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. 

Busy times...

Tis the season to have sooo many things going on.  So my junk show last weekend ended up being much better than I anticipated and I am very happy about it. I just didn’t have time to prepare like I normally do and be completely ready. I had a huge project that I thought would be my “money maker” for the show and I didn’t even get to touch it. Now I have to wait until next year to do because I already bought the supplies and its Christmas related.  Oh well!! Maybe I’ll do them next month and have them done so not to worry about it later.  Todd always helps me take down and load up my trailer after the show.  He even commented on fast and easy it was to tear down and lot less to load so he was happy with my show as well.  My in-laws drove out to see me at the show which always warms my heart because it’s almost an hour aaway from them and they got lost this time due to some detours.  My friend Wendy also came who has never missed one of my shows.  I love my support system!!

This was one side of my booth

After the show, we had to rush to go to our friends Christmas pajama party.  I, of course, found some Grinch pajamas for Todd and I because that’s one of my fave themes. For anyone new to my blog, I have a whole collection of Grinch stuff for a Grinch display every year in my home for Christmas.  I really love The Grinch and have since I was a kid.

The party was a great time AND I won a gift card for best Pj’s costume.  Truth is , there was a tie between me and one of the neighbors dressed as a deer and we had to play rock, paper, scissors ( we cheated and kept doing the same thing) and then had to guess a number between one and twenty and I won.  LOL

Now that the show is over ,I can focus on decorating my house but to be honest, I am throwing in the towel. We have our tree up and decorated and its beautiful. I usually deck the halls, the mantle, the front room, and anywhere else and I have so many fun awesome Christmas decorations but I’m losing my steam.  I think just being so behind this year I’m starting to get anxiety and I just cant do it. I don’t have it in me. I just mentioned this today to Todd, I think I want to put all the tubs back in the attic and just stick with whats already out.  It will still look a little festive and that just needs to be enough. I did manage to replace my doll heads with ornaments and small bottle brush trees in my gumball machine though. I am glad I was able to get that done before I lost my steam.  I have 2 inflatables I need to get up in my yard and put some lights around our front door this week and that’s it.  How about you? Have you ever just called it quits because something was looming over you and the fun went out the window?

I’m taking this Friday off to go hang out with a friend at McKinney square which will help get me back in the spirit again. I try to go every year and see all the fun decorations and stuff. I’m looking forward to that and then just relaxing this weekend.  We shall see ….  We don’t sit still well. haha

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello, how was your Thanksgiving?  We had a nice long weekend. Thursday was spent at the inlaws and we had a nice day. It was just our immediate group this year, Todd’s parents, Todd’s brother and his wife, and the 2 of us.  We watched the Macy’s parade while I made the hashbrown casserole and I grabbed a Starbucks earlier that morning.  I loved not having to rush and just appreciate the day.

I did not take part of any Black Friday shopping.  There’s just not anything that we have to have that is worth long lines and crazy hours.  On Friday, Todd and I went to our annual movie outing together and saw Bohemian Rhapsody.  Have any of you seen it yet? I genuinely loved it!! I thought it was well done and holy cow- the guy that played Freddie Mercury and the guy who played Brian May were SOOO good!   After I saw the movie, I went online to read more about it. The lead guy learned how to play piano and he also sang but they mostly dubbed in Freddie’s voice for the songs.

This is one of my fave Queen songs: Show must go on! 

On Saturday, we got the Christmas tree out of storage and got the lights on it and we put the decorations on it Sunday after church.  Saturday evening, I got to join my cousin and her 2 daughters to see the Nutcracker in Dallas.  It was Outstanding and I really enjoyed it. At one point in a scene, they had fake snow fall from the ceiling into the audience.  Great special effects for a Ballet!

When we first entered the Winspear Opera House, the backdrop was kinda creepy if you really looked at the whole thing.  I loved it of course because it had the eerie factor like Halloween. 

Sunday night , the 6 of us got together again at an Italian restaurant to celebrate my mother n law's birthday.  It was fun evening and a nice way to end the holiday weekend.  And then , it was time to get back into the work mode.  I’ve been really busy this week training classes and I’m off again tomorrow and Friday to prepare for my junk show I do twice a year. I am not ready this time.  Yall, that work trip to St Louis for 10 days seriously put me so behind on everything.  I am just going to wing it and hope I at least break even for the price of the entry fee.  Wish me luck!!

Outdoor stuff

Hey everyone- Happy August!! I cant believe July is already gone and i didnt make a single post the whole month. I have been so crazy busy at work that i have had no time to blog. Its conversion time again and so i'm training twice a day everyday for a few weeks. In fact, due to my schedule, i'm having to take my lunch hour at 10:30 am which is weird for me.
Well, August 5,2011 - i started this blog. I missed my anniversary this year. I should have posted. I dont want to give up blogging. I'm holding on to thought of things easing up eventually.
Its been a sad time lately. My dear friends little boy Ari passed away last month. Todd and i were driving back to Dallas from Houston after attending a funeral for Todds uncle Larry. I started reading Facebook and read post that Ari had passed. I cried and cried and cried. I just really felt that Ari was meant to live and do great things.
Ive been trying to get my patio completed but its still work in progress. I have a few things left to do and it will be done. I got a new obsession over the summer and thats buying old seashell plant holders. Oh gosh i love them! I paid too much for a few of them but i love them.
I also have had fun making doll head planters from old vintage porcelain dolls i've bought from thrift stores. I was going to buy some off Etsy and then thought to myself, i can do this!!
Right now i have a few things i'm looking forward to- we're having an end of summer labor day pool party on the Sunday before labor day, then i have a junk show at end of September and then Holliween of course is coming soon and i am already prepping for that.
I had gallbladder surgery around the time the spring junk show was and i had to cancel because i couldnt lift anything. Im excited for next month!!
Thats all I can manage to post today.  Talk to yall later!  Have a great day.

Just So much

Hey everyone!! I really had no intentions of being away from my blog this long.  My last post , I was about to leave for my vacation to Boston.  It was so great! Todd had never been and we really enjoyed our trip. I ate something lobster almost every day we were there.  I , of course, went to Salem one day and bought a couple of fun things for my Holliween party.  We also took a day trip to Maine and saw the coast and gorgeous leaves turning.  I could live up there!!  I am SO over having 90 degree weather in October here in Dallas!! I am currently wearing a sleeveless summer maxi dress and sandals at work.

When we came home from our trip, I had 2 concerts back to back.  Todd and I went to see Alice in Chains at Winstar which is just over the Oklahoma state line less than an hour away. The following night, a friend drove down from San Antonio and we saw Rob Thomas and Counting Crows in Allen.  Both concerts were absolutely fantastic!!!

Oh and while we were gone, our air conditioning went out and we had to replace a coil which is a big deal over 2 grand to fix and that hit us hard.  As mentioned, we had no choice to get fixed because we’re still having high hot temps.

I went to a Pinners Conference with a friend and then also went to a fun junk show with that same friend a few weeks later.  I am preparing for my next junk show which is in 2 weeks. 

My work is taking everything out of me. Literally. I am swamped every minute of the day and have been getting to office super early just to get caught up on my emails. I don’t get overtime but its worth it for me. I’m training 4 hour classes in the morning with a few classes scattered in the afternoon. Lots of meetings and preparation for the classes. This is GO time in that we are starting the training that is regarding our huge merge we did 2 years ago.  Its been pretty stressful. Lots of pressure.

This Saturday is our 5^th annual Holliween party and this years theme is Masquerade.  I’ve been crazy busy decorating every night when I get home from work.  I will show yall pics next week.

Todd started a new job a month ago and he’s traveling full time now.  Lots of stuff going on it seems .  I miss all my blogging friends !!  I just don’t have any free time to post anymore. I am going to try to make more time.  I summed up a lot of things just in this small post.

Just wanted to say HI so you don’t forget about me and I WILL be back soon.  I’m taking tomorrow off to wrap  up the last of decorations and begin to clean the house.

I wish you could all come to my party!!  Have a great weekend, yall. 

YAZ

Hey yall! I am pushing it tonight to get this post in.  I had my junk show tonight from 6 to 9 and I didn't get home until 10pm.  Then my stupid laptop was dead from being unplugged.  I am exhausted but I cant mess up now when its only 2 more posts left to complete the A to Z challenge.
So for my letter Y , I am posting YAZ. They were one of my favorite bands in the 80's. It was a duo of male and female Vince Clark and Alison Moyet.  Vince was also in the band Depeche Mode which I also loved!  Then after Yaz, he was in group Erasure.  They were in the late 80;s early 90's.  I think YAZ was short for YAZOO because the album said Yazoo but the dj's always said Yaz.   Kinda strange
Their most famous and well known album was Upstairs at Eric's. I seriously love every song on the album.  I went through 2 cassettes between high school and college and I have the CD still now.

Don't Go

 

 

In my room

 

Only You.

 

My show tomorrow is tomorrow from 10 to 3 so maybe I can get my post in earlier. Have a great weekend and Only ONE more post!! Woohoo. Blogging on Saturdays sucked.  Sorry but its true.

I'm a bona fide junker

So over the years I've posted about attending several various flea markets and junk shows. My dream was to be a vendor at shows and not just a buyer.

I met some amazing Junkers through blogging a few years ago.  I followed their blog then one day I got the courage to email one of them and ask for some blogging advice because I really liked their style.  It was the first year I started blogging (4 years ago).  With that, it started a friendship because they were also local in Dallas.  I attended some junk shows that they were a part of which was so awesome because of my huge love for that stuff.  

I planned on starting my own junk business 2 years ago but with my dad in the hospital and planning a wedding, those plans took a backseat. Of course it didn't stop me from building an inventory in our garage though.  This past summer, I went to a garage sale that was bench held by the same person who hosts a junk show twice a year in DFW.  While I was there, my sweet friend happened to be there too with her husband and it was such a great surprise.  While we were there, she introduced me to the hostess and recommended me for their winter show. 

Fast forward a few weeks after that, I got approved to be in the show and then the race began.  I had to file for tax permit for state of Texas.  That's when it got "real" for me.  My hand shook as I filled out the application. I have to be grown up and file taxes quarterly now for the business. 

I've been painting and sanding every night after work and on weekends.  It's in 2 weeks and I think I'm ready.  I know there's so much that i don't know and I'm so nervous.  Todd is just happy to get rid of the huge ginormous pile of furniture and knick knacks out of the garage. Lol. 

Between getting ready for the show, and this weekends Holliween party, I've been swamped. I don't mind though. I like always staying busy.  

So I created my FB page yesterday so if you happen to be on there, go like my page Junque Dancer. I will start to post pics of items in selling tonight when i get home. I was busy last night and didn't take any pictures.  

 

I can't wait to tell you all about the show!! I went as a shopper last year to this show and I can't wait to be a vendor now.  

Have a great weekend! I most likely won't post tomorrow because I have the day off to wrap up things for the party.