October Goals

Goals for the month:

1.  Take and post a picture every day (maybe here, maybe Facebook)
2.  Find at least one thing to get rid of/rehome/declutter every day.  And put a picture of it here.

Ren Fest 2014

This past weekend was the day of our annual trip to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, which doubles as our annual vacation most years (our one day out-of-state for the year).  Beautiful weather, and a nice person gave us a coupon for a free child admission while we were standing in line. 

Sadly, no cinnamon crunchy almond vendor  this year. :(  I'll just have to figure out how to make my own. 

Also, the Boy has become a shopper.  Came home with a hat, a fan, and a wand. 

He also met a mermaid and got to be a dwarf in a fairy tale performance. 

And he spent 5 hours asking how much longer we were going to be there, then 3 hours asking how much longer until we were home.  Patience is not his strong suit. 

Yard saling

Fundraiser yard sale on Friday. 

$24.25

$10 - Cat carrier (for future pet rabbit)
$2 - DVD, season 2 of Pioneers of television (including Sci Fi and Westerns)
$6 - 3 CDs - Keola Beamer, They Might Be Giants, and Darius Rucker
$1 - baggie of Lego
$2 - Puzz3D of Camelot
.50 - green crochet thread
.50 - plushie turtle
.25 - bouncy ball (I think we were overcharged but oh well)
.50 - Lord of the Rings journal
$1 - 2 magazine holders
.50 - something else I've forgotten

Thrift store day

Nothing outrageous today, but I did get 11 partial or whole balls of crochet thread for 50 cents each, and a box of notecards (all 20 still there) for $1, with pictures of yachts on the front. 

More gardening

Herb garden is mostly done. Tier planter has mints in the bottom pots, top is seeded in thyme, oregano, and tarragon. Big square planter has two kinds of basil. Still need to plant lavender plant.

Garden progress

Garden/yard progress Planted 6-packs of zinnia and marigold today. Ate our first salad from the garden yesterday - spinach, lettuce, radishes. Spent 2 hours outside Sunday, moved 5 clumps of hosta, planted 2 bleeding hearts (lace leaved) and 2 columbine. Still have a crap ton of plants to get in the ground. Missed my chance last weekend, Saturday was cool and good for planting, but we were doing boring family stuff.

Treasure Hunting Weekend

This weekend was the weekend for the first big Friends of the Library sale of the year - paperbacks for 50 cents, and other random finds.  I bought a few dozen books (under $30) and got a big box of maps and random travel goodies for free.  I've got a craft idea or two for the maps, other than a few neat ones to keep. I took a quick look through the box this morning - not so many maps, lots of travel brochures from all over the world.  Korea, Mexico, Europe.  There were a few dozen unused postcards, too, which is a nice bonus. 

On the way to and from the book sale, I went to a thrift store and two biggish rummage sales.  One was a fundraiser for a school group, the other was a church group fundraiser.

School fundraiser:  A kid's weaving loom, made of wood and with all the parts for $8, and a Nanoblocks space shuttle for $1 (which may or may not have all the pieces, and may or may not drive me crazy, because those pieces are tiny)

Church sale:  Scrabble cube game (old!!), 25c bag of yarn for the loom kit, a glass bottle to use as a vase, and a tea tin.

Thrift store:  one CD of Hawaiian music, and two books on the Challenger space shuttle.

Bluebird season

The bluebirds are back.  We've seen 3 visiting occasionally - can't tell how many males or females yet.  They actually snack out of the sunflower seed feeder, visit the birdbath, and seem to be staking a claim on the bluebird box.  Hopefully they won't have the problems they had last summer, and can hatch more than one set of eggs. 

I am tempted to buy some mealworms for them, even at the insane price of $15+ per pound.  The most I pay for anything else is $2/pound for the high-protein peanut mix that the jays like, and even that I mix with black-oil sunflower seed (50 cents/pound). 

weekend progress

Made progress over the weekend. Sorted out the deep freeze and got rid of a few things on Sunday. Spent Sat afternoon rearranging the basement room. One half is noe reserved for yard sale stuff. And I have a small pile of "what was I thinking when I bought THIS?!?!?" stuff.

Thrift hunting 3-5-14

Not much today. Found a Bill Pert book and a thesaurus for Son.

The week's hunting

Treasure hunting and miscellaneous shopping for the week:

Wednesday


Tuesday Morning - 2 boxes of Christmas crackers (70% off), 2 more skeins of purple/blue yarn, and a ceramic hedghog.

Goodwill - Found a Hawaiian-print shirt for Son, and a stack of books, mostly for him but a few for me.  The best was a copy of The Silver Brumby, an Australian book.   Can't beat 30-cent kids' paperbacks.  (My  best find so far at Goodwill was 3 books from a series I read, signed by the author - who happens to be a distant relative of mine.  For 30 cents each.)

Ebay - A heavy stack of Piecework back issues.

 

A friend gave me a stack of old crochet and needlework booklets, which are always fun.

Thrift Store, trip one - 2 crochet books, a magazine, and some Cook's Illustrated back issues (which it turns out I already have - my list is back in my wallet).

Thrift store, trip two - 2 CDs, a $2 Scrabble game with all the tiles, two calendars for a friend, and a couple more magazines.

Treasure hunting 1-8-14

Shopping day

Thrift store:

• framed Eiffel Tower print - $5
• framed print (bought for the frame) - $1
• Envirosax bag with nautical print - $2
• 3 CDs, $1.50 each
• 2 Serendipity books, 50c each

Walmart - hit the Xmas clearance, didn't find the Lego set I was hoping for, did find some ornaments for my aunt

Michaels - I think they'd had a bad water leak.  Found a few things on Xmas clearance, including a cookie cutter for cinnamon ornaments

Winter is here

Fun weather - record wind chills, lovely snow, and a snow day when it's too cold to go outside. 

I finally managed to buy and install the heated bird bath (Husband did the buying and installing) before the weather hit, and it's been very popular so far.  Our neighborhood hawk was getting a drink yesterday, but I didn't get the camera in time.  The bird bath could use some improvement; the bracket design is pretty iffy, and the "powder coating" on the metal chipped off way too easily. But, it was below zero last night (Fahrenheit) and the water didn't freeze, so it's a success so far.

Heated bird bath

Imagine a red-shouldered hawk perched on the side.  I'll be looking out for a return visit.

The bird feeders are popular too, and the tree outside is full of cardinals, along with sparrows, blue jays, doves, titmice, chickadees, and a few juncos.  And pine siskins. 

Movie list - new for 2014

New for this year (because my memory gets fuzzy:  Movies I've Seen

1. The Internship (Redbox) - Not bad, actually.
2. The Heat (Redbox) - Okay
3. Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (theater) - Freaking Awesome!
4. Stand By Me (tv) - 1/3/14 - Can't believe I'd never seen the whole thing until now
5. Lego Movie (theater)
6. Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters (Redbox)
7. Turbo (Redbox)
8.  
9.  
10. Captain America: Winter Soldier (theater)
11. Thor: The Dark World (theater)
12. Amazing Spider-man 2 (with Kate)
13. Gravity (Redbox)
14. Monuments Men (Redbox)
15. X-Men: Days of Future Past (with Kate and Hadrien)
16. Philomena (Redbox)
17. Saving Mr. Banks (Redbox)

2014 Reading List

This year's goal: not sure.  Maybe 50 books (other than childrens books)?
(Trying to update this on the phone is freaking impossible, too)

1. The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star, by Susan Wittig Albert.  I like these, the author does a very good job of writing the "feel" of a place and time.  I've liked all of her series so far; the Dahlias and China Bayles are two of the very few series I buy in hardback as they come out. 
2. Jane Austen's Guide to Thrift (1/6/14)
3. Calvin Coconut: Rocket Ride - Juvie books that Son is reading, I've read the whole series and they're not bad.  Geared for boys, which are hard to find that don't focus on sports. 
4. Calvin Coconut: Man Trip  - Juvie books that Son is reading, I've read the whole series and they're not bad.  Nice to find a boy-geared book that isn't all-sports-all-the-time.
5. A Wilder Rose, by Susan Wittig Albert (1/10/14)  Novelization/biography of Rose Wilder and her work on the Little House books.  
6. The Sherlock Files: Official Companion - Haven't seen the series yet, but I've got the DVDs from the library. 
7. Wild Born, by Brandon Mull (1/27/14)
8. The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  The last post-apocalyptic downer of a book that I plan to read for a while.  2nd in a trilogy, depressing as anything.
9. Mr. Monk Helps Himself
10. Together, Alone - Susan Wittig Albert
11. Mr. Monk Gets On Board - the new writer takes over the book series
12. One Hundred and Four Horses:  A Memoir of Farm and Family, Africa and Exile By Amanda Retzlaff.  (2/6/14)  Interesting and heartbreaking.
13.  Captain Phil Harris: The Legendary Crab Fisherman, Our Hero, Our Dad, by Josh and Jake Harris, etc.  Phil Harris biography ((3/5/14)  Quick read, pretty interesting.
14. Lousy book, erotica masquerading as "urban fiction" - very badly written.  Like, crappy fan-fic level of bad, and how a publisher can print something without spellchecking is beyond me.  I can see things slipping through that spell-check won't catch (homophones, etc), but "panickicked" voice instead of "panicked" is pathetic.  (3/6/14)
15. Cherry Ames, Rest Home Nurse (3/8/14)  Yes, I have a thing for vintage ghost-written mysteries.  I've just gotten my hands on a stack of Cherry Ames & Dana Girls books, dating back to the 40s, and some original, un-revised Nancy Drew books.
16. 
    
17. The Pregnancy project 
18. Hark, A Vagrant - very funny 
19. when my name was Keoko.
20. Prince William: the Man Who Would Be King - Very interesting, lots of info about the British monarchy (5/15/14)
21.  
22. Hunted, by Maggie Steifvater (5/17/14) - second in series, pretty good
23. Bitter end Jennifer brown 
24. Young House Love - (5/28/14) - Lots of ideas here
25. Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (5/30/14)
26. The Dana Girls - Secret of the Study Lamp
27. Dana Girls - Mystery of Lone Tree Cottage
28. 
    
29.  Discover Magazine's Vital Signs (6/2/14) - Quick read, compilation of the articles from the magazine
30. Backwoods Home Magazine, best of first two years
31. Backwoods Home Magazine, best of third year
32. Get on Out of Here, Philip Hall (6/11/14)
33. Melissa Explains it All, by Melissa Joan Hart.  Interesting, although I missed out on Clarissa and didn't watch Sabrina a lot.
34. Do You Believe in Magic? by Paul Offit
35. Sew Smarter, Faster, and Better, the Thread Magazine sewing tips book (6/19/14)
36. Warriors Don't Cry - story of the Brown v. Board of Ed school integration
37. Junior Miss
38. Poisonwood Bible
39. Snail Mail No More
40. Sister of the Bride, by Beverly Cleary (7/13/14)
41. A Girl from Yamhill, by Beverly Cleary (7/14/14)
42.  
43. The Boys in the Boat
44. Death of a Perfect Wife
45. The Wave
46.