What I did not buy at Goodwill today.

I do have a penchant for the odd and unusual.

But I do have a budget these days for purely silly things and it is a limited budget.

There is a recession going on, ya know…

I want this.  I am willing to wait the 6 weeks or so until it goes 1/2 price.

This is so grotesquely good.

The teeth on the bottom jaw are fabulous.

I got home and thought about this piece of clay work and realized that I almost have a collection of clay heads.

I have had tis one for ages.
Why someone painted it blue and green – I do not know.

Artistic license.

This one is made of plaster and is not aging quite so well.

I always thought she looked a little like Eleanor Roosevelt.

She looks like she would be a nice person to know.

Strange Couples at the Goodwill Store

My friend, Cecelia has a saying.

“Every pot has a lid.”

So even those people you think that would have an impossible time finding a mate, danged if sometimes

they don’t just find one.

Here is a sad looking lady with her nose broken off.

($1.99 – what are those pricing people thinking???)

A couple of shelves away was the no-nose man!

Still overpriced at $1.99-

A lid for every pot.

The no-nose couple!

I meandered over to the holiday aisle and saw this couple…

What a quirky couple.

Definitely , a couple!

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I saw this today.

A round glass vase with a Dymo label  that says – I  love my mac and cheese.

The tape is just about the color of Kraft mac and cheese.

You just never know what you will find at Goodwill.

I found a man there yesterday.

He is the quiet type.

Wood not tell me his name.

It has been cold here and that is no Bull

That is not a bull.

That is a buffalo.

There is a buffalo farm just out of town and I stopped tonight to take a few pictures as the light was just getting good.

It was another cold cold day and I could see the buffalo’s breath.

I had to breath in and out at the same pace as the animal so I could get a picture of her breath.

These are big mean animals and this was a mom.

That fence began to look really flimsy when she powerfully ambled towards me.

I can take a hint.

I got back in the car and hit the road.

Then I photoshopped her at home:

OK.

So who’s the boss now, eh?

Hello my name is **** and I am an iphone addict.

There are worse things to be addicted to.   I am sure of it.

I probably take about 10 pictures everyday on my iphone.    I may not keep them all – but I take them.

I take pictures when I drive the car.  Some of those can be wonderful surprises.

I had my phone near me and saw this flock of starlings and was lucky enough to get this photo.

I plan on doing something fun with this later.

I actually think it looks kinda cool just as-is.

I took a picture of my gloves on my desk this morning.

Then I photoshopped them tonight,

I still have a lot to learn about photoshop.

I need to take a learning vacation!

I found a new iphone game called Doodle-Jump.

Oh my!

It is addictive.

I think I will go play now!

My mac is back.

My computer started to black out.

At random.

And come to.

At random.

Random was really inconsistent with the times that I wanted to use the computer .

So I took it to the Apple Store -

to the Genius Bar.

The geniuses did not fix the problem.

I would now call it the Average Bar.

I diagnosed the problem myself and took it to a Mac Store and they diagnosed it and sent it back to the factory.

Oh, it was looong time without my computer.

I had to manage with my iphone and an old old computer.

I drew a picture of my cat, Missy one night with the Jackson Pollack app on my iphone.

Then I felt sorry for Stubby, my other cat – so I drew a picture of him.

He is my most favorite cat ever.

Yep.

That’s my Stubby.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

I took my computer in on a Wednesday and got it back on the following Monday.

That may not seem like a long time to you – but to me it was forever.

I was terribly impressed with the quickness (in hindsight) and the new part was called the main logic board.

I was wrong.

I thought it was the video chip.

That makes me qualified to work at the Genius Bar!

Packrats R me!

I have been selling off a lot of my stuff lately.

I posted some photos to Flickr tonight and realized that, HEY!  I still have a lot of stuff.

Show and tell time:

I do so like Cathrineholm enamelware.

I often leave the price tags on so I can uh, gloat, about the wee bit I paid for some marvelous mid century goodies.

I am just a bit quirky that way.

I like pretty colored plastic ware from the 70’s too!

Oh, I like ALL kinds of stuff!

More.

Later.

A Swedish Dish – A bad Bunny and more

I found a cool 60’s dish from Sweden last night and put it on ebay today.

It took me about 1/2 hour of googling to find out it was called Jie and that indeed, I was correct about it being vintage.

I KNEW it was a cool looking thing.   Just was not positive it was not a brand new Ikea mid-century knock off.

Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

Older pottery “feels” a little different than newer.

Nice, eh?

Not so nice.

This was so bad – it gave me the heebie-jeebies.

My kid had soccer practice at a school down the road and there was a mural in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

And then Martin got tagged.

Halloween Jack O’ Lantern at a friend’s house.

Habits

I got busy and got out of the habit of writing each night.

Time changed over the weekend and I guess now is the time to start anew.

I have been taking lots of photos and using Photoshop Elements 6 to alter them.

Ooooh-Whee !   Is it fun!

Here is a photo I took of an old truck out in front of a house in the country that had an open studio tour last month.

I played with the green tones.

Her art was great – but not in my budget.

Wish that it was.

Here is a her website:   http://www.clarecarver.com/

Anyway – I liked her truck!

I like her truck in lavender tones, too!

Here is a photo I took of my kid who was dressed as a mummy for Halloween.

Again, I altered the colors and such and I am in love with this picture.

To me, it looks like the kid is walking through an apocalypse , when in reality  - it was he driveway of a suburban that was totally  decked out for Halloween.

It is fall and the leaves outside my office are so stunning this year!

Neato, eh?

It is hard to stop playing with these photos!

More.

Later.

Can you Feelie my Pain at Goodwill today?

I have decided that I need to get out and shop more often.

So today I headed to the next town over – as there are two thrift  stores there.

First stop.

Goodwill.

I wandered through the furniture  - then purses and shoes – then I methodically start on the last row and work my way row by row to the front.   At least that is my pattern.   Often there is someone blocking the narrow row with a cart or with a passel of kids – so I have to remember to backtrack.   It used to irritate me that people were so oblivious to anyone else trying to maneuver the same row.   Now I have changed my thought patterns and I mentally thank them for the extra exercise I am getting when I have to go back.

Such was the case today.

Did the painting/prints row – then the general tools – pets row – then the basket row – the wooden row – the metal row – the row with vases had a lady talking to each item -passed on that – then row by row up to the books.

Back I went to the vases and plastic flowers row and BING BING BING!  I spotted a lovely ceramic pot – I knew it was “good” pottery from 1/2 an aisle away.   I picked it up and looked at the bottom.

Cabat.   CABAT???  CABAT!!!!

Oh it is a lovely pot indeed!

I put on my reading glasses to look it over and…..

Argghhhh!   The top is busted off.

Recently, by the looks of the clean white clay break.

I looked on the shelf for the busted piece – I looked on the shelf above and below – I looked on the floor – and along the edge of the floor, (where I have to say it was quite grimy looking on the kick plate of the shelving units) and no little piece of pottery to be found.

Dang it all!

The price was $4.99  and I thought that was just too much for a broken vase, so I found a supervisor to ask if they could lower the price for a broken vase.

He was new.

He held the vase and looked at it and thought for a bit and told me that it had only been out on the floor one day….implying that $4.99 was a GOOD price for a broken vase.

I just kept looking at him and eventually he told me he could sell it to me for $2.99 – as-is and I could not return it.

We came to an agreement on that.

Rose Cabat “Feelie” vases are usually quite small…

This one is not.

This is a gorgeous big thickly glazed Feelie vase.

(with a broken top)

Can you Feelie my pain?

No need to go very far for a cultural experience

I was at Goodwill tonight  (no surprise there) and I saw a big collection of Wooden Shoes.

The area around here was settled by the Dutch.

If you look in the phonebook under “V” – you will see concrete evidence of that to this day.

Vandehey – Vanderzanden – VanDyke – Vandecoevering – Van Doomelen and they have all intermarried over the years and made more!

Some Dutch grandma must have passed on and the the heirs passed the shoes on to Goodwill.

When I got to the check out counter – there was a woman in front of me – so excited to have found a bunch of these shoes!

She bought 4 pairs.

The Dutch-dom lives on!

It reminded me of a cool pair of wooden shoes that I had tucked away – so I decided to list my shoes on ebay today.

One shoe says – “Arlie ” and the other, “Louise.”

How quaint.

My kid had soccer practice in the next town over, as there is an area under cover, and the rains have begun.

While he was there – we went across the street to the big super market that re-invented itself a few years ago into a store that caters to the Latino market.

It was fun to go up and down the rows and see things that I had not seen before.

Check this out:

This was in the bakery department.

It was beautiful.

I think it is Jello and has that flower made from, uh, carrots and (insert another guess here…) suspended in the Jello.

More than one color or flavor of Jello flower.

I may have to try one of these!

Some sad cookies and some happy ones too….

Spiny Chayote.

Since I don’t like cilantro – I am ALWAYS aware of it.

To me, it FEELS like biting on aluminum foil and TASTES like ivory soap – all at the same time.

Look at that cactus home made salsa with oooooodles of cilantro basking in the juices.

Ackkk.