Shoo Lie Loo

Hanging Flower Basket Light - JUNKMARKET Style

Hanging Flower Basket Light - JUNKMARKET Style.

 

I just so happen to have some leftover spray paint and a junky flower basket in my backyard....I hear a project calling...!

The First REAL Sign of Spring is Neon-Colored - GARAGE SALE SEASON!

A wise friend told me today that the weather tomorrow is supposed to be the nicest it's been in a long time (this is also my friend who reminded me that I had actually requested tomorrow off - Outlook failed me this time). I feel somewhat like a doof, but it's certainly a nice surprise. 

We've been battling monsoon season (really?) here in Western Illinois. Frankly, I'm sick of rain. And to think I once was dying to live in London...

I have taken a day off tomorrow to kick-start garage sale season. (Down here, folks refer to them as "rummage sales", which I'll really have to get used to...thank you, Christopher...)

In the past, garage sale marathons with my very dear friend Petra or my mama have yielded me some pretty awesome finds. A near-new bounce castle, a pressure washer, a tiller, tons of gently used designer clothing and shoes for the kiddos, a train table and various other items that I never thought I needed until I found them.

For those who are not keen on garage sales, I can see the downside.

For example, when Petra drives and I navigate (often), we nearly wipe out pedestrians as we jockey for a parking spot at those garage sales with uber-colorful ware, which means we will probably hit the "Mommy Motherload". I joke (sort of!), but she and I share the same passion. Another person's former treasures may soon be our's.

It's amazing what you can find!

Have you ever looked at the price of childrens' books, for instance? A book can range from a few dollars to twenty-some odd dollars. At a garage sale (ahem...rummage sale), you can find an awesome array of the best books for ten cents or a quarter! Most of our books are from garage sales.

How about a pair of nearly-new kiddie Doc Martens? At least fifty dollars brand new - two dollars at a garage sale!

Holiday decorations? A teeny fraction of the cost that you would pay at the store.

Halloween costumes? They can be used for dress-up or saved for the actual holiday. How many times does a kid wear a Halloween costume anyway? Easter dresses have been my saving grace for not going out and buying expensive princess costumes - Lucy is transformed into any type of princess she wants just by doing a quick costume change into an Easter dress that was worn one time for a photo-op.

Now that I'm into restoring our house and repurposing all of the things we have lying around, I'm super excited to see what's out there.

My biggest hope is that I'll score some rocking chairs in need of color for the front porch. I'd also like to find more birdfeeders (which I know will cost me a mint in birdseed, but we all have our vices) and birdbaths. A house for the elusive purple martin might be nice (but I'm not sure it would fit in the van...)

Gardening tools - everything from hoses to trowels to hedge clippers - are also on my list. Some nice pots would be awesome!

A paint sprayer would be the find of the season. With all the work that needs to be done in the house, we could finish a room in nanoseconds without fear of ruining the floors.

Throw rugs, area rugs, anything that isn't gross or tacky - those are on my list, too.

I'm also planning to make a "hidden" medicine cabinet, an idea I found in a flea market magazine. You measure your cabinet (we have a few to pick from, if you can believe it), find a wooden frame with a glass insert that fits your measurements, add some hinges and then add your artwork. Or, if you're really lucky, the picture inside the frame will already be perfect.

On top of celebrating garage sale season, I've also been informed of the Habitat for Humanity stores (I believe they are called Restore) in Joliet and Elgin. You can get building supplies that have been donated for just a fraction of the cost. My mother-in-law says she saw real granite countertops for fifty bucks!! But that trip is for another weekend after a few bills have been paid and a few dollars have been saved.

Essentially every penny that we don't spend on the necessary household stuff and paying back some good people will be going to savings, as we prepare for any potential household disasters that come with being owners of a 110-year-old house.

However, I think my twenty dollar allowance for "opening season" won't put us in dire straits.

Sadly, my first day of garage sales will likely be sans partner. Chris is NOT a garage sale fanatic, and Petra has obligations to tend to. Mama is up in the Northwoods, and the friends that I've made down here haven't likely taken a day off to go to garage sales.

So tomorrow will be a "me" day. I sure hope there are plenty of sales out there. I also hope that I can push past hitting the "snooze" button to get myself in gear earlier than I'd like to, because sleeping in is the arch nemesis, the cryptonite to the garage sale. And, when noon rolls around, that icky feeling of "the day's almost over" starts to sink in. Since garage sales are so addictive to someone like myself, that is indeed an unhappy feeling. Because, if you are lucky enough to get to go to garage sales on a Saturday morning, much of what you might have wanted might already be gone (though you'd never know it, but the mere suggestion is enough to make one become jittery).

Yes, tomorrow is indeed "opening season" for this woman. I think it's the hunting gene - I get that from my dad.

 

 

 

Radiator Cover - Suggestions?

Preview Post - JUNKMARKET Style.

Profile for Kimmberli - JUNKMARKET Style

via www.junkmarketstyle.com

My new place to share my passion for repurposing random "shtuff" into something with new life...even if it's something only a mother would love...

Mama Lulu

Cavity-Free!

First trip of the year to the dentist, and no cavities!! Also, instead of a plastic spider ring or stickers like MY dentist gave out, they each got a grooming bag, toys and a t-shirt!!!

That Charlie is a REAL Creep (or so I've heard...)

As the days of spring bring us more and more plant and animal life, I'm drawn further into solving the mystery of "what lies beneath".

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, my mother-in-law walked me thru the yard and helped me to identify several plants we had growing but which I had little to no previous history tending. (I attempted this with my dad and brother on Facebook but was met with their typical goofiness...)

Hostas, flag plants (breathtaking when they will bloom!!), red maples, eunonymous, blue fescue, patches of Kentucky Bluegrass...

We discovered some old bricks covered by a vast field of a clover type of groundcover with violet trumpet shaped flowers. I had noticed this groundcover all around the yard. It surely is pretty, and it's also aromatic. I also remember seeing it quite a bit in my own yard as a child.

There was another variation of this groundcover, only the flowers were a lighter purple and were more fan-shaped. We saw far less of those.

My mother-in-law told me that we had....duh da daaaaa...Creeping Charlie. She said she wasn't 100% sure, but she felt pretty confident. And, according to her assessment of the situation, this was not a welcome visitor, but rather an invasive wildflower.

Well, my ears started to twitch and I had to practically lasso myself to the porch so as not to make a hasty, Internet-bound retreat. However, once we were inside, I was able to converse with the fam while I surfed from my phone. My poor mother-in-law - little did she know what can of worms (ha!) she had opened. Because, a little information goes a long way with me, and I've been accused of being an Internet Bloodhound.

Within minutes, as the family attempted to talk about things that most normal families talk about during a holiday get-together, I was interrupting the casual flow of the conversation dancing like a five-year-old who has to pee.

"Mom, Mom, MOMMMMMM...is this it? Is this what we saw??"

And yes, it was....Creeping Charlie.

The first site that I visited introduced "Charlie" as a friendly wildflower. Fragrant, edible, pleasing to the eyes, an easy to grow groundcover with a vast array of medicinal qualities. It belongs to the mint family. "Charlie" prefers moisture and shade. Well, our yard is a paradise for "Charlie"... With all the trees and tall houses, shade-loving plant life does quite well here.

But this left me confused. My mother-in-law had said, in no uncertain terms, that "Charlie" was a jerk. He squats on your territory and mooches off of other plant life. And that, once a resident, "Charlie" is nearly impossible to evict. This website (which I cannot recall because of the speed with which I was surfing) had described "Charlie" as the boy-next-door...

So I ventured to another website.

Confirmation.

There are two ways to look at "Charlie". As described above by the first website and then, as the next website clearly stated, "Charlie" really should go. Creeping Charlie is known to completely choke lawns, particularly those that are shady. The pretty little flowers that first display are just a tease, really, because they eventually fade into brownish clovers.

Various commercial products like Round-Up aren't even effective against this creepy chap. Borax or a chemical with a Borax component is the only way to go. It's highly toxic, smells horrible and will kill anything around it. That sort of goes against the grain (ha again!) of my organic thinking.

By the way, the relative of "Charlie" with the fan-shaped leaves turns out to be Creeping Thyme. This is viewed as a "friendly" groundcover, also easy to grow, and is very resilient to being walked on. Therefore, it is quite good to grow in between the bricks on patios or sidewalks, sort of like you would use moss.

So, I will have to debate on this to see if "Charlie" will go or if we'll let him stick around for a while. Certainly he doesn't detract from the beauty of the house (he actually enhances it with a naturistic aesthetic).

So, some of my first gardening mysteries have been solved. 
The news is a mix of good and bad, but it really depends on how you look at it.

I'm just very, very thankful that it is NOT a green mumba....Dad....  ;-)

Pearl's First Easter

'I've got all the eggs!!!!!'

On the Hunt

My First Easter Hat

I think a kiddie mint julep and she's ready for the Kentucky Derby!

Out

The Easter Bunny Came!!!!

Princess Leah and Madame Lulu

Hangin' Around

Pearl & Domingo - One Adventure Begins, Another Soon to End

This morning started off as any other has (at least, any other for the past week).

Kids were assembled by a war-weary dad while I snoozed until the last possible minute before needing to sign into my computer.

Kids went to school with pink snowballs and chocolate donut treats for their big Easter party.

Chris came home and dozed in front of the tube while I battled with my work phone. Domingo did his usual round of "chase the cursor" on my computer screen until I shoo him away, fall asleep on my desk with his head next to the warm coffee cup and then jumping to the floor after being shuffled around with papers for the fiftieth time to snooze pleasingly at my feet. Meanwhile, the resident Kitty Queen Kelly lounged on Chris' tummy, happy to have her place in the house still as top cat.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a rather "normal" morning.

And then I emerged from my office for a break and heard Chris say "Well, we got the call we've been dreading. Domingo's owners called this morning."

Just when I thought Domingo's family had given up on him (we've called twice to tell them where he was and invited them to come get him, not forgetting to include the details of his harrowing escape from the two feral cats), they now wanted him back in their lives. I had that sinking pit feeling in my stomach. Sadness that I was losing my office buddy (he really is such an awesome, awesome cat) mixed with that sinking feeling that I would again be disappointing my children, even though they had been prepped for this potentiality multiple times.

After thinking on what to do, Chris called the owner back. She said she had to run into a store to grab something and that she'd be "right over".

Two-and-a-half hours later....no sign of her. Chris called her again and informed her that his wife is working and that he himself would be leaving for work soon. Perhaps we should try again in the morning.

To my knowledge, she has not called him back. She certainly hasn't swung by the house.

My heart breaks for Domingo (aka Church) because his family really seems indifferent to his future.

Anyhow, with the departure of Domingo looming and terrified of upsetting my children right before Easter, I used my lunch hour to desperately peruse the classifieds to see if there were any "free to good home" ads. I called the county shelter and the local Humane Society (my darling Kelly is a Humane Society success story, two countries and 13 years later).

I also texted and/or emailed everyone I knew to see if there was a kitty available anywhere in the State of Illinois. I'd drive all night, if I had to.

My last desperate attempt was to post a pleading status on Facebook - that did not go over so well, though, as my hurried phrasing made it sound as though I was looking to get rid of a bunch of kittens "to good homes" rather than to acquire a kitten "to a good home".

Nearly having given up, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and check the classifieds in the Quad Cities. Clearly much closer than the Aurora and Joliet area that I know so well but not an area that had even crossed my mind.

Sure enough - there were two ads for kittens "free to good homes".

The first one turned out to be a bust. The number was misprinted and took me to the Wal-Mart Vision Center. The poor guy on the receiving end said he'd been fielding calls all day....

By the time I called the second one, I was literally shaking like a leaf.

Jackpot!!!!!

A woman named Bobbi answered and said that yes, they had two kittens left. Both females. However, a man was coming by to pick one up around 4ish. It was now 3:30. I asked her if he was considering taking them both, and she said she didn't know for certain. I begged and pleaded with her to hold on to the remaining kitten, which she very kindly agreed to do.

So I quickly finished up work, grabbed a large tote box and a blanket, my purse and wallet, the car keys, a Diet Coke, cereal bars for the kids and made a mad dash out into the (still) pouring rain to drive to Woodhull, Illinois.

I grabbed the kids from daycare (which is ALWAYS a labor-intensive and time-consuming task as they meander about gathering their things and hugging this child and that ending with the inevitable tussle at the bottom of the stairs over who gets to open which door). I kept informing them that I had a huge surprise....no wonder they took their sweet time. Last time I said that, their "surprise" ended up being someone else's.

We drove thru the brown and wet countryside for 25 miles singing "Shoo Lie Lu" and "Little Bird" over and over again. Lulu droned on in the backseat about "I wonder why we are never going to get to the surprise", "I wonder why we can't eat all the candy", "I wonder if we're ever going home". She's such a boost to the spirit.

When finally we arrived at Bobbi's house, the kids were excited (about what, they didn't know) and confused. They introduced themselves while hastily tromping thru mud to get up Bobbi's steps. We opened the door, and there they were...two precious angel kitten babies. And Bobbi handed over the one she had chosen just for us. She said that they were both girls, but this one was especially good with children. I scoped out the scene behind me and saw her three boys, aged nine down to infant, all appearing to be quite healthy and happy. Additionally, her house was pristine and smelled heavenly. One would scarce have known that she had a litter of kittens there at some point.

The eldest boy, Draven, was there giving care instructions and that she likes baths. I didn't really even glance at the other kitty. Lucy was enthralled while Henry attempted to befriend Bobbi's children.

As we were getting ready to leave, a group of boys came and took the other kitten. We thanked Bobbi and her family profusely and shook Draven's hand like the little man that he was. The man of the house stood and told us he was glad that the kittens would be going to good homes. Bobbi seemed near tears.

After additional thanks and hugs to the kitten from Draven, we sprinted thru the rain back to the van. We placed the unnamed kitten in a large tote on a soft blanket, where she contentedly curled up and went to sleep.

On the drive home, we discussed names. Daffodil, June, Buster, Kitty-Cat, Meadow, Easter, Esther, Raindrop, Flower and Pearl. After a group handshake and Henry more or less stating that he didn't care, Lucy and I settled on Pearl, due to her charming irridescent features.

So Pearl it is.

I'm wiped out. Kitty picking, two anxious preschoolers and an Easter egg coloring marathon later, I'm just glad that we have our feline family intact.

Tomorrow, Domingo might not be with us. And Chris and I are the only two who will be sad. The kids have moved on the Pearl. She's the latest and greatest, so it goes in Kid-dom. I'm ok with them not caring about Domingo anymore - that was the whole point. If they were still mourning the loss of our friend, then it would have been fruitless to go thru the pain of finding them a kitten of their very own.

I will miss Domingo, so, as we were coloring our eggs tonight, I secretly wrote with white crayon on one of the undyed eggs Domingo's name.

He may only have been with us as a visitor, but he was a good friend. And I will miss him very, very much. For he is a very special cat, indeed.

And, Domingo....the door is always open to you, my furry friend.
 

Henry's Monster Egg

And, in true Henry form, his monster is goofy!

Lucy's Monster Egg

In true Lucy form, her monster is grumpy.

Silly Monster Eggs

Family Eggs

A tradition at our house is that Mom sneaks off with the uncolored eggs and secretly writes each family members' names on a random egg in white crayon so that they show up as a surprise. Never know which color 'your' egg will be!

Glittery Rainbow Egg

Much Prettier!

The Egg Factory

Choose a Color...

Professional Egg Decorators