Got my big black boots and an old suitcase

Anyone know what song my title comes from? Its one of my favorites because its all about the West Coast which is my all time favorite place to be.
I am crazy stupid busy going in a million directions trying to tie up loose ends by Friday. Why ? Well , i leave for a weeks vacation with my handsome husband.
Guess where i'm going? Its NOT west Coast!
I'll leave you some very easy clues.....
I'll be out of pocket all next week but when i return, i hope to have lots and lots of some fabulous photos.
This may sound corny but i'll miss you guys! I sure love my blogging family.
Hope all of you had a wonderful Easter /Passover weekend.  We drove out to east Texas to see my uncle and pick up a custom piece of furniture he made for us. I have to paint it and that aint happening this week or next so you'll have to wait to see the coolest thing he made .
OK so here are my clues to where we're heading this weekend:

Happy Easter weekend

Enjoy your weekend yall!!!

Whirlwind weekend

Happy Tuesday my friends. Last Thursday was the big event for Refuge for Women and it was so great!!  Yall, I WON an apple watch and airpods!!!!! So here is a funny story, we had a great auction with some wonderful gifts like trips to Belize, a diamond necklace, spa packages, 2 guns, etc. One of the items i really really wanted was the Cricut so that i could create some fun vinyl stickers and crafts.  I bought 10 auction tickets and put 7 of them in the Cricut jar, one in the Apple watch jar , one ticket for yoga classes, and the last ticket in a spa package. I seriously thought i would win the Cricut but i won the apple watch and i was SO shocked!  So shocked that i didn't even verify which gift i won at first. I went straight to the Cricut and boxed it up with all the goodies that came with it like vinyl, the tools to use, etc and put them in the box. I was just about to walk away when a lady walked up and asked who she should talk to regarding one of the winnings. I told her if it was On hand on the table, she could take it but if its a certificate for something, a volunteer could help her. She said well i won the Cricut and so of course my head snapped back and i head said Wow- i won it too. She then showed me where her auction number was taped tot he plastic frame with picture of Cricut which i completely missed. HAHA!  So i said i wonder what i won, and that's when i saw my name on the Apple watch picture.  Then the lady with Cricut said she would trade but truth is I've been wanting the watch for a long time and really thought i would have got one for Christmas but i didn't.   I knew that so many people would be filling up that jar for the Apple watch and the likeliness of me winning was slim so i never even considered me winning it. YAY!!!
The guest speaker was amazing. Her name is Sandy Storm and she is a survivor from sex-trafficking. She's an author of 2 books and huge advocate for rehabilitation for human /sex trafficking. Her story was very moving and we were so lucky to have her speak to the huge audience.  We don't have our final numbers yet but i am pretty sure we beat what we raised last year which is so wonderful for a Nonprofit org. I got to see my good friend Melissa who actually got me into this group and she used to work with us at our "real"job.

Our director Abby

Sandy Storm

After the gala event, i had to switch gears and get trailer loaded for my junk show that was Friday night from 6 to 9 and Saturday 9 to 3.  Friday night went very well but Saturday we had a crazy monsoon rainstorm that lasted all day. I was so bummed because we literally only had a small handful of people show up to shop. I ended up shopping from others booths and bought a super fun huge birdcage topper with an idea for my Halloween party in mind. I still had great time and love making the junking connections and hanging out with my vendor buddies.

Vintage radio that will be perfect for Steampunk party

That's my cage! So excited

I am just so sad about the Notre Dame fires.  I've heard its under control now and that the main part of the foundation can be rebuilt.  So amazing that they were able to rescue many of the artifacts and treasures from the church.  Here are a few of my pics i took from last year when visiting there. I took tons of them but i don't have them all saved to laptop so maybe another time...

I sure hope you're having a great week so far!!

I got nothing but a song

Its a super crazy busy week. I am training a new process next week to over a 175 people and i'm having to prepare for that for work.  Thursday is my gala even for Refuge for Women and Friday and Saturday is my junk show.  I am going in every direction so I have no brain cells to dedicate to my blog post this week.   So here is a song by my favorite band Live who I will be seeing again next month.  This song never made it to radio time but it was on the album and I love it! I wanna dance with you is the title.  Its about love, dancing, the beach, all my faves!! 

Have a great week my awesome blogging friends!! You are such a joy to me. 

Meditation /Yoga

So , show of hands how many of you meditate and/or do yoga?  I suffer from great anxiety. It’s a new thing for me as of last 3 years.  Its been getting worse- I’m sure it has nothing to do with what all life has dealt me in the last few years.  I genuinely want to get into yoga and true deep meditations.  I have my own version of meditating where I’ll just sit alone and close my eyes and take deep breaths.  When its not so hot or pouring down rain, I like to walk outside to my back patio and I stare into my pool. When I was in California, I can get lost in just watching the waves and the ocean come in. Its therapeutic to me.  I feel I have a good start to learning meditation. I’ve been to a yoga class one time. It was a few years ago and I had a free pass for 2 nights in a row and then that was all.  Mostly because it wasn’t close to where I lived or worked so it was inconvenient to join that yoga studio.  However, I enjoyed it. In fact, I am not a sleeper and when I did yoga for those 2 nights, I slept SOOO good!  And yet here I am years later with insomnia and stress.  I need to find a place local that will help this 50something woman start from scratch on yoga and meditations.

I captured all these sayings from Pinterest.  They are helpful minus not able to pronounce some of those positions. Haha!

Do you have any helpful tips on meditation or yoga? I would love to hear what helped you.  A friend of mine suggested finding a guided meditation app and having someone walk me through it. I am going to do that . I am open to your suggestions.  What do you do to calm yourself ?   If I only I could just move to the ocean…….

Oddities and such

I had a busy weekend but it was a good one.  Friday wasn’t all that fun though, I had to get allergy testing done.  I’ve mentioned recently, that I’m really struggling with asthma. Its scary and I really need to get it under control so I looked up an asthma and allergy specialist.  I really like the Dr and he’s nice. Come to find out, I’m allergic to grass, trees, pollen, weeds and the main one is dust.  The good news is that I’m not allergic to dogs which I was pretty nervous about since both of ours sleep in bed with us. LOL

43 needle pricks

3 hours later still itchy

It sucks!!! I have never had asthma until 8 years ago and I used to live outside as a kid growing up.  I have a consultation in a few weeks to see what avenue I’ll be taking such as shots, nose drops, etc.   So that was a good time!!  My arms still have little tiny bruises down my arm today.  I also am not sleeping well because the inhaler that I have to do every night is keeping me awake.  Yay.

Saturday, my cousin Monya and I went downtown Dallas to Fair Park to enter a very different show. Its called Oddities and Curiosities and it was great!!  It was bigger than I thought it would be and it got crowded.  There was a lot of very interesting booths there and some great artists.  Lots of taxidermy and skulls of insects, rodents, and large animals which got a little boring after a while. I bought some candles that had pretty pictures, we both got t-shirts of the event, I got a bracelet and some pretty crystals and a few funny stickers.  I have a thing of doll head planters. I have lots of them around my house that have cactus plants in them.  So what was funny, my cousin said that the event looks like my house. I laughed and took it as a compliment. Haha!  Apparently, doll heads inspire many others. There were lots and lots of creations with doll parts. One booth took stuffed animals and replaced their faces with crazy scary faces.  So funny!  There was a display from Ripley's Believe it or not that houses a show in their building a few towns over. The show isn’t for everyone and many of the booths didn’t appeal to me but most of them did.  It was very fun and some talented artists were there. 

  Later on that day, I got to spend 2 hours at the hospital to visit my friend who was in the car wreck. She’s improving a little each day but she has a long road. She very much is a brain injury patient with limited memory. It was so good to see her because she’s alive!!!               

Sunday, I joined a friend in Canton the huge flea market and it was a fun day. I got some vintage purses, some Harley floor mats and some plants.  Afterwards, I picked up my Mom who was staying with my uncle to assist him after his knee surgery. It was nice that she could help him out and they got to spend some good time together.   Now, I’m looking forward to hanging out with her.  When Nanny passed, Mom rearranged her outgoing flight because she had already just bought her ticket to fly in this month.  My niece is graduating high school next month so after that, mom will go home back to Montana.

I have one week to get final touches done for my junk show and the gala for Refuge for Women. I'm on the run now!