Extra Absorbancy

I have officially given up on the hope that our local Goodwill just *might* have something worth gawking at or even better, investing in. The prices are great, don't get me wrong, however after tonight's experience with Goodwill a la backwoods, I have concluded that I basically will never win. I will never have a Goodwill that is as cool as many of you Blogger's out there. I was so awed and left googly-eyed after this experience that I just never know if I will have the kahonays to even enter Goodwill ever again.

It all started with a little passing of the time after dinner tonight. Since we both forgot to take something out of the freezer to thaw this morning before work, we were left with two choices... 1. fend for ourselves or 2. Go eat somewhere. Of course we chose the latter because fending for yourself isn't all that fun... or at least not as fun as eating out, right?

After dinner we walked right next door to the Goodwill. Just to basically check out their stash of goodies. You never know when you will find that almighty gem that just catches everyone's eye. Well tonight's gem happened to be a bag of Maxi-Pads.

Yes. That's right folks... MAXI-pads being sold at Goodwill. They were stashed into a zip-lock bag, and granted they were not used, they were none the less.... Maxi-Pads..... for sale at Goodwill. Or at least I believe they were 'for sale'... I would hope they didn't belong to someone, but in the end I wouldn't know what would be creepier. The fact that Goodwill was selling a zip-lock-Freezer fresh bag full of Maxi-pads or that someone just happened to walk into Goodwill with a bag of those zip-locked goods and decided to plop them on the shelf with all the pretty little vases, candle holders and dishware printed with ducks wearing blue bows.

So that my darlings is why I will not be gracing the local Goodwill with my presence for awhile... or at least until I think it's safe.

So what is a girl to do if her local Goodwill is blacklisted for the time being? Well DOLLAR-tree of course. ...Oh and TJ Maxx.

Firstly was my trip to the Maxx. They have such cute items in stock right now... especially some Halloween inspired fun that I couldn't stop looking at, like a neat silver-chromed out skull-sponge holder. Sorry no pics [boooo]. It kind of goes along with my whole 'taking photos of peoples houses' type deal. I'm not mentally prepared to whip out the camera just yet to take photos of chrome skulls that hold dish-sponges.

I do however have a photo of this neat little bowl. It reminds me of a tree. The texture of bark which automatically made me think of Fall. I love shiny things so the fact that it was shiny and clean made it that much more exciting. Best of all?

$6.99cents ladies and gents. -I am still a little undecided on where to put this exactly however I know for a fact that this will look great with my Christmas decor. I can just picture some nice blue-ish, silver and Yellow-ish Christmas balls piled inside this shiny gem.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? ....Well im not exactly sure and since I don't care for lollipops I may never know the answer either, however this little Owl reminds me of the days when I was a young little girl watching Saturday Morning cartoons and seeing the Tootsie Pop commercial come on with the owl. Ah... im getting old. In any case this little guy is super cute. I fell in love with the minute I saw him. He has a candle holder inside for a nice little tea-light candle and that metal chain you see hanging off to the side is the chain to use to hang him.. However im not totally sold on the thought of hanging him. I may just use him as a stationary candle holder.

Now for the Dollar Tree goodies. These simple place-mats automatically reminded me of 'Autumn'. The ones on top of the 'bamboo' ones are in the making as we speak. And no... they will not be used as their intended purpose.

These were four separate pieces. Two candle stick holders and two plain glass vases. Added some Gorilla Glue and made for instant Hurricane-Inspired glasses. I can totally see these at our table setting for Christmas Dinner. As for Fall... A project in the making so stay tuned for that!

You might have seen a colorful little thing hanging towards the top of the 'Hurricane-Inspired' glass photo. First, before I get to exactly [what] that is... I picked up these 'wreaths' for some up coming projects that include the side door and the inside.

Now for the mystery piece in the Glass photo. A Halloween wreath! Of course this isn't the finished project but my fingers were starting to cramp up [I know... weakling right!?] So I am taking a 'day off' from this project to work on some of the others preciously mentioned. Basically thus far I have wrapped the entire Styrofoam wreath with orange satin ribbon. Than I made a 'flower' out of some black and white printed fabric I have with a solid black piece in the middle. The next bow is made of 1.5inch wide satin purple ribbon and basically folded it into the shape of a 'Girls hair bow' and added it to the other flower. Stay tuned for the final reveal!

Obviously this is pretty self explanatory. Pumpkins. Cute little pumpkins. I haven't quite decided yet whether to leave them as is or change the color. I keep flip-flopping on what exactly it is I want to do so for the time being they are just sitting cute for now.

Lastly... Nothing says 'Spooky' and 'Halloween' than that of some crows. I snagged these last two from the shelf and darted for the register before anyone could catch me, all the while Jayden debating on which three Hot Wheels cars he wanted, even though I was going to allow him to have all three because it's the DOLLAR store people, but oddly enough my bread and butter didn't want all three... he only wanted ONE.


So there you have it. My Goodwill sells Maxi-Pads and Gorilla Glue works a lot better than I thought it would.

What projects have you been working on for Fall? Do you have any weird Goodwill stories [or any 'store' stories for that matter]?

...And if your wondering [because I know you are on the edge of your seats!] J got all 3 cars. In my sudden crazy-mom mad dash to the register with the stores last two Halloween-festive crows, I took the 3 from his hand, threw them in the cart and TOLD him he was getting 3, but now he can't seem to go 'night night' without ALL 3 of them. -Ugh-