quick post

Dang it! I've lost a day on the NaBloMoPo! And I'm tired and must sleep! So here's a quick update... working furiously on my blanket and I'm really excited about the new pattern, I may have gotten it all figured out. we shall see.

Wednesday with the little boy went as usual for the most part.  A lot of Mickey Mouse Club, Yo Gabba Gabba and Handy Manny watching. He might be screaming right now which I hope for his parents' sake is wrong but he did the same thing last night. Oh goodness. He was quite quick to cry/scream today which threw me off a bit. Not sure I'm anywhere CLOSE to Mommy-dom in the next ohhh century. Kind of a joke, kind of.

Other than that, life is trucking on as usual. Making some slow changes...
OH! I got two packs of the newest Impossible Project color film! Hopefully I have more luck with it than I have thus far with the first run of color film.

Sorry the post was so short and pictureless... I will make up for it soon!

Good day

Today was the last day of babying myself and this cold. I did get a significant amount of crocheting done today so it wasn't all lazing around in bed. I also did some laundry, and went to Michael's, watched half of the 5th season of Desperate Housewives...AND watched the pilot and second episode of The Walking Dead. INCREDIBLE. Scary and such, but so good and addicting. The best part was I would get scared and I would crochet faster.

The picture does no justice to what I'm working on, the gray looks brown but soon enough I'll have a finished blanket I'll be able to share. I'm so very, very excited about these two blankets I'm making! Here's to trying something new!

This weekend...

Goodness I was a bad, bad girl this weekend. I was sick and so I stayed inside and did some shopping. Bad news. I am learning a slightly expensive lesson from ebay this week which goes a little something like "don't bid on more than one of the same item unless you want to win them both." Best senario is you won't win either but my luck says I win both and that's just redundant.
So yes, I "won" 2 sx-70s. Both with the white frame, not even different styles. One has really (and I mean REALLY) beat up leather on the case and the other has some scratch marks.

 

I'm crossing my fingers that the first one is a fixer upper, and that there is a way to get the old, cracked, completely damaged leather off so I can put some new stuff on there. Without having it my hands however I'm not sure. It might be a fun restoration project. We shall see...

Lastly (as far as ebay goes) I won a different kind of polaroid, complete with flash, case and a pack of film. That was a STEAL for about $10.00 (plus crazy shipping).

As if that all wasn't enough (I am so sorry my sweet little bank account) I found more things that I apparently just couldn't live without while I was searching for inspiration for an art project I've had in mind for a while.
Here is the next purchase: a coin purse I could not say no to. I have a weakness for Virgin Mary (especially La Virgen de Guadalupe) things.

I'm in love with how awesome and perfect it is. Anyone who knows me really well knows I have an obsession/weakness for small coin/makeup bags. I use them as wallets or hold my small stuff in them so it doesn't get tossed around in my purse. I'm so excited about this one! It's perfect.

Believe it or not that was all Saturday goodness. Didn't go to work, instead shopped from home. Backwards! Backwards I tell you!

So today I TRIED to mellow out a bit and was for the most part successful. I've started a new crocheting project inspired by a pretty blanket in the Red Velvet window display.

always inspired by elsie and the red velvet crew

My pattern is totally different but I've been wanting to do a granny square blanket that is a collection of several little ones instead of just making the blanket one big granny square AND I wanted a black border. It's going to be cute, cute, cute, I'm excited for it to come along.

Other interesting things from the weekend:
- my grands (g-ma mostly) have a slight problem with keeping everything but I decided to see if this would work to my (and my camera collection's) advantage and so I asked g-ma if she happened to have any old cameras... dear readers I'm not going to go into detail but it seems like they are sitting on a treasure box full of wonderful things. I hope one day they will let me play with them!
- my G-pa's 81st birthday was today. We went out to their favorite restaurant to gorge ourselves while children at the table over made it hard for the g-parents to hear anything the rest of us said. I gave dear g-pa a card talking about one of my favorite memories with him (there are several, but this one I hadn't mentioned before) this one being of us playing cards (a good game of gin/gin rummy not sure which but it was fun) together. He smiled really big when he read the message so I think I succeeded.
- Next Sunday is Dad's birthday, he's not too stoked but it is what it is. Cmom (stepmom, her name starts with C... it's a new thing I'm doing) says no presents just heartfelt messages of how he's enriched my life. Can do I say.

Welp, that's it for now. My throat is still being a menace and I doubt I'm going to be able to go to work tomorrow. At least I have an excuse this time.

xoxo

side note

***totally into NaBloPoMo obviously. Going to stay strong all month by trying new things and sharing inspiration.

****totally not into NaNoWriMo at all. I am throwing in the towel on that one the first week. We can't do it all right?

Just kidding, not quite sleep time yet

So I am finding out here that there might be a bit of an expensive learning curve about to happen with ebay. I thought you could retract bids, so I bid on several sx-70 cameras... if I get all of them, like I said might happen then I'm to be broke. Sigh. Should have thought that one through. Maybe I'll get REALLY lucky and win the bids that I want but not two of the same thing. (Here's to crossing fingers and holding breath for the next 7 hours...)
To keep you occupied with happier thoughts however I wanted to share the other polaroid albums I came across and fell in LOVE LOVE LOVE with.

found here

My favorites are the indie pink:

And the mint:

How adorable are those things! And then I found another kind that had a different shape... it looks like this:

found here

The picture itself just melts my heart and loosens my already weak grip on my money...

Never mind that they are basically prettified (didn't actually think that was a word but it is) business card holders but STILL! I WANT!

Sigh, I need to get back in the career game. I also need to get into the world of photography more seriously. Obviously this is my geek out thing and I want to be doing it all the time. I want to learn as much as possible and continue to create gorgeous images. 

I should live in a box and not know about ebay

I knew it, I knew it looong ago. I knew that I should never, EVER, get close to ebay. EVER! But against my better judgment, years and years later in a sore throated splendor I decided to start my ebay game. I want cameras, lots and lots of cameras. So many people are selling vintage cameras and it's just killing me. I want to bid on just about every one. But if I do that I'm going to forget and win more than one of the same thing and then be out of money. Not a good idea.
What I have bid on today:

Many of these... I really want a white one but we shall see. I have a SX-70 already but it is the plastic kind and I want more of the original. I want to see the difference.

I also bid on a couple of these:

I am really interested in TtV (through the viewfinder) photography. I've already dabbled in the idea by putting my point and shoot up to my polaroid viewfinder. Fun stuff but it would be even more fun with a twin lens reflex. 

The problem is I just don't know how much I'm really willing to spend on these things. It's not that I don't want them super bad, it's more that I'm hoping that I might find them at a thrift store for cheap because the people selling them don't know how much money they can get. I don't want to swindle anyone at all, I just don't have a lot of money and an awesome thrift find is an awesome thrift find.

Last but not least while perusing the SX-70 listings I happened upon some polaroid photo albums. I bought one. It looks a little like this:

I am such a sucker for hot air balloons on things. I'm really excited for it to come in the mail! I LOVE getting packages in the mail, even when I know what I bought. 

To end this post about my need for more things camera like I just wanted to say that I've been trying to shoot some decent pictures with my sx-70 but I am having a really hard time with the new color film from The Impossible Project. I can't get any good lighting for the pictures and there are white spots all over the images. I know there were warning that came with this first run but then I saw samples of what others had done with their film and they looked really good. I've worked with the light dial and taking pictures at different times and I even pulled out the flash bar but all to no avail. My pictures stay in mostly shades of blue and fade within a week. That's probably why I started my feverish (not literally though I do have a cold) search for a new sx-70. I want to see if the metal and leather model takes different pictures than my plastic one.

Alright, I'm now going to rest my horribly sore throat and tired mind. Cross your fingers that I win something for relatively cheap on ebay. I tried to search out the listings with the least amount of bidders and less than a day left on time.

Do something that scares you everyday

I want, I want, I want!

I decided to make today (Friday) a day all for me. I started it with my first EVER class of yoga at this awesome little place down the street called Yoga Center. I've been meaning to try yoga for a long time now because I want to a) find a method of exercise that doesn't make me bored and b) regain flexibility that I had in junior high. Yoga seemed to be a good idea. 

Let me just tell you, it was! The center was awesome. Very spiritual which is not what I was looking for at all but the instructor was helpful and very calming. The class lasted an hour and a half and I'm not sure how I made it through in all honesty. It wasn't bikram yoga, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last in that one considering high heat makes me pass out when I'm just sitting still, but it was very pleasurable and I'm SO glad I went. 

To continue my day of awesomeness I went home, took a nice shower then quickly got ready to leave the house again so I wouldn't be tempted to take a nap. I was still tempted but I overcame it and got my little bum out of the house.

I then went to a little (not so little) thrift store my lovely friend/roommate (owner of the house I'm living in) told me about. I found, once again, that I am just not a solo thrifter. I know books really well but other than that I get a little lost in the craze. I did find two interesting looking hardcovers however and after strolling a little more left the store. A fancy little dish set did catch my eye and I'm kind of regretting not getting it... I might just go back tomorrow to see if it's all there. 

After my thrift extravaganza (more of a short foray) I went to Verizon to return a memory card I had for my  previous, quirky, always going glitchy after an update phone. By this time I was really very hungry because I had left my bed with maybe 30 minutes to spare before yoga class time and so had only shoveled a couple of bites of vanilla yogurt mixed with rice crispies down my throat. I decided to venture up to UTC to return a pair of jeggings to Nordies and get some delicious Boudin's soup and salad. I thought this was going to be a fairly easy endeavor but was mistaken. The half yearly sale was going on at Nordstrom's AND it was pretty warm so everybody decided shopping and eating at boudin's would be the best idea. Awesome. 

I got my food, which, by the way was soup and salad on a hot day with no inside seats and had to find a table in the shade up by the nordstrom's entrance which is a bit of walk from the actual restaurant. Once I sat down I felt a little better but that only last a second considering the soup was no better than Campbell's tomato soup. Severely disappointing considering the Boudin's in San Marcos make it SO much better. To make up for it I decided to text a friend in North County because I was already half way there anyway. He mentioned him and other mutual friends' plans to surf and I said I would meet up with them at the beach at some point.

I left UTC (after returning the pants), drove up to La Costa, stopped by the Friends of the Library book store, found some books, found some books for a girl and her mom also in the little shop and then headed back down to Encinitas. While driving toward Encinitas I decided it was a perfect day to take pictures of this broken down, fenced off school off of E street. I've been wanting to get some pictures forever but never really knew how to maneuver it. I only got shots of the obvious, easy to access parts considering it was a work day but it was fun and exciting. I then also took pictures of a broken down apartment building right behind the school. Equally awesome and fun.

Finally I made my way to the beach and read half of one of my new books while "watching" my friends surf. I must say, the book is kind of what I've been looking for. I didn't get bored at all and got involved in the story line. Thank goodness! 

After growning restless with the sand fleas I started packing my stuff up (the sun was almost fully gone by then) and this little boy that I had seen off a few yards from me came over and decided we needed to play. He was 2 and adorable and made me realize that they ARE still cute even after the first year. I thanked (kind of) the universe for that information. He showed me the tunnel him and his father had made while I was reading and he put his small toy monster truck through the tunnel several times. After he realized the truck would crash a lot he would purposely throw the truck down the tunnel hole and say "uh oh! it crashed!" and then take my hand and lead me to which ever side of the tunnel I wasn't on. Mind you, this tunnel was maybe a foot long... but he insisted. 

Quickly after his father cleaned up the toys and made the boy leave my boys (a lot older in age) got out of the water and we headed up this huge amount of stairs that literally kill my thighs EVERY TIME. As if my body didn't ache enough. 

The last stop of the night before coming home was to a goodbye party for a wonderful lady (girl/woman) that I met just last week. She's friends with the boys surfing and we'd been at the same party the week before laughing and having a good ol' time so I was invited to say goodbye too. She's going back to Fiji to finish her time with the PeaceCorps. Yeah, she's rad. So I met some new people and chilled with everyone else, met the family (or at least mom) and told the awesome story of how I knew her daughter. "Oh yeah, just met her a week ago..." 

Now I'm home. I had some good chats with the roommates/houseowners/my friends and now I'm putting myself to sleep. I'm pretty sure I want to hit up yoga again tomorrow morning but if this sore throat gets worse I may just sleep til who knows when.

Goodnight!