I may just burst

I've had a lot of fun new things come my way in the past couple of weeks. I found some great furniture, three large doors that will make amazing signs, some goodies from new sponsors and a very special package all the way from Germany containing these...

One of my gracious readers, who lives in Germany, has become a "grain sack picker" for me. This was the first package I received from her and it was so exciting. I can't wait to put these bad boys to work. (Yes, it's OK to refer to antique European grain sacks as bad boys. I checked it out.)

My magnetism for cool things continued into my yard sale venture this morning. My husband prodded me out of bed and rounded up the family for a morning of driving around to "look for treasures." I was really considering not going. I was sleepy and still a little tired of hunting after my shopping spree before Lucketts. The lure of not knowing what I might find was just too strong, so I tied a bandanna over my blonde fro (it's bad), got my kids dressed, packed snacks...all the usual yard sale prep and we headed out. At the first sale, I found an old book, ironstone casserole and a huge gold frame (perfect for a chalk board.) The lady who sold the frame actually hugged me. They had tried to sell that frame at four other yard sales without success.

Anyway, we reached a neighborhood yard sale about 10:30...a little late for finding any great deals on furniture. We passed a few "drive by's" (yard sales that aren't worth getting out of the car for) and then hit a street that had several promising yard sales. I got out to walk with my oldest son and my husband pulled the car up the street to park. My son and I browsed around and I was about ready to check out a slightly wonky pedestal table when I spotted my husband and he gave me "the nod." That meant there was something I needed to see. This pedestal table had some promise, so I thought I would look at it...but then I spotted what my husband nodded at me about.

The back of three graceful antique French chairs. I couldn't move fast enough. I forgot all about the pedestal table. I dragged my four year old by the hand. There was another shopper standing near them...was he interested in MY chairs? Had he just bought them? Was this going to get nasty? Why were they still there? Were they outrageously priced? Broken? Stinky? All of these thoughts were compressed into about 2.5 seconds. (Are you catching on that I get paranoid, hyper, giddy, weird and a little frightening to be around when I'm shopping?)

I still hadn't seen the price tags, but my husband was looking at them from the front and said, "Oh, we're buying these." I rounded the chairs and saw they were in great condition, beautiful shapes, they didn't stink and they weren't sold. They were mine. I ripped the tape off and ran over to the "cashier" and paid for them before someone else swooped in.

Later in the car, my husband said I "got all loud and talky" about the chairs. I may have kissed babies and hugged strangers and gave an acceptance speech. As long as I had those chairs, I didn't care.

They're safely in my home and I'm thankful my husband dragged me out of bed and later gave me "the nod" and then put up with me acting slightly insane. He's a good guy.

Some other exciting things I bought recently are a new camera (Nikon D7000), a new lens (Nikon 60mm Macro, which I used to take this picture)...