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My mom had a garage sale last weekend which I was only vaguely aware of. That's one of the joys of living 350 miles away. However, that joy is slightly dampened with the guilt I feel about my sister having to deal with our aging nutso parents. My sister, Shamayn, has a disabled husband and 2 disabled children so the last thing she needs is parent drama. Unfortunately, she gets it anyway. It can be very frustrating in the moment but from 350 miles away parent drama can be relatively entertaining. Don't tell Mayn I said that. When I talked to Mom she said she was putting some stuff in her sister's garage sale so I though that was the plan. Oh, and when I say "talked" I mean texted. We don't talk. Ever. Which is why we get along so well now. I didn't realize that somewhere along the line the plans changed and Mom ended up having her own sale. It didn't matter to me, I'm far enough away that I might as well be on another planet, which is another reason...

The little antique shop down the street from me, Vintage Gifts and Antiques , was having an open house last weekend so I picked up a few things that were on sale. And a few that were not. I've been looking for an old wooden ladder ever since I saw an awesome one at an antique store in Lafayette a couple of years ago. I can't find the picture I took but it was a 6' wooden ladder that was covered in years worth of paint drips and rust. It was amazing. And it was over $100. This little jewel was tucked in a corner and I was afraid it might be someone's actual step ladder that they were using. When I pulled it out I was was SO excited to see a price tag on it! And I was even more excited to see that it was $25 and the booth was having a 25% off sale! I grabbed that sucker PDQ. I haven't decided exactly where it will live or what will be on it, but it will be fabulous I'm sure. My second big ticket item (over $20) was this most excellent brass bucket. It's large ...

I'm taking an online jewelry making class from Deryn Mentock called The Build Zone which will make me all cool and talented just like Deryn. Okay, so she doesn't exactly say that but I feel sure it will happen if I just do everything she does. The class ends November 30 and registration is open until November 1 so run over there right now to sign up while there's still time. And if, like me, you're thinking it's a little pricey considering it doesn't include any of the required materials, let me assure you it is worth every penny. The class is divided up into four 1-week segments but Deryn has so graciously made all of the videos available upfront so you can work through them at your own pace. By "all the videos" I mean 20+. That's a bargain. During the first 2 weeks the videos focus mainly on building the foundational skills you'll need to make the completed pieces in the last 2 weeks. I've made lots of different kinds of jewelry over ...

I've mentioned before that I don't watch a lot of television. I didn't watch any at all really until about a month ago when I got hooked on Arrested Development and some of the documentaries that Netflix offers through their streaming service. Since then I've seen a couple more documentaries that I highly recommend: Exit Through the Gift Shop made my list because it's about graffiti which I love, and Banksy who fascinates me. Actually the movie isn't really about graffiti but about this average French guy who literally stumbles into the world of street art and ends up becoming an artist himself even though he has no discernible talent whatsoever. All he had was the endorsement of a couple of well known artists and that's all it took for people to get sucked in. The guy has made a fortune by selling other people's art that his staff (not even he himself) has Photoshopped. This film, like Catfish , was suspected of being a mockumentary but I think this ...

This morning I woke up completely exhausted from the dream I had last night...or rather, this morning. This is not an unusual occurrence for me since I have narcolepsy which means I am pretty much all REM all the time and that's when most dreams happen. Some dreams do occur during non-REM sleep but most people never remember those dreams. I remember all my dreams, all the time, in vivid and exhausting detail. The dream that wore me out last night occurred in Holland. It felt like it lasted for hours and hours even though the average length of a single dream is between 5 and 45 minutes, depending on how long you sleep. I've actually been to Holland before but my dream had nothing to do with that trip. Jayson, Taylor and I were on a 2-week vacation in Holland. Apparently we had booked the trip with some big tour group since there were lots of people traveling with us and we had made some friends. It was the end of our trip and time to start packing up so we could head home. I am ...

I decided it was time to finish the recipe binder project that I started before we moved. The task was too daunting to finish at that time so I saved it until I knew I could devote 100% of my full attention to it. Yeah, I procrastinated. I love to collect recipes, it's just a shame that I don't cook. I've always thought I might cook more if my recipes were in order. Just like I'm convinced that I could be a gourmet chef if I had me a big Viking stove and a Sub-Zero fridge like this one. [via] Yeah, I'm pretty sure if I had that fridge I could crank out one darn fine grilled cheese sandwich. Alas, it is not meant to be. So I'll be happy with my recipes neatly arranged in my repurposed binder. I got the binder as a gift when I graduated from high school, uh, 27 years ago. It was a photo album that had those magnetic photo pages in it. I did use it as a photo album for a long time before I learned that magnetic photo pages will eventually eat up your photos over ti...