Giving it a "Shot"!

Hello friends! Happy Sunny Sunday morning!

I've got some news!

In the spirit of the New Year...New Me concept that I secretly try to attain each year~

today is one of those days where I am gonna try to make it happen!

I am going to take my VERY FIRST photography class!! YIPPEE! *insert fireworks*!

This is a big deal for me a few reasons:

1. actually taking the TIME to do it

2. spending the MONEY on myself

3. FOLLOWING thru and not letting other things get in the way

4. believeing in myself that I ACTUALLY can take a better picture

5. there has got to be more to my camera than AUTOI have taken some decent photos..
trying different angles....


just pointin and shootin really..

while they aren't bad pics..

I don't understand what I am doing...

for me it's all been about luck...

my reaction is usually " hey lookee here...this photo is pretty good!"

what do ya know...

even a blind squirrel can find a nut now and then!

So I am really excited today. Between 3:30 and 5:30 today I am going to get 2 full hours of info that I have been craving to know. I hope my instructor, the very talented Whitney Gray is ready for this. Warning....I am coming armed with only my Canon Power Shot A 560...can you say beginner? My friend Wanda and I are doing this together so thank goodness I will have someone to be able to call when I need to know... just what did she say aperature was again?
Wish me luck!

Fall was so different then...

So I'm at the shop today totally stressed out while trying to get the place all decked out for Fall. While drowning among four huge boxes of fall florals that need to be fluffed, my mind started to drift back to "remember when."

Now I may loose some of you here because this post has nothing to do with junk finds. Believe it or not there was a time when something meant even more to me than JUNK!

Chippy white stuff even.....I heard all the gasps!

Back in the day...let's say like between 1984 thru 1987 , when Fall came around my life was CONSUMED with twirling!!

Yep! I was a majorette all thru high school and nope these pics aren't me. Had to use some stock photos so I had something to show in this post! I love all these vintage girls showin what their momma gave um!

Anyway, I LOVED it! Fall was so different then. It was about creating routines to super cool (HA!) songs like Ghostbusters and planning on what outfit to wear for the game. No boxes to unpack, no merchandise to price. Just wondering if my hair grew long enough to finally put in a french braid. Then trying to learn how to french braid my own hair. Finally figured it out while watching a Waltons rerun!

How many of you are still here? Hello? Is this thing on?

Those days seem like forever ago yet just yesterday We Got the Beat came on the radio and I was doing the whole routine in my head. There is no way in *H E double tooth pick* that I could fit into the skimpy uniforms we used to wear....(we had this red satin number with black sequins that was well........skimpy but oh so awesome) but I can still bring out the moves...most of them anyway, well some of them, um perhaps a few...but definitely I still remember some of the routines! Flexibility has left the building.


Right now my baton is in the garage. I used to practice all the time. By myself, with a coach, with my corp, band practice, majorette camp, band camp...practice , practice , practice. All the time. I can't tell you how many times my hands were on that baton. And now it just sits. Done.

It must have taught me alot. Dedication, responsibility, courage, strength, belief in myself....all of which I apply to my life today as I take care of my shop. So I guess that even though my baton is no longer a big part of my life, the lessons learned from it are.
Now if I could just fit back into those shorts...........

GARAGE MAKE-OVER!!

Well here it is in all it's glory....the garage! It has recently exploded into a gigantic mess and needs to be cleaned out! That is today's make-over project for me. Mr. OTM is watching the the shop as I VOLUNTEERED to do this today. What was I thinking?

Actually I'll tell you what I was thinking.....I am secretly hoping to uncover some long lost treasures that I may have forgot about! It could happen!

I just had a thought...if you are visiting my blog for the FIRST time ~ you'll probably never come back after seeing these pictures! OMG! I am so embarrassed! There's still time to click off~ come back another day when you see a blog title like ..
" What I bought with my lottery winnings!"

Good grief....please give me another chance if you have decided to stay!!

Can't say I didn't warn ya! LOL!

My main goal is really to be able to get back into this corner....
because of this....the darn hot water tank! She decided to poop out on us and we've been taking cold showers for a week. Monday we are getting a new one installed and I will be celebrating with a nice loooooong hot bath with new lavender bubble bath already to go!


You better tune in for the after pictures or I will never forgive you. To see my mess like this and then to not come back for the after would break my heart! Who knows~ I may get totally inspired and make some toile curtains for the windows, hang a crystal chandelier and be able to post this on the next Where Bloggers Create!
I better get started..........

It's just me...

So here I am in all my glory~ doin what I love to do best!

I snagged, took , stole, borrowed this photo from Sue at Vintage Rescue Squad.

She recently did another Southern Fried post about our day of junkin. Hop on over to her place to read all about it!

Back to this photo.....it made me laugh.

THIS right here is me at my best. Maybe not the best outfit, or hair really ...good grief ....it's so unbelievably hot down here. I think the equator runs right though North Carolina now. UGH!

Anyway, this was one of those perfect days....Throw your hair up in a clip, slap on some mascara and lip balm, t-shirt, flip flop, truck load of junk wonderful kind of days. The best part was sharing it with a new friend that loves junk as much as I do. The other funny thing about this picture is what you don't see! The day before Sue and I were to meet up, I didn't realize that Mr. OTM was going to be taking the truck to the shop to get some work done on the air conditioning. They had to take the WHOLE DASHBOARD off and well, they didn't get it all done that day and I HAD TO HAVE the truck if we were going junkin so I had to take it as is....with the dashboard laying in the backseat.

Yep, welcome to Redneck Ville, I am your Mayor.

I was embarrassed for like 0.5 seconds. Then hit the road to start the hunt.
So, there ya have me. Keepin it real , doing what I love!

A few things I learned about myself....

I LOVE PEDICURES! OMG!! I had never had a spa pedicure before and let me tell YOU~

WOW! I am hooked! The only thing missing was homemade chocolate chip cookies! It felt so good and my piggies look wonderful! Before the wedding I went to get a mani/pedi and well....manicures and I only get along for about 2.5 days then the polish starts chipping off like a woodpecker on a pine tree.

My pedicure on the other hand (er...foot) still LOOKS FAB!

If you get up one day feel like you need a treat...go get one!! Somehow it makes you feel indulgent without breaking the bank. Can't wait to go again!

Okay..before you think I went to a Spa Resort instead of a wedding let me fill ya in.

I have been hurting for a long time.....like at least a year. My back shoulder area has felt like I had pinched something and I had good days, so~so days and well, finally recently really bad days. There were days my whole arm was numb, my fingers would tingle, I had to turn my whole body if I wanted to just turn my head. I woke up the other day and could hardly move. Picture this....I had to roll out of bed onto the floor and grab the bed post to pull myself up because I couldn't just sit up and get out. I knew I needed to do something. About a year ago a gal came into my shop who is a neuromuscular therapist and introduced herself and told me that she is new in town and that she will be taking appointments at the salon that is literally right behind my shop...like 1 minute. How convenient right? Why didn't I go then when I started having all these problems right? I have no excuse other than I am an idiot...a procrastinator and well I just didn't want to spend the money. Yesterday~ I spent the money and I could just cry at the relief I am feeling today. She did wonders. She told me everything that was wrong...my ligament was in a huge knot my rhomboid was someplace weird, my neck bone was attached to my knee bone and good lord I was a MESS! Today my mess is a whole lot less! The point to all this is ....I finally listened to my body, and spent a little money on MYSELF and it was worth it! I should add here that Mr. OTM has been bugging me to go for ages....he is feeling a little smug today! :)

What have you been putting off? Don't wait another day! Do it!!

The other thing I learned this past week was that I have been using the wrong mascara for like the past 30 years! NO JOKE!! I needed to grab some waterproof stuff to wear at the wedding( thank goodness I did!) and this was all that I could get my hands on at Target during a super quick scan of the make-up dept. It was meant to be....THIS STUFF IS AMAZING!

Drop what ever you are doing

Call for a police escort

race to the store to get some

You won't be sorry

In that order

right now

Thank me later
!

Enough about me......

My drive to work.......

This is my rush hour situtation I have to deal with every day to and from the shop!

Can you believe this? Unreal!(LOL!) Everyday it's the same old thing....

donkeys....I love each and every single one..

espicially those EARS!!

I LOVE DONKEY EARS!Is there anything cuter than a baby donkey....

a fuzzy little baby donkey with 12 inch ears...

What the heck? How did he get in here? He is definitly NOT on my way to work!
Boy would that be a treat!
HOLY ABS-OLY!!!
WHEW!!
he looks a little warm in that vest don't you think?
OKAY OKAY! BACK TO REALITY......


Here is some more traffic! They are all over the place always eyeballin me as I drive by! I LOVE IT! If there is nobody behind me and there rarely is, I will stop and try to make them talk to me. I think they think I'm nuts...
They are probably right......



And if THAT weren't enough I have to look at all the little babies running around! GEEZ!
Can you see what I have to deal with? It's amazing I get to work at all with all this going on!

On top of all this , the smell of honeysuckle is thick in the air and is beyond intoxicating!

What a drive huh?? Everyday.....I am blessed!

My Pioneer Woman Story.....

CHAPTER 1.....My friend Wanda and I arrive at Joseph Beth Booksellers.......late

All is calm because we are in Group B and as soon as we get there they announce, "All of you in group B please join us upstairs".........very cool!

CHAPTER 2.....We meet up with her friend and start having a laugh fest while standing in line. We are getting closer to Ree....I can see her...OMG...I can HEAR her......OMG ...WE ARE NEXT!!!

(my batteries are dead in my camera.)

CHAPTER 3....Wanda goes first....I am next ...just standing there ... it's my turn .....I get up there and turn into a dork.

Ree tells me she can tell I am from Ohio because of my accent! What? Then she tries to sound like me! Crazy right...what the heck!It was hilarious! Accent?? ...anyway.....I proceed to tell her that I picked this cookbook up for her at a GARAGE SALE! Can you even believe I said that?? Who does that?? A garage sale? To the Pioneer Woman. Why couldn't I just be cool for once and think of something cool to say or how about just " Nice to meet you...I really like your blog...and your husbands chaps." But seriously it was the TRUTH and I guess now I wish I would have left that part out. She said she loves The Marlboro Country Cookbooks........

and that she didn't have this one. I even signed the inside with my full name....ugh. I should have signed it Beth...the Dork ...from Ohio...Garage Sale Junky!

CHAPTER 4.....We get pictures with Wanda's Droid and as soon as she uploads, downloads, tranfers, emails , scans, Facebooks and Tweets , she will send me one.

CHAPTER 5....I met some awesome fellow bloggers! Amy from She Wears Many Hats and Wendy from Wenderly (another Ohio girl.....yippee!) and Shari from Tickled Red! It was sooooooo and I mean SOOOOOO much flippin fun and the whole thing lasted like.....minutes. It was over WAY TO FAST!

CHAPTER 6.......The three of us went out to dinner.

CHAPTER 7.....We all got dessert.

THE END!

P.S. Betty White is on Saturday Night Live tonight.......I can't wait!

P.S.S. I am up to 6.....count um SIX followers on Twitter..!Yippee!

14,003 things.....

It's not a secret that you can find the BEST stuff at garage sales. I am going to be honest with you....something I have never told anyone else.......The REAL SECRET is sometimes after you (meaning me) buys something it gets "lost" among my utterly clean and organized garage ( please read with as much sarcasm as possible) and well it gets unearthed at a later time.

Such is the case with this little book. It was .25 cents at a garage sale where I bought a bunch of other stuff and I remember clear as a bell now that I put it inside this wooden box I got and that's where it stayed until this morning!

I am so glad I found it because it got me thinking all day about reasons to be happy.

One of my reasons was being invited by my neighbor to go to her Women's Banquet at her church this evening. What a great time we had. Wonderful food, a fabulous speaker and so much fun being around so many talented and creative ladies. That makes it 14,001 reasons to be happy.

Reason 14,002......you'll never guess........okay maybe you will.....TOMORROW NIGHT IS THE PIONEER WOMAN BOOK SIGNING!! Yippee! I already sent her a message on Facebook to apologize if my hair looks like crap because it's been so darn hot already. I am SOOO EXCITED!! I better scoot and try to figure out what I am gonna wear!!!

Oh....P.S. ...reason 14,003.......All of YOU!!!

LOVE YA~MEAN IT!

What were your reasons to be happy today??

ONLY THREE MORE DAYS! PIONEER WOMAN HERE I COME!

Do you know Ree Drummond? AKA Mrs. Marlboro Man? THE PIONEER WOMAN?!!

Okay, well I don't really KNOW her either BUT I am going too!!

ONLY THREE MORE DAYS until she gets to meet me.....

imagine her excitement!! LOL!

At the risk of sounding like a stalker...I just love her, her blog is amazing, she takes exceptional photos, she cooks like nobodies business, she deals with calf nuts on a routine basis, she home schools her kids, has a great writing style, is mom to the most adorable Basset Hound you've seen , uses 1980's references all the time that crack me up, she loves SPANX (who doesn't) and yet is just a down to earth country girl ("accidental" country girl) who has a great love story!

If you haven't heard about her I am totally surprised. If you have heard about her and haven't read her love story " Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" you gotta go read it. I was hooked! You will be too.....I promise! Oh and if you haven't bought the cookbook yet....you gotta get it~ you'll be hooked again.....I promise!

I bought mine on Amazon and that's what I will be taking to her book signing on Friday night May 7th! I wish I could sit and just gab with her for a bit, invite her over for dinner (she would cook of course) , then we could go shopping, then we could come home and she could show me how to create an amazing blog like hers and that would lead to some photography lessons and well we would wind up BFF'S and so on!

Okay...too stalker-ish?

Only three more days! I'm just so darn excited!

My LOVE / HATE with GPS!!!

This morning at 7:00 am I hated my GPS....

I mean, throw it out the window , I don't ever care if I see you again

kinda thing....

Then the thrifter in me says "Are you crazy? Remember how much you paid for that thing? You could at least sell it on ebay!"

I was looking forward to my drive home from Maryland today.

I had everything mapped out... the places I was gonna stop, one of which was SHEETZ!

Oh do I love Sheetz...the Pretzel Melt sandwich...I could do a whole post that alone! SHEETZ ROCKS!

ANYWAY......as I was headed home, I came to the road I normally turn down and

I see that GPS wants to take me a different way......decisions decisions....what to do...I wanna go to Sheetz...there's gotta be more than one...I wanna stop at that Antique Mall...yeah but you might find other places you've never seen...SOOOOO I GO ALONG with GPS and find myself SMACK DAB in the middle of WASHINGTON DC TRAFFIC for 2 hours....crawling along like a snail....did I mention for 2 hours! It was unreal and relentless and it didn't help that I kept

saying over and over to myself that I actually did this WILLINGLY! I had nooooooo idea what I was heading towards (insert major UGH!)

At this point I vow to make this awful decision work in my favor....I take out a few of my maps and start looking for places to stop and shop.

I picked out a few and typed the info into the GPS...I gotta admit I was nervous. I couldn't go through a repeat of this morning. After getting things all lined up I arrived at my first place and as soon as I pulled into the parking lot I knew I found a HONEY HOLE!!!! I was so excited....my heart starts racin, I can't look fast enough. I found two things before I even got inside. I would have bought a ton more if I'd had the truck!

The next place ....SAME THING! How lucky is that! Two honey holes in one day!

The thrifter in me saved my GPS~ I apologized for calling it bad names,

I'm in love again and no more talks of pavement or ebay.
Oh, and the BEST PART OF THE DAY?????

I found a Sheetz too! Yum! The pretzel melt was divine!

Here's the loot............

My fav pick of the day was the Ladies Restroom sign. It's heavy too!

Okay, I am pooped from all the drivin and junkin.

Gotta go get some beauty sleep!

May-day...May-Day

Before I started this post I re-read my last post and had to chuckle at the beginning sentence~

Today was one of those days, the not so good kind. I finally felt better this morning after having a doozie of a cold and I got alot of paper work and computer work done. My goal was to head on up to The Sleepy Poet in Charlotte where I have one of my booths. I got the car loaded up with some new goodies to take and hit the road.

Cruising along and jammin too some Let's Hear it For the Boy (80's at lunch)

all of the sudden it's Let's Hear it For a Flat Tire! .....ugh

and I am on 485...a major busy interstate...of course

all alone......of course

the tire was JUST put on this past Saturday....of course

my car is loaded with junk......of course

the spare tire is UNDER all of the junk.....of course

Okay...so what's a girl to do! Well I say a quick prayer and call roadside assistance.

They will be there in 45 minutes.That gives me PLENTY of time to unload all my crap along side of the road. I even thought for a TINY little minute how funny it would be to make a YARD SALE sign and lean it against all the stuff. YOU know you would have stopped right?

Well as it turned out I didn't have time. All of the sudden it was like I had all these people that I don't even know spring into action to help me.

FIRST~ the Roadside Assistance Guy called me to verify my location

SECOND~ As I am trying to describe my location a State Highway Patrol officer pulls up to see if I have help on the way. He was able to verify my location to the "T"

THIRD~I get another phone call from Roadside Guy....he is lost...of course

FOURTH~ As I am on the phone with Roadside Guy, a big ole truck pulls up behind me and the nicest guy walks up and asks me if he can change my tire for me. Roadside Guy says that sounds like a good idea. So Chad introduced himself and proceeded to be my knight in shining armor along 485. I asked him if I could please give him something for all his kindness. He said he has a wife and two kids and would want someone to help them out like that. He really made my day and made me stop and think. All these people crossed my path today for some reason. I may never see them again or even meet them face to face. I think about Roadside Guy and hope he still isn't lost. I think back to Chad and how proud his wife and kids would be for what he did for me today. I think about the State Highway Patrolman and what a relief it was to see him come to my aid instead of the the nervous feeling you get from being pulled over.

Oh~ and as far as the new tires? Those people are making it right with us as well.

There are good people out there. I met three of them today (almost three...Roadside Guy remember?) and I am so glad I did. It did my heart good and made me realize that I didn't have to go looking for them either. They just appeared. How cool is that? Today I felt blessed and thankful. What a great feeling. Today turned out to be one of those days~

the good kind.