Succulents!

As I have stated before, I can kill any plant that comes within breathing distance, so I don't normally attempt to try and grow anything. I had the pleasure of going to Epcot recently and fell in love with this planter on display in one of the countries (Italy, I believe) that they had made from a 3-tiered fountain.

It was an OMG moment for all of us. I never see this many succulents offered anywhere at one time and am not sure where you'd go to buy them. But, holy crap, is it gorgeous!

My thumbs are green with envy (teehee).

The good people at Epcot were kind enough to share the directions, so I am passing them on to you. Who do I know that would even attempt this? Maybe one or two.

 

 

 

Good luck if you try, send me a pic.

soap box

No, I'm not making a soap box, I'm hopping on one.

For the life of me I cannot understand the current fashion trend of "sagging". I cannot even tell you how unsexy I think it is, and it actually makes me snicker when I see it. Don't you just want to say "pull up your damn pants, no one wants to see your skanky underwear!" Or better yet, wouldn't you love to just reach out and pull them all the way down? Well, I wouldn't really do either one of those things, but I think about doing them. Really hard. So hard, my head shakes in disgust like an old fogey listening to whipper snapper music.

I saw a video of a policeman patting down a suspect. They are trained to run their hands along the waistline to check for guns/weapons that may be tucked in them. You see where this is going? Yes, the cop said after feeling in front of this young man... "what do you have tucked in your pants?"  He replied "it's my d***". I swear, it's true. Seriously! What are you thinking? That your plaid underwear is going to make the girls swoon? wrong, wrong, wrong. It is GROSS and the most idiotic look ever invented. EVER. Do you know the roots of this trend, because I'm thinking maybe you don't. It started in prison. Male prisoners who are interested in sex with other male prisoners, wear their pants like that to show their availability. Maybe you DO know the roots.
Regardless, young man, the sight of you walking with one hand holding up the pants in the front and your legs spread out so far so they don't fall, makes you look like a penguin. A retarded penguin. Yes, I went there. So, for God's sake, pull up your damn pants. Not cool. At all.

OK, I'm done.

Thrift Store shopping

I am a shopper, through and through. I can shop anytime of the day or night and will definitely shop til I drop. I'm the person that quote was made for. Black Friday is the exception to that rule... no thank you on that nutty day. Most of the time, those deep discounts are available before and after that day, so I have no intention of fighting over parking spaces or standing in a mile long line to get something I can buy tomorrow for the same price.

Along with the rest of bloggers everywhere, I have been bitten by the thrift store bug. Mostly because I look for potential snowmen bottles, and snowmen "parts", but also because it's a cheap thrill and you can shop all day and not spend a lot of money. Or any money. Recently Jan and I had the opportunity to shop in Jacksonville on Beach Boulevard which happens to have plenty of thrift shops. Everything from Goodwill, Hospice Haven, Salvation Army, and a few more little odds n ends stores. Our focus was bottles, but we both have the ability to multi-task in our search. We each have collections of stuff my husband would call ap-cray, so our eyes are always on the lookout for those things too.

Most places are like this... organized (somewhat) by like-items, which makes your hunt easy and pretty quick. I have been in a few that were more like a hoarders living room, and I turn around and leave those.

 

 This store had a cute little collection of owls, which I like, but none of them caught my eye, so I just looked. Well, I didn't just look, I tend to pick up everything and look at it from all directions. Why? I don't know, that's just how I roll I guess.

Lots of Easter stuff in all of the stores we stopped at, some baskets and ceramic bunnies... this little guy had a sweet face.

Here are some purchases we made for bottles that will be adorable snowmen by autumn.

We will do some hunting for vintage bottles at antique malls later. They aren't usually in thrift stores, so we end up paying a little more for them than most of the other bottles. Last year we scored at a booth that had nothing but vintage bottles and they gave us a bulk price.

Fun day, Jan! Hope we can do it again soon.