UPDATED: technical difficulties.

It all started last week...

It seems my camera will not work without a charged battery - which I thought was charged, but realized that leaving it on all night will take care of the charge I thought I had. THEN... turns out I need to turn the stupid thing on when I want to use it - after the battery is charged. Did I have a mild panic attack each time? Yes.

Up next:  the AC unit in the single-wide needed some regulator or something in some mysterious panel... have I mentioned the AC unit had some technical difficulties a few weeks ago? Did I have a mild panic attack? Yes. It's really hot here in the 'hood. I'm really girly - I thrive in temperature controlled climates.

THEN! My laptop starts making funny noises, has lots of shiny blinking lights... and seems to live it’s own life.

Seriously... I think IT’S ALIVE!!! Am I having a mild panic attack? Yes.

I yelled at my desktop printer's color cartridge... WHY is replacing a cartridge like brain surgery? HELLLLLLOOOOOO... do the printer people not know who they are dealing with?! I YELLED! AT A CARTRIDGE! I am not a yeller!

My poor little cell phone... it’s been dropped on it’s head (and in coffee... and in dirt... and in paint... and in... well, just let your imagination run wild – the cell phone has been there) so many times my calls get dropped, texts are very random – or they happen in multiples - and sometimes it sounds like I’m listening to the voice on the other end through a sea shell. Right now? I have no clue where the stupid little thing is. I had it last night.

UPDATED TO ADD: I found it in my refrigerator.


Am I having a mild panic attack? No... because the poor little cell phone is half dead and I keep forgetting to replace it with a new little cell phone.

Okay - that's not true... I am kind of panicking... will someone please call me so I can find my poor little phone that needs to be replaced today? Please? Don't bother leaving a voice mail though... somehow or another I managed to mess THAT thing up a month ago and still haven't figured out how to fix it so I have no clue how to check it. good grief!

Oh... maybe my laptop ate my cell phone...

Do I know why it was in the refrigerator? NO. But... it was sitting on the top shelf. Between the butter and the water bottle.

My email “Inbox” has developed it’s own schedule... I’m getting emails 2 - sometimes 3 - days after they were sent to me! I think it’s on summer vacation... stupid email. Mild panic attack? No. MAJOR panic attack? Yes. My handwriting is atrocious.

Yesterday afternoon? I went to wash my car because I couldn't find it in the parking lot (it looked brown... my car is duct tape silver)...it makes me super sad to think of how long it’s been since the duct tape mobile had a bath... I pull up to the car wash – it is OUT OF ORDER: TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!

And THEN!!! I went to Target. You know how the doors when your exiting magically open for you like you hold some sort of super power? Well... they didn’t. And I walked right in to them.

And I looked like a complete dork.

But I giggled...

Because... I am not technical. At all. And all things electronic seem to enjoy torturing me.

I decided to hang with my Ethyl 'cause she understands that I'm not technical. It was good... we ate toooooo much... and the doors are manually operated at the restaurant we went to, so the magical super powers that I do not possess were not an issue.

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where if the doors HAD been magically super-power powered and I had walked in to them 'cause I'm their cryptonite... Ethyl would have been right there beside me. We would have both looked like complete dorks. Together.

oh - I'm also hoping that Target severely chastises their fashion buyers... have you noticed how they are trying REALLY HARD to bring the 80's back? I shudder... SHUDDER! I think I'm having a FASHION PANIC ATTACK!

NOW I'm done ranting, raving and panicking. Gonna go out to my "la.bor.a.tory" and create magic with my 1950sumthin' mystery machine... it's not technical either. Straight stitch, zig-zag... we get along just fine. And I have my little phone back in my hand.

p.s. I watched Kate & Leopold the other day (after spending a LOT of time figuring out the remote control/TV/movie watching box situation) and I decided this: If I had been Kate, I would have followed Leopold home too... they didn't even have elevators then!!! Plus... Leopold is really hot.

summer vacation.

The summer - the middle of the summer - always brings back water-logged memories for me.

When I was little, our summer vacation consisted of "the Mama" loading up her band of hoodlums in the car - swimsuits about the only thing packed (i'm sure there were more things... but those were the only important things) - and off we would go... heading straight for wherever my Grandparents had parked their car, tent and boat.

I think my first words every time I saw my Grandparents were: "can we go in the boat?" or "can we go swimming"?

Camping...
the smell of the woods, the smell of the water... the fire pits, fishing poles, camp cookies... our laughter and giggles mixing in with the sound of the tent flaps and drying beach towels whippin' in the breeze...

the LifeBoy soap Grammy would hand us when it was bath-time. We would run straight in to the lake or river. Yes, the campgrounds had showers, but they just weren't as much fun!

It was ALWAYS such an adventure!!! Slappin' at skeeters and flies, climbing trees and exploring trails, finding sticks and rocks, pine-cones and "gumballs", then running back to the campsite at full speed with my hands full and held out as if I was carrying the most precious of diamonds - each time my Grandmother would study them with the same intensity that I would and we would decide that they were animals or people or fantastic things... and then I would run off and find more treasures. More diamonds.

We would have "tea" with rocks and sticks... soda bottle lids... you name it. Always at the water's edge.

At the waters edge I could be found crouched down with my chin resting in my hands listening to the little waves roll in each time a boat would pass, studiously searching for shells or fossils... if I was lucky I would be IN the water to FEEL the waves roll in each time a boat would pass, dancing and twirling around ON the shells or fossils. Little bugs, weeds and driftwood, turtles and little frogs... it was all there. A treasure trove of water wonder.

Just about every morning Grampy would wake us up before the sun did - "the Mama" and Grammy would feed us - and then off in the boat we would go, sure that the fish were jumpin'.

I was always WAY tooooooo girly to drop a line in the water (if you catch it you have to touch it *insert wrinkled nose here*) so I would trail my fingers in the water while leaning over the side of the boat with my chin resting on my life jacket, contemplating life as I knew it. I would watch for the fish to jump, listen to my Grandparents "discuss" which cove was the better fishin' spot... then I would pick up a book, look at my Grandfather and grin the biggest grin (as he plopped a hat on my head) because over the years we had GREAT debates over who knew how to fish the correct way... I still say I did.

With my nose buried in a book and my feet dangling over the side of the boat, listening to the water gently lap against the sides, my "theme music" being the hum of the trolling motor and fishing reel lines being released (snap back, click - whoooooosh - plop)...

the smell of water and air, boat and sunblock... I would float along in fishing bliss. Daydreaming...

Then, I'd get the go-ahead and cannon ball off the bow of the boat. 'Cause I was crazy cool like that, and the redneck brothers and I always had to see who made the biggest splash in that deliciously cool, murky green water.

Today I went to dip my toes in the water... stood in some more ankle deep water... I contemplated life as I know it... I daydreamed... I made wishes and listened to the little waves...

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where the water's fine... wanna go fishing with me? I would love to have you along... but you have to touch the fish. *insert wrinkled nose here*


p.s. I realize that most of these pictures have nothing to do with camping - but you have to remember who you're dealing with here. (crazy cool, remember? LOL) Some were taken today - some were taken in other parts of the US...

see it.

eye took some blinged up reading glasses to the "mercantile" in The Hillsboro Antique Mall the other day...

eye think they are super fun...

we'll see what my customers think! they are fun to wear... just take a pair of readers you've picked up along the way and e6000 some sparkles on 'em!

and, since we're on the subject of seein' things...

eye had a Kitty Cat Daddy sighting on Saturday...

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where eye'm STILL doing the Kitten dance and eye'm feelin' VERY lucky that they spent their Saturday afternoon with lil' ol' me... don't be so jealous, you never know where YOU might spy Kitty Cat Daddy... he's always prowlin' around SOMEwhere!!!


Mama Debinator the Trash Talker herself was with Cat Daddy... but he just steals the show, doesn't he?


AND... speakin' of stealin' the show... have you been to see where they are heading next? go see here... Marburger won't know what hit 'em when Cat Daddy struts right on in...

bits 'n baubles...

The chevron necklaces that I have seen lately have me intrigued...

found here - pinned here

sew I went digging in the never ending stash of junk that lives (and seems to multiply daily) in my "lab.or.a.tory".

You need to make one too 'cause it's fun and you would look cute wearing it! Here's how:

you'll need:

1 leather scrap.
lace/doily scrap.
wire or 3" headpin.
bits 'n baubles...
and a feather because it will tickle yer collar bone and make you laugh.

add bits 'n baubles... I found some silver-tone chain and made my necklace 16" in length (the whole tickle the collarbone and laugh thing...), but it would look great as a long necklace too - or layered with a couple of shorter necklaces! Then I added some pearls from an old bracelet ('cause you know I'm all about the duct tape and pearls!)... added a couple of Mother of Pearl buttons... and last but not least - a tiny feather because I had feathers ticklin' my brain in that moment...

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I now have feathers EVERY. WHERE. why? Because I'm the dork that opens her stash of teeny tiny little bitty, light-weight, free-floating, can'tgrabthemfastenough feathers right in front of where the air conditioner vent is aimed...

p.s. I would like to note that I'm not sure how I arrived at fringed leather, pearls and lace from the fantastic wooden necklace that The Knotty Owl Shop created... so I'm gonna have to go back to her Etsy shop and talk her out of one 'cause I really like the clean lines, colors and simplicity of her creation!!!

yummmm.

Fair food.

You know the kind... deep  fried...

dripping with melt-in-your-mouth grease that burns your tongue in the most delicious way - polish sausage sandwiches, corn dogs... mustard...

filling your blood stream with sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar... so much sugar that you type "sugar" 5 times in order to properly convey JUST how much sugar...

There isn't much that beats a small county fair. Friends and loved ones laughing and giggling, ooh'n and aah'n over displays, and rides, and tractors, and 4-H projects, and socks...

children running around with giggles dancing in the air around them... balloons bobbing and swaying in the breeze... music streaming from every ride... and fair food. Yummy delicious Fair Food.

The smell of funnel cakes and the accidental inhalation of powdered sugar. Cotton Candy that sticks to your fingers, your lips... then turns your tongue blue. The candy apples that you have to take home because you can't believe you ate so much...

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I'm wishing for some more cotton candy and a blue tongue right now. What's your favorite "I can break my diet because I'm hangin' at the FAIR" food? Have you ever tried deep fried banana pudding on a stick? I saw a chicken that looked like he needed to attend some anger management sessions... AND I think it would be great fun to have a Ferris Wheel in my front pasture. Or the little tea-cups that go 'round and 'round and 'round...

roadtrippin' ramblings...

* i did not get run over while taking this picture... but i can and DO play a mean game of "chicken".

I took a lil' road trip and got to thinking about the movie:

one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE movies. EVER. I could watch it a million times INaROW kind of favorite movies.

When Jack Nicholson's character busts out his road trip music... there are recordings for each mood that might happen on their trip from New York to Baltimore. I giggle because: my little flashdrive thing that is fully loaded with music is JUST like that. Feelin' it? I can accompany you via the stereo in the duct tape mobile.

One of my favorites:

Because I'm not a genre snob, I have some of EVERYTHING (click on each name and you'll get some of my favorite songs!). John and Placido make beautiful music together... a little Brandi Carlile, some Blackeyed Peas... Greenday... then comes some Quiet Riot (don't judge...) and The Ramones... Frank Sinatra and Kenny Chesney... Steve Miller and Israel Kamakawiwo 'Ole... Sublime and Ella Fitzgerald...

Debussy and Coldplay... Michael Franti and The Beatles... George Jones and Eddie Vedder... Neil Young and Soggy Bottom Boys... Jim Brickman and Rodrigo y Gabriella... Pat Benatar...

I'm a HUGE Bill Withers fan:

Cat Stevens... Sugarland... Slipknot...

another favorite:

Because I firmly believe in and I'm good at entertaining myself... I cataloged license plates from:

South Carolina, Wisconsin, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Washington, Ontario, Georgia, Arkansas, Indiana, Alabama, Virginia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Maine, Oklahoma, Illinois, New York, California, Arizona, Colorado and... TEXAS!

What is some of your favorite road trippin' music?

comin' to you LIVE from the single-wide where this morning I'm hangin' out with Nina and Elvis...

*giggle*

I don't know why, but this sign makes me LAUGH. OUT. LOUD!!!

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where my public service announcement for today is: Walk Your Bike 'cause... that does not look fun. Have a Happy Happy Monday! hee-hee


p.s. Don't forget about the coupon code: 71112 to receive 20% off of any handbag in my Etsy store!