you can't handle the truth .... or if the lawyers really looked like Matthew McConaughey this would be a whole other thing

... so I just rented out my couch

(not my actual couch, that we sit on and lie on and Olive sheds so much hair on that before we purchased it we asked the guy in the store if we could throw a little dog hair on it so we could visualize it in our actual livingroom ... but a vintage couch that is part of my vintage rental business - did I tell you I started a vintage rental business? no? well, I will just keep you all guessing about what the hell I am talking about then)

and checked my mailbox on the way back in the house and find a little white notice that says (cue the Jaws music here) JURY DUTY ... AGAIN, I thought I got out of it!

Now, I have been called to jury duty many times and the last time - I got on a case, was named foreman forewoman, found the guy guilty in less than 45 minutes and was home in 3 days.

But, I was a little more decisive in those days - things a little more black and white to me when I was younger - now that things are a little more grey it may be harder.

(yes, I like to spell it with an "e", the British way, makes me feel special and a little more refined - I have also stopped cursing .. sort of . .mostly .. sometimes. My brother stopped cursing last year when he started teaching music to children and I thought if he can do it, I can too, but it is a hard habit to unlearn)

When we were kids and my sister and I used bad words

(which we did as fast as we could learn them)

my grandmother would say "stop - say it another way" and make us take the curse word out of the sentence, so my sister's favorite 4th grade zinger would end up something like "your 'rearend' is grass", then my grandmother would nod her approval and go back to watching her stories.

Anyhoo - back to JURY DUTY ...

since I have been making more and more questionable (ie bad) decisions lately. I have begun to doubt myself. I can't even make a decision about where to go to lunch without it turning into the most trying ordeal anyone around me has ever experienced.

If someone asks - "what do you want to go eat?" - I brainfreeze. I will not decide. Hubby, unfortunately, has taken the brunt of this indecisiveness so when I told him I pulled jury duty, he said:

"If you make it on a jury it will end up being a hung jury ... because everyone else will hang themselves while you decide."

This from the ace decision-maker who went to Barnes and Noble before our trip to get magazines for both of us; proceeded to spend an hour picking out such bone-chilling, can't put it down reading material for himself as the Farmer's Almanac 2012 (I'm sure he almost had a coronary when he saw this baby was finally available), Dirtbike Digest, The Small Farmer's Guide to Livestock (Olive did not like the looks of this one) and The Model Car Builder (he wants to get 'back into them' - I do not like the looks of this one) - then grabbed the first thing he could lay his hands on for me - something with pirates on the cover - because

"I know you like pirates"

(I like pirates?!)

"No, I was saying 'talk like a pirate day' is coming up and I am going to give away some pirate jewelry. I didn't say I like pirates."

hubby *crickets*

(lost in article on the best model car glue for 2012)

Anyhoo, will let everyone know what is decided with jury duty - I am going to try again to get it postponed until January when I am slow

(and there is some potential for a snowday)

Also if you follow me on Twitter- watch for my pirate tweets tomorrow to win some pirate jewelry!

Upcycled Tutorial - Hanging Chair Bookrack

Now, I know this isn't really a tutorial, but I haven't posted a tutorial in awhile

(saving the best ones for my annual Xmas countdown series which starts next month)

but thought I would throw up a couple pics of this amazing old chair I bought at a local flea for $5.00.

I hung it on some bicycle hanging hardware from Ikea and now have an adorable mini-bookcase for some of my vintage Trixie Belden books.


I have 3 of these chairs (all different) that I am going to hang in the stairwell (which is pretty high) and will post pics of this when I get a chance to get them up there

(I have to do this when hubby isn't around because he hates the idea - he will love it once it is up though ... as long as - a. he doesn't have to hang it, b. it isn't in "the way" - and c. it doesn't fall on anyone's head - all possibly do-able - of course, I can't really guarantee that last one)

I have seen people make towel racks and things by dismantling this type of chair, but I couldn't bear to make any permanent changes to this one - it is just too perfect!

new work in shops ....








some new work in my Etsy shops recently including Alice cork necklace, when elephants fly ring (even better than a flying pig, I think), anti-social butterfly recycled wine cork corkboard (a sort of rant), a new locket with the amazing Gollybard (lock and key), a new locket with the amazing Lori Portka (the sun shines) and a locket with the amazing Laura Evans of oohprettyshiny (eiffel tower) - have a wonderful weekend all - feels like autumn here this morning!

xo

does this blog make me look fat ....

... sometimes I don't know when to stop ... with blog posts, with guacamole, with the number of times I laugh at the car radio display when I'm listening to the 60's station and the screen isn't big enough for the whole title so it just says "Build Me Up Butt" ...

and I was about to print Bumbershoot pics that made me look

pretty freakin' awful

(notice how I say 'made me look' because obviously my sister, who took these photos, has somehow doctored them, because she is pretty clever and slightly devious in a way that only a little sister can be, somehow adding 10 lbs to me in the photos not to mention 10 years and a slightly yellow cast to my skin, that has me rethinking my liquor intake - maybe this wine-for-cork as tax-write-off diet is not a very good plan for me anymore)

then I stopped myself - wth this is my blog I don't have to print crappy pictures of myself, even when I have nothing else to post ... luckily I have my own little photoshop expert (ie Olive) to take a little action before posting them - trust me it's better this way ...





(my display looked pretty good for all the borrowings I collected on the west coast to fill it although maybe too cluttered now that I look at it in the photos - of course these could be doctored, too ...)

have a nice weekend everyone!   xo