Why I Oughta...

This is a photo I took last week up in Coloma at the Great Lakes Antique Mall of the Christmas cabinet that I always check out. Here's the same cabinet last year .  From the quick glance, there isn't that much missing (or sold).  I see the Santa/Sleigh and Reindeers on the second shelf from the top on the right side gone.  That was the nicest piece in the whole case, imho, so I'm not that surprised that it sold. The spaghetti trim Santa that I was admiring last year is still there (far left, second shelf from the top).

We were in the Hobby Shop up in Watervliet over the New Year's holiday and The Babe spotted these vintage "New Old Stock" (as the guy called them) craft projects.  They were buy-one-get-one-free, so we picked up both of these. The Babe did the flower one all by herself.  I used a tweezer to clean up a lot of the little beads that were in the 'wrong' section, but this one was 99.5% her. These type of sun-catchers were all over Nat's Grandmother's kitchen.

We took the girls to Brookfield Zoo last Saturday.  The temperature was oddly warm which meant that we weren't the only ones who had the bright idea to go to Zoo Lights.  The traffic was a mess, but once we got inside (and parked in the South Lot!), we had a great time.  We even rode the carousel....which we never do (according to the Babe)!

In the sprit of the times, I figured I'd deposit this here for posterity's sake.

Had just 153 posts in 2013.  With a job change, a once-in-a-lifetime vacation and plenty going on around the house, it is no surprise that life got in the way of daily posting.  I had 58 posts on the family blog and 51 posts on the sockpuppet blog I write, so adding up the three numbers, we get 262, so that's not terrible, right?  Add in all the Google+ posts of the girls, and I'm sure I was over 365. 2014 is full of promise and here's to hoping to capture just a little sliver of what is happening around my world each and every day.

Longtime readers know my fascination with Christmas Villages.  Hell...I even came up with the name for my own town:   Mantleburg .  But, due to space and a little bit of sanity winning out, I've really slowed down on the acquisition of any sort of new Christmas Village stuff. That was, until I was gifted this Chop Suey Palace from A Christmas Story this am. That lead me down a web rabbit hole where I discovered these:   National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation village stuff . Yeah...they're all there.  Cousin Eddie with the full shitter.  Clark's over-lit house, and even the huge tree on top of the Truckster.  As I've learned in the past, these things roll out in phases, so I'm expecting to see more next year. Maybe Mantleburg will get a new subdivision after all...

After resisting the purchase of seasonal inflatbles for our yard, I finally caved.  You can see the big guy is now taking up residence in my garden - right outside of our dining room window.  After a nap this weekend, the Bird came down and couldn't have been happier to see him. Am I embarrassed by finally caving to these ridiculous things?  Kind of.  But, that smile on her face more than makes up for it.  In fact, I went out and doubled-down.  More on that later this week!

Every year is the same these days.  After the Turkey Trot, we come home and I want to watch the Last Waltz.  Nat and the girls want to watch the parade.  So...I usually scurry off into the basement or my office and watch as much as I can.  Traditions are traditions, right? Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. 2012 post 2011 post 2007 post 2005 post 2004 post

Some of them are absolutely HUGE.  These were planted via seed tape ( post here ) and did pretty well in terms of size, but not so much on taste.  They were a bit woody tasting when eaten raw.  But...they sure do look awesome.  Next year, I'll see if I can optimize the growth to focus on taste.

Though they're about a month behind of where I've had them in past years, we finally have some pumpkin blooms popping out.  I've put them in a different spot this year and probably got them in the ground a bit late, so we'll see what we have by Halloween.  I'm going to give them a little boost with a fertilizer this week and I'll try to pinch off any other blooms to make sure the vine puts all of it's energy in this little guy. Here's a photo of early pumpkins in 2011 . Here's a photo of the early pumpkin plant in 2012 .

After an early morning session of "Biddy Soccer" with the Babe (and some celebratory Slurpee's from 7-11), we stopped at a few yard sales.  The Babe looking for some cheap My Little Ponies and me looking for some treasures. I came across this cute little vintage ceramic Christmas tree.  As you guys well know, I'm all over vintage Christmas stuff. I was pretty surprised when I tried to pick it up and it came apart.  What was it? A sweet lighter and four ashtrays.  How very retro!?!  They were asking just $1.00, so I tried to hide my excitement and casually handed the lady my dollar bill.  I brought it home and immediately emailed my dad some photos to show it off.

A few weeks back, we dropped off a load of stuff at GoodWill and while there, I couldn't help but take a quick pass through the aisles to see if there was anything interesting.  This blowmold Santa - standing at about 15" tall - was listed at $1.00.  With the 20% off coupon in my hand from the donation, I snapped him up for all of $0.80. It wasn't until I got home to figure out if it worked, but lo and behold, after a tightening of the bulb, it glows just right! The Babe was with me and she said that she wants him to stand guard in her room during the holiday season.

Yesterday, I posted an image of a little caroler that we picked up at the Kane County Flea Market.  She was all by herself, but too much of a bargain to pass up. I went hunting around on ebay and found this listing which has her and her four friends accompanying her.  She's part of a band!    (that's them above) I'm awfully hesitant to buy something like this on ebay.  I like the hunt, so I'll start to keep an eye out for each of these guys.  Guessing they'll cost more than the $21.99 (including shipping) that this seller is asking, though!

The ceramic Santa bank wasn't the only Christmas item we picked up at the garage sale this weekend.  We also got this guy.  Look at that hand-painted mustache!  He's about 4 inches tall and has this made in Japan sticker on his hat, so we can *kinda* date him.    The sticker is in an odd spot, though.  Not on the base of his feet, but up on the back of his hat.  And...it seems to almost be stitched in there. He'll look great in the mix with the rest of our stuff.   Talk about Chrismas Creep?!?  Guess I'm just as guilty as Costco, eh?

We were at Costco over the weekend and what did we find?  Christmas stuff was already out! Last year, I documented Christmas Creep all the way to August 30th and in 2012, it wasn't until the first week of September that I spotted the Christmas decor making an appearance. This year it was August 19th - almost two weeks ahead of schedule. Like I've said in the past...I'm not a Scrooge, so I don't mind these things.  But....I *do* feel bad for Thanksgiving.  Halloween has hired the right PR firm the past few years and has started to keep up with Christmas in terms of 'stuff'.  Thanksgiving on the other hand?  Not so much.

This was the second year we grew carrots in our garden.  Last year, we had a bunch of those short stubby ones that I planted way too close together.  So this year, I decided to try to use carrot seed tape to make sure the seeds were evenly spaced and I wouldn't have to yank a bunch of seedlings out. Something happened.  Either I planted them too deep or the seeds in the tape had turned or something because I only ended up with about 20 or so carrot seedlings.  Instead of the 300 or so I was expecting. This is the first one that I pulled out to see where they were in their growth process.  They're much longer than last year and have a nice orange color up near the leafy greens.  I'm going to leave the rest of them in the ground a bit longer, so hopefully we'll have some carrot stick 'mixers' for a bloody mary bar during one of the Bears' games this season.

This sign is posted in a garage in Elmhurst just south of the tracks.  We went and had a meal at the Snuggery .  Is that an "other" activity?!?!

This is the view of a backyard of a home down the block from us (as viewed from the alley).  They recently did a pretty amazing upgrade of their backyard and in lieu of a fence, they put up this really tall stand of arborvitae.  It looks really great. The reason I call it a "battle" is that someone else on the block recently installed a row of taller arborvitae as a privacy hedge adjacent to a new tear-down home. We have a few of these things in our yard that I planted.  We bought them from Costco and are a bit less than half the height.   And they weren't cheap, so I know these folks made a sizable investment with these! I'm jealous of them and the privacy they've given the homeowners almost instantly.

Looks like a new storefront is opening up on 3rd Street just West of York.  Sweet P Doll Studio is said to be 'coming soon' based on the sign in the window.   According to their Facebook page , they're set to open in October and you'll be able to 'make' dolls. Coming Soon! A place for girls to create for their 18" Doll! Like our page and stay tuned as we count down the days till we open in October 2013! Sounds like a really nice addition to Elmhurst's downtown that will provide a reason to be "downtown".  Guessing they'll have the full birthday party routine, right?   I could see my daughters loving the whole doll-making process.  We've been to American Girl (Well...we walked thru it when I was there, but I think Nat has actually taken them to the whole lunch thing) and The Babe was in heaven.   I wish them a lot of luck!  I'm sure we'll be in there shortly after they open.

At a yard sale this weekend, we came across this blue Lake Louise plate that we couldn't pass up.  My in-laws have been to Lake Louise and have come back with lots of photos and stories from Banff. The plate was made by the Sigal Brothers in Windsor Canada and has at $5.95 price sticker on the back.  It is "made in Japan", so it likely has *some* age to it, but I can't figure out how old.  I did find a companion plate on Ebay ( here ), but the one we bought has a larger/longer description on the back and appears to be a bit older than the one being listed for sale.  They're asking $10.99, so my $0.50 (I haggled!) deal is looking pretty good.