Stuff I bought

I made my day earlier. I had a $25 credit on Amazon, and Mark Wahlberg's my guy, so I bought Contraband,

 but then I was under the $25 super saver shipping price, so I bought Whiteout

 and The Rock. If the rest of the day went bad, it was ok. Can't wait til I get those in the mail.

And then later I went to a few garage sales. Bargain Hunter asked if we had any places we made sure we went to every year. I have a tendency to forget the address, but once I get there, I remember. The last one I went to today, I'm actually related to the lady that put it on, plus she has some great baked goods.

 I got a rhubarb pie, a cinnamon roll, a bag of trimand a pig for a friend.

The quilt is from the first sale I went to, it's a little faded, the toys in the corner were from the last sale, little jack-o-lantern.

Not a grand day for sales, but I have to work from 8 to 1 tomorrow, so I won't be going to any, plus I got my guy coming in the mail for me.

More randomness

Sorry, no pretty pictures today, but shortly after taking the link down the other day, I found out my link to my Decorah pictures worked, so go here for some neat pictures.

I want to shout out to my friend Goddess, who commented on some of my posts today. Thanks, sometimes I wonder if anyone reads this, I never get comments.

I must remember to write down all the ideas I get to write on my blog, once I actually sit down to write it, they all disappear. Most of the time I think about them when I'm on my Kindle, which won't let me post through blogger on it, i've never figured it out, but since I can't upload photos there either, I need to get on the desktop sometime.

I'm loving my new schedule at library (well most of it). I told my boss I preferred working in the mornings, so every day of the week she has me in at 8AM. On Wednesdays, I work 8 hours (I'm not complaining), sometimes I'm so tired of dealing with the public when I get done. Or the other day, there was something that shouldn't have happened and it took me 1.5+ hours to fix it, and it's still not completely fixed. I really need to learn how to leave work at work, my stress level gets so high some days.

I'm losing my faith in guys. We all know why I'm not happy with my ex (for one, he's my ex), but I am on okcupid (cause it's free), anyways you can message people on there. Shortly after I changed my status, and updated my profile, this one guy was messaging me, and we were talking through Yahoo Messenger, until he asked me to text him. I didn't want to, because I didn't want him to have my cell #, he decided he wouldn't chat with me anymore. Within the last month I've been chatting with this other guy, a week went by without us chatting, because I didn't have anything to say or I was busy, or something, so he messages me asking why I stopped sending messages. Apparently, no one told him, he could send me messages without me starting the thread. And he's doing it again, why do I always have to come up with something to say?

I have been craving cherry coke something fierce lately. I don't know why, a friend bought me a 20oz last friday, and I bought another one on Sunday, but I'm still craving it. And donuts, I always seem to be craving donuts.

A few weeks ago when I was mowing the lawn, I got attacked by the rose bush (no big surprise there), anyways, it was just a thorn in my finger, I pulled it out, and now I have a little scar there. Ever since, I can push on the scar and it hurts, I'm thinking not all of the thorn got out, but I don't want to go digging in my finger. Tonight (this is on my pinkie finger), the first knuckle has been cramping up when I bend it, it's getting really annoying. I'm hoping if I just ignore it, it will go away, it usually works. Otherwise, I may have to start digging in my finger, I really don't want to go to a doctor for it.

Now, how's that for bouncing around randomly on topics?

How's life with my readers?

A few odds and ends

The other day, I posted about my recent trip to Decorah, IA, and put a link to my pictures from the trip. I realized that link leads you nowhere, I spent about an hour today trying to figure out why. It seems my name "WW" was not a correct name for Google's policy, so they suspended my account until I had a correct name. I changed it to my real name today, so hopefully it will be back up soon. I took down my post, and will put it up again without the link. So, for now, here's a few pictures (mostly of the really cool rock wall):

 In exactly 4 weeks from today it will be my 29th birthday, or as my cousin would say "my 1st 29th birthday". I have no idea what I'm doing, but as every year, I'm giddy about it, I'm guessing it won't be as exciting as I hope it will. Anyone have any thought as to what I should do on here for it? The last couple of years, I've done a giveaway. Last year, I had two entries, so I sent something to both of them.

 I haven't made anything artsy in a long time. I'm so metally exhausted after working at my job in the mornings, that all I want to do is lie on the couch and fall asleep in front of a movie. I am a bit bothered about only working 4-5 hours each day and then having to have a nap because I'm so tired, but I don't really have money to look into why this happens. One of my ideas is that I'm eating way too much processed foods, I haven't made myself food (other than throwing something in the microwave) in well over a month.

 Saturday, all my electronics decided to revolt against me. I went garage saleing, and as I usually do, I took my mp3 player with me. The last sale I went to, was half a block from my house, so after pausing my music to stop at the sale, I didn't try to play it again until I got home. It hasn't turned back on since. Now, music keeps me sane, if I can't listen to music, it's not a good thing. In March, my brother gave me his Microsoft Zune. He informed me, he hadn't plugged it in for a long time. I plugged it in a couple weeks later and it didn't respond, so I tossed it in a drawer and forgot about it, until Saturday. After my Gigabeat (which is probably about 6 years old, and another hand-me-down from my brother) died, I plugged it in again, and proceeded to ignore it.

 I pulled out my original gigabeat to see if I could do anything with that. This one I got when I graduated college in December of 2006, and then froze it a couple years later while shoveling snow (I learned then, that I don't get music for that chore). It hasn't kept a battery charge since, and it still doesn't. When I was getting extremely upset, I looked at the Zune and saw that it was charging (apparently it needs 30 minutes to wake up after a prolonged sleep), I learned it takes about 3 hours to charge. I started to download the software and everytime I got so far, my computer told me it needed to restart to complete updates. I finally got smart, and saved it to my computer and then ran it. It took me 3+ hours to download, install, and get all my music onto the Zune. Fast forward to that night, I was trying to use it and it died again. I plugged it into the wall for the night. After all that fun stuff, I wanted to complain on Facebook, which told me it couldn't update my status.

 Sunday morning I woke up refreshed and in a much better mood.
I would really love to do a swap of some kind, anyone wanna do a swap? Could be art, or even swapping stuff, I'm totally game. I miss swaps.

 My mother has signed us up to be on a garden tour in July, the other day she said it was too much work for her, and that I needed to help. It's coming along great, rest assured you guys will get to enjoy the garden tour as well.

 So, anyone know anything about rocks? Can anyone tell me anything about these? I know very little about rocks, not much more than I know what I like to look at.

And this picture is just really cool. I love this one, I think it would be a great postcard.

How's life in your lives?

Fun finds today

I feel like I haven't found any good sales this year, my mother suggested I needed to take a break (that's never gonna happen). This weekend, I found a great sale.

 I had four sales on my list yesterday, the first one was at a house I had been to in the past, I found a cute blue scarf (I use them to decorate my shelf spaces), a square pyrex refrigerator dish, and a cute doily. I'm thinking about decopaging the refrigerator dish with dictionary pages, but that may change, I currently have the garland from below in it, and it looks really cute, only I don't have a place for it.
The second sale, one of the guys kept looking at me creepily, I'm so glad I didn't go Friday night like I planned to. I didn't buy anything at that sale.

 The third sale, was my sale of the day. I found this cute puppy planter, this really cool tree stump guy, I really liked this guy.

 This garland is in my refrigerator dish, birds, two bottles were in a bag together, and some figures

 I also got this bag of toys, I thought maybe I could use they tiny lizards in artwork.

My last sale, mostly nothing was priced, but I still got a steal. Shell owl, clear sundae cup, green sundae cup, tiny elephant cup, I thought it was a great deal. I love sundae cups, I actually already have the same green one, so now I have a set. I think it would be cool to have a party and serve people ice cream in my sundae cups and/or my tea cups, especially since none (or very few) of them match. The tiny cup has an elephant on it.

Any great deals in your area?

Fun Finds in Decorah

And here's what I found to bring home:

 These are all from Barb's sale: a purple dish, an ink bottle, 3 green beads, a drawer pull, 3 buttons and a decorative piece of wood

Because we were so close to my uncle's house, we thought we'd stop there on the way to grandma's, he owns an antique store as well, so here's what i bought:

 another purple dish


 This bird is from a place in downtown Decorah

 I love this sign, I wish I had a button that said this

 These two postcards are from the seed savers exchange.

These stickers are also from the seed savers

Most things I bought for art supplies, I'm not sure what I'll do with the dishes, but now I have a collection.

My Memorial Day weekend trip

Last weekend, my family went to Decorah, IA. Since we were going east anyway, I suggested we go to Barb's Memorial Day sale, that was really cool, I got to see Sally and Jethro, and the Rabbit Hole and so many other cool things there. We got to my grandma's house Saturday night, and continued north on Sunday morning. Before getting to Decorah, we visited the World's Smallest Church:

 It only seats 8 people. It was pretty cool, there were some beautiful stained glass windows inside and a small graveyard in the back
Once we got to Decorah, we had some time to kill before we checked into the hotel, so we had a nice lunch at a Norwegian restaurant where my dad had to order some luefsa, that was interesting. We walked up and down the main street, and then went to see the 200 foot waterfall at Dunning's Spring Park:

That little kid in the red, walked down the whole thing, I kept waiting for him to slip and slide down, but he never did, thankfully. Mom and I walked up to the top of the waterfall (on steps), that was a neat view down.
And the Fish Hatchery:

Not really an exciting place, but I love how a bunch of the adults were showing their childern to "pet" the fish, even though there was a sign, saying "Please don't touch the fish", way to set a good example, parents.
And the giant eagle's nest at the Fish Hatchery:

That would have been more interesting if we could see the eagles, you can see one of the adults in my picture. The nest was about 80 feet up in the air, this was as zoomed in as my camera went, I'm surprised I actually found it in my camera, that was tough.
By this time, it was time to check in and figure out supper, we went to a local hang-out called T-Bocks, I had a mushroom burger and a root beer, we also got to enjoy some local music.
We also wandered through historic downtown Decorah, where we found a very cool rock fence, I took 119 pictures of it:

I love rocks, I could have spent all night looking at this fence/wall, very cool.
 And this neat park:

The park, we just happened upon, it was really neat, as I had seen a photo from early 1900's with this walkway in it, and said I wanted to see it. The right half of the picture looks out over a river, I have some great pictures of that. By the time we had walked around the park, we were ready to go back to the hotel.
The next morning we had a very sad breakfast at the hotel and headed out early to see The Seed Saver's Exchange:

It wasn't as cool as I thought it was, there were mostly two gardens, one with veggies, the other with flowers, I was hoping for more gardens. I did buy some nice postcards and stickers.
Next we headed to Fort Atkinson:

this was an old fort to keep two Indian tribes from harming each other, it was mostly ruins, and because it was Memorial Day, the museum in the old barracks wasn't open.
The next stop was about 40 minutes out, we picked up a lunch of fried chicken close to it, and headed down the road to the Motor Mill

This mill is on the Turkey River, it never really picked up in business and finally closed. It's called the Motor Mill because the guy who built it was trying to build a town around it called Motor. In the 90's, half of the bridge was washed out in a flood, and then in 2008, another flood washed out the other half.
Supper that night was at Albert's in the historic Winnieshiek Hotel, that was too much. I had grilled rosemary shrimp, which came with soup, and rolls. I had seen the dessert plate before we started eating, so I ordered dessert too, we all went to bed very full.
I thought Albert's was a little upper scale, but as we were waiting for our food, I found out it wasn't. There was a lady who decided she couldn't eat with her shoes on, and I have to say staring at someone's feet does not help my appetite.
Tuesday, we checked out a few shops in downtown Decorah, and then headed home.

It was a very fun trip.

Fun Finds

Garage sales are picking up here, unfortunately I could only go to a few, as I had to work yesterday 8-1, the prime time for sales. I picked up a few neat things this week:

 a gallon bag full of seam binding and lace trim, a pair of bunnies, and a couple of cute napkin rings

 A bag of buttons

 A vase, blue bottle.

 a twig of stars, a cute ornament

and a couple of pillows, the lady threw in the snowman one for free. I'm trying not to buy more snowmen, but it was free.

I'm planning on using the stars, buttons and seam binding for artwork, the vase was a replacement.

Any good deals in your neck of the woods?

A good week

It's been a great week for finds. Wednesday, I went downtown to see if I could find anything for my mother for Mother's Day. I decided to buy us a couple of tickets to a fashion show, my mom works at the sewing department of ISU, and we go to the ISU fashion show every year, so I thought this was a great idea. Plus, she's always saying she doesn't need more stuff, and she doesn't need more sweets.

While I was downtown, I stopped at an antique store and found some great things for me:

 buttons, scarf , and cute little card

 these pieces were in a bag together

 These were all in a bag

 This giant dictionary (it measures a little over a foot tall, 8 inches wide and 4 inches thick), someone donated to the library

Friday, I had a few garage sales to go to, as the fashion show was on Saturday at 10AM. I stopped at one on my way to work and picked up these:

 2 cigar boxes, three cardboard boxes, and a set of mini S&P shakers

 And this box of butterflies, I really only wanted that blue one in the center.

Everything I bought this week, I plan to use in art projects. I'm trying to get myself into sewing more, and I've always wanted a cigar box to decorate.

Friday afternoon, I cut some of our peonies and put them in the teapot I bought last weekend. Their smell is so intoxicating, I love it.

What have you guys found this week?

A Wonderful Day

I had a great day yesterday. My friend and I went to a nearby town's citywide garage sale day. Here's what I got:

 a rice krispie bar, a bag of flat marbles and sea glass, two Winnie the Pooh toys, a cute little ladle and a toy turtle, a bag of formica tiles, a glasses case, a shotgun shell knife, and two cookies that I ate. Also, I bought two cushions for my kitchen chairs.
My friend said we had to stop at the antique store, it was a great idea, here's what I got:

 A teapot I've decided it needs some big flowers in it, once our poppies bloom, I'll put some in it.

 3 bags of ephemera and some seam binding. In those packets are a handwritten letter, tags, receipts, buttons and even an envelope from Marshall Field's in Chicago.

two more ephemera bags, and a bunch of buttons. In the ephemera packs are cigar bangs, tickets, tags, metal pieces and some great gears punched out of paper.

I love the burlap bag, I hope I can use it in some artwork.

What did you guys find?

A little down

I've been really down lately, I think it's because I don't do much outside of work. I don't work a ton, I am over 30 hours this week, barely. A couple of weeks ago, my aunt and I went to an antique mall in a neighboring town, it was fun, but I didn't find much to buy. I have decided, I'm very spoiled with garage sales, I find it hard to spend more than $1 on things lately.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of Pyrex, but I LOVE this color, I may be looking for more things in this color. I didn't buy this, but I did buy a few things,

 Like, buttons, big surprise there huh? I also had to buy the Impala emblem, I love the Impala from the 60's, such a beautiful car. There's also a neat rock in the picture below.

 There's more buttons in the shaker, and a cute little glass.

 I had Sunday off, and I was pretty depressed. I have very few friends outside of my job, and with the exception of one, we don't get together very much. So, I've been bummed about not doing fun stuff with friends. I also decided, I really miss garage sales, there haven't been in any in my area yet, and I keep talking myself out of ones further away. I also had tentative plans to go to a neighboring town's citywide garage sale this weekend, but I don't think that's going to happen. I did find a church rummage sale I've been to in the past, that I think I'll check out.
Today, as I left my apartment to do laundry, I found this gorgeous plant at the bottom of my stairs. Needless to say, I had to stop and take a moment.

What's been happening in your lives?