AAARGH!!

That about sums up my last few weeks.
Not a lot happening here, working mostly. Miranda Lambert came here last Thursday, I worked her concert, that was fun. Lots of people, lots of people looking for a smoking patio (we don't have one), a couple people annoyed because they left and I wouldn't let them back in (it's policy). Lots of drunks at the end of the night.
We also got some snow that night. I got 6.5 hours of sleep and had to go to work at 8 the next morning. I did not have to shovel, thankfully, but I still had my mother complain to me. Sunday, was my day off in about 2 weeks, my plan was to sit and do nothing, but then I got a phone call from my mother saying I needed to pick at the snow on the driveway. I did, but apparently didn't do a good enough job for her, when I left Monday morning, I saw someone had done more. And then they left it in a pile on the sidewalk.
I've been trying to get over a cold/flu/who knows what lately, but since I've been working so much, my body has been having a very hard time fighting it. Yesterday, it snowed ALL day, it didn't stop until some time this afternoon. I'm not sure how much we got, but I'm pretty sure I shoveled 6 inches total yesterday, and probably a couple more this morning. The first time I went out about noon, it was heavy, took me about an hour. I went out a couple hours later and shoveled a couple more inches. This morning I was out at 7AM shoveling some more. I fully expected to get home from work and shovel some more. When I got home, my parents had done it, thankfully, I asked my dad if I needed to change and come help, he said no, but I bet I'll hear about it from my mother. Back to that pile on the sidewalk, my mother was working on that when I got home, I'll probably hear about that too. Something about how I didn't clear it off, that's what happens when you leave a pile and it freezes to the concrete.
My dad called me at work today saying some of my mail got in their mailbox. I get home and he says he was in my mailbox, because mine was in theirs, so some of theirs was probably in mine. I told him I'd rather he wasn't in my mailbox, and he got mad at me. It's mail fraud to be in someone's mailbox if they didn't ask you to. I don't understand why he couldn't wait for me to clean out my mailbox and give them their mail.
My arms and back hurt from shoveling, so everytime I bent over to clean out the drop boxes at work, my back hurt more. I love how my mom always has some reason for not shoveling (I was very surprised to see her out there today), but if I happened to mention that my back bothers every time I shovel, it would be an excuse and no one would care.

Sorry about the venting post, but I needed to.
Go over to The Frog Palace, for something neat.

Stressful Week

I'm not entirely sure why this week was so stressful, but it has been the most stressful week I've had in awhile.

I have a muscle somewhere near my shoulder that has been giving me fits lately, I have no idea why. This morning it was hurting, it usually doesn't bother me when I get up, just after moving in certain ways. I mentioned this to a co-worker, and he started to massage the knot out, and then the phone rang, and we had to work. After I was done with work, I went to find my boss, she's given me a massage before, when my back was bothering me at work. She told me I had two knots, one that was lower and felt like a pencil, and one that was higher and more like a ball. Apparently, I'm so stressed with my knots, I made her thumb numb, and I still have one of the knots. I'd love to know what's making me stressed, so I can stop knotting up my back.

It still hurts now, there's a couple spots that are actually tender to the touch. I'm not entirely sure if that's from the knots, or her massaging them out, she said I'd hurt when she was done.

 

To combat my stress, I have started a new project: a fabric book:

Head over to my art blog to read more about it.

What do you guys do to de-stress yourselves?

I'm so disappointed

After reading on other blogs about their great finds at stores and estate sales, I went to our two antique/consignment stores today. Unfortunately, I didn't find much. My first stop is a small antique store. I try not to go in there frequently because she doesn't move stuff out if it doesn't sell fast, I feel like I see the same stuff in there all the time. I did take in a Mason jar of buttons for her.

My second stop is a consignment store that has a lot of cool stuff. It's got 3 floors of stuff and they move it in and out, and stage things for holidays. Unfortunately, I didn't find much there either. Here's what I picked up:

 A green silk scarf, and a creamer. I plan on using the scarf to make something else. I found some cute hankies, but I can't justify spending more than $1, when I know when it's garage sale season, I can find them for cheaper. The creamer was just too cute to pass up.  I'm very spoiled by garage sale season, but I really liked it, plus it had already been there for a month.


My next disappointment is people. I watched the movie Compliance today, it is fictional, but it's based on true events. It's about this 19 year old girl working in a fast food joint. Someone calls saying they're a police officer and tells her manager that she stole money from a customer's purse. The "police officer" says they need to search her clothes and belongings, and then strip search her, and then says she needs to sit in the office naked until they come to get her. As time passes, the "police officer" on the phone asks the manager to have a male sit with her, the manager first gets another employee, who decides he won't do it, and then calls in her fiancee (who is probably in his 40's), to sit with her. When the manager leaves the caller tells the guy he needs to inspect her, have her bend over, spank her and then have her perform oral sex on him. This causes the fiancee to leave, and the manager brings in a much older worker, probably close to 60's, who finally says he won't do anything. The manager calls her regional manager, who the caller said he was talking to on another line, finds out he hasn't talked to anyone, and finally hangs up on the caller and calls the real police.
Apparently, this actually happened, a prank caller would call fast food places and say that someone stole something and then assault these girls over the phone. And nobody ever questioned him because he said he was a police officer. Unfortunately, I believe it happened, even as I'm sitting there yelling at the TV.
Studies by Stanley Milgram in the 60's found that people will follow directions if somone identifies themselves as authority figures. I guess they believe that people wouldn't lie about that and just follow blindly. I read about these studies when I took psychology in college, it's sad but it happens. I find it hard to believe though, that as your listening to someone giving you directions that make you ask multiple times if you should be doing it, and cause you to cry, that you wouldn't stop for a second and think about it.
I can't say what I'd do in that kind of situation, but I'd like to think my common sense would kick in. I know the police wouldn't call an establishment and have them strip search anyone. They wouldn't keep you on the phone for hours telling you to do things that you think are wrong. I'd hope I'd realize this, hang up and call the actual police line and ask for whoever I was talking to.


Back to happier news, if you're interested in some lace, I listed some on my Etsy store yesterday. It's a mix of mostly vintage lace, with a few pieces of newer trim thrown in as well. Go here, if you're interested. I don't usually promote my Etsy store on here, but I think it's a great deal (of course I'm a little biased).

Please post more of your finds, I hope to live vicarously through you guys until garage sale season starts in a few months.

Who's sick of winter?

I'm sick of winter and cold and snow, so here's some pretty warm pictures from my vacation to Hawaii in 2010. Enjoy!

 I learned today, that people are nicer than I give them credit for. I grew up being wary of people, and then majored in criminal justice in college, which made me suspicious of people. I don't have a driver's license. I really don't need one here, and I'm kinda scared of driving. So, I walk pretty much everywhere, anywhere I can't get to, or is too far, I take the bus. My mother always makes it a big deal to give me a ride anywhere, so I never ask (plus I like walking). In the past year, I've had people give me rides to places they aren't going, and even pick me up and take me back to where they started, and then of course back after, and they're not bothered by it. I generally don't ask for rides anywhere. This past May, a neighboring town was having their annual city-wide garage sale. I really wanted to go, I went with my aunts the year before, but they were busy last year. My co-worker who lives in this neighboring town, said she'd go with me. I mentioned I didn't have a way to get there, she said it was no problem coming to get me, driving around with me and then taking me home.

 Tonight, I was working a wrestling event, and would have had to wait for the bus for 40 minutes, or walk home in 15 degree weather, with who knows what wind chill (it's been below 0 all day). I don't mind waiting for the bus. I mentioned casually to my co-worker that I had to wait for the bus, and she offered to give me a ride home. She does live close by, but not that much. She also said, if we were ever working the same shift, she'd be glad to give me a ride.

 I'm not used to that. Like I said, I've always been wary of people. I keep my guard up when I meet new people and it takes a while before I'm comfortable enough to call someone my friend. I like that people are interested in me, and want to do nice things for me.

 I also learned, I like uplifting songs. Right now, one of my favorites is Firework by Katy Perry. I'm not a huge fan of her, but I like the song. Here's the lyrics, if you've never heard it:

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind wanting to start again?
Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards one blow from caving in?

Do you ever feel already buried deep six feet under?
Scream but no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there's still a chance for you
'Cause there's a spark in you?

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July

 'Cause, baby, you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colours burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe

You don't have to feel like a wasted space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

 Maybe you reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow
And when it's time you'll know

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause, baby, you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colours burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe

 Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of you, you, you
And now it's time to let it through-ough-ough

'Cause, baby, you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colours burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe

Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

 It's all about how wonderful YOU are. I like that message, I'm gonna have to find more uplifting songs.

 holding seahorses

 our cruise ship

and here's a picture of me, with my Hawaii sunburn

Freak out day

and more ramblings from a strange woman.

So, this weekend I was in a lot of pain from my problem tooth. Yesterday, I made an appointment with my dentist for today, and in less than an hour it's coming out. That's good news, but I'm freaking out a tiny bit. I'm not scared, I did have this done back in August, it doesn't hurt, but I can hear it. That's why I'm freaking out, it's so close to my ear I can hear it, and it's not a nice sound. I looked at the x-ray, looks like it will be another easy pull, I went to the bank to make sure I had the money to cover it, if it's not. I'd have been fine either way, but I would have been under what I'd like to have in my account, if it turns out to be the higher number.
This morning, I decided it was time to get rid of my old microwave and set up my new one. Now, that it's not snowy out, I could put my old microwave on the curb, and people could see it, it was white. By, the time I got my new microwave set up, someone had already taken the old one. It wasn't a long amount of time, but I did extend it a little after shocking myself when I plugged it in. That was fun, not an experience I'd like again.

At least it's my day off, so I can recover from everything before I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Ramblings of a strange woman

Hello all,
What's been going on with me. Well, New Year's, it wasn't very exciting, I did make it past midnight, but mostly only because I had a Cherry Coke and was in the middle of a movie.
The library's been great, every time I'm working at one of my other two jobs, I find myself talking about it a lot. I really like working there, I plan to be there for a very long time.
Last week, I was at the book store for RUSH (when the college kids come back), that was a long week of standing for about 40 hours. I had already worked the 40 hours at the book store, when I went in to the library last Friday for a shift. I felt my weekend off was very well deserved.
This week we're back into very cold temperatures. Last week at the book store, it was below 10 degrees every morning when I went in to work. Today, the high was 14, they dropped that to 13 before I left work at noon. It was 2 when I left for work, and the wind chill was -11. I really do love Iowa, I just don't like all of it's seasons.
I signed up for a candy box swap, I had to decorate a candy box and fill it with goodies and mail it off to a partner. I finished decorating it Tuesday, and every time I look at it, I love it. I also joined a swap where we send something handmade with a heart on it to a partner. I decided to do some kind of sewing.

And then there's the moaning below:

I'm having a horrible day, week, month, whatever. I got a letter in the mail the other day saying my health insurance premium is going up to $200 a month. I can't afford that, I'm thinking about cancelling it. Someday, I'll have to have another one of my back molars pulled out, because I didn't brush my teeth in college, I'm thinking about having it done soon because I'm sick of picking food out of it. I keep spending money on stuff I don't need, I went grocery shopping today, and I didn't buy ice cream, but I sure didn't need the chocolate eclairs or the slice of lemon pie. I keep signing up for swaps to create stuff so I can make that connection that I keep reading about on other people's blogs. The meeting someone who becomes a great friend online, and sends you fun random presents. I have met a few people that I follow their blogs, but I've also met other people where I've sent them things, but feel it's a one sided relationship. Now, I know, I should be getting enough satisfaction in just making and/or sending people fun things, but sometimes I feel as if no one cares.
I work 19 hours at my job, which I LOVE, I just wish I could get more money. I know I could get more if I worked more, which I have the option to do, but after working 18 days straight between two jobs, sometimes I just want that day off to recover my sanity. When I'm not at work, it seems all I do is sit on the couch and watch movies. Maybe, that's part of the reason I sign up to do swaps, so I can motivate myself to do something else. I love the 3 jobs I work, I just wish I could make more money at them, and not have to get another job.
Sometimes, it feels like the only thing that makes me happy is to buy things, which in my current situation, doesn't really help anything. Listening to my music helps too, but sometimes not enough.

I think I'm just in a funk of being bored with cold weather and snow. I recently took down all my snowmen decorations. I was only going to take down some of them, but then realized I'd have to bring the boxes back out when I took down the rest. My decorations are so nice and colorful now. Most of them are garage sale finds, and I realized that when I go garage saleing this year, I need to be buying a few less things. This past year, I bought a lot of vintage linens/doilies/things, tea cups, saucers, heavy glass creamers and sugar bowls, sundae cups and wine glasses. I've decided to buy
more linens, I keep using them for my sewing and swaps,
more craft supplies, but only those I might actually use,
jewelry, I'm still on the look out for a cute tiny bracelet,
owls, I'm on an owl kick right now, I even have an owl corner in my apartment.

and of course I can't think of any others right now. I bought a Pyrex mixing bowl a couple years ago, and couldn't figure out the hype, and then this past December while we were cleaning out my grandma's apartment, I picked up 3 more Pyrex pieces, I'm still not sure why. Two of them are these small red rectangular containers, probably not more than 4 inches long, the other one is a casserole dish in this beautiful turquoise color with snowflakes on it. I really like that one, mostly because of the snowflakes, I'll probably actually use that one. I get that people like Pyrex, I just don't think I need to be collecting it.

All right, that's the end of my rambling, I hope you stuck around to read it.

Spending Money

So, my brother gave me a gift card for JCPenney for Christmas, last week I went online to spend some of it. I wanted to buy boots, but they didn't have what I wanted in my size, so I decided to look at their clearance clothing section. Here's what I got:

This is what I ordered, this cute little dress, 

And here's what I got: not such a cute little dress, totally not what I was expecting, I'm thinking about returning it. Anyone have any comments about how it looks? I think it looks kinda nice.

 Here's my second dress, unfortunately, I think it makes my hips look huge, so I might be taking that back.

This picture is kinda blurry, sorry. Anyways, I ordered both the shirt and the skirt. I like them both, plus they go great together.

 

I would love some feedback on how you all think they look on me, please.

After Christmas shopping

Decided to kill some time yesterday after work, so I took a detour to Hobby Lobby and an local flower store.

Found some great after Christmas deals.

The sparkly butterfly, elephant and blue poinsettia are from Hobby Lobby. The alien, gold ball, and snowman pick were from my flower store.

I also went to HyVee, but resisted the urge to buy Valentine's candy. I didn't buy any Valentine's stuff at Hobby Lobby either, but mostly because it wasn't on sale.

I'd love to find a great Valentine's swap to get into, I miss swaps.
I'm also missing garage sales. I stopped pretty early last year, I have no idea why. There's a few antique/consignment stores in my area, but they seem to have the same stuff all the time, so it just doesn't seem worth it.

HELP

Is anyone having problems uploading pictures from their computer? I click the picture icon, but it never loads the button to upload from my computer.

Any suggestions?

Swaps

I signed up for quite a few swaps this holiday season. One of them was an ornament swap where you send ornaments to a partner.

I sent this out awhile ago, so I know my partner's received it by now. She said she liked owls, and bright colors.

We were supposed to send these in order for our partner to receive them by December 7th or 10th, depending on whether you're reading the initial post or the email that was sent out with partner's information.
I hadn't received her package as of yesterday, so I emailed her this morning. She said she was waiting for my package to arrive to get my address. USPS says my package to her was delivered on December 1st, so I don't know what to think about that.

I also joined a swap back in November to make ATCs with flowers on them. The hostess lives in another country, so it took a while to get items to her, but they were due in the middle of November. I got an email the other day, saying they were on their way back.

I also joined a supply swap where we send each other a small Priority mail box full of Christmas-y supplies. That's supposed to be in my hands by Saturday.

The last 3 days I haven't gotten anything in the mail. I've worked 30 hours this week already and I'm ready for something good to come back to me.

The reason I love this season is that I get to give gifts to people, more so than the rest of the year. I love picking out things I think they'll like.

This past Sunday, we had my mother's side of the family Christmas. One of my cousin's kids seemed kinda bummed, so when we got home I put together a stocking for her, and since her brother is younger I didn't want to leave him out. I mailed them off today, they don't know about my blog, so I'm not spoiling any surprises. I just pulled things from around my house, the only thing I spent money on was shipping.

This first one is for her brother. I hope he'll like the stocking, it's not really boyish. I included a couple wind-up toys, some bug goo, and a bag of mint M&M's. I took the M&M's to the get together, and he really enjoyed them there.

 This next one was for her. The stocking is from my vintage stocking swap partner from last year. I included a butterfly clip, some lip gloss, a choker, a cute bird ornament, a snowflake ornament, journal,

 a couple more necklaces, some fingernail polish, some lotion, a pair of earrings, a "bobbing" chicken (he dances from side to side in the sun), and a cute sun catcher.

I think they're both fun stockings for kids.

Festival of Trees

A few weeks ago, I went to our local festival of trees. Here are some interesting ones.

 This one was a little weird, it was decorated by a local clothing store. They chose to attach the torso to the middle of the tree and then decorate the bottom of the tree.

 I love the silver and blue on this tree.

 Love the pink and green together on this tree.

 This one was decorated with corks. I've seen a few trees floating around the internet with this decorating pattern, I don't understand what's so cool about it.

 Loved the light green, blue and bright colors on this one. It was available for bid, but it went too high for me.

 Another one with blue and green.

 And another one, are we seeing a pattern here.

 This one my mom liked. We have an ISU tree that we decorate with red and gold ribbon/beads, and ISU ornaments. We top it with an ISU Santa hat, and put all mom's ISU Santa's underneath.

 There was also an art auction going on, they do one every year to raise money for the Octagon (an art studio). Here's what I put in the winning bid for:
This is a plastic chicken, it's probably a foot and a half long and a foot tall, it's feet are bent over so it stands on them. I just thought it was funky.

 This is a painting of poppies, I thought they were cute

 This last one I only bid on for the keychain. They're both pieces of leather with patterns stamped into them. I don't wear headbands, so I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Still cleaning out

Last weekend, we had my mother's side of the family Christmas. We also took more things from my grandma's apartment. Here's what I found.

Some embroidered dish towels:

 They're so pretty, I don't want to use them.
An embroidered heart, October angel, the bug is a top from a candle holder, and a mouse ornament:

My grandma collected Avon bottles, the shoe and owl she had in her bathroom for as long as I can remember, I liked the frog, they are all now in my bathroom. The snowman is a candle holder.

 A Pyrex casserole dish, I love the blue color and snowflake pattern, an owl hand towel and an unopened peach gift set.

We didn't have enough room in the car to bring everything back, so the next box is coming later.

Christmas Decorations

This is a picture heavy post. I haven't been in the mood to dig out my holiday decorations yet, I keep seeing the Christmas lights and other people's decorations, but I couldn't get myself to do it. Yesterday, I decided it was time. Most of the reason I didn't want to get them out is that I have over 300 snowmen in my collection, and it's a lot to bring out. But, then I got smart, why not just get out my favorites? So, I did:

 This is a button tree I won last year at our Festival of trees, I got a few owl ornaments last year for Christmas, and it has become an owl tree. It actually never gets put away, I love looking at it all year round. I bought the blue and orange owl on the right top at a fundraiser this year, it's actually a coin purse. The owl at the top is actually a cell phone holder. My other new addition this year (as of yesterday), is the blue one on the right side, it actually says "Baby's first Christmas", but it was just too cute to pass up.

 I'm sorry this picture is blurry. If you can see, the tree is one of those porcelain ones with plastic colored lights, that you put a light bulb in. My grandparents had one of these when I was growing up, so when I saw one at a garage sale last year, I had to have it. I never plug it in because I think the bulb is too powerful for it. It's decorated in Merry Moos, they're from a swap I did last year, they measure 2" x 1". The white girl at the bottom is one of the ornaments I received last year in the button floozies swap.

 This is the top of my DVD case, you can still see the painted pumpkin I bought last month, it's so cute, I can't throw it away. There's also a hippo ornament in there that I bought yesterday, too cute.

 This is where my old TV sat, I have a hard time finding tall items to put in it for every season. You can see the tree stump birdhouse guy I bought this summer, I dressed him up with a top hat ornament I found at Walmart yesterday (can you see a little theme, I went Christmas shopping yesterday). I also love the hot air balloon ornament I got in the vintage stocking swap last year. The snowball I bought this year, I was trying not to buy more snowmen, but he's so cute, under his hat is a candle. The cup next to him I got in a trade at an antique store this month.

 This is the top of my DVD case. The little black tree I got a couple years ago at Borders. I love how my snowmen pop against it.

 This is on top of another of my DVD cabinets. The poinsettias are clips I got last year.

 These are on top of my radiator. The nesting dolls my parents gave me a few years. The bird is from my shopping trip yesterday.

 In this picture, is another of my trees, it's actually a part of a tree in our yard that we had to cut out, because it was dead. I stained it and have been using it as decoration for awhile now. Most of these snowmen are kinda heavy. I had to put them here to hold the sewn decorations onto the scarf on the book shelf. To see more of the sewn decorations, go here. There's also a seahorse keychain that I got when we went to Hawaii a few years ago. I love the "world's greatest crafter" ornament hanging next to the seahorse. My best friend from high school gave that to me.

 This is the top of another bookcase. My favorite snowmen here, are the "peppermint" candles. I also couldn't bear to put away the velvet painting in the background.

 This is further down on that bookcase. I love the stocking holders, even though I don't hang stockings on them.

 This is my radiator in the kitchen, my kitchen snowmen stay out all year long. I guess they're my favorite favorites. The one on the left is a singing one, it came with Hallmark cards one year. There's also a cute praying snowman, I got last year. I love the unhappy frog, he was a present from a former employer. There's a couple cookie jars there, I looked in one of them the other day and it had candy I totally forgot about. There's also one in the front that has a beanie on, I always thought of him as an "artist" snowman.

 These are on the top of my refrigerator. They're mostly ISU snowmen. Iowa State University is located here in Ames, IA. The university used to come out with a new snowman every year, and my parents would get them for me, unfortunately they stropped do that. These mostly stay out because it's so much work to get them in and out of their packaging.

 This is in my entryway. I sprinkled some of my smaller snowmen throughout my vehicles. I love sailboats, the one on the right is made out of foreign Coca Cola cans that I found in Washington, D.C. one year. There's also the USMC's 250th anniversary commemorative silver dollar, I'm very proud of that. On the left, you can see the glass bottle I altered.

 Here's the top of the cabinet, with more snowmen around my vehicles. The fighter jet on the right is also made of foreign Coca Cola cans, I found it in New Orleans. The Mustang, is my favorite version of that car.

 Here are the stockings I made this year, they started out for a swap, and then for some reason, I didn't want to use them, and my partner decided she wanted a more traditional stocking. To read more about them, go here.

 This is also in my entryway, on the other side of the above doorway. The letters spell out collector, with snowmen being the "O's". On the left side are a dress form ornament that I got in last year's button floozie swap, and a tag.

These are mostly this year's button floozie swap, the stocking is from last year. I'm still waiting on one more from this year.