Another way to kill some time

Just a couple ways to waste time when you should actually be working, even though it is Saturday and you don't feel like it.



I found this on another blog and couldn't resist making one for our family.

This is also where I found the post on kittywigs, which is hilarious!

You can read more about their book and products here.

Here's to wasting time. I'm a firm believer in it!

Vintage movie posters... Love these!

I am sorting out the good from the bad among our possessions and came across these. I am hoping to sell them for a few dollars each at my upcoming moving sale (Nov. 7).

These are Swedish vintage movie posters (they are actually mounted on board) from the 1960's, probably considered racy at the time, although by today's standards they are laughable.

They are quite charming actually. So cool, I hate to part with them. But I must.

Any buyers out there? Five bucks a piece. Or best offer. (Click on each to enlarge!)


"Young desserter"


"White Slave Trade" (when boobs were really boobs)


Eva Bartok in "Call Madeleine" Love is my profession.


Francoise Arnoul in "White Slave Trade"


Narc police's secret agent


"The night person"

"Call Madeleine" Love is my profession


"Tank Attack"


"White Slave Trade"


"Narc police's secret agent"

A great purge, with more to come.

Very little in life gives me as much joy as getting rid of things.

The photo above is a testament to that. Inside what must be 20 heavy-duty garbage bags are old Christmas cards, files, old receipts and manuals for things we no longer even own, bookkeeping for my old company, work journals, calendars, etc etc etc.

I went through the basement and was vigilant. I didn't stop to reminisce or look at old Christmas cards. I did not pass go and I did not collect $200.

However, in spite of my haste, I found a few curious surprises that made me happy:

1. A letter from my sister Patti from 1991. Remember the days we used to communicate by letter?!! Love that!

2. A letter from Aunt Helen from the summer of 1992. In the letter, she complains of hot summer temperatures. She also wishes she could do my brother's laundry for him ("his shirts are never ironed," she laments). That made me smile. I must have inherited her laundry gene.

3. My maternal grandfather's birth certificate: Herbert Erikson Hellstrom, born on December 10, 1894, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I never knew him; he died way before I was born.

4. My birth/labor record from when Charlie was born. It all came back to me.

I saved all of the above.

They won't take up that much room.

We're gonna dig our new digs...

Signed and sealed. Here are our new digs. Mind you, we will move all the furniture out and move our stuff in. We think we will like the juxtaposition old carriage house with 50's modern. Plus our (we think) fabulous art.

So we have a lot of work ahead of us before we move in probably about the 5th of November. Mostly I need to clear out and clean out. My moving sale is probably first weekend of November! Unfortunately I will have to part with some of my greatest garage sale finds. And then some.

But it will be nice to have a lighter load. I mean that both literally and figuratively.

Do you like it?


master bedroom

master bedroom looking up

master bathroom

tiny office and storage (Ikea here we come!)


charlie's room

pantry

living room

steps upstairs


kitchen

dining room from kitchen

entryway

family room

family room from other side

Stinkbugs stink ... and other closeups

It is stinkbug "season" around these parts. In case you never saw them before they look like prehistoric bugs with suits of armor. They live in trees in the summer but when the weather turns cooler they start coming inside for shelter. Mostly we see them outside our windows looking for ways to get inside. A few, unfortunately, succeed.

When we moved from Sweden a few years ago I was shocked to see this completely new bug. The brown stinkbug comes from Asia and only started living in Pennsylvania, NJ, Delaware, Virginia, etc about ten years ago. But they love it here, I can vouch for that.

They are harmless, really, but they are a nuisance. The reason they are called stinkbugs is that when you crush them or vacuum them they emit a pungent, unpleasant odor. So the best remedy is to lightly pick them up with a tissue and flush them down the toilet.

Once the winter comes the ones you haven't gotten rid of go into a sort of hibernation state. They keep very still and hide on/in your things. For example, pick a pen out of your pencil holder and you accidentally have a stinkbug in your hand. Screech. Gag. Yuck.

Happily, they are not known to reproduce indoors.

Here is everything you want to know about the stinkbug.

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Anyway, as I was playing with my fake $15.00 macro, I took photos of things I love. It's hard to keep the focus on this cheapo lens, so sorry they are not so good. Can you guess what all of these are?

weird thoughts i am having

I'm in Charlotte, NC, heading to Augusta, Georgia. But only for tomorrow. I'm back home soon.

Travelling brings the weirdness out in people!

A quick horrible list, don't hate me!

Things you should not be able to do while travelling:

1. Put nasal spray up your nose so everyone can see you. It's gross. (i swear this lady was doing this in the airport! And not in some little corner, way out in the open!)

2. Change your seat if you are obese! An obese person changed his seat and sat in front of me. He made so much noise and put his seat back and it was gross.

3. Pull out your McDonald's food when you get on the plane. It's gross. It smells gross.

4. Wear really tight outfits (men and women). It is never fun to travel when you are wearing tight clothes and no one wants to see it. It's tight and weird. And gross.

Wish i had some photos to show this weird trip.

This is America.

I love it. But it's sometimes gross.

more later.

xx. to all my readers.

Help me, La Ronda

Sadness.

Sadness happened today, and I happened to witness it. La Ronda, a 90-year old estate designed by Addison Mizner, was demolished. This is a building I've been admiring from afar for a while, and even though activists and the historical society tried and tried and tried again, they could not save it.

I wonder what he's thinking, this current owner of this property. The one who applied to for permission from the township to tear down this amazing building and erect a McMansion.

What is he thinking? Will he sleep tonight?

I don't get it.

Sadness is in my heart for La Ronda.