Shoes! I love shoes!

I luvs me some shoes! The more the better. Unfortunately in this economy I can't afford some of those very cool shoes I see out there. Even if I could afford them, everyone else is wearing them. Booorrinngg. How about some thrift store finds and a couple of Ace bandages?

Medic Esthetic by Gwendolyn Huskens via designboom

Or some fabric, glue, staples and safety pins?


Erna Einarsdottir

What do you do with all those keychain rings?

Annabelle B. Lacuna just graduated from the Utrecht School of Arts in the Netherlands with her collection one in a million. Her inspiration comes from sub cultural tribes, where people often believe they look unique, but when put together with their fellow tribe members they all follow the same dressing codes. Taking these dressing codes from tribes such as punks and goths, she collected different elements and mixed them all up. This way she created a truly new look, even though many elements look familiar. Pictures by Cedric Pradel.



I can see using this on the front of one my sweet little Gramma hats as a veil. I find the belt interesting also. Perhaps out of a rugged, yet pliable plastic of some kind. Plastic floor runner? Maybe. Possibly?

You can find more of Annabella's work here.

Speaking of Lynn Allen

If I had the time, the money and the talent I would host a Beethovens reunion.

Who knows, maybe it's been done already and I missed it. I have been in the Des Moines area for almost eight years yanno.

Happy Belated Fourth!

Been busy working and going through a bit of a down mood. I do believe I am having a mid life crisis. My creativity feels like it had been sucked dry. Now I have a 100 projects going on in my head just waiting to come to fruition.


We went to the Fourth of July celebration at Centennial Park in Waukee . First time we have ever been to the park. Very nice. Food vendors, giant blow-up jumpy things and a band called Standing Hampton. They are really good. Of course they play 70's/80's rock. All us 40 and 50 somethings out there head banging. Then I realized...Oh mah Gawd! This is the oldies!

I closed my eyes for a moment and when I opened them I was taken back 20+ years. There were all the people from back in the day; Sandy, Lori, Dennis, Danny, Theresa, the hair flip boys, Plastic Candy, Lynn Allen, (Oh poop, they played in Eldridge on the Fourth. So bummed), Marge, Dave, Ronnie, Timmy and everyone else that crossed my path in the 80's. Very weird, very surreal.

Those were the best of times, those were the worst of times.

The Shredded T-Shirt

One of my favorite blogs is www.outsapop.com. This woman thinks outside the box when it comes to re purposing clothing. Whilst perusing her blog I saw the Outsapop T-shirt shredding tutorial.

"Oh! I can do this."

I did do it. It takes great patience and time. Loads of patience and loads of time. I would do it while watching TV and between calls at work. Today I finished it with its trim, sleeves and neckline.

I know this is probably soo last year for a lot of people, but come on, I live in Iowa. We are always a tad bit behind. My co-workers would ask, "What are you doing?" When I told them they just raised an eyebrow. Mark wanted to know where and with what I was planning to wear it. It's a tad, umm, see through. Nothing a black tank or cami can't cure.

I'm pretty darned impressed with myself. It actually came out the way I envisioned it. It started out as an XL T-shirt. I of course forgot to take a before picture. After shredding the shirt I shortened the sleeves. Ack! Sleeves are one of the banes of my existence since I have stub arms. The neck is the bottom of a black t-shirt and the trim is the cut off hem of said black t-shirt.

Guess what I am wearing to work to day?

Any relation?

As usual when I am bored I start hitting the Stumble button for the weird and wacky around the net to entertain me I "stumble" upon a little tidbit at the bottom of an article I am reading. It wasn't the headline that caught my eye:

Is That A ‘Big Mama’ Sausage In Your Pants
Or Are You Just A Tranny?
via Banned in Hollywood

Ok, I lied, a little bit, it did catch my eye, but it was the name of the thief that really got my attention. More specifically the last name, Gariepy. That's my maiden name. Hmm wonder if we are related? Outside of my family and a Dr. in Wisconsin I don't know anyone else with that last name. We are far and few between.

Hope she gets some help.

OMG! These are bee-you-tea-full!

I don't usually get too excited about much of anything, especially trinkets. I was hitting the Stumble button like I usually do when I am bored and these gorgeous bits of jewelry popped up from Lara Lewis' Etsy shop. Her estate jewelry for me is to die for and it is all reasonably priced.

Lemon Drop Earrings

Blush Vintage Filigree Ring

How much do I love her work? I sent Mark an email with the link to the shop and the particular items I want. I want them all, but I thought I would start him slow. Think he will get the hint?

AHAHAHA! Hint not taken. They are still up for sale. Ok, ok, next pay day I am making them mine if they haven't been sold.

Insects, Poultry & Breadcrumbs

Those are the kind of things I see on my drive to work and home.

I love driving to and from work. There is always something happening on Hickman/Highway 6 to look at. Friday on the way into work there are chickens trying to cross the road. It's rush hour. What were those chickens thinking. For anyone unfamiliar with the Clive/Waukee end of Hickman, there is a gal that raises free range chickens. Most of the time they are pretty well behaved and just stand over in the yard and watch traffic go by, but Friday, nope, something really was catching the eye of one of those birds and it was bound and determined to go get it despite the traffic whizzing past it's beak. I call it it, because these do not look like your normal chickens so I couldn't tell if it was male or female. They look more buzzardy. But it must have been the bird in charge because there were about five or six following right behind it.

Then further on down the road a bright yellow VW catches my eye. I have a thing for VW's old or new. Hmm, wonder where I get that from, Dad? Then I spy it's vanity plates, it spells out lightening in license plate shorthand. I laughed all the way to work.

Today on my way in there were boxes scattered down the road like breadcrumbs so we could find our way to these folks new home. I would hate to be them when they realize they are missing something when they get to their destination.

Anyyway, I just had to talk about it since it tickled my fancy.

Garden in a Gutter

OMG! How cool is this?

From in Juneau Empire.com by a former Iowan

We are unable to plant a garden in the back yard:
1) because it is full of gravel and other assorted filller
2) because it is just too wet most of the year.
We are seriously thinking of just planting water plants back there.

I don't know that we would plant veggies, but flowers would be cool. I seriously doubt I could talk Mark into attaching them to the side of the house but I could talk him into doing something around the ugly railing on the front porch with a bit of wood and some finagling. A definite plus for keeping the Weenie out of them and dragging her lead through them.

Hmm, we shall see, we shall see.

Images of Fear & Hate: National Organization for Marriage and the KKK

If Iowa goes the way of California and it is up to the voters and not the government as to whether gay marriage should be legal or not, then we had best go all the way and remove marriage completely out of the government. No more rights and privileges granted by state or federal government laws. I am so tired of the extreme right religious-ites and their definition of marriage. If we went by their definition there would be a whole lot of heterosexual people who wouldn't be able to get married either.

The Biggest Loser

Isn't me just yet. Bawahahahaha! Five more pounds to go and I will have lost twenty pounds. Go me. Still though, I have a long, long way to go.

I watch The Biggest Loser every week for motivation, but I gotta say I am so over Tara. Tara wins this and Tara does that. Tara, Tara, Tara. (I always did like Jan better.) Ya, slam me all you want I won't change my mind. My inspiration is Kristen.

And that is how I feel about that.

Frog Bag

I've been dying to try the Singlet Style Shopping Bag tutorial by queenofdiy over on Craftster. I've been wanting to make up some shopping bags so we don't have a plethora of plastic bags all over the house. Even WE don't have enough garbage to reuse all those bags. Plus Mark's niece Kim is getting married early in May and on her Bridal registry from Target she has shopping bags so I thought I would make her some cool looking ones.

So I decided to try out the tutorial to see if I could do it and I really wanted to make myself a bag to replace my ratty old purse. I had a few issues that I learned from and an issue with how to sew the top of the handles, but it came out pretty good. I would definitely not suggest using the material I used. I recycled a dress my Mother had given me as a birthday present about ten years ago. It's a cross between heavy t-shirt material and lightweight sweatshirt material. the lining is a pink, green white and black striped cotton material that I got in the remanent bin at JoAnn's. It matches perfectly!

Excuse the lumpiness, I had stuff in it already. Handle issue, top left. Grrrr. And what ever possessed me to sew the side seams out rather that in is beyond me, but it's a happy accident for me since I caught just a enough of the lining to give it a little detail. I like it. I think I am now ready to make the shopping bags. Correctly.

Kim also has aprons on her Bridal Registry. I will give that one a try on another date, there is this vintage smock I want to make......

One of these days I will get the flying cap I made up. I can't seem to photograh it correctly without it looking like a Little House on the Prairie bonnet. I think I need to adjust some things on the cap it's self for a better fit.

I will try not to make it over a month before I post anything. Just nothing has been going on in our lives and nothing has really caught my interest. Though I do have another bag I want to make. Hehe.

Reed Prior

Reed Prior was serving a life sentence for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Reed Prior received a commuted sentence from President George W. Bush on December 23, 2008, this month he was released. Sounds ominous doesn't it. For Reed Prior's life I hope not.

I was very moved reading "An Open Letter to Young People".{Please read the full story @ Cityview} I never used hard drugs. Oh sure, I tried Black Beauties in high school. They only made me very ill and my scalp feel like it was trying to crawl off my head. I tried weed, that just made me giggly, paranoid and crave a case of Hostess Ding Dongs. No, my drug of choice was alcohol, but what it did to me sounds much like how it affected Reed Prior. I still exhibit some of the tendencies to remove myself from the world and those around me. I pushed my family away, lost what few friends I had and left perfectly wonderful men who loved me before they had a chance to break my heart by leaving me.

"Living the life of a drug addict is an act of ultimate selfishness and of cowardice. Caring only for yourself and your drugs, you push away family, friends and the love of women, women whom you do really love. From a larger perspective, you alienate yourself from the society of which you are a part, to which you should naturally belong. You deny and evade your obligation and responsibility to others, to your community and to the world.

But, finally, you are alienated from yourself. You betray who and what you are as a person. You throw away the chance you have been given to do good, to help others, to be positive, to make things better in a way unique to you and your talents. Instead you cause sadness and pain. Instead of using your energy and your gifts, you hide them away. Instead of adding to the light, you help the darkness. You have not really mattered, although you could have."

Luckily, seven years ago, the law stepped in. Busted for my second DUI. Sentence, one week in jail or one week in-patient treatment and something like three months of out-patient treatment. I didn't chose jail. I am very glad I didn't, if I had I wouldn't have ever gotten sober and met Mark, a person that understands me more than I understand myself at times, but I am finding myself again one day at a time. I have a lot of years to catch up on since they say that mentally you stay the same age as when you started becoming an addict. I just hope I don't lose the feeling of being young. I feel like at my age there is a fine line between having maturity and being old. I may not have kids around to echo the sentiments I told my parents, but I do have twenty somethings telling me I wouldn't understand since I am not their age anymore. Guess what? Music changes, fashion changes, technology changes, but the feelings and problems, they never change. Just don't try to drive them away in alcohol or drugs. The feelings and problems are there for a reason. They are a part of what shapes you into being you in how you deal with or overcome them.

Another in my family struggled with addiction. In a weird, thankful sort of way I am glad that if it had to be, they did it young, found the help and the strength to over come it and moved on to enjoy the life stretched out in front of them. I have so much I want to say to them, but nothing comes. The words just dry up on my tongue or from my fingers. Unlike my tears. Gah, I am out of tissue from my crying jag last month.

Please read "An Open Letter to Young People" Pass it on to your children, your nieces and nephews. They will either chuck it on the trash or learn a little something from it. At least parts of it will stay with them to echo in their minds if they stray off the path and maybe it will save their lives.

Baby Slippers

Now here is something I would expect to see over on Craftastrophe.



That's just not right.
Poor little baby dolls. But they look so darn happy.

HEMA Stores

"HEMA is a Dutch department store which first opened in 1926 in Amsterdam. It now has 150 stores all over the Netherlands.

Take a look at HEMA’s product page. You can’t order anything, and it’s in Dutch, but just wait a couple moments and watch what happens. Don’t’ click on any of the products pictured, just wait and see what happens….and be sure to have your sound turned up.

This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer."

HEMA

via Curbly

Just frikken awesome! It rawks.

Testing! 1....2....3

Since I just pulled pics off of the camera, let's test this to see if it works. Some have been re sized already so what will be will be. Most of these are from the Iowa State Fair 2008. The others are from Kum & Go's TeamWork Acres. Now don't you be laughing at Kum & Go, it is a perfectly legitimate business. It's a large chain of convenience stores for those not familiar.

From a garden display

Same thing, but the whole thing. I couldn't decide which I liked better

More of the garden display

Tractor grill from a display of rebuilts
done by high school students through out Iowa
4-H I think

Tile border around one of the doors from the llama barn

Wrought iron American Gothic
The original painting will be at the Des Moines Art Center for two months
I am going either Sunday or Monday, it's free
Maybe not Monday, they're closed

Gosh it was beautiful out that day.

Little Bit Different

I couldn't take it anymore. As much as I loved the previous layout there was this widget/gadget thing I could not remove and it made it difficult to put pictures on here without having to do some major resizing and finagling. Sooo, from here on out the pictures should be...larger? I hope. We'll see. *shrug...blah...sigh*

A Great Day

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Thank you MSNBC for allowing people to embed this video.

Shh, don't tell Mark, the next four to eight years will be hard enough for him as it is.

I had to watch this via the internet today because he stubbornly refused to let me watch it on TV. He watched Warbirds on DVD. Pffft. Let it go honey, let it go there is nothing more you can do.

Mark lives, eats and breathes politics. He is one of those annoying people who will try to turn any conversation to politics so he can spout the rhetoric of his party. *yawn* He almost had me turned for awhile, but I kept questioning things that did not jibe for me. When I started hearing, verbatim, the same words spoken by the top three politic pundits I knew it was time to investigate on my own. I love you honey, but, here will have to agree to disagree. That's why you love me. Head. Strong.

I am just going to keep watching this with my box of tissue because I just can't seem to stop tearing up. Let's just hope that this man can manage to keep at least some of his promises and is able to keep a strong thumb on that shrieking shrew in the House and her minions. They are the ones I don't trust.

When one door opens..... everything gets sucked out

Ugh! @*$#!!!

I lost my job just before Christmas of last year due to my own stupidity. I had started in August and one of the requirements for the job is they have to have a copy of your social security card. I hadn't had or needed a s.s. card in years. Last time I had a s.s. card was back in the late 80's. Sooo, I went to the s.s. office to get a new one, the company accepted the receipt until my card arrived. Well, I forgot to take it to them to get copied and then a few months later they asked for it and I couldn't find it. Skippy. Buh bye. Until I got my new one. I took some time for myself, got my new s.s card and reapplied for my job. Six weeks later....., they finally call me back today to offer my job back to me. YES!! I haven't even unpacked the box from my cube yet. It's still sitting in the front seat of my car waiting to go back to work.

About an hour later Mark calls me to tell me that on the thirtieth of this month he loses his job. WHAT! Why? Down-sizing. They are opening a hub in Omaha and being that he was one of the last ones hired out he goes. He does get two months severance pay, which is good. We lose our free unlimited membership to Netflix, which is bad, we are movie-aholics. At least I can laugh.

Just when I thought we could actually get back to normal, I was already planning my trip to the thrift stores, JoAnns, Hancocks, the home improvement store, blah, blah, blah, this happens. Seems like we can never catch a break. And now I worry. It took Mark two years to find this job at Netflix. Up to that time there were two jobs bumping around the state of Iowa as an insurance salesman. Be prepared. Gas prices will go up. They do everytime Mark is without a job.

*heavy sigh*

Count our blessings not our problems. But over the last two years our problems have overcome the blessings. We are alive and reasonably healthy and there are jobs out there for him. I hope. We will make it some how. We always do.

I Am So Easily Entertained

Easy Mac Micro Maniac just made me giggle. Nothing like watching a couple of guys microwave items to their meltdown point. And sometimes beyond their meltdown.

Somethings come with appropriate music, all come with witty blurbs when you mouse over them. Some of the the items were not that entertaining, i.e. the pineapple. My favorites...Glue, Parfait, Christmas Lights and Eggs. The eggs just made me laugh hysterically. I am glad that was not my microwave.

Gawd, I need a life.

Just 'cause it makes me smile (=

What's that smell?

As usual while searching for something else I was sidetracked by a headline at TreeHugger.com.

Land-Fill Bound Garlic Salt is De-Icing Roads in Iowa

Tones Brothers Inc., makers of Tones Spices in Ankeny, IA, has donated 18,000 pounds of garlic salt that would have gone to the landfill to the city to be used to de-ice the roads there. MMmm, yummy. Sort of. It has been mixed with the regular road salt. One worker says it makes you want to order a steak and a baked potato. { You can see the KCCI via KATU Think I could find it ON KCCI? no.} One thing is for sure, they won't have to fear a vampire attack this winter.