Jewel + Karaoke = Awesome

I love this! I love when a person of celebrity status is also a good sport.  It just makes me happy.

Flea Market Finds

[Quick side note from yesterday: Thankyouthankyouthankyou to everyone who read and commented on my post yesterday!  It was so amazing to be featured on Freshly Pressed and then have all of you wonderful people respond so positively to what I’ve been up to. I really appreciate all of your comments/ideas/suggestions. I hope you stick around for more!]

I mentioned before that my husband and I recently celebrated our 4th anniversary.  As part of the celebration, we decided to drive up the beautiful Maine coast and head to the very small Canadian island of Campobello.  To get to Campobello, you go to Lubec, the eastern-most city in the United States, and just keep going.  There is a little bridge with a very nice crossing guard and then you are in Canada!  And in a whole different time zone too which is just strange.  I mean you are on one side of the bridge and it is 5:00.  On the other, it is 6:00.  It must be very confusing to live there.  Though I suppose, as with most strange things, you get used to it.

ANYwho, that was our destination.  As with any destination, part of the fun is getting there.  And we are big fans of taking our time on long car rides.  From our home, it is about a 5 hour journey.  There was just no way we were going to do it straight through.  On the way up, we stayed a night with some friends in Bangor to break up the trip.  From there, it is closer to 3 hours.  On the way back, we distracted ourselves by stopping at some of our very favorite flea markets and antique stores.  You should not be surprised to learn that I LOVE flea markets and antique stores (what is the difference between the two, you ask? About $100).  I am very lucky to have a husband who shares my fondness.  Between the two of us, we find the best stuff.  Finding awesome stuff doesn’t necessarily mean we BUY the awesome stuff.  Sometimes, just having a picture of it will satisfy my need to own the strange thing.  Like this for instance:

This is one of the strangest plates I’ve ever seen in my life. At first I really thought it was a butterfly.  But then I noticed the big claws and realized I was looking at a gold lobster.  What on earth would you serve in a dish like this? Or is it purely decorative?  Either way, weird.

We found this at the Old Creamery in Ellsworth, Maine.  They have two huge floors filled with the strange and unusual.  Their collection also included this gem:

Personally, this makes me never want to eat a cookie again.  That thing looks waaaaaaay too likely to come alive and bite my hand off.

If you keep going down Route 1 through Ellsworth towards Bucksport, you eventually run in to the Big Chicken Barn.  It is 21,600 square feet of AWESOME.  It really used to be a chicken barn and it is now full to the brim of stuff.  The first floor is all antiques and the second floor is books and magazines.  You can get lost for days there.  It is where we found this awesome sign:

So awesome! If only I had some place to put it (and it wasn’t silly expensive – the awesomest signs always are…).

But the best find of the day was the one we actually brought home with us.  It came from Old Stuff in Belfast, Maine.  Karna, the owner, is an old friend.  Her son went to high school with my husband.  She has a fabulous eye for the best stuff and prices things really reasonably.  She also restores and creates the most amazing lamps.  But this is what caught our eye:

Isn’t he fabulous? Even better, the jar opens to reveal a little spoon for the mustard:

At $4, he was a total steal. And now resides quite happily in our kitchen with all the other strange and wonderful stuff we brought home from other travels.

Also, he sort of reminds me of the Prince from Katamari Damacy:

Though it is pretty clear our mustard jar came first.

Labyrinth

We just got back this evening from an amazing weekend camping adventure and I promise I’ll share much more about that tomorrow.  But for now, you’ll have to settle for this.

Tonight is all about a girl named Sarah and a sad and lonely Goblin King:

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth is one of my all time most favorite movies.  I’m a huge fan of all things Muppet (well, really all things Jim Henson – a whole lot of the magic died with him), but Labyrinth captured my heart early and will always have a special place there.  I saw it for the first time when I was in fourth grade.  Our teacher threw us all an end of the year party at her house and put it on just to keep us quiet by the end of the afternoon when she was done with us.  I was utterly transported.  But I’d more or less forgotten it until my theater friends in high school pulled it out after we’d spent the day lurking around a cemetery and taking dramatic black & white photographs of ourselves.  It was perfect for the mood and I was shocked I’d ever let it slip my mind.  After that, we were, shall we say mildly obsessed with the movie.  Well, with David Bowie really.  Because come on, so much of that movie is all about showing off his, eh-hem, talents to their best advantage.  I had one friend who would always turn it off right in the middle of the fever dream sequence where Sarah eats the peach and is transported into this sexy dancing dream world where she and Bowie are clearly about to have a thing.  She always pretended that was where the movie ended.  I could see her point.  Still, I liked the full arc of the story, even if it didn’t end the way everyone thought it should.

Now, I’m not SO in love with it that I can’t see its flaws.  However, I am attached to it enough to be quite happy to gloss over them all and watch it again and again and again.  So when a friend of mine sent me this review of the movie, I was a bit nervous.  Because, hey, no one really enjoys watching their favorite things be skewered to brutally.  But this particular review is so well done, it was worth it.  So, my hat is off to you, Nostalgia Chick.  You made me laugh at one of my favorite things in a very good way.

Update: Well, crap. I can’t seem to get the video to embed.  Just go HERE. I PROMISE it is worth it.  Trust me, take the time and watch it all.

Happy Amniverserseeawscrewit

So I wanted to write a post today about my sweetie.  You see, four years ago today, on top of a bitty little mountain in Maine, I was married to the love of my life.  And I was planning to write something mushy and sweet about the challenges we’ve overcome and how amazing he is as a partner and how glad I am to have him in my life.

But then I saw this:

And I knew it was time to make sure everyone has heard about Cake Wrecks.

What is a Cake Wreck you ask?  Jen, the author of the site, has this to say on the subject:

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate – you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it’s simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I’m not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

By some fabulous twist of fate, this is the cake that was posted today.  How awesome is that?  Even better is the lead in that Jen wrote to capture the mood of the wreckerator:

“Happy Ami…

“Arni…

“Amniv…

“Uh…

“Happy Anmev…Urg! No.

“Armnerv…

“Amrir…

“Wait. I got it:

“Happy Amniverserseeawscrewit.”

Hence the title of this post.  Because as much as I want to write about my love, I’d rather be spending this time with him.

I love you sweetness.  Happy 4 years of “This sucks a whole lot less than I thought it was going to.”