Feeling Better

One thing about being sick is how good it feels when you're not sick anymore.

And when the weather is so nice.
The weather has been soooo nice the past few days. Neither hot nor cold. I've had the windows and doors open, letting in some fresh air.

My Mom and Aunt came up on Sunday. Mom brought me a bunch of apples from Dad's orchard. I made homemade chicken & dumplin's for dinner. We had a nice visit. I don't get to see/spend time with my Mom too much, since they mostly live out of town.

Monday, I took my oldest son home after having spent the weekend with us and stopped by a Thrift store on the way back. Found a few good deals.

This navy blue, Velour (?)(Idk what kind of material it is) was only $1.00.
It was New-With-Tags, and had originally retailed for $44.00 in the store.

I think trimmed out with some silver-toned Bling will make a nice Christmas-y look.

This tiny Nativity ornament was 25¢.
They had a few other, larger Nativity sets from $3.00-$5.00, but I figured I'd better not bring them all home with me.

Still seems sad, though, to see more Nativity sets in the Thrift store than in the Retail stores during Christmas time.

Found these awesome Vintage Blow Mold plastic light-up Jack-O-Lanterns for 50¢ each!
I hung them in my front kitchen windows. 

Otherwise, I got to work on the 911 Dispatcher Christmas Tree Ornaments I had been planning to do for so long. Finally got them all finished and listed for sale on Etsy.

Also made this super easy Santa Ornament using the Vintage red ball ornament I'd gotten in the pile of "Christmas trash" at the Thrift store awhile back, black electrical tape, and a soda can tab.

J was off yesterday and the weather was super-nice, so we got a couple of minor projects that was on my to-do list done around here. Weatherizing the camper, cleaning up and putting away some yard and garden items, cleaning up a bit in the yard.

We also got another section of kitchen wall "planked":

Aaaaaand, tomorrow I have a decent load of Stuff to take to donate at the local Thrift store.

After that, I'll probably be done-for again.

We woke up to a rainy, grey, dreary day this morning.
It was fantastic. So awesomely Fall.
So dark outside, with soft lamplight on in here.
Love, love, love those kind of days. (Every so often.)

Bad news is, it was a cold front. Now we're going to be dropping into the 30's again every night. Highs will only be in the 50's-60's, which isn't horrible, but bad enough. Especially after the 70-80's we had this weekend that were so, so, so, so, so, so nice.

I tell myself, I insist to myself that I'm going to enjoy the Season, whatever the Season is, for what it is.  If it's cold, then I'm going to enjoy being inside, warm and dry and cozy, snuggled in a blanket, a nice (gas) fire going in the fireplace, sipping on a cup of hot chocolate, or hot soup. Not getting bug bit.

Or even being outside, cold, wet and uncomfortable, because, it's just good to be Alive.
Every day is a gift. A blessing. Not to be squandered.

Easier said than done, sometimes, but as Joe Dirt says:

Putz/Glitter Nativity

Thursday, me and D went to the free mobile food give-away, and thrift store shopping again.

I was hoping to find those vintage flocked deer I passed up a couple of weeks ago. Of course, they were gone.
I hate when that happens...it makes me buy everything I think I might regret not buying the next time.

Anyhoo, I did get lucky and find a tiny Nativity set close to the same size as the set I had bought at Michael's the other day.

I paid $2.50 for it, which I likely wouldn't have any other time, but after I just paid $4.00 for the 6-piece set at Michael's, this was pretty much a deal.

I ended up only taking 2 pieces of the new set - the donkey (right) and a Shepherd (left) - to use in my Nativity/Manger scene.

I didn't have room for the entire new set, plus I already had a Mary, Jesus, and Joseph in this scene.


In this scene a couple of shepherds have arrived to see Jesus, and the Three Wise Men haven't arrived yet.

My intention is to eventually make another Nativity/Manger scene using the other set and it will have the Three Wise Men.

I also found this set for 50¢. 

I don't currently have plans for it, but wasn't about to pass it up. I haven't been having too good of luck finding smaller Nativity sets in the stores.

Strangely enough, after I found the one rather lame tiny Nativity set at Micheal's, I expected to find a much better tiny-, mini-, even full-size selection of Nativities at Hobby Lobby, but they only had a few larger sized ones, and no mini ones at all, that I could find.

My memory isn't sharp, but it seems like I can recall at one time when there were sets of tiny Nativity figures or tree ornaments, on red cardboard with a plastic front, for like a dollar at Walmart or K-Mart or Dollar General or somewhere.

I haven't really specifically looked for Nativities before, but it seems there are little to few Nativities AT ALL in the stores I've checked recently.
It would be sad to think they just aren't popular enough to stock anymore.

Things Didn't Go as Planned

This post was supposed to have been posted this past Friday, and was supposed to be about what a nice time we had going on another Fall Family Adventure up to the North Georgia Mountains.

Instead, me and J came down with the Plague.

Okay it wasn't really the Plague, but it was still miserable. Head and chest crud.

He went to the Doctor for drugs, but I don't like going to the Doctor, I prefer to get over the sickies on my own as much as possible.
It's taken me longer, and I still have a pretty bad cough that makes my head thud, but I'm back to the point where I think I might live.

I spent most of the past week (or so) on the couch (so I can sleep sitting up so I can breathe), watching a lot of television.
Or, well, the tv was on. Don't much remember what was on. 

At first, when I wasn't quite so sick (and dumbly thinking I wouldn't get sicker) I watched movies on Netflix and worked a little on my craft stuff. 

At some point I had the idea that I wanted to make a Glitter House/Putz house Nativity.

I don't know why, or where the idea came from, but I knew the look I was going for was like the old Shiny Brite Nativity, manger scene, plastic Christmas decoration.

Via Etsy

 I have a vague memory of the one my Great-Grandma had when I was a kid, back in the early 1970's, but all the different ones on the internet, I can't remember exactly which one it was.
I was thinking hers had palm trees, but then again, maybe not.

I was trying to put palm trees with mine, but the boys didn't like the palm as well as the Christmas trees, so I went with their preference.

I looked online for a stable/manger pattern but didn't find what I was looking for, so I decided to adapt the Halloween house from Little Glitter Houses.

I didn't have any Nativity figures in my crafts or Christmas stash so I had to wait until I felt like getting out and going anywhere to look for any.
R needed to go out earlier so I went along and looked in Micheal's, K-Mart, and Dollar Tree. The only set I was able to find was a mini 6-piece set at Micheal's craft store.

It still isn't complete because I'm at one of my stand-stills, where I know I'm not done, but don't know what to do next.

 (Warning: bad photos ahead)

Yes, it is "warp-sided"...it's supposed to be an old (animal shelter), wood nailed together willy-nilly without precise measurements, weathered, whatever.

 
I added the flicker-light way up at the top inside so it's not visible at eye level, but kind of looks like a flickering star from underneath.

This was an ecru colored button from a Victorian button package that I painted.
(The picture makes it look horrid. It really doesn't look that bad IRL.)

The split-rail fence I made from popcicle sticks.


I glittered the roof with silver glitter, like the old Shiny Brite Nativity set.

I'm hesitating on glittering the rest of it with the iridescent glitter because when I glittered my log cabin it didn't turn out so well. Seemed like the glitter masked a lot of the color and or detail. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, but I don't know if it would mess this one up.

The one Wise-man and the two tiny lambs in the yard are so small, it leaves a lot of empty area that needs filling, but I'm afraid I won't find other animals on the same size scale, and I don't really have any other ideas (ATM) for what else I could add to fill in some empty space.

*I notice in the background of some of the pictures you can see the Magazine Christmas tree I'm (sort of) working on.

I had pinned This Pin the other day, and the next day or so I got a catalog in the mail. After I finished looking at it and didn't see anything I wanted to buy (saw a lot I wanted, nothing I should be wasting money on) I sat and folded all the pages into a Christmas tree.
Just that easy.

I just did it to see if I could, not really intending to make a Magazine Christmas tree.
Eventually I'll probably decide to paint and decorate it. Maybe.

Fall Adventuring

Summer got by me without being able to do anymore fun adventuring after our Road Trip vacation, but I was determined we'd do some fun Fall adventure(s).

Before I can plan anything, I have to check my calendar.
Having two people that work crazy schedules makes things rather complicated at times.
LSS, there are/were only 2 (possibly 3, depending on R's plans) days that they have off at the same time, and that R won't be coming in from working all night and going to bed.

Day before yesterday, Sunday, was one of those days.
It's still a bit early in the season around here for the leaves to have changed much, so I figured we'd go up North, where the leaves should be doing more changing.
Chattanooga, Tennessee is about a 2 hour drive from here, so close enough to make a day trip of.

Chattanooga has a ton of things to do, but I had particularly been wanting to ride the Incline Railway again. It doesn't seem that long ago since we last rode it, but if I had to guess, it'd been about 10 years or better.

Turned out the leaves weren't as turned/colorful as I'd thought they would be, but that was okay, it was still a pretty perfect Fall day with the overcast/clouds/rainy weather.

The circle is where the lower station is.

 Go here to see an Incline Railway You Tube video (not mine) to see more.

At the top, we checked out the slightly overcast view from the Observation decks, and walked along the street to the Point Park, a Civil War Battlefield.

Kev checking out the view.
He spotted a fire station over a mile away, then found the fire engine in the shopping center parking lot, with it's cab lifted forward.
Eagle-eyed.

We didn't go into the Park this time, but just checked out the amazingly gorgeous homes along the street, and looked for Fall colors.

One house had some nice Fall-coloring in the yard:

As we were watching from the Observation deck, the clouds lowered ominously.

Soon, we were in the clouds.

We stayed on the mountain as long as we wanted to, then returned to the bottom, to the car, to head to our next stop, the Moonpie General Store, where we had lunch: the Moonpie meal consisting of a Moondog (hot dog), chips, RC Cola, and a moonpie.

 Helpful hint: Don't do it.

Love Moonpies, and this is a great store for Moonpie and Vintage-style gifts and stuff, and the customer service was fantastic, but the hotdog lunch was worse than a Little League Concession stand.  The buns were hard, the dogs were probably hours old by the time we got there.
So just go for the good stuff, and get lunch somewhere else.

It's a Southern thing!

The plan got a bit messed up after there.  I had planned for us to go on the Chattanooga Duck Boats
tour, but wasn't sure if it'd still be running with the weather (it had lightninged a couple of times).
We took a vote and decided to skip the tour this time, and go to the Mall instead.

On our way back to the car from the Moonpie store, we saw that we were walking right by the Duck Boats place, behind the Cupcakes shop, and that there was a Duck boat still sitting there, getting ready to go.
We ran across to see if we could catch the tour, but were just minutes too late, and it pulled out without us. Boooo!

Oh well.
We headed to Krispy Kreme instead. 

Pumpkin Cheescake, Pumpkin Spice, Ghostbusters, Halloween Sprinkles, Spider Web...

Kev's favorite place.

Hot now!

The regular, glazed Krispy Kreme donuts were hot and fresh, right off the conveyor belt. Soooo good!
Especially good on a dreary, rainy day.
And although I don't like the taste of coffee, I loooove the smell. Coffee and donuts, Yum-Yum!

Later we headed on over to Ruby Falls to get in line for the Haunted Caverns scary attraction.

We got there early-ish, around 7:00, though it didn't start until 8:00, to get a good place in line. It was rainy, but that was okay. Perfect Fall/Scary-stuff type weather, I think.

At 7:45 they had the "Monster Parade", where the Haunted Caverns workers came parading outside to the tune of rock music and gathered in the parking lot. Which, at first, I was disappointed because where we were standing, on the sidewalk, was behind some bushes and we couldn't see them too well.

But then all of a sudden with loud music and screams, they broke and ran at us, jumping through the bushes and coming around the sides and "attacked" us. (Not really, but you get the idea.)

It was scary fun, and everyone got excited for the real thing.

Grave digger

Scary Dan

Inside (after buying our tickets and waiting a few minutes in line - time enough to be able to go to the bathroom before you go get the pee scared out of you) they put us into the elevator that takes us down into the cave.  (During regular hours, this is a cave/waterfall tour, which we've been to a few times.)

As soon as the elevator doors opened we were greeted by, "Boo!"
Haha! It was a worked dressed as a regular person who was supposed to be down there checking out for paranormal activity, but clearly she'd drank some of the "elixir" that had stricken all the residents of the town, Carrion Ridge, lol.

We went on into the caves and it got dark, and scary. With things jumping out and screaming, scaring the heck out of us. (Some of us.)

We went a good ways through the caves and obstacles, then they put us into an *elevator* that wobbled and shook, and had firecracker-like popping and snapping overhead.
We exited the *elevator* outside the mountain and got into a van that drove back up to the main entrance, and dropped us out in the parking lot where there was a whole nother scary maze set up.

I jumped and screamed my head off.  So much fun!

(The thing is, these things are what you of make them.
Yeah, I knew going in that it was not real, and that nothing was actually going to hurt me. 
Sometimes, I even saw some of monsters coming. I could have just said, "Oh", or "Um, eek", but they're there to scare you, and it's more fun for them and you when you scare and scream in response.
For all those that say, "Too fakey", "Not scary", or "I wasn't scurd", those people don't have a sense of humor or know how to go/get along. Aka, assholes.
Loosen up and have fun, FFS. It's up to you to enjoy yourself. You go in with a shitty attitude, you're going to have a shitty time. It's your problem if you want to be a miserable shithead, don't put the responsibility for your sucky attitude on others.
These people did a great job, and I/we enjoyed it very much.)

Anyway, even though it was rainy and the leaves weren't as colorful/pretty as I was hoping, and lunch wasn't too good, and we didn't go on the Duck Boats tour, it was still a fantastic Fall family day out!

Thrifting

Yesterday I stopped into some local thrift stores to see if I could find any gee-gaws and doo-dads and whatevers to use in my Putz/Glitter house decorating  (particularly sugared-candy-garland or any fake Christmas candy).

I didn't find any, but I found some other thrifty "treasures":

I had been looking for an old Scrabble game in which I could use the wooden letter tiles to make some Scrabble Crafts.  I just didn't want to pay $3- $5 for them.
I got these 2/$1.00, or 50¢ each. Score!

The fire hydrant dish caught my eye, then I realized it was an ashtray. I'm not actively collecting ashtrays, but I am hanging on to ones I end up with because I think one day ashtrays are going to be something we "used to have", but don't have any more.

However, I still wouldn't've bought it if it had been priced more than I wanted to pay, but 25¢ was just right.

The pink dish was also 25¢.
It had some writing on the bottom that I couldn't make out, so I wasn't sure if it was "something" or not, but for the price, I figured I'd find a place for it in my dining room if nothing else.
(I'm not sure it's as easy to tell in the picture, but IRL it looks a lot more retro. The color or something...I'm not sure exactly what it is.)

It took some googling, but I finally figured out the writing on the bottom was "Cemar".
Cemar was a California pottery company in business from 1935 to the 1950's.

Today was another free food giveaway at a local church, so I went and picked up my oldest son and we went.
There was more - cucumbers, eggplant, Special K Chocolate Pretzel crackers, Gluten-free crackers - but I gave those things away because we won't eat/use them.

I still came home with a good little pile, for free.
I'll make another batch of homemade frozen onion rings with the own-yones.

While me and my son had been waiting in line for the food distribution, I was telling him about the Creepy Altered Dolls idea.
He and his financee' are all into creepy and scary things, and he's pretty artistic. I figured if he could get into making and selling the dolls it could earn him a little income.

So we decided to check out a nearby thrift store while we were out.

It was funny, I had been telling him how I'd passed up on a couple of "life size" Barbie dolls awhile back because they were $5 each, and then we ended up finding a 2-foot doll at this store marked $1.00, but we paid 50¢ with a 50% off sale.

Another lady in the store told me she wished she'd gotten there a minute earlier; her daughter had been looking for the taller dolls for a Halloween display she was doing, lol.

They also had 50% off on shoes today. He found a pair of tennis shoes we ended up paying 37.5¢ for, and I got these boots for $1.75.  (I know, I take terrible pictures! I don't know how to do better!)

I also bought this pile of "Christmas trash".  It's retro, kitchsy Christmas decor, some broken, but I think I might be able to use them in a way that hides or disguises the broken parts.

I asked how much for all this, and the lady told me ornaments are usually 25¢ each and up, but since I would have to piece these together, I could have them for $1.00.

There were some more vintage flocked deer that weren't broken in another box that I hadn't seen before, and I passed on them because I didn't want to pay 25¢ each for them (although they probably would have been worth it, being vintage).

Turned out I got 50% off these, too, so I only paid 50¢ instead of $1.00.

I shoulda went back and got the other deer.  Ugh. How long am I regret passing those by?

Depression & Things

Whew-wee! I tell you what, I fought it - it's been coming on slowly as the weather has gradually cooled down over the past couple of weeks - and thought I was doing pretty good, and then Boom! The temps drop into the upper 30's and I'm down for the count.

It was only one night...morning, actually. I knew this. Knew it would warm right back up. No biggie.
I decided to spend a lazy day in my bed, reading, watching Netflix, whatever. No biggie.

Then I read a relatively sad part in the book and hoo boy, the tears started and would not stop. Cried like my heart was broken into nine pieces.

With nary a clue why. 

"Why you cryin' like that?" I asked myself. "You know nothing is wrong, right?"
"Yeah, I don't know why. I can't stahhhp...wahhhh-wahhhh-wahhh."
"Well, stahhhhp, gahh."

Eventually I got it stopped, then went back to sleep for a couple of hours.
Felt like I'd been run over by a milk truck when I woke up. Got up, and had to lay back down for a little while.

Finally I was able to get up and get me some Coke.
I laid back down and got caught up on Sons of Anarchy and The Blacklist episodes I had set to DVR (because I never remember to watch them when they come on...besides I like waiting and being able to FF through the commercials).

Later in the evening, I decided to take $20 out of my stash and go to the Dollar Tree and buy some supplies to make some crafty things that I didn't want.
(I see a lot of things on Pinterest that I'll think, "That looks neat, I bet I can make that."  But some of the things, just because I could make it, doesn't necessarily mean I want it. So I'd probably end up giving it away, to someone else who probably doesn't want it anymore than I did, but will feel obligated to keep it because I made it and give it to them. In which case, it's better for all if I just keep my money and don't make the things.)

I had about (4) projects I was going after the supplies for. Luckily I decided against one, and couldn't find the items needed for another one.

One of them, the stuff is still in the bag untouched because I guess I lost interest in the idea as soon as I got it home.

This one was cheap-ish at least: Orange Slice Candy Pumpkins

Line a 1/2 cup measuring cup with plastic wrap

Line in a circle 8 Orange Candy Slices and one in the middle

Gather and twist the plastic wrap closed.
The instructions called for using green floral tape to tape it closed and make a stem, but I didn't have any green floral tape, so I used Scotch tape.

I didn't want to go buy any green floral tape, so eventually I had the idea to make a stem using pipe cleaners.  I was going to use green pipe cleaners, but then decided to go with brown for no partucluar reason. I just liked a brown stem.

I also wanted to add a couple of leaves. I can't recall if the original instructions had leaves, and didn't bother to go back and check it out. I decided I wanted to add leaves, so that was that.
But I didn't have any green, pumpkin plant type leaves - and didn't want to go buy any.
I had a bag of fake Autumn - Maple tree, I think - leaves, so I just used those.

Yeah, so the Autumn Maple tree leaves weren't the best idea. Maybe I'll pick up some green leaves when I'm out one day later, or maybe I'll come up with a different idea, cut them out of paper or something.

Anyway, none of us even eat Orange Slice candy, so I'll probably end giving them away...if I can find anyone that does eat OSc. I don't know if I know anyone that does since the Grandparents died off.

Other than the little candy pumpkins - and the project I haven't started - I've been spending my time working on some more Putz/Glitter house projects. (The 1st one I made is in this post.)

This one didn't photograph well, but it's a "log-sided" house with a "tin" roof. (More details about it in this post.)

I haven't done a post about these, because I don't feel done with them yet...but I'm not sure what they need. Waiting for ideas to come to me.

But they have Vellum Stained glass windows, and I attached a battery-operated flickering-candle light in the rear.

And then this tiny, Vintage camper. It's a lot smaller than my Putz/Glitter houses, more like a Christmas tree ornament. I'll probably attach a hanger to the top for hanging.
 

A couple of days ago I baked a couple of Pumpkin pies. Ryan said he wanted one to take to work, so J had to have one, too.


I used Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe, and my homemade pie shells.

We've still also been getting some little things done in/around the house. 

Got the kitchen light rewired, but then as we were going to get back to the sheetrock/trim project in the foyer, I noticed that the upstairs front porch was looking in seriously bad condition.
It's been looking bad for awhile, but suddenly it looked worse bad. I felt we needed to move it to the top of the List.

J poked around the bottom front porch and turned out it was in bad shape, too, so we ended up starting with it, braced up the top floor while we tore out the rotted beam and post and replaced them.

We still have to do the top porch, but it's not a one-day job, so we're having to wait until a brea in the schedule when J gets 2 consecutive days off. Which appears to be....not until the 18th/19th.

In the meantime, I had wanted to decorate for Halloween, but my cast iron pans were laying on my Sweetheart cabinet while I was trying to figure out a place to put them. I knew I wanted to hang them somewhere, but couldn't decide where.

Eventually I settled on the wall behind the kitchen door.

 

Since we were planning to "plank" the kitchen walls eventually, we went ahead and did that section before we hung the boards, to hang the pans on.

Still have a ton of work to do in there, but this got the pans out of the way anyway. 


In my recent funk, it had slipped my mind to check my emails for a couple of days (I used to have Outlook and could open my email with one click, but now I have to go on the web and sign on each one and it's a PITA to me).

So anyway, when I thought about it, I signed on and Surprise! I had sold my old bedsheet Rag Balls I had listed on Etsy.


Before my yard sale last month, I had listed several items on Etsy, with no real expectation of selling any of it.

After the yard sale, I actually sent several of the items with my son to try to sell in his yard sale.

Then one day I got a notice that someone had bought a vintage ladies' Souvenir handkerchief I had for sale on Etsy.

I was like, Holy crap, I hope I still have that.

Luckily, I did. That and the Rag Balls.
I deleted everything else, and left the Rag Balls, although I didn't really think they'd sell.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I plan to start making some Christmas ornaments to list on Etsy and hopefully they will sell.

Halloween Decorating

Well, I hung on to Summer to the last.

I didn't do anything...I had wanted to go on another or two overnights in the camper, or at least day trips to somewhere, a park or waterfalls or somewhere, to enjoy the last of the Good ol' Summertime....but between work and working on the house, didn't happen.

But I didn't decorate for Fall early.

*And Fall didn't come early.
Typically in late September we'll have a chilly spell where I'll have the heat turned on. So far, I haven't even turned my electric blanket on.
Sounds like that'll be changing soon, though, as our forecast has it getting down to 39* Saturday night.*

Anyhoo, whatever the temps are, October 1st is the 1st Day of Halloween.
Halloween decorating day.

Little Scary Dude got some eyeballs this year. Found a package of them at the Dollar Tree last week.

Branches from the burn pile. I found some tiny pumpkin LED lights at Dollar Tree.
Stretched some spider-webbing over the old window from our house and put a scary spider on it.

The girls.

The Jack O'lantern patch.

Skelly.

The sweetheart cabinet.

What?! There's no candy in the candy jars! Eeeeeek! That's scary!