{almost} wordless wednesday

i give you: chipmunk bum in gutter.
he was hanging out in the gutter, eating some seeds or nuts or something when our ferocious pup ran up to sniff him.
he turned to run up the gutter & got stuck. like this. 

linked up here! 

InstaFriday: week 3

 agh! it's been over a month! no excuses...let's just jump right in to the pictures!

(these actually span more than a week)

i was doing laundry & the lid of the detergent jar slid off into my nose.
wasn't broken but it hurt like the dickens.
and i had this nice bruise!

just a little visitor in our backyard. usually they're in a group of four or more. 

the tower of embroidery floss. we bought it just like this from a little old lady at a garage sale.
organized by DMC number!

 last week a few unfortunate things happened
1. faerie fest was rained out by a giant storm that blew up right in the middle of the parade. there were screaming little girls in fairy costumes & much mayhem. highly unfortunate & probably turned a lot of little girls of to faeries...for life! (fairy? faerie? what's the difference?)
2. as i was packing all my soaking wet stuff up and standing in the rain, another vendor backed into my parked car. luckily she had insurance, because she managed to do $2800 in damage!
3. my phone decided to freak out & needed to be factory reset. mostly fine because it was backed up but i lost all the pictures i had taken since my last back up- the pictures of the faeries and of my smashed up car.
4. i had to drive said car, with it's mirror duct taped on (all classy like) down to illinois to help my grandma move out of her house. i love that house. i've always loved that house and i wanted it to be mine one day. but since papa died last year it's been too much for her. her new apartment in the spiffy little retirement complex will be great for her. (and i've decided i want to move into a place like that asap, but that's a post for another day). my trip home was wonderful, but very bittersweet.

209 beverly road.
i've spent every Christmas Eve of my life in this house.
many summer days.
countless sleepovers where it was too hot to sleep because my grandparents kept the house at 82 degrees.
it has a laundry shoot and an intercom system.
neil armstrong once sat on the couch discussing flight plans with papa.
(we now own that couch. kinda awesome)
there were hatboxes with fantastic old hats in the upstairs bedroom & toys that belonged to my mom in the basement.

it was so strange to see everything empty!
this is the "den" where we sat on the blue leather "davenport" and watched tv.
there were two tv's- a big one so nana could watch her old movies or painting shows (bob ross anyone?) and a little one for papa to have sports or news on all the time.
in that back corner was the stereo and all of papa's music collection. everything from 45's to CDs.

here's the living room.
the Christmas tree was always in the corner near that window. every year after Christmas Eve dinner we sat on the floor, cheeks red from the crazy high temperatures in the house, and opened gifts one by one. but only after all the dishes were done! papa made us wait until every dinner dish was finished before we could open even one gift! by the time i was a teenager we convinced him to start presents right after dinner if we all helped with the dishes.
nana took all her naps on that gold couch and after she woke up we played countless games of "tiles"
(rummikub to the rest of the world) 

at nana's new apartment i found pictures on the fridge i had never seen before, including this one and a few too embarrassing to post in public! she must have unearthed a box of old photos while packing! 

nana has this on her dresser in her new apartment. aren't they the cutest?
he was a pilot & she was a stewardess. 

one of the beautiful lakes on my drive back up from illinois. i really do love where we live.
even if i miss target. a lot.

this past weekend some of my best friends came up for the weekend.
we started things out by going to the white stag for dinner.
they basically only serve steak & baked potatoes. it's amazing.
this baby here is described in the menu as one pound of pleasure.and it was.

we rented a boat from the resort brandon works at and spent all day saturday out on the water! the lakes are all connected, we live on the largest inland chain of lakes in the world (who knew?!) and we were blessed with a beautiful day to explore them!
we ate, we drank, we swam, we tanned (okay i burned a little).
 all in all a wonderful day with wonderful friends!

just some of the vintage sheet goodness i found on my hunt the other day. one wonderful thing about the woods is that vintage is plentiful & nobody really cares that it's old! 

speaking of vintage...our goodwill just bags up the jewelry & sells it for $3 a bag.
this was my most recent score. total $9!
there was some other stuff in the bag but it was too hideous to photograph & will likely go straight back to goodwill with my next donation!

some of the animal themed gift for our new niece or nephew. (and also a fuzzy dog elbow. or knee?)  looks like that little one is making an early arrival so i'm crocheting like crazy!

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