Merry Christmas and Secondhand Stuff

I have a favorite Christmas decoration, my most favorite thing to decorate.  I am a little ashamed to admit what it is.  It is not a nativity set, or anything religious at all.  It is not a precious ornament hand-made by one of our small children.  Nope.  It is a 3 foot tall, tacky, fake, white Christmas tree that we bought on clearance after Christmas one year.






But then, there's the beautiful part:

The awesome photos in this post were taken by Jeff

The only decorations on this tree are vintage "Shiny Brite" style glass ornaments. 

I was at an auction about 5 years, and I came across a box of someone's old ornaments.  And, considering it was August and they were in a cardboard box on the front lawn they looked pretty shabby.  Which was good for me, because no one else apparently wanted them, and I bought the box for $1. I was remembering a cover story from Country Living Magazine, about decorating with these old beauties.  (although I do confess that their photos looked quite a bit more sophisticated than my plastic white tree)

So I brought them home, and put them away.  And I kept my eye out for more.  Here is where I should post photos of the lovely containers I have bought ornaments in at tag sales and auctions and second-hand stores.  There are original Shiny Brite boxes, with fragile cellophane and old-timey print.  And there is a box that used to contain "Camp Fire Girls and Boys Chocolates" which is filled with many tiny colored ornaments.  But, alas, I have put those boxes back into the dungeon that is our storage area under the steps and I will not be going back there until I have to.  So just imagine them, please.  They're cool in that vintage-y way, I promise.  It only took about a year and a half until I had enough to decorate this small tree with.  I have kept adding to it, too- whenever I find more I buy them.  I have never paid more than $1 for a box, and most of the time I can find them for a quarter, sometimes even a dime.  Cheapest things I have ever found to collect!

The first year we put the tree up downstairs.  This was 2007.  The girls were dressed up to go to Katie's 4 year-old preschool Christmas program.  Gosh they look little!

When the girls got older and I could trust them not to play with the ornaments, I started putting it in their room on the night stand.  Their room is painted an aqua color (one of those situations where you have in mind a lovely pale color.... and then when you have painted the whole room it is way too teal?) and the white tree plus all the colors of the lights and ornaments makes the whole room glow.  Yes, a slightly tacky bluish glow.  But I love it.

I have one last thing to point out.  The top of the tree:

What?  It's bare?  No angel?  No star?  Well, I can't put just anything on there!  It has to be old, and shiny.  I have seen them, but I have yet to find one for sale.  Please keep your eye out for me.  Or, if you happen to have some of these old ornaments in your Christmas boxes, and you no longer want them..... I do!  I will pay you a quarter for them.

Secondhand Stuff

Today Erin was wearing one of my favorite things I have ever bought at Goodwill.

So I had to take a picture.  I found the shirt/dress/whateveryouwanttocallit on a day when I had a coupon, so it was only $1!!!  The leggings are hand-me-downs from a friend, and the boots are from a garage sale (years ago.  Katie wore them- a lot!).

Don't you just love it?  It's Gymboree, and I have already washed it several times (and will have to again- notice that she dripped a tiny bit of her popsicle on it?), and it washes great, sparkles and all.

Right now, the Ames Goodwill has a rack of "Halloween Costumes."  They are not all actually costumes, some of them are just very ugly or very outdated regular clothes.  I was looking through them when I found this:

No, no one in my family is going to dress up as an Arizona Hunter Ed Instructor.  But, my husband happens to collect law enforcement/conservation enforcement patches, so he was happy to get this.  He won't keep the shirt, but it is pretty cool- vintage Cabela's.

This is what I wore to work today.  A velvety navy blue blazer.  I never would have bought this for retail, because I wouldn't be able to commit much money to a velvet blazer. What if you wear it one time and then hate it?  But $3.99?  Sure!

Find anything great this week?  Post a comment!  I haven't figured out how to reply to them, but I like reading them.

Iowa Barn Tour

 My mom, Katherine, Erin and I went on the Iowa Barn Tour yesterday.  All over Iowa, you can visit historic barns and learn more about them.

http://www.iowabarnfoundation.org/events.htm

They host this event every fall.  It was free (always a bonus), and we had a great time.  There is a huge list of barns participating, but we only went to the 5 that were in Boone and Story County, nearest to us.

You could climb up in their haylofts. Kind of scary.

We drove all over- gravel roads, searching for the right address.  Then you would see it- across the field!

 This is Handsaker's barn in Story County near Fernald.  Very cool barn!

Erin's favorite part of the whole day was feeding those pigs.



October

 





The girls and I went to Deal's Orchard by Jefferson on Sunday.



 

 



We went for a wagon ride..... beautiful Percherons

 









I tried to get them to put their ears up for the photo.  Typical mules.
I asked their owner what exactly they were, and he said, "Their mama
 was a Belgian mare, and their Daddy was a travelin' man."





 







There's something about an old oak tree.  Don't you think?



 

 

 



We didn't buy pumpkins at Deal's...... not when you
can buy them from our neighbor for $2!



 



Can you believe it?



 

 

I love gourds.



















 

I love October.



This guy was on the road on our way there.

 I tried to get him off the road by throwing a rock at him.

 He didn't even flinch, so I thought he was dead......

 until we came home a few minutes later and he was gone! 

So now that I know he was alive I wish I hadn't got so close.



This is what we did with some of our pumpkins and gourds. 
These days our house has more sparkles than Taylor Swift.







Secondhand Stuff

I like to buy things secondhand.  It is one small way of creating less waste, plus it saves our family a lot of money.  There are many ways to shop secondhand- craigslist, Ebay, consignment sales..... I prefer garage sales and thrift stores.  There are great deals to be found everywhere, but you have to know what you are looking for.  The main things I am scouting are children's clothes (including outerwear), and clothes and shoes for me.
I am going to make sharing my finds a regular feature on the blog.  Maybe it will inspire someone else to try thrifting!


These are some of my latest and greatest:

Erin loves this butterfly shirt... especially because it is sparkly!  I bought it at a garage sale for 25 cents.

 I like for my girls to wear nice clothes.  Don't we all?  Expensive clothing seems to wear better, wash better, last longer.  I just don't like to pay a lot! 

Katie's favorite color is green.  I found her this Guess shirt at Goodwill.

Never buy things from Goodwill that you could buy at Walmart or another discount store.  Children's clothes at our Goodwill are $1.99 per item.  You could have bought it new, on sale at Walmart for that price, so don't bother buying it used for that price.  However- a well-made item is a great deal, as long as it is in good shape.

Children's Place purple sweater.  I had a coupon for Goodwill (from the state fair), so this one and Katie's green shirt were only $1 each.

You're not going to score a great find, exactly what you need, or valuable antiques every time you go to a thrift store.  Personally, I think that about 85% of the things in those stores are junk (to me..... maybe a different 85% to the next person).  I shop often- just a quick scan through my favorite areas- but usually I don't buy anything.  It's just a matter of being there at the right time.  Like when I found these:

Naturalizer heels.... size 7 1/2 wide!

I bought these shoes 2 years ago at the Urbandale Goodwill.  They looked brand-new (I really wouldn't recommend buying used shoes unless they look new), and were exactly my size.  The last time I bought a pair of new heels, I paid $20 (on sale of course!) at Payless for real leather, wide widths.  I wore them to a wedding and by the time I walked into the reception I had to take them off they hurt so bad.  These lovely Naturalizers?  I have no idea how much they would have cost new, but I paid $3.59 for them.  Last week I wore them aaaaalllllll day (about 12 hours) and my feet were not sore.  I love them.

Good luck bargain hunting!  Post a comment about any of your great finds.

September 11, 2001

This is the story of my experience on September 11:

This is a newspaper we bought at a bus station in Sweden.  It was very interesting not having the news in English. 
We believed that this said "10,000 dead."

some photos, you don't need a translation

Jeff and I were married in August of 2000.  We took our first big vacation, our "honeymoon," a year later.  We booked a trip to Europe- to visit friends in Belgium and Norway- for Sept 3rd through the 13th, 2001.  Of course, the trip did not go as expected.

DeAnn, Jean Rimez, Jeff, and Lisette DeMeuter

We first went to Dworp, Belgium (near Brussels) and stayed with Jean and Lisette Rimez.  We had a wonderful time touring around Belgium, visiting the North Sea, and spending time with their family.

Then we traveled by bus to Ringebu, Norway.  We had only 2 days to spend in that beautiful country.  We stayed with the Smestad family.  They took us up to a lake above Ringebu and we caught trout- it was an absolutely amazing day- the weather was wonderful, and the scenery was so pretty. 

Jeff, Kari Smestad and DeAnn

Of course, Norway was about 6 hours ahead of US time.  So as far as we knew- the whole world was as peaceful as we were.  At the little boathouse where we had a picnic, there was a guestbook which we signed.  I made a note in the book, thanking them for letting us use their boat and boathouse, and I said something about how it was such a perfect day.  I dated it at the top:  September 11, 2001.

Later that day, about 3 in the afternoon we came back to the Smestad's house.  When we walked in the door, Roald was listening to the radio in the kitchen.  He told us that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, and a few seconds later he said, "Two planes." 

Since we had to leave very early the next morning, we still had some things we wanted to see.  We went for a hike up in the mountains.

Roald Smestad and Jeff being funny

The whole time we were up in the wilderness of the mountains, Roald and Kari were getting text messages from their sons, giving them updates about what was going on in the US.  It was surreal: we were having a good time with these special people, touring one of the most pristine places on the earth; and yet we were thinking about something truly awful.

The next morning we left Norway at 5 AM, on a bus headed back to Belgium.  New York time, it was still the evening of Sept. 11.  The bus driver had the radio on (in Norweigen, then Swedish, then German.....) and there were a lot of interviews in English.

DeAnn on the ferry from Sweden to northern Germany

It just so happened that the shirt I brought to wear had an American flag on it, so people kept coming up to us and telling us how sorry they were.  They would ask us if we had family in New York, and some of them cried. 

Our flight back to the US did not happen, because on September 13, the US air space was still closed.  So we got to spend a few more days in Belgium. 



NATO headquarters in Belgium

Since we had extra time, one of the things I really wanted to do was to visit the NATO diplomatic headquarters which are in Brussels.  I had worked in 1997 at the NATO military headquarters, which are in Mons, Belgium.  The security was very strict that day- as it was all over the world, I'm sure.  We could not go onto the base, in fact, we couldn't even stop the car in front of the gates!  But we were able to see the flags- all the 17 countries of NATO had their flags at half-mast.  It was very moving.

I don't even remember which day we flew home.  It was the first day that the air space was open, and we were now flying stand-by.  We went to the airport thinking there was no way we would acutally get a seat on the plane, but we did!  We hadn't even said a real good-bye to our friends Jean and Lisette, because we didn't think we would actually leave.  It was an extremely sobering experience to be on that plane.  Everybody was quiet.  Every bump caused your heart to thump.  We flew over New York and could clearly see the smoke from the wreckage of the towers.  There was so much extra security, and our flight had to stop in Washington DC in order to be cleared before we could go to Chicago.

Every year, when the anniversay of September 11 comes, people think about where they were.  For Jeff and I, we can be thankful that we have memories of such a beautiful day. It was an unbelievable experience.

Lisette's cat, sleeping on our bed at their house.  Nothing makes you feel more at home!



For better, for worse.

This seems like a long time ago!  But, I thought I would start the blog with a picture of our beginning.