Scenes of Telluride

I still have quite a few Telluride vacation pictures to share with you. So here is another batch!

Telluride is a "wee bit" Liberal

This sign is on an old run down building in town.

I thought this one was kind of funny.

This shop owner wants her store to look like every other one, so she has her own "dog" complete with water bowl outside her front door.

I loved this one! (I think there was only one door)

The grade school where Matt teaches. Isn't it beautiful?

The staircase when you walk into Matt's school. So old and so awesome!

Matt's classroom door. Can you tell how proud we are? :)
Popular coffee shop....in a trailer right in town

There was an "open air" art festival going on when we were there. You would see artists with their easels all over the streets and sidewalks, painting the shops, the mountains, the houses....whatever they felt like painting. One of them painted a picture of Matt's house. The paintings were then sold at the Farmer's Market the next weekend. It was awesome to see their work.

This is the river that runs through the town. It's really pretty and is used for water activities like tubing and kayaking.

The little "fast food" type restaurants have laminated menus where you just use a dry erase marker the check what you want. You hand it to them and they fix it up for you. I actually had one of the best salads I've ever had at this little place.

This is the house that Matt and his friends rent. It's been sold and will be torn down so a new house can be built. It looks so cute from the outside, but oh my.....tearing it down is the right thing to do. The bathroom ceiling looks like it's about to fall in any minute and there is a big hole....no lie...in the living room floor!

Here are some of the houses I liked in Telluride. Now, the house Matt lives in just sold for $1.5 million dollars. Yes, that is correct. It's the property that is so valuable. Can you imagine what some of these go for?

This is such a cute block

Isn't this something? Matt hates it...I thought it was charming.Well, that's it for now. It's 1:30 and I haven't made it to my workshop yet. I went to about 7 garage sales and found some neat stuff and then hit the jackpot at one of my favorite resale shops because everything was 50% off! Went to Joann Fabrics and bought 12 yards of fabric that I use to make skirting for some of the low shelves in my craft show booth, and now it is really time to get to work.

Have an awesome day everyone!

Bye Bye Summer Hours

Today was the last day of summer hours.....no, I'm really not sad. Believe me, I LOVE getting off at noon on Friday, but in all honesty, after a few weeks of it....I've had enough.

See, I work for a school district, which means our salaries are paid by tax dollars. So where most people just get off early on Friday, we have to work those extra hours during the week in order to leave early on Friday. I normally start at 7:30 a.m. and it takes me 45 minutes to get to work. For summer hours, I start at 7:00 a.m. meaning I have to leave my house at 6:15 a.m.

First thing I do as I am waking up is to check my 3 e-mails, my blog, my 2 etsy shops and pop in to say Good Morning on Facebook. Then I have to walk the dog one mile. Next, I have to get cleaned up, dressed, make up on and hair done. After that I need to make a healthy lunch and pack up lots of healthy little snacks since I am one of those people that have to be eating every hour or so. Then I can go to work. As you can see, if I get up at 5:00 a.m. and even spend an extra minute on anything....I won't be there by 7:00 a.m.

Did I happen to mention that I don't like to rush? I like calm and peaceful starts to my day. I like music playing as I waltz through my morning routine.

I actually have a plan in place for next week. I AM going to pack up as much of my lunch as I can the night before. I am NOT going to turn the computer on in the morning unless everything else is done. I AM going to work out instead. HAHAHA!! Wish me luck!

Are your mornings calm and peaceful? Just curious.

Meow!

No, I didn't get a kitten....but I do want one....at least today I want one...I'm not sure if I will want one tomorrow.

I really love cats, and I have always had a cat. We had three at one point, but over the years they got old and sick and went to the big scratching post in the sky.

I love everything about cats, except for the litter box...because my dogs seem to find what cats leave in their litter box to be a tasty treat. Oh, and I don't like having to put the cat food on the kitchen counter so the dogs don't eat it. Gee, it seems like the dogs are really the problem. Anyone want a cute toy fox terrier and a cute little mutt with big ears?

Anyway, if I am going to get a kitten, I first have to save the money I would need to get it spayed ($80), declawed ($75), 3 shots and 3 wormings ($81) and one rabies shot ($16). That is a grand total of $252. So, it might be a while before I can get a kitten. I'm really thinking October would be a good time.

If we adopt one from the animal shelter it will already be spayed and will have some of it's shots.

When I told Irv today he said, "NO cats!" We shall see.......

At least when I wanted a Max the lop eared bunny, I was able to take the kids to the pet store so they could fall in love with Max the lop eared bunny and beg Daddy to let us get Max the lop eared bunny and of course, we did get Max the lop eared bunny. I think I actually cried to pull that one off.

The kids aren't here anymore to help me with this one, so I guess I might just have to cry again.

All of these cute little kittens are up for adoption at our local animal shelter.

A Different Kind Of Waiting

Remember the dermatologist appointment I talked about the other day, and how I had to wait until October to get a suspicious mole removed after waiting over an hour for the doctor....well, they had a cancellation and I actually went and had the procedure yesterday. So glad I didn't have to wait so long. I'm not good at waiting, especially for stuff like this. I had melanoma in 1998.

Anyway, I didn't have to wait too long for the doctor this time. She removed the mole from my hip first. That kind of stuff doesn't bother me at all. The doctor's assistants are always asking, "How are you doing?" and "Are you okay?" so I assume that some people are not okay with the needles and the cutting and the stitching.....no problem here. I told the assistant yesterday, "This is the easy part. It's waiting for the biopsy results that's hard."

And it is. It usually takes 7-14 days to get the results back....that is a LONG time.

I remember in 1998 when they called and told me I had melanoma. I had to go back in so they could cut out more to be sure it had not spread. Waiting for the appointment and then waiting for the results was torture. I imagined every horrible scenario possible. I was very lucky. It was contained so I didn't require any further treatment.

I try very hard not to think like that anymore. I now try to live in the present. That means not stressing over the past and not worrying about the future, since you have no control over either. So, I am waiting. Of course, I'm concerned...that is only natural, but I am trying very hard not to stress or to imagine what might be. There is no point in doing that. It's unhealthy and accomplishes nothing. If it's good news, I will be overjoyed. If it isn't, then I will deal with it.

I went home after the procedure yesterday and didn't go back to work, because in addition to removing the mole from my hip, she also froze, burned and scraped off a large growing freckle from under my eye. My eye was numb and felt so weird. Well, not only did it feel weird yesterday, I got up this morning and my eye was almost swollen shut....so I am not at work today either.

I am able to sit for short periods of time as long as I lean to the right and don't lean on my left hip, and the swelling is just starting to go down on my eye, so I can at least see! My plan is to just putter around here today, relax a little bit and try to hurry the healing process!

Ophir Colorado

When we were in Telluride visiting Matt, he asked if we wanted to take a ride to Ophir. Not wanting to miss a thing while we were out there, we said, "Sure". He said it's just a little town up in the mountains, but quite unique. He wasn't kidding.

The view in Ophir is amazing in itself. It's "a bit" out of the way, and it's another one of those towns where I just kept asking, "What do these people do for a living?" and "Where do these people work?" Matt wasn't able to answer my question, but it didn't matter. There are no stores or restaurants or anything like that, but the "town" is just the cutest little thing.

You know how most towns have a sign as you enter, telling you the population? Well, Ophir has one too, only it's a little different than most of the ones you see.

Here is the Ophir post office. I'm not sure if there is a postal employee, or how they get their mail, but the post office is just priceless!

I've seen resourceful people, but this guy has taken it one step further and created an awesome work of art! His fence is made of snow skis!

This is their other welcome sign. How sweet is this?

I'm thinking I wouldn't choose Ophir as a place to live, but definitely worth a drive through if you are ever in the area!

The Garbage Picker

Okay, so I admit it. Yep, I am. I really am and I am not ashamed to say it. "I am a garbage picker." There have been many times over the years that I have seen things in people's trash by the road...and have really wanted to take it, but didn't because it just didn't feel right.

Well, the other day...it felt damn good!

I was walking Wrigley at 5:30 a.m. and one of our neighbors had their trash out at the curb for pick up later that day. There it was...just sitting there waiting to be tossed into the dirty, smelly garbage truck to be smashed into little pieces.

I just couldn't let it happen. I needed it. I could use it. I liked it. I wanted it.

I got home and called Irv and told him what I was contemplating to see if he thought I had "lost it". He said, "Go get it if you want it."

So, I gingerly walked down the street, looked at their house...hoping that someone would be outside so I could ask if they would mind if I took it....but no one was around.

I carefully picked up my little treasure and carried it home. I set it on the deck, looked at it and let out a big grin!

It's a sewing machine cabinet!

I don't need a sewing machine cabinet, but what an awesome little table this will be for my craft show booth. It's sturdy and it's the perfect size. A little sanding and a little paint and voila.....it will be a great little table! I can already picture it with a few cake stands on it!

Chee Hoo! Maybe I'll take up dumpster diving next!

Just kidding!

Craft Show Booth Phase One

Irv and I took a trip to Menards Saturday morning. I have a vision of how I want my craft show booth to look, but Irv hasn't quite figured out how he is going to build it and he is a wee bit frustrated. He didn't like buying materials when he really isn't sure how he is going to construct it.

My vision is to have my booth enclosed on three sides with six foot tall dog eared wood fencing. Then we will attach shelves, hooks to hang things on and some corner shelves as well. The idea is to not have any tables taking up space. The September show booth size is only 8 by 10. Not very big. Even 10 by 10 isn't very big when you get a couple of tables in there.

I want my booth to have a boutique look to it. I'm going to make cute hangers for the aprons and everything else will be on shelves. Even the pillows.

So Saturday we bought 80, 1 by 4 boards that are 6 feet long. We also bought the boards that run across the back that you attach the fencing too, as well as white stain. I don't want the fence to look new and freshly painted, so we thought one coat of stain would accomplish the look I want.

We have a small garage, and let me tell you....there are boards everywhere. There are some laying on the floor, there are painted ones laying on every object that would hold them and there are ones standing all around the inside of the garage!

Irv was out in the garage all day yesterday staining boards. He got more than half of them done! He was pretty sore this morning, but we went grocery shopping and he is out in garage working on it again!

Isn't he just so sweet? I keep calling etsy OUR business, and WE are getting ready for OUR craft show, because it really is. We hope that by the time WE are ready to retire, that OUR craft business will bring in some extra income for US.

Irv told me that after building this booth that this might be HIS last craft show! :)