SILHOUETTE MACHINE GIVEAWAY!!!!

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GIVEAWAY!!!!

I thought that I wanted a Cricut machine...but now I want a Silhouette!! Who knew there was even such a thing. Here's hoping I win!

A Disappointing Weekend

True it is only 3:00 pm on Saturday, but my weekend has been a big disappointment all around. Wednesday through Friday this week was the first glimpse of spring here in Seattle. It was sunny, blue skies, and warm (if you consider mid-60's warm). Friday was the best day of all; we reached 70* for the first time this year. It was bliss.I woke up this morning and it was like it had all been a dream. It was back to gray and cold and raining. To top it all off, I was planning on going to the huge Kent Lakes multi-community garage sale. I had a few things in mind that I was looking for: dining room chairs, children's books, and vintage Pyrex. Well, with the weather the way it was it was a huge let down. Hardly anyone was out and most of the places I stopped didn't have much stuff at all. I did get a couple of books for school and the book Water for Elephants. I had been meaning to get it from the library, but knowing me, I probably would have paid more than the $.50 I got it for in fees. A good find, but not exactly thrilling.

I thought, to make up for the disappointment I would hit up a few of the nearby thrift stores. I fared a little better at Goodwill. I found these interesting Pyrex coffee mugs from the 60's-70's. (Sorry for the horrible pictures. They're from my crappy phone as I left my camera at school.)I had never seen anything like these before. They are clear Corning Ware glasses with plastic, removable bases. They caught my eye right away and then I turned one over and the bottom said PYREX and the price tag said $.69...SOLD. I only bought 4 out of the 12 they had. Other than these, nothing I was looking for. And a big fat nothing at Value Village and St. Vincent de Paul. :(

On my way home, I stopped at an antique mall here in Kent. I had driven by this particular place many, many times but never stopped. Today I thought, "Why not? It can't hurt anything." So I went in. It was one of those places that has lots of little stalls for different vendors. There were 3-4 other Saturday wanderers in there, but I pretty much had the place to myself. My main mission was to find some Pyrex. I knew I would probably find some, but I also knew that antique malls are not the place to get good deals on Pyrex.

In between all the knick-knacks and random old stuff I did find various Pyrex pieces. Some were ones I already had or wasn't interested in. (Can you say brown?) Then I ran across a turquoise and white casserole dish with a lid. It was $14, but 35% off. I put it on my "maybe list". Luckily I found something better, because I don't know if I would have been able to find my way through the maze back to get it.

What was that something better you ask...

It's my very first pink piece. It was "only" $8.50. But it was pink and a regular mixing bowl, which I like better than the Cinderella bowls with handles on the side. I also found this little Butterfly Gold Cinderella bowl. It was $5, but 15% off.
Even though I did get some good things today, it's still cold and raining, so I think I just might get my new book and curl up under the covers.

P.S. If anyone ever finds this at a reasonable price, please, please, please buy it for me! I actually already have the large bowl. I just need the little bowl and the metal bracket thingy.

Eavesdropping on 6 year olds

Sometimes my job is entirely too entertaining, especially when I overhear completely honest conversations between 6-year-olds. It was the beginning of the day, I'm running around like crazy and the kids are supposed to be unpacking, turning in homework, ordering their lunch and finding something quiet to do like read books. The conversation I overheard between Kira and Blayke went something like this:

K: They pull the brains out through the nose!

B: Nu-uh

K: (pointing to a recently discovered book about Egyptian Mummies) Ya-huh. It says right here in this book.

B: Well I don't trust that book!

Identity Crisis

So, it's official. With help from my mom, I finally have all of my earthly possessions in my new home. I can remember a time, not so long ago, when all my earthly possessions fit in my little Toyota. Now a 14' U-Haul can't even contain all the junk I have managed to collect.

But the point of this post is now that I no longer live in Tacoma the name of my blog, Tales from Tacoma, no longer is relevant. I need a new name, but I have no good ideas. Help me please! Any good ideas...anyone?

I Have A Confession...And No, It's Not Another Cyber Boyfriend!

I live like a hoarder. Now I don't think that technically I am a hoarder. I just live like one. Ever since I had to move from my crowded one bedroom apartment into a studio, I've been living like a hoarder. Not one of those that you see on T.V. who has 17 dead cats in her bathroom and sleeps sitting on a pile of animal feces. More like I have a path to get in the door and make it to my bed. On either side are just piles of things that I don't have a place to put. Up until about three days ago, I couldn't even sit on the couch because it was piled high with things.

"Well, Wendy, why don't you just put the stuff away and then you can live like a normal person?" You may ask. I will tell you why. I am bitter and unmotivated. Bitter because I had to move, against my will, out of my nice little apartment that, while did have a view of the alley and dumpster, I liked very much. Unmotivated because hopefully (no word from the bank yet) I will be moving into my very own and much larger townhouse in anywhere from 30-45 days. Why would I waste my time trying to come up with creative places to put things when I will just have to move it all again?

So instead, I resign myself to living like a hoarder. At least now I can sit on the couch. Although it really wasn't that bad, because I can see the T.V. and everywhere else in my apartment from my bed. Here is a little tour to give you an idea of my current living conditions.

Coming in the front door. Say "Hi" Annabelle.

Closet to the left.

Bathroom to the right.

Main living area.
Somewhere under there is a couch.

My bed/computer desk/dining table

View from my bed.

View towards the kitchen from my bed.

Dining area--Somewhere under there is a table.

Rest of the kitchen.

Now go clean out a closet or something. For my sake.

Shoe Sugar Month: Day 13 SIZZIX BIG SHOT GIVEAWAY!!

Shoe Sugar Month: Day 13 SIZZIX BIG SHOT GIVEAWAY!!
I wish I had more time to be crafty. Maybe if I win this machine it will help. Oh, and summer would help too!

I'm Not Crazy, I Swear!

UPDATE: Guess who's now officially Facebook friends?

I debated about admitting what I'm about to admit, but it's just too funny not to. I love "The Deadliest Catch", that show on the Discovery Channel about crab fishermen in Alaska. Maybe it has something to do with my Native roots or maybe I'm just a nerd. Either way, I watch it and love it. But that's not the secret.

The other day I was watching reruns of a past season and I got a little crush on one of the captains. Captain Eric Nyhammer of the fishing vessel Rollo. He is one of the younger, less nicotine- and tobacco-soaked captains. Naturally I wanted to know more...

What does a girl in the 21st century do when she wants to know more about a cute guy? I Googled him, of course! I found a few articles about him and learned: he's 48 (a little old), lives near Seattle (yay!), likes to paint (hmmm), and has 2 sons (double hmmm).

So then I went to facebook. On his facebook page I could only get limited information due to the fact that I'm not his friend--just cyber-stalker. (And no, I haven't sent him a friend request--yet.) I was able to learn that he is single (yay!), not gay (double yay!), and has a funny photo of himself posted (aw, so cute).

Finally, I went to YouTube. And that's when it gets creepy. You thought it was creepy before, but it wasn't. Besides a couple of clips from The Deadliest Catch, there were some videos posted by a woman of her son. And in some of them there was Dad. I was curious to see if Dad was actually my bf Eric. Well, in most of the videos Mom was focusing on filming the little Tike so all you could see of Dad was from the neck down. Not enough to make a positive ID. Until I got to the video of little Tike's first hair cut. And we have a winner--Captain Eric! It was very strange watching what are basically his home videos--baby's first haircut, trip to Disneyland, the petting zoo. Don't worry, I didn't spend my whole day view strangers' home videos. But I couldn't help thinking, that here I was a stranger sitting in my house watching his home videos. Very strange.

The next day I continued my cyber-search. It wasn't that I wanted to know more about my imaginary boyfriend, but I just wanted to see how much more information I could get about one person, for free, using the internet. A technological experiment.

I now know the exact address where Eric lives or at least used to live. And from Google maps I can see an actual photo of the house at said address. Now if I was a real stalker, this would be scary. But never fear, I am not going to drive all the way up to Bothell to drive by his house.
It makes me wonder, how much information would someone be able to get about me from the internet? Hmmm...