Antiquing In Gibbon, Minnesota

The first place we stopped and visited was Gibbon, Minnesota.  Dan's parents and a couple of his aunts and uncles were staying at his grandparents' house, so we stayed there, also.  We had big dinners, some people played golf, and I went antiquing.  Now, this is a very small town.  I'm talking about 800 people.  Its just a few blocks of houses and a strip downtown surrounded by farm land.  I did not thing I was going to find anything that was worth taking home, but I was wrong.

The first was an antique store downtown.  It was run by a local with a midwest accent out of Fargo.  I love these accents.  Everyone sounds so much more friendly, and it really shows the culture of the area.  It was a pretty large building separated into rooms and packed with so much awesome stuff.

This is an old heated outdoor phone booth!  Definitely need those in Minnesota!

The next day, we took a walk two houses down to an antique store a neighbor operated from his garage.  I thought I was going to walk in and see a garage sale type set-up.  No.  This couple had literally transformed their garage into a store.  It was so amazing, and really inspirational!  A good way to start your own store without leasing a building!

This is my mother-in-law and my daughter walking to the antique store!  Its crazy that I haven't pushed Maggie being a girly girl.  She likes dressing like this!

The entrance.  All those little figures in the cubbie holes on the left are salt and pepper shakers!

  

I did get a couple of things from these stores, but I'm going to wait until the end of our trip.  I think we'll be going to a couple of more places before we leave!  

Have you ever found anything really awesome in an unexpected place?

24 Hours of Straight Driving

I will explain this picture.  I fell asleep on my side and my sunglasses jammed into my forehead and made a huge red indention.  It was right before we went to dinner...

Busy, busy, busy!

Things around here are really busy!  We only have a limited time to look for neighborhoods, get in time with friends and family, and look for places for Dan to work!  So, posting has been put on the back burner.  Sorry!  Hopefully, I will get time to do some soon.  I went to a couple of antique shops and have pictures to post.  There are so many here!  I cannot wait to move!  Even went to one in someone's garage!

Hope everyone's weekend is going good!  I'm already tired!

Roadtrip!!!

Today begins our 24 hour trek up to Minnesota.  We're aiming to get there tomorrow by dinner time, but Dan's still at work and its almost 12!  They were supposed to get off at 9:30 today!  I'm really not surprised.  The Army always seems to screw your plans up.

Its our first road trip together.  I'm not really sure if I should be excited about it!  I'm almost 8 months pregnant, and we're going to have a 2-year-old in the car.  Its going to be difficult to keep Maggie occupied.  Especially when she is strapped down for hours on end.  Hopefully, we'll be able to play some DVDs on our laptops.

I will be away from the internet until Monday.  We're staying at his grandparent's house in a small town and they don't have wireless.  We'll be in the Twin Cities on Monday, staying with his aunt, so I'll be able to post then.  Hope you'll be able to cope without me for a couple of days!  Haha.  

Have a good weekend everyone!!!

Inspiration Workshop - Week 8 - Pick Your Own!

This week's inspiration is... I get to choose!  And I'm choosing fabric!  I have been looking at a lot of fabric lately.  I haven't started on any projects, yet, but I have been looking around daydreaming about what I could make with all these pretty patterns.  I've also been researching designing your own fabric.  What better way to make your dream dress than designing your own?!  That would be awesome.  I have awhile before I do that.  Here's some of the things I have found.  So pretty!

CalicoCorners - Dahlia 

Lewis & Sheron Textiles - Green Naturals

Sanae Chrysalis - Emergence Brown

Ikea - Kajsastina

Calico Corners - Key West

Hawthorne Threads - Forest Life in Watermelon

Warm Biscuit Bedding Company - Summer Green Upholstery Stripe

Calico Corners - Flower Field

Fabric.com - Aviary 2 Bloom Granite

I love this last one.  More fally colors, but I love the fall!  Especially since I will be unpregnant and back to wearing my normal clothes!  No more 12 in. elastic band on my shorts!  Then I will really be able to start some projects...  If the baby will let me.  

I won't be doing a Daydreams post today because I have sooooo much to do to get ready for our road trip tomorrow!  We're leaving for Minnesota in the morning as soon as my husband signs out for leave.  Just in time to miss the 103 degree weather we'll be having!

Hope everyone is having a good day and is staying cool!

Last 5 Pins Vol. 5

I am trying to get back into the swing of blogging with everything that has happened with my house.  I miss it!  Luckily they have fixed the plumbing enough so all the "stuff" will not come in my house.  It will just drain in my yard!  Yay!  But, I'm tired of worrying about it, and we will finally get away from this place on Friday!

Now for Last 5 Pins!

This is so adorable.  I love photobooth pictures, but even more when you add dogs!

This made me laugh so hard.  I can totally relate to the person that attempted these Cookie Monster cupcakes.  There has definitely been a couple of times when I have attempted to bake something and it has turned out awful!  

I would love to own my own chicken coop again.  When I was a little girl in Connecticut, my family had one.  We moved and gave them away before they were big enough to lay eggs.  I really want to try it again, and this one is so much prettier that the boring 2x4 and chicken wire one we had.  

My husband and I have talked about getting a cabin on a lake in Minnesota one day.  I want to decorate it really rustic-like.  This would be perfect!!!  The first thing I thought about when I saw this picture is the 7 dwarfs house in the woods.  I think I have read that book too much to my daughter.

I'm not a seamstress (yet), but I thought this bracelet was incredibly cute!  I love jewelry that expresses your interests and hobbies, but doesn't look tacky.

Well, my break is over and its time for me to take the next step in cleaning out bathrooms and sanitize EVERYTHING!  Wish me luck!

Source:  Dog Photobooth, Cookie Monster, Chicken Coop, Rustic Kitchen, Bracelet

A Terrible Tuesday!

Today started off as such a good day.  My husband, Dan, had to jump out of an airplane today, so Maggie and I went to watch.  He bumped his head a little on his landing but turned out okay!  Here's a small series of pictures that show the sequence of events:

Dan with all his gear on standing with Maggie.  It was so hot out there.  Maggie made a good decision to bring an umbrella!

Dan before the jump.

C-130 landing to pick up Dan and the rest of the paratroopers.

Landed fine!

Shot of all the guys that will be boarding the plane.

Waiting to board.

Maggie and I trying to stay cool under her Hello Kitty umbrella.

Getting ready to take off with all the guys on board!

Takin' off.

Takin' off still...  Its crazy how slow these things move and still manage to get off the ground!

About to fly around and drop the troops.

Almost time!

Here's a video of all the guys jumping.  Dan is somewhere after the truck.  Haha.

We got to hang out with Dan a little bit after his jump.  I picked up some lunch and we ate with him in his office before he had to start working again.  Maggie and I drove back home and my E.L.F. cosmetics package was at the front door!!!  I was so excited!  Thanks to Chaplinn's post over at Mini Penny about the 70% sale E.L.F. was having, I got $45 worth of stuff for $19!!!  

My Stash!  From the top, left to right:  Two pigment eye shadows, a dual eye shadow pack, 4 pack of eye shadow, lip plumping gloss, Beauty Book:  Bright Eyes Edition, 100 palette eye shadow (this wasn't on sale, but it was only $10!  This is still the price today!), and a make-up brush set.

So, I was pretty much on cloud 9 trying out my new shadows and stuff.  I started doing some laundry and sat on the couch to rest a little since I had been out all day.  All of a sudden I start hearing water coming from my hallway bathroom.  I go in and discover sewage spilling all over my bathroom floor from the toilet!  Then it starts coming out of the tub!!!  Both of my bathrooms were like this!  It was absolutely awful.  Since I'm so emotional right now I just started bawling while I was on the phone with the maintenance manager at our rental agency.  I didn't think anything would be fixed since we had this problem last week and it took forever for someone to come out, but they sent someone right away!  Luckily, it will be fine until tomorrow when someone else will bring a camera to look and see what the real problem is so they can permanently fix it this time.  I will be so happy when this happens.  This house has been such a nightmare!

I hope everyone had a better day than I did!  I will be back to posting normally tomorrow.

100 Followers!

I am so happy today!  I just hit 100 followers!  Thank you all so much for following, reading, and commenting on everything I post.  I hope I can keep posting interesting stuff that you all will enjoy!

I will be going out of town this Friday to Minnesota for a week and a half.  When I get back, I will be throwing a little giveaway!  It will probably be a gift certificate to a store (probably Modcloth, because I love it!) so check back in about a week!  I am so excited about hosting my first giveaway!  Woo!

Again, thank you guys so much.  I can't put into words what you mean to me.  Haha, its so strange to say that since 90% of you I've never met!  But its really true!

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Weekend Adventures

This weekend was a pretty fun one.  Friday I spent the night watching True Blood and knitting a sweater for my daughter.  Saturday I went up to hang with my friend, Rebecca.  We had the normal girl talk and went to pick up some lamps her fiance's mother was repairing for me.  I bought 2 lamps from The Lovely's on Etsy (which sadly is not a shop anymore) awhile back and they didn't work when I got them.  She replaced the cloth cords with MUCH safer ones and also added a dimmer switch!  So awesome!  All I need to do now is go out and get me some light bulbs and I can set them up in my bedroom!

After that, we went out to see my mother in Durham to drop of Maggie for the night.  We had dinner at this bar called Satisfactions - my old stomping ground.  Sigh.  Always brings back blurry memories going back to that place.  Mostly of getting kicked out.  Haha.  But anyways, there was an amazing car sitting outside and I had to get a picture of it!

Sunday, Dan and I got to kind of sleep in - just 30 minutes - since we didn't have Maggie, but we had to pick her up from my mom, so we didn't get to sleep in too much.  But it was alright because we met up with my sister, Rebecca, and her fiance, and went to the flea market at the state fairgrounds.

It was amazing day for finds.  In one of the buildings, Rebecca discovered a woman who sells mostly vintage kitchen stuff.  When you think of stuff for your kitchen, do you think Pyrex???  I know I do.  And I could NOT BELIEVE the amount this woman had.  Not only did she have a lot, but she had tons of complete sets.  I was in Pyrex heaven.  It was incredible, and I was so angry I only had 9 bucks on me!  I wanted to buy everything!  She had this amazing butter dish, salt and pepper shaker, and oil and vinegar bottles set.  All had the same brown pattern.  They were so adorable, and I am incredibly pissed at myself that I did not get a picture of them!  I did, however, get a picture of her stash.  She had the tables filled, the shelves underneath the tables, and then an area of stacked Pyrex just waiting to be put out on display when there was room.

I really think this would be my dream job.  The woman said she goes out 4 days a week all over North Carolina looking for the stuff.  My problem would be selling the stuff.  I know I would become a hoarder.  But at least I would be hoarding beautiful vintage wares and not trash!

Not from the same vendor, but a really cute spice rack I found!  Too bad it was 37 dollars...

Since I only had 9 dollars, I didn't walk away with that much stuff.  Its probably a good thing that I didn't have more since we're going on our road trip to Minnesota on Friday.  I should be saving money, not spending!  Buuuuut, I couldn't help it.  I really needed a glass 2-cup measuring cup and they had the regular clear Pyrex one, so i got it.  Then my sister surprised me and said she wanted to get me something!  I tried to be like, nooooo, its cool, you don't have to, but she insisted, and I totally gave in.  I picked out a really cute syrup container that was also pretty cheap.

Isn't it adorable?!

I forgot how awesome the flea market is.  Dan took Maggie in the stroller for awhile, so my hands were free to rummage through things.  Its such a different experience when you don't have a stroller, and you can look at the glass stuff without having to worry about little hands knocking things off tables.  Now all I have to do is have this baby so I don't have to rest so much, and can spend hours shopping instead of just one.

How was your weekend?  Do anything fun?  Find any good finds?

By the way...  I found this website today that locates estate sales in your area!  Some even have pictures of the things they will be selling!!!  estatesales.net