Guess Where I'm Going...

this weekend? along with the Ever Loving and Considerate Husband?

To McDonough, Georgia, (and to Griffin to visit family) but most excitingly (is that a Real Word? I'm too pooped to look it up...shame, shame, English Major, I know your name), I'm going to visit here...

that's right...I've enjoyed The Plum Tree blog for a while now & I'm finally going to visit them (it?)

I'm so very happy...and so I owe the Husband Big time...

There Comes a Time...

when one must break out the Craft Paint...even if one is seriously Craft Impaired...

I want a Wall O' Chickens...I bought one of these from a lady @ the Statesboro Farmer's Market...Just a hint as to which is mine...as if it isn't obvious...I like to call My Chicken Texumato the Fire Chicken...yes, Tex has legs, you just can't see them in the photo...I'll be doing something about that...

okay, settle down, people...there is a Big Learning Curve here!

Today, the Husband was in his Element...Morning dawned cold enough for a fire! That's pretty darn amazing for only middle October in Southeast Georgia...

That's Fred and Piper lookin' for trouble...usually they find it..This is Weejie (Wilma) The Grande Dame. The Old Lady. The Warden. A lot of white on that beautiful long nose but Weej still rules this roost. Even our Problem Child Piper gives way before the Weej.

The only time I've ever heard Hounds Sing (there is an old country pass-around tale about hounds singing) was the day Wilma and Jasper, our basset who has passed on now, sang together...not howling, not just "talking", but singing...the hair on my arms stood up...until that time I thought singing hounds were only another one of our old pretty Southern Tales...

Only one time and never again...

Sllllooowwwly But Surely

it is coming together...and since one can, apparently, never have too many things waiting on
The Project List, I plan to refurb this old glass lamp because as much as I love the new PB version, the day I get up off that much change to provide our cats with something new for Target Practice will be, well, never...

Auctions are a Frugal Person's Friend...

says Mrs. Cheap Pants....

while I'm leery of going to garage sales (or yard sales, if you prefer...we don't have any of those furrin' events called Tag Sales in my neck of the woods...that's just a different world, ya'll) because I have this weird fear of seemin' snooty and disdainful of people's "stuff" if I don't buy something...

and let's face it...some people's "stuff" is really people's "C-R-A-P" that should have been hauled off one pitch black moonless night to the county dump in a license plate-less truck and left outside of the locked gates so it cannot be traced back to the rightful owner*...

The Very Few times I have steeled myself and ventured to stop by a garage sale, yes, I hit proverbial Crap Mother Loads**

but when I'm loafin' about in Blog Land instead of being gainfully productive I gaze wistfully upon all the seemingly endless great stuff people find at these sales to bring home and display in their homes and on their blogs***...

Practically to My Point: check out auctions.

Now, auctions aren't the most efficient use of time...a large auction can drag on for hours...and hours...and hours...

the last auction Mr G & I attended lasted, I kid ya'll not, about 7 hours...7 HOURS....we ate dinner there...twice...the first time from the concession stand (that most established auctions have...at least our Georgia auctions do :) and the second time from the corner Subway shop...and spent a lot of time watchin' the regulars, who apparently are all shop owners or have really really big houses, buy lot after lot...

by the time the bureau/buffet I wanted rolled across the concrete floor for bidding, it was 10:30...that's PM...6 hours into the auction...and no way on God's Green earth was I leavin' that auction house without that buffet****....
That night, the Auction gods smiled upon me...the buffet was mine for $55...and now it sits in our second bathroom waiting for its sink to be dropped in...

Practically to My Point: Check ya'lls local classified for auction listing. Bigger auctions will probably be listed starting at least a week out from the actual auction date. And, don't just look in the Garage Sale column...check out the Announcements section too...

My point: auctionzip.com...the auction lover's friend...just type in your zip, how many miles you are willing to drag your sullen spouse and whether or not you've reached the age when limited night time driving ability makes it inadvisable to go that far and drive home late tired down a deer-riddled country road, with an openly hostile husband beside you in the passenger seat, and a massive oak hall tree bungee corded in your half-open trunk...



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*apparently, there is a reason why allllll of those dumps & transfer stations have signs that forbid leavin' stuff outside when the gates are closed...

**community or charity-related garage sales are cats of a different colour...these seem to work out better....

***Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality has to be the Undisputed Queen of Wonderful Garage Sale Stuff...actually, I bet they actually have Tag Sales where Rhoda lives!

****This is, actually, a dangerous mind set at an auction...don't get emotionally involved with anything you're bidding on...it can mean a month or two of nothin' but beans & rice for dinner as you bid $500 more than you planned on that Oh-Hell-No-That-Heifer-Is-Not-Gettin'-My-Whateveritis*****

*****Auction houses do not look kindly upon bidders who retract bids...ever...