kangaroo farm

 

Last week, Mom treated me and the kids and my niece to an outing at the Outback Kangaroo Farm in Arlington.  We had a tour guide, one of the owners, Joey Strom, who started us off with a talk about Lemurs who were crazy leaping machines, jumping from the fence, to Joey, to the fence, to Joey.

Then we started a walking tour of the farm.  First we got to feed a llama and an alpaca that looked a little grumpy to me…

They did like giving ‘kisses’ if you held their alfalfa pellets in your pucker and mustered up your courage…

Susie wasn’t sure about them either.  In fact, the moment I snapped this next picture, Mom was making her pet him and Susie kept saying, “Owie.  Owie.”  That is her current word for anything she doesn’t like.

There were various kinds of birds running all over the place…

I do not understand how peacocks hide all those beautiful feathers in their tails!

And this big mama was so sweet chasing after her little chicks who were scattering all over the place…

And there were sweet, lazy little peacock chicks…

The baby miniature donkey was a favorite of all the kids, even with Susie…

There were grumpy emus and ostriches (you didn’t have to ask me twice no to touch them)…

Oreo was also grumpy, but super cute to look at…

Some big rodents; don’t ask me what they are called…

Susie decided the wallabies were her favorite…

She might have cried when he hopped away from us.  Then she might have consoled herself by trying to ride a turtle…

By this time, Mark was pretty much over the whole thing…

I loved that my niece had to stop and talk to all the animals…

By now it was finally time to see the kangaroos!!  The other owner, Ray had to wake up the big one from his nap so he could give the kids some hugs…

Can I just say, kangaroos are super weird looking…

 

And have quite a lot of character…

All their weirdness didn’t stop Miss Maddy from chatting them up…

I really wanted a shot of a peacock in all its glory, and thought I wouldn’t get it until we headed to the car and he decided to put on a little show for us…

 

Beautiful!  So unique and brilliant.

So all in all, the Kangaroo farm was a unique experience, and I would definitely recommend it if you need to shake up your routine!

labels & dressing herself

 

When I saw AshleyAnne’s crafting drawers, I thought putting scrapbook paper in the label slots was a strange idea.  Apparently the idea has grown on me – I kept noticing places I could try it in the kids’ room and finally I decided to do a test drive…

I was really surprised that I loved it!  It brings unexpected little pops of pattern, color and texture into places you wouldn’t expect it.  I thought it would drive me crazy not having little labels to proclaim the contents of each container, but I don’t even care.  That’s my fun new thing.  Breaking news, huh? 

Here’s another news update… also concerning labels.  My scrapbook paper was driving me crazy, so I got out the medium sized clothes pins…

Now it is easy to know where each section of paper is.

 

Some pictures of Susie’s recent fashion adventures.  Dressing herself has become a new favorite past time…

 

 

She almost had it that time.  Hey, maybe she was going for a mini skirt.

Shades are important with any summer outfit…

 

Mark was too cool, I had to throw him in there too.  Maybe her upside down shades will become a new trend.  Maybe not.

Susie is always trying to put things down her shirt for some reason.  Things usually stay right in the belly of her snapped, tucked in onesie where she conveniently caries them around for a while.  She was a little confused as to why it wasn’t working with her tank top…

 

 

Of course she knew what she was doing and didn’t want any help and decided the shirt was unnecessary anyway.

She always figures things out eventually.

 

Have a good one!  =)

roadside success

 

I have a confession to make.  I am slightly moderately addicted to American Pickers on Netflix streaming.  I find myself watching multiple episodes in one sitting because I can’t wait to see what treasures they uncover next.  They share a lot of knowledge on the show, like how to recognize a good “pick” (place to scavenge for treasures to buy), how to negotiate, and what to look for in the items you buy.

Well this weekend, I put a little of that gleaned knowledge to good use.  There is a sweet old farmhouse in our neighborhood with a huge old barn and a bunch of older ladies who get their vintage treasures together and do a few sales every summer, and if I remember correctly, their sales benefit charity.  Old barn, vintage finds, yard sale prices and it benefits charity?  I’m there!

These were my finds…

I got the great toy ironing board – the white and turquoise and all that chippyness makes my heart go pitter patter!

 

Swoon!  I plan to use it for display at an upcoming sale, and think it would make a great little bedside table or something.  I might let Susie play with it, if she’s nice.  ;)  I put my Picker knowledge to good use: it had no price, I was thinking I would be willing to pay $10 for it, but rather than offer that, I asked her what she would let it go for and she said $5!  Score!  Always try to get the seller to name the price – they might be thinking less than you are! 

Also from the old barn sale, I got this bag of crocheted circles…

LOVE them!  I plan to make up some linen pillow covers and put some of these on the fronts for my sale – should be a good turnaround on my $0.50 investment!

I also got some old zinc canning jar and jelly jar lids for $0.25…

I love the jelly jars I used in my jewelry display, and one was missing a lid, so I grabbed this one - most of the ones I see at Farm Chicks and thrift stores are missing lids anyway.  I got the potato masher the same day from a random perma-yard-sale. The masher and the commercial baking sheet in the top pic were a total of $3.00.  Works for me!  I have been digging through the utensil bins at thrift stores for months dreaming of finding a metal potato masher with a red handle!  Yay!

 

Then, when I went to the thrift store the next day, do you know what I found?  Here is the whole trip’s loot…

Did you see the jelly jars?!  I could not believe it when I found some the very next day!  Don’t get too excited…

Tip: it may not be smart to purchase jelly jars and jelly jar lids separately; there seems to be a fit problem.  Even the cheesy pink one that came on one of mine doesn’t fit properly! 

I also got those frames for Susie’s room (reveal this week) and some sweet loaf pans for organizing…

They look nasty in the picture – but they are a sweet dull green on the outside.  I am about to let my Magic Eraser loose on them!

I also got this sweet Ole Virginny plantation mints tin…

 

See that sweet woman cooking the candies over a hot stove so the courting gentleman will have a special treat to woo his lady?  So sweet.

Anyone else been having luck with thrifting or yard sales lately?