More Goodies

While in  Humble today, I saw a Goodwill store.  I am in flea market mode, so figured I stop in and check out what they had.  I must say, that was one of the best Goodwill stores I've ever been in.  I think I wound up with something off every shelf and still didn't get all I wanted to.  Needless to say, my buggy was completely full.  I only went in to see what I could find to upcycle.  I found more than I expected.

I may just start really shopping like this because I found 2 very thrifty finds.  Both of those finds were something I've been really wanting.

1.  Headboard for Emily's bed.  $12.00.  Can't beat that with a stick!  Of course, I'm going to refinish it one way or another, but here it is right now.  It's very sturdy, but when I got it home, I noticed a crack in it.  Nothing wood glue can't handle.  Loving it.



2.  Towel warmer.  I have wanted one of these forever, but would never spend the amount of money on what they sell for.  This one?  $6.99.  Works wonderfully!



A closer look:

LOVE this little tea set.  I see some typography in its future.

Hug Mugs :)

These little boogers have a major transformation coming up soon!

Metal and glass, not plastic, so had to grab!

Thinking this may turn towel rack, scarf holder, anything, really.  Wall mounted or tabletop.  We will see.

Love this little beauty!  Can't wait to show you its makeover.

$3 lamp.  Craft room bound.

The two items that make me smile:

This canister is along the lines of what I've been wanting in my kitchen.  I don't necessarily use canisters for what they are labeled for, but I just love this look.  The lid was taped to the canister and it was pretty heavy, so I thought it had the entire set inside.  The price tag was $1.99, so I snatched it in a hurry.  When I got home and tore off the tape, I saw it was only the flour canister.  I also noticed the lid must not be the original lid because it looks too much like a pot lid.  No worries.  I still LOVE it.

Normally, I would have never given this next item so much as the first glance.  BUT, today, as soon as I saw it, I didn't give grabbing it a second thought.  This is why - yesterday I read a blog (that I can't find anywhere tonight to give credit to) where the lady had bought these at a dollar store for a buck.  She separated each little rose and pinned them to a styrofoam ball, making rose balls for decor in her bathroom.  The roses are made of soap, so they have a scent.  I'm not crazy about the scent of these, but hopefully it will fade soon enough.  Still, I'm going to give it a shot and will post pictures as soon as I do.  They were gorgeous!
(will give credit as soon as I find the link!)

I'm one exhausted Mommy right now and we have school tomorrow.  Better get some sleep!

A Bag a Day

We have been in our home for a year and a half and still haven't unpacked everything.  Sad, yes, I know.  Have I mentioned before how we have NO storage?  I think I have.  I blame it on that.

Our previous home had storage galore along with a huge building, so there was room for anything, really.  The last 6 months we lived there, we really utilized the space we had in the building.  We had to leave loads of things behind because we just didn't have room for it all here.  I wish we would have left more behind, but it is what it is.

I'm literally suffocating due to things we have and no place to put them.  Things get moved here and there, but never there's never a permanent home for them.  So, I've decided to just start chunking.

To make it a little easier to get rid of things and not become overwhelmed even more, I've decided to get rid of a bag a day.  It may be things I simply need to trash, or things I'll take up to the local resale shop.  We will see.  Last night I started with things in the kitchen.  All this was trash, of course.  Cereal boxes that had less than a bowl left in them, things we bought/tried/disliked.  Just those types of things that were taking up precious space and would never be used. 

I got two bags out of that.  Tragic.

Why, yes I did take a picture of two bags of trash, thank you very much.

Feels great!

I found a possible home for one of my Canton crates.  Well, I know this won't last long, but it works for tonight.  I'm thinking of hanging them, really, but tonight it sleeps on the counter.

Canton Trade Days

Well, I didn't make it to my niece's birthday party, since the plans for Canton were already made.  Hated to miss it, but LOVED Canton!  I'm so glad we stuck with our plans for once and went.

It was miserably hot.  I don't even want to know what the temp was, but it was still over 100 when we were on the road home at 5pm.  We walked so much, misplaced Morgan for a bit with a dead cell phone, and were finally reunited with her.  WHEW!  I was so upset in thinking how in the world would we ever find her in that crowd.  She found us. 

We spent way too much money on water and soda and not nearly enough on goods.  The one place I really researched and wanted to check out was priced extremely too high.  The rest of the stores we went into were very inexpensive or decently priced.  I had found these right off the bat, waiting on Janet to get there and had them loaded in my car, preparing to fill my arms again.  No wagon, no cart.  Uh, next time for sure!

After an almost complete meltdown from the heat, we found a store we all fell in love with!  "Girls Gone Junkin'".  WOW.  If you love vintage, French country, shabby chic, it's all here.  Beautiful place.  Beautiful and wonderful ladies who run it.  I had a very hard time deciding just what I wanted...until I spotted IT!  THE most wonderful little find.  For. Like. Ever.  Period.

Not the greatest of pictures, but wait until I have the accessories to go with it, including the newborn.  The ladies in the shop told me when I use it for newborn portraits, to send them a picture to put on their website.  I gladly accepted.  I have quite a few little ones standing watch nearby, waiting for their moment to be born.  I can't wait!  Two are twins.  Girls. :)

I'd like to go back in July, but only if I'm able to spend the weekend.  It's hard enough to make it in a day, much less a few hours.  Was much fun, though.

Photography Scavenger Hunt

I just received the list for the scavenger hunt I'm participating in.  Some look easy, while others look almost impossible.  Can't wait to start though!  I have until June 17 to gather them all.

Here's the list:

'57 Chevrolet - any model, any color (I so don't know year models)

Pizza delivery vehicle (no delivery here in my town)

Empty shopping center parking lot - any day, any time of day or night

Two adults together whose height difference is greater than 12" (wish my parents were still married)

Black dog

A person mowing grass

Person riding a bicycle (easy peasy)

Game of billiards or pool

Insect on flower - not a leaf, branch, etc. (tough due to no macro lens)

Construction work, commercial or residential, but not road work

Grandfather clock

Mounted sailfish or swordfish (time to eat at Joe's or Red Lobster) :)



Too bad I can't use any past photos, because I have a few of these already in the can.

Looks like fun!

I'll post the pictures as soon as I can capture them.

My New Toy

I finally bought it. 

My Holga.

Ahhh.....

Bask in all it's plastic glory. 

Still in the package.  The excitement is anguish!

Since I have no idea just yet where to develop this size film (unless my lab will do it), I'm going to take my time using up the film.  Maybe.

The photowalk I'm joining in on in this little town of mine in the near future is to be done with these so that's when I'll really be needing it.  I'm going to try not to use up all the film before then. 

If you still don't know what lomography is, I'd say just google it.  It makes for very interesting photos.  You will be seeing a lot more lomography on here.

Oh, and I found my letter "L" for my alphabet assignment.  I took it with my regular DSLR.  I'm loving it.

Ok, enough.  It's Holga Time!

...and Now, the Rest of the Story

....from the wise words of Paul Harvey.


Dinner is over, kitchen is cleaned, so I thought I'd finish saying what I wanted to include in the last post before I fall asleep.

Also on my agenda for the month of June is a photography scavenger hunt.  It begins June 3, so I don't have the list yet.  I'm so excited about this!  I don't even know why.  Just cuz.

Starting June 6 is a photo challenge.  The challenge is "Party".  I started not to sign up for this and still hoping it's not a mistake, but my niece's birthday party is this weekend.  I would rather do some other type of party, just to be different, but maybe I'll get some great shots there.  My original plans for Saturday was going to Canton Trade Days with my sister(s).  Guess we will have to make it another time.

And....drum roll please..the thing I'm mostly looking forward to is a photowalk in Galveston at the Railroad Museum.  Wow, with all this "me" time, I'm not going to know how to act.

Why am I putting this all here?  Because I'll come back to this more than I will any calendar.  Gotta keep those thoughts straight, ya know.

So, there you have it.  Well, not all of it, but a start of my busy month of June...in the photography world...excluding photoshoots.

ABC

After this past weekend, I did absolutely nothing.

Not even the laundry, which is odd for me. 

Laundry is my thang.

It takes me a couple days to get started back on everything once we take so much as a mini vacation.  We take quite a few during the year too.  I may not ever get on a real schedule where I do the same thing day in and day out.

I see no end in sight.

Mt. Washmore needs to be tended to.

Groceries need to be bought.

Kids need to be schooled.

Dinner needs to be cooked.

Bills need to be paid.

That's just the regular everyday thing though.  Like all mothers, I'd hope.

I have a lot of things on my plate for the month.  Summer is here and things go a little crazy.  Wrestling the schedule with everything the kids do and squeezing in a little "me" time will be a struggle this month.  But, I'm looking forward to it.

Remember those camera clubs I joined a while back?  Now, since it's summer, there are a lot of activities going on with them.  My first one has already started. 

My assignment is to shoot the alphabet in different objects.  You know, where a round object looks like an "O" and a sign could look like a "T"?  That sort of thing.  I'm sure you have seen them.  I've actually wanted to do this for a while now, but didn't have anything pushing me to.  Now I have that.  It's not due until close to the end of August, so there's time. 

The only problem I have with this assignment is that it's a competition.  I'm not afraid of competition, but the way they are judging is just not the way to judge, in my opinion. The pictures are to be put on a Flickr account and you have to get as many people as you can to "like" your set.  To me, that becomes a popularity contest instead of a photo contest and defeats the purpose of the shoot to begin with.  Am I right?  Well, that's my opinion.

So, with that being said, I'm not entering mine as a competition.  I'll just be doing mine for a fun assignment.  Since it has a due date, I'll be able to stay on track.  The winner gets something I don't need anyway...paid entry into the next photowalk.  That photowalk happens to be in my little town and I always get in free anyway. 

I already have a few letter shapes in mind, with not much help from the kids.  I told them all last night to help me look.  Cameron came up with a tractor looking like a letter that it truly didn't look like.  HA!  I think I'll use my own judgement.

There are a few more things I want to post about, but dinner needs to be served.

Until then...