In here life is beautiful… The girls are beautiful…

One would think that living as close to Value Village as I do, that I’d spend a lot more time there than I do. But I don’t. It’s quite possibly the grossest VV I have ever had the misfortune of shopping in-all the clothes, literally, ALL the clothes are disgusting, dirty, ripped, full of crotch rot, bally sweaters, busted out shoes, I could go on and on. I don’t know what anyone finds there that’s worth it. And overpriced? Heck, yes. So when my inner VV clock started ticking on my way home the other evening, I knew I had to listen. It almost never makes a noise anymore. I went in thinking maybe yarn. Maybe.

But I did much better than that. First there was a bunch of my favourite kind of bedding, vintage floral silliness that you’d have found at your grandma’s cottage in 1978. It’s very specific, heavy, soft cotton that’s perfectly worn in. Score 4 pillow cases and a flat sheet that will potentially become patchwork quilts. Maybe.

And this, a perfect Spirograph kit. And to my extreme surprise and pleasure, it was absolutely complete, including the original pens (which, to be fair, don’t work anymore), all plastic pieces, instructions and a pad of blank paper. Amazing!

I did a couple the minute I brought it home. Ari’s quite intrigued, but I’ve made her promise to not touch it without my supervision. All this for $1.99 and that’s what I mean by good score.

Since I was tagged twice to do this, I figured I’d better get the ball rolling. Mostly I feel like my life is an open book so there won’t be much new stuff in here or any real surprises to anyone, but I’ll try.

(And the description of the process, from Ashley’s blog to help us understand:

“Shipley has hit honoured me with a blogging baton award.  Ms. Ship has a great blog herself where she often tells hilarious family tales and shares pictures of her gorgeous baby (who I am desperate to meet before she goes off to college).   Honest Scrap is blogger pat on the back by a peer or quite possibly it is the “friendship cake” of the blogosphere.  And I have given out my share of friendship cakes, let me tell you.

Now I get to share with you ten things you may not know about me, and nominate some other bloggers who I lurk, who will in turn do the same.“)

1. It looks like Shannon and I just might be allowed to get legally married. While I don’t want to actually start planning and be hideously disappointed yet again, it’s exciting to know that the ball that had been sitting in someone else’s court for years has finally been put back in motion. I have a huge file of pictures of pretty dresses and cakes and stuff to inspire me so I might start looking at those again soon.

2. I no longer have a best girlfriend. That long term relationship ended almost a year ago for a bunch of sad, silly reasons. We haven’t done the return of borrowed items yet (and I think we’ll just cut our losses) I can’t see it ever going back to the way it was, not even remotely. I used to be sad about this but now it’s gotten down to a weekly blip where I think, oh, I should call her and…nevermind. I miss the comfort of it, the familiarity, but I don’t miss the last little while where I felt judged constantly.

3. I have pretty good health over all and for that I am grateful. I don’t rock the boat by taking vitamins or anything, but I do exercise twice a week. And when I am stressed my body does do fun stuff, like seriously twitching eyelids. My ex would notice my eyelid dancing and he’d back off out of fear.

4. I get migraines. I think half the time they’re stress related and the other half they’re…just bad luck. Sometimes I get one because there’s a neon light flickering and I look at it the wrong way or it could be a very bright light, the sun suddenly in my eyes or a camera flash. My migraines don’t actually hurt, but I get a weird visual effect that means I can’t read or watch tv or do much of anything. Usually a couple aspirin help it go away and laying down in the dark helps too.

5. I am a technophile. It’s taken me a long time to realize and admit that, but it’s true. I love all my tech toys and my fingers itch to fiddle with my iphone, looking for new podcasts to download. I also love my sirius radio, kindle and ds. These are the things I pack on every trip I take.

6. For years I kept my hair short and bleached it blond. Now that it’s long, I like it much better and I can’t remember why I had it short for so long.

7. The last opera I saw live was a performance of Turandot, almost 4 years ago. I miss live opera very much and I see it as an extension of the years I spent going to rock concerts weekly.

8. The older I get the less likely it is that I will ever have a baby and I’m mostly ok with that inevitability.

9. I think about our trip to Panama every day and fantasize about living in the Kuna Yala territory.

10. My secret career goal is to become an ornithologist but I have no idea how to begin that process and will most likely keep it filed in my dream category.

Nothing profound, sorry. Now I pass the torch on to Shannon, Jana, Corrie and Ryan.

I got a new phone the other day. My old, crappy phone was no longer holding a charge so it felt like time to trade up for something half decent. Half decent, she says? Ok, I got an iphone. And guess what! I LOVE IT!!! It takes great pictures on top of everything. And while I haven’t documented my haircut (yesterday) I did take a picture of Bill Baker doing what he does best: gossiping. I mean, tattooing. He’s opening a real shop soon, I can’t wait.

I got to tease him about getting old-he’s almost ready for that senior’s discount.

Then on my way home today from grocery shopping, there were 2 pictures propped up in the doorway of the Salvation Army store, someone’s generous donation. I tell you what, I am heading back there tomorrow for the bigger of the 2, the photograph of the big orange pussy cat. I’m thinking I’ll give it to Bill to decorate his new shop, lovely!

I like the kittens too. How to chose?

I keep forgetting to post a picture of these. When we were in Panama, at Yandup Lodge, I bought a bunch of molas from women in the local village. I think all 4 of these cost me less than $40. I haven’t figured out what to do with them yet, but everything works out eventually.

There were so many different designs to chose from, it was hard to pick. There were even Santa Claus themed molas that made me laugh, but I resisted those. I think I might talk about Panama a lot in real life to anyone who’s willing to listen, but I really, truly loved our time there. I dreamed about being in the main lodge, last night, looking across the water to the village.

I also need to figure out a way to hang the hammocks Ulti helped me buy from the Colombian (?) boat. One day.

I admit it, after almost a year, I shampooed my hair tonight. I’d washed it with Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap a couple weeks ago, during the lice fiasco (which, for the record, I didn’t have and do not currently have) and my hair felt so light and clean that after a lot of thought, I’ve decided to go back to using shampoo once a week. I’ll see how it goes. And I need a hair cut in a bad way and didn’t feel like subjecting Judy to that.

ps. the picture I took in the summer was finally posted on The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. You’re welcome!

I was thinking about writing a little about karma, but seeing as I don’t really believe in it, I will tell you what I DO believe in.

Love. From family and friends.

So I got a message from my friend Michelle who works for MAC makeup (and is on maternity leave right now) asking me and my other girlfriend Libs to come over and take away ALL her excess makeup. She said she had tons of MAC, but also Estee Lauder, Clinique, DKNY, Sean John, Bobbi Brown…My head nearly exploded from excitement, I mean, how much makeup laying around could she have? The message said that her husband wanted the space, it sounded like it could be a LOT.

It was a lot. A LOT lot. Four plastic containers of neatly organized makeup.

I brought wine. It was SO fun, so exciting and so hilarious going on a total greed rampage. I would have danced all the way to the subway after but my backpack was so heavy, I could barely move. Here it is full:

Tee hee. And you know how I love sorting things and organizing stuff? Bit by bit, here’s what I took home:

1. Odds and ends. This is a mishmash of perfume, lotion and anti-aging goo.

2. Clinique. It’s mostly lip glosses and lipsticks, but there’s also mascara, eyeshadow, powder and a toothbrush.

3. Estee Lauder. This stuff is so amazing, it is beautiful to look at, it smells great and it feels super glamorous. Again, this is mostly lip things, but there’s also 2 perfumes, nail polish, mascara, eye shadow, Fruition, powder…

4. MAC. Oh, how I love thee, MAC makeup. This is the regular day to day makeup I got, tons of lip gloss, eye shadow, pure pigment, foundation, liquid liner, mascara, nail polish.

5. Heatherette for MAC is beautiful, bright colours, very cute and sexy. And those patent lashes are KILLER.

6. Special edition MAC, brushes, fixer, powder, shadows and lashes.

That’s all. Heehee. Not to say that I will be keeping the lot to myself, no no no. That would be silly, everyone knows I don’t wear lipstick ever. No, I will be picking out what I love most and hoarding that (which will amount to less than a third, I guess) and the rest will be sorted into piles for xmas gifts and swaps.

Interested?

And lots of love and thanks to Michelle, who made this possible!

Sometimes I can be a little obsessive compulsive. Today I went through my Koolaid points to see what’s up because I’ve been saving them for YEARS. As you can see. I only drink it in the summer time. Anyway, I snipped each point thing out neatly and organized them by denomination. Lately they’ve done 100 point packs, but only on the invisible flavour-one that I love but that Shannon hates because he always thinks it’s water and gets mad. It reminded me of flavours from long ago, the special Spiderman called Rock-a-dile Red that gave 4 points, Pink Swimmingo, Incrediberry, Sharkleberry Fin, mmm. Usually I get the singles these days and I don’t think there are points on the box.

Anyway, now I get to pick stuff from the Kool-Aid website with my 1767 points. Wee!

I have my very own little work space and I couldn’t be happier about that. There’s tons of storage (I even took over the old film refrigerator) and all my fabric, yarn, buttons, feathers, beads, spangles and whatnot is there and available. Today Rose helped me tweak my sewing machine and it seems to be working just fine, contrary to what I’d thought for a long time.

The small table in the centre has a pile of old purses/bags I’ve made over the years, with the very festive Santa beard purse on top. I was going to take pictures of them but didn’t bother.

The dollhouses.  There’s also a small mountain of almost finished acorns. I’m on the lookout for small threaded eye hooks-I think-to screw into the top of the acorn cap and then they can be hung on necklaces.

I really do need to start working on those houses, I know.

Since I the first time I read Found Magazine (yeah, try NOT to spend hours looking at that), I have been meaning to send in my box of ’special stuff’ that I found at a certain shitty job I worked at. I know, technically it’s called stealing, but it’s dumb stuff that isn’t sellable and is just considered garbage. One man’s trash…I happen to LOVE this kind of stuff. Part of the reason that I haven’t sent it in is because it’s just so hard to part with. Every time I look at the pile of photos, every time I read those letters, I start laughing and clutch them to my chest in joy. I’ve shown my Kangaroo shoe box of treasures to a few people, and after reading this website, it spurred me into sharing with the world.

I call this montage ‘cute kids’.  When I first moved back to Toronto I planned on carrying a couple of them in my wallet and pretending that I’d squeezed out a couple puppies while in Windsor. There’s no way I could do that with a straight face, so I didn’t. Still, cute, huh?

These two, I wonder if they are bff. I also wonder what year these were taken, hard to guess.

They might be the same age as my sister. Sadly I was just a little too young for hair like this.

This is the greatest treasure of all time. I love this phone so much, holy, I can’t even tell you. I carried it around like a real cell phone for about a week but I got worried that it would rip, so I have it safe and sound. I especially love that there’s a price tag on the back. One cent? Cheap, even by today’s standards.

I have all these letters too, but I will save them for another day when I have nothing better going on.

Let this also be a gentle warning to anyone who has clothes ready to be donated: someone will be going through those pockets at the other end. They will find your pictures, your ticket stubs, your letters, your id and your money. Any and every thing will be found and looked at by someone who most likely doesn’t know you, love you or care about you. I’d had WAY more stuff from those days but some of it was too funny to bring home and got wrecked there and then (or confiscated by supervisors as was the case of the penis polaroid).

PS Check out the comments on this entry!

I twiddled and fiddled with my theme tonight, for, like, hours, days, years, and then ended up going back to the original look.  I am completely hopeless at that sort of thing. Thank goodness I am nice, I know how to cook, crochet, paint, sing, dance,weld, sew, knit, play, read, climb, slide, dig, wash, sort, love and pat kitties.

Ali was going to write a fake story about this mirror, but I reckon she’s too busy folding pillowcases at work. So the truth is that I got it at Value Village a couple years ago. And I haggled with a nice man over it, but because there were 2 different Elvis mirrors, he was guessing the other one would be “worth more”. Uh, ok.  To me, this was a great deal at $3.00. It’s worth at least twice that!