New Year Tales from a Bad Blogger

Where the hell did the time go? Has it really been 2 months since I posted? Like everyone else my only excuse is life's been busy. Nothing overly exciting but I'll recap the highlights.

In November I headed to Des Moines for Junk Jubilee. A great junk show held at the Iowa state fairgrounds. Went with my favorite junking buddies my aunt, uncle and brother. 

My aunt and uncle in front of the biggest ladder you've ever seen!

Lots of great booths, good junk, and happy people

Fun booth

I brought home a few smalls, but my big awesome purchase was this bad boy

A 5 foot long metal locker basket table out of a gym. I had big plans to put this in my family room but when I got it unloaded it was too big. It found a home in my entryway and I'm pretty happy with that. 

Mid December brought about an exciting event, my middle son Tyler graduated from the University of Arkansas! 

One child out of college and we are proud (but poorer) parents. Way to go Tyler! The graduation was long and boring (1900 students!) but one upside was one of the speakers was this guy

You probably can't tell who this is but it's none other than James Patterson! He received an honorary doctorate for all the work he has done for children's literacy. My family wasn't as impressed as I was, but I am a huge reading nerd so I thought it was awesome. 

A week before Christmas I went to a casino and this happened 

A $2,000 jackpot! After the IRS got their greedy mitts on it I only got $1400, but I am not complaining (ok, maybe I am a little)

Christmas came and went as it does every year. The decorations went up, then they came down. Sad but true I have no pics to show you. Nobody likes looking at Christmas pics in January anyway so it's all good. The kids were home, the presents were given, the food was eaten and bam, another year behind us. 

New Year's Eve was a fun time. I usually work or sit home on New Years Eve (amateur night) but my niece got married on New Year's Eve this year so we headed up to Omaha for a fun wedding!

She was a beautiful bride! 

The reception was a blast. Weddings in our family are fun anyway, but add in the New Year's Eve excitement and let's just say a good time was had by all!

From left to right is John (my daughters boyfriend) my daughter Hailey, my son Hunter, the hubs, me, Jen (my sons girlfriend) and my oldest son Zach. Tyler wasn't able to come because he got a job working for an airline in Bentonville. Bonus,  his parents get to FLY FOR FREE! Can't wait to take advantage of that little perk :)

January has been pretty uneventful. I did start a fun new project. I was at Goodwill one day and spotted this for $9.99

A giant vintage wooden dollhouse. Squee! Yes it's a bit rough but I am giving it a major overhaul 

The inside had green gross carpet with crumbling padding underneath (do dolls really need carpet padding?) Every room had hideous wallpaper. Some shutters and doors missing, etc etc etc

But like a real house, it has good bones. So I'm rehabbing it. Carpet out, floors will be sanded and stained (except the upstairs bedrooms are getting recarpeted) walls wallpapered, shutters fixed, window boxes built, new moldings around Windows, upstairs doors replaced, new kitchen linoleum, new brick on the fireplace and of course every room decorated. So yeah, that should keep me busy for awhile! I'll keep you posted on the progress. 

My last bit of news is that I closed down my booth. It was fun while it lasted, I made some money, got rid if a ton of stuff, but it's time to move on. It doesn't get the foot traffic that it used to get so after crunching the numbers it just wasn't worth my time anymore. Everything has been brought home and stored in the garage so my next project is to start listing some of that on eBay. Fun times. 

So that sums up my last two months. I'll try and post more often. I really have missed it. Till then...