Tag: shopping

Categories
glamping Life Memoirs

Stone Groan

It was a perfect weekend for camping–temps in the 80’s, fair skies. It was a bit windy so I really couldn’t set much outside but I managed to decorate my site and make it a glamping fit.

My cozy comfy little vintage camper.

It was a Get’away Gals campout, so as is our custom we met Thursday evening for a “BYODinner” to catch up and play games and just enjoy being together again. I made plans to go to a flea market the next day with some of the ladies.

Friday morning after a rather fitful night I got up feeling a little off. I met the ladies and got into the car, but I soon recognized the odd feeling. It was a familiar ache. Kidney stone. We had to make one restroom stop on the way to the market. I chose denial and went shopping.

The kidney stone chose not to be ignored. I managed to buy a pair of earrings and another item but after two restroom visits it was time to say uncle. I asked my friend to take me back to the campground, a mere 40 minutes away. Nausea reared its ugly head and we had to stop again.

Finally back at my camper I rummaged around for the hydrocodone and tamsulosin prescriptions I’d gotten at the ER last year for the same problem. I always bring those drugs with me in case. I’m so glad I did.

I texted everyone in my family as I tried to decide what to do. Should I hook up my camper and try to make the two-hour drive home? (No way that would have happened!) Should I ask someone to pick me up? My sister and brother-in-law said they would come get me and my trailer. But then my son gave me the wisest advice. Stay put. Ride it out. Call 911 if I have to, or get a friend to take me to a clinic or ER.

After the medicine took effect, staying put was my only option. Thank God for my cozy, comfy little camper and my bucket potty. I slept most of the day and when I woke I texted a friend, asking her to bring me something from the potluck. I ate half of that and then slept until the next morning.

When I woke the back pain and urgency to use the bathroom were gone. I showered, dressed, and ventured to the clubhouse where a few ladies were hanging out. Had the stone actually passed?

I was good. Good enough to go on to the ballpark to watch my grandson play in his baseball tournament. It was a lucky coincidence that my camping event and his tournament were in the same town on the same weekend.

Back at the campground I attended the evening dinner, hooked up my camper, and drove home on Sunday with no problems. The stone was gone. Many had prayed for me, and I have no doubt that God in His infinite mercy intervened. But I can’t help having a lingering fear that I will have another stone on another campout or on a long trip. I won’t let that fear keep me from going, though. I know even in the darkness and pain, He will be with me.

Have you ever had a kidney stone?

XOXO

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Categories
Being a Grandparent COVID 19 glamping holidays home decor Life Parkinson's Disease

“Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. . .”

“It’s the best time of the year. I don’t know if there’ll be snow, but have a cup of cheer. . .” And so the song goes, courtesy of the late great Burl Ives. Remember the snowman on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” animated special? I was seven years old when I saw it for the first time. It was magical. Now I can’t even get my grandkids interested. The old claymation specials have nothing on today’s computer graphics animation. Ah, but they were magical, at least to my generation.

I got distracted. Sorry about that. I have decided to have a holly jolly Christmas at my house. I don’t care if a pandemic is raging, threatening my family and friends, threatening retailers and restauranteurs, threatening the traditions we all hold dear. Maybe the pandemic is a good thing.

Our Living Room Christmas Tree

What? What did you say? I said, maybe it’s a good thing. It’s changing our priorities. We are focusing more on loved ones, and not things. We are finding out that the most valuable things in life are not things at all. The things we miss are not things, either. Hugging a friend or relative, shaking hands, whispering in someone’s ear, getting close enough to detect a special cologne, gathering in groups at holiday parties, sharing a toast, kids sitting on Santa’s lap, being able to breathe without fogging up your glasses, last-minute shopping in a crowded store. Need I go on?

We have given up much this year because of Covid-19. But look at what we’ve gained: a new appreciation of freedom, gathering with friends, going shopping and dining wherever we want, gathering with family at holidays and special occasions, going to church and fellowship with fellow churchgoers. Boy, do I miss that.

My precious granddaughters enjoying the season.

I’m going to make it a holly jolly Christmas, though. I’m going to:

  1. Enjoy small things like the lights on my beautiful tree.
  2. Behold the wonder in my granddaughters’ eyes as they look at all the decorations.
  3. Experience the delight in the two-year-old’s smile as she touches an LED C9 bulb and finds out that it’s cool to the touch.
  4. Note the pride in the five-year-old’s stance as she finishes decorating the little silver tree for my camper.
  5. Enjoy the taste of pumpkin spice in my morning coffee.
  6. Relish drinking from my special Christmas coffee mugs.
  7. Cozy up to my dog next to me in my chair while wearing comfy pajamas.
  8. Relish a morning when I get to sleep just a little bit later.
  9. Wrap each and every gift with love.
  10. Give thanks for online ordering when I can’t get to a store.
Can you see the silver tree hidden in the tinsel garland? I left it just as she decorated it.

Get the picture? There is a host of ways to make it a holly jolly Christmas. Even as my days are consumed with caregiving and my nights with intermittent sleep between calls from hubby, I choose to focus on the good. Yes, I have days, even weeks, when I wonder how this is all going to turn out–the pandemic, my husband’s disease progression, the next presidential administration, life in general. But I rest in this: my God knows it all, and holds it all, in His almighty hands.

So. . . Merry Christmas. May all your days be holly jolly.

XOXO

Little “Miss Millie” all dressed up for the holidays.
Categories
Life teaching

Why I’m Happy School is Starting Again

Ah, back-to-school time.  That season of the year when store shelves are brimming with shiny new pens, markers, notebooks, and lunch boxes, and clothing racks are stuffed with fashions for going back to school.  Parents groan because of the expense of equipping the kids with everything required for the new school year–but those shoes fit in May!  Kids groan because their summer is too short, and the reminders start in July with back-to-school sales–can’t they at least wait until August?  Teachers groan because their summer is too short–wait, I need more time off!
 
The rest of the world–civilians as I used to call them–gives a sigh of relief that life will finally settle into a familiar routine of the kids being off the streets, out of the shopping centers, and in the schools for at least eight hours a day.  Sorry, teachers, I feel your pain.  After all, I was one for 30 years myself.
That is the number one reason I’m happy that school is starting. . .
1.  I’m retired!  I don’t have to worry about endless staff development meetings when I would rather be in my classroom preparing for the first day of school.  I don’t have to spend money buying extra school supplies for the students in my classes who won’t have them.  I don’t have to wonder when I’ll find the time to prepare my lessons, grade papers, schedule meetings, call parents, and worry about ARDs, LEPs, IEPs, STARR, ADA, AEIS, RTI, TEKS, TELPAS, STEM, BS, and CRAZY!
2.  Fall is around the corner.  Sayonara, summer, with your 100-degree temperatures (I shouldn’t complain–we’ve only had one day of those so far this year!). . .bring on those dead leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, boots, and sweaters!
 
3.  I can go to the store during the day and every aisle won’t be filled with parents and children getting in the way. . .IF I go before 3:00 p.m.
4.  I won’t have to compete for doctor and dental appointments with teachers and students.  I’ll be able to get an appointment for whenever I need it. . .maybe.
5.  Those school facilities I pay enormous taxes on will again be in use.  (How many times did I hear this when I was teaching?  Ugh.)
6.  Tax-free weekend happens in August (at least here in Texas), and you don’t have to be a teacher or student to buy clothes or supplies minus the sales tax.  But it’s crowded.
7.   Back-to-school shopping means a sneak peak at the new fall fashions. 
8.  After the back-to-school season comes Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, the good, better, and best parts of the whole year.
Those are the reasons I am glad school is starting back up again.  I’ve always been happy to see school start, ever since I was old enough to start getting new clothes and school supplies.   I guess I have teaching in my blood.
What about you?  Is back-to-school a good thing for you?
Categories
home decor Junkin' and Thriftin'

Booth sprucin’ and ponderin’. . .

One of the things you have to do when you have a booth space in an antiques mall is spruce it up occasionally, or as Vintage Rescue Squad puts it, “foof your boof.”

I just love that.  I wish I had thought of it myself!  Surely she won’t mind if I borrow it?


Anyway, these last few months haven’t been exactly lucrative for my sister and me in our little booth at Uniques & Antiques in Mineola.  Actually, 2014 hasn’t been as good for me as a vendor as 2013 was.


With sales low month after month, I wonder if the problem is what I choose to put in my booth, how I choose to display it, or if my prices are fair.  I start asking myself:

1.  Is our booth eye-catching and attractive?
2.  Is our booth welcoming?
3.  Is our booth full of stuff people want?
4.  Are our prices reasonable?
5.  Do we introduce new merchandise often enough?  
6.  Are we located in a good spot in the mall?
7.  Are we in the right mall?
8.  Are we in the right business?
9.  Is it time to try something else?

Then I start talking with other vendors.  I read their blogs and Facebook posts.  I realize that we are all in the same boat.

This business is fickle.
No one can predict what our customers will buy from one season to the next.

Last summer it was sage green shabby furniture and chalkboard painted silver trays.

This summer it is black distressed furniture
and rustic signs. 

Things that flew out of the booth last year
have been sitting for weeks.

No matter.

I stay because:

1. It allows me to do something with all those thrift store and garage sale finds.
2.  It gives me a place to trade out my home decor as I find new old things to decorate with.
3.  It gives me a thrill when something sells.
4.  It gives me a creative outlet for design and crafting.
5.  It’s sister-bonding and FUN!

So. . .this week I did some booth sprucing.
Somebody might just come in and find exactly what they have been looking for. . .

or find the very thing they didn’t know they needed.

It’s Mary Lillian Vintage if you want to stop by.  Look for the turquoise sign at Uniques & Antiques in Mineola.

Make my day.

XOXO

Categories
Junkin' and Thriftin'

Teacher Tuesday: Dolly Python Vintage

It’s Teacher Tuesday on my blog, so today I am going to share what this teacher learned visiting Dolly Python Vintage in Dallas last weekend.  I have been wanting to visit this place for quite some time after seeing it mentioned in a magazine (I can’t remember now which) and then looking it up online.  What a treat it was to finally have a chance to go!
 
 
Located in east Dallas on N. Haskell Avenue, it is an unassuming older building with a cute neon sign on the corner and parking on a side street.  But once you open that door and are greeted by several people who work there, along with Lucy the black lab and Mr. Sandwiches, the terrier mix, you are in heaven.  Or at least, I was.
 
Lucy was friendly and very laid back.
The first items you see are shelves and shelves of used and vintage cowboy boots on the right and racks and racks of vintage clothing on the right from the front to the back of the store.  In the center of the store between two dividing walls are glass counters where you pay for your merchandise and cross over into the antique mall part of the establishment.  
Rows of vintage clothing beckon under various taxidermy pieces and this 1950’s dress.
 
This is not your ordinary antique mall.  There are many vendors with lots of stuff, but amidst the lamps and furniture and knick-knacks are various and sundry oddities, like floating doll heads, dressed up taxidermy, framed taxidermy heads, bones, caskets, snakeskins, circus tapestries, and dolls with no eyes.  There is also a whole corner full of vintage records as well as a psychic ready to forecast your fortune.
 
Doll heads float on cubby shelves.
 
A jar rounds up various doll parts behind these porcelain heads.
 
Imagine that this used to belong to a little girl who probably loved her very much.
Still kind of creepy, though, huh?
 
There were two of these stuffed fawns!  What would possess someone to kill and stuff a baby deer, much less two?
I prefer to believe they were accidentally killed and lovingly preserved.
 
“I say, old chap, might you have a light?”  Crazy weird!
Victorian wicker casket said to allow corpses to breathe if they suddenly revived.
The wicker allowed the air in but kept the bugs out.
Ronald McDonald helps keep watch over the store.
See what I mean?  So cool!  So quirky!  So full of ideas for my own decor and especially my booth at Uniques & Antiques!  Wonder if people around here are ready for oddities?  It’s worth a try!  I have lots of other photos I may share later. In the meantime, you can check out their Facebook page and their Pinterest page.  
 
Can you believe I got out of there with only three vintage photographs at less than five bucks?  It was one of those places where there is so much I couldn’t decide on anything!  I did that the first time I went to Sam Moon–I was too overwhelmed with all the choices in jewelry and purses!
 
I will definitely be returning to Dolly Python Vintage with my daughter, who is a fan of the Discovery Channel program “Oddities.”  My son even brought her a bag from the store Obscura in New York over the weekend.
 
Let me know if you think these oddities I shared are way too odd or just too cool!
 
XOXO