No Shame in Our Game

It's a grey and dreary day outdoors, almost a carbon copy of yesterday. Thus, a good day to make my annual desk calendars and order some new photography business needs. The prints are on order from RTArt, the stickers for the packaging are coming and the bio sheets the same. Get this...I use VistaPrint for all that sort of thing and have for more than a decade, yet rarely have I looked to a customer representative for help. Actually I ordered the stickers to bump the price up a few dollars for free shipping so when I added the text to the sticker, telling the young woman it was my blog address, she asked if I wanted a QR code instead. SOLD! Thoroughly Modern Gail!

There's an excellent antidote to the dreary weather and that would be our large, lit, and fully decorated with all sorts of cute ornaments, thrift store tree! Yup, we bought the tree from one of the four local thrift stores we visited, this one helping battered women. It is fantastic!

Here's how it happened.

We spend an inordinate amount of time at Wal Mart, whether it is buying groceries, or any manner of other things that we need. But of course, we checked out the artificial trees while on one of our innumerable visits. While that is not is our preference, for convenience sake we thought we might go that route. We also looked at Lowes, but did not pull the trigger at either store. The one thing I was certain about though was the need to find some interesting ornaments rather than the tubs of sixty colored balls being sold in both places. What is the fun in only balls? I'll answer that....none!

So last Thursday, instead of a field trip, we went thrifting. In the end we came home with this haul for about $35.

"Reach" was the second store we visited, having found a few ornaments at the first one which benefits the Humane Society. (Don't quote me on that!) With ornaments in hand, I turned around and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a fully lit, lush 7.5 ft. Christmas tree with a $40 price tag. Because we had already scoped out trees, it is our guess that this one would be well over $200 new. The woman who worked there came forward to let us know that not only did all of the lights work, always a plus,  but there was a large wheeled tub to store it in. Now if we were in Orlando,  that would be a challenge as our storage options are limited, but here there is a huge attic where it can reside when we are done with the season. The only issue that might arise with that is getting it up the ladder to the attic, but I suspect Bruce will find a way. 

Normally we do not put a tree up this early, but when opportunity arises, we take advantage of it. The three pieces went together without a hitch and it was game on. Now most folks are not all that keen on thrifting, but if one can get over any bias, there are wonderful things to be had. In fact, I made some pumpkin bread that was out of this world, using a recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook I got for 50 cents. Those canisters? $3.50 each! 

While the kitchen is well stocked it was lacking canisters for my baking needs. Lots of folks never bake, but knowing already how much I like not only the baking, but the end result as well you understand my need.

While I am still in the kitchen, I do so love my windowsill with a thrift store find on there that cost, get this, .25!

I have no idea what that little figure was meant to be but it sure is fun. That giant pinecone came from a state park in Georgia. The dark ball beside it is a Black Walnut I picked up on my river walks and the little acorns are from the driveway. Wild plants from the roadway. Now you know.

John, our landlord, had his knee replaced just two weeks ago and his path to recovery has been remarkable. Within a day or so he was walking around outside. He hates being cooped up, so after a few days he headed to the kitchen, making granola that he shared with us. His two week follow up at the doctor yesterday was a great success and he is now cleared to do all manner of exercise. Unbelievable.

I might be wrong but I think he might just like having neighbors.

Back to that wonderful tree!! It looks so pretty beside the fireplace. The lights can be solid white or flash with colored as well. I alternate my preference so far. 

It took moving some furniture around to make it work. The home for the chest below is under the window but there was plenty of room behind the sofa so that's where it went.

The recliner exchanged places with this large comfy chair because, frankly, I have grown fond of the recliner and didn't want to give it up for more than a month!! College football baby!

We are all just heartsick because our fantastic Florida State quarterback hurt his leg in Saturday's game and will miss the rest of his final season. We had been ranked in the top four in the country, however, it looks as if the voters are assuming Tate Rodemaker will not be able to lead the team to several more wins.  We are so sad for Jordan Travis and are praying he recovers very, very soon. Whatever the outcome of the remaining season, it has been a good year for our team.

Does this look like $1,000 to you? Me neither, but thankfully we did not have to pay that exorbitant rate because once I emptied all of these packs given to me by the cardiologist's office, I've got enough until the new year! Yippee!

We have a small tree on the porch that belongs to the cottage and it is cute as a button.

It looks a little better since our thrift store bonanza! 

Let's take a closer look at some of the ornaments, shall we? Our first Christmas tree, 50 years ago was adorned with painted wooden ornaments that we did together, so when I found a bag of about twenty of these for .50, I snagged it up. They did not disappoint.

Of note is the ribbon I used. I think the roll was maybe $3.00 for 75 feet. It worked like a charm and I even have some left over. Talk about ornament variety! While I do not have my very own ornaments this year, many of them given to me by our children, this will do nicely. 

Thank you, thank you to the folks who donated these new treasures. While I am typing Mr. Peck is on mantle duty and those of you who have followed this blog for any time will know that he does a great job with that task. Way better than I can do, that's a given!

With that in mind, he also does a great job with woodworking. After some searching we found a crate to hold our photography prints at a downtown antique store that while the price was right, the size was not ideal, nor was the finish. From practically the first day we were here back in June, John was urging Bruce to use his shop. Now he has.

He took the whole thing apart, downsizing it a bit and now it is ready for action as soon as the prints arrive from RTArt. Newbies don't know that name so let me explain. When I began selling photography in 2007 at the Lake Eola Farmers Market there were very few vendors, maybe 15 or so. We set up Sunday after Sunday and hoped something would happen and much to our surprise it did. Not that I knew what I was doing, but for some reason, I found an audience. One Sunday morning a man and his wife came to my booth, originally looking, but after a few moments, Roger said to me, "I can help you out a lot". How so we wondered? Well for starters, he could not only make prints, but he could provide the packaging as well as mats for said prints! Say what? Long story short, he was right and our business took a turn for the better. We had that partnership until I decided to call it quits in 2017, however, they did not quit. Actually, it has been an explosion of business for Roger and Tricia and all of their employees, so much so that is taking a lot longer to get those prints than it used to! Their quality and attention to detail is worth waiting for. 

Now have I chosen things that might sell? Who knows!!! :)

Saturday afternoon we went to Andrews for "Christmas on Main" and it was good fun. I plan to share some photos of that soon, but I did want to update you on the fire there that I mentioned here. While it is mostly contained, it was still smoking and this time we at least saw some evidence of it unlike our previous visit. I saw it when we were making our way into town and thought if we went up the hill beside the elementary school we might see the smoke and so we did.

Hopefully the drizzle that is happening now and predicted to last throughout the day will do the trick in putting it out for good.

I've also got plenty of photographs of the end of the leaf season that are being put on hold for the moment, but in closing, I think I'm going to like the bare trees too. A brilliant blue sky sure sets them off doesn't it?

Duh, I neglected to tie that title to the post didn't I? Well with smart readers like you it's probably overkill to explain it, but what I mean by that is that we are not too proud to use the available resources, which means we've bought all manner of goods from the various thrift stores. Bruce is filling up the closet with finds including this nice plaid shirt he wore to the Andrews event.

With finds like we've had, a better question might be, "what took us so long?" 

Let's go!!

your friend,

Gail