Adventures in Thrifting

It's been good thrifting lately. Last week I scored an excellent folding bookshelf. It's in really good shape, stained dark wood, and it folds. And, if I keep buying books, I'm going to need more shelves.

And some tree ornaments. These tree ornaments.I decorated my new tinsel tree for about three dollars. It doesn't get much better than that.

I also brought home these guys recently:

I'm pretty sure every home needs a gnome with a wheelbarrow, a longhorn bull and plastic elk. Right?

Repetition

Friday night was the Chicago Craft Social. A group of ladies organize this event every so often. They are amazing for doing it, I have to say. It's tons of work. I attended the one in September and had volunteered to take some pictures but a professional photographer volunteered her services. But Jess asked me to take some this time. Those photos are getting put up slowly into Flickr over there. I'm trying to load them by craft which is taking some organizing on my part as I kept moving from craft to craft to craft to get pictures of things in progress and finished projects.

Which meant that I gave up crafting for the night. But it was great fun anyways. I really enjoyed getting to know a few of the ladies that were helping organize it all. I loved seeing the projects people were working on and I would sit down at tables every now and again and chat with the folks there and running it and get to "Ooh" and "Aah" over all the things folks made. I actually made a gift tag. It seemed simple enough and pretty far out of the range of things I make normally. But one of the first tables I sat and chatted at was the poppy pins table where they made bobby pins topped with felt or fabric flowers. Now, I have some such things from Calexandra, an Etsy shop owner, which were a graduation gift from my brother and sister-in-law and have admired her gorgeous necklaces as well. I learned some basic technique for make one of those necklaces for myself. It needs to be refined. But still...

I think it's quite pretty. And only a little itchy.

Fall Cleaning

I've been in a bit of a cleaning mood lately. I've tossed things I've been keeping and going through things that I don't remember ever having. I came across some embroidery attempts that I had intended to do... something with. I tossed a few but kept this little tree. It's kind of happy.

I also put up my new Christmas tree last night! It's silver tinsel tree! (I bought it last year after Christmas for half off or something and it's been sitting in my car trunk since then) How excited am I? I'm breaking my own "No Trees until after Hannita's birthday" rule. That's how excited I am. Of course, now I need a whole new set of ornaments as the old ones don't seem to go well with the silver tinsel-ness.

And here's Leo. He says "Rawr!"

Have a happy Thursday everyone!

Oh so Happy Making...

A little scary

This morning I couldn't remember where I parked last night. I thought I remembered but then I didn't see the car and it made me think of when my car was stolen and I tried to not freak out but to calmly turn around and think harder about where I might have left it last night. I did find it eventually.

But scarier than that was seeing my Judah-kitty have a small seizure last night. There was nothing I could do for him. His neck and head kept twitching as he was struggling to get up. The two sad, little meows that escaped while it was happening. It breaks my heart a little. He seems like he's doing OK now which is good. He's walking fine and eating and all the normal things cats do. But if you get a minute think good thoughts for him.

Floating Away

Every so often I get offers for free magazines. Most of them I turn down. Just a few moments ago it was Psychology Today. But I have gotten a few years worth of People en Espanol and Spin. I had a year's worth of Art in America. The PAW which comes less than weekly despite the name. But at one point it was every single week. For Christmas my parents got me Smithsonian. I've gotten the first issue of Hispanic Business. I get Ministry Today at work. And I get Elle Decor. I've paid nothing for any of these. I kind of think this is crazy. And good. But also bad. Because this means I have lots of extra magazines floating around that I don't actually read.

Today I'm tempted to get National Geographic for $10. Who doesn't love National Geographic? But I've got magazines up to my eyeballs so I've refrained from ordering a subscription for myself. That doesn't mean that my Christmas shopping hasn't officially started though.

I'm also very bad at throwing magazines away so they just accumulate. What do you do with yours?

(mostly) Wordless Wednesday

The day I have been waiting for

with changing leaves and the bright blue sky. It's been such a rainy October. Something they keep saying over and over and over again on the news. I get it. Rainy. Precipitation. Overcast. I just lived through it. But we've had a few of these gorgeous fall days lately and I'm grateful for them.

Also a gratuitous sunset shot:

I used my car as a tripod, hence the reflection.

I've been feeling kind of crappy lately. Headache yesterday and Saturday. I woke up at 2:30 this morning with such pain above my right eye I almost cried. I took some painkillers and went back to bed. I felt better this morning but have felt all day as though the pressure in my head could easily turn quite stabby. It hasn't yet. I am grateful for that as well.

How did it get to be November already?