
Here's my collection of owls:
 This tree I put in the winning bid at a local event, it's decorated with vintage buttons, when I first picked it up, I referred to it as my Charlie Brown Christmas tree, cause it kinda looks like the one from the Christmas special.
I didn't really have a place to store it, so it stayed out, and then I started hanging owls on it, now it's become my owl tree.
Here's some more owls:
I really like the large white one, he's one of my favorites.
 
And last, but not least, my favorites of my vintage jewelry collection:
A lot of them are butterflies, there's quite a few mice in there as well.

Today, I picked up my new glasses and I've had a headache ever since. I was mentioning that to my mom, and she mentioned that the eyeglasses guy told her the prescription had changed quite a bit, nice of him to tell me.
I've been rather unhappy with my life lately, mostly my job, but also the fact that I don't do much of anything, and I don't have a support system.
I watched this movie today where the girl just walked out of her life and left, I wish I had the courage to do that. I'd love to get away from my parents, or maybe just people that know me. I'm not sure I could leave all my stuff behind though.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Sales and stuff

Not much has happened since my birthday. On the 3rd, we went to Applebee's for supper. I didn't get a ton of gifts, my brother gave me a Blu-ray player with a Blue-ray disc, my parents bought me new glasses, I'm going to pick those up on Monday.
On the 4th, my dad and I went for free pancakes that morning, then I went to the parade. That afternoon, we went to my uncle's where we had food and fun.
Monday, July 6th, my friend and I went shopping. I stocked up on chocolate at Target and she bought me a box of Sun Chips for my birthday.
Then it was work, Friday, July 11th, I tried to get in some garage sales, but there were none in my area. Saturday, my parents and I left early in the morning for my cousin's wedding that night. We ended up going and visiting my grandma and having lunch and playing Skipbo with her. The wedding was nice, but since I didn't know anyone outside of my family, it got a little boring afterwards. We stayed overnight, getting up early to be back in Ames so I could go to work. And then it was onto more work this week.
Friday, there were a few sales in my area, but I decided to wait until yesterday to go out. The first sale was pretty sad, it was mostly kid stuff (seemed to be the theme for the day), but I always am curious to see if I can find any minions. This year, I've just made note of the sales in my area, the past few years, I used to only mark down the ones that sounded interesting. I decided there would always be something they wouldn't put in their ads, and maybe something really cool that I wanted.
I found some signs for more sales and attempted to go to them, but when I got to the addresses, there was nothing set up. I walk to all my sales as I don't have a car, and I love walking to them. Sure, I get tired and very sweaty, but I love seeing the bugs or flowers or other things you would never notice if you were in a car.
The third sale found my first purchase for the day:
 a cute Hershey's kiss tin. I thought it would be great to fill it up with chocolate for a gift, I'm guessing it was filled with kisses originally.
The next sale I had gone to a earlier this year, so I knew there was something good there.
 I picked up an elephant and two stuffed dogs. I've decided their prices are a little high, so I might skip it, if I see the address in the future.
The next one, I found my buy of the day:
 I'm really not supposed to be buying stuffed animals because I certainly don't need more, but it was so cute.
The next sale I had heard had lemonade and I bought 3 cups and stood there drinking it, by that time I was thoroughly covered in sweat and very hot, so it was very refreshing. My last buy came from a sale that wasn't on my list, I saw the signs as I was walking by:
a loaf pan, I had decided earlier in the year I needed one of these, and 50 cents seems like a great price for one. There were also a few boxes filled with toys, but I didn't feel like digging through them. Sometimes I will, most times (especially if I'm at the end of my sales), I just don't feel like sitting on the ground and digging through stuff.
The last sale I didn't find anything, I was considering going to the farmer's market on the way home, but I was tired by that time and it was a tiny bit later than I wanted it to be. I did have to work yesterday afternoon.
Today, I set out for Walmart and Dollar Tree. I had to wait until about 10AM, as the Dollar Tree did not open until then. The difference in temperature of yesterday and today was quite different, I still had to take a cold shower when I got home today, but I wasn't near as sweaty.
I only bought AAA batteries that I planned on getting at Walmart, thankfully the batteries are very close to the door, so I didn't have to wander around the store.
Dollar Tree was a little different, apparently they were short people, so I decided to look around the store and hope the line got shorter, it didn't. I ended up spending more at the Dollar Tree than Walmart. I'm not bothered by it though.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Hodgepodge

It's Hodgepodge time, head on over to Joyce's blog to see what other people have to say.
1.July 15th is National Give Something Away Day.  What can you give away? Will you? I am trying to downsize a lot lately, I always seem to have a box waiting to be filled to take to Goodwill. I probably won't get rid of anything on the 15th, but things will be leaving my apartment soon.

2. Do you have a mantra? Please share with the class if you feel comfortable doing so. Not just for everyday life. I have one for when I'm going garage saleing: "If I'm meant to have it, it will be there when I get there", mostly so I don't freak out about getting up really early to get to them. I also tell myself to Just Breathe, when I have to work with difficult people.

3. Who does the grocery shopping in your house? How many times a week do you shop? Do you make a list or pray for inspiration in the produce aisle? I'm the only one here, so I guess it's me. I try to shop once a week, when the grocery mailer comes out. I try to only buy things that are on sale. I'm also trying to eat a sandwich, chips and an apple for lunch and then a frozen dinner for supper. Sadly, I've given up on the apple, but I do the rest. So, I buy my sandwich fixings and try to get the cheapest frozen meals.
I know they say not to go when you're hungry, but I've found I can't grocery shop unless I'm hungry. I just can't think about planning meals unless I'm hungry, and then I have to go back multiple times in a week, and then I spend more money.

 4. Is there a TV show you're embarrassed to say you watch? You're going to tell us what it is, right? I don't watch TV. First it was I didn't really like a lot of the shows on TV, and then I got bored with waiting through commercials. Now, my rabbit ears aren't even hooked up and I mostly only watch movies. I am working my way through the TV series of Justified, but I'm not embarrassed to say it.
There was a time when I didn't understand why everyone was so sucked into Survivor, and then I got sucked into a season myself. I was embarrassed by that, but mostly only because I was always saying how stupid it was for people to watch it.

 5. A recent article listed fifteen words we should eliminate from our (written) vocabulary in order to sound smarter-that, went, honestly, absolutely, very, really, amazing, always, never, literally, just, maybe, stuff, things, and irregardless Of the fifteen, which word is your most overused? Maybe stuff, or maybe, I try not to use words that don't really mean anything. And I certainly don't pay attention to all the words I say.

6. So apparently dying your hair gray (in your youth!) is a thing right now. It's called 'The Granny Hair' trend. Your thoughts? My cousin's kid did that last month or so, she died her hair white and posted a picture on Facebook, it was creepy. I'm always plucking my white hairs out, so I don't know why younger people would want to dye their hair grey or white, oh well, to each their own.

7. A while back Buzz Feed asked members to share the most beautiful sentence they've read in a piece of literature. A hard thing to narrow down, at least for me, but let's try. What's one of the most beautiful sentences you've ever read in a piece of literature? I don't have an answer for this one. I don't really think things are beautiful when I read, of course, I mostly read non-fiction crime stuff, so it's not beautiful.

8. Insert your own random thought here. I feel I haven't been to garage sales in ages. This past weekend, I went to a wedding out of town and there wasn't anything interesting on Friday, last weekend was the 4th of July, the weekend before that my mom and I went to Junkin' in June, which was fun, but I'm spoiled by my garage sale prices.
I'm so looking forward to garage sales and treasure hunting, and getting out and walking this weekend. I know it's supposed to be pretty warm, but I feel I've gained a few pounds because I haven't been walking 2+ miles to get to garage sales. Outside of my job, I don't really exercise much except when I'm walking to garage sales, plus I get to put my music in, relax and notice so many things you wouldn't notice in a car.

Friday, July 03, 2015

My birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, I got a big box from Amazon on Wednesday, turns out it was a Blu-Ray player and The Labyrinth on blu-ray from my brother. A co-worker also gave me a really cute card.
My birthday started out with a few birthday texts from my family. My friends and I went to breakfast for some giant pancakes and I got a few yummies for a present.
The rest of the day wasn't very exciting, I finished making a cheesecake to take to work:
I ended up having too much filling, so I made two cheesecakes. I've been promising my co-workers I'd make a lemon cheesecake for my birthday, my co-worker brought some edible flowers to decorate with:
My parents got me an eye exam and new glasses for my birthday, as the guy was adding it up, I was surprised at how much it came out to be. I'll bet they'll remind me of how much they spent on me for awhile.
I was touched by some gifts some of my supervisors/co-workers gave me, they didn't have to but they did and I was really touched. My day ended with everyone singing me "Happy Birthday" before we left for the night, it was really sweet.

So, it wasn't a very exciting birthday, and I know I say this every year that I get all excited for something and then I'm disappointed. I was thinking of my favorite past birthdays. I've decided my two favorites were the first year I went to the Good Guys car show at the state fairgrounds. They have one every year on the weekend of the 4th, funny thing this year I wasn't event thinking about it.
My other favorite was the year a group of friends and I went to a local amusement park for the day. I found this old-time photo we had done while we were there:
That was a really fun day.

Today is my mother's birthday, we're going out to eat tonight. I'm still trying to get motivated to make my mother's card. I'm sure it will turn out nice, but I don't know what it's going to be.
I decided we should eat the other cheesecake for dessert tonight.