Time for a Giveaway!

As I continue to drop the ball on posting, I sat down to see what would come to my mind tonight.  It's been about 10 days, so I figured I'd post a few pictures just to appease myself.  To my surprise, I saw this magic number on my dashboard.  Ten Thousand Page Views!  That's probably not really a lot, considering that I've been at if for over two years now, but I don't blog very often any more so it's taken a while to get here.  I decided some time ago that I would do a giveaway when I reached 10,000 so now I need to decide what to part with.  I thought it was pretty cool that I didn't log in and see 10,001, but that I actually looked at the right time.  Cool.  

Unfortunately, I don't have anything exciting or clever to write about.  I know, you're disappointed..:)  But I do have pictures!  

I don't know why I have so much fuchsia/hot pink/magenta and black in my closet, but I do, and although it wasn't intentional, I found myself wearing it all weekend:

THE MEETING...

THE AWARDS SHOW...

CHURCH!

 Every time I went into the closet to see what I had to wear, I kept coming up with these colors.  I actually love all of these pieces, and I wear them often but probably never quite the same way twice.  I didn't realize that I had five pink and black purses, but I do! There was actually a pair of black pants with a pink t-shirt in there too at some point.   

As much as I love my turquoise and red, I think I might love this even more.  Who else has a favorite color combo?  

Look for my giveaway...I celebrate, you win!

Thrifting St. Louis!

Every trip turns into a thrifting trip for me.  I believe that one day I will thrift every major city in the country.  That's completely doable, but I have my sights set on thrifting Paris.  That will take a bit more planning.  

I made it to three stores while I was in the St. Louis area.  I found a fourth, but didn't have time to stop because the weather was turning bad.  It rained so hard on the way home that I had to pull over...twice.  It took me almost 7 hours to make what should have been a 4.5 hour trip.  The drive was made even more tedious by the loss my son and his team suffered (2nd place in the region, but they should have been 1st!) on Sunday.  They made it to regionals, and won their first two games, tying the third, which put them in the finals.  They were definitely the better team, but during the 1st half, one of our players suffered a terrible head injury that left him motionless on the ground, eyes fluttering, for over 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital.  All I could do was pray.  It didn't look good.  He wasn't responding at all, then finally was able to barely squeeze the trainer's hand.  Often, at these tournaments, EMT's are present, but not this one.  Fortunately one of our moms is a nurse, and she was nothing short of amazing.  About 30 minutes after the ambulance took him away, we got the call that he was awake and asking what the score was.  Everyone was relieved, but the boys just couldn't get their game together after that.  They were SCARED.  They are teammates, buddies, brothers. And while he came out of the hospital with a huge smile on his face, everyone was really shaken up.  It was on both our minds as we drove home, listening to Gospel, Motown and Sinatra. The music helped pass the time, but the rain was almost too much to handle after the emotional day we'd had.  We were so glad to finally get home!

They'll be back!

While they practiced and did other "team" stuff, I gave the GPS a workout by telling it to find "thrift stores within 10 miles".  I was not disappointed.  In fact, while searching for a gas station, I found a Salvation Army store attached to the Circle K.  Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.  I was stoked, even though a storm was obviously brewing.  I had to work fast and ended up leaving a few pairs of earrings behind, but I found a gorgeous chambray suit for my daughter, a red clutch (Yes! That was on my list!) and a black t-shirt (Yes! That was on my list too!)  I can't even remember what else I found, but with the three stores combined I brought home quite a haul.  

Today was rainy too, with a few bouts of sunshine.  I failed to get outside and take pictures during any of the sunny periods, so I wasn't able to adequately photograph everything, but I did get one outfit in.  Yes, you've seen this color combo on me a few times as it's my favorite:

Photobomb provided by Pepper the ShihTzu.

I found the t-shirt and skirt this weekend, along with the clutch.  The jewelry was all thrifted at one time or another and  I just found the shoes a couple of weeks ago. ( Navy shoes were on that same list.)  Nothing cost more than $3.  I entered my happy place on Thursday and didn't leave for three days.  Tantric Thrifting.

Next weekend, another city, another thrifting trip.  Anybody know what the thrift scene is like in Detroit?

Anticipation!

                          

Yes, it's a great song.  Yes, I love Carly Simon (and her ex-husband!). Yes, it reminds me of ketchup.  Unfortunately, it now has me doing a marathon Carly Simon YouTube session.  You know how you end up thinking about something and have no idea why?  I mean, I was thinking about what I have to do before I go to sleep, and the next thing you know, it's Carly Simon.  I sometimes try to retrace my thoughts to see if I can remember my "route".  This one is easy.

I am expecting a lot of things to come together in the next few weeks, due to chance encounters with several people that could potentially move my business forward.  I have to do some reading, send a few emails, and write a few contracts. I'm so excited, just waiting for everything to happen.  Anticipation.  Next stop, that old Heinz ketchup commercial.  And now, "I Haven't Got Time for the Pain".  Those long legs are still quite unfair.  The unfortunate part is that I'll likely be up until the wee hours of the morning listening to these amazing songs.  Between Carly and James, they make up about a quarter of my 100 500 all-time favorite songs.

THE VIEW FOR 45 MINUTES.  THE REST OF
THE TIME ALL I COULD SEE WAS THE
INSIDE OF MY EYELIDS.  CAR, TRAIN
OR PLANE, I'M GETTIN' MY SLEEP ON!

I haven't blogged in a few weeks, but a lot's been happening.  In addition to making some business moves, I took a few days to visit New Orleans with my kids.  We had a great time, but the humidity took some getting used to. It was my first trip and I tried to squeeze in as much fun (and great food) as I could in three days.  I ate my first beignet, and my kids loved them so much that I brought home the mix and tried to duplicate it here at home.  Meh.

THIS...

...DID NOT MAKE THIS!

Despite the drizzles, there was enough sun to take some great pictures.  Not that the pictures, technically, are great, but there were so many great things to take pictures of.  I tried:

NOLA IS A COLOR JUNKIE'S DREAM LOCATION.

Vintage barware in a store called "Vintage Barware".  Sometimes obvious works:

And in my "only in New Orleans" file, "transitioning mannequins":

YES, I'M SURE.

The trip was short, but oh, so sweet!  Hanging out with my two favorite people, we made some brand new memories.  We topped it off with room service dessert on our last night there, which is a tradition of ours.  Creme Brulee for me!  $46 room service bill!  Creme Brulee for me!  

Back home, the weather was fine and although it's dipped into the "kinda chilly" zone a few times, it's finally safe for my flowers.  I planted a lot of seeds, but I absolutely have to buy a few flats just to get the color going quickly.  I've changed it up from last year, but it promises to be a gorgeous gardening summer.  

GREAT FREEBIE FROM A MOVING GIVEAWAY.  WHEN
YOU ARE SO READY TO MOVE, AND CAN'T PACK
ANOTHER THING AND START JUST GIVING
STUFF AWAY.  YEP, I GOT TWO OF THESE
IRON HOLDERS TO MOUNT ON MY HOUSE.

A COLOR JUNKIE FOR REAL!

 I can't wait for everything, literally and figuratively speaking, to bloom!  Anticipation!