Sunday, January 30, 2011

Dinner for Two


 Tonight, Abbigail prepared a wonderful candlelit dinner for the two of us. She started off with a delicious appetizer of boxed macaroni and cheese. She masterfully squeezed the gelatinous cheese from the packet onto the rotini noodles boiled to "al dente" perfection.
Then came the entrĂ©e, a delightful helping of Chicken Helper Chicken Fried Rice with a mouth watering side of pierogies heated upon the grill of George Foreman. 
I give this meal four stars! Sorry, the plates are empty in the picture, we were hungry.


Saturday, January 29, 2011

Turtle Love

  We have a new friend named Turtle. She is awesome and keeps me company on the lonely weekday afternoons at the store. Billy spent several hours cutting a stamp out of a small piece of linoleum so he could make this print for her. It turned out too cool!!! I hope she likes it!
     Soon he will be printing out Lovers Live Longer t-shirts the same way! We have waited for this for a very long time!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Leaks are so weak

    Last night, Billy told me that the small leak (the one that killed my beloved tv from 1989) we had had previously was back. We were none to thrilled, but went to bed and that was the end of it. OR SO WE THOUGHT!
   This morning, we found out the small leak had grown to monstrous proportions. It was  all the way out to the middle of the room, and everything in the corner was ruined, including our awesome puppet stand. The tiles were all over the floor were the water had knocked them out. It is really not fun. On a happier note, I am sick so its semi-okay that we aren't working, and Billy has come up with a possible ideas for our art fairs setup. Now, if we can get lucky and trash pick the things we need, we'll be set. It's been a rough couple of days, but it will get better. 

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Bad Day

Today was a bad day. I don't really have any particular reason why I guess, but it was just one of those days, ya know? As soon as Abbigail woke me up this morning I was yellin at her and being a grouchy ass.  (she says she still loves me though)
  I bet this stupid diet is to blame!  Three Lean Cuisines a day just ain't cuttin it!  Oh yeah, we couldn't take the 6 week body makeover thing any longer cuz it was makin us hurt everywhere and just generally feel bad.
  To make matters worse, I have to come up with a backdrop for future festivals and have the most brutal artist's block ever!  Not to mention, I have no money for supplies so I'm gonna have to pull the ol' proverbial rabbit out of a hat too.

 Anyway, sorry I was such a butt today Abbigail.  Feel free to punch me in the head.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Monday is G-ma-ma day.

This is Grandma (also known as G-ma-ma), she is my grandmother on my dad's side. Billy and I usually head to Lexington on Monday and help her run her errands.  We get to eat really good food too!! Today, we ate at Olive Garden, but Grandma was tired so she stayed home to take a nap.  She is fun and always listens to our thrift saga with a new and interested ear. We love her a whole lot, even her grump-a-dump husband, Phred.
There is a little bit of sadness on these days too, though. My grandma is a Master Gardener, and used to have an amazing backyard filled with tons of vegetables in raised beds. During the summer, the garden would be Phred and Grandma's life. They also cooked amazing food!!! Homemade pizza that I would talk about at slumber parties until everybody's mouth watered (why did I do this? haha). Apple and Blackberry pies that would make you forget your stomach had reached maximum capacity two slices ago. But the chocolate chip cookies..oh my...that was where it was at... holy moly!!!!! They were magical! You could probably use them as currency. I bet I could have gotten out of many a punishment, if I had had a bag on hand to give to Mama when I was in trouble. Mama definitely appreciated Grandma's cooking skills. We would devour a bag of the cookies on the way home from Shelbyville every so often, and it was best of rare treats.
Anyhow, sorry about that tangent. Grandma and Phred don't cook anymore, and they don't garden either, and it makes my heart ache when I see the cold pots and pans and the empty beds in the back yard. But we do get to come to a little bit of a rescue, and make them feel extra loved so that is good. And I did see some seedlings under grow lights in the basement, so who knows what could happen by summer! There may be vegetables in the back yard again!! And maybe cookies in the oven....pretty please?

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Saturday, January 22, 2011

My Very Own Traveling Salesman Case!

  This little baby has been my labour of love for the past four days and I'm super stoked to say that it's finished!  I started out with a pretty dingy carry on suitcase, with all kinds of nastiness on the inside.  I immediately saw the potential in it though, since it already had a cool 60's shell. (it was even personalized with a letter B monogram, like for Billy! Too cool!)  I reupholstered the inside with some awesome red pleather that we found in the trash. The stripy fabric on the underside of the inside lid is from an old scarf that I've always liked. And we traded some boots that we found in the trash for the vintage wooden postcard holder at Peddler's Mall. Then I secured everything with some industrial strength Velcro and voila!  I can't wait to take it to our first festival!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Unbelievable

         Our old car is headed to the grave yard...it is a sad sad time for "Suzy Sassparilla".  She has been through quite a lot with us, carried literal tons of stuff, helped us escape peril during trash picking rendevous. You were a good car, Suze. 
         Now on to some happier news....
    HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
          Dad bought a new car and gave us his TRUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is beautiful!! I am excited to name it, although to me it will forever be "Dad's truck." Billy and I are totally floored! A truck to go trash picking in! Now, we can get bigger items and make some more money perhaps!? And buy both my parents new houses and  my dad a ten car garage and my mom peacock feather boots....OH YEAH! Thank you, Dad!!!
  P.S. we need to wash it bad!

Workin' the butts off

Billy and I have been working our patooties off. Billy is hustling like a mad man to get ready for the festival we are hoping to be in, in February. He is very worried about how our art will be displayed. He was reminded of an idea he had previously had by our friend Ashley's suitcase revamp. This suitcase was a crud dud found in the trash, it had junk on the outside and nastiness on the inside. It makes me so happy when Billy can re-purpose something headed for the landfill.
         I, on the other hand, have not been having such an exciting busy-ness. I have  been making six thousand trips back and forth from the storage building. My legs are noodles from walking up and down the twenty steps to our apartment. It isn't fun, I'll tell ya!!!
BUT IT'S OVER NOW!!!! LET THE BIRDS SING! LET THE LION LAY DOWN WITH THE LAMB!
THE STORAGE BUILDING IS EMPTY!
And I am happy about it.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

What this winter weather has done to me


    I don't mind winter. Every season has it's good and bad points. When you own a business however, this kind of weather is not your friend! We have had two customers between yesterday and today. IT'S MADNESS.
That is what I am slipping into if you can't tell from the photo. I am obsessed with this book at the moment, I have never been a Stephen King fan, particularily. And it's no Mr. Murder mind you (Mr. Murder was a ridiculous book I became what-ever-word-means-more-than-obsessed about, I even wrote a rap about it).  It is good though, I can't seem to put it down and have no reason to, apparently. I just get under my He-Man blanket, snuggle into my favorite chair, and sometimes get so into this book , I forget I am not the old man protaganist.

I have no excuse for that hair though.
And I might make a rap about this one.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

New Apartment!

  When we got our store, which was a dream come true, we knew we would have to make a few sacrifices here and there to make it work. The biggest one though, was definitely our home, a wonderful little apartment in an old elementary school annex.  So we have spent the last 6 months sleeping on the floor in the store. No stove, no shower, and no refrigerator. You can imagine our joy when we found this great little place! Oh and guess what! It's located in the very same building as our store! How cool is that?
  Now, the place could use a little t.l.c. but it has so much potential! There's a great 70's vibe all throughout which will go splendidly with our mostly vintage decor. Abbigail just about wept openly when she saw the new roomy kitchen, especially the pantry. I love the glass door separating the bedroom from the studio! (that's right our very own studio where we can make magical things without ever touching elbows!) 
  I hope this will be our new home for at least a few years and that many terrific memories will be made here!

Monday, January 10, 2011

VHS Heaven!

  Can you believe we found all these movies in the trash?! I know they're all vhs movies but so what! We still rock lazer discs so we ain't scared of no vhs!
  I was just telling Abbigail how I hadn't seen Sleeping Beauty and low and behold there it was! I was also excited to find A Clockwork Orange, which I've been hoping to find for quite some time now! We might just have to a movie night tonight!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Dino Shrine

  This is our shrine to the Patron Saint of Babies! 

       Once long ago, Mount Boom Boom Pow erupted, leaving many baby raptors without parents to feed them. It is said that Old Mother Rexilena, while on her way to a bingo game, heard their cries and took pity upon them. Every morning, she would scale the tallest mountain in her territory, fetching eggs from the pterodactyls nest to feed the babies. Miraculously, she carried them down the mountain in her tiny arms,  without even breaking a single one.  She did this every day until the raptors grew to be nice and plump........ And on that day she ate every last one of them.
     Meat eaters built monuments to honor her cunning and magnificence.  Soon, the other dinosaurs, fearful of their babies meeting the same fate, left jewels and necklaces on the monuments, hoping to dissuade her from hearing their young one's cries, be they ever in peril.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Thriftastic Thursday

  Today I nearly broke my neck trying to get this awesome chair. I drove by the thrift store and they were throwing this sucker out, I almost threw up with joy and "what the heck"! I went in and said "Can I have that thing?" THEY MADE ME PAY FOR IT. So, after paying for something they were going to throw away, I had to call everyone I know trying to get it picked up. My wonderful father came to our rescue and he is awesome! The chair is awesome!  Someone will be feeling awesome when they buy the yellow one we are selling so I can have this big baby in the store for my big booty. Everyone wins!!!
 This is part of my apron collection, these were just a few I had in the back of the store. I found the one on the far right in the parking lot of the Peddlers Mall, all the rest were thrifted though. Do you have anything you collect?
   
P.S. I hate this diet. I dreamt of eating a Big Bacon Classic at Wendy's last night.

38 days left.....

918 Hours.... 55060 minutes.....

Dream on

   Oh man! We're five days deep into the DIET of DOOM and to make matters worse I have an ongoing cold. I can only breath out of one nostril like some kinda crazy nose cyclops and my head feels like it's gonna splode any second now.
   Today I ate: half of a tangerine, four pieces of low sodium deli meat (chicken), half of a potato (raw!!!!) half a cup of plain white rice, and for desert, oh yeah, a piece of 5 gum. Jealous? No? Well Abbigail is, because she only gets to eat about half of what I do!! Poor baby. But when our diet is finally over, right smack on Valentines Day, I'm gonna give my loverly lady an unforgettable candle lit dinner with all the fixins! We'll probably end up gorging ourselves to the max, get explosive diarrhea, and fall asleep. How romantic!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

I saw the sign



Billy made this awesome sign for the beauty shop/ used book store next to us. He did such an awesome job, it makes me happy every time I see it.  Every sign he makes takes something mundane and makes it magical. He does that with more than just signs! Even spaghetti!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Blast from the Past!

  Last night we hopped in our time machine trash can and went back to the year 1995 ( the year that we first met in the fifth grade) and found this back pack full of terrific childhood memories!!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

OMG SHOES!!

    We found this huge booty load of awesome shoes  in the trash tonight! Can you believe it?!!   Some of them even had cool vintage metal shoe forms still in em!      (as seen at the very bottom right of the pic above) 
   
    Praise be to the Trash Gods!

Let's see what can happen in 6 weeks......

  I absolutely hate weight loss posts. It's not that I abhor people wanting to get healthy, I just don't like to hear everything someone thinks is wrong with themselves, especially if most of those concerns are handed out by magazines and tv . I was feeling very iffy about posting this at all because I didn't want the wrong impression to be made. I appreciate my body just the way it is, I don't hate on fatties including myself.  I actually like Billy's belly. He's a hot man, always has been, always will be.
     There are certain things to be contended with though. We are getting old. And its scary. We don't have insurance so we can't afford to have diabetes and heart attacks and heads falling off. We have to nip it in the bud before it starts. Billy also says he wants to look hot for the wedding. Whatever. He could be a hairball man covered in poop and my loins would still say OH YEAH.  I do have a trunk of vintage clothes I have been collecting for years, that would probably only fit my right thigh. I would like to wear these at some point.  The biggest thing, aside from our health, is I want to have a baby someday and I want to have good habits established when the little muggle comes along. So, let's get it on!
      Billy was kind enough to offer the world his before shot. Don't you just want to kiss that belly to pieces? You better not, or you will have a lot more than a diet to worry about.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Apollo's Pizza Baby!!




























       Abbi and I found an awesome pizza place here in our little town of Richmond. They had some really cool vintage arcade games and pinball tables!  The pizza smelled excellent but we spent up all our monies before we ever knew what hit us. We were like two little kids all lost in the moment having way too much fun to think about our hungry bellies.
  •    P.S. I beat Abbi like 3 times at Cruisin USA!! Haha                       

Graffitti near our store