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I have recently become a silver enthusiast. Blame it on Downton Abbey, all I know is it’s great stuff. And cheap. It’s hard to find a thrift store without a piece or two of the goodstuff. To my amazement, nobody appears to be scooping it up, which is fine because it just leaves more for me to choose from.

Thing is, I am hella tired of dealing with stinky, chemical laden, silver polish in a bottle. I tried the baking-soda and foil trick a few times — worked fine on new tarnish, no luck on the old stuff. Then I ready about using toothpaste on silver….
 
To my amazement, not only did it get the tarnish off, it worked better than the commercial stuff. And faster. And cheaper. And it didn’t smell or anything! I smeared it on and waited maybe 30 seconds. That’s it. No elbow grease, no nothin. I used Sensodyne because that’s what I keep in my house, but as I understand, any white paste toothpaste will do the trick. Blue-gel glittery toothpaste, not so much.

Something tells me someone will say that toothpaste is too abrasive for silver, and that’s fine, but I say, if it’s good enough to put in my mouth twice a day, it’s good enough for a silver platter I found ast the thrift store. As for the other Silver Platters, well, they don’t need any extra polishing now do they?

Well, maybe Jan. Poor thing, she can’t help it.

So, I don’t know if you remember, but I had a problem with a greedy bag hose beast in the thrift store a couple months ago. She stole my green glasses.

Okay, technically I hadn’t bought them yet but that was besides the point. I decided to vent on the subject and tell everyone how long I had been waiting for green glass, not because I expected anything to come of it, but because I wanted to vent my frustrations with the aforementioned hose beast.

The general consensus on the matter was Keep looking, you’ll find something, to which I concluded No crap I’ll find something, I FOUND IT AND IT GOT AWAY.

Three years of keeping an eye out…and when my eye found it, it got away. I thought I’d never find it again.

BUT THEN!

Then a few days later I came home to find a package on my front steps. FROM THE GREENBRIER HOTEL.

This post already has way too many all caps so you’ll need to imagine this level of mania on the porch that night. What dis I find?  Two glasses. Two perfect green goblets exactly lik ethe ones I wanted to steal from the hotel in 2009.

They were from Ann. She somehow got wind that the Greenbrier sells these goblets online an sent me a couple to get a set started. As you can imagine, I drank from nothing but these glasses for a week straight. Did you know box wine tastes better from green glass? It’s true.

AND THEN!

And then a few weeks later I went to the flea market and what did I find sitting behind a dirty elk head?

These babies.

Six of them.  Exactly like the ones the hosebeast stole from me at the thrift store. It’s like they came back to me. They missed me. And even though we never knew each other, they knew we were meant to be together. 

Then, that very afternoon, I felt so lucky I went to Goodwill on the way back from the flea market in hopes of finding more buried treasure. What did I find? MORE GREEN GLASS. 

Guys, you won’t even believe it. I found a whole set of green glass punch cups for 99cents each. SIXTEEN OF THEM.

I have to stop typing now before the caps lock key goes off again.

I’M ON A WINNING STREAK!

Did I mention I have a thing for pom poms?

It’s a thing.

Know what’s a fun way to kill the night with wine coolers and Duck Dynasty?

Hot gluing pompoms to a plain old Ikea frame.

It helps to have a cute cat photo to inspire the occasion. Photos of dogs will work too, as will llamas. Or manatees. 

Know what’s even more fun?  A giant, gnarly, thrift store frame covered with pom poms (homemade?) and hung on the front door like a Christmas wreath.

Oh yeah. It’s happening.

How is it September already? How?

Summer and I barely got to say hello to each other, much less hang out. We were supposed to spend enough time for me to get sick of all the heat and laziness and think, Man am I ready for September.

That soooooo never happened. I’m not saying I was short-changed, I’m just saying I cannot be alone in feeling Autumn has come to soon. She is way too early, and if it were up to me, I’d make her wait in the parking lot a while longer. Just sayin’.

Well, anyway, here we are. Since I spent most of the last month posting about other people, maybe now is a good time to catch up on some stuff on the homefront. For example, this is a list of 25 things I wanted to accomplish this summer:

I crossed of four.

Damn if I’m not an overachier.

One of the four things was to paint my bathroom. It was supposed to be pale gray.

It came out purple. Lavender, I suppose. I’m living with it because I’m too lazy to deal with another round of crappy painter’s tape that falls down after ten minutes, or seven seconds before the roller hits it, with me on a chair wearing dirty overalls and screaming, ARE YOU KIDDING ME PAINTER’S TAPE? YOU STOP STICKING WHEN YOU GET PAINTED ON? 

If I ever get arrested for murder, there is a good chance inadequate painters tape drove me to it. Temporary insanity, my ass.

You know who must have had great painters tape, and probably just great house painters in general?

These people:

I have decided that it is Villa VilleKuella (where Pipi Longstocking lives). This one is in Elgin Illinois, and not Sweden, but whatever. I walked up to take a picture and I heard someone playing an accordion inside.  And there was a horse on the porch.

Okay, that thing about the horse is a lie. But Pipi lives here and that is that.

In the genre of crossing things off lists, one of my life list goals was to see one my photos of my home in a major magazine. The good news is the wish came true (and special thanks to Maegan for letting me know!)…the bad news is the magazine failed to credit me or seek permission beforehand. Yeah, so that was awkward. There isn’t much use in getting mad at this point, and it’s still pretty nifty to see my image featured full page. It’s a tick on the list, right? Right.

In other adventures, I went on a season-long thrift store binge. By conservative estimation, I went to more thrift stores in the last month than the whole of last year combined. It has been glorious and I can’t wait to show you all the treasures, starting with this chair:

At first I was worried it was too granny, but then I asked on Instagram and Meld193 said “Vera” and that was it. If you told me an old camo print turd bag looked Vera I’d buy it. I have no control. Lola confirmed this was a good decision though when I got home and she chose it as her new favorite place to showcase her magnificence, as demonstrated by the photo above.
 
Then, last weekend, while buying three blue and white ginger jars at Goodwill (my latest obsession), I got into a conversation with a gal over the subject of reconstructing old jewelry which turned into a conversation on craft blogs which turned into her reccomending a few of her favorites…this and that and another one that sounded really cool and “Oh, Aunt Peaches. You might like her. She’s really far out there!”

So, that made my day.

Let’s see…what else? Did I mention I’m going to Switzerland this month? Yeah. SWITZERLAND. Maybe we’ll do a quick jump and jive over to Italy of France, because when you are in Switzerland going to Italy for the day is like saying “I’m going to the mall before parking gets bad.” I’m a little bit paranoid about altitude sickness but I’ll deal with it. And by deal with it, I mean eat a bunch of croissants.

Despite my failure to make much headway on legit goals, I crafted the crap out of August so you’ll be seeing all kinds of little projects in the weeks ahead. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but there may be more pom poms.

Get excited.

Barbara, a longtime reader and fiend, sent me an email to ask if I knew of any cool ways to use some of her son’s old legos. He has outgrown them now, and even though she plans to eventually pass them along to a relative (who is a bit too young at the moment), she was wondering, “Can they serve some other purpose?”

What a great question! Barbara, I have no idea what so ever! Thank goodness these other people came up with stuff far more fabulous than anything I could ever come up with! Exclamation point!

PS: Here is a Pinterest board with oodles of other ideas!

   

Source. Sadly, the photographer is not credited (anyone?) but I love the caption, “You can choose to live your life with the joy of the front row or solemnness of the third row. The choice is yours.”  AP readers are first row riders for sure 🙂

AUNT PEACHES READERS
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Pittsburgh, you are killing me.

First it was your massive cookie tables, then it was your Mr. Rogers statue and his awesome sweater.

Now you went and knit A WHOLE DANG BRIDGE.

Anyone out there in Pittsburgh? Go hug this thing for me – okay? Okay!

And special thanks to Kristin W. for bringing this to my attention. 

I stopped buying newspapers five years ago.

That statement will cause me to lose credibility with several people I know and love, but so be it. I just don’t like newspapers. They are dinosaurs. And they smell bad. Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad newspapers exist and I am glad there are people to write them and to read them, I just don’t want to be one of them. I’ll get my news from somewhere else, thankyouverymuch.

Apparently, this attitude makes me what they call a “culture vulture” – one who scavenges for whatever is freely available on the side of the road. Until recently, in terms of current events, 90% of my my cultural roadkill came from whatever filtered through Google News’ top stories, Gawker, HuffPo, or whatever I could read over someone’s shoulder on the subway. Like this guy.

Sure, I follow stories that catch my interest. I listen to NPR and watch an hour of news a day, if not more. I can hold my own in a basic current event conversation, but I usually shy away from holding much of an opinion on subjects I have not taken the time to research (read: everything that is not on Bravo after 9pm).  

BUT THEN! About two months ago, the quality of my informational intake tripled when I encountered theSkimm. It’s a tiny thing but it’s made an enormous difference. This is how their website describes their service:

theSkimm is the daily newsletter that simplifies the headlines for the educated professional who knows enough to know she needs more. We do the reading for you and explain it with fresh editorial content, breaking down what you need to know to start the conversation.

What it ought to say is, We read newspapers so you don’t have to.

TheSkimm comes to my inbox every morning, nice and neat, never takes more than five minutes to read.  Not only has theSkimm saved me time, it has improved my understanding of current events that I might otherwise skip for lack of background knowledge. I’m sure some of you will read it and write it off as overly simplistic, and I get that, but don’t write it off as simple. The ability to consolidate complex and confusing information into concise, easily understandable statements that leave the reader wanting more is an art (and one that you will rarely find on display in The New York Times, I might add).  

In the last two months, theSkimm has made me a better consumer and a more aware, well-rounded member of society. I’m not saying it should replace print media, I’m saying it’s awesome for people like me who want the crux of the story without all the filler. TheSkimm gives me the essentials then leaves me to do my own homework (or not). 

Ask me why sh*t keeps hitting the fan in Egypt – I got it.
How’d a handful of JPMorgan traders in London fuck up our whole economy (and why it’s sorta Bill Clinton’s fault) – Let’s talk.
Why is the justice department getting tiffy over the merger between American and US Airways – Well, let me tell you!

Or better yet, sign up for theSkimm and let them tell you.

Dude, it’s free. You’ll like it. Here is a sample of today’s theSkimm.

You’re welcome. 

PS: Speaking of complex information, who needs a primer on WWII? Oh yeah, everyone.
(I know you covered this in high school but this one is on facebook and involved emoticons. Exciting!)

Three things that blow my mind:

ONE: Peanut butter fudge. Namely, my peanut butter fudge. Yeah I’m bragging.

TWO: The fact that Uncle Phil from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was the voice of Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

THREE. Other people.

My dad liked to tell me, “If you go a day without being amazed by another human being, you are doing it wrong.” We would frequently have car conversations about what or who I most recently found impressive – the girl at school who could wiggle her ears…the people who made Oreo cookies with mint in the middle…the boy in my class who polished rocks in an old blender…the list goes on.

Whether any of us want to admit it or not, blogging is a profoundly selfish act. This blog in particular. Probably 90% of the content here is devoted to me; stuff I make, stuff I like, stuff I think, stuff I feel. And that’s okay. That’s sorta what it takes to churn out original content every week.

But you know what’s also okay? To take a break once in a while and spotlight somebody else. So that is what I’m doing. Actually, that’s what I have been doing.  For the last few months I have been stockpiling posts devoted to that very thing – other people.  

So here’s the plan:  For the month of August, every week day, I am going to highlight the work of somebody else besides me. Not only will this introduce you to some awesome stuff that I can take no credit for, it will allow me some downtime to work on another project (y’all will hear about that later).

I hope you will stick around for the fun.

Today marks three years since this blog began.

It’s been a weird, wonderful, messed up ride. I have loved every moment of it, and that is because of you. I have always said that I ran this blog for myself, and that I would never let numbers or feedback dictate content. I said that I would be myself and say as I like, even if it ticked some people off and cost me readership. And it did. And I’m okay with that because you, YOU are here with me. How do I say thank you for something like that?

Google analytics repeatedly informs me that I do not have the biggest blog running, however, my loyalty and return visitor rate is significantly higher than most other bloggers in this genre. In web terms, that says a lot. Is it rude to compare myself to others? Yes. But I’m okay with it today because I’m not really comparing myself, I’m comparing my audience. I am comparing you. And Sweetums, you are The Best.

Most other bloggers would kill to have an audience as awesome, informed, and engaged as you. I know some bloggers who hate reading their comments and filtering through their social media responses, afraid of what they will find. You guys never make me do that. And on the rare occasion someone does say something unhelpful/mean/nasty, you guys hop on their ass before I even get a chance to read it. You share your thoughts, your insight, your experiences. Even those of you who never comment (anywhere), take the time to email me your ideas, like two old pals swapping recipes. I feel like we are family but we don’t even know each other.  You have been good to me when I deserved it least. You keep coming back week after week, even when I spout off horse crap and make way too many typos.

I am so thankful to have you in my life.

Expressions of gratitude don’t really cut it here, and they just don’t make Hallmark cards for this occasion, so I’ll say this one more time and hope that you know how much I mean it: Thank you.

Happy birthday to us.