Up All Night

Queen City Craft Bazaar

2009-04-07T11:23:00.004-05:00

I will be at the Queen City Craft Bazaar once again for the 2009 Spring edition! It is happening on Saturday, May 9, 2009 from 10 am until 5 pm at 1 Main Street in Burlington, Vermont. I will be on the lower level, but please be sure to visit everyone on the top floor too. There are 45 awesome indie crafters participating this time. To find out more, visit the Queen City Craft website. To see a full list of vendors, click here. See you there!

beCAUSE Craft Show

2009-03-07T12:31:00.007-05:00

I will be a vendor at the beCAUSE Craft Show on March 21st. I will be donating a portion of my profits to the Rutland County Humane Society. To see a full list of vendors and their charities, click here. We hope to see you all there!
Happy Spring!

beCAUSE Update:
Thank you to all of the terrific people who purchased something at my booth during the sale! Because of you, I was able to donate $225 to the Rutland County Humane Society! If you are looking for a pet, please be sure to visit this wonderful organization. Also, thanks to PJ and Barry who did a perfect job organizing this great show! See you there next year!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T14:44:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas tomorrow! Enjoy the day and be safe if you are traveling. See you soon!

Vermont Hand Crafters 2008

2008-11-20T01:07:00.007-05:00

I will be at the Vermont Hand Crafter's show with my zippers. The show begins Thursday and runs through Sunday.

Happy October!

2008-10-06T01:29:00.004-05:00

This is just a quick post to let you know that I am still alive, just very busy. My big news of the year is that I was juried into Vermont Hand Crafters in August. I will be doing the four day show at the Sheraton in November. I am so excited about this even if it is a ton of work to prepare for! I also have a full schedule of shows and activities planned up until Christmas that I need to get ready for too. It is going to be a busy time so if you don't hear much from me for a while, don't be surprised. Check out my schedule at Stacie Mincher Designs, and then come visit me at a show!

Markets, Belt Buckles, and Millers.

2008-06-16T12:47:00.013-05:00

Hey! I can't believe June is already half over already!
I have been busy doing farmers markets and bringing pins to new stores since the beginning of May. All of the markets that I am doing this year are in full swing. I am in Winooski on Thursdays from 3:30-6:30, Brandon on Fridays from 9-2, and Rutland on Saturday from 9-2. Come visit! Eric has started as a market vendor with me in Rutland as well. He is selling iced coffee and it sure is delicious! We are happy to have him there so we can all be wired on coffee all day long.
I have also signed up with the Artists Market in Burlington on Saturdays but have yet to get up there to participate. Hopefully some time soon. I also in the process of planning my shows for the rest of the year. Check out my website for those dates. I will be posting them as I figure them out.
This is a picture of my friend Lexie, who is the daughter of my market neighbor Stephanie who sells pies. AJ Marro from the Rutland Herald took it a few weeks ago in Brandon.

I wanted to share Friday's thrift store find with you now that I finally took a picture of it. I scored a sassy bag full of vintage 'fashionable buckles' for only 50 cents. Yay me! Now what will I do with them? I will stash them away while I think of something.

I had a visitor on my window this past week, the Lunesta moth. Kind of cool, kind of creepy.

The next morning Lunesta was gone, and this thing was in the window. This one is just plain ugly! Luckily it didn't stay very long.

Rutland Farmers' Market!

2008-05-05T02:52:00.004-05:00

The Rutland Farmers' Market begins on Saturday, May 10th! I am so excited to get back outside again, to see my market friends, buy all of my favorite treats, and to sell some crafts! If you are in the Rutland area make sure to come out and buy your Mom a nice gift for Mother's Day. I'm sure she would like a zipper pin. Or perhaps a hanging basket or some delicious homemade goodies.
This past Saturday was the last winter market of the season so now the Rutland Farmers' Market is the only one in the state to run continuously throughout the year! Yay! Here is an article about the market which was published this weekend in the Rutland Herald.

Hello Maine!

2008-04-21T00:03:00.014-05:00

Eric and I just returned from a few days in Maine. Here is the blueberry field next to Fran's house. Not much going on there this time of the year. We usually go in July too and unfortunately the low bush blueberries really are not ready until August.

When we got to the house very late on Thursday night we were greeted by a lovely plumbing problem; a broken toilet tank. Oops. After turning the water on it just would not stay in the tank and it was gushing out all over the floor. There was no toilet shut-off knob like there should be so we had to turn the water in the house off completely. Not so good after traveling all day and wanting to clean up. After toughing it out with no water for one night and not much sleep at all, we needed to figure out what to do. We could have tried to fix the problem the next day, but we aren't plumbers and it would have taken forever. By that time we were walking around like dirty zombified savages, so we decided to stay at the Comfort Inn in Ellsworth for the remaining two nights and then we can plan to deal with the issues at a later time with the help of someone more experienced with the whole thing. Anyway...The hotel was completely luxurious after that experience. The running water, cable TV, an internet connection (although not completely reliable), the free breakfast and coffee, and things to do nearby were just wonderful.
We could see the L.L. Bean outlet from our window! After being awoken on Saturday morning by some workers blowing dust all over the place, we got ready and headed over to L.L. Bean. It was so awesome. In the past 4 or 5 years of going to Maine, we had only been to the outlet once and had been in a huge hurry so there was no time to look around. This time we spent an hour and a half there. Eric and I actually found things to try on and buy!

They had tote bags which were already marked down on sale for an additional 30% off. I have a purple one like the green and teal one below that I use all the time and love. I couldn't pass these up. What fun! Now I know where all the monogrammed stuff goes that people send back. They had loads of it for sale.

While we were at the house I was helping Eric in the basement and found this old pressure cooker sitting on top of a box of papers. I think the drawings on it are so funny. The animals are so cute how could you boil one of them up in here?

There are quirky little old things all over the house. A lot of people may think of throwing stuff like this away, but they make the house very special. I never knew Fran's parents so seeing their possessions in their home always makes me curious about them. Eric and I have always gotten a kick out of these little plaques in the kitchen. On rough days sometimes we think of this first one and recite it.

On Saturday we took a ride to Bar Harbor. In July it is crazy busy with tourists. We usually take a boat tour, eat dinner, shop, and look for specimens in the water. This time there really wasn't much to do. There were mostly just locals and college students around. Only a few places were open this time of the year. Many of the restaurants and shops were fixing things up and cleaning to get ready to open sometime in the next couple of weeks. It was a beautiful day though and I got to wear sandals around and not have my feet freeze off.
Back in Ellsworth we actually had time to hang around and try some different things to eat. I had an awesome Italian sub, slices of pizza, and Mexican food. Way up in that part of Maine most of the folks are just so nice and laid back. They are very friendly and for the most part are a pleasure to deal with. They remind me of the people here at home except they talk a little differently. They say things like 'lobstah' and 'chowdah'...for real.
On the way home today we stopped at Old Orchard Beach. We have never been to any of those touristy beach towns because we are always hurrying and never have time to go very far out of our way much less deal with traffic and crowds. When we got there, I had to use a bathroom so we drove all over town looking for one. There were none to be found! I was finally directed to one at a crappy local convenience market. In the restroom there was a big window with no shade pretty much right next to the toilet. Good thing there was a truck parked in the way outside. Also, there was NO SINK! Yuck. I hope they aren't preparing any food in there. Good thing for the container of Wet Ones Eric had in his car. I ended up having to buy a rip off $1.75 bottle of water there which I didn't really need just so I could be a 'customer' in order to use the stinky toilet. The people around were really rude and not very helpful. After that fiasco, we figured out where we were going and ended up in some parking lot near a pier. You could see a whole strip of tacky tourist shops and restaurants which were mostly closed this time of the year. There were a few stinky french fry places open and there were people walking around and a few groups of bored kids making trouble. We got out and walked on the beach. Although it was beautiful, it was windy and cold and we could see a sketchy bunch of people near the car so we called it a day and got back on the road. Oh well. It was a very long trip and I am happy to be back now that I am home.
Now that I am here, I need to start getting some work done again. I have been busy making zipper things all winter for my stores so I just haven't had much time to get any of my other projects done or even started. The Farmers' Markets are starting soon and I want to have some new things for sale. The markets I have planned so far are Brandon on Fridays and Rutland on Saturdays as well as a new one, Winooski on Thursday afternoons. I have another one I am hoping for, but I won't make it official until I hear back from them. I am looking forward to nice days outdoors and to seeing my market friends again.

Hoot! Hoot!

2008-04-13T12:12:00.006-05:00

Here are some owl zipper pins that I made for a friend recently. They turned out great! The zipper pulls that are the feet even say 'Talon' on them.

Guatemala Pictures.

2008-03-10T01:17:00.018-05:00

A Tuc Tuc, the Guatemalan taxi. Yes, we rode in these, many times.

Lemons at a restaurant we ate at in San Pedro.

The Arch in Antigua.

A procession in Antigua.

Market bags and scarves purchased in Xela.

Trash I picked up off the street.
Gallo is the main beer in Guatemala.

Lake Atitlan from the roof of the hotel we stayed at in Panajachel.

A Guatemalan woman washing clothes in the lake.

A crazy chicken bus trying to navigate a tight corner in San Pedro.

A real monkey at the nature preserve in Panajachel.

I'm baaaaaack.

2008-02-26T16:33:00.006-05:00

Guatemala was so much fun! It was like being on a totally different planet than here. It was just wild! I will post some pictures eventually once we get them all on to the computer.

Did you know that some McDonald's still sell apple pies that are FRIED and not baked? They have them at the McDonald's in Xela, Guatemala. When I got home I googled them and found out that there are other fried pie enthusiasts around. There is even a fried pie locator. I found the fried pies in Puerto Vallarta about 10 years ago but didn't know if they still exist now in 2008. They do. Delicious!

On Vacation!

2008-02-16T02:59:00.004-05:00

I'm going to Guatemala for a week! How about that! See you when I get back.

The Zipper Lady on TV

2008-02-02T04:47:00.000-05:00

The 'Made in Vermont' story on the news was a great success! Jack Thurston did an awesome job putting together a great story about me, my heart zipper pins for Valentine's Day and recycling. Thanks so much to Jack for finding me. And thanks to Sara, the owner of Made Boutique in Burlington (which is now closed-big bummer) who pointed him in the right direction. Click here to see me on TV!

WCAX * 2/1/08 * 6 pm

2008-02-01T01:09:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be on the news!!!
I will be on the WCAX Channel 3 News on Friday, February 1st at 6 pm. Jack Thurston will be interviewing me for the 'Made in Vermont' report about heart zipper pins for Valentine's Day. I will post a link as soon as it becomes available.
I'm crossing my fingers that I don't look too bad or sound stupid! I have no idea how it will be, but it sure was fun having Jack and the camera man visiting me at my house.
Anyway, watch me on the news!

Cabin Fever Craft Show

2008-01-25T16:18:00.000-05:00

This weekend I will be the Cabin Fever Craft Show at the Glens Falls Civic Center in Glens Falls, New York. It will take place on Saturday, January 26, 2008 from 10 am to 4 pm. I hope to see you there!

Friday Art Hop in Rutland

2008-01-11T02:18:00.000-05:00

I will be at the Timco Gallery on Center Street in Rutland on Friday, January 11th from 5-8 pm for the Friday Art Hop. Come see the new and awesome Timco Gallery if you haven’t already! I will be working on my zippers. We will also be serving up some snacks for long as they last. Other galleries in Rutland will also be open for the event, so come make an evening of it. Hope to see you there!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T05:06:00.001-05:00

Greetings from night owl central. I really am up all night. I better get to bed soon I suppose.

I hope you had a very nice New Years celebration to ring in 2008. I didn't do very much. I didn't even watch the ball drop on TV because I was upstairs talking to my sister who was falling asleep. Afterward, I went back down to start watching season 7 of the Gilmore Girls and to work on my zippers. Apparently they have been selling a little too well at Frog Hollow so I figured I better get back to work. I have been taking a little vacay from them for a while.

I had the chance to watch the ball drop in person in January of 2002 when I won a trip to NYC on the radio that year. It was pretty cool. Although the ball looked much smaller from where I was standing than it does on TV. It was right after September 11th and I was more interested in getting to the Trade Center site to see how it all was. It was very sad. I was happy to expore some of the city since I had never been before. We were hardly able to scratch the surface on that short trip. I can't believe that was already 6 years ago.

Anyway. I noticed that some people found my blog while googling about mothball smells. I still remember the horror of having to go around the outside of the apartment house where we lived to pick up all of the nasty mothballs that my landlord decided would be cool to put around to get rid of skunks that were taking up residence under the porch or in the basement or wherever. Ha Ha. The smell got sucked into the house and was making me ill. All of my clothes reeked like old people. Anyway. My sister became involved in a similar predicament in the house where she lived this fall as well. All of her food that she brought home tasted like the fool things. We had to tell her to stop bringing food back here because we didn't want it. A lot of the clothes my Mom washed of hers still stink. So this year when you are thinking about mothballs, JUST DON'T!

Do you make New Years resolutions? I don't. In fact I never do because I am sick of listening to people whine about how they always break them soon after. I have some goals for the year and I know some things that I have to do, but that is as far as I go. I hope you are successful in all of your plans and endevors. Sooooooo, have a fabulous year! Goodbye 2007. Hello 2008.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

Have a very merry Christmas! I hope everyone has an enjoyable day. Stay happy, safe, and healthy over the holidays.

Things have been so busy for me and I guess that they still are. I just realized how much work I still have to do before tomorrow. I have to get my butt home and finish my presenty projects and get everything wrapped and sorted. After my sister wakes me up at 7 am to open presents we are going to have a ham dinner and then I will be going with Eric to have Christmas with his family as we usually do. It usually snows on Christmas and we get stuck with some really bad driving conditions. It looks like the weather will be nice and cooperative this year, although a little bit cold. In the evening when the festivities are over we usually get a hankering for Chinese food on the way home. We will have to plan accordingly this year if we want to follow through on that. Ha ha!

The craft shows are all over for the year. It is kind of a relief but also sort of sad to know that I may not see all of my friends until the markets begin in May. It has been a great season. The shows were all up and down and some really differed from past years. I suppose things usually come out even in the end. I am trying to plan some things to keep myself a little more busy this winter. I have a craft show planned in Glens Falls, NY on January 26th and I am hoping that I will be able to participate in the Dorset winter farmers market to some extent.

I had some good news at the end of October. I have been juried into Frog Hollow to sell my zippers there. Yay! They are in all three galleries now so we will see how it goes. I was also juried into Art On Main in Bristol. It is nice to have some new stores and galleries to show in this year.

That is my news for now. Have a great day tomorrow. Have fun with your families and I hope you get some good loot if that is what you are into. Cheers!

Happy Turkey Day!

2007-11-25T02:04:00.001-05:00

Wowzers! I have been busy. Here are some new zipper ornaments that I made for the Brandon Artists' Guild. They should be up on the tree there now. They were fun to make and the best part was that I got to use rick-rack on the outside edges. Yay for the very special zig-zag braid!

I have been busy with craft shows every weekend since the end of September. See the schedule of where I will be for the next few weeks at my website, stacie mincher designs. This next weekend I will be at two different places in the Burlington area. My Mom and I are going to split up for the only time this year. I will be at the Queen City Craft Bazaar at 1 Main Street on Saturday, December 1st. I will also be doing the craft fair at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School on Friday evening and Saturday for the first time. I couldn't pass up either. Both should be a fantastic time. I can't wait!!!

This weekend was a two day Vermont Farmers' Market craft show in Poultney. It was busy and exciting for both days. It was nice to see all of my market friends and some new and past customers. We had a huge spot which was nice after being cramped in tiny spaces for the past couple shows. The display looked better than ever. It is over now and I have tomorrow to get in a little shopping that I missed out on yesterday and today.
I am going to have an insanely crazy week trying to get things done. I sold a ton of bottle cap picture frames this weekend so I will be making those as well as more zipper things, zippy pins, and a whole extra tray of book clips. I need to make cards but I will probably not. They attract a lot of attention but aren't always big sellers. I also have some important paper work to do that I have been putting off and worrying about for a while.
I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving week that you had some time off. It is super nice not having to go back to a lame retail job the day right after while everyone else had an extra long weekend off and I didn't! F that. I don't miss it at all. Have a good week and I will see you soon!

Beautiful Tent

2007-09-14T17:41:00.000-05:00

I finally settled on which tent I was going to get and ordered it. It came yesterday and I used it for the first time today. Isn't it pretty? Everything looked so nice and bright. Too bad sales this week have been lousy. It sounds like the weather is going to be cold and damp tomorrow. I will be all by myself in Rutland so come visit me!!! Things should pick back up soon as the leaves are starting to turn. It is really feeling like fall now.

Tent Troubles.

2007-08-26T17:38:00.000-05:00

The Fletcher Farm sale in Ludlow went pretty good. It was so darn hot and uncomfortable though. Luckily the rain and stormy weather held out until we were done. It's hard to believe it is almost September and pretty soon we will be complaining about how cold and ugly it is out. I didn't end up using the new tent because when I assembled the whole thing at home last week I found out that the frame was defective (bent in 3 places). After talking with another vendor yesterday who got the same tent and had the same problem and ended up hassling with it for a good long time, I really feel that the best thing would be to return it to where it came from and start from scratch. I will end up having to spend more money but so goes it.
I'm looking at another pretty busy week and I am hoping to get lots of work done. Hope yours is good too.

Another Fletcher Farm Show

2007-08-19T19:21:00.000-05:00

I will be participating in the Summer Arts and Crafts Festival on Saturday, August 25, 2007 at the Fletcher Farm School for the Arts and Crafts in Ludlow, Vermont. It is located 1.5 miles east of Ludlow village on Route 103. It is happening from 10 am to 4 pm rain or shine. Admission is free. Please come out to support over 90 artists and craftspeople from all over New England. The last show in July was a lot of fun so I hope this one is good too. I hope to see you there!
I will be there with my new E-Z Up tent that I just bought yesterday and I am so excited about setting it up at the markets for the first time this week. The Farmers' Markets are going well. I am doing four a week now! I feel busy.
I am also gallery sitting at the B.A.G. again this week as well. Last week I sold 5 of my pins during my day there.
Have a good week!

Eyes and Bags, But Not Under Eye Bags.

2007-07-09T00:22:00.000-05:00

Well hello there! I have been really bad about this blog, haven't I? I totally missed June. Oops. Oh well. Things have been heating up in the busy department here. I am doing three farmers' markets a week. Even though much of the time they have been pretty slow, they are still a ton of work...Lugging everything around, setting up, tearing down, battling the wind and rain, and sitting around in the heat all day long. For gosh sakes! For all those complaints, I still love it. I like the freedom of doing my own thing, being able to show off all my new work, and talking to people all day.
This weekend my Mom and I did a show at the Fletcher Farm School for the Arts and Crafts in Ludlow, VT. It was nice to see some different vendors, new customers, and some pretty scenery. I made a nice wad of cash so now I can pay for my dentist appointment this week. Phewwwww! The only really bad thing about it was that the only bathrooms were nasty ass porto-lets and there were no sinks in sight. I went through plenty of wet ones, that's for sure. Also, there was pretty much nothing good to eat, only food from an RJs wagon and a Mr. Ding-a-ling truck. Bah. The map I received had a drawing of a big food court on it. There was kettle corn though which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, there is a gift shop there for the members of The Society of Vermont Artists and Craftsmen to which I belong. They had some neat barrettes made out of polymer clay for pretty darn cheap. I got one for myself and a couple for gifts. Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I forgot my camera and all of its various adaptors this weekend.
Here is some exciting news. Last night at Price Chopper I discovered that they are now selling reusable shopping bags which were on sale for 99 cents this past week. They still may be that price. They are washable, hold up to 50 lbs, and are made of woven propylene and really are quite cool looking. I ended up using it today to bring my book, wallet, keys and water bottle with me to Glens Falls. Here is a picture from the Price Chopper site. It isn't an actual picture, but you get the idea.
What else? Oh, I have been having a hard time with my eyes for the past month. I went to the eye doctor and she found a problem with my corneas which she though was caused my my bad contact wearing habits. I always left them in too long and often fell asleep at night wearing them by accident. Don't sleep in your contacts people. My corneas were not looking right from lack of oxygen. After getting rid of the contacts and having to wear glasses for three and a half weeks, using antibiotic eye drops, and tons of lubricating eye drops, there was no change except less redness. I went to see a specialist in Burlington and now I have a little work to do and some things to think about and to make a long story short it looks like I am going to be wearing my glasses for a while. Dang it! Bummer.
Anyway. I hope summer is going good for everyone and that all is well.

Tuesday Update

2007-05-01T19:20:00.000-05:00

The Zipper Cat Clock sold on the first day of the show at the Brandon Artists's Guild! I am now planning to make more to sell there in the next few months, not just cats but other shapes as well. I also have zipper picture frames and earrings in the works.
I also was able to donate all of the canned goods yesterday afternoon in Middlebury. My car is much lighter now and I will have room to pack the car for the Queen City Craft Bazaar in Burlington on Saturday. I am at home trying not to stress too much about getting stuff done. I am finishing up some projects, organizing my piles, and trying to spiff up my displays. I am still hoping to get a few more things finished before the big day. I am so excited! I can't wait to see all the awesome stuff that is going to be for sale there. It feels like Christmas Eve! Hope to see you there!

Cat Clock at the B.A.G.

2007-04-30T01:35:00.000-05:00

This is the Cat Clock that I have created for the Brandon Artists' Guild summer fundraiser, "Brandon is Reigning Cats and Dogs!" It was created out of metal zippers. It will be on display and for sale at the B.A.G. all summer until the event is over in the fall. I have to get up bright and early this coming up morning to deliver it to the gallery to be hung. I guess I better get to bed right this instant. Maybe my next project should be a "Night Owl" clock! I think I am on to something now! Ha!

Where do I start?

2007-04-27T22:22:00.000-05:00

Wow! It has been a really busy week. The first thing that I have to say is that I think I may have found Squeeky the cat's twin sister. Just kidding, but really though, it looks JUST LIKE HER! I found a flyer on the bulletin board at the library in town from the Addison County Humane Society asking to please adopt this cat. It looks like a mugshot of Squeeky. In this picture the real Squeeky is on the right. (Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?) She doesn't like having the camera in her face so please excuse her for not looking at the up.

The next thing is that I started to wear a new pair of shoes this week. I got these Keen shoes at TJ Maxx a couple months ago for $25. I debated about bringing them back for a while and finally decided that it isn't too muddy out and maybe I could wear them. I like the way they look, but damn, after a while they are just not comfortable at all. They are cushy but have a slight incline that I am just not used to. The top of the bottom part starts to cut into my foot and it sucks. Why can't they be more comfortable? I am also wearing new pajama pants that I got for $7
on clearance at TJ Maxx tonight.

Here is a picture of the blueberry field behind Fran's house in Maine. I have never been there this time of the year and was surprised to see that the fields are very red, although it looks more purple here. Whenever we go in July or August they are green from the leaves of the plants. We had a busy time in Maine working on some projects at the house. Because Fran passed away at the end of October last year, there was still a ton of food in the house. We threw out the perishables and brought the canned goods out of the basement and the cabinets. After selecting some stuff to leave there, I ended up filling my car up with it to bring back to distribute among our family members and friends. The remaining food (a whole trunk full) will be donated to a food shelf before it gets any older. This food pictured here is only a very small percentage of what was there. There were at least 20 large cans of Hannaford baked beans. On the way back Eric made a joke about driving the baked bean express back to Vermont. He wasn't kidding. Toot Toot (literally)! All aboard. I got a package of hot dogs tonight at the store to make beans and franks this weekend.

This has been a really interesting week. One of the coolest things that happened was that Trish called me to ask if I wanted to go to a reception for Bill Ramage, one of our art professors at Castleton State College. He is currently showing a retrospective of his work before retiring after 28 years of teaching. It was amazing, awesome, and awe inspiring. It will be up from now until May 15th. Read about Bill Ramage here and here. It was nice to see Bill, some other professors, and some former classmates. Wow!
Another good thing was that my friend Indira from Rutland got in touch with me because she was going to be speaking at a conference in Middlebury today. We ended up having a delicious lunch at the Storm Cafe. After we ate we ended up having espresso. That isn't something I usually do, but what a good idea it was! It was so good! I am still thinking about it now. I don't think I have seen Indira in person since around Christmas time and it was really nice to catch up with her. She gave me a CD too! Indira is just so nice and generous, and I think she is one of the smartest people I know. It was really lucky thing to have her as my neighbor as she has become a really good friend.
Things are really getting busy for me as next weekend is the Queen City Craft Bazaar! I have to get things finished and in order for that. Also, I have to finish my cat piece for the Brandon Artists' Guild which is due Monday morning at the latest. Oops, I really need to go get going to work on finishing that.
Have a good weekend!

Storm Update.

2007-04-17T15:17:00.000-05:00

The power at Eric's came back on here at 11 am today! We were so happy. However, it is still out in many places around town, Rutland county, and through Brandon. It was really strange to see everything so dark on this side of town when we got back last night. It sounds like everything is still a mess. Now we can get on with our plans.

It's a Disaster!

2007-04-16T22:24:00.000-05:00

This was what happened this morning in Rutland!
I took this picture from the Rutland Herald website because I am too lazy to go out and take my own pictures. But anyway, we took a ride around town at 12 pm and saw much more like this! There are huge trees completely up-rooted, power lines down all over the place, and store signs torn from their metal casings and flung all over the ground. What a mess! The power has been out since 8 this morning and it sounds like it will probably not be fixed until sometime tomorrow night, if not later in the week! I have not showered all day and I am feeling pretty nasty. Since most of the stores and gas stations were closed, we decided to get out of town and head to Glens Falls, NY for the rest of the afternoon to do laundry and to eat somewhere different. I had been trying to work on my zippers in the dark and I think we would have gone crazy stuck inside all day long. Oh well. This sucks!
Oh, by the way this is my 100th post! Congratulations to me for blogging for 2 years!

Working Hard...

2007-04-16T00:52:00.001-05:00

Here is a preview of what I have been working on all winter. Pretty, pretty zippers! This is just a sampling. Besides these I have probably finished over 2oo pins and barrettes and have a whole box more in different stages of completion. I have been finishing some other projects as well and I am trying some new things to sell this spring. I have more ideas too!
I finally brought a bunch of new pins to a sort of new store called Belladonna on Main Street in Middlebury. They will be for sale there beginning in early May.
Also, a fellow member of the Brandon Artists' Guild has offered to sell them at her store in Mendon as long as I make a display for them to put on her counter. I better get busy with that soon.
My sales at the B.A.G. have been pretty good, even over the slow winter months. I have been logging lots of time there gallery sitting. It is a little slow some days but there are usually a good amount of people looking each day. There are always a hand full of artists who pop in to check on things and let me take a walk for some much needed coffee. A famous children's author and her husband came in the other day after giving a talk at a local school. They bought a beautiful hand-painted chest. It was pretty exciting! We are all working on our projects for this summers' fund-raiser: It's reigning cats and dogs!
I have gotten a lot done this week that I have been putting off such as applications and pictures. It ended up being a lot of work, but much easier and much less dreadful than I had anticipated.
Things are definitely going to start picking up soon. May 5th is the Queen City Bazaar in Burlington and we are getting psyched for this awesome event. I can't wait! Also, my three Farmers' Markets will be starting mid-may and will keep me busy until the end of October when the holiday sales begin. Ya-hoo!

Queen City Craft Bazaar

2007-03-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

I will be participating in the Queen City Craft Bazaar at Union Station in Burlington, Vermont. It will take place on Saturday, May 5th from 10 am to 5 pm. There will be 35 super cool crafters there doing their thing. It is going to be awesome!

Thanks Lindsey!

2007-03-05T01:10:00.000-05:00

Oh my! Can you believe it? Two posts in one weekend. This one is so long overdue it isn't even funny.
I really need to publicly thank Lindsey at Linques Design for this awesome gift which she sent me because she is just so nice. Way back in November I found her blog at Whip Up and we started communicating through her comment section and email. I was just in time to get in on a give-away that she was having for a few lucky readers. She sent me these lovely custom made pieces; a necklace with a purple stone and a very delicate chain as well as a bracelet with purple stones, white beads, and a picture frame charm with purple fabric in it. Knowing that my favorite color is purple, she even put everything in purple boxes and fabric bags! This is a very special gift which I really love! Thanks Lindsey for being so nice and for keeping in touch! You are very awesome and very creative!

Montreal

2007-02-25T02:36:00.000-05:00

All week long I have been meaning to finish this post. Geez. Anyway, Eric and I went on a vacation to Montreal last week for a few days. We had a lot of fun even though it was a little bit more stressful than we had hoped. It was FREEZING in Montreal! It snowed some while we were there. Not much, but enough to make the walking a little slippery at times. Although we did try driving a little bit, took a taxi once, and figured out the Metro one day, most of our travels were walked ones. We tried out a few different streets and areas this time and found some cool things.
So now it is time for show and tell. A bunch of this stuff pictured here came from a dollar store that was in the shopping complex that was connected to our hotel. If you are familiar with the city, you know that there are several shopping centers, office buildings, and hotels that are connected underground along with the subway. It is pretty cool that you can leave your room and walk all over without even going outside. The dollar store was more like the 80 cent store once you figured out the exchange rate. They had cards in French and lots of neat stickers. One day we took the Metro to Saint Hubert street where there is a fabric district consisting of stores selling fabric and sewing notions, as well as a couple bead stores. There was also a store selling Latino grocery items and a Balkan store with candy that our friends Indira and Ivo often have in their home. I found an old Dunkin Donut mug at the Salvation Army there that cost practically nothing as they were having a half price sale. We went to a health food store where I found some awesome kids shampoo that smells like pears. Also, the Claratin there was a little cheaper and you didn't need to start a file in the pharmacy to buy psudophederine like you do here.
The things here are some goodies that you can't find here in the states. Yum, delicious! They have curry Lays. I had to try them, although I'm not a huge curry fan so I didn't think they were that good. In one news stand I found cinnamon KitKat bars which are pretty darn good. And of course, I made sure to bring home tons of KINDER!
The third picture down is my Kinder Maxi egg sailboat toy. It was fun to put together and the egg was a massive shell of chocolate and white chocolate goodness! I am going to try to make something with the glitzy wrapper the whole thing came in.
The last picture is of Yop yogurt drink and Mini-go kids yogurt. The Yop is so good. It seems like they use far less chemicals in food in Canada. This drink is made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup like the yogurt drinks in this country. It makes a huge difference. I brought home 6 bottles and they are gone now. Bummer.
Montreal has a huge selection of restaurants with every kind of food imaginable in a huge range of prices. We found a huge variety of awesome food just in the food court of the shopping center near us alone.
Besides shopping and eating, the very best thing that we did was to see the Gipsy Kings in concert. It was held at the Bell Center and the place was packed. It was awesome!

Craft Fun!

2007-02-04T04:35:00.000-05:00

This is most of the stuff purchased at Recycle North in Burlington last week. I forgot to put the vintage cookbooks in the picture though. The label maker says 'JANE' and '1975' on it. I love it! And I hope it works.

These zippers arrived in the mailbox this week from a woman who saw me at a show this winter. It was really nice of her to think of me. Thanks Ilah!

Not too much has been going on. I have been laying low and working really hard on making some new things. I set up a DVD player in my studio and have been having fun watching things while I work. It makes the time go faster. Here are a few photos of n ew work. The square and the star are both pins and the picture on the bottom is a barrette.

Busy.

2007-01-27T00:24:00.000-05:00

Although I didn't make any official New Years resolutions, I know there are some things that I need to be working on. One of them is to get my things into more stores. Today I made a trip to Burlington to do a few things. The first one was to check out Green Closet which is located in Winooski. The owner looked over my goods and selected 17 pieces to sell. That was a lot of fun and quite exciting! The next stop was Made Boutique to bring Sara a whole new selection of pins, barrettes, and retro food cards. Made has moved to a new location at 22 Church Street above Olympia Sports and will re-open on February 2nd. My Mom also did some work for me today too. She stopped at Knits and Bolts which is located in New Haven on route 7. They will now be selling a few pins as well. I still have a lot more to do and I will be finding ways to keep busy during the next few months.
While in Burlington, I met up with Trish and we had lunch then hit the thrift stores. I ended up getting a whole bunch of awesome things for $5 which included: A huge wood quilting hoop, a metal Barbie lunch box, a metal display stand for my tables, two metal holders for records or papers, an old Dymo label maker, a bag of beer caps, corks, Mardi Gras beads and other miscellaneous things, and 6 vintage cook books. I also picked up about 20 plastic clothes hangers for free. Trish found a very new pair of Pumas for $3. Yay for thrifting!
I stopped at Starbucks for a delicious Caramel Macchiato and headed home. Have an awesome weekend!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2006-12-30T01:38:00.000-05:00

One of my Christmas gifts from Eric finally came today. Wow! Was I excited to get this iPod shuffle! It was amazingly easy to set up and use. I have always wanted an iPod. Yay!

Another really cool thing that my sister gave me was this Demeter Waffle Cone cologne. We were looking at these in Burlington last week. I received a whole lot of other very cool and thoughtful gifts but they are either at home, tucked away, eaten, or were promised. More on that later. I finally got a great deal on a new coat this week at TJ Maxx.

I did a little shopping for myself too. I also found this pocketbook at TJ Maxx. It is a little different from what I am used to, but I really like something about it.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Happy 2007!!!

Pin in the Paper!

2006-12-20T21:07:00.000-05:00

One of my pins was featured in a 'gifts under $30' section in the Burlington Free Press today. Check it out here. I am so excited about this!
Happy shopping! There's only four more days before Christmas...

Hi and Bye!

2006-12-07T18:51:00.000-05:00

Hi to everyone who is reading, and my new craft sale friends if you have found me! I am really sorry that I haven't been updating more often. I think about it every day though. I am having the busiest December of my life ever. I have been soooooooo busy with craft sales and making crafts that it is just about impossible to think about doing anything else. I have no idea when the heck I am going to do any Christmas shopping or making of holiday cards, maybe the day before Christmas, if I am not passed out from exhaustion! I have had two very successful sales this week and if you are in the area this weekend please come and see me at the Vermont Farmers Market sale at the Holiday Inn in Rutland, or visit my mom and Val who will be at the Brandon Farmers Market sale at the Brandon Inn. I hope everyone is healthy and well! Bye.

Yes, I'm still alive.

2006-11-09T03:23:00.000-05:00

Hi! Sorry about the long absence again. I have been hiding under a rock for the past month. If you've been paying close attention you would see that I have been updating the sidebar regularly, but other than that I am pretty lazy. What has been going on anyway?

*The farmers markets ended at the end of October. I didn't make it to the last one because of the rain and wind. It was ugly that day. It is really sad to know that I won't be able to spend three days a week hanging out outside, making money, and talking to all my friends again until May. I'm not looking forward to the cold and dreary winter and the and darkness that is already here. I don't know what I will do once my sales are all done after Christmas. I am already staying up way too late and sleeping through the mornings and well into the afternoon. Not good since there is only a limited amount sunlight for the day.

*The holiday shows are all planned and I am scheduled for ten until Christmas! The first one was this past week in Williston, Vermont. It was big and busy. The only problem was that we were stuck in a dark hallway and people could not see the merchandise. After a long pain in the neck visit to Walmart, I returned with two battery powered lamps and clamps. I felt clever for about an hour until they died and it was once again dark. Oh well. I ended up doing pretty good anyway. We were across from the bathroom and there was always a line of people waiting who came over to have a look. The big sellers of the day were bookclips. I have been busy working on zipper pins for the sale this weekend in Bristol, Vermont. I have done this particular show for a few years now and have always done well.

*My experience at the Brandon Artist's Guild has been very good. I have gallery-sat twice so far. The first day I had many sales and the second day I had none. The holiday show is up and I have some of my work in a special display case hanging on the wall. I have to bring in some more pieces again soon and order some gift boxes.

*Eric's stepfather, Fran, passed away on October 21st. It was sad news for all of us. We will miss him very much. I miss the lunches we regularly enjoyed with him and all of his interesting stories. I really appreciated Fran's excellent memory for the details of things which I had told him in previous visits. Many people either don't listen or can't remember a lot of those things.

*I half-heartedly celebrated my 30th birthday. We found out about Fran that day so Eric and I didn't do anything special. He got me a cake which I enjoyed. I was at Eric's for the week, so the next weekend I went out to dinner with my family. My sister gave me the new book by Amy Sedaris - I like you: Hospitality Under the Influence. I especially enjoy the craft section. My Mom had a gigantic banner made for Stacie Mincher Designs. Pictures of that some other day.

*I have had a few minor thrift store purchases since the last post. A lot of wool sweaters that may or may not be slightly too small, a couple melamine bowls...what else did I drag home?
My latest thing has been shopping for zippers on eBay. I have had good luck with a couple good auctions with another one on the way. (Be quiet MOM-I don't want to hear about it!) The last box arrived just on time as the zippers had small teeth and I was just at the point where those were helpful to me. They were beautiful. How can someone get so excited about zippers? you ask. I just can.

*I found this news story about my Dad's Bed and Breakfast online. That is just typical. My Dad is crazy about Halloween. I can remember when my Dad and Jackie crashed one of my junior high dances when they came to pick me up dressed like Dracula and the Grim Reaper. Another Halloween a couple years later my Dad abandoned us in Buttolph Acres. He was dressed like Albert Einstein and he exclaimed "the night is still young!" and took off without planning a pickup time. Amy and I were stranded out in the rain and had to call my friends father to bring us home. That was delightful. My Dad looks more and more like my Grandma every time I see him.

Ok, that is my report. I have to call it a night now. Hopefully I will get motivated to write more or take some pictures soon.

Hey! Look What I Got!

2006-10-16T11:43:00.000-05:00

Things have been going great lately. I have been so busy. After the last Brandon Farmers Market of the season, I saw a yard sale I couldn't pass up. Good thing I stopped, because I found some really neato stuff. So I will start with show and tell.
Here is a really cool retro owl bank. It has a slit in the back of its head to put the money in. The lady there said that her mom used to put money in it for her grand kids when they came to visit.

I also got these vintage aprons and the green table cloth in the background for free.

About two weeks ago we did a sale at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont. There was also a chili festival and a sidewalk sale going on. I picked these vintage cookbooks at a used bookstore.

When I began selling my zipper pins at the Brandon Artists Guild, one of the members gave me a small bag of zippers which had belonged to her mother. They are the best kind! Thanks Peg! Also, I received a request for a bag or a purse made out of zippers. Another member, Nancy, gave me one of her wool pieces to play around with. Thanks Nancy!

After the Rutland market on Saturday, I treated myself to a new pair of Crocs. Thank you Stacie!

And one more thing here...I was working on sewing pouches and I decided to make one for myself. It is great so far but I wish I had put some sort of a handle on it.

And the very last bit of information that I have is to tell you that I have officially started a new website for my business Stacie Mincher Designs. As of right now I really only have my sale dates for the next two months. Pretty soon I will make some of my creations available for sale. Check it out, and then check back often!

Good News!

2006-09-26T23:08:00.000-05:00

I reached my 200 picure mark on flickr and got a notice to either pay up or delete some images. I was only able to delete 2 and then it didn't want to cooperate any longer. So I am posting these photos using the blogger picture option now since it works and it never worked before. With dial-up here at home it takes forever to upload. If that's all I have to work with, so be it.

So here is a picture of some of the assorted stuff I got at the Open Door Mission thrift store in Rutland on Monday. Lots of zippers, thread, beads, keychains, trim, buttons, and more of that boondoggle cord shit. Pretty cool. The best part is sorting it all out.

Anyway, while I wait 5 minutes for one picture I will fill you in what I have been up to lately. I have been doing a lot of the same for the past few weeks:
*I have been busy with my three farmers markets: Middlebury, Brandon, and Rutland. These few weeks have been a little slow since everyone went back to school and the leaves have only just started to change colors. Everyone is expecting it to pick up very soon. We did a fall festival in Proctor last Saturday. They had scenic train rides all day. I wish I could have gone on one. I didn't do very good because it rained just about all day and there just wern't a lot of people around. I have many fall festivals planned as well at the markets until the end of October. I am also planning holiday shows right now.
*I have very exciting news! I have been accepted as a member of The Brandon Artists Guild! I tried to get in last year but didn't make it. I was disappointed but was told to try again. This year was even more competitive than the last. There were over 100 qualified artists who were interested. I had to send in pictures two weeks ago and made the first cut. I participated in the hands-on jury on Saturday which included 17 artists. Out of all of those people only 5 or 6 were accepted. I got an official call tonight to inform me that I made it. I have improved my designs and technique so much over the past year. My work was as perfect as it could be this time around and I was very nervous about the whole process. I made it and I am so excited! I will be bringing my work on Friday which is great because Saturday is the big palette auction and a lot of people will be in town. Warren Kimble, the great American folk artist, is a founding member of the guild and everyone turns up to try to buy his work. Thank you to Coliene, the members of the jury, and all of my Brandon market friends for talking about me!
*I also have been working on getting my creations into some stores. On a tip from my awesome friend Trish, I now am selling zipper pins and a couple other things at Made Boutique in Burlington, Vermont. Sara, the owner, will eventually be selling the merchandise online as well. I also have a good variety of things at Sugar House crafts on Route 4 in Rutland. I have had stuff at Lowell Country Gifts in Benson, Vermont since last November.
*I have a cold. I sure hope it goes away soon.
*Eric and I are going to start working on a web page for Stacie Mincher Designs very soon. It have been a long time coming and I am very happy that Eric has volunteered to head it up. Thanks Eric!

Here is a picture of knitting. I got a deal on some yarn last weekend and needed a project to do while I was staying at Eric's apartment. I can't bring any big and messy projects as there isn't enough space or time to work on them. This knitting was perfect because I could work on it while we sat and talked.

Treats Galore!

2006-09-09T21:34:00.000-05:00

It's time for show and tell! I had a little shopping spree at the Rutland Farmers' Market today and ended up with some delicious goodies! I have some french Bear Mountain Bread, raspberries, a brownie from the Burnham Hollow man who picks on my sister, some Macintosh apples, and a jar of caramel sauce from our friends, Sandy, Bruce, and Tom. Hi to Tom if you figured out how to type in this address correctly. Har har! We had a really good singer at the market today, Tim Caira. He is a second grade teacher from Mount Holly. His singing was so good I had to buy his CD. It is so pleasant and peaceful. It was $10 very well spent. I don't want to think about how much I spent on all the other treats, but they sure are good, damn it! I almost ended up with a hunk of chevre cheese from my friend Hannah's goat farm, but her brother left before I could get it. Dang.
I also would like to give a shout out to Sharon, a friend from the Middlebury Farmers' Market who makes Orange Cat Soap out of goat's milk from her farm.
Thank goodness for the Farmers' Markets for giving me a job this summer and allowing me to make an abundance of new friends! It has been a great summer. I am now planning my fall and winter shows. A list will follow sometime soon.
I'm having fun this weekend hanging out with Eric and Squeeky the cat.

Nice new craft space, glasses gripes and goodies, market magic, and the fatty food fair.

2006-09-02T20:10:00.000-05:00

I have a new workspace! When I got home last Monday afternoon my Mom and I embarked on a serious house reorganization project. I relocated all of my craft stuff plus an extra table into the old family room of the house. It is super spacious and the most organized it has ever been. It didn't even take me very long. As soon as everything was in place I got right to work. Over the past two weeks I managed to produce about 50 new zipper pins and barrettes and close to 100 new magnets. I have been selling a ton of them and needed desperately to replenish my supply. I also have an old couch in the space so when I feel like I am going to pass out from crafting exhaustion I can flop on it and take a nap. We also did a little bit of cleaning and my mom rearranged the living room furniture. Here is a picture of my wonderful new space.

The past two weeks have been busy, productive, and extremely successful! Last week was my best week at the markets ever and then this week was the second best. I don't know what is going on, but I couldn't believe my luck. I will be sad when the markets end in October. I am also beginning to plan my craft fair schedule for the fall and winter.
I actually have a little bit of money saved up now and I am so proud of myself. I have been in need of a new pair of glasses since May and now I can finally afford them. I went to the local eye doctor's office in Middlebury that my mom and sister go to and picked out a beautiful new pair of frames with some really special lenses. They won't be done for 3 weeks and I am so excited, I just can't wait!
My current pair is only 3 years old and I really don't even wear them much because I wear contacts most of the time. I am now going to gripe about Lenscrafters. I got this pair there and just look at what a piece of shit they are now!

Lenscrafters is like the McDonalds of eye care. Fast, poor quality, and just not very good. First of all, there is a nasty guy that has worked at the one here forever. I don't appreciate his attitude. Then, they did a terrible job. The lenses were cut and shaped really shoddily. It really bothered me and I took them back to complain. After a good dose of bad attitude, they redid them but they still weren't much better. The lenses also have a bunch of tiny air bubbles inside them. Then two years later when I had eye allergies and had to wear them every day for a month straight they really got put to the test. The spring on one arm that enables it to bend back the other way broke right off. I have had to super glue it a bunch of times and then last week the same thing happened to the other side. Then that same day the glasses got caught in my sweater and one nose pad ripped off half way. In order to fix the broken springs, they have to take them off of another new pair of frames and would charge $30 per arm. I figured that I might as well just get a new pair at this point. Did you know that at Lenscrafters they put your lenses in the nasty model pair that everyone has tried on and that is what you get, and pay big bucks for, I might add! The local place that I went to in Middlebury this week orders a fresh pair for you. I was very pleased with the service I got there and with the selection of frames available.
The Vermont State Fair in Rutland began yesterday and of course we had to go to check it out and eat dinner. My favorite BBQ place was not there this year and I had a very hard time finding a decent chicken sandwich to eat. I already ate two hotdogs this week on two seperate occasions and I wasn't about to eat another one. By the time we left I was completely exhausted. I haven't gotten enough sleep in a few days and I think I better try to get ready for bed very soon or I will be in trouble.

Nifty Thrifting

2006-08-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

Like I said the other day, I have been finding some awesome used treasures in my travels between Rutland and Burlington. Ooooohhh! Show and tell is so frickin' exciting!!!
These Brooks running shoes were only $5 at the Salvation Army in Burlington. They are mens size 9 and fit me perfectly. They looked to be worn once, if at all. I threw them in the washing machine and they were good to go. The only thing was that they gave me a killer blister between my two last toes on my left foot, but so do the sneakers I have now.

These green boxes came from the RetroWorks in Middlebury and Recycle North in Burlington and were 50 cents each.

These stacking dishes also came from RetroWorks and were $1.50. That seems like a little too much but most things there are overpriced. I bought them after I saw some plastic stacking trays in Domino Magazine which were shown as an example to store jewelry in.

At the Open Door Mission in Rutland last week I found a bag of zippers for $2. There were also a few more in packages which I promptly cut up to make zipper pins out of.

These zippers were given to me by a woman at the Middlebury Farmers' Market on Wednesday. Amy and I thought the fabric from her husbands old pants was pretty darn neat too.

Some other finds in the past few weeks have been:
*Two huge bags of retro Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens cook books for $8 which were immediately put to good use by making cards and pencil cans (more on that later).
*Two pairs of pants. One is L.L. Bean and one pair of jeans.
*A huge ziploc bag of assorted plastic beads for $3.
*A Samples CD for $1. I have been a fan of theirs since high school and have seen them in concert three times.
*A wicker basket with a latch and a handle.
*Two metal stands to display necklaces/bracelets on.
*A wire box with clear beads strung in between.
*A double Harry Chapin Record that my sister probably took with her to her apartment.
*A brand new colapsable luggage cart for $1 that I use to bring my bins from the car to the market.
*A pair of shutters for $12 found in Maine that I may end up using to display stuff on at my sales.
*An XL Northern Isle teal cardigan wool sweater new with the tag still on it for $6 for my sister. It is totally her style and may even have one like it in another color.

I want to say a few things about the thrift stores around here. The Open Door Mission in Rutland has the best selection of womens plus sized clothes. I almost always find something there. They must be getting ready for winter because they had some beautiful and good quality sweaters. Most of them wouldn't fit me, but someone would like them. They have scads of new stuff every week.
The Salvation Army in Rutland had gotten so ridiculously expensive that it is almost embarassing. They have a butt-load of crap that they have marked sky high and I don't think people are buying very much of it. For example, they have had some of those old two tier side tables marked $29.99. Now really! You can find those at yard sales for $3. And they are usually brown and crappy looking, unless you are crafty and paint one like ljc did.
The Salvation Army in Burlington is smaller but had plenty of junk to peruse. The prices were much more reasonable there. They have a sign there that says something like 'please do not shoplift, for HE is watching'. I think if you are going to shoplift, you probably aren't going to care if 'HE' is watching, just as long as the workers there aren't watching you.
RetroWorks in Middlebury is pretty neat. I have never found any clothes there but they have a nifty craft section. Things are often marked on the high side, especially if they are even the least bit 'retro' looking, even if they are crap. They have a room in the warehouse part which has 10 cent dumpster diver specials and a load of 8-tracks and vinyl albums.
Recycle North in Burlington is by far the coolest thrift store around. They have furniture, appliances, computers, house stuff, books, records, art and craft supplies, and tons of everything else you can think of at extremely reasonable prices. No clothes though. The place has been hopping the past two times I have been there. They also have a used building materials center nearby that I would like to check out.
Last week I was told about a thrift store in Brandon by one of my customers. This past Friday I took a walk down there. It is run by older women and the selection of clothes there reflects that. There was a small section of plus sized garments that were mostly polyester pants, Alfred Dunner or Sag Harbor. They looked like they had seen better days on the BonTon sale rack. There was a small selection of reasonably priced merchandise and a free bin. It was neat and clean and the staff was friendly. I didn't find anything there but may check back on that free bin in the future.
I went to two thrift shops in Middlebury which I haven't been too in a good long time, Neat Repeats and Round Robin. They have a good mix of clothes and other assorted household stuff. Both of them were overpriced and I didn't find anything worth buying. But you never know what you may find at some other time.
I haven't had any time to go yard sale-ing these days as I am always busy with the market on Saturday morning. I really miss it but that is something that will always be around. After moving twice in one year I know that I should be avoiding these tempting situations to buy other peoples discards at all costs, but I just can't help myself!!!

Ahhhhhh! Long time no see...

2006-08-23T13:18:00.000-05:00

Well, hello there. It sure has been a while, hasn't it?
I have been pretty busy with my crafts. I am doing three farmers' markets now. I just finished the one in Middlebury and had one of my best days at a market ever. You never know!
The Rutland and Brandon markets have also been very good too.
Other than that things have been the same. I haven't been anywhere interesting lately.
However, I have found some very exciting items while thrifting recently. I should have some pictures of those some day soon and maybe some of my new work.
I am at the library now so I am keeping it real.
This week is going by really fast and there just isn't enough time to do everything.

Oh My Gawd! It Was AWWWWEsome!

2006-08-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Eric and I went to Lake George, New York to take a one hour excursion aboard the Minne-Ha-Ha. I can't believe we have never been. The tickets were only $10.50 each. The boat has three levels and there was plenty of room to move around. The boat has a paddle wheel which is steam powered. It was light out when we started at 7:30. We watched the sun set and it was dark by the time we arrived back at the dock. The only thing was that we could hardly understand what the person was saying on the loudspeaker about what we were looking at. They were talking very fast and there was a lot of background noise. It was a lot of fun!

The steam.

The paddle is through there.

The sun is setting.

It is set some more.

The Minne-Ha-Ha back at dock.

However, the town is filled with the most OBNOXIOUS mobs of tourists I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! When were were in line to buy our tickets before boarding the boat we got a taste of what was to come for the evening. There was a middle-aged mother with her two daughters grown daughters in front of us. The mother was a large woman with huge, gaudy white sunglasses that covered half of her face. She didn't say much, but the daughters did all of the talking, and boy were they loud. They wanted the mother to have a senior citizen discount even though she looked to be in her mid to late 50s. The one daughter was smoking a butt and had a dress on with a tag hanging out that said 'plus sized'. After the boat ride we walked around the town. It was loaded with tacky souvenir shops that were filled with seashells, plastic lobsters, and figurines made in China. Lake George is a LAKE, not an ocean. Who would buy those there? There wasn't much of anything local or nice or good quality to be found. As I said, the people wandering around in droves were the worst. I believe they all must have come from New Jersey. They all had wicked annoying NEW YAWK accents. As we tried to remove ourselves from one ice cream shop, one woman stood in the doorway and bellowed to her family "DO YOU WANT HAAAARD OR SOOOFT?" Oh my Gawd! The town was also filled with behemoth SUVs...Surburbans and Hummers with New Jersey and New York plates.
We would definitely go on the boat again, but I will avoid the tourist trap of a town called Lake George from now on!

Success!

2006-08-06T13:30:00.002-05:00

It has been another busy weekend. I did well at the Brandon market on Friday and even better at the Rutland market on Saturday. I was put in my favorite spot and sold a lot of stuff. It was a nice day, breezy and not too hot until the end. The display looks better than ever!

My sister and I created these t-shirts last week and finally got to wear them yesterday at the market.

I also bought some of the best bread in Rutland, a pint of blueberries, and four ears of corn. It's all gone now and it was crazy delicious!

I was asked to do a zipper pin demonstration next week at our county fair, Field Days. I will be working on them all day and I will be able to sell them at the table there. I am hoping to be there Saturday as it will be busy. I am trying to get a hold of the woman in charge of the building now to make plans but the phone keeps ringing.

Weekend Update

2006-07-30T14:14:00.000-05:00

As promised, I am posting some pictures today. My sister took them and made me a teriffic brochure for my craft business. I finally got some new batteries for my camera so I should be updating with pictures more frequently pretty soon.
Things haven't been going very well with the markets for the past two weeks. I did well in Brandon last week as there were a lot of tourists in the area. However, in Rutland last Saturday I got put in a bad spot and we got rained out around noon time. It was pretty disappointing. There is a lot of trouble going on this year regarding assigned spaces, people who pay by the season or the week, people showing up late and expecting to have their spot saved, and people showing up and taking other people's spots. It has gotten pretty tense.
This weekend was the annual Ethnic Festival and Sidewalk Sales in Rutland. It has become a pretty big event which draws a lot of people to the area. There are all types of foreign foods to try, a beer tent, craft vendors, plenty of wholesale junk, stores selling their clearance merchandise, and music. The Samples come every year to play on Saturday night as they are now based in Vermont and one of their members is from Rutland. I just found out they will be doing another free show in Burlington, Vermont on August 3rd at Battery park. Anyway, we decided at the last minute to participate as a vendor. On friday morning we set up and were put in an awful spot which was kind of out of the way next to an ice cream cart. It started out very slow and continued to be that way all morning and early afternoon. We could see that the other two streets were filled with people but they just wern't coming over in our direction. It began to rain on and off with gusty wind. Around 2 pm I went to check on my car and found it to have a pretty flat tire. Luckily the woman in the car next to mine had a nifty air pump that you plug into your cigarette lighter. She helped me get enough air in the tire to make it to the gas station to get some more air. At that time it started to downpour and the wind really picked up. By the time I got back to our tent, my mom had almost finished packing everything up. It turns out that the tent had blown up and into the street, leaving everything exposed to the rain. Unfortunately, everything had gotten drenched. Quite a few of my treasures were distroyed and most of the cards that things were on were ruined. I was going to spend the weekend at Eric's house after, but I just really needed to get home to clean everything up and lay it out to dry. I managed to salvage most everything but it all needs to be put on new cards or in bags. I have quite a bit of work ahead of me. We had to go to Tire Warehouse to get a new tire which ended up costing $75. Bummer.
I went back home to Middlebury to deal with everything. We were absolutely exhausted after that day. We didn't end up going yesterday to the festival or the market. I came back to Rutland last night to see Eric for the rest of the weekend. We went back to the Ethnic Festival last night to eat, have a beer, and to watch the Samples for a little while. It turned out to be a lot of fun just visiting there. Our cat Squeeky found a mouse in the middle of the night and caused quite a commotion. It was hiding in the baseboard heater in the kitchen. It explains why she has been sitting out there buzzarding over the area all week long.
I have to go get ready to go out to do some laundry. The washing machine broke at home two weeks ago. A new one is coming from Sears on Tuesday but my mom and sister have a huge pile of laundry to do at home and I am just about out of clean clothes.
Have a great week. Hopefully my coming up weekends will be more successful. Here are the pictures:

I have been making these barrettes out of old zippers. I just love these.

One of my star zipper pins.

A new square design.

New pins made out of melted beads.

Suncatchers.

Keychains.

Zippy Pins.

Earrings.

Button Thumbtacks. You wouldn't believe how many of these I sell!

Bookclips.

And here we are picking up at the end of the market in Brandon.

Blogging, Burlington, Birthdays, Boyfriends, Bothers, and Brutal Heat.

2006-07-18T14:57:00.000-05:00

I am soooooo boring! Ha! I have been so bad aboout this blog. My sister has been writing way more entries than me. I guess you could find out what has been going on with me that way according to Amy's point of view.
I had a nice vacation in Maine. No pictures yet because I was using a crappy throw-away camera that I have yet to have developed. Now that I don't work at the Foto-Hut any more, it doesn't come so easily.
I went to see The Devil Wears Prada this weekend. It wasn't bad. I read the book a few years ago and I was disappointed to see that they didn't include the part where she cleans off her bosses plate with windex instead of washing it in the sink.
I spent the night in Burlington on Sunday to help Eric celebrate his birthday. We had a miserable time trundling around there in the 90 something degree heat, watching the teeny-boppers trying to keep up with the latest fashion trends. The best part of the day was visiting Eric's sister Naomi at her apartment and meeting her boyfriend and apartment mate, Donnell.
I have been doing well with my crafts at the Farmers' Markets. I have been staying up late into the night working on my projects. Someday I may surprise you with some pictures.
I would love to write more now as I am enjoying the fast internet and the wonderful air conditioning at the library, but my time is almost up. Also there is a teenager lounging on the couch next to me who keeps making an annoying slurping noise every 30 seconds. In true Stacie fashion, it is driving me out of my mind!
I really hope everyone is having a nice summer and surviving this brutal heat.

Nacho Libre...Two thumbs down.

2006-06-26T10:47:00.000-05:00

I have really been bad about writing, haven't I? I have been dealing with a very slow dial-up connection at home which has really got me wondering what to do about this blog. I have been having some trouble getting my computer going again and have been using other peoples computers, and the battery in my camera needs to be replaced. Excuses, excuses...
I have been selling my crafts at two Farmers' Markets so far this summer. It is nice to finally be making some money, seeing our friends from last year, meeting new people, and getting loads of compliments on my work.
We are trying to plan our annual trip to Maine but it is still up in the air when and if the house we stay at will be available. I have really been looking forward to it and it will be disappointing if we can't go.
We went to see Nacho Libre last night. DO NOT GO AND SEE THIS MOVIE! Holy shit, it was bad! You would think it would be funny because it has Jack Black in it and it is directed by Jared Hess, but that was not the case. It was so stupid that it wasn't even funny. What a waste of time and money. We should have gone to see the Al Gore movie instead.
This is really a bummer of an entry.

Moving out of Rutland!

2006-05-29T23:07:00.000-05:00

I'm so sorry about my abscence again, but a lot is going on. I can finally tell my secret. We are moving! After a long battle we are out of here. Things have been going crazy again and it is almost overwith. Hopefully I will get into a routine soon enough. Happy Summer! Even if it isn't yet, it sure feels like it. I am sweating buckets here. I hope everyone is doing well! Take care for now!

Stress, Storms, Success, and Sewing!

2006-05-16T23:11:00.000-05:00

Oh my! I have been absent again. What can I say? Things have been crazy busy. A big change is coming with our lives, but I can't really say just yet in case the wrong people are tuned into this blog. You never know who is listening. Family and close friends know already, so don't think I am keeping any major secrets from you. I thought I'd write anyway to let whoever reads this know that I am still alive.

I have been feeling a little bit better, but still battling with the allergies. I have been using Patanol for my eyes, Rhinocort for my nose, and Claritin for everything else. It has been REALLY bad this year so far. There is green pollen dust EVERYWHERE!
It feels like it has been raining for a week now. I have heard that people in the New England are having trouble with flooding, but it is just rain, gloom, and doom here.
Despite the allergies and rain, there is one thing that I really love about this time of the year...LILACS! As much as I hate this apartment where we live, there is a beautiful lilac bush in the parking lot. I picked some last week and they smelled lovely.

The first Farmer's Market of the year was this past Saturday. It rained for much of the night before and we were almost doubtful that we would participate. However, it had stopped raining that morning and at 7:30 A.M. we decided to do it. My sister came down to help out and as we finished unpacking her car, we realized that Mom had forgotten to pack the tent. As soon as we finished setting up the tables it started to sprinkle. It didn't look very good. We called Mom and she drove 45+ minutes to bring it to us. What a good Mom she is! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We were protected and then it didn't rain again until well after the market was overwith for the day! We had a very successful day considering the crappy weather. I did twice as well as the same weekend last year, which was my very first market ever. People were looking for Mother's Day presents. Everyone is so nice and so enthusiastic. We made a new friend who recently moved here from California. She was selling some unique burritos, chips, salsa, and guacamole. I have been busy working on several craft projects for the market. I made two different types of necklaces, which took some work but exceeded my expectations.

I haven't been to any garage sales yet this year, but last week I went to the Open Door Mission and found this cool retro sewing box thing. I can see some old lady having this set up in her living room next to her recliner. It is in perfect condition. Although we all agreed that it is pretty darn ugly, it is still kind of cool. To make the deal even sweeter, it was filled with all of these vintage sewing supplies.

You take the good, you take the bad...

2006-05-05T00:17:00.000-05:00

Sorry about my absence. Sometimes if you have nothing good to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. Right? Things have recently been crappy, busy, and stressful. Eric and I have both been sick with colds for two weeks now. I was at the doctors office two weeks ago with pink-eye and now it looks like I will have to wear my glasses for an extended period of time as I have some allergies in my eyes that need to clear up. Yuck. Eric ended up in the hospital on Saturday night due to an abscess in his throat which needed to be drained. He was released on Sunday, which was earlier than they had initially thought. He is doing a lot better now.
I have not been doing very good in the area of searching for a job. I spent quite a bit of yesterday filling out job applications. Blah. Things could always be worse though.
Speaking of which, A month or so ago I found out that my ex-boss, Missy, was very ill with lung cancer. She found out she had it the week that she closed her business. She passed away on April 19^th. I had no idea until a few days after when one of my friends emailed me about it. I am still shocked!
The Farmer's Market in Rutland begins this Saturday. If the weather is crappy we will wait until next weekend. It might end up being fine. I have gotten a lot of crafts made, but not as many as I would have liked. Today I tried making a bracelet out of zippers. Not bad. Maybe the next will come out a bit better.

The last time I wrote I mentioned that I had some crafts for sale at Bernier's Vermont Shop. Since then they have closed their doors due to a lack of business. They started out good but it has been slow over the past few months and the rent for the building was just too high. They are going to open a shop soon at their home. They are hoping to be successful there as it is near two bed and breakfasts and on the way to the Chittenden Dam which is a popular swimming and recreation spot for locals.
Just recently I inherited my Mom's 2000 Camry and I am enjoying it immensely. Which reminds me to mention the new Toyota Yaris. I first saw these cars while visiting Montreal this winter. They are just the cutest little cars, and extremely fuel efficient. The starting price is $10,950 for the most very basic. They are now for sale in the United States and if I had money, I would definitely buy one!

My mom and sister finally adopted a new kitten. It is a boy. Any ideas for names?

Goody Goody Grab Bags!!!

2006-04-21T23:53:00.000-05:00

I stopped at the Open Door Mission thrift store yesterday afternoon and found thing great goody bag for $3. Once I got home I kept admiring it and picking it up but didn't get a chance to lay it all out until this morning. There is a whole bunch of neat trim, ribbons, pipe cleaners, tassels, elastic, and even a few zippers. I am going to have a lot of fun with this one!

I am really enjoying the warm weather that has finally come our way. I hear it is supposed to be ugly this weekend. Eric dragged me out for a 2 mile walk last night. I also had to go to Walgreens to get some cough drops. I'm sick! Damn it! I also ended up with a good amount of Russell Stover marshmallow and coconut filled chocolate eggs. Whaaaaatttttt? They were 75% off and delicious! I spent some time out on the porch today transplanting our herb garden to a bigger pot and some other houseplants that had a rough winter. I wanted to plant a couple other things but ran out of dirt. Around dinner time we went to the mall. I got a slice of pizza and a salad. It was pretty good. We walked around and people watched then got stuck in Kmart when the mall entrance closed at 9. We had parked at the opposite end of the mall and had to walk outside around pretty much the whole thing. I was working on organizing in my craft room until I was interrupted and had to come in here.

Happy Easter!

2006-04-18T00:29:00.000-05:00

It seems like it has been a very long time since I wrote last. I don't even know where to start. I have been keeping busy with lots of different things and dealing with some crazy crises (I hope that is the plural for crisis. Yes, more than one crisis).

I have been home to Middlebury three times since last weekend. I had my car checked out and it would not pass inspection without over a thousand dollars worth of work. My Mom has been thinking about getting a new Camry and was planning to give me her current Camry. It is now going to happen sooner than we expected. The second visit was due to an unfortunate situation with my sister's job. The third visit was with Eric to celebrate Easter and to eat a ham dinner.

We have also been dealing with some shitty apartment and landlord issues that cropped up unexpectedly in the past two weeks.

I signed up with a temp agency and should be hearing about a job assignment pretty soon. Things are kind of crazy around here but I really need to make some cash pretty soon.

On Saturday we ate dinner with our lovely friends Ivo, Indira, and their two year old Tin. I have mentioned them before as they used to be our neighbors. They have their own house now and are home after spending the winter visiting their families in what was once Yugoslavia. They are some of the best people we know. We are so happy they are back! Indira gave us this great herb garden basket as well as some neato things from their trip. In this picture there are bay leaves grown at her sister's house, a chocolate bar, a candle, some heart ornaments, a post card, and a sea sponge.

I have been trying to work on my crafts as the Farmer's market begins the first Saturday in May. I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped. I purchased some inexpensive baskets and spray painted them. They work great to display book clips and zipper pins. My Mom printed me up some new cards that I have been cutting up. This week I took some of my wears to Bernier's Vermont Shop in Rutland. It is a new shop that only carries local products produced in Vermont. Hopefully they are busy and are able to sell a lot of my stuff there. I need to visit a couple more stores this week.

It has also been a week to try some new products on the market. I was pretty darn hungry tonight after not eating much all day long. Freshly showered and in my pajama pants, I ventured out to the local Wendy's to utilize the drive-thru window. I saw and ad on TV today for the new Frescata sandwiches they have. It is a sandwich made of freshly baked “artisan” bread with turkey or ham, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, and plenty of mayonnaise. There is one with pesto and roasted red peppers I will try next. It definitely seemed healthier than eating a fried chicken patty or burger. It kind of hit the spot and really wasn't bad at all.

I also tried Coca-Cola Blak, a small shrink-wrapped glass bottle of Coke with coffee essence. It is good. However, I have three issues with it: It is too small. It is too expensive. It has aspartame in it as well as high fructose corn syrup. Why? Make it regular and make a diet version too, but not regular and diet combined.

I also found Hershey kisses in the cherry cordial flavor. Trish had given me a few at Christmas time and I haven't seen them since. This weekend they were in the Easter aisle at Walgreen's. I think they are really good. Good luck finding them though.

Another thing...They demolished the old Ames building in the Green Mountain Plaza. They are making way for a Super Stop and Shop, PetSmart, Michaels, and a few other things I can't remember. Also, there is a new hotel almost finished next door.

I haven't been thrifting too much lately, but I stopped by the crazily overpriced Salvation Army and picked up this cool thingie for $3.50. I thought I would put stationary in it on my desk.

It has been a good week for music. Eric helped me get my CD burner working again. I had to do a little extra work but I managed to make a great CD for Indira. My sister gave me Youth by Matisyahu, Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis, and Vuelta by Richard Shindell. They are all so good.

Another CD that I am dying to get when it comes out is Broken Boy Soldiers by The Raconteurs. Check out their cool Commodore 64-esque website. I have heard Steady As She Goes on the radio and I just can't get enough of it.

Richard Shindell and Everything Else.

2006-03-31T02:41:00.000-05:00

I have so much to report. My biggest and best news is that I went to a Richard Shindell concert tonight at the Paramount Theater here in Rutland. I have never been there before. It is an old theater which was restored a few years ago. It is highly-detailed and beautiful inside. It is smaller than I imagined and the seats were a little bit cramped, but it was fun anyway. We were in the third row...Wow! My sister gave me a Richard Shindell CD a couple years ago and I have enjoyed listening to it from time to time. However, it is now in my CD player. I definitely have a new appreciation for this artist! It was great seeing him live as he is really excellent! Although the theater was not full, there were plenty of enthusiastic Shindell fans present. Please check out his website and listen to some of the songs on the lyrics page. He often performs with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky who are also great singers.

As for the rest of my day, I sure have been busy. I was up early this morning for a dentist appointment. I had my chompers cleaned and they feel super duper nice.
Check out the dentist office booty! Oh, see the 70's looking toothbrush? Yessssss, although it doesn't look special, it is one of the softest bristled toothbrushes you will find anywhere.

I met Eric for lunch and we went to Roxie's, a snack bar that sets up a booth in Castleton for the summer. We had cheeseburgers, french fries, and onion rings. Delicious, and way better than the food from the New Village snack bar last weekend. We sat at a picnic table to enjoy the warm sunshine. I also went to drive by my alma matter, Castleton State College. Those were the days! Life was filled with fun and friends. Things were still hopeful and happy. I always get sad when I go by there. Even if I could go back, everyone else has moved on and it just wouldn't be the same.
I ran a couple other errands and went thrifting at the Open Door Mission on the way home. I got a pair of Lands End shorts for $3. I'm not a big fan of white shorts, but they seem to be brand new.

Here is also a picture of my new blanket (the pink one) from the Salvation Army earlier in the week. It now joins my collection. I picked the red one up at the Mission last year, and the purple on was purchased in Mexico. I have been using the new one on the couch and have found it to be super warm and cozy.

I have been meaning to report on this wonderful coconut gelato which I picked up at the grocery store. Although it is a little pricey at $4 a pint, it sure is delicious! It is made in Waitsfield, Vermont.

After I took this picture I put it on my chair and promptly forgot it was there and sat on it. Oops! Not to worry, it was almost empty and it was still edible, and now it is all gone anyway.

My sister Amy is still waiting for a kitten. One of her students may be giving her this little bugger that was born in their barn. Sorry about the crappy picture. I can't do anything about it.

That reminds me, sorry about the lousy job I did on the CD pictures from the last post. I guess I mean "lazy job", as I didn't feel like going back to fix them. Oh well.
One last thing, Amy told me about this book, The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle. I started it last night and could not put it down. It is a disturbing story about a boy who is sexually molested by his parents and is taken in by one of his Mother's friends. It is haunting and shocking, and I think it is going to turn out good in the end.
Ahhhhhhhhhh...all done now.

Music Matters...

2006-03-28T17:31:00.000-05:00

Late last week received an order from my CD club in the mail. They offered a deal I couldn't pass up. I am really digging this new John Mayer Trio CD. I have always liked John Mayer. This one is a little bit louder than the last ones. A little bit of jazz and the blues too.

I have also been wanting Death Cab For Cutie for a while, so it's about time. I like it a lot.

Franz Ferdinand is good too.

I haven't listened to the Gorillaz too much yet.

But what I REALLY want is Morrissey...Ohhhh how I love Morrissey! I can't wait for this to come out!

And I really want this too. I really like Live at Stubbs. Matisyahu is great!

Other than that I got out earlier today and went to the Salvation Army. I got a blanket for $5 but that was it. They have a ton of crap that is completely overpriced. I can't believe how much they are trying to charge for everything. It is so stupid, it's funny! They had a ton of wedding dresses that these 2 chubby redneck women and a guy were looking at. Pretty entertaining. I tried to go to the Open Door Mission but I got there 5 minutes before they closed and they wouldn't let me in and they were not very nice either...Assmunches! Why on earth do they close at 3:25 in the afternoon? There was a fender bender on route 7 and there were 3 cops blocking the main drag. What a mess! I ended up getting some groceries and coming home. Good thing I got here when I did because I almost didn't make it to the bathroom. Bah! I ended up going out for a long walk at 4:30. It was really sunny and 53 degrees! I have never walked in our new neighborhood in the whole 8 months we have lived here. I sat out on the front porch for a while and twisted my foot getting up.
We are trying to figure out what to have for dinner. I picked up a bag of these at the store.

Eric's mom snuck these into the restaurant and was eating them with her dinner this weekend. Heh! They are pretty good!

Weekend Report

2006-03-26T23:50:00.000-05:00

I have had a pretty busy weekend! Eric and I took a trip to Montpelier, Vermont yesterday. I haven't been there in a while as there are definitely more interesting places in the state to visit if you are considering making a trip. As you know, Montpelier is our state capitol. Eric and his sister grew up there and have a lot of memories of their hometown. It is noticeable right away that there is a different vibe going on there than here in Rutland. The sidewalks on Main Street were busy with people milling around and the street was bumper to bumper traffic. When we arrived around 4 in the afternoon it seemed that many of the stores were closed, but most of the restaurants were open. There was a film festival going on which would have been interesting if we had had more time. I desperately wanted to go to the ReStore to look for some art supplies. My sister has raved about this store, but every time I get to Montpelier it is closed. Unfortunately, we got there after 3 pm and it had closed for the day. Dang it! However, they have a website now, so check it out! By the looks of it, they have a lot of neat stuff. They have random things like old wallpaper books, empty lip balm tubes, and fabric scraps by the pound. We met Eric's sister and mother, Naomi and Deborah, at a newish restaurant called Rhapsody. Looks like the website is still under construction. They call themselves a "natural foods" restaurant. Naomi loves it because she is a strict vegan and there is no question in her mind that the food is safe for her. It was pretty good, but could use a little bit of tweaking in my opinion. It is a cafeteria style restaurant where you grab a tray and a plate and pick what you want. It is sold by the pound and some things are sold individually such as egg rolls and samosas, chili and soup. The best things were the mashed sweet potatoes, brown rice, salad, guacamole and chips. They also had lots of hot dishes such as vegetables and tofu, and cold dishes like pasta salad. I really was wishing for some dairy or cheese or vegan substitutes and maybe some bread and butter or croutons. I don't know if I would go there again. Zabby's Stone Soup in Burlington is similar, but a whole lot better. Afterward we went to the Hunger Mountain Co-op. It is pretty big with a nice selection. I enjoyed it because they had lots of neat treats we don't have around here and a great selection of bread. We called in a take out order at Finkerman's BBQ to take home. I wish we had eaten there instead! We ended up heating up BBQ at 1 am when we got home. Damn! That's good shit! We took a detour to Williston and Burlington and spent a while at Barnes & Noble and Starbucks. Although it was good to get out of town for the day, it was a long one and we found ourselves getting just a little bit crabby at each other.
Oh, on the way we stopped at the Pittsfield General Store on Route 100. I had never been there and was pleasantly surprised upon entering. They had a nice wood fireplace and tables, a deli counter, coffee, wine, Vermont products, snacks and groceries. We had a bowl of vegetable soup topped with homemade croutons. It was delicious! I would definitely stop there again probably to try a sandwich.
I talked to my sister this morning and she gave me a happy report about a blind date she went on last night. I am very pleased for her. She and mom ended up visiting the Humane Society again only to find that Bailey the cat had just barely been adopted. The search goes on. Amy also told me that someone at the Starbucks in Burlington told my mom that there is supposed to be a Starbucks in Rutland by 2007. Ohhhhh boy! I might be gone by then though.
I decided to be productive this morning and tried to make a pot of minestrone soup. It didn't come out like I had hoped. I made some beautiful croutons for the top which were the best part. Looks like I will need to shop for some salad veggies to put them on as I don't think I will be eating too much more of that soup unless a miracle occurs and it is magically better tomorrow! Eric and I went out this afternoon to do some bargain shopping at Mr.G's discount store. It is a fun crush and dent adventure. I pretty much always find something there. They always have 10 cent cans of seltzer which I enjoy. Bubbly and exciting, yet devoid of sugar and calories. Not like that really bothers me, but it is a delight nonetheless! We ended up going to the New Village Snack Bar to pick up a quick dinner. I always look forward to it opening for the season because it means summer is coming. Although it is tasty, it is a little bit sickening. I was eyeballing the creemees but that would have been too much at once.
Well, tomorrow is Monday and I have to continue with my job search. I have a couple ideas, but it is just going to take a little bit of motivation. Bummer...

Meow!

2006-03-25T00:19:00.000-05:00

This afternoon my sister, Amy, came to visit. We went to the Humane Society to look at the cats. Otto the cat is going crazy without any buddies around and she wants to find a kitten to keep him company. They didn't have any kittens right now but are expecting some soon. We had fun looking at all of the cats anyway. There were about 5 that we wanted to take home. A few were extremely friendly, such as Bailey and Cupcake. We met up with Eric and went to Friendly's for dinner. It was mobbed there and our waitress was hurrying us along and getting annoyed that we took so long to make up our minds about everything. There was a kid in the booth across from us that kept making the strangist snorting noise the whole entire time. Other than that there isn't too much going on. I finally got my resume organied and finished applying with the DET. I applied for one job and have to call a woman about an interview. I need make an appointment at the temp agency and fire out a few more resumes/cover letters in the next few days. It SUCKS! I have been procrastinating bigtime. I love not having to go to work but it can't last forever. Bah!

Spring Cleaning

2006-03-20T23:02:00.001-05:00

Happy spring! It still feels like winter. I finally got around to cleaning my desk. I struggled for a long time with rearranging this dumb metal shelf, but I sure have a lot of space now!
I got my new printer all situated and it works great.

Oh crap! I still have to find a place to put all of the random stuff that was on my desk before.

Shopping, Sisters, Socks, and Squeeky.

2006-03-19T01:52:00.000-05:00

Today I ended up going to Manchester, VT with my family. There are outlet stores there as well as some other interesting places, and my favorite radio station, WEQX. There is a great book store, The Northshire Book Store, which I may have mentioned before. It is really very big with many nooks. I saw so much stuff that I wanted. I also found a dollar on the floor. Lucky me. It was absolutely MOBBED when we were there as Paul Bremmer was speaking upstairs. We ate in the attached cafe which was ok depending on what you got. The baked goods and coffee looked really good but we were there to eat lunch. Afterward we ended up going to a make up store where I got some very special concealer, to Garnet Hill where I got a pretty sheet for $4, and to Cold Water Creek. The last stop we made was the Lion's Share Bakery for crossiants and coffee. We got there very late so there wasn't much left, but from past visits, I highly recommend the almond crossiants!

Oh! Check out this darn cool shower curtain that is on the Garnet Hill website on sale. We saw a sheet in this print.

Eric's family also came to visit at the same time. My mom and sister met Eric's sister for the first time ever. From our house we ended up going our separate ways. However, they ended up going to Manchester as well. They also went to the book store but we didn't see them. They went to totally different stores and Eric surprised me with these really cool socks from the Sox Market.

I have mixed feelings about Manchester. Despite the outlets being outlets, they are still VERY pricey. There was an unbelievable amount of fancy out of state cars mostly from New York and New Jersey. The stores were mobbed and the sales people also treat you as if you are a tourist. I try to stay away from places full of rich and snobby tourists. I don't care for their attitudes or their surburban assault vehicles. I just want to find good bargains and see some different sights.
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Earlier in the week I went to Burlington, VT for the afternoon. Eric was taking a class up there for half the week. We ate dinner at a new place called Moe's. It was pretty good. It was very busy and right next to a new Starbucks too. We went to the Christmas Tree Store right before it closed and I got some neat things there too. Don't you just love a bargain?

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It was a traumatic day for Squeeky, as she is antisocial and we had a lot of visitors. However, I bribed her with some chicken tonight and got her to sit ON me for 30 minutes. I petted her and she seemed very content. She is curled up on a fleece blanket on the couch right now. Good Night Squeeky!

New Sweater!

2006-03-14T00:13:00.000-05:00

I got a new sweater!!! On our trip to Clifton Park, New York to visit our Grandpa my sister and I had a shopping adventure. We went to Clifton Country Mall, now known as Clifton Park Center. Check out their site with a virtual tour! This used to be the coolest mall when I was younger. Now it is kind of a has been mall. It looks the same but more than half of the stores are empty. I remember when all of the good stores started to go out. On trips to visit our Grandparents, we would often go this mall for something to do. It had good stores like the Gap, Limited, Express, Lane Bryant, Marshalls, Auntie Annie's Pretzels, and a movie theatre. It also had a Caldor and a McDonalds right next to it. Now it has a Marshalls Megastore which is the best thing there. The food court is still very much the same. Anyway, we took a look around at the generic stores and found one selling a few Ecuador sweaters. I found a grey one that fits me! It's certainly not the old one, but it it pretty close. It has that nice new wool smell.

There is a Target in Clifton Park now too. I normally get cucumber dishsoap by Method around here, but at Target I got Pink Grapefruit. It smells soooooooo good!

I haven't done very much today. I took a nap on the couch this afternoon. I talked to my sister on the phone. While I was waiting for my dinner in the oven I made some delicious chocolate chip cookies. They came out perfect! It must have been because of this new professional style pan I got for $4 at Big Lots last week. It sure works good.

Workin' Hard or Hardly Workin'?

2006-03-10T20:54:00.001-05:00

Dude-check out this crazy mutated strawberry! It was delicious!

Hey Trish! Check out my cool socks!

Since I haven't been busy looking for a job I have had some nice free time on my hands. It feels like I have been cooking up a storm. Yesterday I made meatloaf. That is something I have never done before. I used a recipe from my 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook and boy, it sure was tasty! Today I made cream of sweet potato soup from a recipe I came up with last year and stored in my head. I made some baked pita chips to go along with it. It was great! I also made one of those Duncan Hines orange dreamsicle cakes. Not good. I have been oogling those Signature Cakes in the grocery store since they came out and finally I found one at the discount store the other day. Good thing I didn't have to pay very much for it. I don't think the dark orange part came out right. Believe it or not, that part is jello that you pour into the cake as liquid and it is supposed to set. It didn't really do it's thing and the cake is kind of mushy. I also don't care for the white mousse icing. It is so fluffy and fake tasting I thought I might gag. It feels like I have been doing dishes all afternoon and now I have to go do some more. DRAT!
I have been working like crazy on the zipper pins. I am trying to get some ready to take to a couple local stores to sell them. Also, the Farmer's Market is coming up. I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I thought I would by now.
Finished pins...

Pins in various steps of completion...

Here is some miscellaneous news:
Last night I twisted my foot up pretty bad. I had been sitting for a long time and my foot fell asleep. I stepped off a small step and came crashing down on it the wrong way. At first I couldn't tell what had really happened since it was all numb. It hurt so bad! I thought for a minute that I might have broken it but after it woke up I realized that I think I just pulled something. So I have been wearing shitty, uncomfortable sneakers around the house all day long.
I have been reading A LOT. I read Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It only took me one and a half hours and I didn't really care for it. I also read The Beach Club by Elin Hilderbrand. I really like her books. I also took the other two of hers out of the library. I am working on Nantucket Nights right now.
It was 57 degrees out today! I didn't go out but I had windows open in here. The fresh air feels really nice except I kept getting whifs of MOTH BALL now and then. Hmmmmmm...
I have also been subjected to the loud wind-tunnelish whirring sound of the dryer from the downstairs apartment under my room for much of the day. ANNOYING!
Tomorrow I am going to see my Grandpa at Coburg Village in New York. His birthday was this week so we are going to have some type of celebration. My Grandpa has lived at Coburg Village for a few years now and just LOVES it.

3 Quick Things

2006-03-05T01:10:00.000-05:00

I had this awesome idea tonight...You know how they sell those tacky appliance covers? Yesssssssss! We don't have very much kitchen cabinet space here so I thought a great place to store stuff would be on top of the refrigerator. The only problem is that everything gets so dusty. So instead of using some nice fabric I am saving for special projects, I ran up to the attic to rummage through my old t-shirt box. I found some old Gap t-shirts that are too small for me, cut them up, and sewed them into these little pillowcases to fit the appliances. I was going to add trim but I think they look fine the way they are. Here you can see the mini-cuisinart and the 4 cup coffee maker are nicely covered.

Man, have I been enjoying all of that Canadian candy. I wish I had gotten some more of the Kinder candy in this special Easter packaging! Those little bars are so frickin good! I'm sorry to say there is only one egg left.

I just finished a really good book that I didn't even get to put on my reading list because I read it so fast. It is The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand. I just couldn't put it down. It looks like she has also written three other books which our library has.
Happy Weekend!

Sweater Search

2006-03-02T00:46:00.000-05:00

I spent much of the past two days searching for a new sweater to replace the throw-up sweater. It seems that no one around here sells those sweaters any more. You know the ones...thick hand-knit wool sweaters which are made in Ecuador. There are a few on Ebay that don't look to be large enough. A few years ago there were tables of them EVERYWHERE. I am just going to have to wait and see what turns up. I checked out the selection at the Salvation Army (nothing good there) and the Open Door Mission (found a thin wool JCREW sweater). All of the clothes were half-price today. I used to go there on Thursday evenings when I got out of work and I was suprised to find a totally different crowd there during the day. It was mobbed with old people. I had a funny conversation with an elderly man about the men's sweaters. I was looking at a purple/teal/white sweater with snowflakes and he very seriously informed me that it was a woman's sweater. Firstly because of the brand and secondly because those were "woman's colors." I told him "some men might wear those colors" and he started to tee-hee over it as I think he took that to mean that a "feminine" type of man might wear it. I love to joke around with old people like that to see if I can shock them! I had better luck at Camille's which sells used clothing. They have a ton of stuff and are often looking to buy good quality used garments. Since spring is coming they have marked down much of the winter stock. I got a pair of llbean shorts and a pair of Lane Giant brown pants.

I also found this Lane Giant fleece pull-over marked down to a dollar. It looks grey here but it is a nice dark forest green color.

They had a few of my sweaters which were all too small, except for this grey one. It was only ONE DOLLAR, so what the hell! It needs a little bit of work but it is my size! You can see here that I was removing the pills with my super dog hair brush/pill remover.

In other news, still no job because I haven't been looking too hard. I called about unemployment and found out what the deal is. You have to keep checking in with them and prove that you are applying at places. For the sparse amount of money I will be getting, it really isn't going to make a huge difference. I really need to get my ass in gear. Yes indeed!
Since I was home I made homemade macaroni and cheese and salad for dinner. Yum! Then I spent the evening socked out on the couch watching American Idol.

Au revoir Montreal!

2006-02-26T00:28:00.000-05:00

It's been a vacationy sort of a week. We were in Montreal for three days. Montreal is suprisingly near here. I can't believe this was only my second visit there. We managed to get quite a bit accomplished in a short amount of time. Since the hotel we stayed at was only a block and a half from St. Catherine street we walked everywhere. I think we walked about a bazillion miles. My feet felt like they were going to break in half and I have a huge blister/callous on one of my little toes. We walked up and down the main drag, shopped at the Eaton Center, went to St. Joseph's Oratory, found China Town, and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art. There is so much amazing food in Montreal! There are all kinds of ethnic eateries all over the place. We sampled Mexican, Greek, Middle Eastern, Chinese, as well as coffee, smoothies, and many other various snacks. The candy there is also interesting. They have so many things we don't have here such as Kinder Eggs and Aero Bars. Yum! The gum is upside down-oops!

I picked these chips up at a grocery store on the way home. They were delicious! It seems that some store around here used to have the President's Choice brand?

Here's what I found in China Town. I also tried bubble tea-very interesting!

Here's what Eric got me at the Oratory gift shop. They had a museum filled with 275 Nativity scenes from 107 different countries made out of all kinds of materials.

We stopped at used book store where I picked up these records for a dollar each.

Here's what was inside of the Bee Gees album cover...There is much wonderful merchandise for sale. I wonder if I can still get a t-shirt for $7 or a logo necklace for $6.50? It says that there is a "tremendous demand" for these products. Tee-hee!

Montreal is a really neat place with so much to do and see. All was great until we returned to Vermont. And boy oh boy do I have a story to tell...
First let me offer this up as evidence. My favorite sweater/coat covered with puke that is not my own.

We had a pretty full day in Montreal on Friday and we got a very late start getting home. By the time we got to Burlington, Vermont it was about 12 a.m. We needed coffee and wanted a bite to eat. We drove downtown and there were hoardes of drunk college students everywhere. Not very much was open so we went to Denny's. That was a HUGE mistake. It was absolutely MOBBED, mostly with drunk students, some who didn't look old enough to have been drinking alcohol. We were seated and ordered water and coffee. We had only been in there less than 10 minutes and were looking at the menu. All of a sudden I felt something strange and soft hit me in the back. My first thought was the obnoxious bastards were throwing food at eachother, which would have been preferable to what really did happen. I turned around to look behind me and there was a kid with his head hanging down in his food dish like he was completely passed out. Apparently, he became sick and projectile vomited across the table and it hit me square in the back. I don't like wearing coats so I normally wear a shirt or turtleneck, a regular sweater, and the sweater shown above as a coat over it all. It is one of those handknit wool South American sweaters that I just love to death. I have been looking for a new one but they aren't as popular as they were a few years back when I bought this one. I haven't been able to find another anywhere. There was spew all over the back of my precious sweater, in the ends of my hair, all across our table, and all over the floor. I immediately got up and went into the bathroom to assess the damage. I spent a good 10 minutes picking chewed up toast and egg out of the sweater and wiping vomit off with wet papertowels. When I came out of the bathroom, Eric was standing by the door talking to the manager. I told them what happened and how upset and disgusted I was. At the time the puke didn't smell too bad and I asked the manager for money so that I could have my sweater/coat cleaned. However, I was told that could not be done as they would have to take my name, address, and phone number to contact me later about it. I was given $10 in gift certificates and two large coffees in togo cups and we left. We ended up going across the street to the grocery store to clean up better and walk around for a bit. It was about 1 a.m. by that time and we were totally wigged out. On friday it had gotten to be bitter cold out and very windy. I had to get home with no coat on and feeling like I had puke in my hair. I ended up having the Denny's employees put the sweater into a big garbage bag and it went into the trunk to bring home. It spent the night and most of today in the garbage bag in the entryway of our house. When I went down there this afternoon I moved the bag and the smell of rancid vomit reeked so bad it turned my stomach. I took a picture of it and placed it into another bag and put it outside on the porch. I think the sweater is going to have to live outside for a while until I decide what to do with it. I don't even think a good drycleaning will help it. It it completely contaminated. I almost doubt I will hear anything from Denny's. I am going to write them a nasty letter with the picture of the ruined sweater. I am just so sick over this! Since I will never be able to wear the sweater again I feel that I deserve a monetary payment so that I can replace the sweater with a comparable sweater or coat. I also feel that we deserve two free dinners at Denny's to make up for the ones we were supposed to have but couldn't. Even though I don't think I will be dining at Denny's for a VERY, VERY LONG TIME! I feel completely violated in a way that I have never felt in my entire life. Puke is bad enough when it is your own, worse if it is from someone close to you, but completely and utterly heinous when it is from a stranger and you are unprepared to deal with it. I know that I learned never to expect to eat a meal late on a Friday night at a restaurant such as Denny's. I would really appreciate an apology from that drunk little shit but I doubt he remembers anything that happened for much of the time he was at the restaurant. I sincerely hope that those college students learned a valuable lesson from the experience as well. I asked Eric what happened after I went into the bathroom and he said that that the kid's friends just sat there silent and stunned. No one could believe what had just happened! I would think that most normal people who are drunk and feel like they are going to throw up would let their friend sitting next to them know that they were going to be sick and ask to be let out of the booth. They would either go to the bathroom or outside and do their business and walk it off and feel better or go to the car and pass out. Not this guy. He just continued to sit there passed out with his head hung over the half eaten bowl of breakfast food. That kind of shit should happen in some random dorm room and not in public in a place where people are eating. People need to grow up and assume some responsiblity. When I was in college I had a couple episodes which did not affect anyone else, and subsequently I learned not to do it again. This was absolutly the worst thing that has happened to me in a very long time. Denny's will be hearing from me!
BAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDD!

Oh For Christ's Sake!

2006-02-16T16:52:00.000-05:00

Since I am home without a job for the time being, I have gotten to experience all that normally goes on around here while I am usually at work. Things have generally been better since I spent the whole day cleaning the bathroom. I am working on getting things spiffed up and organized. As you know, I have been complaining about the mothball odor that my lazy landlord created when he tried to repell the skunks from under the front porch. We have been dying up here: Every time the heat blows it stinks, our eyes are burning and our noses are running, my shirts and sweaters reek. We smell like a bunch of old ladies! I was outside for an hour with my big purple ass sticking up in the air trying to retrive the mothballs from under the porch. They were all around the house and I think I got most of them. About 15 minutes later there was a knock at the door. I ran to the stairs thinking it was Eric home from work wanting the door unlocked. However, there were 2 young guys outside the door, clean cut with black jackets and name badges on. I just knew right there that they were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Oh shit! And I knew that they had already seen me too. So I had to go down there, bra-less under my shirt to tell them that we were defininetly NOT interested. They tried to start their spiel, but I shut the door. God damn it! I hate when they show up. I am not religious, nor do I want to be!
Here are those stinkers are leaving the house.

And here they are leaving the neighbors house. Nobody wants to talk to you, you bunch of dummies!

I have become a slave to the zipper pins. Since I am not doing much of anything else, I need to get a ton of these made. Here are the first 6. The Farmer's Market is going to start before I know it. I also need to take these around to some local gift stores.

Last night we were at Walmart where I stocked up on super glue. The cashier commented "got enough glue?" The answer to that is yes, it looks like a lot, and no, I can never have enough for the project I am doing. I go through a ton of this!

Another funny thing that happened last night was that we were eating dinner at Applebee's. It was pretty busy and this couple came in and sat down in the booth across from us. The guy had big blond curly rockstar hair, and the woman looked kind of rednecky. All of a sudden the whole section of the resturant filled up with the smell of pot. Yes, pot. Weed. Reefer. Marahoony (as my ex-boss used say). Eric declared that they must have had a clambake in their car before they came in. It also smelled like they tried to cover it up with cheap perfume. They must have had a severe case of the munchies, as they ordered full-sized dinners that came on huge platters. It was thouroughly unappetizing, yet very amusing at the same time.
Well, it is dinner time and another day has rolled by. Eric just brought me a small plate of rice, baked beans, and hotdog. Sounds gross, but it is crazy delicious! It is also nice to have someone cook something and bring it in to me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2006-02-14T17:37:00.000-05:00

Things that suck today:

I'm cleaning the bathroom- You can't even imagine how nasty it was and how much work it is turning out to be. Bleach smell is everywhere. Ewwwwwww...
I've been listening to the most annoying dog yipping and yapping all day long and I can't figure out where it is coming from.
Everything stinks like mothballs still. Every time the heat blows it reeks like them. The other day I was out and my shirt and sweater smelled like them. MOTH BALLS!
I got up late and I meant to get up early. I am supposed to be looking for a job and going to the unemployment office. I didn't get any of that done today...Noooooooooooo! I also didn't get anything else done either.
My CD burner isn't working right. It started in around Christmas and is still happening. I can't make a mix CD and it is pissing me off.
I haven't showered yet and I feel awful. I won't be doing that until all this cleaning shit is done. Right now it looks endless.
I feel like I am coming down with the cold that everyone else had had for the past 2 weeks. Just what I need.
There must be something else that sucks?!?!?!?!

Moving On.

2006-02-12T00:39:00.000-05:00

My last day of work was Friday. I really can't believe it is over. It was the pits being there those last few days. I guess should be feeling free. However, I am sick with dread over finding a new job. It is something that I hate doing, but has to be done. I am trying to put on a brave face.
We did a craft sale today at a church. It seems like forever since the last one but it was only the week before Christmas. It was slow, but I did ok and it was better than nothing.
When I got home I got a call from a woman in Proctor who saw me at a sale last fall and wanted to give me her old zippers. I ended up going to her house to pick them up. She and her husband were very nice and I ended up staying for a long time talking to them. I gave her a pin in exchange for 105 zippers.

They came in this 'Fashion Shop' bag from the olden days of Rutland.

I have to give my weekly thrifting report. I went to the Salvation Army today and didn't find anything. We were rushed out of there by the two workers who wanted to go home early. There were people banging down the door to come in to shop. Just about everything is way over priced. They had an ancient microwave marked $21.99. It looked to be from the early 80s, had a brown fake wood exterior, with pointy silver retro-looking dials. WTF? Those are two reasons why I rarely go there anymore. Thursday at the Mission I found this huge scarf with a pocket, a pair of gloves, a pair of mittens, as well as a new red mock turtle neck from J.C. Penney. All for $5.

After pacing, meowing, and giving us the hairy eyeball, Squeeky finally got her Fancy Feast tonight. Delicious!

I got up this morning when normal people get up. I must say that I am drop-dead tired right now and I am going to get ready for bed.

Stupid Bowl Weekend

2006-02-07T01:02:00.000-05:00

Here's what I have been up to this past weekend:
On Saturday afternoon we went to Burlington. The first stop was to Costco. All 5 times that I have been there it has always been mobbed. I can't believe some of the stuff that people have in their carts. I think they were buying snacks and shit for the Stupid Bowl. I got myself some good snacks. Lots and lots of snackidy snacks. Giant bags of snacks. I ended up sneaking off to Michael's for some craft shopping. Here's what I bought with the gift card Trish gave me for Christmas:

Beads galore! These are going to make tons of keychains, suncatchers, necklaces, bracelets and earrings!

We sat at Barnes and Noble for a long time, where I bought this Iron & Wine CD. We ended up eating a very late dinner at Sweetwaters downtown. Bahhhhhh! It was so gross. It used to be so much better. As we walked up the street we saw a new Mexican restaurant, Miguel's, which then I remembered my sister telling me was there. Darn it! It would have been so much better. And maybe I wouldn't have been up at 5 am with the runs either!
On Sunday my Mom and sister came to visit. We went bowling! On the second game my score was 151-my personal best ever! We ate dinner at the Sirloin Saloon.
Valentine's Day is coming up soon and I thought I better figure out how to make a heart-shaped bookclip. Here they are on Eric's Hassock.

I packed up boxes of regular bookclips to send to my Dad and Grandma to sell for me.

I haven't done too much looking for a job. I have heard of a few things but I am being very lazy about it. My schedule is all screwed up and I can't get my ass out of bed in the morning. Here is proof that work is really closing. Here is my goofy boss:

Dishes, disgusting mothballs, and drama!

2006-02-03T00:12:00.000-05:00

Here is my big accomplishment for the evening.
I also have a smell report: When I got home yesterday the mothball stench was heinous. It was all through the apartment. After a confrontational phone call with the landlord it was determined that the skunk was not in the basement but under the porch. The air intake vent is at the bottom of the stairs inside of the front door. Therefore, the smell was being sucked inside and into the vent to be circulated around the house. The spaces between the steps and the porch are now sealed with plastic. The mothballs were removed from the front of the porch. Tonight when I got home the mothball stench was also heinous. I donned rubber gloves and grabbed a grocery bag and a flash light and proceeded to pick up all of the mothballs I could get to around the house. There must have been 300 of them! I was picking them up by the handful. It was like an stinky easter egg hunt with little hard balls of crack rocks that look like marshmallows. There are still probably a few hundred more under the porches and the edge of the foundation I couldn't get to. No more mothballs please! The only smell more offensive is cigarette smoke. My co-worker told me that the best thing to keep skunks away is human urine. I guess we will need to work on that.
After I worked on that, I bagged up all of the recycling and cans and bottles. While I was working on that I witnessed a domestic dispute between my neighbor George, who is a rowdy and old man, and some redneck that owed him money. There was shouting, dumping garbage, a broken window, and a visit from a Rutland police cruiser. Excitement! After that we went out for dinner at the new Quiznos, and made a trip to Hannaford for a few groceries.

Look What I Won!!!

2006-02-02T00:30:00.000-05:00

I am soooooooooo excited because I received this Feist CD in the mail today. I won it on my local radio station, WEBK 105.3, by playing a game called Short Cuts where they play a clip of a song and you have to be the first caller to correctly identify it. I didn't know what they were going to send, but what do you know, they sent me this CD that I have been wanting really bad all week. It was even on my Amazon Wish List!

Crappy Shelf Report

2006-01-31T19:41:00.000-05:00

You know that shelf I was talking about the other day? Yeah, this pain in the ass...

First of all, if you see this Black & Decker bastard in a box in the hardware section at Walmart, don't buy it. Second thing, there were no instructions but pictures of the pieces printed on the side of the box and they don't make any sense. We ended up putting this all together backwards. The legs were all in upside down and there was extra slack on the top. I knew something was wrong but I couldn't get it apart to fix it. Third thing was that the top shelf was cracked where you could see it in the front. I exchanged that piece at Walmart, no problem. However, I got it apart and put the thing back together the right way and wacked at it a few times with a rubber mallet to get it evened out and broke 2 pieces off the bottom. One I superglued back in place and the other I couldn't find. Then I hit the top cover part and they cracked. They are now superglued too. Bahhhhhh!

And if that wasn't enough, I walked by and the son of a bitch and it SCRATCHED me!

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I was woken up this morning by Eric who called me from work. Everyone kept telling him that he smelled like a skunk. We have a skunk that keeps getting into the basement of our rental apartment. The landlord has known about it and continues to put mothballs around the house to keep it at bay. There must be a crack or a hole that it gets into but do you think he would bother to look for it? What if Pepe Le Pew is already in there and won't come out? The skunk smell as well as burnt rubber smell comes right into the apartments through the forced air heating vents. I hate the stench of mothballs and whenever he does that I can smell them in my room, my studio, and the bathroom.

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Not everything is stinky around here. Eric got me these nice roses on Friday.

Goodbye Sophie

2006-01-29T02:24:00.000-05:00

Sophie, my Mom and Sister's kitty passed away on Friday. She wasn't even two years old. Last fall she went missing for a couple days. It was cold and rainy and she was found my a neighbor just in time. We believe she was hit by a car. She was paralyzed in the back legs, but seemed to be getting around ok and doing many of her normal activities. However, on Friday afternoon, my Mom found her in distress and took her to the Vet's office. Her lungs were filled with fluid and she had to be put down. The Vet thought that a blood clot could have traveled from her legs up to her lungs.Sophie was such a nice cat. She had a short life but was well loved. She will be missed.

Here she is with Otto who is now going crazy because he is the only animal left in the house.

Here she is as a kitten.

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I got the camera out to take pictures of the progress I have made organizing. I couldn't resist bothering Squeeky. I can never catch her doing anything good. Last week she got into the back bathtub but by the time I got the camera she had gotten out.
Don't you dare get up on that table, cat!

Squeeky coming in to admire her clean shitter.

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Look at all that I got done in my studio!

My table is clean!

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I got a shelf at Walmart to stack my clothes up on but after I had put it together I found the top shelf was cracked right in the front. I couldn't get the damn thing apart so the top shelf is going back to the crap emporium and they better let me take another shelf. Here is is topshelfless.

I got a really nice wool J.Crew sweater at the Open Door Mission thrift shop this week for cheap. I used one of those Dryel dry cleaning kits on it to freshen it up. It is fluffy and nice smelling now. See how the tag says XL? This sweater must be from the 90's when clothes actually fit. Now everything is so frickin small and loaded with lycra. This fits me great. Why can't clothes be like that again? Things at the Gap used to fit me. Now there is no chance of that. The Gap in the mall here just went out and I can honestly say that I don't really care.

Here is our kitchen. The counter space is very limited so I installed this shelf when we moved in. Then the shelf was cluttered so I bought these colorful containers at the dollar store and filled them with utensils, dish towels, and measuring cups. Lookin' good!

That is my update for the week. Adios!

Shopping, Sawing, Sewing, Snapping, and Searching.

2006-01-17T23:58:00.000-05:00

It's been pretty busy around here lately... I had a nice three day weekend. ALL of the nitty gritty cleaning projects were neglected. We didn't do even one load of laundry. The weather was windy, snowy, and bone-chilling cold on Saturday and Sunday. After staying in the whole weekend and feeling about to go crazy, we ventured out on Monday afternoon to Saratoga Springs, New York to do some looking around and shopping. We stopped at the outlets in Lake George we went into Harry and David which was a new experience for me. Everything looked so good. We also went into Yankee Candle where they had many good deals. I got this delicious watermelon candle. I thought they stopped making these a few years ago... Maybe they did but they had a whole shelf full of them. A really funny thing happened while we were there. I was about to go up to the register to pay when we heard a giant, loud fart blast through the front of the store. Eric thought it was me but it was a goofy retarted man who was with his keeper at the counter. The woman turned him around to lead him out of the store and he was giggling and grinning like crazy. Needless to say, we backed off and looked around for a few more minutes.

I ended up spending a lot of time at A.C. Moore looking at craft supplies. I couldn't find what I was looking for but ended up with a few things anyway. We visited the Super Walmart where everything is pretty darn cheap. I got this mitre box and saw which are going to change my life. Seriously, I am going to use this ALL of the time!!!

About two weeks ago I found these neat bins at Big Lots. I have been using this one to carry my project to work to do in the afternoon. Also, I use it at home and feel pretty special.

That leads me to show and tell about these pin cushions and brooches I have been making all weekend. The pin cushions were inspired by Hillary at Wee Wonderfuls, which turned into making round and heart pins.

My sister gave me a roll of film to develop today. The pictures were mostly of Selby. Here are a couple of her and Sophie. Aren't they cute?

Finally, my boss announced on Friday that the photo lab will be closing on February 15th for good. I have worked there for four and a half years and business has been declining steadily for most of it. There are two things that have really killed it, which are as follows: Digital cameras have taken over. Everyone has one and a printer and can print their own pictures easily at home. The second thing is that there are photo labs at every drug store and department store around town. People don't realize that their photos look like crap and they could look better if someone who really cares is printing them. All day I have had to deal with regular customers asking "why?" and "What is poor Missy going to do?" That's the boss, and she has plenty of money so all we can do is laugh at that. I REALLY am going to have to find another job now, which is my least favorite thing in the world to do. Four weeks left. What in the heck am I going to do? Some good news for the day was that I got a check for $83 from Lowell Country Gifts in Benson where I have been selling some of my goods since the end of November. That was a nice surprise.

Zippers, Bland Food, Tourists, and Gum.

2006-01-10T01:29:00.000-05:00

This has been a lucky zipper week. My mom and sister got me a pile of zippers at the ReStore in Montpelier this weekend.

Then this afternoon Eric found this bag of mystery zippers in our mailbox. Later on I got a call from the nice woman who had left them for me. She bought a zipper pin from me at the second to last craft sale I was at. Thank you! I can't wait to start working again!

I have had 3 other inquiries about the zipper pins within the last two weeks. I also heard about two craft sales in February which may be a possibility.
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On Saturday night Eric and I ventured up to Killington to eat at a place called "Baja Burrito" because we had an Entertainment book coupon. It was quite possibly the worst "Mexican" food I have ever had. First of all, you enter the restaurant into a lounge room with couches, a TV, and a few tables. In the main room there were lots of tables, a bar, and a big noisy crowd. We were seated in the lounge room. It was filled with tourists who were very into the football game on the TV. We had to sit next to an obnoxious family with a coughing, germ spewing man. Every time the door was opened we were hit with a blast of icy mountain air. When the food arrived it didn't look very good. The burritos were stuffed in an unbaked flour tortilla. Mine was stuffed with black beans and white rice coated with cheese that was similar to the gooey cheese sauce that comes in a packet with Velveeta or Kraft mac and cheese kits. It had absolutly no spice, flavor, or heat. It came with sour cream and lettuce as well as pico de gallo, and guacamole both heavy with white onions. After one bite the waitress offered hot sauce and we accepted. The tourists looked to be loving the food and the atmosphere but I could not wait to get out of there. I haven't felt so uncomfortable at a restaurant or been so disgusted with the food in a long time. Stay away from this horrible place if you ever visit Killington!!!

Killington is only ten or twelve miles from Rutland, but the funny thing about it is that it seems like a completely different planet. It is a bonafied tourist trap. Everything is extremely overpriced, such as gas and food. For example, we had to stop and get a jug of windshield fluid and it was $3. The same thing is $1.07 at Walmart in Rutland. The place is crawling with rich, snobby, asshole idiots from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Conneticut, and New York on vacation or skiing for the weekend. I can't stand them and it is annoying when they come down to Rutland, driving their huge gas guzzling SUV tanks with ski rack systems on the top. They drive like frickin idiots, cutting everyone off and getting in the way. I don't like snow and I don't like skiing tourists! Go home.
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I recently found this new trident gum. It is a crunchy pillow of chewy strawberry gum with a pocket of lime flavor in the center. The flavor lasts a long time and it is delicious.

Goodbye Selby

2006-01-07T02:56:00.000-05:00

Our dog Selby passed away today. I think she just turned twelve years old. She joined our family during my last year of high school when she was a puppy. She was a good English Springer Spaniel who was always very happy and peaceful. She was well loved and will be missed very much. It's hard to believe she is gone. It is really sad. These photos were taken at home a few years ago.

I'm so sad, I can't stop crying. Baaaahhhhhhhhh!
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In other news:

I can't put down this friggin stupid SuDoku book!!! I got this on Monday when I got a haircut at the mall. They started putting the puzzles in the paper this week and I have been hooked ever since. Check out the book clip in action! I haven't gotten much else done. I can't do any projects until I organize this mess in the craft room.

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Here's something cool:
McCormick Peppercorn and Sea Salt grinders!

Eric bought the pepper one. We were out of peppercorns and I hadn't gotten to the Co-op to buy more. Eric's Mom had both of them at her house. Gimmicky but convenient. I have no idea how much they cost. The bottles say that they are disposable and not to refill. I think that is quite wasteful but that is what recycling is for. Still, they are cool and freshly ground pepper beats stale old pepper in a can any day. And sea salt is pretty special too.
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Check out this video of OK GO on WEQX 102.7. This song is just soooooo cool!
You can also listen live on the internet! Very cool.

Happy 2006!

2006-01-01T06:41:00.000-05:00

It has been a busy past couple of days. Trish was here visiting on Friday afternoon. We had a very nice dinner at the Sirloin Saloon. It was delicious as always. However, it was mobbed! We had the loudest group of people behind us that I have ever heard. By the time we left there I had a ginormous headache. Trish and I had our yearly birthday/Christmas gift exchange. She always finds the neatest things. She gave me a pair of Croc Socks. I have never seen these before. They are soft and warm!

I am also the proud owner of Napoleon Dynamite socks and a really cool necklace/earring set from Danforth Pewters as well as treasure chest of many other neat things too.

I sure hope Trish liked her gifts. One was a zipper barrette.

Here is a picture of some of the neat things I either got for Christmas or bought for myself. The two bird pins were made by a Jill Listzwan, a Vermont artist. The barrette with the glass pieces was made by Eye and I Glass, another Vermont Artist. I bought the orange clip and the other one was given to me by my mom and sister. I bought the fused glass pin at a Craft sale.

Eric and I had a New Years dinner at the Panda Pavillion. It was delicious! I ate every bite on my plate. We went on a shopping excursion at Hannaford and the liquor store so that we could enjoy our yearly tradition of mixed drinks at home. There have been some good movies on TV lately. We watched Kate and Leopold. I snoozed on my bed and now I am up thinking I would like to go back to bed.
Have a happy and healthy new year! If you had time off, lucky you. Have fun going back to work. I didn't have a single extra day off because all of the holidays lately have fallen on Saturdays. Can you tell I am not happy about that? Hmmmmmmm...

Blogging Extravaganza!

2005-12-28T00:30:00.000-05:00

Squeeky has been having a wonderfully frisky day. She has been very excited to have Eric home with her all day long! She had a delish snack of rotisserie turkey this evening. Now she is very tired and is sleeping in a tall box in the livingroom.

I braved the crowd at Walmart yesterday to try to get some marked down Christmas crap. They had cute stuff this year, even if it is probably all from China. I got a nice stationary/card set for $4 something and a pair of red flannel sheets with designs on them for $10. Also picked up half price tissue paper, wrapping paper, tins, and some other stuff for next year.

Like I was saying yesterday I got some nice loot for Christmas. My Mom made me this blanket out of fleece we picked out at JoAnn Fabric after one of our craft sales. I was really looking forward to this gift because it is so dang cold in this stupid apartment. It is two layers and really warm, and pretty too.

Eric gave me this cool secret box with fish on it. It is just too darn neat!

Many of the gifts I gave were homemade. This is a picture of a barrette I made for Eric's sister out of zippers. It was just too cool and I ALMOST kept it for myself! In the background is a scarf I knitted for Eric's Mom.

Before making all of the Christmas stuff I had been in high gear production for the craft sales. Big sellers this year were zipper pins and barrettes, glass bubble magnets, key chains, bottle cap picture frames, zipper pulls, and earrings. I am really low on product for now and must get busy creating in the next few months for the Farmer's Market starting in the spring. Here is a picture of the most recent zipper pins.

After one of my sales I got a call from a local woman asking me if I would like to buy her zippers. I ended up going over to her house to get them. I got many more offers but I have yet to hear anything else. If you would like to sell me your old zippers please leave me a comment!

We missed out on the Matisyahu concert tonight. Hopefully I will get to see him some other time. Instead I spent the evening socked out on the couch freezing to death.

Matisyahu!!!

2005-12-27T03:05:00.000-05:00

Matisyahu will be at the Pickle Barrel in Killington, VT tomorrow night. Unfortunatly, I forgot to tell my sister about it until yesterday and now it looks to be sold out. I wonder if the radio station will give tickets away? The Pickle Barrel totally sucks because it is crawling with out of state ski assholes. Right now Rutland is full of giant SUVs with New York, New Jersey, and Conneticut plates. Baaaahhhhhh!!! However, at the Pickle Barrel the dance floor is right up next to the stage and there is a second floor where you can look down all around the stage. You can get very near the performers. Little Feat will be there too later on this spring.
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I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. It was a little bit stressful trying to get everything done and get where we needed to be but it all worked out ok. Everyone was happy with their gifts and we had some nice holiday dinners. Thank you to everyone for the cool presents, moolah, and the cards.
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It has been a busy year here at the Stacie Mincher Designs house. I have had some extremely successful shows this season. I am looking forward to getting a website set up and getting some of my things into some local stores. May the new year bring good things to everyone!

Ouch, my head.

2005-11-02T23:08:00.000-05:00

My tooth is fixed! After fretting all night long about it, the dentist's office called me yesterday morning and invited me in for a cancellation. What a relief! Also, my dentist was in North Dakota hunting a couple weeks ago. He ended up staying in a motel 3 miles away from my Dad's Bed & Breakfast, Sage Hill. It's a small world...Har!
Work was very busy today. I could hardly sit down to eat lunch. What the heck?
I came home with a headache and had to listen to the visiting 2 year old grandkid/rugrat running around downstairs all evening long. They have no idea how much his thumping shoes echo up here. You wouldn't think we could hear it since we are on the second floor but it sounds like a herd of elephants. He runs around and around and around. I don't think he sat down once in 3 hours. WOW! Thoroughly unpleasant and completely brutal. You must think 'how could a person say that about a happy go lucky little kid?' but I am telling you it is LOUD!!! How about going outside to play, going to the playground earlier in the day to wear the kid out, or doing a nice quiet activity like coloring? Yessssss...

October Report

2005-11-01T01:09:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhhhh...Long time no see!
Here is an October report on what is now November 1st. The apartment is coming along. All though I still have 5 boxes in my room to figure out what to do with. I finally put many things in the attic this past weekend. The air conditioners and fans now reside up there for the winter. We are still trying to get used to this place and the song "The Old Apartment" by the Barenaked Ladies has become the secret theme for my life. I tear up every time I hear it.
The Farmer's Market has come to an end for the season. It was a wonderful experience and I would do it again in a second. I have made many friends sold lots and lots of crafts! Holiday shows are coming up and I have been busy working in my craft room almost every night.
Work has been very slow lately and I have a feeling I will need to be looking for a new job soon. More updates on that later.
I recently celebrated my 29th birthday. I can't believe I am that old! The past 10 years have just zinged right by. My boyfriend gave me a better computer with a CD burner and a digital camera as a gift. He has been working on getting it set up and I am noticing an impressive difference already. I just love it! Get ready for digital pictures soon...
The weather has been cold, rainy, and very depressing. However, today was beautiful, sunny, and 61 degrees! It finally felt like fall in Vermont. It was perfect for Halloween. I carved 2 pumpkins last night and roasted pumpkin seeds. I rushed right home and put them out and handed out candy for 1 hour. One kid, who looked to be about 11, talked on a cell phone the whole entire time he was on my porch. He didn't even say trick or treat and he could barely get his pillow case open! Bah!
I had a very traumatic afternoon today. I was eating a big squishy sub for lunch at work and crunched on BIG foreign object. WTF??? I spit everything out and found a big hunk of one of my molars!!! AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!! I am too young to have my teeth breaking and falling out! I have never had anything like this happen to me before. I was so distraught I couldn't even find my dentist's name in the phone book. Lorraine had to come over and help me look it up. The receptionist asked me what time of the day would be good and I told her tomorrow morning. She laughed at me! The soonest appointment is in 2 weeks! That dang dentist is always booked. Grrrrrrrr. I seriously don't know if I can deal with this for that long. I keep sticking my tounge in the hole and I can't get anything in it. Instead of going to the Halloween parade tonight, we went to the grocery store where I got a large assortment of soft foods. How awful! No more candy for me.
That's all for now. I hope to be keeping on top of this a little better from now on. Really, I am.

I'm still busy...

2005-09-06T23:57:00.000-05:00

Hello there- I have not been posting...I know.
Things are still going crazy here. I hope all is well with you!
More later...

Apartment Report

2005-08-17T22:17:00.000-05:00

Holy Shit! We are in our new apartment. I finally got my computer all rigged up tonight after 2 weeks. Things are a frickin disaster around here. A sea of boxes, crates, furniture, and junk. We still have to go over to finish cleaning up the old crap hole we called home for almost 5 years. It is very sad but after hearing all of my bitching for 2 months enduring the cigarette smoke and rednecks you would know that it had to be done. I have been busier than I have ever been in my whole life. I have had to pass on the Farmer's Market for 2 weeks. I have only gotten to take 2 days off from work for this entire ordeal while my boss spends her days on the golf course and lazing in her air-conditioned house. It has been so hot too. Torture! Every weekend has been spent cleaning, packing, moving, organizing, having a yard sale, and busting ass. There is so much to be done still. Arrrrgggghhhh! I really hope things start to calm down soon. I hope to have time to work on this blog again more often.

Moving...Yessssssssss!

2005-07-26T23:47:00.000-05:00

We're moving! Same town, different street! No more Nancy and Roger! Holy crap...Lots of work to be done. Busy, very busy! More soon...

Another Bargain

2005-07-11T23:16:00.000-05:00

It's hot AGAIN! Today was a long, busy, crappy Monday.
The highlight of my day was the library book sale. I picked up a few interesting things:
A set of Betty Crocker cookbooks in a special box for $1.

A Cat Stevens 45 with Morning Has Broken and I Want to Live in a Wigwam on it for 10 cents.
An Elton John album for 10 cents.

And a book that the woman working there swore was good for 50 cents.
Grand Total=$1.70 and an hour and a half of lurking around the library basement.

Maine and More

2005-07-06T21:26:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I'm back from Maine. Back to crappy work, back to the cigarette stink apartment, back to everything else. I had a nice time and got to spend a day in Bar Harbor. We went on a fun lobster and seal watch, ate dinner at an awesome restaurant, and looked in all of the stores and galleries there. I bought this super-dooper neato oil cloth totebag.

I also learned that size matters...When it comes to pineapples! We were very close to Canada and this is from a weekly advertisement at a Canadian grocery store.

When I got back there was six days of newspapers to catch up on. This was in yesterdays. It sure looks like Bush is wearing a big floofy patriotic square dancing skirt!

The past two days of work have been exhausting. It has been really busy. Two more days of work this week and then I will be at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. Thankfully, the weather was a lot cooler here today than it has been.
By the smell of it, I think Pepe le Pew is wandering around outside. Maybe he will spray Nancy! Give her a taste of her own medicine! Muuhhhhaaaaaaaahahahahah!

Thanks for Everything.

2005-06-28T21:38:00.000-05:00

Dang it! It is so hot...again. I just cleaned the bathroom. What a pain in the ass. However, thank you to Soft Scrub. You have made my life so much easier. You make cleaning the tub so much faster. Just squirt you all over the tub, rub you in with a scrub brush, let you soak, and then rinse you off.

And thank you to Munchies Kids Mix. I am sitting here like a big sweat hog mindlessly scarfing you down. All of the goodness of cheetos balls, pretzels, mini doritos, smartfood, chocolate pieces, and 'captain cunt' cereal all in one bag. Just so delicious when you are hungry!

And one last thanks to my Talking Heads CD. What fun it was to listen to you while cleaning that stink hole. I am very busy doing laundry and cleaning in preparation for my mini-vacation to Maine. Tomorrow night I will be packing and going crazy. I can't wait to get out of here, even if it isn't for long enough. Yay!

Appearances

2005-06-24T18:25:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite bands, Blue Merle, will be on CBS tomorrow morning (June 25th) beginning at 7A.M. I hope I can catch some of this while I am getting ready for the Farmer's Market. Also, for anyone living in Southern Vermont, David Sedaris will be at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester on Sunday, June 26th at 2 P.M. DAVID SEDARIS!!! That is like having a rock star in the state! It is first come, first serve for the seating and I'm sure it will be mobbed because who doesn't like David Sedaris? Have a good weekend!

The First Day of Summer 2005.

2005-06-21T22:51:00.000-05:00

What a long, long day! This morning I worked up enough courage to ask the boss for a few days off to go on a mini-vacation. Mission accomplished...I'm going to Maine at the end of next week for five days! I can't wait to go. It smells so good there and the ocean is so beautiful. We are going to try to go on a whale watch this time. My old neighbor called tonight. We made plans to visit them at their new house tomorrow. I miss them soooooooo much! I finally heard from the Brandon Artists Guild last week and I did not get in. There was a lot of competition. I am very disappointed but it was a good experience anyway and now I will try to get my stuff in somewhere else.
Here is a funny article that appeared in our local paper today:

And here is a post card that I received in the mail from my sister today:

She celebrated her 24th birthday over the weekend and was very pleased with all of her gifts. We ate dinner on Saturday night at American Flatbread in Middlebury. You can buy their frozen pizzas all over the country, but nothing is as good as one of their nightly specials. They are made with all local ingredients in a wood-fired oven. Then we went home to have cake from Mirabelles in Burlington.

Wow!

2005-06-20T21:56:00.001-05:00

I have been neglecting this blog REAL bad. Things have been crazy busy. The apartment thing hasn't been going very well and work has been really busy. I haven't been getting enough sleep and not much time to work on my projects. There's my update for the week. More soon!

The worst day of my life, what do you think?

2005-06-08T23:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a little card I made tonight. I still like doing things by hand. I needed some 'Napoleon Dynamite' humor after another miserable day. Even thinking about that movie still makes me laugh.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I am really enjoying these Dar Williams CDs that I got at a yard sale for $1 each.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I would update on the happenings of the day, but it is just too much to re-hash all over again. Things aren't looking so good for the apartment. Work has been busy. I have to get up early again tomorrow. Also, I have had an annoying crick in my neck all day long. And I am hungry because I had to wolf down my dinner at 6 P.M. and ended up throwing half of it away. The only good thing about tonight was that we took a walk.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
While we were walking around Middlebury on Saturday we visited Vermont Beads & Fibers. It is a fairly new store and it has some very nice yarn and beads for sale, class offerings, and an extremely talkative owner. I can't really afford to buy any of that now, but I drooled over all of it. If you ever visit my hometown, you should go there!

Moose on the Loose!

2005-06-07T23:21:00.000-05:00

I took my sister's film to work today to process. On her field trip last week they encountered this young moose on interstate 89 in northern Vermont. They pulled over and she got out of the car to take this picture. Confused, the moose started coming towards her and her friend kept shouting to her to "GET BACK IN THE CAR!!!" That's Vermont for you!

Life is Brutal.

2005-06-06T22:50:00.000-05:00

I feel so BUSY! I had to be at work sort of early today. I have to be there REAL early tomorrow and pretty early for the three days after that. It has been crazy busy for the past couple of weeks. We did 78 rolls of film today and at the height of craziness the machine malfunctioned and they had to tear it all apart. We got so behind that when I left there this afternoon there were already 40 or so to start with tomorrow morning. It is so hot in there and the boss has been around ALL day, so it has been BRUTAL! Just MURDEROUS!
To add to that hell, I have to come home to Nancy the smoker and her boyfriend Roger Redneck who is "thinkin' about roomin' with her." After stewing and fretting all day I called the landlords to set up a meeting to complain about the smoke when I got home. Mr. Landlord found out about R.R. today when he came to set up Nancy's washer and dryer in the basement. Apparently R.R. was not known of when the lease was signed and now he is planning on moving in. In addition, it seems that Nancy is unemployed at the moment, which she also lied about. Nobody is happy here except the trailer trash and this is going to be a long saga, I'm sure
...More updates soon!
On Sunday we went to Home Depot to get an air conditioner for my room. The heat was buzzardly and the smoke was coming in all of my windows. It has helped considerably so far. We ended up eating spicy chicken sandwiches at Wendy's for dinner. Not bad.
After all of the commotion tonight I didn't end up having much of anything for dinner. Oh, by the way, forget what I said about those Thai noodles a while ago. I have had them twice since and they totally sicked me out. Barf! There's not much else going on. I don't know what's happening with the Artists Guild yet. I should be receiving a decision letter sometime this week. My fingers are crossed! Now with more hours at work and all of this busyness I haven't had time do anything crafty. Baaaahhhhhhhh!!!

Nancy stinks up a perfectly good weekend!

2005-06-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

Boy oh boy does it stink cigarettes in here. Last night was the pits. From the time I got home from work until about 2 A.M. it just reeked. There was a huge smoke cloud in the kitchen. I am sooooooooo pissed at the landlords for doing this to us. This is just what we expected and WORSE! We are getting psyched up for a lovely phone call to them to complain. What in the world are we supposed to do? I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Nancy had to move out of her last apartment because there was a person who lived in the building who was on oxygen. Her landlords gave her a wonderful reference and said she did not smoke much. Heck NO! I don't think so. She smokes inside every 20-30 minutes. Unscented Oust has become my best friend. I'm either going to die from breathing in ozone from the aerosol can or have to go on oxygen myself from the second-hand smoke. There is no way to get used to this. Oh, and about that HEPA filter that Nancy supposedly has, it ain't working! How can it when she smokes in every room downstairs? She has ruined my sanctuary!
As for the rest of the day, it was good and busy. I got up early and dropped the zipper pins off to be juried at the Brandon Artists Guild. They have to tally up the scores and will be sending out letters later in the week. I feel positive about the experience and I am really hoping that they pick me! In between all of that I went to Middlebury, my hometown. I stopped at a yard sale at the Humane Society and got 6 CDs for a dollar each, 2 of which are Dar Williams. I went to Retroworks, an over priced thrift store and TJ Maxx to kill time. I met Trish at the Co-op and we ran into Bill Ramage there. What a coinkydink! At least I had some halfway good news to report to him. We walked all over like tourists. We went to the Middlebury Farmer's Market and taste tested lots of cheese. We had a good sandwich at Noonies and then cookies from the Otter Creek Bakery. We went to visit my mom and sister out in the country. My mom showed us all of her garage sale finds for the day.

There were zillions of those nasty-ass tent caterpillars. They are worse than ever this year. They were hanging on strings from the trees and would drop on your head and cling to your clothes. They were probably thousands of them crawling all over the side of the house and the ground. They were munching on the leaves so loudly that it sounded like it was raining out. While I was there they crawled into my car and on my way home I had to kill one on my leg. GROSS!

I can finally show off the HUMMEL card that I sent to my sister in the mail. Aren't Hummels funny?

Getting out of Rutville.

2005-06-03T22:59:00.000-05:00

It was another festering hot day at work. Pure Hell. El Cheapo boss did NOT turn on the air conditioning at all even though it was 87 degrees out again. She kept wiping her brow with the back of her hand and going "phew!" over and over. She also ran film until waaaaaaaay after the cut off time and stayed there until 5 P.M. The day dragged even worse than yesterday.
Bad news, smoker Nancy has been chain smoking all evening long. Every 20 minutes it comes right out of her living room window and up into my bedroom window. The only good thing so far is that she goes to bed early and she can't smoke when she is sleeping. I have my Walmart candle going and a can of unscented Oust within reach. This morning when I went to leave for work she had some redneck buddy over and she was parked in the middle of the driveway. Her dog had a fit when she saw me and started lunging at me then I had to wait for the bitch to stop talking and get in her car so I could get out! I was 5 minutes late for work. According to the bank across the street it was 8 minutes. I have got to get ready for bed because I have to be out of here before 8 A.M. tomorrow. It's jury day at the Brandon Artists Guild!!! Then I am going to Middlebury to meet up with Trish, and then home to see my mom and sister.
I am so not an early bird.

Isn't the weather nice?

2005-06-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

Wow! It sure was HOT today! I work at the dumbest place in all of Rutland. The air conditioner didn't get turned on until 3 P.M. when it was 87 degrees outside and probably hotter inside. It is an ancient piece of crap from the early 80s. It barely works and it only cools a few feet around it and the store is pretty big. The boss is so cheap that she won't get a more efficient one that would save her money on electricity...NOOOOOOO! Then who ever ends up turning it on gets the hairy eyeball from the her. Meanwhile, she is either at the golf course or in her air conditioned house. I was so dang hot! Work just dragged on and on and it was really busy.
I searched all over the city for a black tablecloth without any luck. I guess it just isn't hip to have a black tablecloth in these parts. How dark and depressing! Except that I am not using it for an eating table, but for a display on a table to make my zipper pins look snazzy and elegant when I take them to be juried at the Brandon Artists Guild on Saturday. If you didn't know, Brandon, Vermont is home to the famous American folk-artist Warren Kimble. I have met him and he is a very nice man! I was told that there are three spaces open for 3 dimensional artwork and there are six people they are considering at this time. I sure do hope they pick me!
I got home around 7 o'clock and have been busy ever since.
-I talked to my sister who had to cut her field trip excitement short. She ended up at the emergency room of Dartmouth-Hitchcock this afternoon due to a reaction from sun exposure and antibiotics. How horrendous! At the time she was at VINS in Quechee watching a lecture on raptors and buzzards.
-Nancy the smoker was with her entourage and a huge U-HAUL in the back yard. She looked extremely frazzled. She was hacking with what sounded to be smokers cough and shaking something wicked. She has some mighty fugly furniture. No smoke smell yet...I am crossing my fingers. She has been nice and so far they are very quiet.
-We had chicken made on the Foreman grill tonight for dinner. It was pretty good. It took forever to clean up everything after.
-I started reading The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. It is very good so far.
-Now it is late again and I really haven't gotten anything accomplished. Tomorrow I have to work with alone with the boss again. It will probably be busy and way too hot. I am just too tired and busy to deal with her bitchyness and nonsense. I better end this and get going so I can mentally prepare myself for the abuse that will be called Friday.
Oh how funny...The spell checker just told me to replace P.M. with pooh and bitchyness with patchiness. If I did that, this just wouldn't make any sense, would it now?!

Hump Day

2005-06-01T22:50:00.000-05:00

*I feel so busy! There are clothes that need to be folded, craft projects that need to be started and finished, library books to be read, and movies to be watched. Everything is a mess! Now it is getting to be time to go to bed and I haven't done much of anything. On top of all that I have to go waste the day at work tomorrow.
*Here is an apartment update: We got our washer and dryer platform after a good deal of hemming and hawing over what to say to the landlord and then actually talking to him. He put them on there and leveled everything and now they work great. Nancy the smoker is supposed to move in downstairs tomorrow. I have a new Mainstays vanilla candle from Walmart all ready to go. You can scoff at the Walmart brand all you want, but I swear by this candle! It smells just as good as Yankee Candle while burning. It makes the whole place smell like yellow cupcakes baking. Unfortunately, I don't think anything will get rid of the nasty-ass ciggy stench when Nancy starts smokin' butts down there.
*I have been wearing semi-uncomfortable shoes all day long. If I deviate from my Birkenstocks for more than an hour I always pay for it later with a week of sore feet. I have been on my feet at work pretty much all day long for the past two days. There have been a lot of holiday weekend pictures in Foto land.
*My sister is on a school field trip with her sixth grade class, the fifth grade class, teachers, and parents. They are visiting places all over the state for three days. They are going to be staying at a school somewhere and sleeping on gym mats. GROSS! They are going to be taking a few hikes and the weather is supposed to be in the 80s. They are not going to be able to take showers. DOUBLE GROSS! I feel very sorry for her.
*Those nasty caterpillars are EVERYWHERE! My mom calls them "tent" caterpillars. They are sooooooooooooooo UGLY! Today at work I went to remove the wood wedge that props open the door and I felt something strange. There was one between my thumb and the wood struggling to free itself. Ewwwww!

Farmer's Market Success

2005-05-29T00:29:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say that I had a very successful day at the Farmer's Marke t. My sister came to help out. The sun shined all day, we enjoyed the musician, and had some interesting things to eat. My biggest sellers today were necklaces and bracelets for children made out of stretchy elastic and colorful beads. I also sold:

2 BLUE NECKLACES

2 ZIPPER PULLS

some KEYCHAINS

1 BRACELET

many BOOKCLIPS

many ZIPPER PINS

And lots of other things. What fun! Then I came home and counted my cash. Congratulations to me! I will not be there next weekend but I will be the weekend after if it does not rain.

Yah! It's a three day weekend!