the final week of 2009 meme

I love doing memes, and here's one I found on this site:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
~start a 365 picture blog

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
~since I didn't make any resolutions, I kept them very well. Nope, not making any.

3. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
~probably on the couch

4. Did anyone close to you die?
~no

5. What countries did you visit?
~none

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
~a better job with insurance

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
~ ugh...i don't know

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
~opened a shop on Etsy for vintage clothes

9. What was your biggest failure?
~ meeting my goal to have all my bills paid off

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
~nothing major

11. What was the best thing you bought?
~my laptop

12. Where did most of your money go?
~bills

13. What song will always remind you of 2009?
~ Don't Stop Believing

14. What do you wish you'd done more of?
~take pictures without feeling self conscious

15. What do you wish you'd done less of?
~gossip and argue with my co-workers

16. What was your favourite TV program?
~Glee

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
~hate is an ugly word....dislike is better

18. What was the best book you read?
~The Alchemist

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
~ The Polyphonic Spree

20. What was your favorite film of this year?
~I guess the Transformers movie, which it wasn't all that great but i can't think of anything better.

21. What did you do on your birthday?
~went to many various Goodwill stores

22. What kept you sane?
~building my vintage clothing stock

23. Who did you miss?
~strangely, Brenda

24. Who was the best new person you met?
~obviously I didn't meet anyone spectacular because I can't think of anybody.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
~keep my big mouth shut if i don't want everybody knowing my business

hooray for day after Christmas sales!!

I was not going to go to any after Christmas sales today, but I forgot that it was the last weekend of the month and so Goodwill was half off. So I headed up there about 10:30 with my mother and we got a lot of new dresses and skirts. Well, she got skirts. I got dresses to sell on my Etsy site. So anyway we were talking about what to have for supper (at like 12:30...it was a little early to be thinking about supper but oh well, we're just random like that) and we decided on vegetable soup but we needed some cabbage so we stopped at Walmart.

OK funny side note to my story here....as we were walking in this guy wearing a t-shirt and no coat was walking out with his girlfriend and proceeded to yell very loudly about how cold it was....yeah if you wore a coat buddy it wouldn't be cold.

So anyway there was this perfume that I originally saw at JC Penney and then later found at Walmart that I have been dying to get my hands on, but at the price of $30 for less than an ounce it wasn't happening. As we walked to the Christmas aisle there it sat on the shelf....for TEN DOLLARS!!!!! I was absolutely giddy with excitement! I bought two. hee hee heeeeeeeeeeee!!

It's called Harajuku Lovers and there are 5 different scents. The one I like is called "G". I later found out it's from Gwen Stefani, which I never would have guessed but I don't pay attention to trends or who's making what kind of fashions now.

I found it on Amazon.com for $50....oh my gosh I got such a deal!

So anyway, I could have taken a picture but I didn't, I took one from the amazon.com site, just in case the link page goes away, along with the link to the page instead:





and the link is HERE

So woo hoo! I'm glad I got off my hiney and got outside today.

So here's the finished product of previously said sewing project I started, and I think they turned out quite nicely! :

my most favorite one:

other favorites:

oh the holiday spirit

This time of year I always get in the crafty "I'm gonna make all my Christmas presents" mode and start trying furiously to accomplish that thought. It never happens.

Well, yesterday and today I have accomplished quite a lot, compared to waht I usually do. Yes ma'am...I've made a beaded sweater that had shrunk and was badly out of shape into the loverly pillow you see below, as well as sewn pillows out of vintage hand pieced quilt blocks that have been in my stash for oh...years. I said sewed, not stuffed. I also sewed together 10 little Christmas pillows that I have also had for years and years. They had already been cut out by whoever had them before me, I just need to embellish them with a few buttons and stuff them and they'll be all ready to go...to someone.






cute little Christmas pillows waiting for stuffing:



I also decided I wanted to try and make a cat ornament like this one that I found at a thrift store one year. See how cute and quirky he is?:



This is how mine turned out:



short and stumpy and crooked with round ears and a fat tail....



I also found this adorable little scottie dog at a thrift store, thrown into a bin of toys. I want to try and make another one like him, but I think I have to perfect my cat first before I attempt the dog:



here's all three of them together. Don't they make a lovely family?



I also hung some pictures in my sewing room that I had got from trades and some of my own art work done at work (daycare). finger paint on cardboard:

I have plans to sew some more tomorrow before I go into work, but we'll see what happens. I feel very good about all these projects that I'm finally completing after putting them off for so many, many years. And I mean many. There's always some other thing distracting me from doing the things I really enjoy. Maybe I can keep it up.

day trip!

The senior citizens of my chruch took their annual fall trip to an Amish community today and I decided to tag along, hoping to get some good fall pictures. Well, the clouds were pretty well covering the whole sky so it wasn't an ideal blue like I had hoped, but it was a good day all the same.

Here's the dog that greeted us and proceeded to chew on the preacher's hand, then got bored and started destroying this chair:

Wagon wheels, of course:

Mama would LOVE to have a set of these dishes:

Home made bonnets:


and home made dresses:

CHEESE!!!

I wanted to buy everything in the store:

generosity is wonderful

My neighbor is such a wonderful lady. Very nice, and she loves my cats so it's not a problem if one of them strays over into her yard or sometimes even into her house to say hello.
Everyone who knows me knows that I love going to thrift stores and finding great items. Especially dishes, aprons, or anything vintage. Getting them free is even better.

So Saturday she was rearranging her house for some friends that are coming to visit, and asked if we wanted a wing chair that she had bought and decided not to use. I so wanted it, but we have no room for it at all. I sadly said no, but she had some other stuff she was going to take to the thrift store and I said no way sister, that stuff's going home with me! Not really, she asked if wanted to look through it before she took it away, and I scored some great things!

check. it. out.

Awesome vintage table runner


even more awesome antique highchair. I don't even care that it doesn't have a tray.

japanese luster ware. yep.

my fav-o-rite dish.

It was a good day.

i'm so handy

About a week ago my kitchen faucet broke thanks to the extremely heavy glass ball ornament that fell on it. The amazing thing is the ornament didn't break, but it hit the cold water knob and did some internal damage which caused the water to run continuously. Saturday we bought a new faucet and today in installed it. Myself. Me.

It took me almost 2 hours to get the old faucet off because the things were screwed on there so tight and it was a really old faucet. I finally got the old one off and then with a tiny bit of help got the new one on. woo! Who needs a man?

gettin crafty

I had this idea a while back (like 2 years ago) about making fridge magnets out of flat marbles and scrap book paper, so I made some up and handed them out as Christmas and birthday presents. I slacked off like I'm prone to do, collected a crap load of papers that I thought would make good magnet sets, and let the paper sit in a box for way too long.




Tonight my fingers started itching to make some again, and since my friend Crystal just had a house built and has a very sad and bare fridge door I thought I would make her some. I have two sizes, little 2 inch marbles, and then bigger idon'tknowwhatsize marbles. I was going to make the big ones for her, but when I got all my stuff out i couldn't find my big magnets. so she's getting small ones. Anyway, here's some pictures of the ones I made tonight. Nothing fancy, but I think they're pretty cute.

dollywood yesterday!

I went to Dollywood yesterday, woo! Here's how my day went:

browsing for books in the outdoor book store....

they had very pretty flowers blooming....

lunch at ham 'n beans....

cute piggy banks in a toy shop...

the Lucky 7 Mine is open again!!!!

pausing at the fountain....

I love the blown glass shop! One day I will own several of these glass ornament balls that are so beautiful yet so very expensive.

the snail says hi!

woo woo woo!

and on the way home this cloud appeared from behind the mountain as the sun was going down. it looks like a baby elephant chasing a bunny rabbit. Yes, it does.