A.W.O.L.

Not just here-everywhere. I've just not been around. I had a huge list of things I vowed that I would do over the summer before I would make any art or play with my blog. Of course, sitting on facebook was acceptable. I can't help it. I have found and reconnected with about 400 friends from my past. I will forever be indebted to facebook for this. I don't care if they start charging. I don't care. I am so happy to know where all of these beautiful people are. I have lived away from my hometown most of my adult life and I miss it and all the fabulous folks I grew up with there. And now I am, once again, going back to reconnect in person. Ugh, it's been since June. Next weekend is a big one for Bryan/College Station, Texas. Texas Reds. I don't know what it is and don't care. It is bringing people from all over together for the first time in, in some cases, over 40 years. Just as I did in June, I have gotten over the fact that I'm not going to loose 30 pounds by next week.

The only vanity thing I'm doing is bleaching my teeth; something I've been wanting to do for a very long time and something I'd wished I had done before June. It's an easy fix for aging. I don't feel so bad about it; after all, I'm not getting lipo like I need to. It's about seeing important people in whatever form I am. You know I will be posting and blogging away when I return-gotta show off all the love. Until then...Yippie.

Five Years of The Pink Cabbage

I've been at The Pink Cabbage all but the first year. It took me a year to catch on and I was lucky! I was invited at the very beginning but already had a big space at Emporium Antiques in Frederick; I just wasn't ready to make a major move again. The second year, things were changing big and fast at The Pink Cabbage and Karen (she and I were sharing the space in Frederick by then-it started with Janine and me) and I were asked again. We didn't hesitate. Now, for 4 years, there is a list of people waiting for a space there as long as a football field.

I'm in my third location in the shop. I started out with a great size room then decided that I wanted to downsize. I moved into the smallest space, a very small closet, there and it proved to...well, not work out. Now I'm in a small space but I think two people can be in my space at a time; the closet, not even one could be "in". The last reorganization has made for a beautiful setting.

So many talented and wonderful women. Sixteen of us! And we all like each other! Our group has matured together and become close. And we are some of our best customers.

As you can see, we have a diverse array of tastes and inventory but it all flows very nicely...

The turnover of merchandise there is head-spinning. We've all had the same idea of keeping prices down but particularly so when the economy tanked; we worked even harder to make everything there affordable.

I know that sometimes new customers think we are pushing a sale when we tell them not to count on an item still being there if they don't buy it when they see it. It only takes one "where tha?" to see it's not a pitch.

The cherry on the top is Jody, our leader. We are a co-op theoretically but we are very blessed to have a great leader. Jody works tirelessly to promote our shop, set up great events, and get us involved in many donation projects. A church or school silent auction, we all pony up items from our shops; we never say no to a good cause. Then the holidays, huge food donations as our customers get a discount for bringing in a food item. They also get a discount at Christmastime by bringing in a new, unused toy for Toys For Tots. Both occasions make for our shop spilling over with food and toys. We are in partnership with Success in Style, a non-profit that works to reintroduce women back to the workforce. We partner with a close-by elementary school making special lunches and treats for teacher work days. And our customer-based email list is worth millions!!!!

So Jody made pink martinis yesterday starting at 9 a.m. and we all brought in homemade desserts. The events are always so fun and special with beautiful details.

The best we've ever been able to do for a group photo-11 out of 16. Jody is front and center and, our mascot Madge, well hopefully you can figure out which one she is...

I finally just got this little cutie put together. I got the gum ball machine at the same Empty Nest estate sale as a couple of posts ago when I got the precious porcelain bird and the toy accordian. Wouldn't you run for this?

Just a fun little addition...

When I post on Facebook that Empty Nest is having an estate sale, if you can, RUN. They have the greatest sales. And a bonus is that most folks haven't passed away, they are just downsizing-no creepy feelings though, I don't have a problem with that. It's recycling at it's finest. In this vignette, at the top is the antique auto headlight I bought at Round Top in Texas, then a cool crown hanger from Luckett's, and at the bottom is a camera I got from and Empty Nest sale. In between I found in my own garage. Buried in one of the many boxes we still have leftover from cleaning Uncle Robbie's apartment was this great, old school class photo from 1940. This location seems to continually change as I find "new" things that seem to fit together.

I finally changed my underwear.

One of my besties, Mellie, has accused me of painting things more often than changing my underwear. That used to be pretty much the truth but not in the last couple of years. I've been motivationally-challenged of late so, this summer, I vowed I would do nothing else before I painted Matt's over-needed room. It used to be nothing for me to wake up one morning, decide to paint a room, get the paint, and finish it in a day. Hummm, wonder where that energy went? Meno...what? they can't even let us have our own term of a life changing time without men being involved? Believe me, they don't want to be involved. This is backwards, but, after painting Matt's room and remembering that the hard part is the prep, I pulled the trigger on a new color for our front door. TWO WHOLE YEARS since I had painted it-unpresidented. I hummed and hoed about the color, there were wanted awnings that didn't appear, which were factoring in. In the end, I simplified things, matched the color of the siding on the color wheel, went two shades darker, and voila! Not thrilling but my thrilling is expensive; this was cheap. And attractive-kakhi.

In keeping with the backwards theme, here is Matt's room after. We went with "urban chic". He loves NYC and I have no doubt that he will live there someday. Black and white of the Chrysler Building above the dresser.

The huge, vintage print of Manhattan's landscape from Ikea had been sitting around a while waiting for me to get to it. What a great find it was; $100. It may seem like a lot but it's about 5'x3' and makes the room.

This is the blackmail color. When Justin moved out and the smaller bedroom was freed up, I bribed Matt into moving from a larger room to this one so I could have the big one for my "studio". I told him he could pick any color he wanted and could decorated it any way he wanted-shameless. For three years we could live with it. It got dirty and scratched and junky in there. He needed more room, furniture needed to be replaced for space.

So what am I doing with all this free time now? Putting together several reunions in hometown Texas for the beginning October. Yeehaw!