Friday, March 29, 2013

Friday Mishmash

First, thank you to everyone who entered my latest giveaway - it was really great to see so many readers, new and old, come out of the woodwork to comment!  To those of you who are just starting out with your weight-loss journey, welcome!  Best of luck to you, and I hope to hear about your successes soon!  And now, the winner of Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal is:

Coopsmom!

Congratulations!  Please send me an email (40somethingsjourney@gmail.com) with your mailing info so I can give it to my contact.  If I don't hear from you within a week, I'll have to choose another winner.   

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With all the hats I've been knitting, I needed a way to block them (FYI, blocking is a process where you soak your knitted piece in special soapy water, then you squeeze out the water and stretch it out to dry - it opens the stitching as well as gives you a chance to shape your garment).  After asking around, the general consensus was to use a Styrofoam mannequin wig head, so I ordered one and, of course, had to introduce Paco to it:
Who dis person?

I was surprised he didn't bark at it, but knowing my dog, he'll decide six months from now that the head is not to be trusted and go insane, so I'm storing it in a bin when I don't need to use it.

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Several of you have mentioned in the comments that our house looks so cleanly decorated.  Yes, we have gone fairly simple and minimal with the amount of stuff on display, but that has evolved over the years.  In our first apartment, we covered almost every inch of wall space with our treasures.  I scanned some old pictures to show you just how far we've come:
Living room walls, plus you can see the kitchen dining area wall covered in pictures in the lower left shot.  Pretty much you name it, we had it - and we showed it off!
Tiny kitchen, but we managed to find wall space above the window and put up a shelf to display our bottles.  And yes, this was me in 1984 - big glasses, shag haircut and all.
Even the bedroom was loaded with stuff!  I still have the dresser on the left in our bedroom to this day; the dresser with all the drawers was mine from childhood and is in the garage now, holding Jeff's tools.

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Henry is a drooler when he's happy, and it can get pretty disgusting - but the other night he managed to double drool which was quite the feat.  Blogland, I present to you, Vampire Henry:
Sometimes, you gotta laugh.  And then wipe off the drool.

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Another 5K fun run is on tap for tomorrow - this one will help raise money to build chicken coops for an orphanage in the Ukraine.  Have a great weekend!

19 comments:

  1. have fun at the 5k! you rock!! and: loove the doubledrool...will show it to my cat!;)

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  2. I have a 5k too tomorrow. Gl on yours. My cat is identical to yours and he is a drooled :)

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  3. Henry is the cutest this week. Sorry Paco.

    I used to save a lot more stuff too, but you have to clean it too and I got rid of a lot of things too since cleaning is my returning horror story every week :)

    Good luck tomorrow and have fun.

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    1. ROFLOL on "cleaning is my returning horror story" - mine too Fran, mine too.

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  4. Maybe it's age; I used to have more clutter too -- lots of bookshelves crammed to the gills, more displays out and about. I much prefer cleaner lines instead these days. LOVE your retrospective pictures, though!

    Have a great time at the 5K tomorrow!

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  5. I never heard of using a mannequin to block hats! Then again, I never asked. That is so fun to see old pictures of you. And the fun run--what a neat cause. Weird related fact: knitting hats for kids in the Ukraine was how my carpal tunnel began!

    That's so weird to see a cat drool! Noah only drools in the yard. Thank goodness.

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    1. Henry will come on my lap sometimes when I'm knitting and drool - gross! Plus, I don't want cat drool on my yarn, so I have to be the meanie and shoo him away.

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  6. I absolutely LOVE the big window in front of your kitchen sink! But wow, that is a lot of stuff! You have come a far way!

    Have fun with your 5k tomorrow - I hope to run outside tomorrow - we may have temps near 50!

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    1. That apartment had big windows and a gorgeous view onto a big grassy area with lots of trees - it was really nice!

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  7. What a fun Mishmash!! I swear I lived in the same apartment back in 1984. Stuff EVERYWHERE. Love the wall shelving. I could never hang mine straight, though.

    Henry is flippin' adorable all vampired out :)

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  8. I am a minimalist, I hate dusting little things. Have fun on your run tomorrow, what a great cause!

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  9. Henry LOL! Pixie drools on me when she gets kneading on my lap. Ewww! We don't have tons of stuff because we moved so much over the years. Starting to collect some more crap now, though!

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  10. Thanks for sharing all the old apartment/house pics! I'm glad I managed to take pictures in all of my old apartments because it is really fun to look back even now! I guess the biggest difference is that I have real, grown-up furniture, but didn't always. Can't imagine what that will be like after even more time has passed. I hope we get a little less.... hoardy? pack-ratty? over time :)

    Good luck with your 5k tomorrow! Sounds like a good cause to be running for.

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  11. I had the pictures pegged as 80s just from the color tone. LOL I remember taking photos during that era and thinking how "great" they turned out. Not so much, since the digital age. :)

    Spooky, drooling cat!

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  12. I love the pictures. Thanks for sharing with us Shelley. OMG, I AWWW'd at Vampire Henry. Our late tabby Raleigh used to drool when he was uber relaxed and happy. I aww'd at Paco meeting the hat too. I love your animals!!! Have a wonderful weekend Shelley.

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  13. Oh crap....Dennis is logged into google. Sorry, comment above was me! Dennis WOULD love your animals though. :)

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  14. The photo of Henry cracks me up. I didn't realize cats could drool like that!

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