"i bought a church pew"

nothing major happened this weekend.
unless buying a church pew is a major deal.

it wasn't an impulse decision--unless an impulse decision is buying something in the first 2 minutes of the sale because the price was really right and you knew if you didn't buy it any of the other 3 people were going to carpe diem it right up.

hey, it was on my bucket list of items to thrift.

bucket list:

14)church pew

anybody want the pew? i've already put it on craigslist. (i also have this, this and this on craigslist right now too -- if you want one of these thing and are out of the area, talk to me, maybe we can figure out a way for me to get them to ya)

i also purchased this interested metal (magnetic!) sheet and also some sweet wood hangers. 2 with vintage advertising.

and a whole collection of boy scout badges and such. it amazes me that people get rid of this stuff. this bag of goodies was totally hidden under a bunch of plastic crappy toys for kids. i love the one on the bottom right...."spring camporee"...and the bear and bobcat ones...what does that mean? that they wrestled a bear and a bobcat and lived to tell the tale?

one of my favorite finds of the day! a puzzle from 1983. way to be all equal rights, 1983!

the sesame street books are the beginning of a collection (i think there are 26 of them). the band-aid tin is from 1985. and there were sealed band-aids in it. it's ok to use them, right? i hope so. i used one already. my finger didn't fall off, so i think i'm ok.

these little buggers were pretty cool. the top has sheep, the bottom, a circus. they will make a nice decoration bit for whoever buys them from our shop. i got the green chalkboard saturday too. i love me some chalkboards.

aaaaaand, to round out my saturday, a box of patterns with some sweet azz images on them. not sure what i will do with these (or the other 500-600 i have) but for the price, i couldn't leave them sit. i knew that much.

read this post about the pre-garage sale crazies.

what's on your bucket list for thrifting? ie...what will you stop everything for, alter plans for...just so you can say..."i just purchased a _____." or "i have a _____ for sale."

linking up to apron thrift girl's thrift share monday! also linking up to what's for dinner, mom?

macgyver types

it looks like i'm heading into surgery or something. 

I need a pinking shears, STAT.
Small dull scissors, STAT.
Paint splattered heavy duty scissors, STAT.

stop saying STAT, STAT.

Brent and I were getting ready to eat Friday night. I had a spatula laying over the rim of the veggie bowl. he asked if he was supposed to use that to dish up the veggies. i said sure, or get a spoon, whatever works...buuut, if you use the spatula, it's one less utensil to wash. we proceeded to use the spatula to scoop up the veggies. it worked fine. classy, perhaps not. but then again, if you would see my ragamuffin outfits sometimes, you would be certain classy doesn't run amok through these veins of mine.

brent just laughed as he "spooned" up his vegetables. he said "you Spieker women have an interesting take on what utensils to use when in the kitchen." i knew exactly where he was going with this. time and time again, he says my mom and i are the only two women he has ever seen use a scissors to cut pizza. 

it's a logical next tool of choice if you a)don't have a pizza cutter or b)it's already dirty and in the dishwasher or c)have a really thick crust.

so tell me, have you seen or heard of simple folk macgyver types using scissors in this manner?

I need to know your answer, STAT.

garage-sale-deprived nebraskans

if i said i was in line at 7:30 this morning to go to a church garage sale, would you believe me? also, if i said the 15 people ahead of me were cackling 65+ year old women and men, would you believe me? and, if i said i purchased a church pew, would you believe me?

(and yes, a line up outside a church garage sale, in january, in nebraska.) it was 1 degree last night people. O.N.E. madness. and when the workers were coming out to unlock the doors...multiple people shrieking back at us quasi-committed folk in the back..."they're coming! they're coming to open the doors!" i presume smoke signals or flashlight messaging happened as well because all of a sudden there were at least 30 more g' salers behind me. in an instant, people.
 
my advice: don't get in the way of garage-sale-deprived nebraska folk.

i think she just flipped me off.

(photo has no relation to story)

i have a 50 minute commute to/from work. so, i'll be the first one to fully admit that i get into auto-pilot mode sometimes and just drive. deep in my thoughts, i'll just drive.

like yesterday, for example. until. i got flipped off twice. by the same driver. at 2 different times in our perhaps 4 mile stint on the road together. 

and i still do not have the foggiest idea as to what i did to be the recipient of such a joyful act. i'm a big girl now and don't claim to be the best driver -- i'm fond of lane changing because abnormally slow drivers make me c.r.a.z.y, and yes, i've sped up when i know the light is going to turn yellow. but something stupid/mean/dumb enough to warrant such pleasantries by other drivers -- twice? let the record show, i claim to be innocent.

the funny part is, she was so.mad. like face contorted mad. and, for some reason, i thought it was hilarious that she was that mad over this phantom act of mayhem. you may think it was funny too if as my left laned car drove by her and a mittened hand came up to the window with one finger pressed against the glove. and she faced forward like it was below her to look at the scum of the earth she was gesturing to. i mean, if she really wanted to drive the point home, how about a stone cold look of death, eh?

after a short distance, i had to change lanes to exit...so was in front of her. in the mirrors, she was (still contorted) calling me some pretty colorful names. i know at least one consecutive f word b word combo. and still. i have no idea what i did.

lucky me, she exited as well. i usually get in the left lane right away on this road since i have to left exit a little over a mile ahead. today, no different. and today, i found myself behind a schwans truck, to which i couldn't pass if i wanted to (i didn't want to) because miss happy life was to my right and back a bit. 


i figured she'd do one of those i'm-pissed-at-you-and-the-world things and gun it and get way past me before she slowed up again. nope. still cruised at my 4:00. ok fine, what evs, right?


(if you would like to think less of me after i write this next paragraph, i'll understand) i somehow thought if i could get her to naturally have to pass me (by me slowing down a wee bit) i could tell why she was so irate with me. (i didn't know how i would know this...and, ok. fine. i kinda just wanted to mess with her a itty bitty bit).


but she didn't pass me. at all. total weird. and then it came down to where the road forks (how profound) and she went right and i went left. and i looked over at miss jolly time one final time and she had taken off her mitten this time and gave me a firm (mitten free) salute. again without looking at me -- like getting the last word in.


a couple things i thought about on the way home:
1)what the holy heck did i do? (still have no idea)
2)how long did she talk to herself about how idiotic i was? - i can't be the only one that does that. right? right?!
3)how did this unpleasant "interaction" affect the rest of her day? was her boyfriend the next victim of her wrath? did she bring out her middle finger gems in the produce aisle?

::::
update: this was actually 2 days ago when this happened so...

i've had time to digest things and get them properly placed in my brain so i can make heads or tails of the situation. and, to co-road warriors like myself, it's all positive. i've been a wee bit more patient with all you. and that my friends, is no small feat.

gettin my craft on.

i've been lett(er)ing this idea marinate in my mind for awhile. we purchased a few boxes of these yellow and black letters a while back from a double secret honey hole of ours. a lot of the letters are just fine to list as is (after a wash down, of course), but a good number of them are cracked and chipped. (see upper part of letter A for crack samples). puh-ha! crack samples. that didn't sound very good did it?

if the yellow isn't cracked or broke, they'd be a fine piece to sell in our shop. but, what about the cracked ones -- and what if yellow doesn't go with your color palette? then what? i'll tell you what!...

...then, i get my craft on! I broke/cut out the yellow of this P and glued (fabric glue worked great) some funky vintage fabric (curtains, actually) to the back. i also lightly sanded the black plastic to give it a uniformed worn look.

i think i may make a few more of these and sell them in our shop. i have oodles of different fabrics i could use.

what are your thoughts on this crafty bit?

plan b was a cleaning party. and man, did we party.

brace yourselves. i'm going to throw out something that will seem pretty far fetched. and it may even blow your mind.

we did not bring one thrifted item into our home this weekend. not one. i know. how rare a time it was. we didn't know what to do with ourselves. we just kinda wandered around our home, looking at each other with these puzzled and confused looks. we did lots of those palms-up-shrug-shoulders-raise-eye-brows looks of bewilderment. neither of us were sure what to make of it. i mean, don't get me wrong. we tried. brent went to an auction, but it was really gross dirty (as opposed to dirt dirty...which we aren't afraid of)...and i (against my better judgement) was lured into our local thrift show even though last week i mentioned i should maybe take a week off from there. and nothing. both of us...nothing.

plan b: cleaning party. we didn't clean boring stuff like our bathrooms and kitchen floor...we cleaned fun stuff like our 4 typewriter tables, 3 stools, 5 rotary dial phones, 3 kitchen carts...yes! brent, his momma, and myself cleaned stuffs-n-suches for a good long while saturday afternoon and sunday afternoon. over 50 items are now ready to be photographed and listed. the immense relief this gave me (and brent too) was most definitely *heel click* worthy. tis a glorious weekend when the productivity is to that high of a level. 

along with cleaning, we pulled out items to donate and also items that are cool, but too new to sell on etsy. these three polaroid cameras are examples of the latter. 


want to get one of these polaroids for yourself? asking $8 plus shipping. email me here, comment below with your email address, or get a hold of me somehow and lets make it happen.

linking up with apron thrift girls - thrift share monday. and also what's for dinner mom. go on, get you some!

the after picture

i really, really love when people show us what they did with the item(s) they purchased from our shop. one recent etsy buyer did just that. she purchased the eeeeeee's from us. i love this twist on one single large letter. way to go, ms. bemis!

(and what about those colors--yellowish green, red and gold? --that's just plain awesome!)