Memorial Day Monday

I'm just stopping by for a quick post today to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day.  We're having a barbeque at my Mom's and then I plan on doing nothing but relaxing for the rest of the day - gotta love paid days off from work!  I hope that everyone out in blogland gets a chance to spend some time with their family as well. 

And I hope that everyone takes a moment out of their day to remember our honored dead and to give thanks for those who serve our country.  Without our service men and women we wouldn't enjoy the freedoms that we have.

http://www.usmemorialday.org/ is a great site if you want to look up more info on Memorial Day.  It's also where I borrowed this beautiful picture of Old Glory.

Healthy Thinking Thursday!

I know I've kind of been slacking on my Healthy Thinking Thursday posts - actually on blogging in general.  I think one of my biggest problems is that I take too much on at once.  So to try and be more effective I have decided to work on just one goal at a time.  Of course the first goal that came to mind was "Lose Weight."  But honestly I think even that may be asking too much of myself right now so I decided to go with something simpler. 

My next thought was "Move More."  But even my goal of walking a mile a day at work hasn't been doing it for me.  Real life issues, ongoing health issues, and just an overall lack of motivation just seem to be taking their toll.

So I decided to go even simpler.  My goal for now is going to be to "Play More."  So I thought I'd include a fun pic of my marbles - to remind me to keep on playing!  Maybe this way I'll get a little exercise in without even thinking about it.  And I'm not promising that I'll have a new goal each week either, I'm going to take as long as I need to work on each one.

By the way, my schedule at work has changed so now Thursdays are my day off, which is one of the reasons that this post is so late.  I've been out playing...  :)

Tuesday Treasures

I am a keeper of things.

Not any "thing" in particular and really not for any particular reason either - if that makes any sense.  There are just occasions that I come across something and I feel the need to keep it.  I have a carved wooden box at home filled with random items, confetti from my 16th birthday party, a smashed penny that I put on a railroad track over 20 years ago, and I think I've kept the cork from every bottle of wine that I've ever opened.  Just random stuff that's probably of no value to anyone other than me.

This odd $2 bill is one of the items in my collection.  I've had it so long that I don't remember exactly how or where I got it.  I just remember being intrigued by the signatures on the bill.  It's hard to read, but I think there are either 3 or 4 names on the bill.  I think the one in blue is Anthony something.  To the left of Jefferson it looks like Derek and then maybe something starting with an H.  To the right of Jefferson it looks like Steven Martin maybe?

I guess I liked it so much because it got my creative juices flowing.  Back in 1976 this bill would have been straight from the bank, still crisp, and it still would have had that funny money smell.  Maybe the dad of some little kid gave him this $2 for mowing the lawn, or for helping his grandmother carry the groceries in, or for birthday money, or for some other random reason.  So maybe this little guy wads the bill up in his sweaty little hand and shoves it in his jeans pocket.  Later that day when he's up in his treehouse with three of his other elementary school buddies the boys make some kind of pact and they all sign the bill.  Maybe they're going to use the money for a pair of x-ray glasses, or a secret decoder ring, or maybe just a new fishing pole.  Maybe they put the $2 bill in a tin can time capsule and bury it in the backyard only to dig it up a few weeks later.  Who knows what all might have happened, but maybe one of the boys finds the $2 bill in the back of an old leather wallet 30 plus years later. 

Have you guys ever seen "Stand By Me," - the movie based on the novel "The Body" by Steven King?  I watched it again this weekend and it reminded me of my $2 bill.  That is such a great coming of age movie.  I hope everyone has a great Tuesday and I'll leave you with some cool pics of scenes from that movie.  None of these pics belong to me - you can right click the pics and then properties to see the sites that they came from.

Mini Memories...

Please pardon the quality of  the following photos.  My sister is on vacation (on a cruise in the Bahamas - I'm so jealous!) and she asked to borrow my good digital camera.  So I got stuck using an old ornery one that refused to cooperate.  The camera didn't want to connect to the computer so I had to put the memory card into the photo printer and then transfer the pics to a usb memory stick that would "talk" to the computer!  Kind of a pain in the rear for just a couple of pictures, but hey - at least I'm dedicated, right?

Anyway, my parents are also out of town, but only for the weekend.  So me and the boy (an endearing term for David that I am borrowing from Melly Kay at http://www.cutestew.com/) got to house sit and dog sit for the weekend.  I thought this would be a good time to show everyone my first dollhouse.  Actually it was my only dollhouse until I bought the saloon and started working with minis again a little over a year ago.

I may have blogged about it before, but my Mom licked "green stamps" in order to get this dollhouse for me when I was about 3 years old.  I've heard these referred to as "tin dollhouses."  I remember many happy hours spent playing with this dollhouse when I was little.

Here is a shot of the front.  I'm 30 so the house has been stored in my parent's basement for many many years now and is in a bit of disrepair.  It was wrapped in a large plastic bag, but unfortunately it didn't help keep the dust out.  I just really appreciate my Mother for keeping it around for all of these years.  I have seen tin dollhouses like this at the flea market before, but none as pretty as mine.  I don't know if they are worth anything or not, but I can see myself wanting to collect these in the future.

Here is a side shot that shows the chimney.  On the left side of the white paneling are two little lines written in blue that I guess give the name of the house and the manufacturer.  I promise when I get my camera back to take a better pic.  I'd also like to do some research as to who made the house and exactly how old it is.

This is a shot of the other side.  This is my favorite side.  I love how there is a side door that goes into the kitchen.  When my Mom got this dollhouse for me I was very small and we lived in an apartment, but the house that we moved to and that I grew up in up also had a side door in the kitchen :)

And now for a shot of the inside.  Now you can really tell how dirty the house is!  One of the pegs is missing so the second floor is sloping on the left side, but I think it could be fixed.  The bag that my Mom wrapped the house in also served to keep up with the original plastic furniture.  So once again props to my Mom!  I can see some extra furniture that made its way as well over the years - the large blue chest of drawers in the upstairs bedroom is actually from a My Little Pony set!  I can see the front door lying down in the living room and also the chimney top in the upstairs bedroom!

And this is another pic of all of the furniture.  I plan to wash all of the furniture and do some cleaning up of the dollhouse itself.

You'll laugh when I tell you this, but for years my Mother had no idea what happened to the dolls that lived in the house.  Like most little girls I played with my dollhouse, then moved onto Barbie dolls, and then there came a time when I put my dolls away.  For some reason I couldn't give up these dolls.  I tucked them away in my sewing box and always wanted someday to learn how to make new clothes for them.  The original family came with a Mother, Father, son, daughter, and a baby.  Somewhere along the way I picked up a second boy doll and I have misplaced the baby doll, but I do have an idea of where it may be. Please excuse the boys are they are not dressed atm.

I'm not sure exactly what the scale would be on the house - maybe 1:24 or maybe something in between 1:24 and 1:12?  I plan on cleaning up the house and taking some much more detailed pictures once I get my camera back.  I am excited to share more of this house with everyone :)

I hope everyone has a happy Monday!  Ttyl blogland!

Blog Construction!

Please pardon the mess - I'm changing templates and I've got a bit more work to do - I'll be back to blogging soon!

- Update - Sorry I haven't been posting in a while, real life has gotten in the way a bit lately.  I found a new blog template that I like, but it seems to have messed up all of my pictures so I'm going to have to go back and fix some posts.  Does anyone have luck keeping their pictures sized correctly?  I guess I need to start uploading them all the same size.  I also want to go back and add labels to all of my posts.  I find that extremely useful especially when I'm searching thorugh other mini blogs.  My sister is leaving for vacation next week so she's borrowed my digital camera for now so I can't really upload anything new at the moment.  I'm still reading other blogs and commenting, but I'll be back to posting soon!