adding more patches to our collection

We have been collecting park patches since the BIG TRIP in 2010...we're not exactly sure what we are going to do with them and so we collect more. On the eclipse trip, we drove through, hiked, and camped in a few of Canada's National Parks and BC. When we drove back into the states, we camped and wandered around Yellowstone. Having a van has been quite helpful in keeping up our camping energy. Yay for road trips, and patches!

with a cluck, cluck here....

In the house (er...condo) I grew up in, we were big mug users. I drank cocoa, tea, milk, ovaltine, and/or juice either from one of my mother's mugs or one of those mawd-awful plastic dollar-days tumblers that were all over the place in the 80s. I write "mother's mugs" as I had always assumed the assortment of mugs that dangled from the accordion rack to the left of the sink was a collection of sorts and that they were more specifically, my mother's collection. One of her many collections...dolls...thimbles...tea cups...plants...there were a lot of collections. Now you know where I get it from.

One of the first things I wanted for the now-defunct (new) tiny casa was an accordion rack just like my mamos' to hang my wee collection of vintage mugs from. My goal was to acquire an assortment of chicken mugs to clutch together on the hook and coo to their hearts content. The acquisition of said rack took a few weeks (thrifting with a goal is always fun) and maybe a few squabbles with the mister but success was had. Not only did I find one rack, but I found two. The first rack had knobs that were too big (that sounds a little dirty...eeps!) but the second rack was just right. Actually it was perfect as the color was a most delightful shade of curry yellow and no painting needed to be done. Al I needed was a few more chicken mugs to accompany my first one gifted to me by a most favorite person.

So every thrift visit had me searching, searching, searching the toppling towers of kitschy mugs for the one gem that featured a hen or rooster or chick. Sadly, my thrifting mojo only ever conjured a single cluck but etsy twice made me happy and then target once with a delightful Good Morning mug...and then finally, after a visit or two to a few local shops I had a small coop fairly full...eight out of ten ain't bad.

Figures it took me until the last week in the now defunct (tiny) casa but at least I got the pictures to prove it!

Goodbye happy rack of mugs...

little bits of happy

 My brother has quite a collection of fisher Price Little People. Since I had a lot of time to kill, I took oodles of pictures of them and more...

 

 

 

 

Scissors...sisters!

In our tiny little casa sits a small set of metal drawers. There are thirty-three drawers in all and the middle drawer in the second row is the scissors drawer.

I have more than fourteen pairs of scissors. Fourteen pairs! You might think what in tarnation does a lobster-girl need with fourteen pairs of scissors but I'll tell ya something. I can perform magic tricks with them. I can make them disappear.

Our tiny casa, which is crammed to the gills with my "collections" has less than five-hundred feet of floorspace. There are four tiny rooms all together and one closet. There are not many places to put things and when you need to find something you can take less than ten steps to any part of the house. TINY. Yet, I manage to lose scissors on a weekly basis. Needles too. Last week I found a missing needle...it was in my foot. OUCH! The scissors on the other hand are better at hiding. Methinks they steal away in the middle of the night for their very own game of sardines. It seems that when I find one pair, I usually find the others all clustered about and mocking me with their orange plastic handles. Just so you don.t think I'm a prejudiced scissors owner, I do have pairs with yellow, red, green and pink handles. Not only do I have a multitude of scissors with colored handles, there are scissors that perform extra tasks. This is where different colors come in handy or, in a pinch, a Sharpie. There is the extra fancy expensive, authentic pair of Fiskars that are to be used on fabric ONLY. By sight I can tell these are the scissors due to the matte quality of the orange plastic handles and the word FABRIC written in Sharpie in the side, lest I forget. The mister makes it a point to keep these sharpened when he sharpens our knives. Next we have the yellow handles scissors which are for TIN, as I'm sure we all cut up a lot of tin don't we? Actually, I go through phases of cutting metal and cheapie scissors work for this. I also use them to cut foil & aluminum. We have the red handles for paper and craft work and the pink handle Pinking Shears for snazzing things up. Then there are the rainbow colored scissors with all the different edges. Scallops, ridges and whatnot. Those are for collage making and postcard decorating. I also have a bunch of small glittery green handled scissors that I use for kids art parties, classes and such. Sometimes they make an appearance in scrumdilly-do as they are most photogenic. Somewhere in the scissors drawer sits a small pair of razor sharp greys that I am supposed to keep with my traveling work to snip thread in an instant. Somehow I manage to forget about these, so I toss in a pair of the imposter orange handles. These are actually the scissors I use most since there are three pairs and the fabric scissors must be off for a smoke break or a game of pinball or something. So many scissors, so little floorspace and so many hiding spaces.

Because I am a master at cramming, the scissor drawer also holds my paper punches, a small hole punch (the regular sized duo I had broke during a workshop I was teaching, darn those paper bags!) two exacto type knives, a rotary cutter and a ruler. Now, when you come to my house you can make yourself feel even more at home. The juice glasses are in the bottom kitchen cabinet, monkeys, bees or roosters are there for you to choose from. Don't bother with the cookie jar, it is full of plastic bags, the cookies or baked goods are usually in a tupperware on the red counter. The bathroom is through the bedroom and the scissors are in the middle drawer in the second row.