He-llow Sailor!

I am ever on the quest for acquiring quality vintage attire for only pocket change. Recently, I hit the jackpot. I've never been so excited about any of my finds... not even the ironing board.

Strolling through Laverty's with my friend K one Saturday, I stumbled upon these sailor pants. I love sailor pants. Upon further inspection I discovered that these were no ordinary sailor pants. No sir, these were Navy issue, WWII sailor pants! They weren't missing any buttons, only faintly smelled of moth balls and looked about my size, so I put them on. 72 million buttons later, they were on! Looking even closer at them I found the name of their owner. G.W. Tabler. This is one small man. K so eloquently put it, "Mr. Tabler must have been drafted from the 4th grade!"

Here they are, in all their glory...

The 72 million buttons (and really cool zipper pocket)...

Sorry for wearing shoes in the house, A.

Calendar Girl

There are a lot of little things that I hear about and think, "Oh that would be great, but it won't happen to me." Recently, I was lucky enough to experience one of those little things.

A few months back my good friend L from Houston invited me to spend the weekend in Austin on Lake Travis with her and a few other friends. At the time, she had said something about knitting and photographs, I wasn't sure, but it all sounded like a blast, so a few weeks later I took a trek to the lake for a relaxing weekend.

When I arrived I got the details of the knitting/photos situation. L, who's two hobbies are knitting and photography, got word of a photo contest held by knitty.com for their 2009 calendar. Long story short.. all of the girls she had invited spent the afternoon in neon inner tubes, pretending to knit. 400+ pictures and some innapropriate fish behavior later, L submitted her photos and hoped for the best.

Needless to say, we won the contest.

This one was the winner:


Check it out! It's a pretty sweet calendar.


Here are some other photos from the weekend.

Dear.... Love, Katie

Dear Burgler,

I hope you stop burgling cars at my apartment complex. Picking on Alicia and I is bad enough.

Thanks, Katie

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Dear Public Schools,

TEACH GRAMMAR

Thanks, Katie

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Dear Co-Pilot,

I want you to call me. Really bad.

Love, Katie

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Dear Swing,

Thanks.

Katie

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Dear Michelle,

Thanks for the brownie.

Love,
Katie

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Dear Triplets,

Stop the scary caughing. It's freakin' me out.

Ka-tee

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Dear Mizo,

Thanks for being big and scary.

Katie

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Dear A & N,

Stop asking me for soda. You can't have it.

Miss Katie

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Dear Clothing Stores,

Your petite pants should not be too long for me. Fix it.

Katie

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Dear Mark,

Why are you so lazy?

Katie

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Dear Fun,

I want to have you.

Love,
Katie
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Benevolent Phantoms and Moldy Watermelon

I've been in my new abode for two months now and things are moving along in a relatively smooth manner. The furniture tally has risen significantly since I've last blogged on this topic, my bed is amazing, I found some pinup girls for my bathroom, and I've cooked for some of the best friends I could ask for in my new kitchen.

All of this is excellent, however, (there's always a however) there are some parts of the move that haven't been so great.

First, there's my ghost. Its name is Shim. Mr. Shim likes to open and close things: DVD players, doors, blinds etc. I have only found a logical explanation for one of the mysterious occurrences, so I'm sticking to my guns about Mr. Shim until all incidences have been explained. He's not, as Harper Lee best put it, a "malevolent phantom". I think he's as nice as a spirit could be. Some people need alone time to regroup and recharge themselves. I do not. I hate being alone. Sometimes I think that the presence of Mr. Shim might just be God's funny way of telling me I'm not alone. I'm fairly certain that he will leave when Alicia invades in a few weeks.

This new set up is also my first experience with coin laundry. It's pretty barbaric if you ask me. You pack up your laundry, hike to the laundry cave, put in your clothes and pray that the machine won't eat your quarters. The worst outcome is that you spill your laundry all over the ground (check), make it to the cave only to find there are no free washers (check), and once the laundry is finally securely placed in the precious vacant washer.... you're a dollar and twenty five cents poorer then you were when you started... and still have dirty clothes. On the bright side, it's not running up my electric bill every month. Whatever.



Lastly, there are the neighbors. The yelling that I last wrote about has seemed to stop, knock on wood. Most of them are pretty quiet actually, more knocking on wood. I also don't see them very often, I just notice things that change on their porches, the curtains they put up, etc. Last week I was on my way to my car one morning and I noticed someone had put dead flowers (the grocery store variety) on the grass. Not giving it a second thought, I went on my way. A few days later, the flowers had been joined by some moldy watermelon. I was a little upset. TAKE IT TO THE DUMPSTER! What is the deal? There was no new food/other natural substances on the grass until Saturday. Lettuce was on the menu that day. This new addition was not just dumped on the grass like its predecessors. Pieces were very carefully placed all over this particular area of grass. They were evenly distributed among all of the dead spots. I think one of my neighbors has a serious misunderstanding of compost. Either that or fertilizer. I'm not entirely sure.

The produce on my grass sort of reminds me of one of my favorite children's stories... "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" in which the weather turns into food and takes over the town... my watermelon and lettuce situation is a little scaled down, but close.



Well, my biology flashcards and Mr. Shim await me. Bon Soir.

-KMW

Harvey

For as long as I can remember, my favorite play has been "Harvey" by Mary Chase. In short, the main character, Elwood, has this immaginary friend, a pooka rabbit, 6 feet tall, whom he calls Harvey.

Yesterday, I met my very first Harvey.

My Harvey is not an imaginary rabbit. He is, what I like to call, the book gustapo. He sits in the library near the sensors and waits for people to steal books so he can chase them down and perhaps risk his life for the libros.

We talk about all the important things... sleep walking, ghosts, left-handedness, and frozen pizza.

I have not yet determined why I have befriended this gentleman, but I know when the reason is revealed to me it will all become clear.



-- KMW

Solid as a Rock

don't we all love Ella?

solid as a rock
I really need you
solid as a rock
my love for you baby
my love is solid as the rock of Gibraltar
so why wont you come back home to me

Wrinkle Free

The quest for not ugly household items continues....

Vintage $10 ironing board before:Another View (note the cute doggie on the couch):





Vintage $10 Ironing board post attack with a hammer and some yellow strawberry fabric:

A close up of the militant strawberries:


Cool, yes?

-Katie

Down by the Bay....

So the jaunt to Grandma's continues...

Yesterday and today I spent some time with N, my cousin, who is 14. Some background.. yes? She's the youngest cousin and the last possible hope of stealing my position as the shortest family member under age 90. I was really hoping.... it didn't happen. After some careful measurement (the back to back test) she has about a half an inch on me, and I have 8 years on her. Such is life.

N and I caused all sorts of noise on our adventures. We walked all over creation looking for pink ribbon in a small town on a Sunday, ate icecream twice (re: last post about the increased consumption of ice cream in the summer), went canoing, recycled cans, attended violin lessons, and (attempted) to take a nap in the park.

A few higlights:

1. Yesterday, I got icecream all over me, and today N was pretty messy, even getting some in her hair.

2. We had such a BALL canoing. We borrowed a canoe from S (an avid reader of my blog) and his roomate. N and I carry this canoe down to the river not far from Grandma's house. While the owners of the canoe stand, watch and laugh. Thanks, guys. We get down to the water and begin to decide the seating arrangements for this expedition. N explains that the person who sits in the back steer. I don't know how to steer a canoe... seriously.. luckily she had half a clue and, although it was interesting, we managed not to run into everything. Not long after, we decided that canoing was an activity that required singing. The song of choice was "Down by the Bay" by Raffi. This was all fine except for that we didn't know all the words. No such thing would stop us. We just made them up. Basically, amazing. Ask if you'd like to know the "remix"


3. Naping = failure. We go to the park, find the right spot for the blanket, dog poop-free, and start to set it down. As I make a final check for anything offensive here comes this snake slithering his way up to me. I scream, she screams, we go inside. FAILURE.

I don't know if you read my blog, chicky, but I had so much fun with you. Can't wait to see you again!

Airplane Friends

Summer, in my opinion, is amazing. I don't know if you feel this way, but I think summer is a really happy time of the year... people are outside, some of us are out of school, tans deepen and the consumption of ice cream increases.. pretty much my favorite time of year (especially the ice cream part).

Along with the icecream, summer also often sends families and friends on trips. This week is vacation week for my parents and I. We're in the booming metroplex (not) of Potsdam, NY. They may not have things like, oh, Target, but you can't beat the scenery. Basically, it's everything that Texas isn't... hilly, green, zero humidity, you know.

Getting to Grandmas is an all day adventure. I wish it were as easy as "over the river and through the woods..." Anyway, after two flights, and a two hour drive, we made it!

One of my favorite things to do while traveling by air, well anytime really, is make new friends. Usually, the people I sit next to on airplanes are sub-par, but every once and a while you hit the jackpot! I mean, why not be friendly... you're going to be sharing germs for two hours.

This trip I made a good airplane friend. I'm not sure what his name is, but that's alright. On one of our flights I was assigned to an isle seat and a lady (another really lovely airplane friend) occupied the window seat. We wondered who (on our flight that was oversold by 10 people) was going to be sitting between us. Well, he showed up. I tried to find his face, but I had to keep looking up... he was REALLY tall. So this giant sits in the middle seat while my shrimpy self, who could curl up in an airplane seat, was livin' the good life on the isle. I watched him sit down, his knees crammed up against the seat in front of him, and I couldn't help but be sympathetic. I asked him if he wanted to switch. He seemed shocked. Seriously, though, I have a conscience, I'm not going to see that poor kid all sardine-like for hours when I would be just as comfortable in the middle as I would on the isle.

Obviously, he took me up on my offer.

He did, however, try to return the favor. At one point during my airplane nap he offered his shoulder in addition to my really uncomfortable airplane pillow. For some unknown reason, it wasn't creepy at all. I didn't take him up on his offer... i was able to sleep fine without.

Toasty!

I'm settling into my new place nicely. The couch comes from the consignment store tomorrow, and on the agenda for tonight is arranging my awkward make-shift pantry.

Here are some likes and dislikes about the new place:

Likes..
MUCH CHEAPER!
I have my own, formerly junky, revamped furniture (pictures at some point)
I love Alicia Fuhrman
We might get the style network
It's close enough to school that I don't have to buy a parking sticker/can bike to the grocery store
Happy can live with me
No parking permits/limited visitor parking so people can come over and have a place to park
Did I mention I love Alicia?

Dislikes...
I killed a cockroach in my BATHTUB last night
My neighbors fight really loudly (nothing new, however)
Coin laundry
Ugly 70's kitchen cabinets
No pantry

Now to the point... i didn't own a toaster, and i wasn't going to spend money on an ugly toaster. I refuse to buy something ugly that I will have to look at every morning when I eat breakfast. The only halfway decent ones were 10 fillion million dollars, so I decided I would be toasting in my oven until THE toaster was revealed to me. Today, I found it. The coolest toaster on the planet. I found it on clearance at Tuesday Morning. It was 15 buckaroos. Not bad for the coolest toaster in the world. Here is a picture of said toaster. MSRP $95.Isn't she beautiful?

-- KMW