Another Amazing Painting!

                    It is so cool!!! My dad loves it!!! Billy is taking custom orders, come   and get it!!!!!!!

Abbigail's Bike and Billy's Project In Progress

     When we went to our hometown a few weeks ago, I finally got to pick up my bike that my mama was so kindly storing for me. It is belonged to my Pappy's (grandfather's) girlfriend when she was younger, and it was offered to me. HECK YEAH.          

    This Schwinn bag was my dad's when he was little, he handed it down to me!

Billy is in the middle of a new project, a present for my dad that has been a long time coming. Here it is in progress:

            
                             P.S.  I have already wrecked on my bike. Oh yeah!!!

Billy's Bike

   Billy got a new bike a few months ago, but we never got to take photos of it. His other bike was stolen right when the store opened and it was a very sad time. He loves his new one,and had customized it right up!  This is a Mack truck dog we got off a snack tray. What the heck, right?

            Billy got this army green bag at a yard sale and customized it with a patch we thrifted.

Isn't it ASTOUNDING ? ! ? !

                                         He did such an amazing job!!!!
                   Click on the picture to make it huge so you can see the glory!!

Dumpster Divin'

     This isn't much, but dumpster diving has gotten a little more dangerous! Our favorite places are now equipped with video cameras, so Billy has to do it lickety split.  This still isn't a bad little haul. Each of the books has the record that goes with it, except Deepak Chopra, duh.

Fancy Porch!

          Billy made our back porch look wonderful! The recycling bins even look beautiful! Good Job, Billy Joe!!!  Those bikes will be for sale in our Peddler's Mall booth! Buy 'em!

Kitchen Love

                                     
                                             We love colorful magnets!!!!

                                                       And each other!!!

We're Back!

        So, the store is closed, and we are getting a booth at Richmond Peddler's Mall. Hopefully, it will be awesome! Billy has been working on an amazing banner for it!! There he is up there working on his original sketch!
          He has also been working  on this awesome thing!!! It will be used as a backdrop when we go to festivals. Excuse the extra stuff all around, we had to move everything from the store up to our apartment. Ugh!

Long Time No See!

Saturday, our landlord informed us that our little shop (Lovers Live Longer Thrift Shop) is in danger of closing the doors this next coming Monday, unless we can come up with 900 dollars! Just a few days have passed since we posted a video on Facebook asking all of our fans to help keep our dream alive, and guess what?! We have already raised three hundred and seventy five dollars!! Here is a list of some of the outstanding things that people have done for us this week:

-Steve Hosfeld, of Hosfeld Jewelry has generously donated a beeeautiful hand-made hammered silver ring to be auctioned off-all proceeds to benefit Lovers Live Longer Thrift Shop! Bidding starts at $50!

-Crimson Duvall donated an AWESOME mug for us to auction off! Bidding starts at $25

-a cute Lexington couple is putting our flyers up all over town

-Our friends Sarah, Quaz, and Tiffany, have all volunteered to watch the store for us while we go out and get more stuff to sell

-The Black Feather Cafe is letting us set up a booth in front of their cute restaurant this weekend

-We even heard that a professor at EKU is giving extra credit to any of his students who comes to our store!

 

- We recieved a big anonymous donation in the mail today!!

Not to mention, all the amazing people who have come in to shop and all the far away friends who have bought things on our etsy shop! Everyone has just been so wonderful! 

                     

Home Alone

    Money has been tight around the Billy and Abbigail homestead as of late. We have been hustling especially hard lately.  It hasn't been the greatest time, but having your super true love by your side always makes it a lot easier...BUT NOW MINE IS GONE!!!!
        Just out of town for a few days, but it feels like he will be gone for years.  We had a wonderful opportunity come up to screenprint t-shirts, which has been a dream of ours since the beginning. Now, Billy is off to do it, and it is very very VERY exciting!!! And hopefully will bring the cash money fairy to our door!!!
     Although, I am happy about this new venture, I miss my other half. There is a good side to this though, it's a perfect opportunity for surprises for Billy Joe, like an exceptionally organized house and a clean shop (if I get half way to this goal, I will be pleased!).
       I am definitely overwhelmed with the shop right now. The whole front area is full of donations to sort and put up, but I will get through it. It will keep my mind off the big hole in my heart.

Mama & Papa Dragon

Papa- "grumble grumble grumble."  Mama- "isn't he just darling?!"

Vinyl cut printed on vintage wallpaper. 

Books

   Lots of reading and looking to books for inspiration has been going on around here lately. These are two of Billy's favourite books by Adam Rex up there. I have been reading Sabriel by Garth Nix,  a book I loved when I was about thirteen. I am a definitely a repeat reader, I can read my favourites over and over again. I have probably read A Wrinkle in Time about forty times, and I love it every time.

Work in Progress

Billy has been working very hard on a big project lately! Here's a little sneak peek!

Tooth Party

  I haven't blogged in quite awhile! Here's the lowdown on what has been happening to me, Abbigail.
  --- I cut my finger pretty dang badly, and now its numb and weird!
--- I went to Brandenburg. It was awesome! I hung out with my B-burg family and had a wonderful time. We went junking and found a bunch of awesome stuff, we filled up the whole truck. I am sorry I don't have any pictures, things are usually pretty fast paced when I am there, and I always forget to take photos.
I went thrifting way too much and ate the most delicious Green Bamboo with my Mama and sister! It was so delicious!!! I wish I had some right now..even though my next point would hinder my enjoyment.
  --- On Monday, I had my wisdom tooth cut out, and it has not been fun. Where the tooth was at smells awful and hurts all day long!!! And the worst part is: they forgot to give me my tooth!!! I get my stitches out this Monday. Woo!!

P.s. I also forgot Billy's Green Bamboo take out, and it was a very sad day. I am still sorry about that, B. Next time, we will go on Green Bamboo Buffet Day!!!!!! I once thought that only happened in heaven.

Wednesday, Dreary Wednesday

  Hello people! New day same story.  Abbigail got her wisdom tooth pulled so she's all hopped up on pain killers and I am to man the store alone once more.  To make matters worse, It's Raining Mark Twaining! So, I'm sure to spend this dreary Wednesday without the company of my usual loverly customers.  Today I'm determined to make the most of it though.  I'm gonna explode my monotony into one billion pieces, and do something awesome this time! So yeah! Put that in your pipe and smoke it you soggy, gloomy, dismal,  wretched, dull, and overall dumb excuse for a perfectly good Wednesday!!  In yo face!
  So today I'll be..ummmm...eehhh...errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..............Crap.

What to do....

  Abbigail's gone for a couple of days visiting her mom,  our neighbours Quaz and Tiff have also left for their home town,  our other neighbour Miracle has pneumonia, and the store hasn't had a customer all day.  Awesome right?  Now I have all the free time in the world to do whatever I want!  What am I doing with my temporary solitude you might ask?  Well, so far I have skimmed through about five Vanity Fair magazines, (not my usual choice of literature, just so you know)  rocked in the rocking chair while humming songs that I can't remember the lyrics to,  gnawed off most of the skin around my finger nails, and I even typed in "fun things to do alone" into the google search engine without much luck, (puzzles, books, tv ?! Come on Google, is that the best you can do?! One suggestion was actually, "Turn on some music and dance in front of the mirror."  That's just sad)
  I guess I'm just gonna have to face the facts.  No Abbigail = no fun.  Rant over. 

A list

 When you are trash picking, as Billy and I often do you start to notice certain things cropping up again and again. This is my list of things that never need to be produced again. There are plenty of them already in the world. If you are ever in need of one of these items on the list, come by the shop because I will have most of them in stock.

1. Hangers- metal, plastic, and even wood. We probably find fifty a night, too many for us to keep, even with the shop.

2. Rubbermaid tubs- Now, only one in ten of these will usually have the matching lid, but they are still very handy. Do you know how much these cost? It is insane how many are in the garbage.

3. Plastic organizing containers- such as small baskets, boxes, crates, including milk crates ( I think Billy and I have found about twenty five milk crates total).

4. Christmas lights- Holy cow! We had passed up probably fifty strands of these, assuming that they didn't work, but on a whim we grabbed a few one night and every strand worked. We snag them up all the time now.

5. Fake Christmas trees- There is never a need to buy one, they are everywhere. Billy and I could have a whole fake Christmas tree farm. Hmm, good idea.

6. Mugs- I know people might love fancy mugs, but if you don't care what it looks like...wow, you could have thousands.

7. Luggage- old and new models, its everywhere. Suitcases, train cases, carry on bags, messenger bags...it goes on and on.

8. Easter goodies- Baskets, plastic eggs, easter grass...we have passed a lot of this stuff up, because we have no place to store it all 'til the season comes.

9. Plastic Jack-o-Lanterns- You know, the kind you carry candy in with the handle? I think I have seen two hundred in the past year, and I want to bring home every one, but Billy says NOOOOOOOOOOOO.. I will break him down, eventually.

10. Clothespins- I have nightmares about how many clothespins are floating around.

11. Plastic Play Jewelry- Bracelets, Necklaces, Tiaras, fake Earrings, it's all there.

12. Frames- I realize this is a tricky one, since all picture sizes are different, but Billy and I find them in all sizes on a regular basis from huge poster size to a 4x6.

13. Gift Bags- Oh my lord, gift bags! I was in a store  the other day and saw a small gift bag going for four bucks. Insanity!!! I am looking at a display of about fifteen of these suckers in our shop right now.  People buying this stuff new blows my mind!

Sorry, this was such a word heavy post, I just get real revved up about this issue. I will probably add to this list periodically.

Billy's Thriftastic Post!

This is my favourite painting! And... I paid a whole whopping 2 bucks for it at Sally Alley in Louisville! It kinda looks like there is a skull in the clouds, do you see it?

This handy Boy Scout reference was donated to our store and I just had to make it mine!  Because you just never know when you're gonna need a good ol double carrick bend!

This was a dumpster find but still, it's pretty awesome!  It hangs above my drafting table where I sit most every day.  One day, we'd love to have several more Paint by numbers to fill up a whole wall!  We know it's been done but who cares! We like what we like yo!

Midnight Breakfast and the Back Porch

Last night, we had a midnight breakfast with everyone who lives in our apartment and our new friend from the store, Debra! Billy and our neighbour, Miracle decorated our upstairs hallway beautifully! You do not get the full effect in these photos at all. There was soft light everywhere, and it felt like a tiny hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant like you see in the movies. It was so magical! 

We had: eggs with sausage and peppers, biscuits, gravy, bacon, four different kinds of muffins, juices, milk, and a ton of pastries from Starbucks thanks to our friends, Lauren and Colin. A big thank you to our friends Quas and Tiff for bringing made from scratch biscuits and gravy!  We ended the night with an episode of Mister Rogers, and we are pretty sure a good night was had by all.

Also, here's some of our awesome God's Eyes hanging on our back porch! We ended up making eighteen of them!

 

It was bound to happen sooner or later...

  Holy Crap! Tonight, I was dumpster diving and I got caught by a lady cop! She actually turned out to be pretty cool. When I told her all I was trying to do was save things from the landfill, she went to the main building and asked if it was okay if I took the stuff.  I was like AWESOME.  While she was gone, Abbigail, who had been waiting in the truck, drove by at like 90 miles per hour and yelled "WHATS GOING ON??????????????" to which I had no time to reply. The cop came back and told  me I wasn't in trouble, and that I just need to ask permission next time, that people seemed like they would cooperate. Then she took off.
  So, I went to where the truck had been parked, and there was no trace of Abbigail. I ended up walking through the mean streets of Richmond (3 miles) to the apartment. I finally found Abbigail, with the help of some friends, at her dad's house. The End.
  I totally feel like a surfer who's been bitten by a shark , but still wants to go out and catch that monster wave. Cause you can bet your booty I will be out there tomorrow divin' them dumpsters!!!

New Friends

    This is our new neighbor, Colin. He is a cool dude, even though he started a prank war on us. He is modeling some things he found in the thrift store.  Here is our other good friend, Spencer, also modeling some fancy thrift store goods.

Trashy Thriftastic Thursday on Friday

   This astounding boy scout vest was donated to our thrift store, so it kind of counts as thrifted. It is so beautiful and it lives on our closet door so I can gaze at it any time I want.

  This is the Barbie case we found the day after we found the one in the post below! Same spot and everything!

   Billy bought this at Bargain Mart long before we started dating. He gave it to me the first weekend he spent at my apartment, and I loved it. He told me nobody appreciated it like him, except ME. Because I rule.

The Golden Child

God's Eyes

  Our neighbor, Tiffany, Billy and I made God's Eyes for our back porch. These are just the beginning, we want to make around twenty! We didn't have a lot of colors to work with, so they aren't as awesome as they soon will be. The back porch is going to look amazing! Billy has lots of top secret plans for it!  So watch out!

Clean House

  We love our clean apartment!!!

doodle

Trashy Thriftastic Thursdays are on whatever day I want apparently!

  Everytime I used to go get Billy in Louisville, we would always stop at Bargain Mart before we would head back to Richmond. This was one of the treasures we found there for fifty cents!!!!!!!!!!!! It is so cool! It has an indian, hula girl, gypsy, robot, farmer, and a clown on each side, and you can flip flop their bodies together.

    We found this awesome bulletin board in the trash! And this produce!  We made real lemonade and it was soooo good! Billy said " This tastes just like it came from the store!" Broccoli casserole is next!

 

    This was the highlight of this week's trash shenanigans though!! At least non food wise, because you can't beat free food!

   When I look at this I hear the song Ariel sings whenever Ursula is stealing her voice. You know the one...Ahhhhha ahhhhhhha  ahhhhhahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!  Beauty!! Do you remember this, Mama!? Can you believe I found one just like yours! It is so awesome!

Reading Nook

  This is our reading nook in our making stuff area! I have been working pretty hard to get the apartment looking awesome so we can have some people over and show off our new digs! The reading nook is finished and seems to be Billy's favourite place. He falls asleep in there often, who wouldn't feel sleepy with He-Man and Skeletor fighting behind you?  We found the curtain curbside, the He-Man blanket was a Illinois thrifting score (I ALSO GOT A SHE-RA COMFORTER THE SAME DAY!), the afghan on the back of the couch was made by my Aunt Maudy, so all four of my loves are in the picture: trash,thrifting, family, and Billy.

Childrens book

We've both been obsessed with children's books ever since we can remember. (Abbigail even more so than me) So naturally the day would come when we would just have to make our own.  So, here you go!  These are the characters for our upcoming children's book!  Untitled thus far.

Seance Party

  Nothing much (in terms of the supernatural) really happened last night, except for maybe a few unexplained noises here and there.   None the less, we had a great time trying to freak ourselves out!  We decked out the store with fancy curtains and put candles everywhere.  Abbigail made some excellent punch too, with a little help from her Mama's magic recipe!
  After the séance we divided the party-goers in half and did a sort of relay race that Abbigail read about in an old activity book.  The person at the end of each line had to put on a big outfit over top of their clothes and take it off as fast as humanly possible, then pass the outfit on to the person next in line.  The first team done wins.  (me and Abbigail totally dominated! haha)  We're thinkin next time we might have a tea party and play kickball in the park since it's getting to be nicer outside.

Howdy Hey

                                                    I made a new bag!

                We found this puppy! So so cute! He looked a lot like my dad's dog, Cujo, so I was instantly smitten.  A lady who works at the Humane Society is currently fostering him. He is the fifth animal we have come across since we opened the store in June. We miss him, but no pets allowed in our apartment or our life at this time.

        For Trashy Thriftastic Thursday: THE DINOSAUR COUCH!!! Found in the trash, it is beyond awesome. Everyone who comes to visit the store gets to sit on this throne. It is truly beloved.

                                 We are also often found among the trash.